Texas Pipe Line Company v. NLRB

• Decision Date: 30 November 1961
• Docket Number: No. 18703.,18703.
• Citation: 296 F.2d 208
• Parties: TEXAS PIPE LINE COMPANY, Petitioner, v. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Respondent.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

296 F.2d 208 (1961)

TEXAS PIPE LINE COMPANY, Petitioner, v. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Respondent.

No. 18703.

United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit.

November 30, 1961.

Oliver J. Butler, Jr., Houston, Tex., for petitioner.

Marcel Mallet-Prevost, Asst. Gen. Counsel, N. L. R. B., Dominick L. Manoli, Assoc. Gen. Counsel, N. L. R. B., Julius G. Getman, Atty., N. L. R. B., Washington, D. C., Stuart Rothman, General Counsel, Melvin J. Welles, Attorneys, National Labor Relations Board, Washington, D. C., for respondent.

Before HUTCHESON, RIVES, and WISDOM, Circuit Judges.

WISDOM, Circuit Judge.

This dispute grows out of a National Labor Relations Board determination in December 1959 that three of petitioner's seven divisions constitute an appropriate bargaining unit. The petitioner, Texas Pipe Line Co., contesting the validity of that determination, refused to bargain with the Union.¹ As a result, the N.L. R.B. found that the Company had engaged in unfair labor practices under Sections 8(a) (1) and (5) of the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 158 (a) (1) and (5). Texas Pipe Line petitions this Court to review and set aside the Board's usual order requiring the Company to cease and desist from its refusal to bargain and from violating the employees rights "in any like or related manner"; the Board petitions for enforcement. We uphold the N.L.R.B. ruling that the three divisions constitute an appropriate bargaining unit and grant enforcement of the order.

Texas Pipe Line is a wholly owned subsidiary of Texaco Inc. It operates pipe lines for the transportation of petroleum products in Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Montana, Illinois, and Indiana. These operations are organized into seven divisions: Wichita Falls in North Texas and Oklahoma, Houston in South Texas, and Lafayette in East Texas and Louisiana; Hearne in Central Texas, and Evangeline in East Texas and Louisiana; Montana in Montana; and Salem in Illinois and Indiana. Before 1959 each division was a separate bargaining unit, as directed by the N.L.R.B. in several previous representation proceedings dating back to the early and middle 1940s. The employees are unionized in four of the seven divisions. The Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers International Union formerly represented the employees in petitioner's Lafayette, Wichita Falls, and Montana divisions, and the Union's Local No. 4-367 was the representative for the Houston division.² There is no history of bargaining at the Hearne, Evangeline, or Salem divisions. In March 1959 the Union requested that the N.L. R.B. direct a representation election in a Company-wide unit consisting of all operating and maintenance employees of Texas Pipe Line. At a representation hearing in May the Company contended that the appropriate bargaining unit should comprise a single division only; the Union argued for a Company-wide unit or, alternatively, a unit covering the Wichita Falls, Houston, and Lafayette divisions. The trial examiner recommended, and the Board adopted, the Union's alternate proposal for the three-division unit. The Board explained its ruling as follows:

"We view the Union\'s alternative position as an effort to consolidate the units which it has represented severally into a single bargaining unit. The geographical remoteness of the Montana and Salem Divisions persuades us that they may not properly be included in a single unit with the Texas and Louisiana operations of the Employer.

"Employees of the Hearne and Evangeline Divisions have not been represented by the Union. It is contrary to Board policy to add previously unrepresented groups to presently represented units without a self-determination election. We will not direct an election among the employees of the Hearne and Evangeline Divisions however, because the Union has made no showing of interest among them. We find it unneccessary, therefore, to determine whether the employees of the Hearne and Evangeline Divisions properly may be included in a larger unit. The petition, insofar as it relates to these employees is hereby dismissed, without prejudice to a new petition supported by a proper showing of interest.

