Claremont University Center

CLAREMONT UNIVERSITY CENTER Claremont University Center, Claremont Men's Col- lege, Harvey Mudd College, Pitzer College, Pomo- na College, and Scripps College, Known as The Claremont Colleges' and Office & Professional Employees International Union, Local No. 30, AFL-CIO, CLC,2 Petitioner. Case 21-RC-12197 August 9, 1972 DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS BY MEMBERS JENKINS, KENNEDY, AND PENELLO Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9(c) of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, a hearing was held before Hearing Officer Theodore B. Horn. 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, the case was transferred to the National Labor Relations Board for decision. The Petitioner and the Employers have 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 authority in this proceeding 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 this case, the Board finds: 1. The Employers are private, nonprofit educa- tional institutions. During the 12-month period ending in April 1971, the Claremont University Center and each of the above-named colleges had gross annual revenues, excluding contributions not available for operating purposes, exceeding $1 million. We find that Claremont University Center and each of the colleges is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the Act, and that it will effectuate the purposes of the Act to assert jurisdic- tion herein.3 2. The labor organization involved claims to represent certain employees of the Employers. 3. A question affecting commerce exists concern- ing the representation of certain employees of the Employers within the meaning of Section 9(c)(1) and Section 2(6) and (7) of the Act. 4. The Petitioner seeks to represent all full-time and regular part-time professional employees and nonprofessional employees of the Honnold Library System who are under the supervision of the Director of Libraries at The Claremont Colleges. It recognizes The names of the Employers appear as amended at the hearing x The name of the Petitioner appears as amended at the hearing 811 that professional employees have a statutory right to vote as a separate voting group to determine whether or not they desire to be represented as part of the overall unit. The Employers contend that the unit sought is inappropriate because it does not include all nonacademic employees in all of the colleges that comprise The Claremont Colleges or, at the least, all such employees of the Claremont University Center, excluding employees of the Claremont Graduate School and the Chancellor's Office. The Claremont Colleges is not a legal entity. The plural nomenclature is an all-embracing term to describe the several individual colleges and the Claremont University Center. The colleges, located on contiguous campuses in the city of Claremont, California, are Pomona College, Scripps College, Claremont Men's College, Harvey Mudd College, and Pitzer College. There is also a Claremont Graduate School which is administered by the Claremont University Center. Each college grants its own degrees. Each has its own board of trustees, president, administrative officers, faculty, and sup- porting personnel. Each has its own educational philosophy and determines its own curriculum, admission, and graduation requirements. In addition to operating the Graduate School, the Claremont University Center operates certain central facilities for the use of all the colleges. These include the Honnold Library, the Human Resources Insti- tute, the Student Health Center, the Counseling Center, Auditorium and Theater Events, the Joint Admissions Office, the Chaplain's Office, the Busi- ness Office and Plant Services, the Personnel Office, the Computer Institute, Campus Security, and the Office of the Provost. The Honnold Library system is the single most important central facility serving the students, faculty, and staffs of all the colleges. It consists of the Honnold Library and several satellite libraries located on the campuses of the various colleges. The library buildings include the Honnold main building in the geographical center of the Claremont complex, the Seely W. Mudd Library adjacent to the main library building, the Dennison Library on the Scripps campus, the Joint Science Libraries located on the campuses of Harvey Mudd and Claremont Men's Colleges, and six Science Libraries located in buildings of Pomona College. The Joint Science Libraries will soon be moved to a new building on the campus of Harvey Mudd College and will be known as the Sprague Library. The Honnold Library and the Seely W. Mudd Library buildings are owned by the Claremont University Center. The other I Sec 103 1 of the Board's Rules and Regulations, Series 8, as amended 198 NLRB No. 121 812 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD libraries are in buildings owned by the individual colleges. The chief administrative officer of the Honnold Library system is the Director of Libraries. He is responsible for the overall operation of the library and for coordinating the relationship of the library and various other institutions. The Director reports to the Provost. There are about 80 full-time employees on the Honnold staff, including both professional and nonprofessional employees. The majority of these employees are assigned to the Honnold Library buildings. The others work in the satellite libraries. In addition to the full-time employees, there are approximately 130 part-time employees. The great majority of these part-time employees are students, most of whom are paid with Honnold Library funds; the remainder are paid with funds contributed by the individual colleges upon whose campuses the librar- ies are located. The library supplies its services to the