Cities Service Gas Co.Download PDFNational Labor Relations Board - Board DecisionsJun 3, 194241 N.L.R.B. 648 (N.L.R.B. 1942) Copy Citation In the Matter of CITIES SERVICE GAS Co. and INTERNATIONAL UNION OF OPERATING ENGINEERS, AFFILIATED WITH THE AMERICAN FEDERA- TION OF LABOR Case No. R-3713.-Decided June 3, 19493 Jurisdiction : pipeline industry. Investigation and Certification of Representatives : existence of question. dis- pute as to unit, election necessary Unit Appropriate for Collective Bargaining : partial system unit comprising all employees at the Company's compressor stations, including engineers and cer- tarn station operators, but excluding superintendents, supervisory employees, junior engineers, matrons. timekeepers, repair and machine shop foremen, ofliee managers, temporary employees, and a certain foreman ; unit based upon the extent of self-organization Mr. R. E. Cullison and Mr. Gordon J. Quilter , of Bartlesville, Okla., for the Company. Mr. John H. LoRowe, of St. Charles , Mo., for the Operating Engineers. _ ' Mr. Harvey C. Fremming, of Kansas City, Mo., Mr. F. G. Loriaux, of Ft. Worth, Tex., and [11r. Phil Neumer , of Kansas City, Kans., for the Oil Workers. Mr. Cecil F. Poole , of counsel to the Board. DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION STATEMENT OF THE CASE Upon petition duly filed by International Union of Operating Engineers, affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, herein called the Operating Engineers, alleging that a question affecting commerce had arisen concerning the representation of employees of Cities Service Gas Co., Bartlesville, Oklahoma, herein called the Com- pany, the National Labor Relations Board provided for an appro- priate hearing upon due notice before Clarence D. 'Musser, Trial Examiner. Said hearing was held at Kansas City, Missouri, on March 30, 1942.' The Company, the Operating Engineers, and Oil Workers International Union, affiliated with the Congress of Indus- trial Organizations, herein called the Oil Workers, appeared and par- 41 N. L. R. B , No. 128. 648 CITIES SERVICE GAS CO. 649 ticipated.1 All parties were afforded full opportunity to be heard, to examine and cross-examine witnesses, and to introduce evidence bearing on the issues. The Trial Examiner's rulings, made at the hearing, are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed. On April 24, 1942, the Operating Engineers filed a brief which the Board has considered. Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following : FINDINGS OF FACT I. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY Cities Service Gas Co. is a corporation organized under the laws of the State of Delaware, having its principal office in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Empire Gas and Fuel Company, a New Jersey corporation. The Company is engaged in the production, sale, and transportation by pipe line of natural gas in the States of Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, Missouri, and Nebraska. It operates and maintains approximately 4,437 miles of gas pipe line in the above States, including 18 pipe-line divisions and 22 compressor stations.- Part of the gas thus prodilced and transported is sold to distributing companies serving 285 cities and communities in the above States, having a population of approximately 1,510,000 people. During the period ending December 31, 1941, the Company's net income was approximately $5,165,144.2 The Company concedes, and we find, that it is engaged in com- merce, within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act. II. THE ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED International Union of Operating Engineers, affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, is a labor organization admitting to ]membership employees in the compressor department of the Company. Oil Workers International Union, affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations, is a labor organization admitting to mem- bership employees of the Company. III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION The Company, in January 1942, refused to bargain with the Operat- ing Engineers on behalf of the employees in the compressor depart- 1 District 50, United Mine woikers of America, affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations , did not appear , although it had been served with notice 2 These facts were stipulated at the hearing . The record does not show whether the period ending December 31, 1941, was an annual period 650 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD ment, on the ground that it did not believe that the Operating Engineers represented a majority of the employees or that the unit of employees for whom the Operating Engineers sought to bargain was appropriate. A statement of the Field Examiner introduced in evidence at the hearing indicates that the Operating Engineers represents a sub- stantial number of employees in the unit hereinafter found to be appropriate.3 The Oil Workers submitted no evidence of represen- tation, although it claims that it has members among the Company's pipe-line employees. We find that a question affecting commerce has arisen concerning the representation of employees of the Company, within the meaning of Section ,9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act. IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT