Western Gateway Broadcasting Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Apr 12, 1948

77 N.L.R.B. 49 (N.L.R.B. 1948)

In the Matter Of WESTERN GATEWAY BROADCASTING CORPORATION,'
EMPLOYER and NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF BROADCAST ENGINEERS &
TECHNICIANS (INDEPENDENT) , PETITIONER
Case No. O-RCD .Decided April 12, 1948
Mr. Winslow Leighton , of Schenectady , N. Y., for the Employer.
Mr. Donald P. Morey, of Albany, N. Y., and Mr. G. L. Gorsuch,, of
Brooklyn , N. Y., for the Petitioner.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed, hearing in this case was held at Schenec-
tady, New York, on October 30, 1947, before Benjamin B. Naumoff,
hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are
free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in the case, the National Labor Relations
Board 2 makes the following :
FINDINGS OF FACT
1. THE BUSINESS OF THE EMPLOYER
Western Gateway Broadcasting Corporation, a New York corpora-
tion, owns and operates a radio station in Schenectady, New York,
under the call letters WSNY, with an assigned wave length of 1240
kilocycles and a power output of 250 watts. The operation of Station
WSNY is licensed by the Federal Communications Commission .3
The Employer is not affiliated with a national broadcasting system.
However, from time to time it broadcasts, by specific arrangement with
a national broadcasting system, or network, individual programs
which are fed to it by direct transmission.4 In addition, it rebroad-
' As amended at the hearing.
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3 (b) of the National Labor Relations Act, the
-Board has delegated its powers in connection with this case to a three-man panel consisting
of Chairman Herzog and Board Members Reynolds and Murdock.
3 The station is designated as a" 'local channel" and normally is heard only in the State
of New York.
* A minimum of 3 such programs is carried each week.
77 N. L R B., No 5. 49
50 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
casts commercial programs, advertising various products, which have
previously been broadcast over national networks. These are both
transcriptions and "live" programs. The contract is some cases is
directly with the manufacturer and in other cases with a radio adver-
tising agency. In most instances the recordings are.shipped to it from
sources outside the State of New York. The Employer also obtains
its news ticker service through the Press Association, a radio sub-
sidiary of the Associated Press, which gathers news on a Nation-wide
basis and has transmission outlets in various states throughout the
United States.
For the 1-year period preceding the date of the hearing the Em-
ployer's revenue amounted to about $150,000, of which approximately
20 percent derived from advertising of nationally distributed products.
We find, contrary to the contention of the -Employer, that it is en-
gaged in commerce within the meaning of the National Labor Rela-
tions Act.'
II. T IIE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED
The Petitioner is a labor organization claiming to represent em-
ployees of the Employer.
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
The Employer refuses to recognize the Petitioner as the exclusive
bargaining representative of employees of the Employer until the Pe-
titioner has been certified by the Board in an appropriate unit.
We find that a question affecting commerce exists 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.
IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT
The Petitioner seeks a unit of employees at the Employer's WSNY
radio station comprising all transmitter engineers and control opera-
tor-announcers. While,agreeing that the unit described by the Peti-
tioner is otherwise appropriate, the Employer would expand it to in-
clude employees classified as announcer-control operators.
The Board has previously found appropriate units of employees in
the broadcasting industry referred to as transmitter engineers and
control operators,6 even where the latter spend a certain portion of
their time in announcing duties.' In the instant case the Employer
See Matter of Federated Publications , Inc, 74 N L R. B. 1054.
Matter of Great Trails Broadcasting Company, 73 N. L. R. B. 396
t Matter of Louts G. Baltimore, 57 N. L. R. B. 1611 ; Matter of Muscle Shoals Broadcast-
ing Company, 74 N. L. R B 171.
WESTERN GATEWAY BROADCASTING CORPORATION 51
for economic reasons does not hire any employees solely as announcers.
Although the announcer-control operators, whom the Employer would
include in the unit, are engaged primarily in announcing, they per-
form, in addition to their announcing duties, other duties such as select-
ing recordings to be played on phonographs or transcription turn-
tables, checking program schedules and, to a lesser extent, operating
the radio control equipment. The control operator-announcers, on
the other hand, spend about 50 percent of their time in technical radio
control work. However, the remainder of their time is devoted to
duties the same as or similar to those performed by the announcer-
control operators. Both groups of employees work under the super-
vision of either the Chief Engineer or the Program Director." The
Employer does not- distinguish between the'-two groups with regard
to salary, and vacation policy is the same for all employees.
From the foregoing it appears that the transmitter engineers, the
control operator-announcers and the announcer-control operators form
a small, closely integrated group, working under similar conditions of
employment and with substantially the same community of interest.
Under these circumstances, and especially in view of the inter-related
nature of their duties, we are of the opinion that the announcer-control
operators should be represented in the same bargaining unit with
the other radio station employees involved herein. Accordingly, we
shall include them.
We find that all. transmitter engineers, control operator-announcers
and announcer-control operators at the Employer's WSNY raido sta-
tion in Schenectady, New York, excluding the Chief Engineer, the
Program Director, the Advertising and Publicity Manager, office cleri-
cals, the janitor, and all supervisors, constitute a unit appropriate for
the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section
9 (b) of the Act.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the pur-
poses of collective bargaining with Western Gateway Broadcasting
Corporation, Schenectady, New York, 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 Second Region, and subject to Sections
203.61 and 203.62, of National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regu-
8 The Chief Engineer supervises all work relating to the operation of radio equipment
while the Program Director is in charge of announcing and program activities
9
At the hearing the Petitioner indicated that it would admit to membership employees
in the category of announcer-control operators should the Board include them in the
appropriate unit.
52 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
lations-Series 5, among the employees in the unit found appropriate
in Section IV, above, who were employed during the pay-roll period
immediately preceding the date of this Direction , including employees
who did not work during said pay-roll period because they were ill or
on vacation or temporarily laid off, but excluding those employees who
have since quit or been discharged for cause and have not been rehired
or reinstated prior to the date of the election , and also excluding em-
ployees on strike who are not entitled to reinstatement , to determine
whether or not they desire to be represented by National Association of
Broadcast Engineers & Technicians ( Independent), for the purposes
of collective bargaining.
MEMBER REYNOLDS took no part in the consideration of the above
Decision and Direction of Election.