colleges under agreements with each. Under them the Director of Libraries, the chief administrative officer, is advised on matters of policy by the Library Council, whose members include representatives from the several colleges. The agreements provide for the Director of Libraries' control over the library collections housed on the various campuses, the manner of purchase and ownership of library equipment, ownership and maintenance of buildings, and the financing of the library. Expenses for operation and book acquisitions are defrayed, in part, by gifts to the library system and the balance by financial contributions from each college according to a formula established for each. A college may withdraw from the central library system only on 5 years' notice. At that time it may either withdraw its books or claim a cash settlement. The agreement provides that the withdrawing college, if it continues operations in Claremont, will negotiate separately with the Director of Libraries for library service. In addition to the Director of Libraries, the Honnold Library system staff includes an associate director and four assistant directors. Each assistant director is in charge of one of the four major library services: technical services, public services, sciences, and humanities. In general, technical services ac- quires and organizes library materials; public serv- ices distributes them; and the sciences and humani- ties divisions have like functions pertaining to specialized materials in those fields. Technical Services has three department acquisi- tions, catalog, and Asian studies collection. The acquisitions department obtains library materials. This function is performed by its two sections: bibliography and order. Bibliography determines the books to order and the availability of funds. The order section determines the vendors and orders the books. The catalog department organizes the library's collections. The department has three sections: the catalog section prepares various catalogs and de- scribes materials for cataloging; the keypunch section prepares materials for use at the computer center; and the preparations section prepares books for binding and also repairs some. The Asian studies collection acquires, catalogs, and services books in oriental languages. The Public Services Division serves students, faculty, and others who use the library. The Division has five departments: circulation, periodicals and government publications, reference, reserve, and special collections. Circulation lends or distributes library materials. Periodicals and government publi- cations acquires, organizes, and distributes periodi- cals and state and Federal government publications. Reference assists readers in the use of the library collections. Reserve assembles and distributes books to be used by faculty and students in course work. Special collections takes care of specialized or rare books. The Humanities Division services a collection of humanities and fine arts materials. The Sciences Division has like functions with respect to its specialized materials. The heads of the departments and most of the sections are professional librarians. They, together with other professional librarians, and a supporting staff of nonprofessional employees, acquire, care for, and distribute the collections of books and other educational materials. Theirs is a technical and very specialized operation. Many of the job classifica- tions, while nonprofessional, require skills for which a college background is preferred. This is particularly true for such positions as assistant bibliographer whose duties are to check catalog sources in specialized humanity and science fields, or biblio- graphical assistant for which knowledge of a foreign language is also helpful. Similarly, the position of government publications assistant entails a knowl- edge of government organization, a knowledge gained from college work. For other of the classifica- tions, technical knowledge in accounting procedures, data processing equipment, and graphic arts is desirable. The Director of Libraries has the authority to hire and discharge. He interviews everyone who is finally employed. In the past the library, like each college which recruits its separate faculty, has recruited its own professional employees. In the future the personnel office expects to participate in this for all nonacademic personnel. The personnel office's role CLAREMONT UNIVERSITY CENTER 813 in the hiring process is to insure equal employment opportunities for minority applicants and employees, a role undertaken to comply with Federal agency regulations applicable to government contractors. Library employees differ from other campus employees in their working conditions. Unlike the majority of other employees, whose workweek is 40 hours, library employees work 37-1/2 hours during most of the school year. Some of the libraries are open until midnight, and employees work the late evening hours. When employees work 1 evening a week, they are scheduled to work 36 hours a week; if 2 evenings a week, 35 hours. When they work Saturday and Sunday, they receive compensatory timeoff for an equivalent number of hours. While a recent general wage increase averaged 5 percent for all employees, the library wage increase was in excess of 10 percent. There have been few personnel transfers, either on a loan or a permanent basis, between the library and the colleges or between the library and other facilities. The reason given by the president of Claremont's Men's College for lack of transfers is that he "assume[d] that library employees are somewhat specialized and since I don't have a library, I don't see how I would borrow one." Nor has the library borrowed an employee from the Claremont Men's College. The