Radio Station WSB

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Sep 5, 1946

70 N.L.R.B. 1168 (N.L.R.B. 1946)

In the Matter Of ATLANTA JOURNAL COMPANY, D/B/A RADIO STATION
WSB, EMPLOYER and INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF ELECTRICAL
WORKERS, LOCAL UNION 1193, A. F. L., PETITIONER
Case No. 10-R-1835.-iDecided September 5, 1946
Mr. Ernest P. Rogers, of Atlanta, Ga., for the Employer.
Mr. Freeman Hurd, of Washington, D. C., for the Petitioner.
Mr. Robert J. Freehling, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed, hearing in this case was held at Atlanta,
Georgia, on June 14, 1946, before David Karasick, Trial Examiner.
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
1. THE BUSINESS OF THE EMPLOYER 1
The Employer is a Georgia corporation with its principal office and
place of business located at Atlanta, Georgia. It is engaged in operat-
ing a 50,000-watt radio station, with the call letters WSB, under
license from the Federal Communications Commission, and broadcasts
programs supplied by both the National Broadcasting Company and
local talent. Approximately 62 percent of its broadcasting time repre-
sents programs originating at points outside the State of Georgia.
The Employer's effective broadcasting area covers a radius of approxi-
mately 100 miles from its transmitter stations, reaching into the States
of Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Alabama.
The Employer admits and we find that it is engaged in commerce
within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act.
1 The name of the Employer appears in the caption as amended at the hearing.
70 N. L . R. B., No. 98.
1168
RADIO STATION WSB 1169"
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 employees of the Employer until the
Petitioner 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 Petitioner seeks a unit of all transmitter technicians regularly
employed at the Employer's main transmitter near Tucker, Georgia,
excluding supervisory employees. The Employer contests the appro-
priateness of the unit sought, claiming that the unit should include all
its nonsupervisory technicians, whether assigned to its main trans-.
mitter, studio control room, or developmental frequency modulation
transmitter, otherwise known as the F/M transmitter.
The Employer's broadcasting facilities consist of (1) a radio sta-
tion in Atlanta, with studios, a studio control room, and an F/M trans- _
mitter, situated in the Biltmore Hotel, and a mobile transmitter, which
is used for spot programs and has no fixed location; (2) a main trans-
mitter, located approximately 10 miles distant, near Tucker, Georgia;
and (3) an auxiliary, or emergency transmitter, located 5 or'6 miles.
distant, in East Lake, Georgia. To handle the operation and mainte-
nance of the control room and the various transmitters, the Employer
has 17 non-supervisory technicians, and of these, 7 are assigned to the
main transmitter or, in emergency, to the auxiliary transmitter, 8 are
employed in the control room where they appear to perform only con-
trol work, and 2 are engaged principally in experimental work on the
F/M transmitter; • either the control room or the F/M technicians are
called upon to operate the mobile transmitter.
The Employer has made Federal Communications Commission
licenses a requirement for all its technicians, although only the main
transmitter technicians are required by that Commission to be licensed.
It also pays all its technicians wherever assigned the same wage rates.,
and grants them the same vacations, based on length of service. Fur-
thermore, the Employer's broadcasting process requires the integrated
functioning of all its technicians, inasmuch as its programs must be
forwarded through the studio control room to the main or auxiliary -
transmitter, in order to be translated into broadcast waves.
1170 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
With respect to the interchange of technicians between the main
transmitter and either the studio control room or the F/M transmitter,
the record shows that, although such interchange has been limited to
occasions characterized by the Employer as emergent in nature, these
occasions in certain instances have been for periods of considerable
duration. For example, at. the time of the hearing, one of the tech-
nicians whom the Petitioner would include in the unit had been trans-
ferred from the main transmitter to the studio control room for an
indefinite period to fill a vacancy caused by sickness; and thereafter,
one of the F/M technicians who, until 6 months before the hearing, had
worked as a main transmitter technician, was temporarily reassigned.
to the main transmitter. The other F/M technician, who has served
the Employer at different times in the past as a studio control room
technician and as a main transmitter technician, spends a portion of
his time aiding in the repair of radio apparatus both in the control
room and at the main and auxiliary transmitters.
There has been no prior history of collective bargaining by the Em-
ployer'with respect to the employees in issue. However, testimony of
the Petitioner's representative as to the pattern of bargaining in the
industry concerning such employees reveals that, of the approximately
350 collective bargaining agreements in which its International repre-
sents technicians, at least 70 percent cover single units composed of
both main transmitter and studio control room technicians.2 In addi-
tion, it appears that, of the 4 standard raclio stations in Atlanta, 2
have existing collective bargaining agreements covering their techni-
cians, and in each of these the transmitter and studio control room
technicians are included in a single unit.
In view of the foregoing acid more particularly the integrated func-
tioning of all technicians of the Employer, their similar conditions of
employment, the extent of employee interchange, the Employer's re-'
quirement that all technicians possess similar skills as evidenced by
Federal Communications Commission licenses, and the industry-wide
and area tendency to adopt a single unit of all such technicians as ap-
propriate in existing collective bargaining agreements, and on the
basis of the entire record in the case, we are of the opinion that the main
transmitter technicians alone fail to constitute a separate and distinct
' The industry pattern would appear to be particularly applicable here, inasmuch as the
studio control room technicians perform only control work . In this connection , see Matter
of Inter-City Advertising Co., Inc., 61 N L R. B. 1377, at p. 1378, in which the Board
relied in pact in support of its prior unit finding on testimony by a representative of the
;ame International involved herein that " the Union customarily represents transmitter
technicians and studio technicians in separate units, except where the studio technicians
perform only control work."
RADIO STATION WSB 1171
group for collective bargaining purposes, but that a unit of all techni-
cians of the Employer is appropriate .3
Accordingly, we find that all technicians of the Employer assigned
to its main transmitter near Tucker, Georgia, and to its studio control
room and developmental frequency modulation transmitter in Atlanta,
Georgia, 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, constitute a unit
appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the mean-
ing of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the pur-
poses of collective bargaining with Atlanta Journal Company, d/b/a
Radio Station WSB, Atlanta, Georgia, 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 super-
vision of the Regional Director for the Tenth 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 unit found appropriate in Section IV, above, who were em-
ployed 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 Interna-
tional Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local Union 1193, A. F. L.,
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.
8 Cf. Matter of American Gear & Mfg. Co., 62 N. L. R. B. 201 ; Matter of Shell Oil Com-
pany, Incorporated, 66 N. L . R. B. 510; and Matter of Paulus Bros . Packing Co., 62
N. L. R. B. 1171.
712344-47-vol. 70-75