Mountain States Telephone & Telegraph Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Nov 30, 1954

110 N.L.R.B. 1076 (N.L.R.B. 1954)

1076 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
2. United Textile Workers of America and International Brotherhood of Team-
sters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen & Helpers of America, Local 994, each affiliated
with American Federation of Labor, are labor organizations within the meaning
of Section 2 (5) of the Act.
3. The allegations of the complaint , as amended , that Respondent has engaged
in and is engaging in unfair labor practices within the meaning of Section 8 (a)
(1) and (3) of the Act have not been sustained by substantial evidence.
I Recommendations omitted from publication. 710
MOUNTAIN STATES TELEPHONE & TELEGRAPH COMPANY and INTERNA-
TIONAL UNION OF OPERATING ENGINEERS, LOCAL NO. 1, AFL, PETI-
TIONER . Case No. 30-RC-962. November 30, 1954
Decision and Order
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, a hearing was held before Clyde F. Waers, hearing offi-
cer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from
prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the
Act.'
2. The labor organizations involved claim to represent employees of
the Employer.2
No question affecting commerce exists concerning the representation
of employees of the Employer within the meaning of Section 9 (c)
(1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act, for the following reasons:
The Employer, a Colorado corporation with its principal executive
offices located at Denver, is engaged in the business of furnishing com-
munication services , mainly telephone service, in Arizona, Colorado,
Montana, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming, and parts of Idaho and Texas.
The Petitioner seeks to sever from a companywide unit,3 currently
represented by the Intervenor, five licensed steam engineers who are
engaged in the operation and maintenance of high pressure heating
equipment and refrigeration and ventilating equipment in the Em-
ployer's Denver, Colorado, operations. The Employer and the Inter-
venor contend that the requested unit is inappropriate and oppose
severance on the ground that the steam engineers are a part of the
house service group in the Denver area, which has been represented and
1 Following the hearing in this case , the parties stipulated to facts warranting the
assertion of jurisdiction herein The stipulation is hereby received and made part of
the record.
3 Communications Workers of America, CIO, was permitted to intervene at the hearing
on the basis of its coati actual relations with the Employer,
3 This unit is comprised of all the Employer 's plant department employees , approxi-
mately 6,000 in number, in the States of Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, New Mexico, Utah,
Wyoming, and El Paso County, Texas. As the Employer's operations in Montana are
excluded from this unit, it is not a true employerwide unit.
110 NLRB No. 176.
MOUNTAIN STATES TELEPHONE '&'TELEGRAPE COMPANY 1077
bargained for by the Intervenor since 1939 as part of an employer-
wide plant department unit.
There are approximately 100 steam plants throughout the Employ-
er's 7-State operations. The steam plant at the Denver operation is the
only high pressure plant among the. Employer's steam plants, and,
pursuant to a city ordinance, requires the services of licensed steam
engineers . All other steam plants appear to be automatically operated
low pressure plants, which are tended and maintained by the janitorial
help or building. and maintenance mechanics.
The steam engineers at the Denver operations are part of the house
service group which consists of 130 employees and includes buildinn
mechanics, janitors, janitresses, and elevator operators. The record
discloses that the steam engineers and building mechanics work out of
the same physical location, share the same immediate supervision, and
enjoy the same terms and conditions of employment. In a`d'dition to
their duties involved in the operation and maintenance of the heating
and ventilating equipment, the steam engineers are also responsible for
all of the Employer's electrical maintenance in the Denver area. For
the most part the electrical maintenance is assigned to 1 of the 5 engi-
neers who spends most of his time performing this work, but on oc-
casion is aided by 1 or more of the other engineers. This individual
also on occasion performs the same heating and ventilating functions
regularly performed by the other 4 engineers.
On these facts, and on the record before us, we are not satisfied that
the steam engineers here involved constitute a true craft or a func-
tionally distinct and separate grouping of the type to which the Board
under the American Potash decision grants severance from a more
comprehensive Unit .4 Accordingly, we shall dismiss the petition.
[The Board dismissed the petition.]
MEMBERS MURDOCK and RODGERS, dissenting :
We dissent from the majority's determination that the steam engi-
neers may not constitute a separate appropriate unit. The record
shows that the Employer's Denver plant is the only one in its multi-
state operations that has high pressure heating and air conditioning
equipment requiring the services of licensed steam engineers; that the
principal function of the steam engineers is to operate and maintain
this high pressure equipment; and that they are the only employees
so engaged. The Board's earlier decision 5 dismissing a similar peti-
tion is not, in our opinion, controlling because, according to the record,
*Ame,ican Potash & Chemical Corporation, 107 NLRB 1418 . In a prior case in which
the Petitioner sought to represent the same unit of steam engineers , the Board dismissed
the petition on the ground that the unit was inappropriate . Mountain States Telephone
and Telegraph Company, ( 30-RC-276) 90 NLRB No. 221. (Not reported in printed vol-
umes of Board Decisions and Orders.)
5 See footnote 4, supra.
1078 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
the engineers are now, except for some electrical maintenance work,
exclusively engaged in performing typical powerhouse duties. Thus,
unlike the situation at that time, their function and duties clearly
distinguish them from the other maintenance employees.
As the licensed steam engineers are the only employees in the. Den-
ver operatioli qualified to operate ;and maintain the high pressure
boilerroom equipment and because that is their principal function, we
believe that they constitute a functionally distinct group of power-
house or boilerroom employees of the type the Board has consistently
found may be separately represented.' Moreover, as the union seek-
ing to represent them has historically and traditionally represented
such units, we would direct a severance election among the engineers.
"See, for example, Natvar Corporation, 109 NLRB 1278; Pioneer Division, The Flint-
tote Company, 109 NLRB 1273; Consolidated Vuttee Aircraft Corporation, Pomona
Division, 108 NLRB 159.
PENNSYLVANIA ELECTRIC COMPANY and INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD
OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS , AFL, PETITIONER . Case No. 6-RC-1425.
November 30, 1954
Decision and Order
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National La-
bor Relations Act, a hearing was held before Harvard G. Borchardt,
hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are
free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the Act.
2. The labor organizations involved claim to represent certain em-
ployees of the Employer.
3. No question affecting commerce exists concerning the represen-
tation of employees of the Employer within the meaning of Section
9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act for the following
reasons:
The Petitioner seeks to represent a systemwide unit of production
and maintenance employees, including certain engineering depart-
ment employees, but excluding clerical employees. The Employer
agrees that this unit is substantially appropriate, but would define
the systemwide unit in terms of its operating departments and thus
would include all employees in its production, transmission, and dis-
tribution departments, but would exclude all employees in its general
offices, and those employees in the commercial and engineering de-
partments, whom the Petitioner would include. The Intervenor,
Utility Workers of America, and its Local Union No. 180, C. I. 0.,
110 NLIIB No. 180.