Marriott Hotels, Inc.

MARRIOTT HOTELS 399 Marriott Hotels, Incorporated and International Union of Operating Engineers, Local No. 399, AFL-CIO, Petitioner. Case 13-RC-12163 December 21, 1970 DECISION ON REVIEW AND ORDER BY CHAIRMAN MILLER AND MEMBERS FANNING AND BROWN On July 17, 1970, the Acting Regional Director for Region 13 issued a Decision and Direction of Election in the above-entitled proceeding in which he found appropriate the Petitioner's alternatively requested unit of "all employees in the maintenance department engaged in the operation and maintenance of steam boilers and air-conditioning absorbers" employed at the Employer's Chicago Marriott Hotel in Chicago, Illinois, rejecting the Employer's contention that the smallest appropriate unit for the requested employees must encompass all employees in the maintenance department. Thereafter, in accordance with Section 102.67 of the National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations, Series 8, as amended, the Employer filed a request for review of such Decision contend- ing, inter alia, that the Regional Director, in making his unit determination, departed from officially reported precedent. The Petitioner filed opposition thereto. The Board by telegraphic order dated August 20, 1970, granted the Employer's request for review and stayed the election pending decision on review. Thereafter, the Petitioner filed a brief on review, and the Employer requested that its request for review and brief in support thereof be treated as its brief on review. 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. The Board has considered the entire record in this case with respect to the issues under review and makes the following findings: The Chicago Marriott Hotel is a 500-room hotel on 23 acres of land, with two main restaurants, two cocktail lounges, about 25,000 square feet of banquet and meeting room space, a conference center leased to the American Management Association, two swimming pools, kitchens, and other related facilities. In addition, at the time of the hearing, the Employer was building a 220-room addition, with health club, ice rink, separate swimming pool, and related facili- ties. There are 850 employees at the hotel. Of this number 20 are employed in the maintenance depart- ment, performing maintenance work on refrigeration equipment, sound equipment, electrical and mechani- cal equipment of other kinds, and performing painting, carpentry, locksmithing, etc. Also, approxi- mately 8 of the 20 spend part of their time operating and maintaining steam boilers and air-conditioning absorbers located in the enginerooms. The engineroom in the hotel contains one high- pressure steam boiler used solely to supply steam and power to the laundry which operates during the day shift only. The engineroom also has low-pressure boilers used for heating the hotel and its water supply (the conference center also has a low-pressure boiler used to heat its water supply), low-pressure air- conditioning absorbers, water softening equipment and various pumps and filters associated with the swimming pools, key-making apparatus, workbench- es, and a central electrical room. The engineroom functions as the central maintenance area, as well as the office for maintenance supervision and a clerical employee. The chief engineer, a licensed operating engineer, is over the entire maintenance department. He has two assistant chiefs who assist in the supervision of maintenance employees. One, commonly referred to as the "engineroom chief," is also a licensed operating engineer and provides immediate supervision to the boilertenders who operate and perform preventive maintenance on the steam boilers and air-condition- ing absorbers in the engineroom and the conference center. The two licensed supervisors are often present during the day shift when the high-pressure boiler is operated and when low-pressure boilers may be operated at over 10 psi (pounds per square inch).' The other assistant chief supervises all maintenance assignments other than boilerroom work. All maintenance department employers are multi- skilled and are classified as maintenance or senior maintenance. All the boilertenders are classified as senior maintenance. The Acting Regional Director found that while the boilertenders, licensed or unlicensed, spend only about 25 percent of their time operating and maintaining the boilers and absorbers, it is not uncommon for those on the first and second shifts to spend 3 and 4 hours of an 8-hour shift on boilerroom work. They spend the rest of their time, like the other maintenance employees, in performing a variety of other types of maintenance assignments throughout the hotel premises. The Acting Regional Director concluded that because the boilertenders are given exclusive respon- sibility for the operation and maintenance of the I In both of these events , a licensed operating engineer is required to be present 187 NLRB No. 52 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD boilers and absorbers and this remains their primary function, they constitute a functionally distinct group appropriate for bargaining. We disagree. It is clear, on the basis of the Acting Regional Director's findings of fact, as well as our review of the entire record, that the boilertenders here involved are not predominantly engaged in boilerroom functions. They do not, therefore, constitute an appropriate unit of boilerroom operators on a craft or departmental basis.2 Furthermore, in view of the fact that the boilertenders spend the majority of their time on a variety of maintenance assignments throughout the hotel of the type handled by other maintenance department employees and at such times share the same supervision, we find that the only appropriate unit herein must encompass all employees in the maintenance department. Accordingly, as the Peti- tioner indicated at the hearing that it would not participate in an election in such broader unit, we shall dismiss the petition. ORDER It is hereby ordered that the petition filed herein be, and it hereby is, dismissed. 2 See Kimball Systems, Inc, 164 NLRB 290, and cases cited therein