witness recalled one instance of a secretarial employee at Scripps College who had transferred to the library when the witness was a student-more than 15 years ago. The Director of Libraries testified to two clerical employees who transferred from colleges into the library and one who transferred out. He had heard of another transfer out, before 1968. The manager of personnel services testified that an employee who was about to be terminated at the library transferred to a college, and that a keypunch operator would be transferring to the library. There is a bargaining history for some employees in a central service department. Since 1968 the Clare- mont University Center has had a "working agree- ment" with employees in the Shops Maintenance Department. The agreement covered initially some 90 employees in the physical plant of about 150. The Shops Committee represents about 60-70 percent of the physical plant employees, including electricians, plumbers, carpenters, painters, labor crew, trash men, truckdrivers, and campus safety engineers, among other classifications. The benefits of the agreement were later extended to all hourly paid employees of the physical plant department, includ- ing 60-70 custodians or groundsmen. The agreement has detailed provisions, including, in part, seniority, premium and call-back pay, wage review, probation- ary period, vacations, and holidays. The Library has had a less formal relationship with the Honnold Library Staff Association. The Director of Libraries and the personnel director have met with its executive committee to discuss issues affecting library employees such as a proposed grievance procedure and a salary survey. The Board restated, in Cornell University, 183 NLRB No. 41, the general guidelines it employs in making unit determinations in industrial, and now college, organizations where the employer operates a number of facilities. It said that it considers "such factors as prior bargaining history, centralization of management particularly in regard to labor relations, extent of employee interchange, degree of interde- pendence or autonomy of the plants, differences or similarities in skills and functions of the employees, and geographical location of the facilities in relation to each other." We find, on examination of these factors, that the Petitioner's proposed unit of library employees constitutes an identifiable group of employees with a separate community of interest. The work of library employees is specialized and different from that performed by employees of the other central services which relate to such diverse activities as business administration, student counseling, custodial serv- ices, and campus security. The libraries are located apart from the other central services and are separately supervised. The work schedule is unusual, and there has been little transfer or interchange between the library and other colleges or facilities. The Claremont Colleges already bargains collectively with the plant services, one unit of the central services. In Cornell University, supra, the Board dismissed a petition for a unit limited to nonprofessional library employees at but one of Cornell University's several locations. Another labor organization was seeking a broader unit encompassing all nonacademic univer- sity employees, including the library employees, working throughout the State. In these circumstances the Board held that a unit confined to the library employees on a single campus was inappropriate and it directed an election in the appropriate statewide unit. In the present case, unlike Cornell, the petitioning union desires an election among employees of all libraries which are part of The Claremont Colleges. Further, unlike Cornell, no other union is seeking to represent the library employees in a broader unit. Finally, the Honnold Library system serving The Claremont Colleges is a self-contained administrative unit located only at The Claremont Colleges in Claremont, California. Each college that the library services has an identity separate from each other and separate from the library. Thus, unlike Cornell, the 814 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD library system is not a widely scattered service provided to one educational institution. The libraries here, centrally located and supervised, serve the several separately incorporated colleges. Since the Cornell decision the Board has found less than an overall unit appropriate where, as here, the work situation shows a homogeneous group of employees who share a close community of interest. It has directed separate elections for faculty members in the law school of a university (Fordham University, 193 NLRB No. 23); maintenance employees at a university (Leland Stanford Jr. University, 194 NLRB No. 187); policemen at a university (Leland Stanford Jr., supra), firemen at a university (Leland Stanford Jr., supra) and central plant employees comprising but a section of the physical plant department in a university (California Institute of Technology, 192 NLRB No. 82). None of the cases cited in the dissent holds that librarians and the supporting personnel in a library system, which is not a part of any of the colleges which it serves, cannot organize themselves separately in an appropriate unit.4 We therefore hold that the Honnold Library system constitutes a separate appropriate unit. In accordance with the requirements of Section 9(b)(1) of the Act, we shall place the professional employees in a separate voting group. Questions remain as to the status of certain employees. Professional employees: The parties stipulated that the following are professional employees: In the Technical Services Division -bibliography section head, bibliographers, order section head, catalog department