Rockland Light and Power Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jun 4, 1953

105 N.L.R.B. 365 (N.L.R.B. 1953)

ROCKLAND LIGHT AND POWER COMPANY 365
minimize industrial disputes.23 Accordingly, in view of the
foregoing, we find that the employees handling and placing
lights on regular "staged" remote broadcasts at KNBH are at
present covered by the contract between NBC and NABET.24
DETERMINATION OF DISPUTE
On the basis of the foregoing findings of fact and upon the
entire record in this case, the Board makes the following de-
termination of dispute pursuant to Section 10 (k) of the amended
Act:
1. The handling and placing of lights on regular "staged"
remote broadcasts at NBC-KNBH, Los Angeles, California, is
at present covered by the agreement in existence between NBC
and National Association of Broadcast Engineers and Techni-
cians, C.I.O., and not by the agreement between NBC and
International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and
Moving Picture Machine Operators of the United States and
Canada, A. F. of L., Local 33.
2. Within ten (10) days from the date of this Decision and
Determination of Dispute, National Broadcasting Company,
Inc., National Association of Broadcast Engineers and Techni-
cians, C.I.O., Hollywood Chapter, and International Alliance of
Theatrical Stage Employees and Moving Picture Machine
Operators of the United States and Canada, A. F. of L., Local
33, shall each notify the Regional Director for the Twenty-first
Region, in writing, of the steps it has taken to comply with the
terms of this Decision and Determination of Dispute.
23It is a well-recognized rule of statutory interpretation that a literal construction which
would lead to absurd or incongruous results should be avoided, even where the literal purport
of the words used is clear.
E4As we view the issue presented in this proceeding one of paramount contractual right to
the work in question, the arguments in the briefs of NBC and IATSE directed to representa-
tion criteria are deemed inapplicable. Accordingly, we need not now decide whether the NBC
lighting case would be controlling were the issue one of appropriate unit. Cf. National Associa-
tion of Broadcast Engineers and Technicians, CIO (National Broadcasting Company, Inc.),
103 NLRB 479; Radio and Television Broadcast Engineers Union. Local 1212, International
Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, A. F. L. (Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc.), 103
NLRB 1256. Further, we note that the NBC lighting case did not involve unit findings with
respect to KNBH.
ROCKLAND LIGHT AND POWER COMPANY and INTER-
NATIONAL CHEMICAL WORKERS UNION, AFL, LOCAL 143,
Petitioner
ROCKLAND LIGHT AND POWER COMPANY and INTER-
NATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS,
AFL, Petitioner. Cases Nos . 2-RC-5531 and 2-RC-5564.
June 4, 1953
DECISION, ORDER, AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon separate petitions duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the
National Labor Relations Act, a consolidated hearing was held
105 NLRB No. 53.
366 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
before Milton Pravitz, hearing officer.' The hearing officer's
rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error
and are hereby affirmed.
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3 (b) of the Act, the
Board has delegated its powers in connection with these cases
to a three-member panel [Members Murdock, Styles, and
Peterson] .
Upon the entire record in these cases, the Board finds:
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the mean-
ing of the Act.
2. The labor organizations involved claim to represent
certain employees of the Employer.2
3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the
representation of certain employees of the Employer within
the meaning of Section 9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the
Act. 3
4. The Employer, in its own name and in the name of its 2
subsidiaries,4 has been engaged for many years in the distri-
bution of gas and electricity in the States of New York, New
Jersey, and Pennsylvania as 1 homogeneous operation. It
divides its operations into 2 divisions called its Eastern and
Western Divisions.5
The Employer and the Electrical Workers agree that a sys-
temwide unit, including both gas and electrical employees in
both the Eastern and Western Divisions, is the only appropriate
unit for the Employer's employees at this time. Although the
position of Local 143 of the Chemical Workers on the unit issue
is not entirely clear, it appears that the Chemical Workers
seeks (1) a unit of gas employees composed of employees for-
merly employed by Rockland Gas Company, Inc., and employees
of the Employer at Nyack, New York, heretofore not repre-
sented by any labor organization; or (2) a unit of gas employees
in the Employer's Eastern Division; or (3) a unit of gas em-
ployees in both the Eastern and Western Divisions of the Em-
ployer's operations. Local 143 would exclude from any unit
i At the hearing , the petition in Case No . 2-RC-5531 and other formal papers were amended
to show the correct name of the Petitioner
2 We find without merit the Employer's contention that Local 143 of International Chemical
Workers Union , AFL, hereinafter called the Chemical Workers, may not represent the em-
ployees involved herein, on the ground that Local 143 and the Chemical Workers were not
organized to represent, and have not represented, public utility employees. Willingness of a
labor organization to represent the employees in question and their designation of such labor
organization are the controlling considerations under the Act . Oklahoma Gas and Electric
Company, 86 NLRB 437.
