Michigan Wisconsin Pipe Line Co.

MICHIGAN WISCONSIN PIPE LINE CO. 359 Michigan Wisconsin Pipe Line Company and International Chemical Workers Union, Petitioner. Case 7-RC-7422. May 4,1967 DECISION ON REVIEW AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION BY CHAIRMAN MCCULLOCH AND MEMBERS FANNING AND BROWN On September 28, 1966, the Regional Director for Region 7 issued a Decision and Order in the above- entitled proceeding in which he found , inter alia, that the unit sought by the Petitioner was inappropriate and he dismissed the petition. Thereafter, in accordance with the National Labor Relations Board's Rules and Regulations, as amended, the Petitioner filed a timely request for review of the Regional Director's Decision on the ground that he departed from established Board policy. The Employer filed opposition thereto. On November 29, 1966, the National Labor Relations Board by telegraphic order granted the request for review. Thereafter, the Employer filed a motion to vacate the order granting the request for review, a motion for oral argument, and a brief on review. The Petitioner filed a brief on review. The Board has reviewed the entire record in this case, including the briefs of the parties,' and makes the following findings: As found by the Regional Director, the Employer operates as a public utility engaged in the transmission, storage, and sale of natural gas to utility companies that sell to consumers. The Employer operates a pipeline which originates in the gas producing fields in the Texas panhandle and western Oklahoma, extends in a northeasterly direction to just south of Lake Michigan, where it divides into two branches, one leading into Wisconsin and the other into Michigan, to a terminus at the Woolfolk compressor station (near Big Rapids, Michigan) where the gas is injected into gas storage fields. Through its wholly owned subsidiary, American Louisiana Pipe Line Company, the Employer also operates a pipeline which begins in southern Louisiana, where it gathers gas from producing fields, and extends northward to Willow Run, Michigan. By means of an east-west linkage, it connects with the Michigan branch of the Texas pipeline at a point in southern Michigan near Chicago. At Willow Run, the line appears to connect with the pipeline system of Michigan Consolidated Gas Company (hereinafter referred to as Consolidated) which is also linked with the Employer's system at the Woolfolk station, at various underground gas storage fields, and at other points in Michigan. The Woolfolk station and the gas storage fields, including the interconnecting pipelines, are properties leased by the Employer from Consolidated. The Employer recently leased from Consolidated a compressor station at Reed City, Michigan, some 25 miles to the north of the Woolfolk station, two storage fields, one called Lo Reed and the other, Michigan Stray, and pipelines connecting the newly acquired station with the fields and tying in with Woolfolk station. Throughout its entire system, the Employer employs an estimated 700 to 800 production and maintenance employees. There is no history of collective bargaining for any of these employees. The unit set forth in the petition was confined to all employees at the Employer's Woolfolk station and its Big Rapids Pipeline District, which encompassed all the storage fields (four or five in number) linked to the Woolfolk station, located at distances of up to 45 miles from such station. At the hearing, the Petitioner indicated a willingness to include in the requested unit the employees at the newly acquired Reed City compressor station and related Lo Reed and Michigan Stray storage fields. The Employer's position is that only a systemwide unit is appropriate. The Employer's headquarters are in Detroit, Michigan, and consist of the dispatching department and four principal operating departments. The dispatching department relays instructions to the 34 compressor stations located at various points along the pipeline system determining the gas pressures to be maintained and the amount of inflow and outflow of gas at the various supply points in the system. The principal supply points are stations near the gas producing fields. In addition, there are supply points connecting the Employer's pipeline with other pipeline systems. Finally, from the Woolfolk and Reed City compressor stations, the Employer injects gas into the aforementioned underground storage fields, which serve as sources of supply for Michigan Consolidated Gas and other gas utilities located in upper Michigan, and as a reserve supply for reinjection into the Employer's pipeline system during periods of peak demand. Like the dispatching department, the four principal operating departments (compressor, pipeline, measurement, and communications) are headquartered at Detroit. Reporting to Vice President Trebilcott, the chief operations officer, are a vice president in charge of operations and a general superintendent of operations. There is also a general superintendent of each of the major operating departments. Overall supervision is further subdivided, where necessary, in order to balance the supervisory load. The general superintendent of the compressor department has two assistants, each in charge of two 1 As the record, including briefs of the parties, adequately Employer's motion to vacate the order granting the request for presents the issues and positions of the parties, the request for review is hereby denied oral argument is hereby denied For reasons expressed herein, the 164 NLRB No. 39 360 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD divisions. Each division has a superintendent maintaining an office within his territorial division. Each compressor station is headed by a superintendent. The Woolfolk station, because of its greater horsepower capacity, has an assistant superintendent. The Woolfolk station is one of seven within the Muncie, Indiana, division. The next closest compressor station is about 80 miles to the south. The Reed City compressor station as yet has not been attached to any of the existing administrative divisions and, at present, its superintendent reports directly to Detroit. The general superintendent of the pipeline department also has two assistants , each in charge of three divisions. Again, each division has a superintendent maintaining an office within his territorial division. The pipeline divisions are further subdivided into districts, each under a superintendent operating from an office within his territorial district. Each pipeline district except the Big Rapids district is responsible for the maintenance of a segment of the main pipeline. The Big Rapids district is the northernmost of three districts within the Grand Rapids division and is responsible