Gulf Oil Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Sep 27, 1943

52 N.L.R.B. 880 (N.L.R.B. 1943)

In the Matter of GULF OIL CORPORATION and INTERNATIONAL.
UNION OF OPERATING ENGINEERS, LOCAL 715, AFFILIATED WITH THE
A. F. of L.
Case No. R-5848. -Decided September 27, 1943
Messrs. P. 0. Settle and W. A. Allen, both of Fort Worth , Tex.,"
and Mr. Eldon Young, of Houston, Tex., for the Company.
Mr. Orvil Inge, of Fort Worth , Tex., for the Union.
Mr. David V . Easton, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon petition duly filed by International Union of Operating-
Engineers , Local 715,1 affiliated with the A. F. of L., herein called the
Union, alleging that a question affecting commerce had arisen con-
cerning the representation of employees of Gulf Oil Corporation,.
Odessa, Texas, herein called the Company, the National Labor Re-
lations Board provided for an appropriate hearing upon due notice
before Robert F. Proctor, Trial Examiner. Said hearing was held
at Odessa, Texas, on August 12, 1943. The Company and the Union
appeared, participated, and were afforded full opportunity to be
heard, to, examine and cross-examine witnesses, and to introduce
evidence bearing on the issues. The Trial Examiner's rulings made
at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
All parties were afforded opportunity to file briefs with the Board.
Upon the entire record in the ,case, the Board makes the following :
FINDINGS OF FACT .
I. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
The Gulf Oil Corporation , a Pennsylvania corporation , is engaged
in all branches of the petroleum industry, producing and marketing
I At the hearing the formal papers were amended by motion so as to include the Local
No. "715" In the formal designation of the Union.
52 N. L. R. B., No. 155.
880
GULF OIL CORPORATION 881
petroleum products throughout the various States of the United States
and in foreign countries. The Company controls and operates ex-
tensive production, refining, and marketing facilities in and among
the several States. We are concerned herein with certain of the em-
ployees of one of its producing fields, located in and around Odessa,
Texas. The Company designates this area as Zone No. 5 of its opera-
tions: In Zone No. 5, the Company has numerous oil wells and pipe-
line facilities from which petroleum products are obtained and trans-
ported to the various refineries, one of which is located at Sweetwater,
Texas. Within Zone No. 5 are two pools which the Company terms
the McElroy and Sand Hills pools, from which the Company pro-
duces petroleum in an approximate amount of 15,000 barrels per
day, of which approximately 50 percent is processed in its refineries,
transported, sold, and delivered to points outside the State of Texas.
The Company admits that it is engaged in commerce within the mean-
ing of the National Labor Relations Act.
II. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED
International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 715, is a labor
organization affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, ad-
mitting to membership employees of the Company.
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REP$ESENTATION
The Company refuses to recognize the Union as the bargaining
representative of its employees until there has been a determination
of the appropriate unit and the majority representative of its em-
ployees by the Board.
A statement of the Field Examiner, introduced into evidence at the
hearing, indicates that the Union represents a substantial number of'
employees in the unit hereinafter designated as appropriate?
We find that a question affecting commerce has arisen concerning
the representation of employees of the Company within the meaning
of Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.,
IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT
At the hearing herein, the Union amended its petition so as to
include all employees on the Company's properties in the McElroy and
Sand Hills pools, except supervisory, administrative, technical, and.
clerical employees, within the unit it desires the Board to find appro-
7 The Field Examiner reported that the Union submitted 88 application cards, of
which 87 bore apparently genuine and original signatures ; 86 of the latter signatures
are the names of persons appearing upon the Company's pay roll of August 10, 1943.
This pay roll contained the names of 166 employees within the unit hereinafter designated
as appropriate.
,882 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR, RELATIONS BOARD
priate. The Company does not object to any of the afore-mentioned
exclusions from the proposed unit, but contends that the appropriate
unit should consist of all employees in Zone No. 5 with the exception
,of those employees within the classification hereinabove excluded
under the Union's proposed unit.