The Operating Engineers claims that all employees at the Com- pany's compressor stations, with certain exceptions hereinafter men- tioned, constitute an appropriate unit. The Oil Workers and the Company contend that all of the Company's employees, with certain exceptions as to which they are in disagreement, constitute an appro- priate unit, because the compressor stations are an operational part of the pipe-line system, because the functions of the Company's pipe line and compressor departments overlap and there is constant inter- change of personnel between those departments, and because the two departments are so completely integrated that they ought not' to be separated for collective bargaining purposes. From its wells in Texas, the Company's pipe line extends some 4,400 miles through five States. The employees in its pipe-line de- partment are engaged largely in maintenance and outdoor construc- tion work. The crews lay the pipe line, connect the wells, turn them in, and operate them.4 The compressor -stations, 22 in number, are scattered over the pipe line, approximately 65 miles apart. Opera- tions at these stations involve the use of stationary engines which boost or pull the gas through the pipe line. The number of em- ployees at each station depends upon its size and upon the horsepower of the plant. Personnel classifications at the compressor stations 8 The Field Examiner reported that the Operating Engineers submitted 178 signed application and authorization cards, all bearing apparently genuine signatures, of which 165 bear names of persons on the Company's compressor department pay roll of January 16, 1942 The number of employees on this-pay roll does not appear, but there were 298 employees on the pay roll of that department as of March 25, 1942. 'The total number of persons employed by the Company in all departments is approxi mately 900 to 1000, of whom appioximately 349 were on the pipe-line pay roll of March 25, 1942 Personnel classifications in this department include superintendents, foremen, assistant foremen, truck drivers, chart changers, line-walkers, repairmen, welders, time- keepers, regular laborers, stockkeepers, warehouse clerks, and machinists. CITIES SERVICE GAS C'O. 651 include engineers who operate the main compressor units, auxiliary engineers, oilers, timekeepers, repair and machine shop foreman, and laborers.', While, for accounting purposes, the pipe line and com- pressor departments are separate,' there is frequent though irregular interchange of ordinary employees between the two. Pipe-line men are moved into compressor stations as oilers, and compressor station employees are sometimes moved out as pipe-line crews. Interchange is, for the most part, limited to a particular job, upon completion of which the employees return to their respective headquarters. When employees of one department, even foremen, are sent to work in the other, they do so as ordinary laborers. However, top personnel in the compressor stations (i. e., superintendents, engineers and timekeepers)" are never put on pipe-line work. - • New employees are generally obtained for the compressor stations from the outside, not from the pipe line. Employees in' each depart- ment have some seniority status, which is not well defined in the record but which is limited to their particular department and which is not carried along when they are interchanged. In the summer months, when the flow of gas and the work of the compressor sta- tions are lightest, many of the stations are closed down for over- hauling, and regular compressor station men are then sent to other stations and the surplus, if any, to the pipe line. ' The Company's superintendent of gas transportation testified that, where it becomes necessary, there is complete interchange of personnel between the, compressor plants and the pipe line and that, in substance, the Com- pany's pipe line, compressor plant, production, field gathering, and line connection personnel are all interchangeable. The Operating Engineers has organized the employees at the compressor stations and claims to have organized employees in other departments of the Company in separate chapters. It does not now seek to represent any employees in the pipe-line -department. The Oil Workers, on the other hand, claims to have members among the employees in the pipe-line department and in the Company's field operations, but not at the -compressor stations.7 The Company has IIn addition to the classifications set forth above, there are also carpenters , cement finishers , matrons, extra laborers and oilers , welders, yardmen , repairmen , electricians, night clerks , telephone operators , relief auxiliary engineers , dehydrator operators, ware- house clerks , and junior engineers "The compressor stations and the pipe line are organized by the Company into separate departments , both under the supervision of the Company 's superintendent of gas trans- portation , who testified that he does not consider the compressor department a separate unit but "ties it in with pipe -line operations " 'The Oil Workers introduced in evidence copies of agreements between it and Indian Territory Illuminating Oil Company and Cities Service Oil Company , both of Bartlesville, Oklahoma , and members of the Cities Service group , which cover all field employees of the contracting companies , in support of its claim that its organizing activities in the industry are conducted on the basis of employer units. 