Arkansas-Missouri Power Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jun 15, 1965

152 N.L.R.B. 1600 (N.L.R.B. 1965)

1600 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
On September 25, 1963 , Respondent and the Union herein, with the approval of
the Regional Director, entered into an agreement for a consent election to determine
the representative status of Respondent 's employees whom the Union , in its petition
filed in Case No. 10-RC-5693 claimed to represent. Therein all parties agreed,
among other things, that "set-up men" in the employ of Respondent would be
excluded, as supervisors, from participating in the election.
When called as a witness for Respondent, Johnson testified that he occupied the
classification of "lead man " Thereafter on cross-examination he denied that he
called himself, or was called, a "set-up man." He did concede, however, and his
concession is not disputed in the record, that "In previous years, I believe they did
call them Set-Up men." Continuing, he conceded that his job had not changed
because of the change in title and that he was doing "practically" the same thing as
a set-up man. Upon this undisputed concession I conclude and find Johnson to be a
set-up man and as such to be a supervisor as agreed upon by the parties in their
consent agreement.
2. Interrogation and threats
On the morning of March 24, 1964, as a hearing was in progress in Case No.
10-RC-5693, Jerry Johnson, whom I have found to be a supervisor, approached
employee Buddy Cash and, in Cash's words "asked me what I was getting out of the
Union and what I was planning to get later, and if the Union, and if we lost the
hearing, was the Union going to get me a job." is
Johnson's question to Cash concerning his union membership, coupled as it was
with the implication that if the Union prevailed at the hearing then in session and
thereby won the election Cash would be out of a job, constituted a form of employee
interference , restrain and coercion consistently found to violate the Act. Upon
the foregoing credited testimony I accordingly find that Respondent has violated
Section 8 (a) (1) of the Act.
V. THE EFFECT OF THE UNFAIR LABOR PRACTICES UPON COMMERCE
The activities of the Respondent found to constitute an unfair labor practice set
forth in section IV, above, occurring in connection with their operations described
in section I, above, has a close, intimate, and substantial relation to trade, traffic,
and commerce among the several States and tend to lead to labor disputes burdening
and obstructing commerce and the free flow of commerce.
VI. THE REMEDY
Having found that Respondent has engaged in certain activities proscribed by
Section 8 (a) (1) of the Act I will recommend that it cease and desist therefrom and
from infringing in any like or related manner upon the rights of employees guar-
anteed them in Section 7 of the Act. Affirmatively, I will recommend that Respond-
ent post appropriate notices of compliance with the Board's order.
[Recommended Order omitted from publication.]
ie The testimony of Cash. Johnson was called as a witness and denied the conversa-
tion attributed to him. Upon my study of the testimony of each witness and niy observa-
tion of them as they testified and while in the hearing room I am inclined to the view
that Cash's testimony is the more credible and I accordingly accept it and ieject John-
son's denial
Arkansas -Missouri Power Company and Local 1439 , International
Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, AFL-CIO, Petitioner. Case
No. 14-RC-5001. June 15, 1965
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9(c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, as amended, a hearing was held before Hearing Officer
152 NLRB No. 155.
ARKANSAS- MISSOURI POWER COMPANY 1601
Robert H. Kubie. The Hearing Officer's rulings made at the hearing
are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed. Briefs were
filed by both the Employer and Petitioner.
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the Act, the National
Labor Relations Board has delegated its powers in connection with
this case to a three-member panel [Members Fanning, Brown, and
Jenkins].
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
employees of the Employer.
3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the representa-
tion of certain employees of the Employer within the meaning of
Section 9(c) (1) and 2(6) and (7) of the Act.
4. The Employer is an Arkansas corporation engaged in the gen-
eration, transmission, and distribution of electric power and natural
gas in Arkansas and Missouri. For operating purposes, the Company
has divided its properties into two parts, its northern and southern
interconnected systems. There is no physical connection between the
two systems. The southern interconnected system is divided into dis-
tricts A and B, district A encompassing the system's Arkansas opera-
tions, and district B, the Missouri operations.
The power sources for the southern interconnected system are the
Jim Hill steam plant at Campbell, Missouri, a standby hydroelectric
plant at Mammoth Spring, Arkansas, and two standby diesel generat-
ing plants at Blytheville, Arkansas. These generating plants are
wholly within the southern interconnected system. Power required by
the Company not generated at one of these plants is purchased from
other power companies in the area at points of connection with the
southern system.
The Petitioner seeks to represent the production, construction, and
maintenance employees at the main power generating plant known as
the Jim Hill plant. Alternatively, the Petitioner seeks an expanded
unit of all production, construction, and maintenance employees at that
plant and the generating plants at Mammoth Spring, Blytheville, and
Piedmont, Missouri.' The Company contends that neither the primary
unit nor the alternative unit requested is appropriate, and that the only
appropriate unit is one consisting of all construction, maintenance, and
production employees of the Company's southern interconnected
system.
