Rockland Light and Power Co.

ROCKLAND LIGHT AND POWER COMPANY 365 minimize industrial disputes.23 Accordingly, in view of the foregoing, we find that the employees handling and placing lights on regular "staged" remote broadcasts at KNBH are at present covered by the contract between NBC and NABET.24 DETERMINATION OF DISPUTE On the basis of the foregoing findings of fact and upon the entire record in this case, the Board makes the following de- termination of dispute pursuant to Section 10 (k) of the amended Act: 1. The handling and placing of lights on regular "staged" remote broadcasts at NBC-KNBH, Los Angeles, California, is at present covered by the agreement in existence between NBC and National Association of Broadcast Engineers and Techni- cians, C.I.O., and not by the agreement between NBC and International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and Moving Picture Machine Operators of the United States and Canada, A. F. of L., Local 33. 2. Within ten (10) days from the date of this Decision and Determination of Dispute, National Broadcasting Company, Inc., National Association of Broadcast Engineers and Techni- cians, C.I.O., Hollywood Chapter, and International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and Moving Picture Machine Operators of the United States and Canada, A. F. of L., Local 33, shall each notify the Regional Director for the Twenty-first Region, in writing, of the steps it has taken to comply with the terms of this Decision and Determination of Dispute. 23It is a well-recognized rule of statutory interpretation that a literal construction which would lead to absurd or incongruous results should be avoided, even where the literal purport of the words used is clear. E4As we view the issue presented in this proceeding one of paramount contractual right to the work in question, the arguments in the briefs of NBC and IATSE directed to representa- tion criteria are deemed inapplicable. Accordingly, we need not now decide whether the NBC lighting case would be controlling were the issue one of appropriate unit. Cf. National Associa- tion of Broadcast Engineers and Technicians, CIO (National Broadcasting Company, Inc.), 103 NLRB 479; Radio and Television Broadcast Engineers Union. Local 1212, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, A. F. L. (Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc.), 103 NLRB 1256. Further, we note that the NBC lighting case did not involve unit findings with respect to KNBH. ROCKLAND LIGHT AND POWER COMPANY and INTER- NATIONAL CHEMICAL WORKERS UNION, AFL, LOCAL 143, Petitioner ROCKLAND LIGHT AND POWER COMPANY and INTER- NATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS, AFL, Petitioner. Cases Nos . 2-RC-5531 and 2-RC-5564. June 4, 1953 DECISION, ORDER, AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION Upon separate petitions duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act, a consolidated hearing was held 105 NLRB No. 53. 366 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD before Milton Pravitz, hearing officer.' The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed. Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3 (b) of the Act, the Board has delegated its powers in connection with these cases to a three-member panel [Members Murdock, Styles, and Peterson] . Upon the entire record in these cases, the Board finds: 1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the mean- ing of the Act. 2. The labor organizations involved claim to represent certain employees of the Employer.2 3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the representation of certain employees of the Employer within the meaning of Section 9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act. 3 4. The Employer, in its own name and in the name of its 2 subsidiaries,4 has been engaged for many years in the distri- bution of gas and electricity in the States of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania as 1 homogeneous operation. It divides its operations into 2 divisions called its Eastern and Western Divisions.5 The Employer and the Electrical Workers agree that a sys- temwide unit, including both gas and electrical employees in both the Eastern and Western Divisions, is the only appropriate unit for the Employer's employees at this time. Although the position of Local 143 of the Chemical Workers on the unit issue is not entirely clear, it appears that the Chemical Workers seeks (1) a unit of gas employees composed of employees for- merly employed by Rockland Gas Company, Inc., and employees of the Employer at Nyack, New York, heretofore not repre- sented by any labor organization; or (2) a unit of gas employees in the Employer's Eastern Division; or (3) a unit of gas em- ployees in both the Eastern and Western Divisions of the Em- ployer's operations. Local 143 would exclude from any unit i At the hearing, the petition in Case No. 2-RC-5531 and other formal papers were amended to show the correct name of the Petitioner 2 We find without merit the Employer's contention that Local 143 of International Chemical Workers Union, AFL, hereinafter called the Chemical Workers, may not represent the em- ployees involved herein, on the ground that Local 143 and the Chemical Workers were not organized to represent, and have not represented, public utility employees. Willingness of a labor organization to represent the employees in question and their designation of such labor organization are the controlling considerations under the Act . Oklahoma Gas and Electric Company, 86 NLRB 437. 