Trans World Airlines, Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jun 19, 1974

211 N.L.R.B. 733 (N.L.R.B. 1974)

TRANS WORLD AIRLINES, INC. 733
Trans World Airlines, Inc. and District Lodge No.
166, International Association of Machinists and
Aerospace Workers, AFL-CIO, Petitioner. Case
12-RC-4284
June 19, 1974
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF
ELECTIONS
By CHAIRMAN MILLER AND MEMBERS
FANNING AND JENKINS
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9(c) of the
National Labor Relations Act, as amended, a
hearing was held before Hearing Officer Mary Lee
Meder. Following the hearing and pursuant to
Section 102.67 of the National Labor Relations
Board Rules and Regulations, Series 8, as amended,
the Regional Director for Region 12 issued an order
transferring the case to the Board for decision.
Subsequent to the hearing, the Employer filed its
brief with the Board.
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the
National Labor Relations Act, as amended, the
National Labor Relations Board has delegated its
authority in this proceeding to a three-member panel.
The Board has reviewed the Hearing Officer's
rulings made at the hearing and finds that they are
free from prejudicial error. They are hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in this case the Board finds:
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within
the meaning of the Act and it will effectuate the
purposes of the Act to assert jurisdiction herein.
The Employer questions whether jurisdiction over
these employees would not more appropriately lie
with the National Mediation Board via coverage of
the Railway Labor Act.' The record clearly shows,
and we find, that all of the employees involved
herein work at the Employer's Visitors Information
Center located at the Cape Canaveral Space Center2
in Florida where they are engaged in providing
various support services for visitor tours of the Space
Center. It is also evident that the employees sought
by the Petitioner are in no way engaged in activity
involving airline transportation functions. Where a
group of employees are involved in work which
would normally be covered by the National Labor
Relations Act, the mere fact that the employer is one
within the definitional sweep of the Railway Labor
Act will not serve to bar this Board's jurisdiction.
There must be a more direct connection between the
1 45 U . S.C. 151, et seq.
2 Cape Kennedy has been renamed since the petition was filed. We will
refer to it by its current name.
3 Pan American World Airways, Inc. v. United Brotherhood of Carpenters
and Joiners of America, 324 F.2d 217 (C.A. 9), cert , denied 376 U.S. 964.
Moreover, it is noted that as of April 1, 1974, the operation of the
employees and the transportation function so as to
warrant the special considerations for which Con-
gress enacted the Railway Labor Act .3 Consequently,
we have concluded that we have jurisdiction over this
proceeding4 and that our jurisdiction is properly
invoked.
2. The Petitioner is a labor organization within
the meaning of Section 2(5) of the Act.
3. A question affecting commerce exists concern-
ing the representation of certain employees of the
Employer within the meaning of Section 9(c)(1) and
Section 2(6) and (7) of the Act.
4. The Petitioner seeks a unit of all unrepresented
employees of the Employer providing support serv-
ices for tours of the Cape Canaveral Space Center at
the Employer's Visitor Information Center.5 The
parties were able to agree that sales agents, service
agents (all types), mail order agents, cashiers, ticket
agents, reservation agents, parking service agents,
terminal agents, commentator escorts, presentation
specialists, exhibit specialists, exhibit technicians,
and the senior clerk typist all belonged in the unit.
The parties further agreed, and we find, that the
project manager, manager-public awareness, supervi-
sor-purchasing, supervisor-accounting, manager-visi-
tor services, manager-business administration, super-
visor-visitor support services, and supervisor-inter-
pretive services were properly excluded from the unit
as supervisors. Also, in accordance with the agree-
ment of the parties, we exclude the senior accountant
"B," the accountant "B," the senior secretary to the
project manager, the secretary to the public aware-
ness manager, and the secretary to the manager of
visitor services as office clerical employees.
Alleged Supervisors
The Petitioner questions the supervisory status of
the five chief classifications,6 arguing that they are
leadmen and should be included in the unit. We
disagree and exclude these individuals as supervisors.
The record indicates that they direct work of the
people in their section, including the scheduling of
work activity on a daily basis, vacations or other time
off, and the scheduling of overtime work. They
review the work of people under them and recom-
mend promotions. They also have authority to
discipline employees, including firing, when neces-
sary. Finally, they attend and participate in manage-
ment meetings and receive the same rate of pay and
employment fringe benefits as do acknowledged
Visitor Information Center was transfered by Trans World to a subsidiary
corporation outside the airline industry.
5 This does not include the bus tour operations which have been
subcontracted out.
6 Chief, tour sales services; chief, tour services; chief, tour sales food;
chief, terminal operations ; and chief, lecture program.
211 NLRB No. 99
734 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
management personnel. In view of these facts, we
have concluded that they are supervisors within the
meaning of the Act and must be excluded.
Alleged Professional and Managerial
Employees
The Employer would exclude the space science
lecturers on the basis that they are professional
employees. The record discloses that these employees
must meet special education and experience specifi-
cations imposed by NASA, and that they must have
college degrees with several years of teaching and
curriculum development experience. Once hired,
they are assigned the task of lecturing to adult and
other educational tour groups on the NASA pro-
grams. They are also assigned the task of teaching
the commentator-escorts about the overall space
program and training these escorts to be more
effective guides. In view of the teaching character of
the work performed, in addition to the academic
training and other "knowledge of an advanced type"
required, we conclude that these employees are
professionals.
