St. Vincent Hospital and Medical Center of Toledo, Ohio

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Mar 27, 1979

241 N.L.R.B. 492 (N.L.R.B. 1979)

DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
St. Vincent Hospital and Medical Center of Toledo,
Ohio and Ohio State Association of the United As-
sociation of Journeymen and Apprentices of the
Plumbing and Pipefitting Industry of U.S. & Can-
ada, AFL-CIO, Petitioner. Case 8 RC- 11132
March 27, 1979
DECISION ON REVIEW
BY CHAIRMAN FANNING AND MEMBERS MURPHY
AND) TRUESDALE
On December 8, 1977, the Regional Director for
Region 8 issued a Decision and Direction of Election
in the above-entitled proceeding, in which he found
appropriate the Petitioner's alternate request for a
unit of stationary engineers at the Employer's hospi-
tal. Thereafter, in accordance with Section 102.67 of
the National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regu-
lations, Series 8, as amended, the Employer and the
Petitioner filed timely requests for review of the Re-
gional Director's decision. The Petitioner contended
that the Regional Director erroneously rejected its
primary request for a comprehensive maintenance
unit. The Employer also contended that the Regional
Director's finding was erroneous, and asserted in its
brief in opposition to the Petitioner's request for re-
view that only a broad maintenance and service unit
is appropriate.
On February 14, 1978, the National Labor Rela-
tions Board by telegraphic order granted the Petition-
er's request for review, denied the Employer's request
for review, and stayed the election pending a decision
on review. Thereafter the Employer filed a brief on
review.
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the
National Labor Relations Act, as amended, the Na-
tional Labor Relations Board has delegated its au-
thority in this proceeding to a three-member panel.
The Board has considered the entire record in this
case with respect to the issue under review, including
the Employer's brief on review, and makes the follow-
ing findings:
The Employer operates a nonprofit hospital and
medical center in Toledo, Ohio. The hospital is di-
vided into 86 separately budgeted departments. The
maintenance unit sought by the Petitioner consists of
5 stationary engineers in the plant operations depart-
ment and 32 employees in the maintenance and
grounds department which is divided into four shops:
mechanical shop with 12 maintenance mechanics:
carpentry and paint shop with 8 maintenance carpen-
ters and maintenance painters; electrical shop with 5
maintenance electricians; and electronic shop with 3
electronic technicians. In addition, there are three
maintenance helpers who are assigned to various
shops on a rotation basis and there is also one supple-
mental employee.
In Allegheny General Hospital, 239 NLRB 872
(1978), we set forth in considerable detail our reasons
for concluding that hospital maintenance employees
may constitute an appropriate bargaining unit under
the health care amendments to the Act. A majority of
the Board also indicated that the standard for deter-
mining the appropriateness of such a unit is the tradi-
tional community of interest test of American Cyana-
mid Company. See AlleghenY General Hospital, supra.
In our opinion, the application of this standard to the
record in this case warrants the establishment of a
separate bargaining unit composed of the Employer's
maintenance employees.
The Employer's service employees and mainte-
nance employees share numerous basic working con-
ditions and benefits. They are hired, evaluated, and
terminated according to standardized procedures ad-
ministered by the personnel department. They are
subject to identical disciplinary and grievance proce-
dures and the same policies with respect to wage scale
and steps, fringe benefits, and certain other working
conditions. However, maintenance employees share
certain working conditions which distinguish them
from service employees.
The maintenance employees are separately head-
quartered with their own locker facilities in the pow-
erhouse building. The five stationary engineers in the
plant operations department are restricted to the
building because state law limits both the time and
distance they may be away from the powerhouse
while on duty. The maintenance and grounds em-
ployees spend most of their time throughout the facil-
ity, as discussed below, but regularly report to their
respective shops in the powerhouse building.
Supervision of maintenance employees is separate
from the supervision of service employees. The main-
tenance and grounds department employees are su-
pervised by a section leader in each of the four shops.
These section leaders report to the chief engineer who
directly supervises the engineers in the plant opera-
tions department.
The five stationary engineers have licenses, a state
law requirement. They tend sophisticated boiler
equipment and are responsible for insuring the effec-
tiveness and safety of the facility's heating and cool-
