Ohio Telephone Service Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Feb 7, 1947

72 N.L.R.B. 488 (N.L.R.B. 1947)

In the Matter of OHIo TELEPHONE SERVICE COMPANY, EMPLOYER and
UNITED ELECTRICAL, RADIO &, MACHINE WORKERS OF AMERICA, CIO
and INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS, AFL,
PETITIONER
Cases Nos. 8-R-.34.x., and 8-R-2348.-Decided Feb vary 7, 1947
Messrs. R. F. Lucier and H. D. Clingenpeel, of Warsaw, Ind., and
Mr. H. G. Kerlin, of Sidney, Ohio, for the Employer.
Mr. John Thomas, of Sidney, Ohio, and M1Ir. James Lockwood, of
Piqua, Ohio, for the UE.
Mr. Ira Braswell, of Winchester, Ky., and Cllr. F. E. Burkett, of
Plymouth, Ind., for the IBEW.
Mr. Jack J. Mantel, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon petitions duly filed, hearing in the above consolidated cases
was held at Sidney, Ohio, on September 26, 1946, before John W.
Irving, hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hear-
ing 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
Ohio Telephone Service Company is an Ohio corporation engaged
in providing telephone service throughout most of three counties in
the State of Ohio. The Employer is a subsidiary of United Telephone
& Telegraph Corporation which has its headquarters in Warsaw,
Indiana. The Employer handles toll calls between points in Ohio and
other States . The annual gross revenue of the Employer is in excess
of $500,000.
The Employer admits and we find that it is engaged in commerce
within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act.
72 N. L. R. B, No. 87.
488
OHIO TELEPHONE SERVICE COMPANY
II. THE ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED
489
United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America, herein
called the UE, is a labor organization affiliated with the Congress of
Industrial Organizations, claiming to represent employees of the
Employer.
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, herein called the
IBEW, 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 UE or the IBEW as the
'exclusive bargaining representative of employees of the Employer until
either organization 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 Employer, the UE, and the IBEW substantially agree as to the
-composition of a unit of employees in the plant and traffic departments
,of the Employer, including construction and maintenance employees,
and local and long distance operators, but excluding all clerical em-
ployees, all employees in the commercial and accounting departments,
.and all supervisory employees. The parties are in dispute, however,
concerning the geographical limitation of the unit. The UE would
confine the unit to employees in the Sidney, Ohio, district, whereas,
the Employer and the IBEW would include the employees in all three
of the districts in which the Employer operates. The parties are also
in dispute with respect to working foremen in the plant department
.and supervisors in the traffic department, whom the IBEW seeks to
include and the UE would exclude from the unit. The Employer
takes no position concerning the inclusion or exclusion of these
employees.
The Employer's operations are divided into three adjacent county-
wide districts within the State of Ohio, each district having its re-
spective headquarters at Sidney, Greenville, and Eaton, Ohio, Each
area is supervised by a district manager who is also responsible for the
operation of telephone exchanges within his district.2 In each dis-
1 The distance between the headquarters of each district is as follows : Sidney to Green-
Tille, 35 miles ; Greenville to Eaton, 22 miles ; and Sidney to Eaton, 60 miles.
2 The Employer also has agency -operated exchanges whose employees the parties agreed
to exclude from any bargaining unit
490 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
trict there are four departments which are known as plant , traffic,
commercial , and accounting.
The plant department constructs and maintains telephone facilities
and equipment . Some of the employees in this department work in
the field on telephone lines and others work at the exchanges or in the
home or place of business of subscribers . The field employees fre-
quently work in districts other than the one to which they are assigned,
whereas the remaining employees in this department are occasionally
assigned to other districts . Were it not for the housing problem, there
would be a more substantial rate of interchange among the latter em-
ployees. In charge of all three districts , there is a general plant super-
visor who works in close coordination with the district managers. A
crew of cable splicers work directly under the supervision of the general
plant supervisor , performing their duties in all three districts.
The traffic department is concerned with the actual handling of
telephone calls, most of the employees being operators . There is a
traveling chief operator who has supervision over all three districts.
Within each district, and at each exchange, there are chief operators,
assistant chief operators, and supervisors, although every exchange
may not have all three classifications of supervision. There is little
interchange among the employees in, this department. However,
all working conditions , such as hours, wages , and vacations , are iden-
tical in all three districts and exchanges of the same size.
All major policies of the Employer, including those dealing with
labor relations, emanate from a central source, thus providing a de-
gree of uniformity throughout the three districts. In view of the
highly integrated and interdependent character of the Employer's
operations , and, the fact that employee organization has extended to
all three districts, we are of the opinion that the employees in all three
districts constitute an appropriate unit for purposes of collective
bargaining.3
Working foremen: There are three or four of these employees who,
work in the plant department and supervise a crew of four men en-
gaged in outside line operations. The record indicates that the work-
ing foremen , who are sometimes referred to as line foremen , have au-
thority effectively to recommend the change in status of employees
under their supervision. We shall therefore exclude them from the
unit.
Supervisors in the -traffic department: During the absence of the
chief operator and assistant chief operator, which is only 4 hours out
of a 48-hour work week, these employees are in charge of a group of
telephone operators. Their authority is limited solely to solving oper-
ational problems . Despite their classification, it does not appear that
3 Matter of Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph Company, 55 AT L R. B 1058.
OHIO TELEPHONE SERVICE COMPANY 491
they possess supervisory authority within the Board's customary defi-
nition thereof. Accordingly, we shall include the supervisors in the
traffic department.
We find that all employees of the plant and traffic departments of
the Employer employed at Sidney, Greenville, and Eaton, Ohio, in-
cluding construction and maintenance employees, local and long dis-
tance operators, supervisors in the traffic department, but excluding
all working foremen in the plant department, all clerical employees,
all employees in the commercial and accounting departments, and all
other supervisory employees with authority to hire, promote, dis-
,charge, discipline, or otherwise effect changes in the status of employ-
ees, or effectively recommend such action, constitute a unit appropri-
ate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of
Section 9 (b) of the Act.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the
purposes of collective bargaining with Ohio Telephone Service Com-
pany, Warsaw, Indiana, 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
Director for the Eighth Region, acting in this matter as agent for the
National Labor Relations Board, and subject to Sections 203.55 and
203.56, of National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations--
Series 4, among the employees in the unit found appropriate in Sec-
tion IV, above, who were employed during the pay-roll period im-
mediately 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 they desire to
be represented by International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers,
AFL, or by United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America,
CIO, for the purposes of collective bargaining, or by neither.'
6 At the time of the hearing, the UE was undecided whether or not it desired to appear
on the ballot if an election were directed in a multiple-district unit, as found herein Con-
sequently, we shall place the UE on the ballot with the privilege of withdrawing from the
election upon notification to the Regional Director in writing within five (5) days from
the date of this Direction of Election.