Union Producing Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Dec 13, 1943

53 N.L.R.B. 1287 (N.L.R.B. 1943)

In the Matter of UNION PRODUCING COMPANY AND ' ASSOCIATED
COMPANIES : UNITED GAS PIPE LINE COMPANY AND HOUSTON GULF
GAS COMPANY and OIL WORKERS INTERNATIONAL UNION (CIO)
In the Matter of UNITED GAS PIPE LINE COMPANY and OIL WORKERS
INTERNATIONAL UNION (CIO)
Cases Nos. 16-R-723 'and 16-R-731 respectively.Decided
December 13, 1943 '
Vinson, Elkins, Weems & Francis, of Houston, Tex., by Mr. ,W. O.
Crane, of Shreveport, La.; and Johnson c Rogers, by Mr. Carl Wright
Johnson, of San Antonio, Tex., for the Companies.
Mr. Lindsey P. Walden, of Ft. Worth, Tex., and Mr. M. B. King,
of Corpus Christi, Tex., for the Union.
Mrs. Augusta Spaulding, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon petitions duly filed by Oil Workers International Union
(CIO), herein called the Union, alleging that questions affecting com-
merce had arisen concerning the representation of employees of Union
Producing Company, United Gas Pipe Line Company, and Houston
Gulf Gas Company, Shreveport, Louisiana, herein collectively called
the Companies, the National Labor Relations Board provided for an
appropriate consolidated hearing upon due notice before Elmer Davis,
Trial Examiner. Said hearing was held at San Antonio, Texas, on
October 21, 1943. The Companies and the Union appeared, partici-
pated, 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 prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed. All parties were
afforded opportunity to file briefs with the Board.
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following:
53 N. L. R. B., No. 235.
1287
1288 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
FINDINGS OF FACT
I. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANIES
United Gas Pipe Line Company is a Delaware corporation doing
business in Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, and Mississippi, with
headquarters at Shreveport, Louisiana. It is engaged in the purchase,
transportation, and sale at wholesale of natural gas and the operation
of gasoline plants. In Texas its operations are principally in areas
near San Antonio, Houston, and Wichita Falls, and, in the east central
portion of the State. The instant proceedings are concerned with
operations near San Antonio known as the San Antonio District.
During July 1943, United Gas Pipe Line Company sold 2,733,576
M. C. F. of natural gas to industrial consumers, public utilities, drill-
ing contractors, military reservations, and other pipe lines. During
September 1943, it sold to Mexican Gas Company at Roma, Texas,
709, 412 M. C. F., of natural gas, which the latter organization dis-
tributed to Monterrey, Mexico, and intermediate points. During July
1943, United Gas Pipe Line Company bought supplies valued at
$2,159.00, of which $382.00 represents materials brought into the State
from points outside Texas.
Union Producing Company is a Delaware corporation with head-
quarters at Shreveport, Louisiana, and is engaged in the exploration
for, and the production, sale, and distribution of, crude oil and natural
gas in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. In Texas its operations are
restricted to the area near Wichita Falls, to east central Texas, and
to the so-called Beeville District. During September 1943 the cor-
poration produced 11,975,267 M. C. F. of natural gas and in the year
1942, 11,784,407 barrels of crude oil. During July 1943 the Beeville
District alone produced 146,485 barrels ' of crude oil, 9,354 barrels ' of
condensate, and 1,888,022 M. C. F. of natural gas." A considerable
portion of the natural gas thus produced was delivered within the
Beeville District to United Gas Pipe Line Company and to Houston
Gulf Gas Company. During July 1943, Union Producing Company
purchased for maintenance materials valued at $23,090.39, of which
amount,$9,901 represented materials purchased outside Texas.
Houston Gulf Gas Company is a Delaware corporation with head-
quarters at Shreveport, Louisiana, and is primarily engaged in the
production, sale , and distribution of gas and condensate. It operates
14 gas wells ' and 1 oil well. It owns, maintains, and operates a pipe
line beginning near Refugio, Texas, and terminating near Houston,
Texas, where gas is delivered at wholesale to the retail distribution
system for the City of Houston and to other customers. During -
1 In addition to this amount , 2,606,119 M , C. F. of natural gas was delivered to recycling
plants.
UNION PRODUCING COMPANY 1289
September 1943, Houston Gulf Gas Company produced natural gas
in the amount of 3,618,102 M. C. F., a majority of which was sold to
consumers in the general area of Houston, Texas, and 780,188 M. C. F.
to industrial consumers within that area, and a substantial amount to
United Gas Pipe Line Company.