for the operation and maintenance of the storage fields, supplied by the Woolfolk and Reed City compressor stations, related processing and dehydration facilities,' and interconnecting pipelines.:' The communications department operates through two divisions. The measurement department has no subdivisions. There do not appear to be any measuring stations operating in conjunction with the storage fields. Further, the record does not indicate that these two departments utilize production and maintenance employees or that any of the employees of these departments are located in the Big Rapids area. There are 37 employees at the Woolfolk station: 16 operators, 20 maintenance men,4 and 1 machinist. Exclusive of the Lo Reed and Michigan Stray storage fields, there are 20 employees in the Big Rapids pipeline district: 17 field storage operators,5 2 heavy-truck drivers, and 1 welder. The record indicates that at the Reed City compressor station and the 2 storage fields linked with it, there are 37 employees in similar classifications. While there appears to be no interchange between the Woolfolk and Reed City compressor stations and the storage field employees, the Austin storage field is z Gas removed from the Lo Reed storage field is "scrubbed" at a processing plant to remove impurities before it is sold or reinjected into the main pipeline Gas removed from all storage fields is also conditioned by dehydration, before sale or reinjection in the main pipeline 3 The employees working at the Lo Reed and Michigan Stray storage fields have been attached for administrative purposes to the Big Rapids district. The maintenance men are general utility men , performing a variety of functions at the station 5 The field operators, in addition to performing the functions of maintenance men, have technical skills necessary for the operation and maintenance of equipment and devices found only contiguous with the Woolfolk station and is a supply base for the other storage fields in the Big Rapids district. Although the requested employees share overall intermediate supervision with employees at other stations and pipeline districts, the station and district superintendents have a degree of autonomy. Thus, they initiate the hire and discharge of employees. While certain orders relative to gas transmission and other operations are received from the Detroit offices, the day-to-day operations are directed, and duties are assigned, by the station and district superintendents. The evidence presented by the Employer, while showing substantial temporary interchange of pipeline employees during the first half of 1966, does not indicate the extent, if any, to which they involved the Big Rapids district. The Employer testified generally that there were temporary and permanent transfers from location to location, depending on conditions. The Employer also gave evidence of temporary transfers of employees from other locations to the "Big Rapids Area" during the years since 1962, involving employees in 5-to-7 classifications. However, these transfers involved the operation, pickup, or delivery of heavy equipment, installations of equipment, and special projects; e.g., "upgrade Austin to Goodwell." No evidence was presented to show temporary transfer of employees out of the area to other locations. The Board has generally held that, because of the inherent integration and interdependence of operations in public utilities, a systemwide unit is the optimum unit for purposes of collective bargaining.' However, the Board has also recognized that units of lesser scope may be appropriate in certain situations.7 As described above, the Employer's compressor and pipeline departments are subdivided along geographical as well as administrative lines.8 The pipeline department employees requested are all the pipeline employees in the Big Rapids district. All the requested compressor station employees at Reed City and Woolfolk, together with the requested pipeline employees, are located in a contiguous area and are related because of the unique storage field function which they perform at the Michigan terminus of the line. Thus the employees sought all work within a well-defined geographical area. Moreover, there is no record evidence of significant in the storage fields The Employer in its entire operation has only 21 storage field operators Apparently there are 4 at the Lo Reed and Michigan Stray storage fields 6 Idaho Power Company, 126 NLRB 547, The Hartford Electric fight Company, 122 NLRB 1421. ' See Arkansas-Missouri Power Company, 152 NLRB 1600, Louisiana Gas Service Co , 126 NLRB 147 ' Because of the Employer's method of subdividing its operating departments to accommodate supervisory load, it would be impossible to establish any major administrative subdivision of the system in which the geographic bounds of compressor and pipeline divisions would coincide, short of the entire pipeline system. MICHIGAN WISCONSIN PIPE LINE CO. 361 interchange of employees between this area and other segments of the Employer's pipeline system. In the circumstances, we conclude that the employees sought by the Petitioner, under its amended request, share a community of interest separate and apart from employees working in other segments of the Employer's pipeline system, and constitute an appropriate unit.' Accordingly, we find that a question affecting commerce exists concerning the representation of certain employees of the Employer within the meaning of Sections 9(c)(1) and 2(6) and (7) of the Act, and that the following unit is appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9(b) of the Act: All production and maintenance employees of the Employer's Woolfolk and Reed City compressor stations, and its Big Rapids pipeline district, located in the Big Rapids, Michigan, area, excluding all other employees, professional employees, watchmen, guards, and supervisors as defined in the Act. [Text of Direction of Election' ° omitted from publication.] ' Whether or not other less-than -systemwide units may be appropriate for the Employer's employees would depend, of course, on all the facts and circumstances concerning the units specifically requested 10 An election eligibility list, containing the names and addresses of all the eligible voters, must be filed by the Employer with the Regional Director for Region 7 within 7 days after the date of this Decision on Review and Direction of Election The Regional Director shall make the list available to all parties to the election No extension of time to file this list shall be granted by the Regional Director except in extraordinary circumstances Failure to comply with this requirement shall be grounds for setting aside the election whenever proper objections are filed Excelsior Underwear Inc , 156 NLRB 1236