652 DECISIONS OF. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD not had, nor does it now have, contracts with any labor organizations, nor is it now dealing with any labor organization as the, representa-' tive of its employees. While it thus appears that its compressor and pipe-line depart- ments are operated by the Company substantially as an integrated system, and that a system-wide unit might therefore be appropriate, we have said before that "whether a system or a division thereof constitutes an appropriate unit must depend on extent of labor or- ganization, collective bargaining efforts and similar circumstances." 8 The Operating Engineers, desiring a unit coterminous with the scope of its organizational activities, is the only labor organization which has sought 'and is prepared to bargain with the Company for any of its employees, and which has offered to prove its designation by a majority of the employees in 'a unit claimed to be appropriate. There is no showing that any other labor organization has attempted to organize or now stands ready to represent the employees at the compressor stations.9 To hold that the compressor station employees are not an appropriate unit would deny the benefits of the Act to these employees until they and all other employees of the Company in some larger unit have been organized. Under the circumstances, and in order to "render collective bar- gaining . . . an immediate possibility," 10 we find that the unit re- quested by the Operating Engineers, composed of employees at the compressor stations, is appropriate at this time for the purposes of collective bargaining.- We do not thereby preclude future recon- sideration of the appropriateness of a larger unit, should organization of the Company's employees be extended.12 The parties are agreed on the exclusion from the unit of L. L. Baker, a foreman at the Caney, Kansas, station.13 The Operating Engi- neers desires to exclude, also, superintendents, matrons, office man- agers, and junior engineers. The Oil Workers wants to include the , Matter of Texas Empii e Pipe Line Company and Oil Workers International Union, Local 222, affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations , 19 N L. R B. 631; Matter of Natural Gas Pipe Line Company of America and International Union of Operating Engineers , Local 259, affiliated with ' the American Federation of Labor and Matter of Texoma Natural Gas Company and Oil Workers International Union , Local 463, affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations, 40 N. L R. B 1193 e The agreements introduced in evidence by the Oil Workers cover field operations bf the contracting companies , but not engineers , relief engineers , or foremen. 1o Matter of Gulf Oil Corporation and International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Shipbuilders, Welders it Helpers of America, 4 N L R B 133, at 137 11 Matter of Texas Empire Pipe Line Company and Oil TVoi hers International Union, Local 222, 19 N L R B 631. 13 Matter of Western Union Telegraph Company and American Federation of Labor, 36 N. L . R. B 881; Matter of Iowa Southern Utilities Company and Utility ZVorhers Organizing Committee , Local 109, ( C 1 0 ) and Union of Employees of the Iowa Southern Utilities Company, 15 N L R. B 580 ii Foreman Baker was formerly a superintendent and draws the same pay that he dig when he was a superintendent . He is now in charge of the warehouse and a machine shop, having a number of mechanics and welders under his supervision. CITIES SERVICE GAS CO.'1653 matrons, but to exclude timekeepers and all persons having the power to hire or discharge or to recommend the hire or discharge of em- ployees. The Company wishes to exclude timekeepers and A. S. Graves and M. E. Benton. Timekeepers. These men keep time records of employees and are also the warehouse clerks. Their duties are largely clerical, and the record indicates that their interests are more closely aligned with those of the management than with those of other employees. They represent the superintendents at the compressor stations when, for example, the superintendents are absent. They receive confidential information from the Company, and have control of and access to its confidential records and documents. We shall exclude them from the unit. Junior engineers. Junior engineers are employed by the Company directly out of school. They spend 3 months in the gas division and several weeks in the compressor and pipe-line departments, after which they are given permanent assignments if they wish. Because they are considered temporary employees while assigned to the com- pressor stations, the Operating Engineers- would exclude them. The -Company and the Oil Workers are silent on the point. We shall exclude them from the unit. Matrons. While the record is not clear as to the function of these employees, there is some indication that their duties are connected with certain hotels which the Company maintains, rather than with the operation of the compressor stations. We shall therefore exclude them from the unit. Repair and machine shop foremen. These employees have super- vision