Illinois Bell Telephone Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Aug 1, 1951

95 N.L.R.B. 913 (N.L.R.B. 1951)

ILLINOIS BELL TELEPHONE COMPANY 913
employed part time at the Employer's plant do not have common
interests with the other employees in the requested unit. Accordingly,
we shall exclude them.
We find that the following employees constitute a unit appropriate
for the purpose of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section
9 (b) of the Act: All hourly paid employees of the Employer at
its Lowland, Tennessee, plant, including probationary employees, but
excluding all office and clerical employees (including those in the em-
ployment, hospital, protection, payroll, accounting, purchasing, stand-
ards, filing, industrial relations, records, plant managers, and chief
chemists offices and chemical laboratory engineering, and telephone
departments) and further excluding textile laboratory employees,
professional employees (including inspectors and technicians), part-
time or summer employees, guards, and supervisors as defined in the
Act.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this
volume.]
ILLINOIS BELL TELEPHONE COMPANY and COMMUNICATION WORKERS
OF AMERICA, CIO, PETITIONER
ILLINOIS BELL TELEPHONE COMPANY and INTERNATIONAL BROTHER-
HOOD OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS OF AMERICA, AFL, PETITIONER. Cases
Nos. 13-RC-1843 and 13-RC-1869. August 1, 1951
Decision and Direction of Election
Upon separate petitions duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the Na-
tional Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before Albert Gore,
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 these cases to a three-member
panel [Chairman Herzog and Members Houston and Reynolds].
Upon the entire record in these cases, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the Act.
2. The labor organizations involved claim 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. Communication Workers of America, CIO, herein called the
CWA, seeks to represent a unit of employees of the Employer's State
95 NLRB No. 106.
914 DECISIONS'b ' NATIONAI, LABOR, RELATIONS BOARD
Area Traffic Department . International Brotherhood of Electrical
Workers, AFL, 'herein called the 'IBEW, seeks a single'unit of the
employees requested by the CWA plus the employees of the .Long
Lines Department, American Telephone and Telegraph Company,
who are on the payroll ' of the Employer. In the alternatives the
IBEW seeks to represent these two grotips in separate units. The
Employer agrees with the unit proposed by the CWA. It opposes the
IBEW suggested unit on the ground that the Long Lines employees
should not be severed from the Nation-wide bargaining unit of Long
Lines Department employees in which they have been included for
over 10 years. The Employer also argues that, if they are so severed,
they, should'be placed in a separate unit.
The Employer, an associate company of American Telephone and
Telegraph'Oompany (A T & T), is a public utility engaged in supply-
ing telephone service in the State of Illinois and in several. adjoining
areas . The State Area, an administrative ,division, consists of em-
ployees in telephone installations throughout Illinois and in two ad-
joining Indiana counties. It includes a subdivision known as Chicago
Toll, which handles long distance calls originating in the Chicago
area, but excludes a subdivision called Chicago Area, which handles
local calls in the 'Chicago area. The A T & T operates, through its
Long Lines Department, telephone long distance, or -toll, facilities
throughout the United States. Its Long Lines Department is divided
into four divisions, each of which is subdivided into districts. The
traffic employees of Districts 1 and. 2 of the Western Division are
located in Chicago.
The 11,300 traffic employees in the Employer's State Area subdi-
vision comprise switchboard operators, office clerks, and service em-
ployees. The 1,300 traffic employees of A T & T's Long Lines Depart-
ment, whom the IBEW also seeks to represent, include switchboard
operators and, apparently, employees in other job classifications simi-
lar' to those in the Employer's State Area. There are toll operators
in 60 of the Employer's. 115 State Area exchanges, as well-as in Chi-
cago Toll and in the Chicago exchanges of the Long Lines Depart-
ment. In Chicago, Long Lines and Chicago Toll both handle out-
going calls. Long Lines has the additional function of handling all
calls which are incoming and through (between two outside points).
Although the Bell System achieves considerable Nation-wide uni-
formity and standardization in the operation of switchboards; some
additional training is necessary to teach Long Lines procedure even
to experienced toll operators, because of the peculiarities of both the
facilities and the service offered. - As is typical throughout the United
I A listing of the specific positions held by these employees follows in the unit description
.below.
ILLINOIS BELL TELEPHONE COMPANY 915
States, the Long Lines employees work in the same buildings with the
Employer's owu traffic employees.. The two groups have numerous
conditions of employment in common, including recreational facilities,
medical facilities, and benefit programs .2 As'elsewhere also, hiring
is centralized and recruiting for both groups is done under the name
of the associate company, in this case the Employer. Hiring recom-
mendations, based on interviews made by the Employer's employment
office, are subject to rejection by the district welfare supervisor of
Long Lines, although the record shows that this rejection rarely occurs.
. The supervisory hierarchies of the Employer and the Long Lines
Department are entirely separate.3 Work instructions for Long Lines
employees come exclusively through its own supervisors. Grievances
among the Long Lines employees are handled only by Long Lines su-
pervisors. In Long Lines resides the power to terminate the employ-
ment relationship of Long Lines employees. There is no interchange
of employees between State Area and Long Lines.
. Since 1939, the Employer has bargained collectively with a local
union of CWA, or its predecessors, for a separate unit of State Area
Traffic Department employees. Similarly, since 1940, A T. & T has
bargained with another subdivision of CWA, and its predecessors,
for a Nation-wide unit of Long Lines Department employees includ-
ing those whom the IBEW now seeks to represent either as part of a
State Area unit or as a separate unit.
