Sources: National Labor Relations Board, Region 19, Seattle; CP staff
NLRB Regional Director Ronald Hooks has ordered Sumner, Wash.-based ready mixed and aggregate producer Corliss Resources to proceed with an election to determine if Teamsters Local 174 will represent dump truck drivers in collective bargaining.
The Tukwila, Wash., local petitioned for a unit comprised of 29 drivers serving Corliss’ four aggregate and four ready mixed operations outside Seattle. It contended their positioning and function within the company was outside the “community of interest” standard NLRB applies to bargaining unit determination. Corliss had argued that a bargaining unit would encompass the dump drivers and their 45 peers operating mixers, belly dumps, cement tankers and yard vehicles.
“I find the petitioned-for unit of dump truck drivers has been shown to be appropriate, as the record discloses that these employees share the same department, classification, skills, job functions, wages and benefits, work locations, and supervision,” Hooks writes in his June 12 decision. “The burden shifts to the Employer to establish that the petitioned-for unit is inappropriate as the drivers in that group share an overwhelming community of interest with the balance of drivers.”
Community of interest factors the board assesses in such cases, he adds, include departmental organization; skills and training; job functions; functional integration; contact and interchange; terms and conditions of employment; and shared supervision. “Of these, I have determined that only skills/training and terms/conditions of employment favor the Employer’s position … Accordingly, I have directed an election for the petitioned-for unit.”
Corliss has until June 26 to request a Board review of the decision.