head, catalog section head, catalogers, Asian studies collection curator; in the Public Services Division -circulation department head, periodicals and government publications department head, government publications section head, refer- ence department head, assistant reference librarian, reserve department head, special collections depart- ment head, assistant special collections librarian; in the Humanities Division -reference librarian. Supervisors: The parties agree that the Director of Libraries, associate director, and four assistant directors are supervisors. Accordingly, we exclude them from the unit or units found appropriate herein. The Employers would further exclude as supervi- sors all professional librarians who are designated as 4 While an even broader unit might be appropriate, no other labor organization seeks a broader unit We therefore do not reach the merits of the Employers' alternative unit proposal that would include all central service employees Nor do we reach Petitioner's contention that the multiemployer unit (combining the single-employer colleges), proposed by the Employers, is inappropriate where parties have not agreed to bargain on a multiemployer basis 5 Our findings on supervisory status are based on the uncontradicted testimony of the Director of Libraries Two union witnesses gave general department heads or section heads. They would also exclude as supervisors these nonprofessional classifi- cations: supervisor in the catalog section, binding supervisor and processing supervisor in the prepara- tions section, and the joint science library supervisor in the science division.5 Technical Services Division Acquisitions departments The bibliography section head and the order section head are professionals. They direct the work of 20 employees divided between the two sections. Each is responsible for the day-to-day operation of his section. Both assign work, instruct employees as to it, and establish work priorities. The bibliography section head has effectively recommended hiring and merit increases. The order section head has effective- ly recommended merit increases and has such recommending authority for hire but has not had occasion to exercise it. The previous order section head did interview employees for hire and another previous incumbent effectively recommended the transfer of an employee into the section. We find that these two section heads are supervisors and we will exclude them. The catalog department head is responsible for the day-to-day operation of the department. The depart- ment includes about 10 employees in the catalog section, 5 in the keypunch section, and 6 in the preparations section. The department head assigns work, instructs employees, and reviews the work. He has effectively recommended hire, discharge, trans- fer, and merit increases. We find that he is a supervisor and we will exclude him. The catalog section head, a professional, is responsi- ble for the direction of the work of the four professional catalogers. The catalog section supervisor, a nonprofessional, is responsible for the work of the five nonprofessional catalog assistants. Both assign work, instruct employees, and establish work sched- ules and priorities. Both participate in hiring and merit reviews. We find that both individuals are supervisors and we will exclude them. The keypunch section supervisor is a nonprofession- al. She is responsible for the operation of the keypunch section. She assigns, instructs, and reviews the work of the four keypunch operators. She has testimony to indicate a lack of authority in department and section heads Specific evidence was not offered in refutation of record testimony as to duties of those now performing the work of the job classifications in issue here The Union relies primarily on the number in the full-time workforce and argues that 6 supervisors would be adequate for 75 employees In making our determination we have considered record estimates that include the large number of part-time employees 6 The position of department head is vacant and we make no determination respecting it CLAREMONT UNIVERSITY CENTER made effective recommendations for hire, makes written merit reviews and has the authority to recommend wage increases. We find that she is a supervisor and we will exclude her. The preparations section: The binding supervisor and the processing supervisor are responsible for the operation of the section: the binding supervisor, for the work of two binding assistants; the processing supervisor, for the work of two processing assistants. They assign work, instruct employees, and review the work. Both have effectively recommended hire and merit increases. We find that these two individuals are supervisors and we will exclude them. The Asian studies collection curator, a professional librarian, is the department head and is responsible for the work of the employees in the department. He assigns, directs, and reviews the work of five employees. He establishes work schedules and priorities. He has effectively recommended hire and transfer of employees. We find that he is a supervisor and we will exclude him. Public Services Division The circulation department head, a professional, directs the work of the 20-25 employees in the department. He assigns the work, gives instructions, and reviews the work. He has effectively recom- mended hire and merit increases. We find that he is a supervisor and we will exclude him. The periodicals and government publications depart- ment head, a professional, is responsible for the daily operation of the department. The department has 20-30 employees divided between its two sections (periodicals section and government publications section). There is no showing as to the number in each. The department