Opinion ID: 2165230
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: accretion and community of interest

Text: Once an appropriate unit for collective-bargaining purposes has been established, groups of new employees, or present employees in new positions, can be added to the existing unit without a vote on their representation through a process known as accretion. N.L.R.B. v. Stevens Ford, Inc., 773 F.2d 468, 472-73 (2d Cir.1985). Accretion preserves stability by allowing adjustments in bargaining units to accommodate new conditions without requiring an adversary election every time new jobs are created or industrial routines are altered. Id. at 473. In determining whether an accretion of employees to an existing unit is proper, the NLRB considers many of the same factors that determine the community-of-interest question, namely, such factors as integration of operations; centralization of managerial and administrative control; geographic proximity; similarity of working conditions, skills, and functions; common control over labor relations; collective-bargaining history; and interchangeability of employees. N.L.R.B. v. Security-Columbian Banknote Co., 541 F.2d 135, 140 (3d Cir.1976). Thus, accretion serves as a mechanism to incorporate a group of employees into an already existing larger unit when such a community of interest exists among the entire group that the additional employees have no separate unit identity and therefore should properly be governed by the larger group's choice of bargaining representatives. Id. Although accretion and unit determination are similar concepts, accretion has been used sparingly because it denies the accreted employees a vote on their choice of bargaining representative. Id. The NLRB's hesitancy in using the accretion doctrine rests on the inherent competing policy considerations in the accretion doctrine: stability of labor relations versus the employees' freedom to choose their own bargaining agents. International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, Local 1414 v. N.L.R.B., 759 F.2d 1477, 1480 (9th Cir.1985). In the instant case the board ruled that Parks and Plushner had accreted to the bargaining unit because the two workers shared a sufficient community of interest with the other employees of the bargaining unit. We disagree. As noted above, we find no instance in which employees have accreted into the pre-existing bargaining unit primarily on the basis of the employees' perceptions of their job duties. Although case law does address the issue of whether employees promoted to new positions with different responsibilities were properly included in an existing unit, those cases are not dispositive of the issues before us. See generally Westinghouse Electric Corp. v. N.L.R.B., 440 F.2d 7, 10 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 404 U.S. 853, 92 S.Ct. 93, 30 L.Ed.2d 93 (1971) (addressing whether employees promoted from technical to analyst positions were no longer qualified to be included in the technical unit). In the instant case it was the workers who claimed that their positions were modified  not by an affirmative act on their employer's part, but rather by their own subjective perceptions of their jobs. Such an argument is unpersuasive and unavailing. Applying the community-of-interest standards and factors pertaining to accretion, we are led to the conclusion that Parks and Plushner did not share mutual interests in wages, hours, and other conditions of employment with the members of the union. Members of local No. 2012 for fiscal year 1990 earned between $20,045 and $49,952, received full state-employee health benefits, most participated in the State Employees Retirement System, and typically worked thirty-five hours each week at the station. Employees in the local No. 2012 bargaining unit were required to apply for and compete with other qualified candidates in the hiring process delineated in the union's collective-bargaining agreement; the agreement requires posting of vacant positions, subject to affirmative action and other regulations. None of these fundamental characteristics of bargaining-unit positions applied to Plushner or Parks. Both received minimum-wage salaries, and neither received any form of employee benefits. Plushner worked only ten to thirty-five hours per week at the station. Both individuals worked on the Tuesday Nights program, which was the training program for interns. Both were hired not through the normal procedure listed in the collective-bargaining agreement, but through an ad hoc, self-initiated solicitation. In presenting its evidence before the board, the union stressed the differences between Parks and Plushner's activities and those of the other interns. An argument for accretion, however, must rest on the identification of sufficient similarities between the group hoping to join the bargaining unit and the members already in the unit. Accretion is not a consequence of the dissimilarities between the group hoping to join  here, the two workers  and those excluded  the other interns. Because of this misdirected emphasis, the union presented no evidence before the board that proved aspects of the community-of-interest standard. For example, the union did not present testimony from members of the bargaining unit delineating their commonality of interest with Parks and Plushner. Thus, we are left solely with the testimony concerning wages, hours, benefits, and the method of hiring. These factors conclusively show that Parks and Plushner and the members of local No. 2012 did not share substantial mutual interests in wages, hours, and other conditions of employment, insofar as Parks and Plushner were employed