The record reveals that Zone No. 5 is an integrated division of the
,Company wherein the working conditions, wages, and classifications
of employees are uniform; that certain of the employees working in
-the McElroy and Sand Hills pools are interchanged to other pro-
duction fields within the Zone; and that a considerable degree of
-functional coherence exists with regard to all producing pools in the
Zone. However, most of the employees working in the various pools
live either on or adjacent to the pools wherein they work; for approx-
imately 6 months preceding the hearing herein, the working sites
of a majority of the employees have been comparatively stable with
few employees detailed from one pool to another except for temporary,
-work. The several pools in Zone No. 5 are many miles apart when
taken as a whole; in contrast to this, the McElroy and Sand Hills pools
are more or less contiguous areas.
The Company has had no past bargaining history with relation to
any of its employees in Zone No. 5, and thus far only those employees
engaged at the McElroy and Sand Hills pools have expressed their
desire for representation for the purposes of collective bargaining.
While it appears that all of the pools in Zone No. 5 are operated by
the Company substantially as an integrated unit, and that such a
unit might therefore be appropriate, we have stated before that
-whether an integrated enterprise or a part thereof constitutes an
appropriate unit will depend in part upon the extent of labor organi-
zation, labor bargaining efforts, and the particular circumstances in-
volved therein.3 In this instance, the record indicates that the em-
ployees in the unit requested by the Union constitute a fairly stable
and homogeneous group. The Union, desiring a unit coterminous
with the scope of its organizational activities, is the only labor organi-
zation which is now seeking and is prepared to bargain with the Com-
pany for any of its employees in Zone No. 5, and which has offered to
prove its designation by a majority of the employees in the unit
claimed to be appropriate. Under these circumstances, to hold that
these employees are not an appropriate unit would deny to them the
benefits of the Act until they and other employees of the Company
in some larger unit have been organized. In view of the particular
circumstances presented herein and in order to render collective bar-
gaining for these employees an immediate possibility, we are of the
opinion that the unit sought by the Union is appropriate. We do
not imply thereby that we would find appropriate in all, circumstances
3 See Matter of Cities Service Gas Company , 41 N. L. R. B 648, and cases cited therein.
GULF OIL CORPORATION 883
a unit confined to single pools or other portions of administrative
divisions of the Company, but shall consider each case on its merits.
Nor do we thereby preclude consideration of the appropriateness of
a larger unit should organization of the Company's employees be
extended to include other employees in Zone No. 5. Accordingly,
we find that all employees of the Company engaged upon the latter's
properties in the McElroy and Sand Hills pools, excluding administra-
tive, technical, clerical, and all supervisory employees' with authority
to hire, promote, discharge, discipline, or otherwise effect changes
in the status of employees, or effectively recommended such action, con-
stitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining,
within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
V. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
We shall direct that the question concerning representation which
has arisen be resolved by an election by secret ballot among the em-
ployees in the appropriate unit who were employed during the pay-
roll period immediately preceding the date of the Direction of Elec-
tion herein, subject to the limitations and additions set forth in the
Direction.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
By virtue of and pursuant to the power vested in the National
Labor Relations Board by Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Re-
lations Act, and pursuant to Article III, Section 9, of National Labor
Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 2, as amended, it is
hereby
DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation to ascertain representa-
tives for the purposes of collective bargaining with Gulf Oil Corpo-
ration, Odessa, Texas, an election by secret ballot shall be conducted-
as early as possible, but not later than thirty (30) days from the date
of this Direction, under the direction and supervision of the Regional
Director for the Sixteenth Region, acting in this matter as agent for
the National Labor Relations Board, and subject to Article III, Sec-
tions 10 and 11, of said Rules and Regulations, among the employees
in the unit found appropriate in Section IV, above, who were em-
ployed during the pay-roll period immediately preceding the date of
this Direction, including employees who did not work during said
pay-roll period because they were ill or on vacation or temporarily laid
off, and including employees in the armed forces of the United States
who present themselves in person at the polls, but excluding those
employees who have since quit or been discharged for cause, to de-
termine whether or not they desire to be represented-by International
Union of Operating Engineers, Local 715, affiliated with the Ameri-
can Federation of Labor, for the purposes of collective bargaining.
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