Mad River Community Hospital

MAD RIVER COMMUNITY HOSPITAL American Hospital Management Corp. d/b/a Mad River Community Hospital and United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America , AFL-CIO, Petitioner. Case 20-RC-12554 July 9, 1975 DECISION ON REVIEW AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION BY CHAIRMAN MURPHY AND MEMBERS JENKINS AND KENNEDY On February 12, 1975, the Regional Director for Region 20 issued a Decision and Order in the above- entitled proceeding, in which he found inappropriate the Petitioner's requested unit of all laboratory tech- nicians, laboratory aides, X-ray technicians, and X- ray aides employed by the Employer at its proprie- tary acute care hospital in Arcata, California, exclud- ing all other employees. Thereafter, in accordance with Section 102.67 of the National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations, Series 8, as amended, the Petitioner filed a timely request for review of the Regional Director's decision on the grounds, inter alia, that in finding the petitioned-for unit inappro- priate he made erroneous findings as to substantial factual issues and departed from officially reported Board precedent. The National Labor Relations Board, by tele- graphic order dated April 3, 1975, granted the re- quest for 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 proceeding with respect to the issues under review and makes the following findings: The Regional Director found that the requested unit of all laboratory and X-ray department employ- ees is inappropriate on the basis that the unit request- ed is too narrow in scope since the employees in- volved lack the identity and cohesiveness which is required for their representation in a separate unit. We agree. We have recently decided that as a matter of Board policy the least appropriate unit which would encompass the employees which the Petitioner seeks to represent would be a unit of technical employees.' We find the laboratory technicians to be technical employees? The laboratory technicians in this case i Nathan and Miriam Barnert Memorial Hospital Association d/b/a Barnert Memorial Hospital Center, 217 NLRB No. 132 (1975). 25 need a bachelor of science degree, which takes 4 years to acquire, and a 1-year internship, after which they must pass an examination. We also find the X- ray technicians to be technical employees? The rec- ord reveals that the X-ray technicians in this case must have a 4-year education, although there are some technicians who have 2 years of education un- der a "grandfather" clause. As the record reveals that laboratory aides and X-ray aides do not have formal educational requirements beyond a high school de- gree, we find that they are not technical employees. Furthermore, laboratory technicians start at $5.04 per hour and X-ray technicians start at $4.46 per hour, whereas laboratory aides start at $2.67 per hour and X-ray aides at $2.38 per hour. We therefore find that the appropriate unit in this case is: All regular full-time and part-time technical em- ployees including X-ray technicians, laboratory technicians, and licensed practical nurses, em- ployed at Employer's Arcata, California, facili- ty, but excluding service and maintenance em- ployees, business office clericals, professional employees, guards, and supervisors as defined in the Act, and all other employees. The technical unit found appropriate herein is sub- stantially different from the unit sought by Petitioner including a category of employees (licensed practical nurses) not initially sought by it. It may be that the Petitioner does not wish to go to an election in this unit, or, desiring to do so, that its showing of interest is no longer adequate. In these special circumstances, we direct Petitioner to notify the Regional Director within 10 days of this Decision on Review and Direc- tion of Election whether it wishes to proceed to an election, and, if so, to submit at that time such addi- tional showing of interest as may be required to sup- port its petition. Cf. C. T.L. Testing Laboratories, Inc., 150 NLRB 982, 986 (1965). [Direction of Election and Excelsior footnote omit- ted from publication.] MEMBER KENNEDY, dissenting: For the reasons set forth in my dissent in Nathan and Miriam Barnert Memorial Hospital Association, supra, I also dissent in this case. I would not find appropriate a unit of technical employees which ex- cludes other employees, but rather I would find the appropriate unit to be all service and maintenance employees including technical employees and li- censed practical nurses, but excluding business office clericals and all other employees. 2 Laboratory technicians were found to be technical employees in Nathan and Miriam Barnert Memorial Hospital Association, supra. 7 X-ray technicians were found to be technical -employees in Nathan and Miriam Barnert Memorial Hospital Association, supra. 219 NLRB No. 4