Alabama Religious Broadcasting Co., Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Nov 28, 1975

221 N.L.R.B. 892 (N.L.R.B. 1975)

892 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Alabama Religious Broadcasting Company, Inc. and
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers,
Local Union 253 , AFL-CIO, Petitioner. Case 10-
RC-10378'
November 28, 1975
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF
ELECTION
BY CHAIRMAN MURPHY AND MEMBERS
JENKINS AND PENELLO
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9(c) of the
National Labor Relations Act, as amended, a
hearing was held before Hearing Officer Donald E.
Howard of the National Labor Relations Board on
July 22, 1975. Following the hearing and pursuant to
Section 102.67 of the National Labor Relations
Board Rules and Regulations, Series 8, as amended,
and by direction of the Regional Director for Region
10, this proceeding was transferred to the Board for
decision. Thereafter, the Employer submitted a brief.
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the
National Labor Relations Act, as amended, the
National Labor Relations Board has delegated its
authority in this proceeding to a three-member panel.
The Board has reviewed the Hearing Officer's
rulings made at the hearing and fords that they are
free from prejudicial error. They are hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in this proceeding the
Board finds:
1. The Petitioner, herein also referred to as
IBEW, seeks to add three previously unrepresented
announcers to the existing unit composed of three
technicians that it has represented since 1960. The
most recent collective-bargaining agreement between
IBEW and the Employer regarding the technicians
expired on June 30, 1975. Employer Alabama
Religious Broadcasting Company, Inc., is an Ala-
bama corporation with its principal place of business
located in Irondale, Alabama, where it is engaged in
the operation of a radio station with the call letters
WLPH.
A question was presented at the hearing whether
the Employer meets the Board's discretionary juris-
dictional standards for radio stations. In this regard,
the Board decided in Raritan Valley Broadcasting
Company, Inc., 122 NLRB 90 (1958), that it will
assert jurisdiction over those radio stations which
have a gross volume of business of at least $100,000
annually. Here the record shows the Employer
reported a 1974 gross annual revenue of $105,954 to
the Federal Communications Commission.
As indicated in the FCC report, this figure includes
$10,573 in revenue derived from trade-outs or barter
transactions with locaLmerchants and resort hotels in
exchange for advertising on the station. Since the
Employer estimates that $9,000 of these benefits
inured directly to its employees, it contends this
portion should not-be considered for jurisdictional
purposes. As a result, the actual gross revenue for the
Employer in 1974 would fall below our jurisdictional
standard for radio stations.
However, inasmuch as both, the Federal Communi-
cations Commission and section 61(a) of the Internal
Revenue Code of 1954,1 as amended, include trade-
outs as gross revenue or income, we conclude that
the Employer meets the jurisdictional standard.
Accordingly, we find that it will effectuate the
purposes of the Act to assert jurisdiction in this
proceeding.
2. The Petitioner is a labor organization claiming
to represent certain employees of the Employer.
3. A question affecting commerce exists concern-
ing the representation of certain employees of the
Employer within the meaning of Section 9(c)(1) and
Section 2(6) and (7) of the Act.
With regard to the determination of the appropri-
ate unit, the Employer asserts that the unit should
also encompass a clerical employee and the company
bookkeeper. Although the Petitioner desires to
exclude the clerical employee, it is willing to
represent this employee if the Board fords the unit
otherwise inappropriate. The Petitioner takes no
position with respect to the inclusion of the book-
keeper. The Employer further requests a self-determi-
nation election to give the unrepresented employees
an opportunity to vote whether they want to be
represented in an overall unit by IBEW or not at all.
Alice Kennedy, the clerical employee, has daily
contact with the technicians and announcers. She
spends approximately 3 hours per day preparing the
program or traffic logs required by the FCC. In
addition, Kennedy types all advertising sales con-
tracts, sorts and distributes the mail, records receipt
of program tapes, and prepares for mailing those
tapes already used. Furthermore, she has the same
supervisor as the other employees in the unit.
Since Kennedy is essentially a plant clerical
employee directly involved in the regular operations
of the radio station, we find that she has a
community of interest with the announcers and
technicians and should therefore be included in the
voting group hereinafter set forth. Accordingly, we
shall include the plant clerical in the voting group.
The testimony as to the status of the bookkeeper
reveals that she has an office immediately adjacent to
1 26 U.S.C. §61(a).
221 NLRB No. 142
ALABAMA RELIGIOUS BROADCASTING CO., INC.
the studio where the announcers and technicians
work on the board. Based on her physical proximity
to the other unit employees and inasmuch as she is
the only other unrepresented employee, we shall also
include the bookkeeper in the voting group.
4. In accordance with Board policy, we believe
that the employees sought to be added to the
established bargaining unit should be given an
opportunity by a self-determination election to
express their desires with respect to being included in
the existing' bargaining unit currently represented by
the Petitioner. Accordingly, we shall direct an
election in the following voting group:
All unrepresented employees of the Employer
employed at its Irondale, Alabama, location,
893
excluding guards, salesmen, managerial employ-
ees, and supervisors as defined by the Act.
If a majority of the employees in the above,group
cast their ballots for the Petitioner, they will be taken
to ` have indicated their desire to constitute a part of
the existing unit currently represented by the
Petitioner, and the Petitioner may bargain for such
employees as part of that unit. If a majority of them
vote against the Petitioner, they will be taken to have
indicated their desire to remain outside the existing
unit, and the Regional Director will issue a certifica-
tion of results of election to that effect.
[Direction of Election and Excelsior footnote
omitted from publication.]