Western Kentucky Gas Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Dec 29, 1951

97 N.L.R.B. 917 (N.L.R.B. 1951)

WESTERN KENTUCKY GAS COMPANY
Order
917
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the petition filed in Case No. 39-RC-368
by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local Union
No. 716, AFL, be, and it hereby is, dismissed.
[Text of Direction of Elections omitted from publication in this
volume.]
WESTERN KENTUCKY GAS COMPANY and CONSTRUCTION AND GENERAL
LABORERS' LOCAL No. 1392, INTERNATIONAL HOD CARRIERS', BUILDING
AND COMMON LABORERS' UNION OF AMERICA, AFL, PETITIONER
WESTERN KENTUCKY GAS COMPANY and LOCAL No. 633, UNITED AssOCI-
ATION OF JOURNEYMEN AND APPRENTICES OF THE PLUMBING AND THE
PIPE FITTING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA, AFL,
PETITIONER. Cases Nos. 9-RC-1298 and 9-RC-1299. December 29,
1951
Decision , Order, and Direction of Election
Upon petitions duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, a consolidated hearing was held before Robert Cohn,
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 -member
panel [Chairman Herzog and Members Reynolds and Murdock].
Upon the entire record in these cases , the Board finds :
1. The Employer is a Delaware corporation engaged in the sale
and distribution of natural gas to domestic , commercial , and indus-
trial consumers in western Kentucky . It purchases practically all
its gas from two suppliers , Texas Gas Transmission Corporation and
Tennessee Gas Transmission Corporation , amounting in excess of one
million dollars annually . Both suppliers operate pipeline systems in
interstate commerce , obtaining their gas outside the State of Kentucky
and commingling such gas with small amounts obtained from gas
wells in Kentucky . The sales for the Owensboro Division ,. which
alone is involved in this proceeding , amounted to some $856 ,700 for
the year ending June 1951 . We find on the basis of the evidence, and
contrary to the contentions of the Employer , that it is engaged in
commerce within the meaning of the Act.'
i Western Kentucky Gas Company, Inc., 74 NLRB 1388.
97 NLRB No. 130.
986209-52-vol. 97--59
918 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
2. The labor organization in Case No. 9-RC-1298, hereinafter re-
ferred to as the Laborers' Union, and the labor organization in Case
No. 9-RC-1299, hereinafter referred to as the Plumbers Union, claim
to represent certain employees 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 in Case No. 9-RC-1299.2
4. The Petitioner in Case No. 9-RC-1298 seeks a unit of laborers
employed in the Owensboro Division of the Employer, excluding all
other employees. However, as an alternative position, the -Petitioner
"stated at the hearing that, -if the -Board 'should find that a laborers
unit is inappropriate, it is willing to withdraw its petition in favor
of the Plumbers in the companion case (9-RC-1299). The Plumbers
in the latter case seeks a unit of all employees in the Owensboro
Division, excluding the laborers, office and clerical employees,-and the
other usual exclusions. The Employer contends that : (1) Neither
unit sought is appropriate on the ground that the Petitioners are seek-
ing craft units which the Board does not sanction in a public utility;
and (2) a unit limited to only one division of the business is not
appropriate. There is no history of collective bargaining.3
The Employer, a public utility serving some 44 cities and towns
in western Kentucky with general offices at Owensboro, employs some
200 workers in its system, the operations of which are divided into 6
divisions.4 Each division is under the supervision of a division su-
perintendent and has one or more districts,5 headed by a district man-
ager or superintendent. The general manager who establishes the
policies for all operations, maintenance, and construction work for
the whole system, transmits such policies to the division superintend-
ents, who in turn are responsible for seeing that they are carried out
by the district supervisors.
The Owensboro Division, herein involved, contains 2 districts, 1
of which covers the city of Owensboro and the other the surrounding
towns of Hawesville, Whitesville, Cloversport, and Utica, Kentucky e
In this division there are 40 employees, of whom 10 are clerical, office,
and supervisory personnel. All the employees sought herein work
As will hereinafter appear, no question affecting commerce exists in Case No. 9-RC-1298.