'The Employer and Locals 1566 and 1567 of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, AFL, hereinafter called the Electrical Workers, entered into a contract, covering employees involved herein, effective until June 1, 1953, and from year to year thereafter in the absence of a 60-day notice before any expiration date The petitions herein were filed before the auto- matic renewal date of the contract. Contrary to the Employer's contention, the contract is therefore no bar to an immediate election Bond Brothers, Incorporated, 86 NLRB 514. 4The Rockland Electric Co of New Jersey, and The Pike County Light and Power Co. of Pennsylvania. 5 The Eastern Division includes approximately Rockland County, New York, and Bergen County, New Jersey; the Western Division, Orange and Sullivan Counties, New York, Pike County. Pennsylvania, and part of Sussex County , New Jersey ROCKLAND LIGHT AND POWER COMPANY 367 found appropriate by the Board, employees at the Employer's Tomkins Cove, New York, generating plant, on the ground that they voted as such employees in a Board election held within the preceding 12-month period. On September 11, 1952, the Board issued its Decision and Direction of Election in Case No. 2-RC-4508 (not published in printed volumes of Board Decisions), finding that gas employees of Rockland Gas Company, Inc., hereinafter called Rockland Gas, constituted an appropriate bargaining unit at that time. The Board found no merit in the contention of Rockland Gas that, because of the impending transfer of its assets to the Employer under a contract of sale, the only appropriate unit for its employees was one which also included employees of the Employer. The Board stated, however, that its establishment at that time of a separate unit for employees of Rockland Gas did not preclude the estab- lishment of a more comprehensive unit at some future date, should such a larger unit subsequently become appropriate. At the directed election, held on October 10, 1952, employees of Rockland Gas chose the Chemical Workers as their exclusive bargaining representative. About December 31, 1952, the Employer took over the assets of Rockland Gas and transferred supervisors and employees of Rockland Gas, totaling about 85 in number, to the Employer's payrolls. The transferred employees were rated according to the Employer's classification system. The former president of Rockland Gas became a vice president of the Employer. He was placed in immediate charge of gas operations, breaking into the electric operation gradually, particularly in connection with plans for future real-estate purchases. Before December 31, 1952., the Employer had set up a combination gas and electric operating manager. Thereafter, it appointed gas oper- ating and gas sales managers. These appear to be the only changes in the top level of the Employer's organization result- ing from its purchase of Rockland Gas. At the time of the instant hearing, held on February 25 and March 3, 1953, the Employer had in all an undisclosed number of supervisors and approximately 285 operating employees.Its executive officers were located at Nyack, New York. A staff of approximately 13 persons had its headquarters at Nyack and at Spring Valley and Middletown, New York. These included, at Nyack, the personnel director, the real-estate executive as- sistant, the transportation superintendent, the chief accounting officer, the general sales manager, the electric sales manager, the gas sales manager, and the commercial manager for the Eastern Division; at Spring Valley, the gas operating manager; and at Middletown, the electric operating manager, the chief engineer, and the commercial manager for the Western Divi- sion. The Employer also had an electric superintendent in charge of the construction and maintenance of electric lines in each Division. Employees included, among others, appliance servicemen (electric), appliance servicemen (gas), mainte- nance men (gas), gasfitters, meter readers, electricians, line- men, tree trimmers, line patrolmen, troublemen, service operators, automobile repairmen, garage floormen, and 368 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD laborers. Changes among these employees were going on almost daily. For example, about March 2, 1953, approxi- mately 4 meter readers, formerly employed by Rockland Gas, who had previously read only gas meters , started to read both gas and electric