Plymouth Electric Cooperative Association

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jan 4, 1951

92 N.L.R.B. 1183 (N.L.R.B. 1951)

In the Matter Of PLYMOUTH ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE ASSOCIATION, EM-
PLOYER and INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS,
LOCAL No. 231, AFL, PETITIONER
Case No. 18-RC-722.-Decided January 4, 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 prin-
cipal place of business located at Le Mars, Iowa. It is financed by.
the Rural Electrification Administration and is engaged in the dis-
tribution of electric power to its approximately 2,350 members.'
The Employer does not generate any electricity. It purchases
all of its electricity for resale from the Iowa Public Service Com-
pany, a public utility servicing northwestern and north central Iowa 2
During the year 1949 the Employer purchased from the Iowa Public
Service Company electricity in an amount exceeding $83,000. Dur-
ing the same period, it resold and distributed electricity, to its mem-
bers in an amount exceeding $245,000, a small amount of which was
purchased by commercial users, schools, and churches, the rest by
rural consumers. The Employer purchases materials such as wire,
poles, and pole line equipment in amounts varying from $2,800 to
$5,000 or more per year, nearly all of which is shipped to the Employer
from points outside the State of Iowa.
Contrary to the Employer's contention, we find on these facts that
the Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the
Act.3 We find, further, that a cooperative utility of the type involved
herein should, for these purposes, be treated as a public utility.
i All but one of these members live in Plymouth County, Iowa , and the surrounding
counties ; the other member lives in South Dakota.
4 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 service other
parts of Iowa and the surrounding States.
8 Buckeye Rural Electric Co -operative, Inc., 88 NLRB 196.
92 NLRB No. 163. 1183
1184 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Therefore, in accordance with the Board's recently established policy
to take jurisdiction over public utilities, we shall, in order to effectuate
the policies of the Act, assert jurisdiction in this case 4
2. The labor organization involved claims to represent employees
of the Employer.
3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the represen-
tation 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:.
The parties agree that the appropriate unit should , consist of
all construction and maintenance employees at the Employer's Le
Mars, Iowa, plant, including linemen, apprentice linemen, the ground-
man, the work order and materials clerk, and the meter maintenance
man, but excluding office and clerical employees and supervisors as
defined in the Act.
The petitioner would also include the maintenance line foremen
and the construction line foreman. The Employer requests the Board
to determine whether the inclusion of these individuals is proper.
These two working foremen are in charge of crews of employees
numbering three each. The foremen assign work to these employees
and spend approximately 25 percent of their time in directing the em-
ployees' work. The foremen spend the remainder of their time in
performing manual labor along with the employees in their respective
crews. When the foremen are on duty there is no one of higher
authority responsible for the immediate direction of the crew em-
ployees. The record also indicates that the foremen have the author-
ity to discipline employees, even to the extent of discharging them
-for improper conduct on duty, although it does not appear that they
have ever exercised that authority. The foremen are paid on an
hourly basis and receive 24 cents per hour more than the first class
linemen and 49 cents per hour more than the apprentice linemen.
From the foregoing facts, we conclude that the working foremen
are supervisors within the meaning of the amended Act and we shall,
accordingly, exclude them.
We find that all construction and maintenance employees at the
Employer's Le Mars, Iowa, plant, including linemen, apprentice line-
men, the groundman, the work order and 'materials clerk, and the
meter maintenance man, but excluding. office and clerical employees,
the maintenance line foreman, the construction line foreman, and
4 See W. C. King d/b/a Local Transit Lines, 91 NLRB 623; Cherokee County Rural Elec-
tric Cooperative Association, 92 NLRB 1181.
PLYMOUTH ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE ASSOCIATION 1185
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.]