' The Piedmont plant currently has no employees and is staffed only in special situa.
tions. It is located in and provides power for the northern interconnected system
7 3 9-7 3 0-6 6-v o f 15 2-10 2
1602 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
There are 159 employees in the southern interconnected system
engaged in the production of electrical energy and in the maintenance
and construction of the Company's electric facilities within the system.
Of this number, 23 are employed at the Jim Hill plant, 5 are employed
at the hydro plants at Mammoth Spring, and 6 are employed at the
diesel plants at Blytheville. The remaining 125 employees are con-
cerned with customer service and the maintenance of transmission and
distribution lines and related facilities, including substations, meters,
transformers, and communications located within the system. These
employees operate from district and local offices.
The Jim Hill plant is a steam electric generating plant located on
a 60-acre tract near Campbell, Missouri, which employs 23 employees,
exclusive of supervisory and clerical personnel. The Company has
placed employees there into the following job classifications : four load
dispatchers, 4 shift foremen, four boiler operators, four auxiliary
operators, one utility operator, one auxiliary trainee, one laboratory
technician instrument man, one chief electrician, one mechanical
maintenance foreman, one machinist welder, and one maintenance
helper. With the exception of the load dispatchers, these employees
are primarily engaged in the production of electric energy.
The Jim Hill plant is under the supervision of a plant superintend-
ent. The present superintendent is also a district manager in charge
of a district office about 70 miles from Jim Hill. He spends approxi-
mately 40 percent of his time at the Jim Hill plant. The immediate
•supervisor of all Jim Hill employees, with the exception of the load
dispatchers, is the plant's operating foreman. The operating foreman
spends all his time at the Jim Hill plant and is responsible to the plant
superintendent. The load dispatchers are directly responsible to the
plant superintendent.
The job classifications at Jim Hill do not appear elsewhere in the
Company's system. When the Jim Hill plant was first staffed in 1950,
its employees were recruited from throughout the system and received
specialized training at other power generating facilities in the south.
No other employees in the system have received similar training. The
employees are separately supervised, and there is no interchange with
other employees in the system. Wages, promotions, and wage progres-
sions are on schedules singular to these employees and this plant.
Vacations, hours, and overtime hours are scheduled to facilitate the
operation of the plant as a unit.
All Jim Hill employees wear uniforms with a symbol of the electric
power industry and the Company's initials on them. The Company
pays half the cost of these uniforms. Employees located other than at
Jim Hill do not wear uniforms as such, although the Company provides
ARKANSAS-MISSOURI POWER COMPANY 1603
certain articles of protective clothing when a particular job may
require it.
The Jim Hill plant is an isolated facility. It is located 72 miles from
the Walnut Ridge plant, 115 miles from the Mammoth Spring plant,
60 miles from the Blytheville plant, and 80 miles from the Piedmont
plant, which is located in the northern system. At the Jim Hill plant
the employees in question spend almost all of their time operating the
plant.
At the Mammoth Spring plant the employees spend 50 percent of
their time in switching and communications work; at Blytheville, the
employees spend 50 percent of their time in switching and communica-
tions, and 25 percent of their time in operating the icemaking equip-
ment located at the plant. The Piedmont plant is operated on infre-
quent occasions as a reserve power station for the nothern system.
The Board has generally held that, because of the integration and
interdependence of the operations of a public utility company engaged
in the electric power business, a systemwide unit is the optimum unit
within the industry? However, the Board has also recognized that
units of lesser scope may be appropriate in certain situations 3
In view of the facts that the employees at Jim Hill are engaged
exclusively in the production of electric power, contrasted with the
icemaking and switching functions carried out at the several other gen-
erating plants in the system; that there is no interchange with any of
the other employees in the system; that the classifications of jobs at Jim
Hill do not appear elsewhere in the system; that wages and promotions
are established by progression schedules unique to the plant; and that
the employees work at the plant 60 miles from the nearest facility simi-
lar in function, we find that the employees at the Jim Hill plant share
a community of interests separate and distinct from other employees
of the Company, and therefore constitute an appropriate unit for col-
lective bargaining.
Accordingly, we find that the following unit is appropriate for the
purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b)
of the Act :
All construction, maintenance, and production employees of the
Employer's Jim Hill plant at Campbell, Missouri, excluding office
clerical employees, professional employees, guards, and supervisors as
defined in the Act.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.]
21daho Power Company, 126 NLRB 547; New England Power Company (Western
Division ), 120 NLRB 666; Montana-Dakota Utilities Co., 115 NLRB 1396
9 The Mountain States Telephone & Telegraph Co., 126 NLRB 676; The Hartford Elec-
tric Ltght Company, 122 NLRB 1421, Louisiana Gas Service Co., 126 NLRB 147.