The Western Union Telegraph Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Nov 14, 1939

17 N.L.R.B. 683 (N.L.R.B. 1939)

In the Matter of THE WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH COMPANY and
COMMERCIAL TELEGRAPHERS UNION, INDPLS. LOCAL '#7, WESTERN
UNION Div. #2, AFF. WITH A. F. OF L.
Case No. R-1415.Decided November 14, 1939
Communications Industry-Investigation of Representatives: controversy con-
cerning representation of employees : rival organization ; controversy . as to
appropriate bargaining unit-Unit Appropriate for Collective Bargaining: em-
pployees in local unit not to be denied benefits of collective bargaining until
Nation-wide unit is organized ; employees in the traffic, commercial, messenger,
and plant departments, including furloughed employees on the pay roll, but
excluding executives, lawyers, and employees with the right to hire and dis-
charge-Election Ordered
Mr. Walter B. Chel f, for the Board.
Mr. Frank S. Pryor, of Frankfort, Ind.,"for the C. T. U.-
Mr. Ralph H. Kimball, and Mr. William Wendt, of New York
City, for the Company.
Marsh d Marsh, by Messrs. Robert I. and Bayard C. Marsh, of Indi-
anapolis, Ind., for the Association.
Mr. Ray Johnson, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
On November 7, 1938, The Commercial Telegraphers Union, Indi-
anapolis Local #7, Western Union Division #2, affiliated with the
A. F. of L., herein called the C. T. U., filed with the Regional Director
for the Eleventh Region (Indianapolis, Indiana) a petition, and on
May 10, 1939, an amended petition alleging that a question affecting
commerce had arisen concerning the representation of employees of
The Western Union Telegraph Company, Indianapolis,. Indiana,
herein called the Company, and requesting an investigation and cer-
tification of representatives pursuant to Section 9 (c) of the National
Labor Relations Act, 49 Stat. 449, herein called the Act. On May.
24, 1939, the National Labor Relations Board, herein called the Board,
acting pursuant to Section 9 (c) of the Act and Article III, Section
3, of National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series.
17 N. L. R. B., No. 56.
683
684 DECISION S OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
1, as amended, ordered an investigation and authorized the Regional.
Director to conduct it and to provide for an appropriate hearing
upon due notice.
On June 12, 1939, the Regional Director issued a notice of hearing,
copies of which were duly served upon the Company, upon the C. T.
U., and upon Association of Western Union Employees, herein called.
the Association, a labor organization claiming to represent employees.
directly affected by the investigation. On June 19, 1939, the Asso-
ci ation filed _a motion to intervene with the Regional Director. On.
the same day, the Regional Director granted the motion. Pursuant
to notice a hearing was held on June 22, 23, and 24, 1939, at Indian-
apolis, Indiana, before Madison Hill, the Trial Examiner duly desig-
nated by the Board. The Board, the Company, the C. T. U., and
the Association were represented by counsel and participated in the
hearing... Full opportunity to be heard,, to examine, and cross-examine
witnesses, and to introduce evidence bearing on the issues was af-
forded all parties. At the beginning and at the close of the hearing.,
the Company and the Association moved to dismiss the petition. The
Trial Examiner reserved his ruling on these motions. The motions.
are hereby denied. The Company and the Association also moved-
to continue and consolidate the present case with Case No. C-344,.
entitled Matter of The Western Union Telegraph Company and
American Communications Association,' herein called Case .No. C-344,
a case then pending before the Board. The Trial Examiner denied
the motion. During the course of the hearing the Trial Examiner
made several rulings on other motions and on objections to the admis-
` sion of evidence. The Board has reviewed all the rulings of the
Trial Examiner and finds that no prejudicial.. errors were committed-
The rulings are hereby affirmed.
Pursuant to notice, a hearing for the purpose of oral argument
was held before the Board in Washington, D. C., on August 8, 1939.
The Company, the C. T. U., and the Association were represented
by counsel and participated in the argument.
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following _
FINDINGS OF FACT
1. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
The Western Union Telegraph Company, a New York corporation,
is engaged, throughout the United States and in various foreign coun-
tries, in the receiving and transmission by telegraph and cable of intra-
state, interstate, and international communications. On December 31,
1937, the Company employed 46,891 persons in the United States and
1 Now reported in 17 N. L. R. B. 34.
THE WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH COMPANY 685
1,484 outside of the United States. The present petition concerns only
those employees of the Company working in Indianapolis, Indiana.
