Amalgamated Bank of New York

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Dec 7, 1950

92 N.L.R.B. 545 (N.L.R.B. 1950)

In the Matter of ,AMALGAMATED BANK OF NEW YORK, EMPLOYER Sand
FINANCIAL EMPLOYEES GUILD, LOCAL 96, UNITED OFFICE AND PRO-
FESSIONAL WORKERS OF AMERICA, AND UNITED BANK EMPLOYEES
LOCAL INDUSTRIAL UNION No. 1694, CIO, PETITIONERS
Cases Nos. P2-RC 1920 and 2-RC-2487.-Decided December 7,1950
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon petitions duly filed, a consolidated hearing was held before
Jerome I. Macht, hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made
at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer, a New York corporation and member of the
Federal Reserve System and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation,
is engaged in the commercial and general banking business in the City
of New York. Its total resources are in excess of $30,000,000. During
the past year, its total loans aggregated more than $6,500,000, of which
$4,500,000 were loaned to industrial enterprises in New York State.
During this same period, its loans to borrowers outside of New York
were in excess of $750,000, while its deposits from outside the State
of New York were in excess of $550,000.
We find that this Employer is engaged in commerce within the
meaning of the Act. We further find that a bank, particularly of the
size and character portrayed by this record, partakes of the nature
of an instrumentality' of commerce and should be so treated. Pur-
suant to our recently announced Board policy asserting jurisdiction
'In N. L. R. B. v. Bank of America , 130 F. 2d 624 ( C. A. 9), certiorari denied 318
U. S. 791, enforcing an early Board order appearing in 14 NLRB 207 and 26 NLRB 198,
the Ninth Circuit stated :
The impact upon commerce of the partial or complete cessation of its banking
operations would be felt immediately throughout the country , and indeed the world.
Shipments of merchandise and manufactured wares covered by bills drawn for the
acceptance of respondent would be halted ; and similar results would follow upon a
cessation of its other credit activities . It is immaterial that substitute service might
be obtained elsewhere , N. L. R. B. v. Bradford Dyeing Assn ., 310 U. S. 318, 326,
60 S. Ct. 918 , 84 L. Ed. 1226. The dependence of commerce upon the continuity
of credit furnished by these great banking institutions is as marked as was Its depend-
ence upon the electric energy furnished by the intrastate utilities involved In Con.-
solidated Edison Co . v. N. L. If. B., 305 U. S. 197, 59 S. Ct. 206, 83 L. Ed. 126. While
credit services considered as aids to commerce , may be less tangible than is electric
current, for present purposes the differences would appear to be immaterial.
92 NLRB No. 100.
545
546 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
over instrumentalities of commerce 2 we find that it will effectuate the
policies of the Act to assert jurisdiction in this case.
2. The labor organizations named below claim to represent certain
employees of the Employer.
3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the representa-
tion of certain employees of the Employer within the meaning of
Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
4. The parties agree that all employees of the Company, excluding
officers, confidential, professional, and supervisory employees, and
guards constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective
bargaining. Local 96, however, contends that the head teller and
head bookkeeper are supervisors, and that the secretary to the execu-
tive vice president of the bank and the payroll clerk are confidential
employees. We find both these contentions to be unsupported by the
record. Rather, the testimony demonstrates that the head- teller and'
head bookkeeper do not possess any of the supervisory powers enu-'
merated in Section 11 of the Act. It likewise demonstrates that the
secretary and payroll clerk are not confidential employees within the
Board's established definition of that term.3
Accordingly, we find that all employees of the Company, excluding-
officers, confidential, professional, and supervisory employees, and
guards constitute a unit appropriate for .the purposes of collective
bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act..
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this
volume.]
2 See WBSR Inc., 91 NLRB 630.
2 See Ball Brothers Company, Incorporated , 87 NLRB 34, and cases cited.