Ray Stephens, Inc.

In the Matter of RAY STEPHENS, INCORPORATED, AND STEPHENS PE- TROLEUIII COMPANY, EMPLOYER and OIL WORKERS INTERNATIONAL UNION, CIO, PETITIONER Case No.16-R-1836.Decided April 16,1947 Dudley, Duvall cQ Dudley, by Mr. J. B. Dudley, of Oklahoma City, Okla., for the Employer. Mr. Waldo E. Stephens, of Oklahoma City, Okla., for the Em- ployer. Mr. C. M. Massengale, of Tulsa, Okla., for the Petitioner. Mrs. Platonia P. Kaldes, of counsel to the Board. DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION Upon a petition duly filed, hearing in this case was held at Okla- homa City, Oklahoma, on November 22, 1946, before Glenn L. Moller, 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 the case, the National Labor Relations Board makes the following: FINDINGS OF FACT 1. THE BUSINESS OF THE EMPLOYER Ray Stephens, Incorporated, is a Delaware corporation with its office and principal place of business in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. It is engaged in the production of petroleum and natural gas at certain leases located principally in what is known as the "Cement Area" in Oklahoma. Stephens Petroleum Company is likewise a Delaware corporation using the same office as Ray Stephens, Incorporated. Stephens Petroleum Company is engaged in the production of gas and petroleum at various leases, principally in the "Cement Area" and is also engaged in leasing and developing of petroleum and gas leases. Ray Stephens and Waldo E. Stephens are president and vice president, respectively, of both corporations and the operations of the corporations are conducted as a single integrated unit. We find that both companies together, hereinafter referred to as the Employer, 73 N. L R. B., No. 85. 431 739926-47-vol. 73-29 432 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD constitute a single employer of the employees- herein involved, within the meaning of Section 2 (2) of the Act.' The Employer sells its entire output of petroleum from the "Cement Area" leases to the Anderson-Prichard Oil Corporation. From January 1, 1946, through October 1946, Anderson-Prichard purchased and received from the Stephens Petroleum Company 373,601 barrels of petroleum and during the same period received from Ray Stephens, Incorporated, 86,239.71 barrels of petroleum. Petroleum is valued at approximately $1.50 per barrel. All of the above petroleum purchased by Anderson-Prichard was received and processed at Anderson-Prichard's refinery at Cyril, Oklahoma, where it was commingled with other crude petroleum pur- chased from the surrounding area. Of the output of the Anderson- Prichard refinery, 46 percent was shipped from the refinery to points outside the State of Oklahoma. - The Employer admits, and we find, that it is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act. II. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED The Petitioner is a labor organization affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations, claiming to represent employees of the Employer. III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION The Employer refuses to recognize the Petitioner as the exclusive bargaining representative of employees of the Employer until the Peti- tioner has been certified by the Board in an appropriate unit. We find that a question affecting commerce has arisen concerning the representation of employees of the Employer, within the meaning of Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act. IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT The Petitioner seeks a unit of all maintenance and operating em- ployees of the Employer who are employed in the geographical area known as the "Cement Area," including the truck driver, but excluding technical and clerical employees, the head of the production depart- ment, the roustabout foremen, the shop foreman, the superintendent of the compressor plant, the warehouse superintendent, and all other supervisory employees. The Employer is generally in agreement with the inclusions or exclusions sought by the Petitioner; however, it ob- jects to confining the unit to the employees of the "Cement Area" and contends that the unit should embrace all of its employees irrespective of the geographic area in which they may be employed. 