There are approximately 276 employees in this group.
The Company admits that it is engaged in interstate commerce
within the meaning of the Act.
It. THE ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED
The Commercial Telegraphers Union, Indianapolis, Local #7, West--
ern Union Division #2, is a labor organization affiliated with the
American Federation of Labor, admitting to its membership all em-
ployees of the Company working in the commercial, traffic, plant, and
messenger departments in Indianapolis, Indiana, excluding executives,.
lawyers, and employees with the right to hire and discharge.
Association of Western Union Employees is an unaffiliated labor-
orgaliization -adrnittiiig-to"membersliip"all' employees of the Company'
on a Nation-wide basis. As noted below, the Association was found to-
be company dominated in Case No. C-344.
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
The C. T. U. claims to represent a majority of employees of the,
Company in Indianapolis, Indiana. The Company claims that all the
employees throughout its entire system constitute an appropriate bar-
gaining unit and that they are represented by the Association.
We find that a question has arisen concerning representation of em-
ployees of the Company.
IV. THE EFFECT OF THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION UPON
COMMERCE
We find that the question concerning representation which has:
arisen, occurring in connection with the operations of the Company
described in Section I above, has a close, intimate, and substantial
relation to trade, traffic, and commerce among the several States and
with foreign countries, and tends to lead to labor disputes burdening
and obstructing commerce and the free flow of commerce.
V. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT
The C. T. U. in its petition, as amended at the hearing, alleged that
the appropriate bargaining unit consists of employees of the Company
in the traffic, commercial, messenger, and plant departments in Indi-
anapolis, Indiana, excluding.executives, lawyers, and employees with
the right to hire and discharge. It is clear from the record, however,
that the C. T. U. does not desire to include the plant-department em-
686 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
ployees in the appropriate unit. The Company and the Association
contend that all the Company's employees throughout its entire system
constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining.
The Board, has in many decisions 'involving the communications in-
dustry found a Nation-wide bargaining unit appropriate, and under
,ordinary circumstances we should give considerable weight to the claim
made by the Association and the Company in our determination of
the appropriate unit.2 The Company operates its business as a unified
enterprise.. Policies in regard to matters of hours, wages, and other
conditions of employment are centrally controlled. Furthermore, be-
cause of the nature of telegraphic communication, the work of the em-
ployees of the Company in the various offices throughout the country
is closely coordinated and highly interdependent. The effect of stop-
page of service in one locality is inevitably widespread and accordingly
serious. The foregoing factors are strongly persuasive of the appro-
priateness of a Nation-wide unit."
In Matter of The Western Union. Telegraph Company and American
ComnwAnications Association,4 however, we found that the Company
had dominated the administration of the Association, and ordered the
Company to disestablish the Association as a collective bargaining rep-
resentative. Thus no bona fide labor organization is now requesting a
bargaining unit'more extensive than the one here sought by the C. T. U.
To deprive the employees in the localities to which union organization
has extended, of the possibility of collective bargaining until such time
as the employees of the Company are organized on a Nation-wide basis
would in no way effectuate the policies of the Act.5 We therefore find
that a collective bargaining unit limited to the employees of the Com-
pany at Indianapolis is appropriate.
The C. T. U. would exclude the plant employees on the ground
that they are assigned to Indianapolis from the Chicago office of the
Company, and are paid by the Chicago office. However, they reside
and, work in Indianapolis. The` plant employees were included in
Matter of The Western Union Telegraph Company, Inc. and The
Commercial Telegraphers' Union," herein called the Washington
case, which involved the issue of the appropriate unit with respect to
2 See Matter of R. C . A. Communications , Inc., and American Radio Telegraphists' Asso-
ciation, 2 N. L. R. B . 1109; Matter of Mackay Radio Corporation of Delaware, Inc. and
Mackay Radio & Telegraph Company, a corporation and American Radio Telegraphists'
Association, 5 N. L. R. B. 657 ; Matter of Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc . and Ameri-
can Radio Telegraphists ' Association , 6 N. L. R . B. 166 ; Matter of Columbia Broadcasting
System, Inc . and American Communications Association , 8 N. L. R. B. 508 ; Postal Tele-
graph-Cable Corporation and American Communications Association , 9 N. L. R. B. 1060.
