Orleans Transportation Service, Inc.

ORLEANS TRANSPORTATION SERVICE, INC. Orleans Transportation Service, Inc. andBrotherhood of Railway, Airline & -Steamship Clerks, Freight Handlers, Express & Station Employees, AFL-CIO, Petitioner. Case 15-RC-5507 April 21, 1975 DECISION ON REVIEW BY MEMBERS FANNING, JENKINS, AND PENELLO On September 20, 1974, the Regional Director for Region 15 issued a Decision and Direction of Election in the above-entitled proceeding in which he broadened the Petitioner's requested unit of the Employer' s limou- sine drivers and tour guides to include reservation clerks and he excluded, inter alia, dispatchers and ramp supervisors, rejecting the Employer's contention that they share such a close community of interest with the requested employees as to require their inclusion. Hav- ing excluded the dispatchers and ramp supervisors on community-of-interest grounds, he found it unneces- sary to reach the Petitioner's contentions that the for- mer are supervisors and the latter are either supervisors or guards. Thereafter, in accordance with Section 102.67 of the National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations, Series 8, as amended, the Employer filed a timely request for review of the Regional Direc- tor's decision on the grounds that, in excluding the dispatchers and ramp supervisors from the unit, he made findings of fact which are clearly erroneous and he departed from precedent. On October 30, 1974, the National Labor Relations Board, by telegraphic order, granted the Employer's request for review and stayed the election pending deci- sion on review. Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, the Na- tional Labor Relations Board has delegated its au- thority in this proceeding 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 Employer contends that the record does not support the Petitioner's argument that the ramp super- visors and dispatchers fall within the statutory defini- tion of supervisors or that the former are guards, and its disputes the Regional Director's conclusion that these two categories of employees do not have such a close community of interest to require their inclusion in the unit. We agree with the Employer's contentions. The Employer, a Louisiana corporation, provides limousine transportation service between the New Or- leans, Louisiana, airport and various downtown New Orleans hotels, and its conducts sightseeing tours in and around the New Orleans area. It employs, inter 483 alia, approximately 40 limousine drivers, 10 tour guides, 10 reservations clerks, 3 ramp supervisors, and 3 dispatchers.' Overall day-to-day control is vested in the Employer's operations manager, who is conceded to be a supervisor. Under the operations manager, and also conceded to be a supervisory employee, is the chief dispatcher/chief of airport operations, herein called the chief dispatcher, who supervises the drivers, dispatch- ers, -and ramp supervisors. The reservation clerks and tour guides are supervised by the reservation supervisor and the director of tours, respectively. At the beginning of their shifts, drivers pick up their vehicles at the Employer's garage/office facility and call the dispatcher on duty, who is located in an office on the lower level of the airport, to obtain their initial list of hotel pickups. The drivers then proceed to pick up the passengers at the various downtown hotels and drive them to the airport's upper departure level. After discharging them, they proceed to the lower arrival level to await passengers seeking inbound service. The Employer's ramp supervisors, who are stationed at limousine slots approximately 20 feet from the dis- patcher's office, greet deplaning passengers, direct those seeking service to the awaiting vehicles, and sometimes assist the drivers in loading the passengers' luggage; Limousines leave the airport on a first-in, first- out basis. However, ramp supervisors make an effort to place passengers with common area destinations in the same limousine. Throughout the day dispatchers con- tinue to receive service requests from the reservations clerks and route the limousines around town accord- ingly via radio communication with the drivers.2 The ramp supervisors record and file the number of passengers departing from the airport in each limou- sine. Such reports are prepared in compliance with Aviation Board regulations. Drivers also submit simi- lar tallies of the number of passengers they carried along with cash receipts, at the end of the day. The Employer retains a copy of the ramp supervisor's tally and sometimes uses it to cross-check the accuracy of the driver's trip sheet.' The dispatchers, in addition to their routing respon- sibilities, in the absence of admitted supervisors, handle routine problems such as vehicle breakdowns. How- ever, in the event of a more serious problem,,they con- tact the chief dispatcher or the operations manager. 