Pacific Gas and Electric Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Nov 11, 1942

45 N.L.R.B. 536 (N.L.R.B. 1942)

In the Matter of PACIFIC GAS AND ELECTRIC COMPANY and INTERNA-
TIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS
In the Matter Of PACIFIC GAS AND ELECTRIC COMPANY and INTERNA-
TIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS
In the Matter Of PACIFIC GAS AND ELECTRIC COMPANY and INTERNA-
TIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS
In the Matter of PACIFIC GAS AND ELECTRIC COMPANY and INTERNA-
TIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS
In the Matter Of PACIFIC GAS & ELECTRIC COMPANY and UTILITY
WORKERS ORGANIZING COMMITTEE (CIO)
In the Matter of PACIFIC GAS & ELECTRIC COMPANY and UTILITY
WORKERS ORGANIZING COMMITTEE (CIO)
In the Matter Of PACIFIC GAS & ELECTRIC COMPANY and UTILITY
WORKERS ORGANIZING COMMITTEE (CIO)
Cases Nos. R-4405 thru R-4-01, respectively.--Decided November
11, 1942
Jurisdiction : electric and gas utility industry.
Investigation and Certification of Representatives : existence of question : re-
fusal to grant recognition to any union until certified by the Board; elections
necessai y.
Units Appropriate for Collective Bargaining : separate units comprising outside
employees in 7 of Company's 13 geographical divisions with specified inclusions
and exclusions.
Mr. T. J. Straub, Mr. J. Paul St. Sure, and Miss Anne McDonald,
of San Francisco, Calif., for the Company.
Mr. Charles J. Janigian and Mr. George A. Mulkey, of San Fran-
cisco, Calif., for the I. B. E. W.
Gladstein, Grossman, Margolis & Sawyer, by Mr. BertramEdises,
of San Francisco, Calif., for the U. W. O. C.
Mrs., Augusta Spaulding, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon petitions duly filed by International Brotherhood of Elec-
trical Workers, herein called the I. B. E. W., and by Utility Workers
45N.L R.B,No 78 -
536
PACIFIC GAS AND ELECTRIC COMPANY 537'
Organizing Committee (CIO), herein called the U. W. O. C., each
alleging that a question affecting commerce had arisen concel;ning
the representation of employees of Pacific Gas and Electric Company,
San Francisco, California, herein called the Company, the National
Labor Relations Board provided for an' appropriate hearing, upon
due notice, before Richard A. Perkins, Trial Examiner. Said hearing
was held at San Francisco, California, on October 12, 1942. The
Company, the I. B. E. W., and the U. W. O. C. appeared, participated,
and were afforded full opportunity 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 preju-
dicial error and are hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following :
FINDINGS OF FACT
1. 1 HE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
Pacific Gas and Electric Company is a public utility corporation,
which has its principal office and place of business at San Francisco,
California. It is engaged principally in the business of generating,
buying, transmitting, selling, and distributing electrical energy; of
buying, transporting, selling, and distributing natural gas; and of
manufacturing, transporting, selling, and distributing manufactured
gas. All such gas and electricity is used for light, heat, and power
purposes in central and northern California. The Company owns and
operates 49 hydroelectric generating plants and 12 steam electric gen-
crating plants in the State. As an incident to its gas and electric busi-
ness, the Company sells gas and electric appliances at retail. In cer-
tain small cities and towns in rural areas it distributes and sells water
for domestic and irrigation purposes. It purchases and sells steam
to customers in San Francisco and Oakland, California, and it oper-
ates a streetcar and bus system at Sacramento, California., '
Lighthouses and aids to navigation along the coast of central and
northern California are operated by electricity furnished by the Com-
pany. Railroads, telegraph and telephone systems, and radio broad-
casting stations in the same area are dependent upon the Company
for the electric power indispensable to their respective operations. In
1936 the Company purchased raw materials, consisting principally of
steel, pipe, transformers, cables, switches, wire, gas and electric ap-
pliances, poles, insulators, fittings, and other similar materials, valued
at nearly $2,000,000, all of which were manufactured or originated
outside California. Since that time the business of the Company and
1 Employees of the Sacramento streetcar and bus system have bargained with the Com-
pany collectively as a unit since 1938.
538 DECISIONS OF' NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
its operations have increased in extent and volume . In 1939' the
Company acquired the physical properties and operations' of San
Joaquin Light and Power Company, which it is now merging into its
already extensive utility system.2
II. THE ORGANIZATIONS 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.
Utility Workers Organizing Committee is a labor organization
affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations, admitting to
membership employees of the Company.