In a previous petition, Western Kentucky Gas Company, Inc., supra, the Board found
a system-wide unit of production and maintenance employees appropriate. However,
because of the failure of the union, the United Construction Workers, affiliated with the
United Mine Workers of America, to comply with the Act, an election was never held.
The Board subsequently dismissed that petition. The employees of the Company have
never been represented by a labor organization
4 These divisions are the eastern, western, northern, southern, southwestern, and central
divisions. The northern division is the Owensboro division involved herein.
5 Two divisions have no districts ; one division, Owensboro, has two districts ; another
division has three districts ; and two divisions have four districts.
6 These towns are from 8 to 37 miles from Owensboro.
WESTERN -KENTUCKY GAS COMPANY,-_ 919
outside the offices and move from district to district ° as the work re-
quires. Although time slips and records of installations and services
are kept on the district level, the district and division offices-are-housed
together and are not physically separate." The policy of the Company
is to hire most of its employees as laborers and to upgrade them after
a short period to the higher classifications, as merited by their abilities
and acquired skills. Except in emergencies there is little interchange
between divisions. As new divisions are acquired, the Employer's
policy is to hire local labor whenever possible for the reason that
permanent employees do not generally wish to move from their estab-
lished homes. .
The Laborers Union in this case seeks a unit of common laborers 9
in the Owensboro Division, excluding all other employees. , As indi-
cated above, the Laborers Union stated at the hearing that if the Board
should find such a unit inappropriate, it is willing to withdraw its
petition in favor of the Plumbers in the companion case. The,
Employer, which takes the position that the unit is inappropriate,
urges in support of its contention that the laborers work side by side
with the other employees, that they are constantly integrated with the
latter, and that they remain laborers only fora few months before they
are usually upgraded into the higher job classifications.
- We find merit in the Employer's contention. The common laborers,
who perform unskilled tasks, work side by side with the other mainte-
nance employees, are under the same immediate supervision and sub-
ject to the same general working conditions 10 They are regularly
interchanged with and promoted to the other maintenance classifica-
tions. Accordingly, in view of the interchangeable duties of these
unskilled employees and their integration with the maintenance em-
ployees sought by the Plumbers, we agree with the Employer that a
separate unit of common laborers is too limited in scope to be appro-
priate." Because such a unit is inappropriate, we shall dismiss the
petition filed by the Laborers in this proceeding. However, in accord-
ance with the position taken by the Laborers' Union at the hearing, we
shall consider the laborers as part of the broader maintenance unit
sought by the Plumbers in the companion case.-
7 Only one man is permanently stationed at one of the surrounding towns.
8 Although the record is clear that the district and division offices are not separate ip
the Owensboro division , it is not clear whether this situation prevails in the other divisions.
The general offices at Owensboro are separate from the division offices in this division.
' Common laborers usually are hired to begin work at ditch digging, backtills, breaking;
concrete, moving materials and equipment , and loading and unloading trucks.
10 The evidence shows that laborers are upgraded to helpers after 6 months , and' that
after working as helpers for 1 year, they can be moved into the higher maintenance classifi-
cations.
"Joseph T. Ryerson & Son, Inc , 91 NLRB 1 ; M. W. Brenton, etc. et als., 93 NLRB 720.
' It appears that the Petitioners ' showing of interest in the Plumbers case is adequate
for the direction of an election in the broader unit.
920. DECISIONS OF- NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Case No. 9-RC-1299
The Plumbers seeks a unit of all employees in the Owensboro Divi-
sion, consisting of some 30 employees who are classified as service men,
pipefitters, meter repairmen, welders, ditching machine operators, ex-
cluding clerical employees and other statutory exclusions.- The evi-
dence indicates that the employees sought are constantly shifted from
one district to the other. Moreover, although installations , services and
time sheets are made under the direct supervision of the district super-
visor, there is no actual separation of the district from the division
offices and it is clear that the division superintendent is the responsible
head of the division office. There is an occasional interchange between
Owensboro and the other divisions but only in emergencies.
