Westchester Broadcasting Corp.Download PDFNational Labor Relations Board - Board DecisionsApr 12, 195193 N.L.R.B. 1346 (N.L.R.B. 1951) Copy Citation 1346 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD does not include all the same or similar classifications .9 We believe that to grant a separate unit for the market employees in this case would be to accord controlling weight to the extent of the Petitioner's organization, which we are precluded from doing under the amended Act. Accordingly, the Board finds that the unit requested by the Petitioner is inappropriate. 10 Order IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the petition filed herein be, and it hereby is, dismissed. 0 Stanolind Oil and Gas Research Section, 81 NLRB 1089. Cf. General Motors Corpora- tion, Buick Motor Division, 92 NLRB 1589. 10 Montgomery Ward, Incorporated, 90 NLRB 609 ; Grossman Department Store, Inc., 90 NLRB No. 275. WESTCHESTER BROADCASTING CORPORATION and NEW YORK LOCAL, AMERICAN FEDERATION OF RADIO ARTISTS , AFFILIATED WITH Asso- CIATED ACTORS AND ARTISTES OF AMERICA , AFL, PETITIONER. Case No. 2-RC-3160. April 12, 1951 Decision and Direction of Election Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before I. L. Broadwin, hearing offi- cer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed. Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3 (b) of the Act, the Board has delegated its powers in connection with this case to a three-member panel [Chairman Herzog and Members Houston and Reynolds]. Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds : 1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the Act. 2. The labor organization involved claims to represent certain em- ployees of the Employer. 3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the representa- tion of employees of the Employer within the meaning of Section 9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act. 4. The Petitioner seeks to represent a unit of the Employer's special program and staff announcers. The Employer would limit the unit to staff announcers. At its Radio Station WFAS, White Plains, New York, the Employer has five full-time nonsupervisory staff announcers. Each spends 20 to 30 hours weekly before the microphone, and the balance of his working time in preparing material to be broadcast, in 93 NLRB No. 241. WESTCHESTER BROADCASTING CORPORATION 1347 rehearsing "live programs," and in drawing from the station's library musical transcriptions and records as specified in the programs drawn up by the program department. The staff announcers, under the immediate supervision of the chief announcer, are included in the station's program department. The only other employees in that department are four individuals 1 whom the Petitioner refers to as special program announcers, and whom it seeks to include in the unit because they spend some portion of their time in announcing. The actual amount of time that each of these four appears before the microphone is no more than an hour per week, while another hour or so is spent in rehearsing for the broadcast. Two of the four so-called special program announcers are regular part-time employees who devote all of their working time, other than rehearsal and the actual broadcast, to securing guests who are active in community affairs, for appearances in the program, and in pre- paring the material for such program. The two remaining members of the program department are full-time employees whose working time, other than the short periods spent in broadcasting and rehears- ing, is devoted to program preparation. Schneider, who is assistant program director, decides what pieces are to be included in musical programs, solicits personal appearances for broadcasts, prepares dis- cussion material and does other work related to program preparation. Ocskasy does most of the detail work in the program department such as filing musical library index cards and typing out the musical pro- grams. She also assists or supplements Schneider's work in making up the musical programs and in soliciting guest appearances for broadcasts. Developing and scheduling programs, writing continuity, and soliciting appearances on station programs are all activities which are closely related to the actual broadcast and are as necessary to it as the station announcements and other activities actually performed before the microphone.2 As even the staff announcers spend substantial por- tions of their time in activities preparatory to broadcasting, we are satisfied that a unit consisting of announcers and others engaged in program preparation 'constitutes a homogeneous and cohesive group, without regard to the portion of their time spent in actual announc- ing, or whether some may in fact do no announcing at all. We find, therefore, that the following employees constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the mean- ing of Section 9 (b) of the Act: I Schneider , Ocskasy, Haynes , and Kimball. 2 Miami Vallee Broadcasting Corporation, 70 NLRB 1015 ; West Central Broadcasting Company, 77 NLRB 366; Delaware Broadcasting Company, 82 NLRB 727; and Ridson, Inc, 91 NLRB No. 59. WWEZ Radio , Inc, 91 NLRB 1518 , and Badger Broadcasting Co., 92 NLRB No. 161, to the extent that they are inconsistent herewith , are hereby overruled. 1348 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD All employees in the program department of Radio Station WFAS, White Plains, New York, who announce, write continuity, do program preparation, solicit guests for broadcasting appearances, or do other related work preliminary to the broadcast, excluding all other em- ployees and supervisors as defined in the Acts [Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this volume.] ' As the work of these employees appears to be substantially all within the program, department , we find that this disposes of any question of eligibility to vote in the election. APPALACHIAN ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE and LOCAL UNION No. 760, INTER- NATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS, A. F. OF L., PETITIONER . Case No. 10-RC-1184. April 12, 1951 Decision and Direction of Elections Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before John C. Carey, hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed. Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3 (b) of the Act, the Board has delegated its powers in connection with this case to a three-mem- ber panel [Members Houston, Reynolds, and Styles]. Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds : 1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the Act.' 2. The labor organization involved claims to represent certain em- ployees of the Employer. 3. Questions affecting commerce exist concerning the representation of employees of the Employer within the meaning of Section 9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act. 4. The Petitioner seeks, primarily, a broad unit composed of all employees at the Employer's Jefferson City, Tennessee, electric plant, ' The Employer , a Tennessee chartered nonprofit electric cooperative, financed by Rural Electrification Administration, is engaged in the sale of electricity to customers in five east Tennessee counties During the past year , the Employer ' s purchases amounted to, approximately $377,426 Of this amount, $185,203 represented electricity purchased fiom the Tennessee Valley Authority, and approximately $90,000 represented supplies which originated outside the State During the same period, the Employer sold electricity to its customers within the State valued at approximately $447,316 Of this amount, $60,000 represented sales to the American Zinc Company, and $40 , 000 represented sales to Universal Exploration Company. Both these companies annually sell and ship more than $50,000 worth of materials outside the State of Tennessee. See Hollow Tree Lumber Company, 91 NLRB 635 Cherol.ee County Rural Electric Cooperative Association, 92 NLRB 1181 93 NLRB No. 243. Copy with citationCopy as parenthetical citation