head also serves as the periodicals section head. He establishes work priori- ties and instructs employees as to their work. He has effectively recommended hiring. He makes written merit reviews and has authority to recommend wage increases. We find that he is a supervisor and we will exclude him. The periodicals section:7 The government publica- tions section head, a professional librarian, assigns and instructs employees in their work and also establishes work priorities. She can participate in hiring and has effectively recommended merit increases. We find that she' is a supervisor and we will exclude her. r The position of periodicals section head is vacant The department head performs the duties of the section head 8 The parties agreed that these employees are professionals bibliogra- 815 The reference department head, reserve department head, and special collections curator are professional employees. They are responsible for the day-to-day operation of their departments. The reference depart- ment and special collections department each has 6-8 employees; the reserve department, 20-25. The three department heads assign work, instruct em- ployees as to their work, and establish work schedules and priorities. Each has made effective recommendations as to hiring and transfer. The special collections curator has also made effective recommendations as to discharge. The reserve department head and special collections curator have made effective recommendations as to merit increas- es. The reference department head has like authority in making merit reviews. We find that these three are supervisors and we will exclude them from the unit. Science Division The Joint Science Library supervisor. In addition to the position so designated the Science Division has one other full-time position. It is the science library assistant. The remainder of the work is performed with about 30 part-time student assistants. The work is performed in two buildings on the campuses of Harvey Mudd College and Claremont College, and in the six science libraries located at Pomona College. Students who perform the work on the several campuses are not part of the Honnold Library staff nor paid out of library funds. The Joint Science Library supervisor is responsible for having the libraries staffed at all times. She participates in hiring through discussion with college officials and maintains work schedules. While the student employ- ees may receive direction from the college staff where they work, the Joint Science Library supervisor is responsible for the science library operation. We find that she is a supervisor and we will exclude her. We find that the following employees may consti- tute an appropriate unit for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9(b) of the Act: All full-time and regular part-time employees working in the Honnold Library system at The Claremont Colleges, Claremont, California, in- cluding professional employees8 but excluding phers, catalogers, assistant reference librarian (reference department), assistant special collections librarian, reference librarian (Humanities Division) 816 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD the curator of the Westergard collection, the curator of the Oxford collection,9 confidential employees,10 guards and supervisors" as defined in the Act. The unit set out above includes professional and nonprofessional employees. However, the Board is prohibited by Section 9(b)(1) of the Act from including professional employees in a unit with employees who are not professionals unless a majority of the professional employees vote for inclusion in such a unit. Accordingly, we must ascertain the desires of the professional employees as to inclusion in a unit with nonprofessional employ- ees. We shall therefore direct separate elections in the following voting groups: Voting group (a): All full-time and regular part- time employees working in the Honnold Library system at The Claremont Colleges, Claremont, California, excluding confidential employees, professional employees, guards, and supervisors as defined in the Act. Voting group (b): All professional employees working in the Honnold Library system at The Claremont Colleges, Claremont, California, ex- cluding supervisors as defined in the Act. The employees in the nonprofessional voting group (a) will be polled to determine whether or not they wish to be represented by the Union. The employees in voting group (b) will be asked two questions on their ballot: (1) Do you desire the professional employees to be included in a unit composed of all employees of the Honnold Library system for the purposes of collective bargaining? y' (2) Do you desire to be represented for the purposes of collective bargaining by Office and Professional Employees International Union, Local No. 30, AFL-CIO, CLC. If a majority of the professional employees in voting group (b) vote "yes" to the first question, indicating their wish to be included in a unit with nonprofessional employees, they will be so included. Their votes on the second question will then be counted together with the votes of the nonprofession- al voting group (a) to determine whether or not the dmployees in the whole unit wish to be represented by the Union. If, on the other hand, a majority of 9 The parties agreed that the curator of the Westergard collection and the curator of the-Oxford collection should be excluded from the unit We exclude them. iO The parties agreed to exclude the secretary and assistant secretary to the Director of Libraries as confidential employees ii The parties agreed to exclude the Director of Libraries, associate director, and four assistant directors because they are supervisors In addition, our unit description excludes these individuals whom