Florida Telephone Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jan 29, 1951

92 N.L.R.B. 1696 (N.L.R.B. 1951)

In the Matter of FLORIDA TELEPHONE CORPORATION, EMPLOYER and
INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS, AFL,
PETITIONER
Case No. 10-RC-997.-Decided January 29, 1951
DECISION AND' DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National
Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before James W. Mackle,
hearing officer.' The hearing 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 Act, the Board
has delegated its powers in connection with this case to a three-member
panel [Members Houston, Reynolds, and Styles].
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the
Act.
2. The labor organization involved claims to represent certain em-
ployees 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 Petitioner seeks a unit of employees in the Employer's
plant and traffic departments. The Employer contends that the ap-
propriate unit should embrace employees in all its departments-
plant, traffic, accounting, and commercial.
The Employer, with its principal office and place of business at
Ocala, Florida, is engaged in the business of transmitting local and
long distance telephone messages. The Employer operates 28 local
exchanges in Florida, servicing approximately 15,000 telephones
scattered over an area about 200 miles in length and 80 miles in width.
Like most telephone companies, the Employer generally divides its
operations into system-wide departments : (1) The plant department,
which installs and maintains the Employer's telephonic equipment;
' The Employer' s request for oral argument before the Board is denied , because, in our
opinion , the record and the briefs adequately present the issues and the positions of the
parties.
92 NLRB No. 247.
.1696
FLORIDA TELEPHONE, CORPORATION 1697
(2) the traffic department, which operates that equipment; (3) the
accounting department, which handles the Employer's payrolls, dis-
bursements, and billings; and (4) the commercial department, which
handles the Employer's business relations with the public, including
the collection of bills.
Although the larger unit proposed by the Employer is clearly the
most appropriate, it is not under the circumstances here present, the
only appropriate unit. On the instant record, we see no reason why em-
ployees in the plant and traffic departments should be grouped to-
gether in a single unit for bargaining purposes 2 The Board has,
however, frequently found appropriate in the telephone industry
system-wide departmental units s We therefore find that the em-
ployees in the plant department and employees in the traffic depart-
ment, respectively, may constitute separate appropriate units 4
We find that the following employees of the Employer constitute
separate units appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining
within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act, excluding -from each
unit professional employees, watchmen, guards, and all other super-
visors:
(1) All employees in the plant department, excluding casual la-
borers, the student engineer,5 the wire chief, the head lineman; head
plantmen, and construction foremen; 6 and
(2) All employees in the traffic department, including part-time
operators, but excluding relief operators, the instructor, service as-
sistants , and cashier-chief operators.7
[Text of Direction of Elections omitted from publication in this
volume.]
2In Ohio Telephone Service Company , 72 NLRB 488 , relied on by the Petitioner for a two-
department unit , the parties agreed that a unit of employees in the plant and traff,e
departments was appropriate.
I New England Telephone and Telegraph Company, 90 NLRB 639 : Pacific Telephone and
Telegraph Company , 80 NLRB 107.
4Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company . 85 NLRB 71 . 3, and interstate Telephone
Company , 77 NLRB 637, are distinguishable in that , in those cases , the bargaining history
demonstrated a desire by the employees in the different departments for industrial bargain-
ing and there was present a labor organization contending for the over-all system -wide unit.
B The Petitioner concedes in its brief that the student engineer , whom the Employer would
exclude , should be excluded.
6 The wire chief , who effectively recommends the hire and discharge of employees working
under him , and the head lineman , head plantnien , and construction foremen , who have
authority to discipline employees working tinder them , are supervisors within the meaning
of the Act.
' The instructor , service assistants , and cashier -chief operators , who have authority to
discipline employees working nuclei- them, are supervisors-within the meaning of the Act.