United Gas Pipe Line Company and Union Producing Company
are wholly owned subsidiaries of United Gas Corporation, a Delaware
corporation with headquarters at Shreveport, Louisiana . More than
99 percent of the stock of Houston Gulf Gas Company is owned by
United Gas Pipe Line Company?
II. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED
Oil Workers International Union is a labor organization affiliated
with the Congress of Industrial Organizations, admitting to member-
ship employees of the Companies.
III. THE QUESTIONS CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
Prior to the separate petitions filed in this proceeding, the Union
asked the Companies for recognition as sole bargaining agent of their
employees in certain proposed bargaining units. The Companies
refused to grant the desired recognition, requesting that the Union
secure the certification of the Board.
Statements prepared by the Field Examiner and introduced into
evidence at the hearing indicate that the Union represents a substantial
number of employees in each bargaining unit found herein to be
appropriate .3
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 Act.
2 United Oil Pipe Line Company is a wholly owned subsidiary of United Gas Corporation.
This corporation operates in a small area near the Texas-Louisiana line, and, in the general
vicinity of Longview , Texas, has a pipe line which crosses the State boundary. 'United Oil
Pipe Line Company is not a party to this proceeding and its employees are not directly
involved herein.
8 In support of its claim to represent employees in the Beeville district , the Union sub-
mitted 83 cards, of which 13 were undated and the remaining dated in 1943. Of these cards,
37 appeared to bear signatures of employees of Union Producing Company, 20 the signatures
of employees of United Gas Pipe Line Company, and 9 the signatures of employees of
Houston Gulf Gas Company in the Beeville district for the pay -roll period ending August 25,
1943. Of employees listed as working in the Beeville district during this pay-roll period,
68 are employees of Union Producing Company, 45 of United Gas Pipe Line Company, and 13
of the Houston Gulf Gas Company , respectively . There are approximately 126 employees
of the Companies in the unit appropriate for employees in the Beeville district.
In support of its claim to represent employees in the San Antonio District , the Union
submitted 67 authorization cards, of which 5 are undated , and the remaining dated in 1943.
Of these cards , 64 appear to bear genuine original signatures of employees of United Gas
Pipe Line Company on the August 25, 19i3, pay roll for the San Antonio district. There
are approximately 150 employees in the unit appropriate for employees in the San Antonio
district. -.
1290 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNITS
A. The scope of the bargaining units
The Union contends that production and maintenance employees of
United Gas Pipe Line Company in the San Antonio District constitute
a separate appropriate bargaining unit. The Union further contends
that production and maintenance employees of Union Producing Com-
pany, United Gas Pipe Line Company, and Houston Gulf Gas Com-
pany in the Beeville district constitute a separate appropriate
bargaining unit. The Companies contend that neither of the proposed
units is an appropriate unit and that the only bargaining unit ap-
propriate for their- employees is system-wide in scope, including em-
ployees in the several affiliated corporations.
The three Companies whose employees are concerned in these pro-
ceedings have interlocking directorates and ownership. They have
their headquarters at Shreveport, Lousiana, where, through central
office management, their production, distribution, and sales activities
are integrated and closely coordinated. Although the several Com-
panies respectively retain their individual corporate existences, and
to some extent their separate respective functions in prospecting for,
developing, producing, gathering, transporting, and selling oil and
gas, their work processes are subject to central control* The, Com-
panies' properties include gas and oil wells, gas and gasoline plants,
and an inter-connecting network of gas pipe lines extending through
parts of five States. To afford steady service to their customers, the
Companies have so moulded and coordinated their operations that
they are able to transport and deliver gas produced from many fields
throughout their system to practically any delivery point within their
service area. Common emergencies require shifts of employees from
one area to another, and varying local operating needs make an over-all
command of the Companies' products and resources necessary.
The Companies divide their operations into several geographical
districts, each of which constitutes an administrative division of
management in charge of an administrative supervisor called a district
manager. In small districts the district manager has direct charge
of all field operations in his district. In the large districts there are
separate superintendents directly in charge of the several different
field operations, such as main pipe line, field pipe line, and production
work. These several district superintendents are under the district
manager and an operating chief in the central office at Shreveport.
