The Communication Workers Union sought to represent certain service employees of Electro Protective Corporation as part of a communications craft bargaining unit. The company sells, installs, monitors, and services alarm systems. The employees in question respond to alarms at customers’ premises, protecting the premises until the police or customers arrive. The employees also reset the alarm systems and provide any maintenance that the systems require. These employees drive radio-dispatched vans, wear uniforms, and are provided with nightsticks. They face the possibility of personal confrontation with intruders. The union insisted that these workers were maintenance personnel who could be represented by their unit. The company contended that these employees were guards under Section 9(b)(3) and therefore must be excluded from the unit in question.
Are these employees guards under the Act? What difference would the absence of uniforms and nightsticks make? [Electro Protective Corp., 251 NLRB 154, 105 LRRM 1254]