Bluff City Broadcasting Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jan 9, 1953

102 N.L.R.B. 102 (N.L.R.B. 1953)

102 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Don't buy any of Mr. Curbo's socialistic cure-all medicine-look at CIO's record
of strikes, lost time, battles and doublecrosses. Ask your fellow workers here
who have belonged to CIO in the past. Give us one year to operate this plant,
get all of our plans in effect, and do the many things we have planned which will
make this a better place to work in. We make you this offer-give us one year
from August 4, the date we rolled those first two buses out the door, and see
what kind of jobs you have. Then, if you find out that we are not the right kind
of people for you-if you find out that you need to spend money for a union to
protect your rights, then go to it with our blessings. But give us that year !
Thank you.
J. R. PEPPER AND E . R. FERGUSON , D/B/A BLUFF CITY BROADCASTING CO.
and LOCAL No. 1275, INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF ELECTRICAL
WORKERS, AFL, PETITIONER . Case No. 3?-RC-574. January 9,
1953
Decision and Order
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, a hearing was held before Seymour X. Alsher, 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 [Members Houston, Styles, and Peterson].
On January 16, 1951, Petitioner's parent organization, International
Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, AFL, hereafter referred to as the
IBEW, was certified as the bargaining representative of the Em-
ployer's engineers and technicians.' Thereafter, on January 23, 1951,
a bargaining agreement, in which the Employer, Petitioner, and
IBEW were named as parties, was executed, covering all engineers
and technicians "up to and including the rank of Chief Engineer." 2
By its terms, this contract was to continue until December 15, 1952,
and from year to year thereafter, in the absence of a 60-day notice
to change or terminate it. It does not appear from the record whether
any such notice was given.
On October 31, 1952, the instant petition was filed on behalf of the
Petitioner by an international representative of the IBEW. It al-
leges as appropriate for bargaining purposes the very unit covered by
the existing certification, but it would expressly exclude the chief
engineer. At the hearing, during which the Petitioner was repre-
sented by the IBEW representative who filed the petition, the parties
were in dispute only as to the supervisory status of the chief engineer.
1 Excluded from the unit were the office and clerical employees , announcers , and super-
visors as defined in the Act . Case No. 32-RC-286, not reported in printed volumes of
Board decisions.
2 The unit replacement of the chief engineer was not litigated in Case No. 82-RC-286.
102 NLRB No. 23.
LOS ANGELES EVENING HERALD AND EXPRESS 103
No one challenges the validity of the outstanding certification covering
the employees named in the petition.
As it is plain from all the foregoing that the petition filed herein
raises no present question concerning representation of the nonsuper-
visory employees in the certified unit, and that the only issue raised
by the instant proceeding concerns the unit placement of the Em-
ployer's chief engineer, we shall dismiss the petition as such, and shall
hereafter treat it in the nature of a request to amend the existing
certification by excluding from the certified unit the classification of
chief engineer.3
The chief engineer prepares the work schedules for the three engi-
neers and technicians employed by the Employer at its radio station
and assigns those employees to special jobs away from the station as
they are needed. His pay is higher than theirs. The chief engineer
has also granted time off to engineers and technicians and has made
effective recommendations with respect to their hiring. As the fore-
going, and the record as a whole, shows that the chief engineer pos-
sesses and exercises supervisory powers, we find him to be a supervisor
as defined in the Act, even though the classification of chief engineer
was included in the unit covered by the bargaining contract referred
to above.'
On the basis of all the foregoing, we shall amend the certification
issued in Case No. 32-RC-286 so as to exclude the classification of
chief engineer from the certified unit.
Order
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the certification of representatives issued
in Case No. 32-RC-286 on January 16, 1951, be, and it hereby is,
amended so that the certified unit shall exclude the classification of
chief engineer.5
AND IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that the petition filed in this case be, and
it hereby is, dismissed.
a Ct Tide Water A8soeiated Oil Company, 101 NLRB 570; Bausch and Lomb Optical
Company , 92 NLRB 139.
4 West Virginia Pulp d Paper Company , S9- NLRB 815.
5 This is not to be construed as a new certification.
Los ANGELES EVENING HERALD AND EXPRESS DIVISION OF HEARST
PUBLISHING COMPANY, INC. and NEWSVENDORS LOCAL INDUSTRIAL
UNION No. 75, CIO, PETITIONER. Case No. 01-RC-2514. January
9,1953
Decision and Order
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National
Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before Daniel J. Harrington,
102 NLRB No. 21.