The Baptist Memorial Hospital

THE BAPTIST MEMORIAL HOSPITAL 199 The Baptist Memorial Hospital and Local 150T, Ser- vice Employees International Union, AFL-CIO- CLC,i Petitioner. Case 26-RC-4908 May 27, 1976 DECISION AND ORDER By MEMBERS JENKINS, PENELLO, AND WALTHER Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9(c) of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, a hearing was held before Hearing Officer William D Levy of the National Labor Relations Board Fol- lowing the close of the hearing, the Regional Direc- tor for Region 26 transferred this case to the Board for decision Thereafter, the Employer filed a brief with the Board 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 reviewed the Hearing Officer's rul- ings made at the hearing and finds that they are free from prejudicial error The rulings are hereby af- firmed Upon the entire record in this proceeding,' the Board finds I The parties have stipulated that the Employer, which operates a nonprofit hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, and employs 4,000 people, has a gross an- nual income in excess of $50 million, and during the past year purchased supplies valued in excess of $50,000 directly from outside the State of Tennessee We find that the Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the Act, and that it will effec- tuate the purposes of the Act to assert jurisdiction herein 2 The labor organization involved claims to rep- resent certain employees of the Employer 3 No question affecting commerce exists concern- ing the representation of certain employees of the Employer within the meaning of Sections 9(c)(1) and 2(6) and (7) of the Act for the following reasons The Petitioner seeks to represent a separate unit of the Employer's 90 maintenance employees and dis- claims any interest in a broader unit The Employer contends that the smallest possible appropriate unit would be a general service unit made up of approxi- mately 1,600 employees, including the employees sought separately by the Petitioner The Employer 1 Hereinafter referred to as the Petitioner 2 The Employer requested oral argument This request is hereby denied as the record and the brief adequately present the issues and the positions of the parties would include in such a unit grounds keepers, aides, and orderlies, and dietary, housekeeping, laundry, and technical employees The Employer would ex- clude professionals, supervisors, office clericals, and all other employees involved in patient care The Employer employs approximately 4,000 em- ployees in some 40 or 50 identifiable areas, one of which is the engineering department The Petitioner refers to the engineering department as a mainte- nance department and seeks to represent the employ- ees therein as a separate unit Supervision of the engineering department is un- der the administration of the superintendent of plants Employees working in the engineering depart- ment are divided into three classifications according to skills helpers, apprentices, and journeymen Help- ers are hired without skills, some are transferees from other hospital areas such as housekeeping, food service, or the barber shop As helpers gain on-the- job experience, they are advanced to apprentices and then to journeymen The Employer states that the classification of journeyman is primarily for the pur- pose of providing additional compensation Engineering employees perform routine refrigera- tion, air-conditioning, and electrical repair work Major work, such as electrical wiring, is contracted out to special skilled workers from outside the hospi- tal Some engineering employees are assigned to as- sist on special projects or work in particular hospital areas, such as the laundry or incinerator Supervision of these employees is by the project or area supervi- sor who reports to a different hospital administrator from the engineering department head In addition to repair work, engineering employees work through- out the hospital performing such duties as cleaning the grounds and engineering spaces, assisting house- keeping employees in transporting furniture to vari- ous floors and buildings, pulling down linen in the laundry on nights and weekends, helping in loading and unloading for various departments, and aiding in cleaning the incinerators and air units The record discloses that engineering employees have no special facilities They share common dining facilities, canteens, break areas, restrooms, entrance, and parking with other hospital employees All pros- pective engineering employees are first routed through the personnel office as are other job appli- cants They are paid on the same date, are eligible for the same benefits, such as sick pay, holidays, vaca- tion, retirement, and educational assistance, and are provided with the same personnel handbook as all other hospital employees It is apparent that the maintenance employees do not constitute a separate appropriate unit on a craft basis The Employer does not hire only journeymen 224 NLRB No 51 200 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD or their equivalent for craft positions And, currently, about 30 percent of the maintenance employees are unskilled helpers, while little more than 20 percent can be considered true craftsmen Although the maintenance employees do perform many tasks cus- tomarily performed by employees possessing crafts- man status, they also perform many relatively un- skilled tasks Moreover, as noted supra, the record testimony shows that it is not uncommon for the Em- ployer to hire independent contractors to perform such major work as that involving electrical wiring In Riverside Methodist Hospital, 223 NLRB 1084 (1976), we found, for the reasons stated therein, that the employees of a plant operations department similar to those petitioned for here did not comprise a distinct and homogeneous group with interests suf- ficiently separate from other employees to warrant their separate representation In this proceeding, as set forth in detail, supra, the maintenance employees sought by Petitioner are similar to those employees in Riverside in terms of their job duties and functions, the wide variety of their backgrounds and skills, the nature of the work performed, the substantial degree of regular contact with other employees, and their sharing of fringe benefits and other terms and condi- tions of employment with employees excluded from the requested unit In view of the entire record in this case and in light of our Decision in Riverside, supra, we find that the Employer's maintenance employees do not possess a community of interest sufficiently separate and dis- tinct from the broader community of interest which they share with all the other service and maintenance employees to warrant finding that they constitute a separate appropriate unit 3 Accordingly, and as the Petitioner has disclaimed interest in a broader unit, we shall dismiss the petition ORDER It is hereby ordered that the representation peti- tion herein be, and it hereby is, dismissed 3 St Joseph Hospital 224 NLRB 270 (1976) In his separate concurring opinion in St Vincents Hospital, 223 NLRB 638 (1976), Member Penello clarified his position, as taken in Shriners Hospitals for Crippled Children, 217 NLRB 806 (1975) on the appropriate- ness of maintenance units in the health care industry In so clarifying his position Member Penello stated that he is of the view that a craft mainte- nance unit may be appropriate when, viewed in light of all the criteria traditionally considered in determining the appropriateness of maintenance units generally its establishment does not conflict with the congressional mandate against proliferation of bargaining units in the health care indus try This standard which is a more rigid one than is applied in other indus- tries, can be met in Member Penello's view , when the unit sought unlike the situation in Shriners is composed of licensed craftsmen engaged in tra- ditional craft work , which is performed in a separate and distinct location apart from other employees in the health care facility Normally , such em ployees do not perform other services throughout the health care facility, as was the case in Shriners and there is, at most, minimal transfer or inter- change to and from the craft unit In the instant case, Member Penello agrees with his colleagues that the unit sought-of all hospital maintenance employees-is inappropriate since it does not satisfy the standard set forth by him for finding a craft maintenance unit to be appropriate