Southern California Edison Co., Ltd.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jun 2, 1944

56 N.L.R.B. 1172 (N.L.R.B. 1944)

In the Matter of SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA EDISON COMPANY, LTD., and
BUILDING SERVICE EMPIAYEEs' INTERNATIONAL UNION, LOCAL No. 99
Case No. 21-R4292.-Decided June 0, 1944
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, by Messrs. F. 0. Field, and R. G. Kenyon,
of Los Angeles, Calif., for the Company.
Messrs. John C. Stevenson and Frank Green, of Los Angeles, Calif.,
for the Union. -
Mr. John A. Weiss, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon a petition duly filed by Building Service Employees' Inter-
national Union, Local No. 99, affiliated with the A. F. of L., herein
called the Union, alleging that. a question affecting commerce had
arisen concerning the representation of employees of Southern Cali-
fornia Edison Company, Ltd., Los Angeles, California, herein called
the Company, the National Labor Relations Board provided for an
appropriate hearing upon due notice before William B. Esterman,
Trial Examiner. Said hearing was held at Los Angeles, California,
on May 4, 1944. 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 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
, Southern California Edison Company, Ltd., a California corpora-
tion, is engaged in the business of generating, distributing, and selling
56 N. L. R. B., No. 208. -
1172
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA EDISON COMPANY, L 1173
electric power. During 1942, the Company purchased supplies, mate-
rial , equipment, and.machinery valued in excess of $3,400,000, of which
in excess of $2,200,000 represented purchases from points outside the
State of California. During the same period; the total sales of the
Company amounted to more than $50,000,000. No electric power
is directly sold or shipped outside the State of California. The Com-
pany delivers wholesale electric power to other cities and companies,
including specifically the Pacific Gas and Electric Company, to which
the Company delivered in excess of $2,500,000 worth of electric power
during 1942. -The total wholesale electric power so delivered to the
cities and the companies is in excess of $3,400,000.
The, Company stipulated that its operations in commerce were as
set out above, and admitted that while in its operation as a whole, it
is engaged in interstate commerce, the operation of its 13-story office
building in Los Angeles, California, is not a part of its interstate com-
merce activities, and that consequently the janitorial employees here-
inafter-described are not within the jurisdiction and purview of the
Act. The Company in the past has used various amounts of space in
the building for the conduct of its operations and business and
presently occupies 40 percent of the available space for executive offices,
conference rooms, and libraries, leasing the remainder of the building,
to other commercial tenants. The employees sought by petitioner
are all janitorial employees, including porters and maids, elevator
operators, and starters, employed by the Company to clean, and main-
tain the building and annex, and to operate, the elevators. These
employees perform only part of the maintenance work required, the
Company contracting with the Los Angeles Building Maintenance
Company, not involved in this proceeding, for the remainder.
We cannot agree that the work of these employees is local and with-
out substantial relation to traffic, trade, and commerce, for the build-
ing houses a part of the Company's operations which are not separable
from the business of supplying electrical energy and power. Here are
located the executive, medical, comptrollers, legal, investment, com-
mercial, and other departments and staffs necessary for the conduct
and maintenance of its operations. A disturbance among these em-
ployees would interfere with the operation of its office building and
the performance of the duties and work of these departments which
we view as an integral and necessary part of its enterprise. It is well
established, and we find, that such employees are within the purview
of the Act., '
I See Matter of The Teras Company and Building Service Employees' Local Union No.
95, 21'N. L. R B. 110; and Butler Brothers v. N. L. R. B., 134 Fed. (2d) 981 (C. C. A 7),
cert denied 320 U. S. 789.
1174 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR R.EI.ATIONS BOARD
II. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED
Building Service Employees' International Union, Local No. 99, is
a labor,organization affiliated with the American Federation of Labor,
admitting to membership employees of the Company.
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
The Company has refused to grant the Union's requested recognition
as the exclusive representative oLthe janitorial employees and elevator
operators until there has been a determination of whether or not these
employees are engaged in interestate commerce.
A statement prepared by the Field Examiner and introduced in
evidence at the hearing, indicates that the Union represents a sub-
stantial number of employees in the unit hereinafter found to be
appropriate.' ,
IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT
The parties agree that janitorial employees, including- porters and
maids, and the elevator operators, should comprise the 'unit, 'if any,
found appropriate by the Board. They disagree, however, with re-
spect to the inclusion of the elevator starter. The unrefuted testimony
of the Building Superintendent of the Company is that the elevator
starter has supervision over the elevator operators with authority to
recommend their hire and discharge. ' It appears that the authority
and duties of the elevator starter are such as to bring him within our
definition of a supervisory employee;, we shall exclude him.
We find, therefore, that all janitors, porters, maids,' and elevator
operators employed by the Company at its Los Angeles building and
Annex, butiexcluding the elevator starter and all other supervisory
employees with authority, to hire, promote, discharge, discipline, or
otherwise effect changes in the status of employees or effectively'
recommend'such action, constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes
of collective bargaining, within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the
Act. '
V. THE DETER31INATION 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-
The , Field Examiner reported that the Union submitted 13 applications for membership
of poisons whose names appear on the Company 's pay roll of March 21 , 1944, in a unit
of 16 persons alleged by the Union to be appropriate.
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA EDISON COMPANY, LTD. 1175
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 Rela-
tions Act, and pursuant to Article III, Section 9, of National Labor
Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 3, it is hereby
DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation to ascertain representa-
tives for the purposes of collective bargaining with Southern Cali-
fornia Edison Company, Ltd., tos Angeles, California, 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 Twenty-
first Region, acting in this matter as agent for the National Labor
Relations Board, and. subject to Article III; Sections 10 and 11, of
said Rules and Regulations, among the employees in the unit found
appropriate in Section IV, above, who were employed during the
pay-roll period immediately preceding the date of this Direction, in-
cluding employees who did not. work during said pay-roll period be-
cause 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 any who have
since quit or been discharged for cause and have not been rehired or
reinstated prior to the date of the election, to determine whether or
not they desire to be -represented by Building Service Employees'
Union. Local No. 99, for the purposes of collective bargaining.