Illinois Power Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Aug 30, 1946

70 N.L.R.B. 1043 (N.L.R.B. 1946)

In the Matter Of ILLINOIS POWER COMPANY, EMPLOYER and INTERNA-
TIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS , LocAL B-309, AFL,
PETITIONER
Case No. 14-R-1412.-Decided August 30, 1946
Mr. John H. Mitchell, of Decatur, Ill., for the Employer.
Mr. Roy Camerer, of East St. Louis, Ill., for the Petitioner.
Miss Ruth E. Blie field, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
'DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed, hearing in this case was held at Belle-
ville, Illinois, on June 12, 1946, before Elmer L. Hunt, Trial Exam-
iner. The Trial Examiner's rulings made at the hearing are free
from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in the case, the National Labor Relations
Board makes the following :
FINDINGS OF FACT
I. THE BUSINESS OF THE EMPLOYER
Illinois Power Company is an Illinois corporation maintaining its
principal office in Monticello, Illinois. This proceeding involves only
certain of the employees of the Employer at Belleville, Illinois. The
Employer's operations cover 441 communities in the geographic ter-
ritory from Galesburg and La Salle, Illinois, on the north, to Cairo,
Illinois, on the south, including the cities named.
The Employer is engaged in the production, distribution and sale'
of electrical energy, gas and water, and in the operation of the public
transportation system for the city of Peoria, Illinois. It supplies
and sells electrical energy to all radio "stations, telephone companies,
Western Union and railroad companies, in the above-named geo-
graphic area ; supplies gas to 54 communities in the territory covered
by its operations, including East St. Louis, Wood River, Collinsville,
Jacksonville, Galesburg, and La Salle, Illinois; owns the water plants'
and sells and distributes water in the cities of Mount Vernon, Mound
City, Cairo, and Marseilles, Illinois; and through its integrated com-
mon carrier transportation system in Peoria, Illinois, transports pas-
70 N. L. R. B., No. 84.
1043
712344-47-vol. 70-67
1044 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
sengers to and from industrial areas that are engaged in interstate
commerce.
The Employer has a number of inter ,connections between its lines of
operation and the lines of operation of the following companies :
Commonwealth Edison Company, Central Illinois Public Service
Company, Central Illinois Light Company, and Union Electric Com-
pany of Illinois. It supplies and sells electrical energy to the follow-
ing companies, all of which are engaged in interstate commerce :
United Electric Coal Company, DuQuoin, Illinois; General Steel
Castings Company, Granite City, Illinois; and Alpha Cement Com-
pany, La Salle, Illinois.
Approximately 90 percent of the Employer's electrical energy is
purchased from the Union Electric Company of Illinois, Common-
wealth Edison Company and Central Illinois Light Company. Ap-
proximately 10 percent of the electrical energy is generated by seven
generating stations owned by the Employer.
Power is ultimately received by the Employer through connecting
lines from generating plants at Keokuk Dam on the Mississippi River
and Bagnell Dam located in the State of Missouri.
During 1945, the Employer sold and distributed 1,189,266,400 kilo-
watt hours of electricity. During the same period its operating rev-
enue was $22,629,343.
The Employer admits, and we find, that it is engaged in commerce
within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act.
II. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED
The Petitioner is a labor organization affiliated with the American
Federation of Labor, claiming to represent employees of the
Employer.
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION '
The Employer refuses to recognize the Petitioner as the exclusive
bargaining representative of certain of its employees until the Peti-,
tioner has been certified by the Board in an appropriate unit.
We find that a question affecting commerce has arisen concerning
the representation of employees of the Employer, within the meaning
of Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT; THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
The Petitioner desires to include all load dispatchers of the Belle-
ville plant in the unit of production and maintenance employees in
the southern division which it presently represents pursuant to a con-
tract with the Employer. The Employer is 'not in agreement, how-
ever, contending that (1) the load dispatchers sought are supervisory
employees, and (2) if the Board finds that they are not supervisory
ILLINOIS POWER COMPANY 1045
employees there should in any event be a separate system -wide group;
ing of all load dispatchers.