IBEW's position is that, notwithstanding the bargaining history,
the Long. Lines traffic employees are actually employees of the Em-
ployer, and, as such, are properly to be included in a single bargain-
ing unit with the Employer's State Area Traffic Department em-
ployees. This contention is based not only on the above-described
conditions of employment which the two groups share in common, but
also largely on the fact that these Long Lines employees are on the
Employer's payroll. This payroll arrangement, which has existed
since 1929, is peculiar to Chicago. Elsewhere, all Long Lines em-
ployees are on the A T & T payroll. In Chicago, the local office of
A T & T's accounting department makes up the payroll sheets show-
ing hours worked by all Long Lines traffic employees. These sheets
are sent to the Employer's accounting department which calculates
the amount due each employee and prepares the pay checks 4 Appar-
2 The welfare, plan, with pensions and sickness, accident, and death benefits, is set up
on a uniform basis throughout the Bell System.
2 There is a limited exception in that the head of the Western Division of Long Lines
reports for payroll and hiring routine only to the Employer's general traffic manager of
'the Chicago Area, an administrative division of the Employer which is not involved here.
4 The Division Traffic personnel supervisor of Long Lines testified that this work can be
done more readily by the machines of the Employer than by the local office of the
A T & T accounting department.
961974-52-vol. 95-59
916 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
ently, the checks are then distributed by Long Lines. In consequence
of this arrangement, the Illinois Bell Telephone Company is the nom-
inal Employer of these employees for purposes.of their tax withhold
ing, unemployment compensation payments, and identification cards.
The Employer is reimbursed, however, by A T & T.
Although Long Lines employees are on the payroll of the Employer
and the latter renders certain services to the A T & T on behalf of
such employees, the salient facts are that Long Lines, and not the Em-
ployer, fixed the compensation and other terms and conditions of emS.
ployment for such employees, supervises their day-to-day activities,
and has the power to terminate their relationship. ' The collective
bargaining history shows that, as between themselves, the Employer
and the A TA T have always considered Long Lines employees to be
employees of A T & T. On these facts we find, contrary to the con-
tention of the IBEW, that the Long Lines employees are employees
of A T & T, and not of the Employer.' Accordingly, we shall-not join
them in a single unit with the Employer's State Area employees.
Furthermore, as the Long Lines employees have been bargained for
as part of a Nation-wide unit for over 10 years, we consider a less in-
clusive separate unit inappropriate .6
The Employer has "temporary" and "regular" part-time employees.
Employees in both categories work at least 20 hours a week. The
"temporary" part-time employees are distinguished front those who
are "regular" only by the fact that the former have worked for the
Employer for less than a year. The IBEWV and the CWA request the'
inclusion of both classes of these part-time employees. The Em-
ployer did not state a position. Only "regular" part-time employees
have been included in the Employer-CWA contracts covering State
Area employees. However, part-time employees in both "tempo-
rary" and "regular" classifications are regular part-time employees
under the Board's usual definition.. In accordance with our practice,
we shall include both classifications in the unit .7
Accordingly, we find that the following employees of the Employer
constitute an appropriate unit for the purposes of collective bargain-
ing, within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act:
All employees in the traffic department, State Area, whose -titles
are as follows :
Montgomery Steel Products Corp., 94 NLRB 225; Phillips Chemical Company,
90 NLRB No. 76, and cases cited therein. .
American Telephone and Telegraph Company, 55 NLRB 327.
' There are "occasional" employees who have not been included in contracts covering
State Area employees. As the record shows that these employees are used only in
emergencies , for short periods of time, we find they are not regular part-time employees
and therefore shall exclude thew.
CRAG LUMBER COMPANY 917
Central Office Employees.-Operator ; ( including student and junior
operator), control operator, junior supervisor, supervisor, ticket clerk,
junior clerk, clerk, senior clerk, service observer, junior service
observer, 'senior service observer, pay station attendant, pay station
junior supervisor, rest room attendant, chief rest room attendant,
dining service matron.
District, Division, and General Office Employees.-Messenger,
junior clerk, junior stenographer, routine clerk, key punch operator,
typist, clerk, clerk-high grade, employment assistant, stenographer,
engineering clerk, inventory and supply clerk, methods clerk, payroll
clerk,. personnel assistant, results clerk, force supervisor, senior
engineering clerk, senior methods clerk, and senior results clerk; also
including "regular" and "temporary" part-time employees, but ex-
cluding employees in the office of the General Traffic personnel super-
visor, "occasional" employees, and supervisors as defined in the Act.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this
volume.]
CRAG LUMBER COMPANY and LUMBER AND SAWMILL WORKERS, LOCAL
UNION No. 598, UNITED BROTHERHOOD OF CARPENTERS AND JOINERS.
OF AMERICA, AFL
CRAG LUMBER COMPANY and) INTERNATIONAL WOODWORKERS OF'
AMERICA, CIO. Cases Nos. 20-CA-413 and 0O-CA-479. August 2,.-
1951
Decision and Order
On April 20, 1951, Trial Examiner Thomas S. Wilson issued his.
"Intermediate Report in the above-entitled proceeding, finding that
the Respondent had engaged in and was engaging in certain unfair
labor practices, and recommending that it cease and desist therefrom
and take certain affirmative action, as set forth in the copy of the
Intermediate Report attached hereto. Thereafter, the Respondent
filed exceptions to the Intermediate Report and a supporting brief.
The Board 1 has reviewed the rulings made by the Trial Examiner
at the hearing and finds that no prejudicial error was committed.
The rulings are hereby affirmed. The Board has considered the Inter-
mediate Report, the exceptions and brief, and the entire record in
this case, and hereby adopts the findings, conclusions, and recom-
'Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3 (b) of the National Labor Relations Act, the-
National Labor Relations Board has delegated Its powers in connection with this case to.
a three-member panel [ Chairman Herzog and Members Houston and Reynolds].
95 NLRB No. 104.