'The Employer and Locals 1566 and 1567 of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers,
AFL, hereinafter called the Electrical Workers, entered into a contract, covering employees
involved herein, effective until June 1, 1953, and from year to year thereafter in the absence
of a 60-day notice before any expiration date The petitions herein were filed before the auto-
matic renewal date of the contract. Contrary to the Employer's contention, the contract is
therefore no bar to an immediate election Bond Brothers, Incorporated, 86 NLRB 514.
4The Rockland Electric Co of New Jersey, and The Pike County Light and Power Co. of
Pennsylvania.
5 The Eastern Division includes approximately Rockland County, New York, and Bergen
County, New Jersey; the Western Division, Orange and Sullivan Counties, New York, Pike
County. Pennsylvania , and part of Sussex County , New Jersey
ROCKLAND LIGHT AND POWER COMPANY 367
found appropriate by the Board, employees at the Employer's
Tomkins Cove, New York, generating plant, on the ground that
they voted as such employees in a Board election held within
the preceding 12-month period.
On September 11, 1952, the Board issued its Decision and
Direction of Election in Case No. 2-RC-4508 (not published in
printed volumes of Board Decisions), finding that gas employees
of Rockland Gas Company, Inc., hereinafter called Rockland Gas,
constituted an appropriate bargaining unit at that time. The Board
found no merit in the contention of Rockland Gas that, because of
the impending transfer of its assets to the Employer under a
contract of sale, the only appropriate unit for its employees was
one which also included employees of the Employer. The Board
stated, however, that its establishment at that time of a separate
unit for employees of Rockland Gas did not preclude the estab-
lishment of a more comprehensive unit at some future date,
should such a larger unit subsequently become appropriate. At
the directed election, held on October 10, 1952, employees of
Rockland Gas chose the Chemical Workers as their exclusive
bargaining representative.
About December 31, 1952, the Employer took over the assets
of Rockland Gas and transferred supervisors and employees
of Rockland Gas, totaling about 85 in number, to the Employer's
payrolls. The transferred employees were rated according to
the Employer's classification system. The former president
of Rockland Gas became a vice president of the Employer. He
was placed in immediate charge of gas operations, breaking
into the electric operation gradually, particularly in connection
with plans for future real-estate purchases. Before December
31, 1952., the Employer had set up a combination gas and
electric operating manager. Thereafter, it appointed gas oper-
ating and gas sales managers. These appear to be the only
changes in the top level of the Employer's organization result-
ing from its purchase of Rockland Gas.
At the time of the instant hearing, held on February 25 and
March 3, 1953, the Employer had in all an undisclosed number
of supervisors and approximately 285 operating employees.Its
executive officers were located at Nyack, New York. A staff of
approximately 13 persons had its headquarters at Nyack and
at Spring Valley and Middletown, New York. These included, at
Nyack, the personnel director, the real-estate executive as-
sistant, the transportation superintendent, the chief accounting
officer, the general sales manager, the electric sales manager,
the gas sales manager, and the commercial manager for the
Eastern Division; at Spring Valley, the gas operating manager;
and at Middletown, the electric operating manager, the chief
engineer, and the commercial manager for the Western Divi-
sion. The Employer also had an electric superintendent in
charge of the construction and maintenance of electric lines
in each Division. Employees included, among others, appliance
servicemen (electric), appliance servicemen (gas), mainte-
nance men (gas), gasfitters, meter readers, electricians, line-
men, tree trimmers, line patrolmen, troublemen, service
operators, automobile repairmen, garage floormen, and
368 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
laborers. Changes among these employees were going on
almost daily. For example, about March 2, 1953, approxi-
mately 4 meter readers, formerly employed by Rockland Gas,
who had previously read only gas meters , started to read both
gas and electric meters, as do the Employer's approximately
15 other meter readers.