III. THE QUESTIONS CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
Before the I. B. E. W. and the U. W. O. C. filed their several re-
spective petitions in this consolidated proceeding, their representatives
conferred with the Company. The Company took the position that
the only unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining
was a system-wide unit coextensive with the Company's utility opera-
tions and that the Company would not recognize any bargaining rep-
resentative for employees within any other unit.
A statement prepared by an attorney in the Board's Regional Office
and other evidence introdliced at the hearing indicate that the I. B.
E. W. represents a substantial number of employees in its several pro-
posed units and that the U. W. O. C. represents a substantial number
of employees in its several proposed units.s
We find that questions affecting commerce have 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
Relations Act.
' At the hearing the parties stipulated that the entire record in Case No R-274 and the
entire record in Cases Nos. R-4087 to R-4092. inclusive , former representation proceedings
involving employees of the Company , should be made pact of the record in the instant con-
solidated proceeding and that the Board should resort to any part of the records for its
findings with respect to the issues herein. The entire record in Case No . R-274 and the
entire record in Cases Nos R-4087 to R-4092, inclusive , including the pleadings , the evi-
dence taken , the testimony heard, the exhibits submitted , and the several orders entered
thereon, are hereby made part of the record in the instant consolidated proceeding. See
Matter of Pacific Gas and rlectrie Company and United Electrical d Radio Workers of
America, 3 N L R. B 835; 4 N L R B 180 ; Matter of Pacific Gas and Electric Company
and United Electrical and, Radio Workers of America ; Matter of Pacific Gas and Electric
Company and United Electrical, Radio and Mae Line 1 17oi keis of America , 13 N L. R B. 268 ;
Matter of Pacific Gas and Electric Company and Utility Workers Organdzinp Committee,
0. I 0., 40 N L. R B 591 ; 41 N. L R B. 1182; Matter of Pacific Gas and Electric Coin-
pany and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers , et al , 44 N L. R B 665
3The I B. E . W. and the U. W. 0. C submitted certified copies of their official L member-
ship rosters as of September 8, 1942. The Company submitted its pay roll of September
1, 1942. The evidence indicates the disttibution of union representation among the Com-
pany's employees in the proposed divisional units as follows :
[Footnote 3 continued on next page]
PACIFIC GAS 'AND ELECTRIC COMPANY
IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNITS
539
Subject to the right of each party to urge upon the Board the appro-
priateness of a system-wide bargaining unit of the Company's employ-
ees now or at any future time, the parties agree that a bargaining unit
or units appropriate for employees in the San Francisco, Stockton,
DeSabla, Colgate, Coast Valleys, North Bay, and San Jose Divisions
of the Company should include all employees in the outside forces of
the Company, in each respective division, including outside field em-
ployees and field clerks, workers employed in the generating stations,
sub-stations, gas plants, steam plants, and other shops and plants,
clerks in generating stations, meter readers, combination meter readers
and collectors, collectors, salesmen, estimators, mappers, inspectors,
watchmen, building service employees; subforemen and other working
foremen who work along with their crews and who do not have the
power to hire or to discharge employees under their supervision, but
excluding other foremen, officials, executive officers, comptometer op-
erators; and clerical and office employees.4
In the two prior representation proceedings concerning employees
of the Company cited in footnote 2, above, the Board considered
the wide extent of the Company's public utility operations and the
functional relation of the 13 adininistrative geographical divisions of
such operations to its whole utility system. In case No. R-274 the
Board found that employees in the East Bay Division constituted an
appropriate bargaining unit apart from employees in other geographi-
cal divisions and operating departments of the Company's opera-
Footnote 3 continued
Proposed sectional unit I B. E ur
showing
U W 0 C
showing
Totil number
of employees
listed on
do isional
pay roll of
Sept . 1, 1942
Total number
of employees
estimated by
the company
to be within
the proposed
unit as of
June 1942
Stockton 229 (') I 607 590
DeSabla 96 (`) 259 301
Colgate --------------------------------------- 95 (') 210 202
Coast Valleys ------------------------------- 89 (') 165 155
San Francisco -------------------------------- 237 467 1,177 1,155
No7th Bay----------------------------------- 46 108 353 384
San Jose 35 199 425 417
The U W 0 C submitted no evidence with respect to the extent of its membership among em-
ployees in these divisions The I B F W and the U. IV 0 C agree that each orgam7a-
tion represents asuflicient number of employees in each of the proposed units to entitle it to participate
in any electiomwhich the Board may direct among such employees
4 The categories of employees which the parties agree should be included in a unit or
units appropriate for employees in the named geographical divisions include employees in
categories which the Board has included in the geographical units hitherto found appropri-
ate separate bargaining units.