over groups of from 2 to 14 employees and have the power to recommend their discharge. The Oil Workers therefore wants them excluded, while the Operating Engineers wishes to include them and the Company is silent on the point. Because of their supervisory status, we shall exclude them from the unit. Engineers. The engineers are skilled employees. Although they are in charge of their respective shifts at the compressor stations, it is clear that any supervisory powers they have are considerably less than those exercised by the repair and machine shop foremen. The Company denies that they have any right to recommend the hire or discharge of employees. The engineers are eligible for membership in, and many of them have indicated their desire to be represented by, the Operating Engineers. Since their interests are_ substantially similar to those of the other employees, and since they are at most only minor supervisory employees, we shall include them in the unit. A. S. Graves and M. E. Benton. Graves and Benton are station operators at White Deer, Texas, and Hughey, Texas,. respectively. Each is now the only employee at his station. , The Company'seeks 654 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD to have these employees excluded from the unit on the ground that they receive confidential Company instructions and information, and also on the ground that the Company expects soon to put on more employees at these stations and to put Graves and Benton in charge. However, no explicit showing has been made that their present duties are materially different from those of other employees in the unit. The Oil Workers and the Operating Engineers wish them to be in- cluded. We shall include them in the unit. Temporary employees. The record indicates that the Company now has and will hire a number of extra laborers and other employees on a temporary basis for the duration of specific jobs. All such temporary employees are ineligible for membership in both the Oper- ating Engineers and the Oil Workers, and the parties have agreed on their exclusion . We shall exclude them from the unit. We find that all employees at the Company 's compressor stations, including engineers , A. S. Graves , and M . E. Benton, but excluding superintendents , supervisory employees , junior engineers , matrons, timekeepers , repair and machine shop foremen, office managers, tem- porary employees , and Foreman L. L. Baker, constitute a unit appro- priate for the purposes of collective bargaining , within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act. V. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES We find that the question concerning representation which has arisen can best be resolved by an election by secret ballot. The Oil Workers stated at the hearing that it did not desire to participate in any election directed to be held in a unit of compressor station employees alone. Accordingly, the name of the Oil Workers will not appear on the ballot. Because there was evidence that the Company at the time of the hearing had and intended to hire a number of temporary employees, the Operating Engineers urged that the Company 's pay roll of March 25, 1942, be used to determine the eligibility, of employees to vote in any election directed by the Board. Since we have excluded tem- porary employees from the appropriate unit , we shall follow our practice of directing that the employees in the appropriate unit who were employed during the pay-roll period immediately preceding the date of the Direction of Election herein, subject to the limitations and additions set forth in the Direction , shall be eligible to vote in the election. DIRECTION OF ELECTION By virtue of and pursuant to the power vested in the National Labor Relations Board by Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Rela- CITIES SERVICE GAS CO. 655 tions Act, and pursuant to Article III, Section 8, of National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 2, as amended, it is hereby DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation to ascertain representa- tives for the purposes of collective bargaining with Cities Service Gas Co., Bartlesville, Oklahoma, an election by secret ballot shall be conducted as early as possible, but not later than thirty (30) days from the d,,ite of this Direction, under the direction and supervision of the Regional Director for the Seventeenth Region, acting in this matter as agent for the National Labor Relations Board and subject to Article III, Section 9, of said Rules and Regulations, among the employees in the unit found appropriate in Section IV, above, who were employed during the pay-roll period immediately preceding the date of this Direction, including employees who did not work during such pay-roll period because they were ill or on variation or in the active military service or training of the United States, or temporarily laid off, but excluding employees who have since quit or been discharged for cause, to determine whether or not they de- sire to be represented by International Union of Operating Engineers, affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, for the purpose of collective bargaining. Mx. GERARD D. REILLY took no part in the consideration of the above-Decision and Direction of Election. Copy with citationCopy as parenthetical citation