Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc.

856 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD Bell Telephone Laboratories , Incorporated, Employer and International Union of Operating Engineers , AFL-CIO, Petitioner. Case 13-RC-11010 May 22, 1967 DECISION AND ORDER BY MEMBERS BROWN, JENKINS, AND ZAGORIA Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9(c) of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, a hearing was held before Albert Kleen, hearing officer of the National Labor Relations Board. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.' The Employer, the Petitioner, and the Intervenor filed briefs. Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, the National Labor Relations Board has delegated its powers in connection with this case to a three- member panel. Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds: 1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the Act, and it will effectuate the purposes of the Act to assert jurisdiction herein. 2. The labor organizations involved claim to represent certain employees of the Employer. 3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the representation of the employees of the Employer within the meaning of Section 9(c)(1) and Section 2(6) and (7) of the Act. 4. The Petitioner primarily seeks a unit of watch engineers at the Employer's new Indian Hill communications research and development laboratory at Naperville, Illinois. Alternatively, the Petitioner seeks a unit of watch engineers, plant watch operators, and alarm and control board operators; or will accept a unit of watch engineers, general plant mechanics, plant maintenance hands, plant operations mechanics, plant watch operators, and alarm and control board operators. The Employer and the Intervenor, Communications Workers of America, AFL-CIO, contend that the Petitioner's units are inappropriate for purposes of collective bargaining, and that the instant petition should therefore be dismissed. The Indian Hill laboratory employs 1,048 employees, of whom 393 are professional engineering personnel engaged in design and development, 293 are technical employees assisting them, and 362 are administrative employees, including the 63 maintenance and plant service employees which group is alone involved in this proceeding.' The Employer's name appears as amended at the hearing L The other administrative employees include managerial or supervisory employees, engineers, a librarian, general The maintenance and plant service employees comprise 25 job classifications, of which 21 were filled as of the date of the hearing. Under the general supervision of the head of the shops and plant operations department, these employees are attached to four separate departments, called respectively the shops, plant and building engineering and maintenance, plant service, and plant and building operation departments, each with its own immediate supervision. All maintenance and plant service employees enjoy the same fringe benefits, including pension and insurance plans, vacations, sickness and accident benefits, and recreational facilities, and all have essentially the same conditions of employment. Hiring procedures are the same, as are methods of payment and pay days. There is little or no employee interchange, due to differences in job requirements. The maintenance and plant service employees, engaged in instrument manufacture and repair and plant operation and maintenance, act as a support group for the professional and technical employees engaged in research and development work. There is no bargaining history for these employees at the Indian Hill laboratory. At the Employer's five other laboratories, in New York and New Jersey, the Intervenor, as the recognized bargaining representative, has a single contract covering the maintenance and plant service employees alone, and there is no existing bargaining units at these laboratories of the types sought by the Petitioner. We shall now consider the employees in the units sought by the Petitioner. The five watch engineers, who comprise the Petitioner's primary unit, are responsible for the proper operation and maintenance of all mechanical plant equipment, including low-pressure steam boilers, compressors, refrigerating, ventilating, and air-conditioning machines, fire protection equipment, electrical substation and distribution equipment, and equipment supplying electricity. They are the most highly skilled of the maintenance and plant service group and have the most responsibility. Their primary function is to assure the continuing operation of the plant, and for this purpose they are selected not so much for their knowledge of a particular machine but for their experience in operating many different types of machinery. They are not separately supervised, and their work requires no special level of education or apprenticeship and no governmental licensing. They have five primary work areas. The first of these is the boilerroom, which contains miscellaneous pieces of equipment and machinery such as low-pressure boilers, pumps, water softeners, refrigeration equipment, a water chlorinating system, transformers, air compressors, and electro dryers.3 administrators, and clerical employees ' The boilerroom is not the primary source of plant heat, which is supplied by flourescent lights throughout the plant building 164 NLRB No. 112 BELL TELEPHONE LABORATORIES They currently spend 1 to 2 hours per shift in the boilerroom examining and checking this equipment; however, it is expected that this amount of time will be reduced to one-half hour or less upon the installation of an alarm and control board for monitoring the boilerroom. The other primary work areas include the mechanical rooms, where the watch engineers check on the operation of the air- conditioning fans and other machinery; the service building and the cooling tower, where they check on the operation of water pumps and the chemical water treatment system; and the electric substation, where they check on the operation of the electrical power facilities. Additionally, the