The Employer sells both gas and electrical appliances at
the same stores. Electric and gas appliance servicemen work
under the supervision of the electric sales and the gas sales
managers, respectively, and under the overall supervision of
the Employer 's general sales manager . The Employer renders
combination bills for both gas and electric services . The Em-
ployer distributes one periodical, "Watts 'n Therms," to all
its employees. Contributions thereto are solicited among
employees throughout its system.
These facts, and the record as a whole, disclose, in our
opinion, that the Employer carries on its extended business as
a highly integrated and interdependent system.
In earlier decisions involving the Employer, the Board found
that separate units of electrical employees and of employees
in the Employer's Eastern and Western Divisions, respectively,
were appropriate for bargaining purposes.6 These findings were
based either on the agreements of the parties concerned or on
the extent of organization of the employees involved. Section 9
(c) (5) of the amended Act now forbids the Board to regard this
latter factor as controlling.
Organization of the Employer's employees has now reached
virtually systemwide proportions. Since about 1947, the Em-
ployer and the Electrical Workers and its Locals 1566 and
1567 have bargained for gas and electrical employees of the
Employer in both the Eastern and Western Divisions as a
substantially systemwide unit. The Board has frequently held
that systemwide units are normally the most appropriate
bargaining units for employees of public utilities, even in the
face of past bargaining on a narrower basis.7 This is particu-
larly true where, as here, the Employer's operations are highly
integrated and interdependent in character and a labor organi-
zation is prepared to represent employees on a systemwide
basis •8 The former employees of Rockland Gas do not comprise
any major identifiable administrative segment of their present
Employer's operations. There has been no separate past bar-
gaining history for employees in any of the units proposed by
Local 143 of the Chemical Workers. Accordingly, as no sound
reason presently exists for departing from the Board's es-
tablished policy in the public utility industry, we find that a
systemwide unit of the Employer's employees, including both
gas and electrical employees in both the Eastern and Western
Divisions, is appropriate for bargaining purposes at this time.
We shall accordingly dismiss the Chemical Workers' petition
for the smaller units.
6Rockland Light and Power Company, 35 NLRB 542; 49 NLRB 1398; 53 NLRB 798; 72 NLRB
1117.
7See, e.g., Pacific Gas and Electric Company, 87 NLRB 257
8 Elizabethtown Consolidated Gas Company, 93 NLRB 1270.
PEERLESS PUMP DIVISION 369
In the systemwide unit herein found appropriate , we shall
include gas employees at Nyack, New York, previously not
represented by any labor organization , deeming them anatural
accretion to the Employer ' s services . Employees at the Em-
ployer's Tomkins Cove plant , however, voted in a consent
election held in Case No. 2-RC-4763 on June 30 , 1952, and
chose the Electrical Workers as their exclusive collective-
bargaining representative . In accordance with Section 9 (c) (3)
of the amended Act, 9 we shall exclude these employees from
the instant unit and not permit them to vote in the election
directed herein. If , however, the Electrical Workers wins the
election among other employees of the Employer , the Electri-
cal Workers may bargain with the Employer for Tomkins
Cove employees as a part of a systemwide unit.
Upon the entire record in these cases , we find that the
following employees of the Employer constitute a unit appro-
priate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the
meaning of Section 9 ( b) of the Act : All gas and electrical
employees in the Eastern and Western Divisions in the States
of New York , New Jersey , and Pennsylvania, including meter
readers and employees at Nyack, New York, but excluding
employees at the Tomkins Cove, New York , plant, office
clerical employees , salesmen, guards , and executives, fore-
men, and other supervisors as defined in the Act.
[The Board dismissed the petition filed by International
Chemical Workers Union , AFL, Local 143, in Case No. 2-RC-
5531.1
[Test of Direction of Election omitted from publication.]
9This section provides , in part: "No election shallbe directed in any bargaining unit or any
subdivision within which , in the preceding twelve -month period , a valid election shall have been
held."
PEERLESS PUMP DIVISION OF THE FOOD MACHINERY
AND CHEMICAL CORPORATION' and UNITED STEEL-
WORKERS OF AMERICA, CIO , Petitioner . Case No. 21-RC-
2988. June 4, 1953
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National
Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before Arthur Hailey,
hearing officer . The hearing officer's rulings made at the
hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby af-
firmed.
I The Employer' s name appears as amended at the hearing.
105 NLRB No. 38.