Northern Air Service, Inc.

NORTHERN AIR SERVICE, INC. Northern Air Service, Inc. and District Lodge 97 of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, AFL-CIO, Petitioner. Case 7- RC-12868 July 24, 1975 DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION BY CHAIRMAN MURPHY AND MEMBERS JENKINS AND KENNEDY Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9(c) of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, a hearing was held before Hearing Officer Vincent Candiello. Following the hearing and pursuant to Section 102.67 of the National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations, Series 8, as amended, this case was transferred to the National Labor Rela- tions Board for decision. Both the Employer and the Petitioner waived their right to file briefs. The Hear- ing Officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed. 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. 1. The Employer is a Michigan corporation with its principal place of business at the Kent County Airport, Kent County, Michigan. It is engaged in the sales and service of aircraft and related equipment and operates a private nonscheduled air taxi service and a flight school. The air taxi operation and the flight school are certified by the FAA. The Employer does not have a fueling contract with a common car- rier. It does not have any interline agreements with common carriers, but on an ad hoc basis the Employ- er may transport passengers who have disembarked from common carriers. On an emergency basis, a carrier may ticket passengers through the Employer. The Employer also does not carry any U.S. mail. The Employer's equipment consists of 18 single- engine planes, each capable of carrying four passen- gers, 3 two-engine planes each having different ca- pacities up to eight passengers, and 2 Lear Jets, each capable of carrying six passengers. The Employer possesses two hangars at the airport and an adjacent 465 office facility. In addition, it rents a third hangar at the Kent County Airport and has some space and a small operation at the Detroit City Airport in De- troit, Michigan. The parties stipulated that the Employer earned in excess of $500,000 in gross revenue in the last year and had purchases from outside the State of Michi- gan exceeding $50,000. The record reveals that 17 percent of the Employer's total gross revenues are derived from nonscheduled air taxi operations which include both intrastate and interstate flights. The amount of gross revenue derived from interstate air taxi service is approximately 5 percent. Because of the jurisdictional nature of the question presented here, we have in this case, as in other simi- lar cases in the past, requested the National Media- tion Board, as the agency primarily vested with juris- diction under the Railway Labor Act over air carriers and having primary authority to determine its own jurisdiction, to study the record in this case and to determine the applicability of the Railway Labor Act to the Employer. We are administratively advised by the National Mediation Board under date of June 27, 1975, that: The record demonstrates that the only opera- tions of the Northern Air Service, Inc., which would bring it within coverage of the Railway Labor Act are de minimis. Based on this record, the Board is of the opinion that the Northern Air Service, Inc., does not meet the definition of common carrier by air set forth in Title II, Sec. 201, of the Railway Labor Act, and that there is not sufficient basis for this Board to assert juris- diction. Accordingly, we find that the Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the Act and that it will effectuate the policies of the Act to assert juris- diction herein. We, therefore, assert jurisdiction here- in. 2. The Petitioner is a labor organization seeking to represent certain employees of the Employer. 3. A question affecting commerce exists concern- ing 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. 466 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD 4. We find in accord with the stipulation of the parties that the following employees of the Employer constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of col- lective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9(b) of the Act: All full-time and regular part-time airframe and/or power-plant mechanics and apprentice mechanics ; building and equipment mainte- nance and cleaning employees ; avionics instal- lers and repairmen; inspectors; and repairmen/ leadworkers ; and all line service employees, in- cluding towing, parking, fueling, and washing/cleaning employees but excluding all sales, clerical, and confidential employees; all pilots and flight instructors ; all professionals, guards, and supervisory employees as defined in the Act, and all other employees. [Direction of election and Excelsior footnote omit- ted from publication.]