The Texas Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Oct 2, 1945

63 N.L.R.B. 1334 (N.L.R.B. 1945)

In the Matter of THE TEXAS COMPANY, PRODUCING DEPARTMENT and
OIL WORKERS INTERNATIONAL UNION, C. I. O.
Case No. 17-R-1,119.-Decided October 62, 1945
Mr. If. A. Stewart, of Denver, Colo., and Mr. Y. A. Land, of Tulsa,
Okla., for the Company.
Mr. B. J. Rickey, of Casper, Wyo., and Mr. A. G. Briggs, of Craig,
Colo., for the Union.
Mr. John E. Lawyer, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon a petition filed by Oil Workers International Union, C. I. 0.,
herein called the Union, alleging that a question affecting commerce
had arisen concerning the representation of employees of The Texas
Company, Producing Department, Denver, Colorado, herein called
the Company, the National Labor Relations Board provided for an
appropriate hearing upon due notice before Robert S. Fousek, Trial
Examiner. Said hearing was held at Craig, Colorado, on June 28,
1945. The Company and the Union appeared and participated. All
parties were afforded full opportunity to be heard, to examine and
cross-examine witnesses, and to introduce evidence bearing on the
issues. The Trial Examiner's rulings made at the hearing are free
from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed. All parties were
afforded an opportunity to file briefs with the Board.
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following:
FINDINGS OF FACT
1. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
The Texas Company, Producing Department, is a corporation
engaged in the production of oil. The Rocky Mountain Division,
which is one of six divisions of the Producing Department, is engaged
in operating oil fields in Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana, including
63 N. L . R. B, No. 206.
1334
THE TEXAS COMPANY 1335
the -fields involved in this proceeding which are known as the Wilson
Creek, Moffat, Iles Dome, Tow Creek, and Rangely, Colorado Fields
and the Baggs, Wyoming, Field.
All the oil produced at Tow Creek, part of the oil produced at
Wilson Creek, and all of the oil produced at Iles Dome and Moff at, is
carried by pipe-line or transported by tank truck to Craig, Colorado,
where the Company operates a refinery for the crude oils so received.
During the year 1944 the Company sold and shipped approximately
5 percent of the finished products refined at Craig, which had a value
of approximately $15,000, to persons located outside of the State of
Colorado.
At the Wilson Creek Field, the Company produces an average of
5,750 barrels of crude oil per day. One-half of this oil is piped and sold
to the Utah Refining Company, which in turn transports the oil by
pipe line out of the State of Colorado.
We find that the Texas Company, Producing Department, is en-
gaged in commerce within the meaning of the National Labor Rela-
tions Act.
11. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED
Oil Workers International Union, affiliated with the Congress of
Industrial Organizations, is a labor organization admitting to mem-
bership employees of the Company.
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
The Company refuses to recognize the Union as the exclusive bar-
gaining representative of the employees involved herein until the
Union has been certified by the Board in an appropriate unit.
A statement of a Board agent, introduced into evidence at the hear-
ing, indicates that the Union represents a substantial number of em-
ployees in the unit hereinafter found appropriate."
We find that a question affecting commerce has arisen concerning the
representation of employees of th-- Company, within the meaning of
Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT
The Union contends that the appropriate unit should consist of all
maintenance and production employees of the Company at its Wilson
Creek, Moffat, Iles Dome, Tow Creek, Rangely, and Baggs Fields,
excluding clerical and supervisory employees. The Company agrees
that the unit is appropriate except that it seeks to exclude from its
coverage the Rangely and Baggs Fields.
I The Field Examiner reported that the Union submitted 11 authorization cards bearing
the names of persons who appear on the Company 's pay roll , and that there are approxi-
mately 26 employees in the appropriate unit.
1336 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
All 6 fields are located within a radius of 115 miles from Craig,
Colorado , which is the shopping district for all the employees, and
all the fields are under the supervision of a district superintendent.
Although 4 of the fields are in operation , neither the Rangely nor the
Baggs Fiel d is presently producing oil. The Baggs Field is an ex-
perimental operation where all the work is performed by a contractor,
the Company having no employees there. At present the Company has
4 employees at the Rangely Field, and plans to employ approximately
20 additional employees as soon as personnel is available and housing
facilities may be supplied . Of the 4 present employees only 1 is a
maintenance or production worker , and he is there on a temporary
basis having been transferred from one of the other producing fields.
The Company states that if the Baggs and Rangely Fields were in
operation they could properly be included , but that in the, absence of
such operation they should be excluded and the unit confined to the
employees of the 4 producing fields.
We agreed with the Company 's position . The question presented
is not unlike that decided in Matter of The American Steel and Wire
Company of Newv,Jersey , 2 where we held that, in the absence of special
circumstances , we viewed each new ship to be acquired in the future
by the employer as a separate operation , and that the propriety of
including employees of such operations should be determined in a
representation proceeding initiated when they are actually employed
and have an , opportunity to voice their desires as to a collective bar-
gaining representative . Here, we regard the Rangely and Baggs
Fields as separate non-producing operations , and our reasoning and
conclusions in the American Steel and - Wire case are consequently
applicable . Both cases represent situations unlike that in an expand-
ing unified factory, where all operations are contiguous . We shall,
therefore , limit the scope of the unit to the employees of the fields now
producing oil.
We find that all maintenance and production employees of the Com-
pany in its Wilson Creek , Moffat, Iles Dome, and Tow Creek , Colorado,
Fields, excluding clerical employees and all supervisory employees
with authority to hire, promote , discharge, discipline, or otherwise
effect changes in the status of employees , or effectively recommend
such action , constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of col-
lective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
V. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
We shall direct that the question concerning representation which
has arisen be resolved by an election by secret ballot among the
employees in the appropriate unit who were employed during the
2 Case No. 8-R-1931, decision issued September 28, 1945.
THE TEXAS COMPANY 1337
pay-roll period immediately preceding the date of the Direction of
Election herein, subject to the limitations and additions set forth in
the Direction.
As previously indicated in Section IV, supra, there is one produc-
tion and maintenance employee, D. G. Miller, presently employed at
the Rangely Field on a temporary basis. The record shows that he
has been temporarily transferred from one of the producing fields
encompassed within the unit found to be appropriate and, as a regular
employee of this field, he shall be eligible to vote.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
By virtue of and pursuant to the power vested in the National
Labor Relations Board by Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Re-
lations Act, and pursuant to Article III, Section 9, of National
Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 3, as amended,
it is hereby
DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation to ascertain representa-
tives for the purposes of collective bargaining with The Texas Com-
pany, Producing Department, Denver, Colorado, an election by secret
ballot shall be conducted as early as possible, but not later than
thirty (30) days from the date of this Direction, under the direction
and supervision of the Regional Director for the Seventeenth Region,
acting in this matter as agent for the National Labor Relations Board,
and subject to Article III, Sections 10 and 11, of said Rules and Reg-
ulations, among the employees in the unit found appropriate in Sec-
tion IV, above, who were employed during `the pay-roll period im-
mediately preceding the date of this Direction, including employees
who did not work during the said pay-roll period because they were
ill or on vacation or temporarily laid off, and including employees in
the armed forces of the United States who present themselves in
person at the polls, but excluding those employees who have since
quit or been discharged for cause and have not been rehired or re-
instated prior to the date of the election, to determine whether or
not they desire to be represented by Oil Workers International Union,
(C. I. 0., for the purposes of collective bargaining.