The Employer urges that,the Plumbers is seeking a craft unit
which, under the established policies of the Board, should not be per-
mitted in a public utility. The Employer further contends that the
unit is inappropriate on the ground that the Petitioner is seeking to
have recognized as an appropriate unit only a segment of a business
operated as an integrated operation. It therefore contends that the
six divisions are purely administrative arrangements and that one of
these divisions cannot constitute a separate appropriate unit.
We find no merit in these contentions. The Plumbers is not seek-
ing an established craft group,14 but rather a group such as the Board,
in the absence of a history of collective bargaining, has frequently
found to be an appropriate unit, based upon the fact that it is a
homogeneous, identifiable departmental grouping of employees with
a community of interest separate and apart from other employees of
the Employer.15 As to the Employer's second contention that one
division of a utility is not appropriate for collective bargaining pur-
poses, we agree that the Board has frequently stated that system-wide
units in a public utility are the most appropriate.16 However, the
Board has also held that although such a unit is ultimately the most
desirable, it is not at all times and in all circumstances the only appro-
priate type of unit in a public utility, particularly in those cases where,
as here, no other labor organization seeks to represent a group of
employees on a company-wide basis.17 Furthermore, in the present
case the evidence fails to show any physical integration or physical
interdependence of the Owensboro Division with the rest of the sys-
1' As indicated above, the laborers will be considered as part of the unit sought by the
Plumbers . No objection was made by the Plumbers at the hearing when the Laborers
agreed to withdraw their petition in favor of the former.
14 It is clear from the record that there is involved herein no pure craft such as the Board
has customarily recognized as being entitled to separate representation.
11 Oklahoma Gas of Electric Company, 86 NLRB 437; The Wichita Water -Company,
93 NLRB 895.
1e Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Company, 85 NLRB 713.
14 Southwestern Electric Service Company, 89 NLRB 114.
INTERNATIONAL STAMPING CO., INC. 921
tem. While it appears that general labor policies apply to all em-
ployees throughout the system, there is no evidence of integration
and practically no interchange between the divisions. Accordingly,
because the requested unit of employees in the Owensboro Division
of the Employer's operations comprises a readily distinguishable and
homogeneous group of employees, we believe that there exists under
the circumstances sufficient basis for finding such unit appropriate 18
We find that all employees of the Employer in its Owensboro, Ken-
tucky, Division, including laborers, helpers, service men, pipefitters,
meter readers, meter repairmen, welders, and ditching machine op-
erators, but excluding office and clerical employees,- professional em-
ployees, seasonal employees 20 and all supervisors'21 as defined in the
Act, constitute a unit appropriate for purposes of collective bargaining
within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
Order
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the petition filed in Case No . 9-RC-1298
be, and it hereby is, dismissed.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this
volume.]
18 Southwestern Electric Service Company, supra ; The Wichita Water Company , supra;
Standard Oil Company of Texas, 88 NLRB 224; Continentay Pipe Line Company, et al.,
78 NLRB 379.
11 As the evidence indicates that the office clerical employees have no contacts with the
field employees herein requested and are under separate immediate supervision , we have, In
accordance with our usual practice, excluded them from the unit. Appalachian Electric
Cooperative , 93 NLRB 1348.
20 The Employer hires a number of college students who work during vacations but seldom
remain as permanent employees after their graduation. We find that these are seasonal
employees and in accordance with our usual practice they are ineligible to vote in the
election hereinafter directed . The Heekin Can Company, 88 NLRB 726.
21 The Employer takes no position on the status of the service supervisor and the Union
does not contend that he is a supervisor . As the evidence Indicates that this service man
does not exercise the powers and duties of a supervisor within the meaning of the Act, he is
included in the unit.
INTERNATIONAL STAMPING CO., INC. and UNITED AUTOMOBILE WORK-
ERS OF AMERICA, AFL, PETITIONER . Case No. 13-R,C-2463. De-
cember 09,1951
Supplemental Decision , Order, and Direction of Election
On October 26, 1951, the National Labor Relations Board issued a
Decision and Direction 1 in the above-entitled proceeding, overruling
the challenge to the ballot of Louis Brumm, and directing that the
Regional Director open and count this ballot, and thereafter prepare
96 NLRB No. 167.
97 NLRB No. 101.