meters, as do the Employer's approximately 15 other meter readers. The Employer sells both gas and electrical appliances at the same stores. Electric and gas appliance servicemen work under the supervision of the electric sales and the gas sales managers, respectively, and under the overall supervision of the Employer 's general sales manager . The Employer renders combination bills for both gas and electric services . The Em- ployer distributes one periodical, "Watts 'n Therms," to all its employees. Contributions thereto are solicited among employees throughout its system. These facts, and the record as a whole, disclose, in our opinion, that the Employer carries on its extended business as a highly integrated and interdependent system. In earlier decisions involving the Employer, the Board found that separate units of electrical employees and of employees in the Employer's Eastern and Western Divisions, respectively, were appropriate for bargaining purposes.6 These findings were based either on the agreements of the parties concerned or on the extent of organization of the employees involved. Section 9 (c) (5) of the amended Act now forbids the Board to regard this latter factor as controlling. Organization of the Employer's employees has now reached virtually systemwide proportions. Since about 1947, the Em- ployer and the Electrical Workers and its Locals 1566 and 1567 have bargained for gas and electrical employees of the Employer in both the Eastern and Western Divisions as a substantially systemwide unit. The Board has frequently held that systemwide units are normally the most appropriate bargaining units for employees of public utilities, even in the face of past bargaining on a narrower basis.7 This is particu- larly true where, as here, the Employer's operations are highly integrated and interdependent in character and a labor organi- zation is prepared to represent employees on a systemwide basis •8 The former employees of Rockland Gas do not comprise any major identifiable administrative segment of their present Employer's operations. There has been no separate past bar- gaining history for employees in any of the units proposed by Local 143 of the Chemical Workers. Accordingly, as no sound reason presently exists for departing from the Board's es- tablished policy in the public utility industry, we find that a systemwide unit of the Employer's employees, including both gas and electrical employees in both the Eastern and Western Divisions, is appropriate for bargaining purposes at this time. We shall accordingly dismiss the Chemical Workers' petition for the smaller units. 6Rockland Light and Power Company, 35 NLRB 542; 49 NLRB 1398; 53 NLRB 798; 72 NLRB 1117. 7See, e.g., Pacific Gas and Electric Company, 87 NLRB 257 8 Elizabethtown Consolidated Gas Company, 93 NLRB 1270. PEERLESS PUMP DIVISION 369 In the systemwide unit herein found appropriate , we shall include gas employees at Nyack, New York, previously not represented by any labor organization , deeming them anatural accretion to the Employer ' s services . Employees at the Em- ployer's Tomkins Cove plant , however, voted in a consent election held in Case No. 2-RC-4763 on June 30 , 1952, and chose the Electrical Workers as their exclusive collective- bargaining representative . In accordance with Section 9 (c) (3) of the amended Act, 9 we shall exclude these employees from the instant unit and not permit them to vote in the election directed herein. If , however, the Electrical Workers wins the election among other employees of the Employer , the Electri- cal Workers may bargain with the Employer for Tomkins Cove employees as a part of a systemwide unit. Upon the entire record in these cases , we find that the following employees of the Employer constitute a unit appro- priate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act : All gas and electrical employees in the Eastern and Western Divisions in the States of New York , New Jersey , and Pennsylvania, including meter readers and employees at Nyack, New York, but excluding employees at the Tomkins Cove, New York , plant, office clerical employees , salesmen, guards , and executives, fore- men, and other supervisors as defined in the Act. [The Board dismissed the petition filed by International Chemical Workers Union , AFL, Local 143, in Case No. 2-RC- 5531.1 [Test of Direction of Election omitted from publication.] 9This section provides , in part: "No election shallbe directed in any bargaining unit or any subdivision within which , in the preceding twelve-month period, a valid election shall have been held." PEERLESS PUMP DIVISION OF THE FOOD MACHINERY AND CHEMICAL CORPORATION' and UNITED STEEL- WORKERS OF AMERICA, CIO , Petitioner . Case No. 21-RC- 2988. June 4, 1953 DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before Arthur Hailey, hearing officer . The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby af- firmed. I The Employer's name appears as amended at the hearing. 105 NLRB No. 38.