Case 2 Supervisor or Member of Bargaining Unit? 53 Case 2 Supervisor or Member of Bargaining Unit? Employer Bredero Shaw, A Division of Shaweor Ltd. MOIT1209 Union Local 653, International Union of Operating Engineers, AFL-CIO BACKGROUND This matter involves challenges to five individual employees' ballots in a certification election. The petitioner in this case is the union. The union challenged the ballots of four employees, whom it alleges are supervisors for purposes of the Act and therefore not properly members of the bargaining unit. A fifth person's ballot was challenged because the union alleges that this person does not share a community of interest with the remain- ing members of the bargaining unit and it was not intended that be included in the bar- gaining unit. The four employees that the union alleges are supervisors are Mr. A, Mr. B, Mr. C, and Ms. D. The person the union alleges has no shared interest with the remainder of the bargaining unit is Mr. E. The record shows that Mr. A and Mr. B are lead men and provided direction and supervision for a crew of seven or eight persons on construction sites. Mr. A on at least one occasion over the past couple of years has sent an employee home because he "got smart on the job." Mr. A also routinely assigned work to the employees. Over the past two years Mr. B sent two employees home for fighting on the job, and on another occa- sion granted an employee's request for some time off without consulting anyone. Mr. B's title was also lead man. Mr. C has the title maintenance supervisor, but spends the majority of his time working at his trade, welder. Mr. C routinely assigned other welders to specific tasks, and on at least one occasion in the last two years gave an employee permission to go home. Ms. D's title is electrician-lead person. Ms. D over the past couple of years assigned other electricians to jobs that were identified to her by supervisors that needed to be done. There is no evi- dence that she ever disciplined an employee. She spends the majority of her time working in her trade. Mr. E works in a facility of the plant called the GSPU plant. He spends half of his time performing quality control work in that plant, and the remainder of his time per- forming production work in the bargaining unit. POSITION OF THE EMPLOYER It is the position of the employer that all of these employees are members of the bar- gaining unit. Employees A through D are not supervisors for purposes of the Act, and as such are properly included in the bargaining unit. Each of these employees works at their trade, and each engages in bargaining unit work routinely. Therefore it would be improper under the Act to exclude their ballots in a certification election.Labor Relations 54 Part One Legal Aspects of Collective Bargaining: National Labor Relations Board Cases Mr. E is also a member of the bargaining unit. The fact that approximately half of his time is spent doing work in quality control and in a separate area of the production facility does not remove him from a shared community of interest with the remaining members of the bargaining unit. Therefore, this employee's ballot should also be included. POSITION OF THE UNION The union challenges employees A through D and claims their ballot ought not count in the certification election. Each of these employees are supervisors by title, each has the ability to direct the work of others routinely, and each has exhibited independent author- ity by sending employees home or granting them time off. Therefore, these employees are supervisory employees for purposes of the Act. Mr. E does not have a shared community of interest with the remainder of the bar- gaining unit. Mr. E works in a separate facility for half of each work day, and while there does primarily quality control work. The fact that the other half of the work day is spent in production work does not serve to overcome the fact that it was not intended for Mr. E to be included in the bargaining unit. Therefore the union requests that the challenges to these employees' ballots be sus- tained by the Board. QUESTIONS 1. What is a supervisor for purposes of the Act? Do any of these four employees qual- ify as supervisors? Explain. 2. What is meant by a community of interest? Is there a showing in this case that Mr. E does not share a community of interest with the remaining members of the bargain- ing unit? Explain. 3. If you were the Board in this matter how would you decide? Explain