Ohio Telephone Service Co.

In the Matter of OHIo TELEPHONE SERVICE COMPANY, EMPLOYER and UNITED ELECTRICAL, RADIO &, MACHINE WORKERS OF AMERICA, CIO and INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS, AFL, PETITIONER Cases Nos. 8-R-.34.x., and 8-R-2348.-Decided Feb vary 7, 1947 Messrs. R. F. Lucier and H. D. Clingenpeel, of Warsaw, Ind., and Mr. H. G. Kerlin, of Sidney, Ohio, for the Employer. Mr. John Thomas, of Sidney, Ohio, and M1Ir. James Lockwood, of Piqua, Ohio, for the UE. Mr. Ira Braswell, of Winchester, Ky., and Cllr. F. E. Burkett, of Plymouth, Ind., for the IBEW. Mr. Jack J. Mantel, of counsel to the Board. DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION Upon petitions duly filed, hearing in the above consolidated cases was held at Sidney, Ohio, on September 26, 1946, before John W. Irving, hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hear- ing 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 I. THE BUSINESS OF THE EMPLOYER Ohio Telephone Service Company is an Ohio corporation engaged in providing telephone service throughout most of three counties in the State of Ohio. The Employer is a subsidiary of United Telephone & Telegraph Corporation which has its headquarters in Warsaw, Indiana. The Employer handles toll calls between points in Ohio and other States. The annual gross revenue of the Employer is in excess of $500,000. The Employer admits and we find that it is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act. 72 N. L. R. B, No. 87. 488 OHIO TELEPHONE SERVICE COMPANY II. THE ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED 489 United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America, herein called the UE, is a labor organization affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations, claiming to represent employees of the Employer. International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, herein called the IBEW, is a labor organization affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, claiming to represent employees of the Employer. III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION The Employer refuses to recognize the UE or the IBEW as the 'exclusive bargaining representative of employees of the Employer until either organization 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 Employer, the UE, and the IBEW substantially agree as to the -composition of a unit of employees in the plant and traffic departments ,of the Employer, including construction and maintenance employees, and local and long distance operators, but excluding all clerical em- ployees, all employees in the commercial and accounting departments, .and all supervisory employees. The parties are in dispute, however, concerning the geographical limitation of the unit. The UE would confine the unit to employees in the Sidney, Ohio, district, whereas, the Employer and the IBEW would include the employees in all three of the districts in which the Employer operates. The parties are also in dispute with respect to working foremen in the plant department .and supervisors in the traffic department, whom the IBEW seeks to include and the UE would exclude from the unit. The Employer takes no position concerning the inclusion or exclusion of these employees. The Employer's operations are divided into three adjacent county- wide districts within the State of Ohio, each district having its re- spective headquarters at Sidney, Greenville, and Eaton, Ohio, Each area is supervised by a district manager who is also responsible for the operation of telephone exchanges within his district.2 In each dis- 1 The distance between the headquarters of each district is as follows : Sidney to Green- Tille, 35 miles ; Greenville to Eaton, 22 miles ; and Sidney to Eaton, 60 miles. 2 The Employer also has agency-operated exchanges whose employees the parties agreed to exclude from any bargaining unit 490 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD trict there are four departments which are known as plant, traffic, commercial, and accounting. The plant department constructs and maintains telephone facilities and equipment. Some of the employees in this department work in the field on telephone lines and others work at the exchanges or in the home or place of business of subscribers . The field employees fre- quently work in districts other than the one to which they are assigned, whereas the remaining employees in this department are occasionally assigned to other districts . Were it not for the housing problem, there would be a more substantial rate of interchange among the latter em- ployees. In charge of all three districts , there is a general plant super- visor who works in close coordination with the district managers. A crew of cable splicers work directly under the supervision of the general plant supervisor, performing their duties in all three districts. The traffic department is concerned with the actual handling of telephone calls, most of the employees being operators . There is a traveling chief operator who has supervision over all three districts. Within each district, and at each exchange, there are chief operators, assistant chief operators, and supervisors, although every exchange may not have all three classifications of supervision. There is little interchange among the employees in, this department. However, all working conditions, such as hours, wages , and vacations, are iden- tical in all three districts and exchanges of the same size. All major policies of the Employer, including those dealing with labor relations, emanate from a central source, thus providing a de- gree of uniformity throughout the three districts. In view of the highly integrated and interdependent character of the Employer's operations , and, the fact that employee organization has extended to all three districts, we are of the opinion that the employees in all three districts constitute an appropriate unit for purposes of collective bargaining.3 Working foremen: There are three or four of these employees who, work in the plant department and supervise a crew of four men en- gaged in outside line operations. The record indicates that the work- ing foremen , who are sometimes referred to as line foremen , have au- thority effectively to recommend the change in status of employees under their supervision. We shall therefore exclude them from the unit. Supervisors in the -traffic department: During the absence of the chief operator and assistant chief operator, which is only 4 hours out of a 48-hour work week, these employees are in charge of a group of telephone operators. Their authority is limited solely to solving oper- ational problems . Despite their classification, it does not appear that 3 Matter of Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph Company, 55 AT L R. B 1058. OHIO TELEPHONE SERVICE COMPANY 491 they possess supervisory authority within the Board's customary defi- nition thereof. Accordingly, we shall include the supervisors in the traffic department. We find that all employees of the plant and traffic departments of the Employer employed at Sidney, Greenville, and Eaton, Ohio, in- cluding construction and maintenance employees, local and long dis- tance operators, supervisors in the traffic department, but excluding all working foremen in the plant department, all clerical employees, all employees in the commercial and accounting departments, and all other supervisory employees with authority to hire, promote, dis- ,charge, discipline, or otherwise effect changes in the status of employ- ees, or effectively recommend such action, constitute a unit appropri- ate 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 purposes of collective bargaining with Ohio Telephone Service Com- pany, Warsaw, Indiana, 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 direction and supervision of the Regional Director for the Eighth 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 Sec- tion IV, above, who were employed during the pay-roll period im- mediately 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 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 they desire to be represented by International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, AFL, or by United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America, CIO, for the purposes of collective bargaining, or by neither.' 6 At the time of the hearing, the UE was undecided whether or not it desired to appear on the ballot if an election were directed in a multiple-district unit, as found herein Con- sequently, we shall place the UE on the ballot with the privilege of withdrawing from the election upon notification to the Regional Director in writing within five (5) days from the date of this Direction of Election.