Communication Satellite Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Sep 6, 1972

198 N.L.R.B. 1204 (N.L.R.B. 1972)

1204 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Communications Satellite Corporation 1 and Interna-
tional Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local
2327, AFL-CIO.2 Case 1-RC-12047
September 6, 1972
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 Robert D.
McGrath. Following the hearing and pursuant to
Section 102.67 of the National Labor Relations
Board Rules and Regulations and Statements of
Procedure, Series 8, as amended, the Regional
Director for Region 1, transferred this case to the
Board for decision. Thereafter, the Employer and the
Petitioner filed briefs.
The Board has reviewed the Hearing Officer's
rulings made at the hearing and finds that they are
free from prejudicial error. They are hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds:
1. The Employer concedes, and we find, that it is
engaged in commerce within the meaning of the Act
and that its operating revenues, which were in excess
of $88 million in 1971, are sufficient to meet the
Board's standards for the assertion of its jurisdiction
herein.
2. The labor organization involved claims 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.
The Petitioner seeks a unit confined, in scope, to
the Employer's earth station at Andover, Maine. It
seeks to represent all the employees at that location,
other than guards, confidential, professional, and
supervisory employees, as defined in the Act. None
of these employees has been represented previously
and there is no history of bargaining among any
other employees of the Employer. The Employer
opposes the petition solely on grounds of scope. It
contends that no unit smaller than a systemwide unit
embracing all employees of the six earth stations it
operates in the United States, the earth station it
operates in Puerto Rico, the maintenance and supply
service center located in Maryland, and the U.S.
operations center located in Washington, D.C., may
appropriately be established. For the reasons set
tthe Employer's name appears as amended at the hearing
s The Petitioner's name appears as amended at the hearing
3 Corporate relations, finance and administration, general counsel,
international, technical, and operations
4 There are other earth stations at Guam and in foreign countries. The
one at Guam is operated by Radio Corporation of America for COMSAT,
forth below, we disagree with the Employer's
position.
The Employer is a private corporation chartered by
the United States Congress. Its headquarters are at
Washington, D.C. It operates the communications
satellites which form a link in the coordinated
telephone, telegraph, and cable communications
systems regulated by the Federal Communications
Act of 1935, as amended. It leases its satellite circuits
on a wholesale basis to commercial telephone,
telegraph, and cable companies which, in turn,
directly service the public.
The Employer's operations are conducted through
six major divisions,3 most of which are divided into a
number of separate administrative offices which, in
turn, are divided into a number of departments. The
corporate division which has overall responsibility
for the earth station functions is entitled "Opera-
tions." That division has five offices, one of which,
titled U.S. Systems Management, controls and
services the earth stations. The vice president of
operations is also the director of the U.S. Systems
Management office. Located within that office as
separate departments are (a) the seven earth stations
variously located in the U.S. and in Puerto Rico; (b)
the maintenance and supply service center at
Clarksburg, Maryland, and (c) the U.S. operations or
technical control center at Washington, D.C.
The earth stations all commonly perform the
function of relaying customers' messages from the
satellites. The six United States earth stations are
located at Andover, Maine; Bartlett, Alaska; Brew-
ster, Washington; Etam, West Virginia; Jamesburg,
California; and Paumalu, Hawaii. The one at Puerto
Rico is located at Cayey, Puerto Rico.4 Two of these
seven earth stations-Andover, Maine, and Etam,
West Virginia-have an additional telemetry func-
tion through which the satellites' physical locations
and altitudes are tracked and controlled. The
maintenance and supply service station center
supplies all U.S. earth stations with electronic parts
and component systems. It also calibrates the earth
stations' equipment and makes major repairs as
necessary to that equipment. The operations center
at Washington, D.C., is the nerve center for the
communications system. It directs the satellites,
advises the earth stations when new circuits are
needed to satisfy new demands for the system's
wholesale customers, collects information from the
earth stations, and transmits information and com-
mands to them with respect to the operations of the
although described by the Employer as a part of the U S earth station
system The foreign stations are located at various points throughout the
world, including Italy, Thailand, and the Philippines, and are operated for
Comsat by foreign companies The arrangements COMSAT has with an
international consortium for business management of such stations are not
relevant here
198 NLRB No. 171
COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE CORPORATION
communications satellite system. All of these various
operations are conducted on a round-the-clock basis.