Districts, as administrative subdivisions of the Companies' oper-
ations, are modified in size from time to time as the volume of the
Companies' business therein increases or decreases. New districts
are created by subdivision whenever operations reach sufficient mag-
UNION PRODUCING COMPANY 1291
nitude within a district to make such subdivision advisable for con-
venience in administration. District lines are drawn solely for
simplicity, ease, and convenience in operating the Companies'
business.
Wages, hours, and other working conditions throughout the Com-
panies' operations are controlled by the central office at Shreveport,
Louisiana, and are substantially uniform. The Companies use a
uniform job classification system, and duties for each job are the
same wherever that job category is listed on district pay rolls through-
out their territory. There are 2,809 employees engaged in the Com-
panies' over-all operations, of whom 1,550 are production and main-
tenance employees. During 1942 and the first half of 1943, 311 per-
sons were transferred from one district to another. Seniority is
rated upon system-wide service in any one of the several Companies,
and seniority is one element in the making of promotions. Through-
out their operations the Companies share common field office build-
ings, warehouses, garages, repair shops, and employee housing, and
other facilities. The Companies have a uniform vacation policy,
health insurance, and group life insurance programs. They have a
uniform, policy for compensation for injury in their services, and
the same doctors and health services are available to all employees.
The present, petitions directly concern employees in two districts
of the Companies' operations, the San Antonio and the Beeville dis-
tricts. Employees in a third district, known as the Houston district,
are indirectly affected by the petitions. The San Antonio district is
a distribution district with headquarters at San Antonio. There are
approximately 175 production and maintenance employees listed on
the district pay roll, all of whom are subject to the supervision of
the district manager. All these employees are employees of United
Gas Pipe Line Company. Adjacent to the San Antonio district, is
another distribution and production district, known as the Houston
district, with district headquarters at Houston. All employees *in
the Houston district are subject to its district manager, and paid
through its district office. The Beeville district, primarily a produc-
tion district, in geographical area overlaps in part territory included
in the Houston and San Antonio districts, respectively. There are
approximately 200 production and maintenance employees in the
Beeville district. They include employees of Union Producing Com-
pany, United Gas Pipe Line Company, and Houston Gulf Gas Com-
pany. All employees of these Companies are under the supervision
of the Beeville district manager and are paid through the Beeville
district office. Employees of the several Companies receive checks
bearing the names of the individual Company which is charged for
his services. Due to the overlapping of the Beeville district on the
1292 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
geographical territory of the San Antonio and Houston districts,
employees of United Gas Pipe Line Company and employees of
Houston Gulf Gas Company work in part under the supervision of
the district manager of the Beeville district and in part under the
district manager of the San Antonio or the Houston district,, re-
spectively. All employees in the Beeville district are engaged pri-
marily in production work, or in field or gathering pipe line' work.
Employees in the Houston district are in charge of the main pipe
line of that area for transmission purposes.
,It is clear that the uniform working policies of the several Com-
panies, their closely integrated management, and their common con-
trol, support the contention of the Companies that an over-all, system-
wide unit of production and maintenance employees is appropriate for
bargaining purposes. The Union admits the appropriateness of a
system-wide unit, but contends that its organization of the Companies'
employees has not extended to any such scope. The Companies urge
that seniority is weighed upon service in any one of their districts,
that seniority is a factor in determining promotions, and that,, for this
and other reasons, bargaining units restricted to administrative sub-
divisions will cause confusion and resentment and will impede trans-
fers between administrative units. The record does not disclose that
seniority has been given any major consideration in the Comp'anies'
promotion program. In any event a promotion program and the
weight to be accorded seniority in a promotion, expansion, or lay-off
situation, is properly a subject for collective bargaining. The Com-
panies have never bargained with any labor organization for any of
their employees. The Companies, inter alia, further urge that, due to
the overlapping of the Beeville district upon geographical territory
covered by the Houston district, and the necessary closeness of the
work of the employees within, dissatisfactions and unrest, will be
engendered between them if employees in the Beeville district are
grouped in a unit which excludes employees in the Houston district.