The Employer 's operations are divided into three sections , namely :
the northern, central and southern divisions . The Employer has
approximately 15 labor agreements with various unions, principally
locals affiliated with the International of the Petitioner. Local B-51,
affiliated with the same International as the Petitioner, has had a con-
tract with the Employer since 1935 covering all physical employees in
the northern and central divisions, including maintenance , transmis-
sion and distribution employees. Local B-1306, also affiliated with the
Petitioner 's International, has a contract covering a system-wide unit
of all ice plant and office employees . And the Petitioner has a contract
with the Employer covering all physical employees in the southern
district, including maintenance , transportation and distribution em-
ployees. Although the Petitioner has had contractual relations with
the Employer since 1923, load dispatchers have never been included in
any of the collective bargaining contracts.
Load dispatchers, or system supervisors as they are termed by the
Employer, are employed in the dispatching office located at Belleville,
Illinois, which is in the southern division , and in the dispatching of-
fice at Decatur, Illinois, which is outside the southern division. Load
dispatchers direct the assumption of loads and cut-off of power at the
various generating plants or interconnections throughout the Em-
ployer's system in order to meet changing requirements in power, or
to balance mechanical failures of power . This is accomplished by
telephoning necessary orders to-various employees throughout the sys-
tem. Switches in all substations and power plants are opened or
closed only upon the express orders of load dispatchers , who are re-
quired to be cognizant at all times of the status of every switch and
piece of rotating equipment. It appears that the orders issued by the
load dispatchers are only as to the mechanical operations to be per-
formed by employees . The employees to whom load dispatchers give
orders are supervised by others in the actual performance of their
duties. Thus, they are not truly subordinates of the load dispatchers.
Moreover , although the record shows that load dispatchers may criti-
cize the work of persons to whom they give directions , there is no
persuasive evidence that they have the authority to hire, promote, dis-
charge, discipline, or otherwise effect changes in the status of em-
ployees, or effectively to recommend such action.
The load dispatchers in the Belleville office control the operations
in the southern district and those in the Decatur office control opera-
tions in the northern and central districts . There is interconnection
of functions between load dispatchers of the two offices only in case of
an emergency, and there is no interchange of load dispatchers between
the two offices.
1046 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
It appears that the load dispatchers are not supervisory employees,
as contended by the Employer, but highly skilled and highly trained
workers. The, load dispatchers in the Belleville plant work in the
same administrative division as do the physical employees now repre-
sented by the Petitioner, and their contact is mainly with such physical
employees. Hence, it appears that there is a strong community of
interest between the load dispatchers in the southern division and the
physical employees of that division. In view of the foregoing facts,
we are of the opinion that the load dispatchers, in the Belleville plant
may, if they so desire, be bargained for as part of the existing unit of
physical employees in the Employer's southern district now repre-
sented by the Petitioner.
We shall, accordingly, direct an election among all load dispatchers
(or system supervisors) at the Employer's Belleville, Illinois, plant,
excluding all supervisory employees with authority to hire, promote,
discharge, discipline, or otherwise' effect changes in the status of
employees, or effectively recommend such action.
In the event a majority of the employees in this voting group select
the Petitioner as their bargaining representative they thereby will
have indicated their desire to be merged with the unit of all physical
employees in the southern district now represented by the Petitioner.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the
purposes of collective bargaining with Illinois Power Company, Belle-
ville, Illinois, an election by secret ballot shall be conducted as early
as possible, but not later than thirty (30) days from the date of this
Direction, under the direction and supervision of the Regional Direc-
tor for the Fourteenth Region, acting in this matter as agent for the
National Labor Relations Board, and subject to Article III, Sections
10 and 11, of National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations-
Series 3, as amended, among the employees in the voting group de-
scribed 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 said pay-roll period because they
were ill or on vacation or temporarily laid off, and including employees
in the armed forces of the United States who present themselves in
person at the polls, but excluding those employees who have since quit
or been discharged for cause and have not been rehired or reinstated
prior to the date of the election, to determine whether or not they
desire to be represented by International Brotherhood of Electrical
Workers, Local B-309, AFL, for the purposes of-collective bargaining.
MR. JAMES J. REYNOLDS, JR., took no part in the consideration of the
above Decision and Direction of Election.