Syosset General Hospital

304 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD Syosset General Hospital and Local 1199, Drug and Hospital Union, AFL-CIO, Petitioner. Cases 29- RC-1544 and 29-RC-1545 May 11, 1971 DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS BY CHAIRMAN MILLER AND MEMBERS JENKINS AND KENNEDY Upon petitions duly filed under Section 9(c) of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, a con- solidated hearing was held before Hearing Officer Rich- ard J. Roth of the National Labor Relations Board. Following the hearing and pursuant to Section 102.67 of the National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations and Statements of Procedure, Series 8, as amended, and by direction of the Regional Director for Region 29, these cases were transferred to the National Labor Relations Board for decision. On December 10, 1970, briefs were timely filed by the Petitioner, the Intervenor,' and the Employer, which have been con- sidered by the Board. Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the Act, the Board has delegated its powers in connection with their cases 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. They are hereby affirmed. Upon the entire record' in these cases, 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 repre- sent certain employees of the Employer.' 3. Questions affecting commerce exist 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. 4. Petitioner seeks to represent employees of the Em- ployer in two separate bargaining units consisting of (1) pharmacists and (2) technicians. The Intervenor agrees that a separate unit of pharmacists is appropriate. However, it contends that clerical employees should be included in the same unit with technicians. The Em- Syosset Hospital Technical & Clerical Employees Association. ' We find the Petitioner's objection to the posthearing exhibit submitted by the Employer to be without merit. The exhibit is, therefore, received in evidence. ' The Employer contested the status of the Petitioner as a labor organiza- tion and the Petitioner in turn contested the status of the Intervenor. The record shows that the Petitioner and the Intervenor are organizations in which employees participate and that both exist for the purpose of dealing with employers concerning wages, hours, and other conditions of employ- ment. Accordingly, we find that the Petitioner and the Intervenor are labor organizations within the meaning of Section 2(5) of the Act. ployer argues that technicians, clericals, and pharma- cists should be in one unit , with the pharmacists being permitted to vote separately as to whether they desire to be included in an overall unit. The Employer operates a proprietary hospital in Syosset, New York. Petitioner already represents the hospital's unskilled personnel in housekeeping and food services, the nurses aides, and maintenance per- sonnel. Registered nurses are represented by a profes- sional association . The only unrepresented employees are those involved in these proceedings : pharmacists, technicians, and clericals. The pharmacists must have a Bachelor of Science degree from a school of pharmacy and must be licensed by the State of New York. They work almost exclu- sively in the hospital pharmacy where they dispense all medication required for all units in the hospital. We find that they are professional employees within the meaning of Section 2(12) of the Act.' We further find that as professional employees they have a community of interest separate from that of nonprofessional em- ployees, and, as neither union seeks to include them in a broader unit, they may constitute a separate appropri- ate unit.' The technicians work in the various departmental laboratories of the hospital , including histology, bac- teriology, chemistry, and hematology , etc. Although some have had 1 or 2 years of specialized post-second- ary school training, most of them perform routine laboratory work, are only high school graduates, are not required to have technical school training, and learn their skills by on-the-job training which may re- quire only a few months. The clerical employees involved, all of whom per- form usual office and clerical work, include general office clerical employees who work in the several busi- ness offices on the main floor and the ground floor of the hospital , and clericals who work with technicians in the various laboratories throughout the hospital. The clerical employees in the laboratories are supervised by the same individual who supervises and directs the work of the technicians in that laboratory. There is a high degree of cooperation among all em- ployees and all departments in the common objective of serving hospital patients . This includes clericals in the nonmedical departments such as admitting office, medical records department , and business offices. The work of these clericals also brings them in frequent contact with clericals in the laboratories and other de- partments, who constantly transmit information about tests and charges for services which are entered onto the charts and other patient records . All employees Katz Drug Company, 123 NLRB 1616, 1617. ' Drug Fair-Community Drug Co., Inc., 180 NLRB No. 94. Cf. Katz Drug Company, supra. 190 NLRB No. 59 SYOSSET GENERAL HOSPITAL 305 have substantially the same fringe benefits and enjoy similar working conditions. As stated, technicians and some of the clericals have the same supervision. Some of the "technicians" appear to be technical employees in the sense in which the Board uses that term.' However, most of them are not; they do not have the technical school background or the technical train- ing on the subprofessional level which would give them a community of interest apart from other employees. Most of the "technicians" here are more like laboratory assistants in industrial laboratories who perform pre- scribed, routine tests under professional supervision.' The Board does not establish separate bargaining units for such laboratory assistants . Accordingly, we find that a separate unit of "technicians" is not appropriate. As the "technicians" and clerical employees are the only unrepresented nonprofessional employees, and as many of them work in the same departments under the same supervision, have common educational back- grounds, and enjoy similar fringe benefits and working conditions, we find that a unit of "technicians" and clerical employees is appropriate. The Sheffield Corporation, 134 NLRB 1101 Dewey Portland Cement Company, division of Martin-Marietta Corpo- ration 137 NLRB 944, 947 Accordingly, we find that the following employees constitute separate appropriate units for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9(b) of the Act: (a) All pharmacists employed at the Employer's Syosset, New York, hospital excluding all other em- ployees, supervisors, watchmen, and guards as defined in the Act. (b) All hospital technicians and clerical employees employed at the Employer's Syosset, New York, hospi- tal, excluding all other employees, pharmacists, super- visors, watchmen, and guards as defined in the Act. [Direction of Elections' omitted from publication.] ' In order to assure that all eligible voters may have the opportunity to be informed of the issues in the exercise of their statutory right to vote, all parties to the election should have access to a list of voters and their ad- dresses which may be used to communicate with them Excelsior Underwear Inc, 156 NLRB 1236, NL R.B. v. Wyman-Gordon Co, 394 US. 759. Accordingly , it is hereby directed that 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 29 within 7 days of the date of this Decision 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 extraordi- nary circumstances Failure to comply with this requirement shall be grounds for setting aside the election whenever proper objections are filed