Inter-City Contractors Service, Inc.

684 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD Inter-City Contractors Service, Inc. and Local 123, United Construction Trades, affiliated with Allied Workers International Union, Independent, Petitioner. Case 13-RC-12008 May 22, 1970 DECISION AND ORDER BY CHAIRMAN MCCULLOCH AND MEMBERS FANNING AND JENKINS ' ` The Employer is an Indiana corporation engaged in the construction industry in that state . In January 1969, for the purpose of providing employment and training to disadvantaged persons , the Employer received a grant of $735 ,500 from the Manpower Commission of the U.S. Department of Labor . These funds are currently being applied for the stated purposes through the Jour- neyman Employment and Training (JET) program, which is administered under the joint auspices of the Employer and the Intervenor unions. The Employer is also the recipient of a contract for $101 ,000 for demolition work from the Gary Development Commission , the funds for which work are also of federal origin. Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended , a hearing was held before Hearing Officer Cyrus A. Alexander. Following the hearing and pursuant to Section 102.67 of the National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regula- tions and Statements of Procedure , Series 8 , as amended, by order of the Regional Director for Region 13, this case was transferred to the National Labor Relations Board for decision . Thereafter , briefs were filed by the Petitioner and the Employer and Intervenor unions.' 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 con- nection with this case to a three-member panel. ` The Board has reviewed the Hearing Officer 's rulings made at the hearing and finds that they are free from prejudicial error . The rulings are hereby affirmed. Upon the entire record in the case, the Board finds: The Petitioner filed its petition on October 16, 1969, seeking to represent a unit of skilled craftsmen and laborers of the Employer . Subsequently, on October 31, 1969 , Petitioner amended its petition to request a unit of only laborers of the Employer. At the hearing, Petitioner again amended its petition to request a unit of only "orientation-observation" employees of the Employer . In its brief, the Petitioner now states that it "will participate in any election in whatever unit the Board finds appropriate." While Petitioner has thus been less than specific about which unit of employees it seeks to represent , we shall focus on the "orientation observation " employees ,-since it appears that they are the only ones not currently represented by another labor organization . We say this because, on August 6, 1969 , the Employer and the Northwestern Indiana Building and Construction Trades Council signed the Building Trades Agreement, which is currently in effect and binds the Employer to recognize the Council and the affiliated unions of the Council as the bargaining representatives for the employees in each of their respective occupational jurisdictions. It is clear, then , that a contract bar exists as to all employ- ees except the "orientation -observation" employees, whom the Intervenors do not purport to represent. I The Intervenor unions, Northwestern Indiana Building and Construct tion Trades Council and its affiliated union , Local 81, Laborers, also affiliated with Laborers International Union of North America, AFL- CIO, intervened at the hearing For the purpose of finding and preparing suitable applicants for the JET program , the Employer has under- taken a preliminary program in which it selects hard core unemployed for a brief period of observation and orientation . The orientation-observation group of employees are primarily engaged in running errands and performing cleanup chores in demolition work per- formed by the Employer under its contract with the Gary Development Commission . If these employees, initially certified as "hard core " unemployed ,2 exhibit work habits which, in the Employer 's opinion , will make them productive , they are transferred from the orienta- tion-observation group into construction laborer and craft trainee positions under the JET program, and may even- tually become journeymen . There are now ten such orientation-observation employees , who, under the pro- gram , are provided with supportive medical and psycho- logical services. They are paid $3 per hour, do not receive any fringe benefits , and are provided with hand tools by the Employer , if such tools are necessary in the demolition work . About 50 such orientation-obser- vation employees have been hired since March 1969. The average stay of such employees in this group is 2 weeks to a month. These employees are separately supervised and work away from the construction project. The Employer has indicated that it will terminate the orientation-observation program upon the expiration of its contract with the Manpower Commission on January 17, 1971. The Petitioner contends that these employees have a right , during their orientation-observation period, to be represented by a bargaining agent of their own choos- ing under the Act. The Employer and Intervenors con- tend that the "hard core " personnel , during the period of from 2 weeks to a month spent in orientation and observation for the purpose of instilling work habits and determining whether they are capable of moving into one of several already established bargaining units, may not properly "be molded together" into an appropriate bargaining unit . Their ground for so contend- ing is that the tenure of employment of these employees is too temporary and transitory. We agree with the Employer and the Intervenors. The tenure of employment as orientation-observation 2 Persons who are members of minority groups, underemployed, undereducated , and who have earned less than a certain amount in the past, are certified as "hard core " 182 NLRB No. 108 INTER CITY CONTRACTORS SERVICE, INC employees is only for 2 weeks to a month, and if the employees successfully complete this period of train- ing, they are assigned as trainee laborers or craft trainees on construction projects where they become members of units which are covered by bargaining agreements While these employees , during the observation-orienta- tion period , do perform some work , their special status and the brief tenure of their employment in this phase of the program make it questionable whether a collective- bargaining relationship would be feasible and would serve any purpose Because of the temporary and transi- tory nature of the employment during their orientation- 685 observation period , a bargaining unit of such employees during this period would be necessarily unstable and impracticable Under all the circumstances of this case, we conclude that it would not effectuate the policies of the Act to find that the proposed bargaining unit would be appropriate Accordingly, we shall dismiss the petition ORDER It is hereby ordered that the petition herein be, and it hereby is, dismissed