Each earth station maintains close daily contact with
the maintenance and supply service center and the
U.S. operations center through teletype and other
instant communcation facilities.
Each earth station has a substantially identical
facility containing station equipment necessary to
supply the mechanical, electrical, electronic, and
water services necessary to the station's functions.
Some of the earth stations service the Atlantic
satellites and others service the Pacific satellites.
Each earth station also services various communica-
tion circuits owned by certain specified customers of
COMSAT. Thus the Andover, Maine, and Etam,
West Virginia, earth stations service the communica-
tion circuits linked to the Atlantic satellites for the
following companies: American Telephone and
Telegraph Company, International Telephone and
Telegraph Worldcom, Radio Corporation of Ameri-
ca, and Western Union International. The James-
burg, California, and Brewster, Washington, stations
service the communication circuits of these same
companies which are linked to the Pacific satellites.
The Cayey, Puerto Rico, station services Puerto
Rico, A.A.C. & R. (a Puerto Rican company),
International Telephone and Telegraph Worldcom,
Radio Corporation of America, and Western Union
International's systems in that geographic area. The
Bartlett, Alaska station services Alaska portions of
the system for the above U.S. mainland companies,
and an Alaskan company.
Each earth station has substantially identical job
classifications and each has its own station manager.
The two stations which perform additional telemetry
functions-Andover and Etam-have certain addi-
tional classifications. The total complement of all the
U.S. earth system facilities is composed of approxi-
mately 247 employees, of whom about 130 are
nonsupervisory employees of the type described by
the petition. Of the 130, 32 are located at Andover, 7
at Bartlett, 16 at Brewster, 16 at Cayey, 16 at Etam,
15 at Jamesburg, and 30 at Paumalu. The four
remaining employees are located at the Clarksburg,
Maryland, maintenance and supply center.5
Employees similarly classified perform substantial-
ly the same tasks and duties companywide under a
uniformly applicable job classification system. Each
job's rate range is identical throughout the Company.
Uniform benefits are provided for all employees, so
that pay rates, holidays, vacations, retirements,
provisions for leave of absence and for merit
increases, promotions, or transfers are the same
throughout the Company. There are uniform pro-
1205
grams for periodic evaluation of employees with
centralized review for purposes of approving requests
for merit increases, transfers, promotions, or demo-
tions, and the administration of disciplinary action.
All of the conditions of employment, as above
described, are centrally developed and coordinated
by the director of personnel in Washington, D.C.
But, with respect to personnel matters affecting earth
station employees, the office of U.S. Systems
Management in the operations division has the
ultimate say. That office also has the overall and
final supervisory authority for each earth station's
operational activities and for the hiring and dis-
charge of the employees assigned to each of the earth
stations. However, extending from that office there
are different intermediate levels and lines of supervi-
sion which, though bound by the Employer's
commonly applicable policies, operate independently
of each other in overseeing each earth station's
separable day-to-day functions and its separate
employee complement. Each earth station has its
own station manager, and below him, certain other
supervisors of particular groups of employees. Each
station conducts its own on-the-job training pro-
gram. Each station's supervisory personnel may and
does initiate actions affecting the employees at that
earth station, including actions involving leaves of
absence, vacations, vacation replacements, promo-
tions, transfers, merit increases, and disciplinary
actions. Each station's supervisory personnel makes
the initial job appraisals in which a number of
favorable or unfavorable determinations affecting an
employee's work opportunities or rates of pay are
critically dependent. And while the personnel actions
initiated by such lower echelon supervisors and the
periodic evaluations of the employees they supervise
are subject to final review and approval by the
central Washington office, the latter office usually
approves the recommended actions almost routinely.
