Oklahoma Transportation Co.

In the Matter of OKLAHOMA TRANSPORTATION COMPANY, EMPLOYER and LODGE 850, INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS, PETITIONER Case No. 16-RC-327.-Decided May 4, 1949 DECISION AND ORDER Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before James R. Webster, a hearing officer of the National Labor Relations Board. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from preju- dicial error and are hereby affirmed. Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3 (b) of the National Labor Relations Act, the Board has delegated its powers in connection with this case to a three-member panel [Chairman Herzog and Members Houston 'and Murdock]. Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds : 1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act. 2. The Petitioner and the Intervenor, Local Division 993, Amalga- mated Association of Street, Electric Railway & Motor Coach Em- ployees of America, are labor organizations claiming a representative interest in certain employees involved herein. 3. No question affecting commerce exists concerning the representa- tion of employees of the Employer within the meaning of Section 9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act, for the following reasons: The Employer operates an intercity transportation system between Oklahoma City and other cities in Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Texas. The Oklahoma Railway Company, herein called the Railway, operates an intracity transportation system in Oklahoma City and its environs. Both companies are jointly owned by the same three stockholders. In 1947, the owners of the two companies decided to discontinue the sep- arate operation of the Employer's maintenance shops in Oklahoma City, and to consolidate this operation with the Railway's maintenance operations. A partial merger was begun with the appointment of a single operation manager in charge of maintenance for both com- panies, and a transfer of certain employees from the Employer's garage to the Railway shops. As these employees were also trans- 83 N. L. R. B., No. 49. 369 370 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD f erred to the Railway's pay roll, and agreement was reached with the Intervenor, which has a union-shop contract covering the operating and maintenance employees of the Railway, providing that the Inter- venor would accept the transferred employees into membership, and would grant them certain seniority rights. After the employees of the heavy unit repair shop, which repairs motors, transmissions, and carburetors, and of the paint and body shop had been transferred to the Railway, further consolidation was held up for lack of space. In January.1949, about the time the peti- tion herein was filed, the Employer transferred the remaining main- tenance employees to a garage owned by the Railway, but retained them on its pay roll when it received notice of the instant proceeding. From all the facts in the case, we find that the Employer initiated the plan for the consolidation of its maintenance operation in good faith; that the consolidation would by now have been completed had it not been temporarily suspended pending outcome of this proceed- ing; and that, upon completion of the merger, the Employer will have no employees in the unit sought by the Petitioner.' Under these cir- cumstances, we conclude that no useful purpose would be served by directing an election in this proceeding.2 Accordingly, we shall dis- miss the petition. ORDER IT IS ORDERED that the petition herein be, and it hereby is, dismissed. I The Petitioner requested an alternative unit composed of the Employer 's maintenance employees at Oklahoma City and Duncan, Oklahoma , and Fort Smith , Arkansas. The Employer will retain maintenance employees at Duncan and Fort Smith , but the Petitioner does not seek a unit of such employees alone, and does not appear to have a representative interest among them. 2 Matter of Armour & Company, 62 N. L. R. B. 1194.