we find to be supervisors within the meaning of the Act in the Technical Services professional employees in voting group (b) vote against inclusion,Jy will not be included with the nonprofessional employees. Their votes on the second question will then be separately counted to determine whether or not they wish to be represented by the Union. Our unit determination is based, in part, then, upon the results of the election among the profes- sional employees. However, we now make the following findings in regard to the appropriate unit or units: 1. If a majority of the professional employees vote for inclusion in the unit with nonprofessional employees, we find that the following will constitute a unit appropriate for purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9(b) of the Act: All full-time and regular part-tinfe employees, working in the Honnold Library, system at The Claremont Colleges, Claremont, California, but excluding the curator of the Westergard collec- tion, the curator of the Oxford collection, confi- dential employees, guards and supervisors as defined in the Act. 2. If a majority of the professional employees do not vote for inclusion in the unit with nonprofes- sional employees, we find that the following two groups of employees will constitute separate units appropriate for the purposes of collective bargain- ing within the meaning of Section 9(b) of the Act: All full-time and regular part-time employees of the Honnold Library system at The Claremont Colleges, Claremont, California, excluding confi- dential employees, professional employees, guards and supervisors as defined in the Act. All professional employees of the Honnold Library' system at The Claremont Colleges, Claremont, California, excluding the curator of the Westergard collection, the curator of the Oxford collection, and supervisors as defined in the Act. [Direction of Elections Land Excelsior footnote omitted from publication.] MEMBER KENNEDY, dissenting: The majority opinion directs elections for two groups of college library employees: professional librarians and the library clerical staff. In doing so it segregates the library clerical employees from other Division-bibliography section head, order section head, catalog depart- ment head, catalogue section head, catalog section supervisor, keypunch section supervisor, binding supervisor, processing supervisor , curator of Asian studies collection , in the Public Services Division-circulation department head, periodicals and government publications department head, government publications section head , reference department head, reserve department head, and special collections department head, in the Science Division -Joint Science Library supervisor CLAREMONT UNIVERSITY CENTER 817 clerical employees who perform like work under like conditions and who receive like benefits. It further picks out a segment of the professional group-the librarians-setting them apart from other profession- al employees. I have analyzed the facts of this case under standards set out in Cornell University (183 NLRB No. 41 at p. 18), and I conclude that a unit limited to library employees is inappropriate and I would dismiss the petition. The colleges and Claremont University Center employ approximately 1,900 employees. Of these, approximately 550 are faculty members and the remainder are nonacademic employees. The Employ- ers' proposed alternative unit, numbers less than 400. The unit granted includes about 80 full-time employ- ees and an undetermined number of part-time employees. The cluster of The Claremont Colleges depends on a central administration, the Claremont University Center, to perform common services and operate central facilities for all of the colleges. In recognition of this purpose, a top governing body, the board of fellows, was established with a membership that includes the president and a member of the board of trustees from each of the colleges. Its duties include responsibility for the budget of all central facilities. A subdivision of the board of fellows, the council of The Claremont Colleges, given policy guidance and is responsible for the administration of the central programs and facilities and for labor relations decisions. While the colleges may be separate educational bodies, the unique characteristic of their grouping is that there is the central administration to supply services and facilities-most particularly, the large library. The Council of The Claremont Colleges is responsible for the administration of the library, as well as the other central services. The Director of Libraries reports to the Provost who in turn reports to the Council.13 That the library is a vital part of the colleges points to its oneness with the colleges and not, as the majority would have it, to separateness. As the president of Claremont Men's College testified, the library is "kind of the heart of the cooperative venture" that is The Claremont Colleges. The library's operating agreement with the colleges is intended primarily to provide for the care of the books, a service supported by each college's financial contribution. Significantly, it provides that staff classification, salaries, fringe benefits, and benefits for librarians 14 will be comparable to faculty salaries and benefits in comparable colleges and, for the assistant staff, shall be comparable to those for similar administrative and clerical positions in the member colleges. The duties of the bulk of library employees are not distinctive. There are less than 10 nonsupervisory professional librarians. The remainder of the employ- ees are nonprofessional clericals who are classified for the most part as assistants, i.e., bibliographical assistant, catalog assistant, circulation assistant, periodicals assistant, fund