The Union claims a majority representation among employees in the
San Antonio district and among employees in the Beeville district, and
though presently engaged in organizing employees in the Houston
district, it does not claim to represent a majority of these employees at
this time. The Union's present organization of the Companies' em-'
ployees is coextensive with two identifiable separate administrative
divisions of the Companies' extensive operations. Employees in the
Houston district work under supervisors subject to their district man-
ager. The Companies have seen fit to place these employees in a posi-
tion to work with employees of another district and yet maintain an
administrative independence with respect to their work. The man-
ager of the Beeville district has no jurisdiction over them. We see no
UNION PRODUCING COMPANY 1293
reason to require their inclusion in the same bargaining unit with
employees of the Beeville district. Since employees within the San
Antonio and Beeville districts have signified a desire for collective
bargaining , we shall not require that they be deprived of their right
of collective bargaining until the organization of any other employees
of the Companies may be accomplished. We _ therefore find that
separate bargaining units limited to employees in the Companies' San
Antonio and Beeville districts, respectively, constitute separate bar-
gaining units 4 This finding, however, will not preclude a, full investi-
gation of the unit, or units, appropriate for the purposes of collective
bargaining for the: Companies' employees whenever a petition may
later be filed involving these employees.
B. Cateqories, of employees within the bargaining units
The Union contends that all production and maintenance employees
of Union Producing Company, United Gas Pipe Line Company, and
Houston Gulf Gas Company who are subject to the supervision of the
manager of the Beeville district, including meter inspectors, but ex-
cluding supervisors, office and clerical employees, technical, profes-
sional, administrative, and janitorial employees, should be included
in the unit for employees in the Beeville district and that all pro-
duction and maintenance employees of United Gas Pipe Line Com-
pany who are subject to the supervision of the manager of the San
Antonio district, including meter inspectors, dispatcher`s, telegraphers,
and warehouse clerks, but excluding supervisors, office, technical, pro-
fessional, administrative, and janitorial employees, should be included
in the unit for employees in the San Antonio district. The Com-
panies do not object to the categories of employees proposed for in-
clusion and exclusion, respectively, in the two district units, but only
to the separation of these district employees from a system-wide unit.
The Companies and the Union agree that supervisory employees, in-
cluding foremen, should be excluded from the bargaining units for
non-supervisory employees. The Companies and the Union agree
upon the individual employees in the separate districts who would be
included in these listed categories. The parties agree to include sub-
foremen within the unit found appropriate for employees in the Bee-
ville district. Subforemen have from one to five employees working
under them. They do not have the authority to hire or to discharge
such employees, but they have the power to recommend hird and dis-
charge, and considerable weight is given to their recommendations.
We shall, for this reason, exclude subforemen from the bargaining
4 Matter o f The Western Union Telegraph Company, 39 N L. R. B 287 ; Matter of Pacif c
Gas & Electric Company, 44 N. L. R. B. 665.
559015--44-vol. 53-83
1294 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
units, and we shall also exclude all other employees with authority to
hire, promote, discharge, discipline, or otherwise effect changes in the
status of employees or to recommend such action effectively.
We find that all regular production and maintenance employees of
Union Producing Company, United Gas Pipe Line Company, and
Houston Gulf Gas Company who work under the supervision and
management of the Beeville district manager, including meter inspec-
tors, but excluding office and clerical employees, technical, professional,
administrative, and janitorial employees, supervisors, foremen, sub-
foremen, and all other employees who have authority to hire, pro-
mote, 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
meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act. We further find that all regular
production and maintenance employees of United Gas Pipe Line Com-
pany who work under the supervision and management of the San
Antonio district manager, including meter inspectors, dispatchers,
telegraphers, and warehouse clerks, but excluding office and clerical
employees, technical, professional, administrative, and janitorial em-
ployees, supervisors, foremen, and all other employees who have au-
thority 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 meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
V. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
We shall direct that the questions which have arisen concerning the
representation of the Companies' employees shall be determined by
separate elections among all employees in the respective units found
appropriate in Section IV, above, who were employed during the pay-
roll period immediately preceding the date of the Direction of Elec-
tions herein, subject to the limitations and addifions set forth in the
Direction.
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 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 Union Producing
Company, United Gas Pipe Line Company, and Houston Gulf Gas
Company, Shreveport, Louisiana, separate elections by secret ballot
shall be conducted as early as possible, but not later than thirty (30)
UNION PRODUCING COMPANY 1295
days from the date of this Direction, under the direction and super-
vision of the Regional Director for the Sixteenth Region, acting in
this matter as agent for the National Labor Relations Board, and
subject to Article III, Sections 10 and 11, of said Rules and Regula-
tions, among all employees of the Companies in the respective units
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 in-
cluding employees 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 rehired or
reinstated prior to the date of the election, to determine whether or
not they desire to be represented by Oil Workers International Union
(CIO), for the purposes of collective bargaining.