Pennsylvania American Water Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Feb 1, 2019

06-RC-218527 (N.L.R.B. Feb. 1, 2019)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
BEFORE THE NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
PENNSYLVANIA AMERICAN WATER CO.
Employer
and Cases 06-RC-218527

UTILITY WORKERS UNITED ASSOCIATION,
LOCAL 537
Petitioner
and
UTILITY WORKERS UNION OF AMERICA,
AFL-CIO, CLC, AND ITS LOCAL 537
Intervenor
ORDER
The Employer’s and the Intervenor’s Requests for Review of the Regional Director’s
Decision and Direction of Election are denied as they raise no substantial issues warranting
review.1
JOHN F. RING, CHAIRMAN
LAUREN McFERRAN, MEMBER
MARVIN E. KAPLAN, MEMBER
Dated, Washington, D.C., February 1, 2019

1 In denying review, we agree with the Regional Director’s finding that the parties’ agreement to
extend the collective-bargaining agreement for one year was ambiguous as to its effective date,
and therefore did not meet the Board’s formal and substantive requirements to bar a competing
petition. South Mountain Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center, 344 NLRB 375 (2004). We
therefore find it unnecessary to rely on the Regional Director’s further findings that, under the
Board’s long-held policies, the extension agreement could not act as a contract bar because it
prematurely extended the collective-bargaining agreement between the Employer and the
Intervenor, did not clearly state on its face its duration period, and did not comply with the
formal requirement of being signed by both parties.