Providence Washington Insurance Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jul 15, 1952

100 N.L.R.B. 248 (N.L.R.B. 1952)

248 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
PROVIDENCE WASHINGTON INSURANCE COMPANY and LOCAL No. 100,
INTERNATIONAL UNION OF OPERATING ENGINEERS , AFL, PETITIONER.
Case No. 1-RC-2760. July 15,1952
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 Sidney A. Coven, 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 [Chairman Herzog and Members Murdock and Peterson].
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 parties stipulated that a unit of all boiler room employees
is appropriate. However, the Petitioner, over the opposition of the
Employer, would exclude Merrill S. Steere as a supervisor.
The record discloses that Steere was building superintendent and
concededly a supervisor, as defined in the Act, until recently when
he was transferred and placed in charge of the boiler room to replace
the senior boiler room operator, who had quit his job a few weeks
before. During the short interval between the date the senior boiler
room operator left and the date Steere took over, Harold Sprague,
one of the regular boiler room employees, was temporarily in charge
of the boiler room.
Although Steere replaced a former subordinate whose annual salary
was $3,432, he retained the $5,260 a year salary which he received as
building superintendent. At the present time, of the three employees
under Steere, Sprague is paid $3,432 a year, representing a raise given
him during the period he was in charge of the boiler room, and which
amount corresponds to that paid the former senior boiler room oper-
ator, and the remaining two employees are each paid $2,700 a year.
The three boiler room employees other than Steere have regular fire-
men's licenses, as well as temporary refrigeration machine operator
100 NLRB No. 38.
PROVIDENCE WASHINGTON INSURANCE COMPANY 249
permits issued by the city of Providence. The latter permits require
that the permittees work under the supervision of a person holding
an unlimited operating engineer's license. Steere is the only remain-
ing employee holding such a license. Testimony on behalf of the
Employer reveals that the Employer has experienced a great deal of
difficulty with the operation of its refrigeration gear and boiler room
system. The refrigeration gear is very expensive and, in addition, its
improper operation often results in a power failure which seriously
affects the entire operation of the Employer, particularly in view of
the fact that the Employer's business machines are electrically oper-
ated. Although Steere was replaced as building superintendent by
another employee, who is now Steere's supervisor, this employee was
a former janitor and is not competent to give the technical advice
needed in case anything goes wrong with the operation of the boiler
room equipment. Thus, the Employer relies primarily on Steere, who
has an extensive technical background, to insure the proper operation
of the boiler room department. In this respect, the employees were
told that Steere was in complete charge of the boiler room, that they
were to answer to him and that they were to report to him anything not
working properly. When something out of line is reported to Steere,
he ,decides what should be done about it. If employees have any doubt
about how to perform their work, they refer to Steere for instructions.
Steere, also, on occasions when things are operating smoothly, permits
employees to leave early without loss of pay. It is Steere's further
responsibility to report to the Employer the fact that an employee is
not doing his job properly and to see that employees' time cards are
accurate.
Upon all the foregoing facts, we find that Steere exercises independ-
ent judgment in granting employees paid time off and responsibly
directs the employees under him. Accordingly, we find that Steere
is a supervisor as defined in the Act and shall exclude him from the
unit hereinafter found appropriate.
We find that all boiler room employees at the Employer's Provi-
dence, Rhode Island, main office, excluding 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 2
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this
volume.]
1 Excluded under this classification is Merrill S. Steere.
s The description of the unit appears as amended at the hearing.