Cherokee County Rural Electric Cooperative Association

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jan 4, 1951

92 N.L.R.B. 1181 (N.L.R.B. 1951)

In the Matter of CHEROKEE COUNTY RURAL ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE
ASSOCIATION , EMPLOYER , and INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF ELEC-
TRICAL WORKERS, LOCAL No. 231, AFL, PETITIONER
Case No. 18-RC-701.-Decided January4, 1951
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, a hearing was held before Clarence A. Meter, 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 is an Iowa corporation with its office and principal
place of business located at Cherokee, Iowa. It is financed by the
Rural Electrification Administration and is engaged in the distribu-
tion of electric power to its 1,393 members in Cherokee County and
its adjacent counties.
The Employer does not generate any electricity. During the year
1949 it purchased electricity valued in excess of $61,000 from its sole
supplier, the Iowa Public Service Company, a public utility which
serves northwestern and north central Iowa.'
During the same period it resold and distributed that electricity to
its members for approximately $140,000. During the year 1949, the
Employer also purchased supplies valued at approximately $25,000,
of which at least 25 percent was shipped to the Employer directly
from points outside the State of Iowa. An additional 25 percent was
shipped indirectly to the Employer from points outside the State
of Iowa.
We find that the Employer is engaged in commerce within the mean-
ing of the A.ct.2 We find, further, that a cooperative utility of the
type involved herein should, for these purposes, be treated as a public
utility. Therefore, in accordance with the Board's recently estab-
lished policy to take jurisdiction over public utilities, we shall , in order
The Iowa Public Service Company, a public utility over which the Board has exercised
Jurisdiction (60 NLRB 1153), sells gas and electricity in Iowa, Nebraska, and South
Dakota . It maintains connecting lines with other public utilities which serve other parts
of Iowa, and the surrounding States.
2 Buckeye Rural Electric Co-operative , Inc., 88 NLRB 196.
92 NLRB No. 165. 1181
1182 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
to effectuate the policies of the Act, assert jurisdiction in this case.3
2. The labor organization involved claims to represent employees.of
the Employer.
3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the representa-
tion of employees of the Employer within the meaning of Section
9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
4. The appropriate unit :
We find that all construction, maintenance, and operating employees
at the Employer's Cherokee, Iowa, plant, including the linemen and
the groundman, but excluding office and clerical employees; the con-
structidn line foremali,4 and all supervisors as defined in the Act,
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.]
8 See W. C . King d/b/a Local Transit Lines, 91 NLRB 623; Plymouth Electric Cooperative
Association, 92 NLRB 1183.
The Petitioner contends that the construction line foreman should be included in the
unit. However , the construction line foreman directs the work of a crew of employees
and has the authority effectively to recommend the' hiring and discharging of such em-
ployees. Accordingly , we find that the construction line foreman is a supervisor within
the meaning of the amended Act, and we shall exclude him from the unit.