ing systems. Although employees in the maintenance
and grounds department are neither licensed crafts-
men nor journeymen, they perform tasks which re-
quire considerable skills. Maintenance mechanics
weld, sweat, and thread pipes. They also maintain the
1131 NLRB 909 (1961).
241 NLRB No. 90
492
ST. VINCENT HOSPITAL AND MEDICAL CENTER OF TOLEDO. OHIO
conveyor system which carries laundry and trash.
Maintenance carpenters construct shelves, doors, and
crates. They also refinish furniture. Maintenance
painters paint walls and furniture and spray paint in
a booth in their shop. Maintenance electricians repair
small implements such as coffee pots, toasters, and
lamps. Electronic technicians repair radios, television
sets, phonographs, timeclocks, and the nurse call and
doctor register systems.
The wage bracket of maintenance employees in
both the plant operations department and mainte-
nance and grounds department reflects their skills.
Approximately 22 of the 37 maintenance employees
were hired at a pay scale reflecting their prior experi-
ence and skills in maintenance work. Currently ap-
proximately 33 of the 37 are being paid at the top of
the wage scale for maintenance I, the higher of the
two hourly classifications for maintenance employees.
By comparison relatively few of the service employees
are paid at the top of their wage scale.
While the Employer does contract out major main-
tenance projects, maintenance and grounds depart-
ment employees are responsible for the considerable
preventive maintenance, renovation and repair work
remaining. They spend approximately 50 to 98 per-
cent of their time exercising the skills of their trade
throughout the Employer's facility. This results in fre-
quent daily contacts with service employees. Such
contacts do not, however, constitute integration of the
Employer's service and maintenance operations but
result from the work order system in use at the Em-
ployer's facility. The maintenance employees primar-
ily work alone or with the assistance of fellow mainte-
nance employees. Sometime they work alongside
service employees, each performing his respective du-
ties, as, for example, in preparing a room for the next
incoming patient. When service employees and main-
tenance employees assist each other, only the least
skilled maintenance jobs are involved; i.e., unclog-
ging sewer lines, unpacking or boxing equipment in
the warehouse, and shovelling snow in an emergency.
There has been minimal employee interchange be-
tween the maintenance and service functions. A uni-
form transfer policy applies to all employees, but ser-
vice employees with no maintenance experience may
not transfer into the maintenance and grounds de-
partment. Since about 1965 there have been approxi-
mately seven transfers from other departments into
the maintenance and grounds department. There
were approximately two transfers from the plant op-
erations department into the maintenance and
grounds department.
Under the circumstances detailed above, we find
that maintenance employees in the Employer's plant
operations department and maintenance and grounds
department constitute, in accordance with Petition-
er's primary unit request, an appropriate bargaining
unit. These employees share a community of interest
sufficiently distinct from the broader community of
interest which they share with service employees in
other departments of the Employer to warrant their
representation separately. In so concluding, we note
particularly that the maintenance employees sought
by the Petitioner are established in two separate
maintenance departments independently supervised
by the chief engineer and his subordinate section
leaders. These employees perform varied mainte-
nance work for the hospital exercising the particular
skills required by this function, for which they are
rewarded with wages at the top of the scale. Further-
more, in the exercise of this function there is minimal
interchange and functional integration between main-
tenance employees and service employees.
Accordingly, we find, contrary to the Regional Di-
rector, and for the reasons set forth in Allegheny Gen-
eral Hospital, supra, that the following employees
constitute a unit appropriate for the purpose of col-
lective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9(b)
of the Act:
All maintenance employees employed by the
Employer in its plant operations department and
maintenance and grounds department at its To-
ledo, Ohio, hospital and medical center, exclud-
ing all other employees, professional and techni-
cal employees, guards, and supervisors as defined
by the Act.
We shall remand the case to the Regional Director
for Region 8 for the purpose of conducting an elec-
tion pursuant to his Decision and Direction of Elec-
tion in the appropriate unit, as described above, ex-
cept that the period for determining eligibility shall
be the payroll period ending immediately preceding
the date of this Decision on Review.2
2 Excelsior footnote omitted from publication.l
493