control assistant, order assistant, and data control assistant. The other nonprofessional classifications apply to a handful of employees who are designated keypunch operator, interlibrary loan clerk, and mail clerk. The duties of the nonprofessional library employ- ees are primarily clerical. They include receiving book requests, checking accounts to determine availability of funds for purchases, transmitting orders to book and periodical vendors, checking in books and periodicals, assembling and distributing books, searching bibliographical sources for books, preparing catalog entries and cards, using keypunch machines, receiving and sending books to commer- cial binderies and performing minor repairs, placing call numbers on the books, inserting bookplates and pockets in books, taking care of loan records, checking books in and out, shelving books, operating a copying machine, filing, typing, and delivering mail. There are other nonprofessional employees outside of the library system but working in central services who perform like clerical duties. They include, in part, receptionists in health, counseling, and person- nel services, secretaries in most of the various other central services offices, keypunch operators, tab operator, cashier, disbursement officers, bookkeeper, loan clerk, and accounts payable clerk, all in the business office, and clerks in the personnel office. While some job classifications in the library may be distinctive, the job skills, work, and training of the employees are not. The manager for personnel services testified to their similarities with work outside the library. The work of the fund control assistant in the order section of the library is similar to that of the accounting clerk in the central business office. Both handle income accounts, check requisi- tions, order materials, file, and type. The mail clerk job in or out of the library requires like tasks. The responsibility of the data control assistant in the library is like that of his counterpart in the central business office of Claremont University Center or the same job in the development office at Harvey Mudd College. Keypunch operators are a library 13 The Honnold Library Council, while once playing a governing part in council the administration of the library, now has only a consultative part Other 14 The colleges will enter into operating agreements with the computer central services, such as the Chaplain's Office, also have an advisory center which is not yet in full operation 818 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD classification, but keypunch operators are employed at a number of other locations. Their duties are essentially the same-keypunching and verifying. There are nonprofessional student employees performing library work at Pomona, Harvey Mudd, and Claremont Men's College but who are on the payroll of those colleges. They do the same work as students performing work at the other libraries and on the Honnold payroll. Personnel policies and employment practices are applied on the same basis to the library and other central service employees. These policies are formu- lated by the Council of The Claremont Colleges which has overall responsibility for all of the central services, including the library. They are administered by the business and personnel offices. The business office maintains records centrally for all and issues paychecks for all. Under a recent reorganization plan, all nonacademic employees will be recruited and hired through the personnel office. The wage and salary scales are being regularized under a formal classification program that has been under study and will take effect shortly. Such employee benefits as insurance, pension, vacation, holidays, and seniority credits are equally applicable to all. Hours, while different for the library than for some other services, are not so different from those of physical plant services, health service, theater and auditorium, bookstore, snack center, or the Chap- lain's office. All such services must be available evenings and weekends, and the business office ahs the same 37-1/2 hour workweek as the library. The library operations are intertwined with other of the central services. In addition to personnel and business office services, mentioned above, rendered to library employees along with others, the business office bills students for library fines, keeps an accounting of library funds for purchase, and operates the campus mail system which services the library. The physical plant supplies heat, air-condi- tioning, cleaning, and repair services to the library. The bookstore supplies books ordered by the library. The print shop prints some book plates and purchase forms. The computer center works with library staff in the preparation of a variety of records. The theatre stores some library materials. There is no history of collective bargaining on an overall or individual college basis. For several years a Shops Committee has represented part of the central service employees. These are skilled employees in the physical plant who are covered by a written agreement between the Shops Committee and the Claremont University Center. In the library system employees and supervisors have been members of the Honnold Library Staff Association. Management officials have met with its representatives on occa- sion to discuss personnel policies and library pro- grams. However, the Association has not negotiated ,a collective-bargaining agreement nor has it been accorded recognition as a bargaining representative. The Board held in Cornell University, 183 NLRB No. 41, that a unit confined to library employees at a college campus was not appropriate. Asserting the work of the nonacademic library employees, the Board said: Apart from the fact