The Employer would exclude the staff assistant
inventory class employees because they allegedly
have access to sensitive price information. The
record discloses that while these employees are
responsible for the maintenance of the proper food
and souvenir inventory and are the first step in the
supply reordering process, they are, in fact, super-
vised and considered nonmanagerial employees.
They lack authority independently to negotiate the
selling price of an item with different vendors and
they appear to play no role in the setting of either the
selling or the purchase price. Hence, the price
information they possess is of a rather general
nature . These individuals are also used, where
needed, as sales agents, a position clearly within the
unit, and appear to work in the same area as the
other employees in the unit. Finally, their rate of pay,
mode of payment, and the general terms and
conditions of work show them to have the same
community of interest with the other employees
already included in the unit and we include them.
The Employer would exclude the material special-
ist, as a professional or technical, and also exclude as
office clericals the secretary to the manager of
business administration and the secretary to the
supervisor of visitor support services. These positions
are currently open and there is no indication by the
Employer that it contemplates filling them in the
near future. We will therefore adhere to our policy of
not passing on open classifications.?
The Employer would also exclude as an office
clerical the receptionist/procurement records con-
trol. In addition to the duties of meeting and routing
people, the receptionist also does typing of reports
and letters while working with the excluded office
clericals. Additionally, when the need for a tempo-
rary or replacement receptionist arises, one of the
office clericals is assigned the task. To us this
indicates that the receptionist has a closer-communi-
ty of interest with the excluded office clericals than
with the employees who are in the unit and,
accordingly, we shall exclude her.
The Petitioner would exclude and the Employer
include the categories of stores clerks and fleet
service helpers who at the time the petition was filed
were covered by a separate contract between the
Employer and a sister local of the Petitioner.
Although these employees appear to have a close
community of interest with the employees herein
sought by the Petitioner, it is our general policy not
to make unit findings which would have the effect of
disturbing an established bargaining relationship.8
However,' on the basis of the evidence before us,
there is no way of determining whether or not this
existing bargaining relationship has continued and is
in effect at the present time. The collective-bargain-
ing agreement upon which the relationship was based
by its terms expired on August 31, 1973 and without
specific information, we would not, in the circum-
stances of this case, presume that the bargaining
relationship is continuing. Accordingly, we shall at
this time make no determination as to the unit
placement of these individuals, but allow them to
vote subject to challenge and, if necessary, determine
their unit status in a subsequent proceeding.
Temporary Employees
The Petitioner and Employer agree and we find
that the full-time employees and the regular part-
time employees belong in the unit and are entitled to
vote. However, there is a large body of temporary
employees, who work more or less on a seasonal
basis during the busy holiday periods, about whom
the parties were unable to agree. The record discloses
that this block of employees plays a significant part
in the Employer's operation of the Visitor Informa-
tion Center. They are employed on a continuing
basis throughout most of the year, though no one
temporary employee may, by the Employer's defini-
tion, work for a period exceeding 120 days. These
employees are also the Employer's primary source
when replacing its regular part-time or full-time
employees. Additionally, it is the temporaries em-
Sigman Food Stores #27, 113 NLRB 689 (1955).
s The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., Inc., 153 NLRB 159 (1965)
TRANS WORLD AIRLINES, INC.
ployed in the preceding season that the Employer
first seeks to hire when it increases its staff for the
following season. That the Employer encourages,
indeed counts on, the return of previously hired
temporaries is apparent from the fact that when a
temporary returns for the third time his salary is
increased to equal the rate of pay of the full-time
employee in a comparable job. It is these employees,
the ones who return and show a willingness to be
rehired, that should be included in the unit. Anyone
who continues to return to work and is paid at the
same rate as the full-time employees has a reasonable
expectation of reemployment in the foreseeable
future and thus has a community of interest with the
regular part-time and full-time employees. Accord-
ingly, any temporary who has been employed on a
minimum of three occasions since January 1972, or is
currently employed for the third time and is receiving
the regular rate of pay for the salary grade in which
he or she has been employed, and who has not
otherwise been discharged for cause, will be included
in the unit and eligible to vote.
B The fleet service and stores clerks employees , should any appear at the
polls, will be permitted to vote subject to challenge.
10 If the Union desires to represent the professional employees in a
735
We shall direct separate elections in the following
voting groups:
(a) All employees of the Employer providing
support services for the tours of NASA, including
ticket and food sales agents, cashiers, commenta-
tor/escorts, presentation specialists, service agents,
parking service agents, mail order agents, terminal
agents, reservation agents, exhibit specialists, exhibit
technicians, senior clerk typist, regular part-time
temporary employees as described above, and the
staff inventory assistants employed at the Cape
Canaveral Space Center, excluding office clericals,
space science lecturers, and supervisors as defined in
the Act .9
(b) The space science lecturers, excluding all other
employees and supervisors as defined in the Act.
We find either of these groups, or both together,
constitutes an appropriate unit.10
[Direction of Elections and Excelsior footnote
omitted from publication.]
separate unit, it shall be given the opportunity to amend its petition and to
submit an appropriate showing of interest.