"The remainder of the Employer\'s operation consists of three integrated and adjoining crude oil divisions — the Witchita Falls and Houston Divisions in Texas and the Lafayette Division in Louisiana. These divisions are engaged in substantially identical operations. Their employees are represented by the same local of the petitioning Union. Working conditions, job classifications and employee benefits in the three divisions are similar and there has been some interchange of personnel among these divisions. We find, accordingly, that the employees of the Wichita Falls, Houston and Lafayette Divisions constitute an appropriate unit."

Judicial review of a Board determination of an appropriate bargaining unit is narrowly limited. Section 9(b) of the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 159(b), places primary authority over these questions in the Board, which must consider a variety of factors in reaching its decision. These include the similarity of working conditions and duties, the character of the various plants, the wishes of the employees, and the anticipated effectiveness of the unit in maintaining industrial peace through collective bargaining. Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co. v. N. L. R. B., 1941, 313 U.S. 146, 61 S.Ct. 908, 85 L.Ed. 1251. "The issue as to what unit is appropriate for bargaining is one for which no absolute rule of law is laid down by statute, and none should be by decision. It involves of necessity a large measure of informed discretion and the decision of the Board, if not final, is rarely to be disturbed." N. L. R. B. v. Packard Motor Car Co., 330 U.S. 485, 491, 67 S.Ct. 789, 793, 91 L.Ed. 1040.

Texas Pipe Line argues that the three-division bargaining suit is a heterogeneous unit unrelated to its administrative or operational structure; that the three divisions bear no similarity toward each other as compared with the other divisions.³ This is a two-pronged contention: first, that there is no adequate basis for placing its separate divisions in a combined bargaining unit; second, that if such divisions may be combined, the exclusion of four of the divisions is so arbitrary and unreasonable that the chosen grouping should not stand.

I.

First, Texas Pipe Line challenges the Board statement that the three divisions are "integrated and adjacent." We do not read this finding as disregarding the Company's divisional organization. It refers to the fact, as stated in the testimony of the Company's employees and officers, that the pipe lines operated by the various divisions interconnect and oil flows from the pipes of one division to those of another. The divisions are therefore functionally integrated, at least to a limited degree. The fact that the geographical areas encompassed by the three divisions are contiguous, Lafayette to Houston, and Houston to Wichita Falls, supports the finding that the divisions are "adjacent."

The finding that the divisions engage in substantially identical operations cannot be disputed and strongly supports the combination into a single unit. The sole objection that Texas Pipe Line makes to this finding is that its Lafayette division operates certain water stations where it is necessary for the workers to travel twenty or thirty minutes by boat to get to the job. These water operations are not conducted by any other divisions, and differ from the operations carried on elsewhere, requiring special agreements covering travel time and other matters. But, as the Board points out, these water operations comprise only a part of the operations of the Lafayette division itself, and that division has been treated as a single bargaining unit for many years without difficulty or objection by the Company. The combination therefore will not change the fact that one unit comprises workers in both water and regular land operations.

Texas Pipe Line disputes the Board's statement that the same local represents the employees of all three divisions. The statement is not precise, but it contains no significant error. The petitioner acknowledges that Local 4-367 represents the employees in the Houston division, but it asserts that the International Union itself, not the local unit, has represented the employees of the Lafayette and Wichita Falls divisions. John E. Crossland, Secretary-Treasurer of Local 4-367, testified that the local had represented the employees of the Lafayette division and of one of three divisions which in 1957 were merged to form the Wichita Falls division. On cross-examination he stated that the Houston division was the only one for which the local had been certified, and he acknowledged that he had acted as a representative of the International Union, in negotiations in the other two divisions. Apparently, jurisdiction over those divisions was retained by the International Union, but the distinction between the local unit and the international unit seems unimportant for these purposes, especially where there has been a practice of having the officers of the local act for the international. We conclude, therefore, that this point does not materially affect the Board determination.

The Board found that "working conditions, job classifications, and employee benefits in the three divisions are similar." The Company readily concedes the point that the job classifications are similar but contests its relevance. We agree with the Board that this is a significant factor, since the presence of substantial...