1 There is one dispatcher on each of three 8-hour shifts. The three ramp supervisors work on two 8-hour shifts from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and 4 p in. to 12 midnight. 2 Dispatchers do not specify either the order of pickups or the route drivers are to take Both are normally dictated by the location of the vehicle and the requested pickup time. 3 The Employer employs an undisclosed number of plainclothes checkers, conceded to be guards, whose function is to detect attempts to shortchange the Employer While the record does indicate that at one time ramp supervi- sors were sometimes used as plainclothes checkers, it also indicates that the Employer has abandoned this practice. 217 NLRB No. 91 484 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD Also, in the absence of admitted supervisors, the dispatchers can, on request, permit an employee to leave early if business is light , or request that he stay overtime if the workload is heavy. Dispatchers file writ- ten reports which note the occurrence of anything out of the ordinary, including employee misconduct;4 and they are empowered to send an employee home for the balance of his shift in the event of a serious infraction such as drunkenness . All such reports and suspensions are subject to independent investigation and review by admitted supervisors before the employee involved is disciplined or loses any pay. Drivers sometimes fill in for ramp supervisors in case of illness or during evening hours. The latter fill in for dispatchers and will substitute for a driver in an emer- gency. Two of the three present ramp supervisors were formerly drivers. Ramp supervisors have advanced to dispatcher, which is a higher paid position. Drivers waiting for their limousines to be loaded often congre- gate in the dispatcher's office. As indicated, dispatchers have frequent telephone communication with reserva- tion clerks, and the ramp supervisors are in daily con- tact with both drivers and dispatchers. Dispatchers and ramp supervisors wear uniforms quite similar to those worn by drivers. Limousine drivers, ramp supervisors, and dispatch- ers, as well as tour guides and reservation clerks, share identical benefits, such as paid vacations, paid holidays, and hospitalization insurance. Although the dispatch- ers receive 15 percent, and the ramp supervisors 10 percent, more per hour than the drivers, only the latter receive tips. The Employer also maintains a bonus pool in which only drivers, ramp, supervisors, and dispatch- ers participate.' Contrary to the Petitioner, we fmd that neither the ramp supervisors nor dispatchers are supervisors as 4 Similar reports are filed by the limousine drivers The Employer's opera- tions manager testified that during the past 6 months he had received approximately 35 reports of driver misconduct filed by other drivers, and that both drivers' reports and dispatchers' reports were treated in the same manner 5 As an incentive the Employer takes 30 percent of its weekly gross receipts, net of airport rent, and distributes such monies to eligible em- ployees in proportion to their hours worked. defined in the Act. Any recommendations which they make in regard to discipline, in the absence of admitted supervisors, are in all cases subject to independent in- vestigation by the latter, and their direction of other employees is routine in nature.' We also reject the Pe- titioner's contention that ramp supervisors are guards by virtue of the fact that their compilation of outbound passenger tallies may at times be used to cross-check the tallies submitted by the drivers. In this respect we note that the Employer utilizes plainclothes guards to detect acts of theft and embezzlement by the drivers. In the circumstances, we find that the ramp supervisors' preparation of passenger tallies for loaded limousines prior to their departure is but an incident of their ad- mittedly nonguard duties and does not constitute them as guards within the meaning of the Act. We also conclude, contrary to the Regional Director, that in the light of the facts and circumstances of this case the interests of the ramp supervisors and dispatch- ers are so closely linked with those of the drivers, tour guides, and reservation clerks here involved that only a unit combining all five classifications of employees is appropriate. We shall therefore modify the Regional Director's description of the unit as follows: All full-time and regular part-time limousine drivers, tour guides, reservation -clerks, ramp supervisors, and dispatchers at the Employer's New Orleans, Louisiana, operations, excluding the chief dispatcher, all other employees, guards, and supervisors as defined in the Act. Accordingly, we shall remand the case to the Re- gional Director in order that he may conduct an elec- tion pursuant to his Decision and Direction of Election, as modified herein, except that the eligibility period therefor shall be that immediately preceding the date of this Decision and Review. [Excelsior footnote omitted from publication.] 6 See Greyhound Airport Services, Inc., 189 NLRB 291 (1971).