Bechtel Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board DecisionsFeb 8, 1972

195 N.L.R.B. 341 (N.L.R.B. 1972)

BECHTEL CORPORATION 341 Bechtel Corporation and Warehouse Union , Local 6, International Longshoremen 's and Warehousemen's Union , Petitioner . Case 20-RC-10151 February 8, 1972 DECISION ON REVIEW AND ORDER BY CHAIRMAN MILLER AND MEMBERS FANNING AND JENKINS On September 1, 1971, the Regional Director for Region 20 issued a Decision and Direction of Election in the above-entitled proceeding, in which he found appropriate the Petitioner's requested unit of em- ployees performing certain "handyman" functions, op- erating from the basement of the Employer's headquar- ters office building at 50 Beale Street, San Francisco, California, rejecting the Employer's contentions that such unit was but an arbitrary segment of a larger functional grouping of employees and that two of the requested employees who perform a basement entrance security function should in any event be excluded as guards within the meaning of the Act. Thereafter, the Employer, in accordance with the National Labor Re- lations Board Rules and Regulations, filed a timely request for review of the Regional Director's Decision on the grounds that he made findings of fact which are clearly erroneous and departed from officially reported precedent. The Petitioner filed opposition to the re- quest for review. By telegraphic order dated September 28, 1971, the National Labor Relations Board granted the request for review and stayed the election pending decision on review. Thereafter, the parties filed briefs on review. Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, the Na- tional Labor Relations Board has delegated its au- thority in this proceeding to a three-member panel. The Board has considered the entire record in this case with respect to the issues under review, and finds that no question affecting commerce exists concerning the representation of certain employees of the Em- ployer within the meaning of Section 9(c)(1) and Sec- tion 2(6) and (7) of the Act, for the following reasons: The Employer is an international engineering and construction company. Its 24-story Beale Street office building has 4,200 to 4,300 employees employed in eight or nine operating divisions and in the corporate services unit of the Employer.' Within the corporate services unit, as a subdivision of manpower services, the office services department is made up of communica- tions, reproduction, and building services. The building services group has within it a general services group, ' There are also seven or eight other addresses in San Francisco where the Employer maintains office facilities made up of executive services, a catering coordinator, central mail, and maintenance and operating services. Reporting to the head of the general services group are the supervisor of central mail and Robert Fern, the supervisor of maintenance and operating services. Fern has approximately 70 employees under him performing a variety of functions, i.e., 7 messengers; 40 floor mail distribution employees; 9 satellite building mail service employees; 5 clerical support employees, who work in an office with Fern; a uniform issuance and maintenance man; and the group of 7 employees here sought to be represented separately by the Peti- tioner. The requested group of employees, together with their immediate supervisor, work out of a receiving dock in the basement across a hallway from the central mailroom. They wear a distinctive blue uniform. These employees are called upon mainly to make office moves. However, they perform a number of other tasks as well, and are referred to in the record as "handymen." Listed among their duties are miscellaneous maintenance,' re- ceiving deliveries, bulletin board maintenance, base- ment entrance security,' shredding,' floor directory maintenance, and preparation of office name plates and special signs.' The record also indicates that they may be called upon to make deliveries and distributions normally handled by messengers or mail distribution employees where the items weigh over 25 pounds and require the use of a dolly or cart, or an automobile, where the destination is a satellite office. Six of the employees in the group are designated as Clerk C's, a wage and skill level classification shared by 400 to 450 employees at the Employer's main offices. The supervisor and one other employee in the group are Senior Clerk E's, a classification shared by 150 to 200 others. There was testimony that some of the operating divi- sions which have offices in the Beale Street building have handyman-type employees who handle their own interoffice moves and do miscellaneous maintenance and repair work. Thus, there are two such employees in the mining and metals division, which occupies four floors; three in the power and industrial division, which occupies three floors; two in the refining and chemical division; and one each assigned to the hydro and com- munity facilities, procurement, and pipeline and Most building maintenance is contracted out by the Employer The Regional Director, as indicated, rejected the Employer's conten- tion that two employees who regularly perform this function are guards within the meaning of the Act, and in view of our dismissal of the petition herein on the ground that the requested unit is too narrow in scope, we find it unnecessary to reach the Employer's request for review as to such issue ' This involves the shredding of waste paper by means of a shredding machine ' Although an employee outside the requested group now performs this function, he will cease doing so when he eliminates a current backlog of such work 195 NLRB No. 64 342 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD production divisions. Although the record does not describe fully the duties of these employees within their respective divisions, it appears that handymen assigned to corporate services have had occasion to assist and work with their counterparts in some of the operating divisions in making office moves when additional man- power has been requisitioned. It is clear from the foregoing that the requested em- ployees are not the type of maintenance or warehousing employees the Board has in the past found to be an appropriate departmental unit. Nor are we able to agree with the Regional Director that they enjoy a sufficiently distinct community of interest to warrant their establishment as a separate appropriate unit on the basis of the kind of work they perform, in view of the close functional interrelationships which exist be- tween their duties and those of other maintenance and operating service employees under Fern's supervision, as well as the fact that employees with some handyman duties are assigned to operating divisions within the same building. Under the circumstances, we find the requested unit to be too narrow in scope to be appropri- ate.' Accordingly, in the absence of an alternative request for a broader appropriate unit, we shall dismiss the petition herein. ORDER It is hereby ordered that the petition herein be, and it hereby is, dismissed. 6 Compare Horizon House 1, Inc., 151 NLRB 766, 769, where four employees sought as maintenance mechanics were actually hired as handy- men, and their interests , functions, and skills were found not sufficiently distinct from those of other employees of the Employer-an operator of residential apartment houses-to warrant their separate representation These other employees were charwomen, elevator operators and starters, porters, and waxers , all under contract between the Intervenor and "a sub- contractor or agent" of the Employer. The Board noted that said contract contained the specific classification of porter-utility-handymen, and that the employees sought by the Petitioner were the only employees falling within that classification and had been sought by the Intervenor for some time.