540 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
tions. In Cases Nos. R-4087 to R-4092, inclusive, the Board found
that employees in the Company's Sacramento, Shasta, Humboldt,
and Drum Divisions and employees in certain other operating de-
partments of the Company's operations constituted separate bargain-
ing units. Employees in the Stockton, DeSabla, Colgate, Coast Val-
leys, North Bay, San Francisco, and San Jose Divisions, respectively,
bear substantially the same relation to the Company's entire utility
system as do the employees in the several other geographical divi-
sions of its operations previously considered by the.Board.
The U. W. 0. C., however, would include in the bargaining unit
for employees in the Company's San Francisco Division, janitors,
elevator operators, and watchmen employed at the Company's "gen-
eral office" at 245 Market Street, San Francisco, California. The
I. B. E. W. contends that these employees should not be included in
the same bargaining unit with employees of the San Francisco Divi-
sion. The Company takes no position with respect to this issue.
The Company maintains its headquarters or general office in a 17-
story building at 245 Market Street, San Francisco, California. This
building houses the Company's executive offices, its system-wide su-
pervisory staff, its legal division, its accounting division, and its
clerical employees. The physical care of the building and the jani-
tors, elevator operators, and watchmen employed therein are under
the supervision of the building superintendent of the. general office'
and lie outside the administrative control of the manager of the San
Francisco Division. These employees are listed on the general office
pay roll and their work is entirely confined to the general office
building. Divisional and general office employees are not inter-
changed. Permanent transfers of all categories of employees from
one geographical division to another or from a geographical division
to 'a department of the general office are effected only through the
personnel department in the general office.
In the previous representation proceedings noted above, the Board
found that the geographical divisions of the Company's utility system
had sufficient cohesion and autonomy to function successfully for
independent bargaining units for employees working therein. Since
employees of the Company's general office at 245 Market Street do
not constitute an administrative part of the San Francisco Division ,
of the Company's operations, even though they work regularly within
the confines of the city of San Francisco, we find that they should
be excluded from a bargaining unit otherwise confined to employees
in a separate administrative division of the Company's operations.
We find that all employees in the outside forces of the Company in
its San Francisco, Stockton, DeSabla, Colgate, Coast Valleys, North
1Bay, and San Jose Divisions, respectively, including outside field enl-
PACIFIC GAS AND ELECTRIC COMPANY 541
ployees and field clerks , workers employed in the generating stations,
substations , gas plants , steam plants , and other shops and plants,
clerks ih generating stations , meter readers , combination meter
readers and collectors , collectors , salesmen, estimators , mappers, in=
spectors , watchmen, building, service employees , and subforemen and
other' working foremen who work along with their crews and who
do not have the power to hire or to discharge employees under their
supervision , but excluding other foremen , officials, executive officers,
comptometer operators , and clerical and office employees , constitute
separate units appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining,
within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
V. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
We find that the questions concerning representation which have
arisen can best be resolved by separate elections by secret ballot.
Although the U. W. O. C . did not disclose the extent of its in-
terest among employees in the Stockton , DeSabla, Colgate, and
Coast Valleys Divisions , the I . B. E. W . concedes that the U. W. O. C.
has sufficient membership among such employees to entitle the
U. W. O. C. to participate in the elections . The I. B. E. W. has
disclosed that it has some representation among employees in all the
units herein found appropriate . We shall , therefore, provide that
both the I. B. E. W . and .the U. W. O. C. participate in the several
elections which we shall direct. ,
Those eligible to vote in the several elections shall be all employees
in each respective bargaining unit found appropriate in Section IV,
above, who were employed during the pay-roll period immediately
preceding the date of the Direction of Elections, subject to the limi-
tations and additions set forth therein.
DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
By virtue of and pursuant to the power vested in the National
Labor Relations' Board by Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Re-
lations Act, and pursuant to Article III, Section 9, of National Labor
Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 2, as amended, it
is hereby
DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation to ascertain represent-
atives for the purposes of collective bargaining with Pacific Gas
and Electric Company, San Francisco , California, separate elections
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, acting in this matter as agent for the National Labor Re-
542 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
lations Board and subject to Article III, Section 10, of said Rules
and Regulations, among all employees of the Company within each
respective 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
such pay-roll period because they were ill or on vacation or in the
active military service or training of the United States, or tempo-
rarily laid off, but excluding employees who have since quit or been
discharged for cause, to determine whether they desire to be repre-
sented by International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, affiliated
with the American Federation of Labor, or by Utility Workers
Organizing Committee, affiliated with the Congress of Industrial
Organizations, for the purposes of collective bargaining, or by neither.
MR. GERARD D. REILLY took no part in the consideration of the
above Decision and Direction of Elections.