that these employees have organized themselves separately, there is little which justifies establishing a separate bargaining unit for them. Their work and skills are similar to those of many other employees on the Ithaca campus, and they enjoy the same working conditions and benefits as other Cornell employ- ees. In view of the foregoing, we do not find that the library employees possess a sufficiently separate community of interest which would warrant establishing the separate unit sought .... [See sec. entitled "Statewide Unit."] I can see no substantial difference between the situation in Cornell and that in this case. The prime determinants of community of interest are work and skills. They are the same for the employees involved in the two cases. Whatever differences may exist in organizational structure and working conditions between the two cases they are minor and do not justify different results. Library employees are not a craft. We have been pointed to no history showing that such employees have traditionally bargained as a separate unit. The organization of professional and nonprofes- sional employees for collective-bargaining purposes in American universities is a comparatively recent innovation but is now proceeding apace, as the large number of recent representation petitions and Board decisions attest. Our decisions will determine the form in which this organization proceeds. Up to the present time, with one exception, the Board has refused to permit fragmentation of the professional and clerical staffs of colleges for bargaining purpos- es.15 It has recently found specifically that "librari- ans are professional employees engaged in functions closely related to teaching and that they have a community of interest with the faculty." i6 Accord- ingly, it directed their inclusion in a bargaining unit with faculty members. If professional librarians 15 Cornell University, 183 NLRB No 41, George Washington University, school faculty in Fordham University, 193 NLRB No 23 191 NLRB No 395, Yale University, 184 NLRB No 101, Florida Southern 16 Florida Southern College, supra Accord C W Post Center of Long College, 196 NLRB No 133, University of New Haven, Inc, 190 NLRB No Island University, 189 NLRB No 109, Long Island University (Brooklyn 102 The single exception was the establishment of a separate unit for law Center), 189 NLRB No 110 CLAREMONT UNIVERSITY CENTER belong in the same unit with other professionals, then surely clerical library employees should be included in a unit with other clerical employees. Indeed, should the professional employees not select the Union but should the clericals do so, the library clerical unit remaining will be the very kind of unit the Board held inappropriate in Cornell because of its narrow scope. And, since Cornell, the Board has required a multicampus unit of nonacademic wage employees, declining to establish a separate unit for like employees on one campus. Tulane University, 195 NLRB No. 62 (Member Jenkins dissenting). It seems to me that with this decision the majority members are opening up unpredictable difficulties for the Board as well as for the colleges of this country. Today, the majority members find a unit of library employees appropriate. Tomorrow, can they logically refuse to find other college departmental units appropriate? Are there more reasons for finding a library unit appropriate than, for example, a physics department unit, or a sociology department unit, or a mathematics department unit? Such departmentalization can only engender divisiveness and cause breakdown of the collective-bargaining process that the Act is designed to promote. The appropriateness of a less than all-inclusive bargaining unit is usually established by industry tradition or company bargaining history. In the absence of these, resort is to rationality. In the present case industry tradition and employer bar- gaining history are lacking as support for the requested library unit. What we are left with to determine appropriateness is the reasonableness of the proposed unit. It seems to me not rational to 819 establish a separate unit for some but not all employees on a single campus who perform the same or related work. The fact of departmental lines is not sufficient to create separate communities of interest. The majority decision will open the door to the possibility, indeed the probability, that clerical and professional employees on The Claremont Colleges campus will be organized in separate bargaining units by different unions with all the rivalry and confusion this will entail. Competition in goods and prices serves a public interest; excessive competition among labor unions to see which can get the most for members does not serve a like function. On the contrary, such competitiveness is likely to be disrup- tive of sound labor relations and to lessen the ability of the colleges to perform their educational function. The private colleges of this country are faced with many grave difficulties, financial and otherwise. We should not increase those difficulties by unwisely creating fragmented bargaining units. The Act entrusts to the Board broad discretion in deciding what is an appropriate bargaining unit. But the discretion is not unlimited. Section 9(c)(5) of the Act specifically says that in determining appropriate- ness of a proposed bargaining unit "the extent to which the employees are organized shall not be controlling." In my opinion, contrary to the injunc- tion of Section 9(c)(5), the majority decision does give controlling weight to the fact that the Union has limited its organizational efforts to the library employees. I therefore disagree with the majority's unit finding. As the Petitioner does not seek any alternative unit, I would dismiss the petition.