1 The two companies admit that both are co-employers of the employees here involved. RAY STEPHENS, INCORPORATED 433 The Employer holds leases in 9 oil or gas fields. Two of these fields, known as the "East Cement" and "West Cement" fields and together constituting the "Cement Area," produce the bulk of the Employer's total output and are located in Oklahoma. About 60 of the approximately 70 operating and maintenance employees of the Employer are employed in that area. The remaining employees are employed at 3 fields located at Jack County, Texas, Zanesville, Ohio, and McNary County, Tennessee. These 3 fields employ 5, 1 and 3 employees, respectively. The Employer has no personnel at its 4 remaining fields.2 The five employees at the Jack County, Texas, fields were trans- ferred from the "Cement Area" fields in connection with develop-, mental operations. These employees perform the same general type of work, as employees in the "Cement Area" who are similarly classi- fied, and are under the same general supervision. They will be transferred back to the "Cement Area" when the present drilling oper- ations are concluded. Like the other operating and maintenance employees, they are paid on an hourly basis. Under these circum- stances, we are of the opinion that their interests, for the purpose of collective bargaining, are closely allied to those of the employees presently located in the "Cement Area." We shall, therefore, include them in the unit. The one employee located at Zanesville, Ohio, is a salaried, rather than hourly-paid employee. He is permanently assigned to that area, has no contact with the "Cement Area" employees, is not subject to the same supervision as the latter, and apparently has duties of a different nature.3 We shall exclude him from the unit. The four employees presently located in McNary County, Tennessee, were hired by the Employer at its home office specifically for their present jobs. They are not uncler the same supervision as the "Cement Area" employees and the drilling operations in which they are en- gaged require knowledge of a different type of drilling equipment than that used in the "Cement Area." While the Employer contem- plates assigning these employees to other jobs when the work they are now doing is completed, it cannot presently be ascertained whether that work will be in the "Cement Area." Upon the foregoing facts, we are of the opinion that their interests, for the purposes of collec- tive bargaining, are not sufficiently similar to those of the "Cement 2 These four fields are located in Oklahoma and are known as the "Chickasha ," "Elgin," "Hoyt," and "Hamburg," fields, respectively S He is in general charge of the Employer 's interests in the Zanesville field , in which capacity he maintains contact with the Employer 's customers, checks the mete, s , reports the drilling activity in his area, and performs other related duties in connection with the supervision of the Employer 's leases on the field. 434 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD Area" employees to warrant their inclusion in the same unit with the latter. We shall, therefore, exclude them from the unit. As hereinabove indicated, the parties are in agreement generally as to the categories of employees which should be grouped together for bargaining purposes. Neither party, however, expressed any position as to the inclusion of a warehouse clerk employed at the Employer's warehouse located in the "Cement Area." He assists the warehouse superintendent in keeping inventory of all materials used in drilling, production, or maintenance operations in the field and in handling the requisition and material transfer forms. He has fre- quent contact with the operation and maintenance employees. We shall include him in the Unit .4 We find that all operating and maintenance employees of the Employer in the "Cement Area," including the warehouse clerk, the truck driver, and all employees temporarily assigned to the Jack County, Texas, area, but excluding all employees assigned to the McNary County, Tennessee, and Zanesville, Ohio, areas all technical employees, office clerical employees, the head of the production depart- ment, the roustabout foremen, the shop foreman, the superintendent of the compressor plant, the warehouse superintendent, and all other supervisory employees with authority 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. DIRECTION OF ELECTION As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the pur- poses of collective bargaining with Ray Stephens, Incorporated, and Stephens Petroleum Company, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, an election by secret ballot shall be conducted as early as possible, but not later than thirty (30) days from the date of this Direction, under the direc- tion and supervision of the Regional Director for the Sixteenth Region, acting in this matter as agent for the National Labor Relations Board, and subject to Sections 203.55 and 203.56, of National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 4, among the employees in the unit 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 including employees in the armed forces of the United States who present themselves in person at the polls, but excluding those em- 4 See Matter of Felmont Corporation, 69 N. L. R. B. 868, 871. RAY STEPHENS, INCORPORATED 435 ployees 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 Inter- national Union, CIO, for the purposes of collective bargaining. MR. JOHN M. HOUSTON took no part in the consideration of the above Decision and Direction of Election.