at minimum wage and received no benefits. The board found that Parks and Plushner shared a community of interest with the other members of local No. 2012 because their positions of employment were similar to those of other employees in the bargaining unit. The station positions listed in the 1969 certification included chief engineer, program directors, art director, instructional television coordinator, producer-director, television director, and director of community relations & station development. These highly technical and specialized positions do not comport with the amorphous associate-producer position, which required neither formal training, nor specialized knowledge or educational requirements. The board also found that Parks and Plushner were associate producers and, therefore, appropriate members of the bargaining unit because the associate-producer position was listed by the Authority as a separate category from intern on a 1988 organizational chart. The board found this listing an especially persuasive indication of the status of Plushner and Parks. The chart, however, lists numerous positions that are not contained in the collective-bargaining agreement. The positions so identified include on-air talent, production trainees, principal clerk/typists, and promotion trainees. Thus, the organizational chart, so heavily relied upon by the union and the board, is primarily a descriptive representation of the hierarchy at the station and of job responsibilities, not a listing of positions within the bargaining unit. Because we conclude that Parks and Plushner were essentially employed as interns, we hold that the board erred in finding that Parks and Plushner had a community of interest with the members of local No. 2012. We base this conclusion on three factors: the history of collective bargaining; past decisions of the NLRB; and previous arbitration awards in this state. A unit's collective-bargaining history is used by the NLRB as a factor in determining whether a community of interest exists as well as whether a particular group of employees should accrete to an existing collective-bargaining unit. See St. Francis College, 562 F.2d at 249 (one factor in community-of-interest determination is history of collective bargaining); Security-Columbian Banknote Co., 541 F.2d at 140 (history matters as a factor in accretion determination). At oral argument, counsel for the union stated that its goal in bringing the petition was to obtain an administrative clarification that these two positions existed and should properly be included in the union's certified-bargaining unit. Czaskos testified before the board that production interns had been employed by the station for twenty-two years and that they performed essentially the same duties as Parks and Plushner. At no time during these twenty-two years had the union petitioned to organize or accrete any intern position, and the union conceded before the board that it was not petitioning to represent trainees. [1] The fact that the internships listed by the Authority predated the collective-bargaining agreement of 1969 is significant: Another [accretion] factor  one which is often dispositive  is whether the group to be accreted was in existence at the time the existing bargaining unit was recognized. If the group was in existence and excluded from an election, then accretion should not normally be permitted.  (Emphases added.) Stevens Ford, Inc., 773 F.2d at 474. Here, the Authority produced evidence of interns at the station in 1967, two years before the unit was formed, and thus interns are properly excluded. In addition, arbitration awards in this state have ruled that individuals who are involved in training programs are not state employees for collective-bargaining purposes. In In re State of Rhode Island Department of Social and Rehabilitative Services and Rhode Island Council 94, AFSCME, Local 2882, Case No. 1139-1393-83 (1984) (Fallon, Arb.), the union contended that the state had violated a contract provision that precluded non-bargaining-unit employees from performing bargaining-unit work. The arbitrator concluded that the trainees involved in the WIN program were not employees within the meaning of the contract and noted that the trainees were not hired through regular hiring procedures, receive[d] no standard fringe benefits, and [were] paid    an amount so small that it cannot reasonably be called a salary comparable to [s]tate employee wages. Id. at 11. Every aspect of the arbitrator's reasons for classifying the WIN trainees as nonemployees can be accurately applied to Parks and Plushner, irrespective of whether they were called associate producers. Thus, the decisions of the NLRB and arbitration awards are persuasive in determining the proper factors for the inclusion of trainees and other educationally based work programs in a bargaining unit. The two positions at issue here shared no community of interest with the members of local No. 2012. To hold otherwise could result in industrious and self-motivated interns claiming the right to be included in collective-bargaining units. Such an outcome would interfere with the Authority's statutory mandate under § 16-61-6( o ) to conduct training in public broadcasting. We conclude, therefore, that the board's decision rested upon an error of law and was clearly erroneous in view of the reliable, probative, and substantial evidence on the record. Because no legally competent evidence existed to support the judgment of the Superior Court, the petition for certiorari is granted. The judgment of the Superior Court is quashed, and the papers in this case are remanded to the Superior Court with our decision endorsed thereon.