Pacific Power & Light Co.

638 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD Order IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the instalrt -petition be, and it hereby is, dismissed. PACIFIC POWER & LIGHT COMPANY and INTERNATIONAL UNION OF OPERATING ENGINEERS, LOCAL No. 843, AFL, PETITIONER. Case No. 19-RC-698. May 17,1951 Decision and Order Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before Hubert J. Merrick, hearing officer. `The hearing' officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.' Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds : 1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the Act. '2. The labor organizations involved claim to represent employees of the Employer. 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 Petitioner : seeks to represent a unit composed, of all steam firemen and heating department maintenance men employed in the Employer's central heating plant located at the Chinook Hotel, Yakima, Washington, excluding professional employees, guards, all other employees, and supervisors as defined in the Act. The Inter- venor, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local No. 125, AFL, and the Employer assert that the requested unit is inappro- priate, contending that the only appropriate unit is the system-wide unit currently represented by the Intervenor. The Employer, an operating public utility, is principally engaged in the purchase, generation, transmission, sale, and distribution of electric energy, and the distribution and sale of steam heat and water in the States of Washington and Oregon. Included among its oper- ations are 13 hydroelectric generating plants, 1 Diesel-electric gener- ating plant, 3 steam-generating plants, and 1 central steam heat plant located at Yakima, Washington, which is the only plant involved in this proceeding. The Yakima steam heating, or Chinook, plant, 1 After the close of the hearing, the Employer moved to correct the transcript of the record made at the hearing and served on all parties a copy of the motion. In the absence of any objection, the motion is granted. The transcript made at the hearing is deemed corrected with respect to the matters set forth in the motion . 94 NLRB No. 98. PACIFIC POWER & LIGHT COMPANY 639 was constructed during the summer of 1950 and began operations on November, fi; 1950. It•, supplies steam heat to private customers in downtown -Yakim4. The Chinook plant, together with all the Employer's electric gen- erating plants, is placed for administrative purposes in the power department, a subdivision of the Employer's physical operations de- partment. The headquarters for this department is at Portland, Oregon, where the Employer's main office is located and where all its policies are determined. The skills and duties of the steam firemen and maintenance servicemen are substantially the same as those of similar categories at the Employer's steam generating plant at Astoria, Oregon, which is part of the system-wide unit now repre- ijented by .the-jiltervenor., „ The Employer's operations, like those of most public utilities, are hibhly integrated and interdependent. There exists a similarity of tasks, employment,conditions, and ben- efits throughout its system and there is centralized control of its per- sonnel policies. Since 1937 the Employer and the Intervenor have executed master agreements covering all the "physical" employees in the Employer's system, with the exception of the employees in the two steam-gener- ating plants in Portland, Oregon, and the building service employees in the Employer's office building in that City .2 Sometime after August 30, 1950, the Employer and the Intervenor executed a memorandum providing for the inclusion of the steam firemen classifications at the Chinook plain within sthe coverage of their system-wide contract. A supplemental agreement specifically covering these same employees was executed on December 23, 1950. The maintenance servicemen classifications had been included in the system-wide contract before the Chinook plant began operations. The Board has considered the appropriateness of single plant units in several cases involving multiplant public utility systems such as that of the Employer.' Although we have indicated that powerhouse employees comparable to the central steam heat plant employees in- Volved herein may form an appropriate unit, we believe that units limited to a single plant are normally inappropriate because of the extensive integration of operations usually found in this industry, 2 The two steam-generating plants at Portland, Oregon, also produce steam which the Employer distributes and sells for heating purposes . The Portland plants were acquired in May 1948 when the Employer purchased the properties of the Northwestern Electric Company in that area . Shortly thereafter, the Employer executed extensions of existing agreements between the Petitioner's affiliate , Local 87, International Union of Operating Engineers , AFL, and the Northwestern Electric Company , covering the employees in those plants. The Employer and the Petitioner' s affiliate have continued their con- tractural relationship until this time. Since 1941, the building service employees in the Employer 's office building at.Portland have been represented by Building Service Employees Union, Local No. 49 , AFL' c 8 See Pacific CaB" , and Ei^ptr'ic Company, 87 NLRB 257; Oklahoma Gas and Electric Company, 86 NLRB 437. 640 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD and also because of the practice in the industry of bargaining on a system-wide basis. We perceive no cogent reason in this case for departing from established policy.4 Accordingly, we find that the unit composed of the employees in the Yakima central steam heat plant requested herein. is inappropriate. We shall therefore dismiss the petition.' Order IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the petition herein be, and it hereby is, dismissed. MEMBER STYLES took no part in the consideration of the above De- cision and Order. See West Texas Utilities Company, Inc., 88 NLRB 192, and cases cited therein. In view of our finding , we deem it unnecessary to pass upon the contract -bar issue. LINDE AIR PRODUCTS DIVISION, UNION CARBIDE AND CARBON CORPORA- TION and UNITED GAS, COKE, AND CHEMICAL WORKERS OF AMERICA, CIO, PETITIONER . Case No. 35-RC-476. May 17,1951 Decision and Certification of Representatives Pursuant to a stipulation for certification upon consent election, executed February 5, 1951, an election by secret ballot was conducted on February 15, 1951, under the direction and supervision of the Re- gional Director for the Ninth Region, among certain employees of the Employer. At the conclusion of the election, the parties were furnished with a tally of ballots which showed that of approximately 711 eligible voters, 329 voted for the Petitioner, 315 against, and 4 void ballots were cast. On February 21,'1951, the Employer filed timely objections to conduct allegedly affecting the results of the election. On March 16, the Regional Director, after an investigation, made a report and recommendation on the Employer's objections, to which the Employer filed exceptions March 28, 1951. The objections and exceptions all relate to a single incident which the Employer alleges constitutes electioneering. The Regional Di- rector's report finds the facts with regard to this incident to be as follows : The first voting period had been set for 7-7: 30 a. in. for the convenience of the employees on the third or night shift. Shortly before the polls opened, representatives of the Petitioner began dis- tributing campaign handbills to employees entering the north gate, which is approximately 250 feet from the entrance to the polling place in the plant cafeteria. No specific "no electioneering area" had been 94 NLRB No. 91.