Although employees are centrally recruited by the
Washington office, they are hired for permanent
assignment to a particular earth station location.
Furthermore, although earth station employees are
sometimes called upon to perform tasks at other
locations on a temporary basis, such temporary
assignments to nonsupervisory personnel of the type
described by the petition are relatively infrequent.
Thus, documentary evidence of the temporary
transfers from one station to another covering a 4-
year period between 1968 and 1972 shows that there
were only four occasions involving 2 of the 130
nonsupervisory employees of the type here requested
on which such temporary assignments were made.
Lateral or promotional transfers of a long-duration
5 There are no similarly classified employees at the US operations
control center
1206 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
character involving the same group of employees
averaged less than seven per year over a 7-year
period.
The Employer argues that its communication
system is comparable to public utility service systems
and hence the unit detemrination made in this
proceeding should be in accordance with the stand-
ards applicable to those industries.6 Although con-
cededly there are similarities, this record establishes
certain factors highly relevant to the issue of
operational integration which allow for greater
flexibility in determining the appropriate mode for
collective bargaining. Thus, each earth station is
geographically separated from other portions of the
Employer's operations by a considerable distance.
Each has a permanent complement of employees of
the type sought by the Petitioner. Each earth station
has a manager who is responsible for the day-to-day
operation of the earth station and who, though acting
within the framework of centrally established person-
nel policies, operates with a considerable degree of
independence in both initiating and effectuating the
personnel actions involving the employees and that
earth station. There is no history of bargaining on a
broader basis and no union seeking to represent a
broader unit of employees. Finally, of great signifi-
cance is the fact that although the Employer -suggests
that a work stoppage at the earth station sought by
the Petitioner would prejudice the operation of the
communications channels serviced by that station,
the record fails to support this contention. Employer
witnesses testified that in the event of a shutdown at
the Andover, Maine, station the Etam, West Virgini-
a, station has duplicate facilities for servicing the
6 In cases involving public utilities , the Board has frequently stated that a
systemwide unit is the optimum unit , but that units of lesser scope may also
be established where there is evidence supporting the separate identity and
separable interests of less than a systemwide grouping of employees See
Atlantic satellites and is in a position to take up the
slack. Furthermore, in terms of their operational
integration, all earth stations appear to be similarly
situated. Yet, the Employer, nonetheless, finds it
feasible to contract out the management of the
Guam station to an independent entity, R.C.A. It is
apparent therefore that the degree of interdepen-
dence between the earth stations and home facilities
is not so extreme as to foreclose a relinquishment of
managerial control with respect to the stations, and
hence collective bargaining on a separate basis would
prove no more prejudicial to the Employer than in
any multifacility operation where employees are
allowed to express their choice on a separate basis.
In light of the foregoing evidence we find that each
earth station has a sufficient degree of autonomy in
its day-to-day operations and that the employees in
the requested unit constitute a distinct and identifia-
ble grouping with sufficient interests separable from
those of employees at other earth stations and at
other portions of the Employer's U.S. Systems
Management office to support the establishment of a
unit confined to the single earth station at Andover,
Maine, as requested by Petitioner.
We conclude, accordingly, that the following
employees of the Employer constitute a unit appro-
priate for the purposes of collective bargaining
within the meaning of Section 9(a) of the Act:
All employees of the Employer at its Andover,
Maine, earth station, excluding guards, confiden-
tial,7 professional, and supervisory employees as
defined in the Act.
[Direction of Election and Excelsior footnote
omitted from publication.]
United Gas, Inc, 190 NLRB No 23, and other cases cited therein
7 Pursuant to the stipulation of the parties, the secretary to the earth
station manager and the accounting personnel clerk are excluded from the
unit as confidential employees