3 See Matter of The Western Union Telegraph Company, Inc . and The, Commercial Teleg-
raphers' Union , 11 N. L. R. B. 1154.
417 N. L. R. B., 34.
6 Matter of Postal Telegraph-Cable Company of Massachusetts and American Radio
Telegraphists Association, 7 N. L. R. B. 444.
0 11 N. L. R. B. 1154.
7 1,
THE WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH COMPANY 687
employees of the Company in Washington, D. C. We shall include
them in the appropriate unit.
The C. T. U. would also exclude supervisory and confidential em-
ployees who have no authority to hire or discharge. These employees
were included in the Washington case. We shall include them in
the appropriate unit.
The C. T. U. contends that employees on forced furlough should
not be included in the appropriate unit. The evidence shows that
unless an employee on furlough refuses to return to work when he
is requested to do so, his name is kept on the pay roll for two years.
We shall include in the appropriate unit employees on furlough
whose names appear on the pay roll of the Company and who have
not refused employment.'
We find that the employees of the Company working in Indian-
apolis,. Indiana,.in the commercial, traffic, messenger,. and plant,de-
partments, including furloughed employees on the Company's pay
roll, but excluding executives, lawyers, and employees with the right
to hire and discharge, constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes
of collective bargaining and that said unit will insure to employees
of the Company the full benefit of their right to self-organization
and to collective bargaining and otherwise effectuate the policies of
the Act.
VI. THE DETERMINATION OP REPRESENTATIVE
The C. T. U. introduced evidence that it represents a substantial
number of the Company's employees in the appropriate unit but
conceded that an election was necessary to settle the question con-
cerning representation.
We find that an election by secret ballot is necessary to resolve the
question concerning representation. Those persons eligible to vote
shall be the employees in the appropriate unit who were employed
by the Company during the pay-roll period next preceding the date
of this Direction, including employees who did not work during such
pay-roll period because they were ill or on vacation and furloughed
employees on the pay roll of the Company, but excluding employees
who have since quit or been discharged for cause.
Since we found in Case No. 0-344 s that the Company dominated
and interfered with the administration of the Association, and that
the Association must be disestablished as a bargaining representative,
no provision shall be made for the designation of the Association
upon the ballot.
' The pay roll contains the names of 14 furloughed employees who do not draw a current
wage. The Company admits that three of these employees , A. C. MofSt, C. C. Roller, and
B. B. Brinson , should not be included in the appropriate unit since they have refused
offer of employment. We shall exclude them from the unit.
8 See footnote 1.
°688 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Upon the basis of the above findings of fact and upon the entire
record in the case, the Board makes the following :
CONCLUSIONS OF LAW
1. A question affecting commerce has arisen concerning the repre-
sentation of employees of The Western Union Telegraph Company,
in Indianapolis, Indiana, within the meaning of Section 9 (c) and
Section 2 (6) and (7) of the National Labor Relations Act.
2. The employees of the Company in the traffic, commercial, mes-
senger, and plant departments in Indianapolis, Indiana, including
furloughed employees on the pay roll of the Company, but excluding
executives, lawyers, and employees with the right to hire and dis-
^charge, constitute a unit appropriate for the purpose of collective
bargaining within the meaning of. Section 9 (b) of the National
Labor Relations Act.
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 8, of National
Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 2, it is hereby
DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation authorized by the Board
to ascertain representatives for the purpose of collective bargaining
with The Western Union Telegraph Company, Indianapolis, Indi-
ana, an election by secret ballot shall be conducted as early as pos-
sible but not later than thirty (30) days from the date of this Direc-
tion of Election, under the direction and supervision of the Regional
Director for the Eleventh Region, acting in this matter as agent for
the National Labor Relations Board, and subject to Article III,
Section 9, of said Rules and Regulations, among the employees in
the traffic, commercial, messenger, and plant departments, who were
employed by the Company in Indianapolis, Indiana, during the pay-
roll period next preceding the date of this Direction, including em-
ployees who did not work during such pay-roll period because they
were ill or on vacation, and furloughed employees on the pay roll of
the Company, but excluding executives, lawyers, and employees with
the right to hire and discharge, to determine whether or not they
desire to be represented by Commercial Telegraphers Union, Indian-
apolis Local #7, Western Union Division #2, affiliated with the
American Federation of Labor.