watch engineers spend substantial amounts of time in secondary work areas known as the laboratory service cores, located throughout the building, which function as distribution points for various services such as heat, light, and air-conditioning. They also spend substantial amounts of time checking on the operation of the 1,200 air-conditioning mixing boxes scattered throughout the building. They work three rotating shifts of 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, with the result that, for at least one of their number, four of his five shifts are spent performing the same type of maintenance work as the mechanics perform. The watch engineers may turn over the operation of newly installed or repairable machinery to a mechanic, and may perform repair work whenever necessary for the continued maintenance of plant operations. The single plant watch operator acts as the plant watch engineer's assistant, works in the same areas, and has essentially the same kinds of duties. The single alarm and control board operator operates a fire and watchman alarm and control board, and in so doing acts essentially as a reporter of any equipment trouble which might show up on the board. He exercises only rudimentary judgment and minimal skills in this job and takes no corrective action. The single plant operations mechanic works throughout the plant building, repairing, and maintaining installed mechanical and electrical plant equipment. The single plant maintenance hand likewise works throughout the plant building; his work consists of routine maintenance work, such as inspecting motors and replacing lamps in the lighting fixtures. The single general plant mechanic performs all types of mechanical work, particularly mechanical work involving the skills of the building trades. The single instrument and control mechanic works throughout the plant building wherever there are electric or automatic controls; his work includes the inspection, maintenance, and repair of pneumatic electrical and electronic instruments and controls on various types of equipment. The Petitioner contends that its primary unit of 4 Victor Manufacturing & Gasket Company, 133 NLRB 1283 1285-86, Arrowhead & Puritas Waters, Inc , 116 NLRB 1431, Hughes Aircraft Company, 114 NLRB 504, 507-508, General 857 the five watch engineers constitute an appropriate craft unit, because the watch engineers alone exercise the highest degree of skill, judgment, and responsibility in the performance of their duties, and that they exercise the full gamut of skills associated with their craft. We do not agree. As noted above, the plant watch engineers are hired on the basis of general experience to operate a variety of machinery. They require no special level of education, are not licensed, and work throughout the plant; engaging in testing , troubleshooting, and general repair and maintenance work, as needed. Their work places primary general emphasis on knowledge of those factors which might affect the continuous operation of machinery, such as lack of grease or a worn motor bearing, rather than on a thorough understanding of any particular piece of equipment. In these circumstances, we find that they are not entitled to separate representation as a craft unit or on any other basis.4 The Petitioner contends that its first alternative unit of plant watch engineers, the plant watch operator, and the alarm and control board operator constitutes an appropriate departmental unit. In support of its position, the Petitioner argues that these employees, unlike the other maintenance and plant service employees, are so-called "shift supervision employees" a phrase coined by the Petitioner to reflect the fact that they, unlike most of the other maintenance and plant service employees who work day shifts only, work multiple shifts around the clock. The Petitioner further states that they are hired on the basis of training and experience, do not interchange jobs with other employees, and alone work in the power room. As such, it contends, they are "comparable to the plant powerhouse or boiler room employees which the Board has consistently found to constitute an appropriate departmental unit." We disagree. As noted above, the so-called boilerroom contains a variety of equipment not customarily associated with traditional boilerrooms, and lacks high-pressure boilers requiring the attention of licensed operating engineers. The equipment is highly automatic, requiring minimal attention from personnel who spend most of their time in overlapping maintenance work elsewhere. Furthermore, the boilerhouse personnel, attached to different departments, lack any of the uniformity of skills or continuity of immediate supervision customarily associated with departmental units. For these reasons, as well as the fact that they enjoy the same benefits and conditions of employment as the other employees, we find that the so-called "shift supervision employees" sought in the Petitioner's first alternative unit lack the requisites for their separate representation as an appropriate departmental unit.5 Electric Company, 112 NLRB 839. ' See fn 4,supra. 858 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD The Petitioner does not favor its second alternative unit, but will accept it should the other units it seeks be found inappropriate. In fact, it concedes that the employees in this unit lack a community of interest. For reasons set forth in our consideration of the Petitioner's first alternative unit request, we find inappropriate the Petitioner's second alternative unit. In these circumstances, we find that all of the units proposed by the Petitioner are inappropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9(c)(1) and Section 2(6) and (7) of the Act. As the Petitioner does not seek an election in any larger unit, we shall dismiss the instant petition. 6 ORDER It is hereby ordered that the instant petition be, and the same hereby is , dismissed. fi In view of our Decision herein, we find it unnecessary to consider the other contentions raised by the parties in this proceeding