Pacific Gas and Electric Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Mar 11, 1944

55 N.L.R.B. 427 (N.L.R.B. 1944)

In the Matter Of PACIFIC GAS AND ELECTRIC COMPANY and INTER-
NATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS
Case No. 20-R-1009.Decided March 11, J944
Mr. Thomas J. Straub, Miss Anne McDonald, and Mr. J. Paul
St. Sure, of San Francisco, Calif., for the Company.
Mr. Charles W. Mason and Mr. James Kelly, of San Francisco,
Calif., for the I. B. E. W.
Mrs. Augusta Spaulding, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
STATEMENT OF TIIE CASE
Upon a petition duly filed by International Brotherhood of Elec-
trical Workers, herein called the I. B. E. W., alleging that a question
affecting commerce had arisen concerning the representation of
employees of Pacific Gas and Electric Company, San Francisco, Cali-
fornia, herein called the Company, the National Labor Relations Board
provided for an appropriate hearing upon due notice before John
Paul Jennings, Trial Examiner. Said hearing was held at San
Francisco, California, on January 31, 1944. The Company and the
I. B. E. W. appeared, participated, and were afforded full oppor-
tunity 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. All parties were afforded opportunity to file briefs
with the Board.
'During the course of the hearing, the Company and the I. B. E. W stipulated that
certain designated portions of the record in Cases Nos R-5566 and 5567 (20-R-864 and
20-R-865), prior consolidated representation proceedings involving employees of the
Company, should be incorporated into, and deemed and considered part of, the record in
the instant proceeding. In accordance with the stipulation, the certain portions of the
record in Cases Nos. R-5566 and 5567 (20-R-864 and 20-R-865) designated by the parties
are hereby made, and are, part of the record in the instant proceeding. Matter of Pacific
Gas and Electric Company, 51 N. L. It. B. 301.
55 N. L. It. B., No. 79.
427
428 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following:
FINDINGS OF FACT
I. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
Pacific Gas and Electric Company is engaged in the business of
generating, buying, transmitting, selling, and distributing electric
energy, of buying, transporting, selling, and distributing natural
gas, and of manufacturing, transporting, selling, and distributing
manufactured gas. All such gas and and electricity is used for light,
heat, and power purposes in central and northern California. As an
incident to its gas and electric business, the Company sells gas and
electric appliances at retail. It distributes and sells water in certain
small cities and towns in rural areas for domestic irrigation pur-
poses. It produces and sells steam in Oakland and San Francisco,
California, and it operates a streetcar and bus system in Sacramento,
California.
The Company owns and operates 50 hydroelectric generating plants
and 13 steam electric generating plants, all of which are situated in
the State. The Company owns and operates in the State a transmis-
sion pipe-line system, including a large gas compressor station, for the
transportation of natural gas in central and northern California. It
owns and operates l4 gas manufacturing plants, all of which are situ-
ated within the State.
A large number of manufacturing industries, including war indus-
tries, situated in the area served by the Company and engaged in
shipping and receiving commodities in interstate or foreign com-
merce, are wholly dependent on the Company for gas and, electric
power essential to the operation of their plants. The United States
Government purchases large quantities of electricity and gas from the
Company for the purpose, among others, of operating its numerous
post offices and military installations in California. The Company
supplies power to newspapers, to the Associated Press, to the San
Francisco and Oakland airports, to the Dow-Jones & Company ticker
service, to oil refineries, to shipbuilding and repair concerns, to steam-
ship lines, to navigation aides, and to interstate railways, telegraph
and telephone companies, and radio broadcasting stations.
II. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers is a labor organi-
zation affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, admitting to
membership employees of the Company.
PACIFIC GAS AND ELECTRIC COMPANY 429
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
On July 13, 1943, in the prior consolidated representation proceed-
ings cited in footnote 1 above, the Board found that all office and
clerical employees of the Company in the Coast Valleys Division, ex-
cluding officials, executive officers, chief clerks, all supervisory em-
ployees within our usual definition of that term, and all employees in
the outside forces, constituted an appropriate bargaining unit, and di-
rected that an election be held among them to determine whether or
not they desired to be represented by the I. B. E. W. for the purposes
of collective bargaining. Of 36 valid votes cast in the election, 18
were cast for and 18 against the I. B. E. W., and on August 26, 1943,
the Board dismissed the petition filed therein. Thereafter, the I. B.
E. W. asked the Company for recognition as exclusive bargaining
representative of these employees, and the Company refused recogni-
tion on the ground that the only unit of its employees appropriate for
collective bargaining was a system-wide unit coextensive with the
Company's public utility operations.
A statement prepared by the Field Examiner and introduced into
evidence at the hearing indicates that the I. B. E. W. represents a sub-
stantial number of employees in the unit herein found appropriate for
bargaining.2
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 National Labor Re-
lations Act.
IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT
The I. B. E. W. contends that office and clerical employees of the
Company in the Coast Valleys Division, excluding officials, executive
officers, supervisory employees within our usual definition of that term,
and all employees in the outside forces, constitute an appropriate bar-
gaining unit, and the Company takes the position that a system-wide
unit, coextensive with its public utility service, is the only appropriate
bargaining unit for its employees.
As noted in Section III, above, we found, in prior representation
proceedings involving the Company's employees, that the unit pres-
ently proposed by the I. B. E. W. was an appropriate bargaining
unit. So far as the record discloses, there has been no material change
in the Company's operations affecting its employees. We see no rea-
2The I. B. E. W . submitted 26 membership application cards. The cards do not provide
for application date , but provide instead for date of initiation Twenty of the 26 cards
are undated , due to the fact that the applicants have not yet been initiated . The peti-
tioner stated to the Field Examiner that the 20 undated cards were signed within the 6
weeks immediately preceding the filing of the petition in this proceeding and that the 6
initiated employees have continued their membership since August 12, 1943 , and were
members of the Union in good standing.
There are approximately 55 employees in the appropriate bargaining unit.
430 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
son to change our former finding with respect to the bargaining unit
appropriate for office and clerical employees in the Coast Valleys
Division.
We find that all office and clerical employees of the Company in
the Coast Valleys Division, excluding officials, executive officers, chief
clerks, all supervisory employees with authority to hire, promote, dis-
charge, discipline, or otherwise effect changes in the status of employ-
ees under them or effectively recommend such action, and all employ-
ees in the outside forces, constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes
of collective bargaining , within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the
Act.
V. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
We shall direct that the question concerning representation which
has arisen be resolved by an election by secret ballot among employees
of the Company in the unit found appropriate in Section IV, above,
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.
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 Relations
Act, and pursuant to Article III, Section 9, of National Labor Rela-
tions Board Rules and Regulations-Series 3, it is hereby
DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation to ascertain representa-
tives for the purposes of collective bargaining with Pacific Gas and
Electric Company, San Francisco, California, 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 Twentieth Region, act-
ing in this matter as agent for the National Labor Relations Board,
and subject to Article III, Sections 10 and 11, of said Rules and Regu-
lations, among the employees of the Company within 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 said pay-roll period because they
were ill or on vacation or temporarily laid off, and including employ-
ees in the armed forces of the United States who present themselves
in person at the polls, but excluding employees who have since quit
or been discharged for cause and have not been rehii ed or reinstated
prior to the date of the election, to determine whether or not they de-
sire to be represented by International Brotherhood of Electrical
Workers, for the purposes of collective bargaining.