DocketNumber: Appeal, No. 866 C.D. 1974
Citation Numbers: 21 Pa. Commw. 236
Judges: Blatt, Bowman, Crumlish, Kramer, Mencer, Rogers, Wilkinson
Filed Date: 9/12/1975
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 6/24/2022
Opinion by
This appeal follows an order of the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, entered May 30, 1974, sustaining an appeal filed by the Columbia Hospital (Columbia) from a final order of the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board (PLRB) dated October 12, 1973.
On December 24, 1971, the International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 95, had filed a representation petition with the PLRB seeking certification as the exclusive bargaining representative of twelve persons employed in Columbia’s Engineering/Maintenance Department. On September 18, 1972, after a hearing, the PLRB ordered an election to be held among the employees of the proposed bargaining unit. At the election held on October 6, 1972, a majority of those eligible to vote voted eight to three for representation by the petitioning union. On July 5, 1973, the PLRB issued a Nisi Order of Certification, made final after a hearing on October 12, 1973, certifying the International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 95, as the exclusive bargaining representative of the engineering and maintenance employes.
Pursuant to the Public Employe Relation Act (Act 195),
The concepts of “community of interest” and “overfragmentization” were recently discussed in Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic of the University of Pittsburgh of the Commonwealth System of Higher Education v. Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board, 16 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 204, 330 A.2d 257 (1974) ; and Allegheny General Hospital v. The Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board, 14 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 381, 322 A.2d 793 (1974). While the latter case in which the prohibited conditions were found to exist, is in many respects very similar to the one at hand, in most respects it is so substantially dissimilar as to be legally distinguishable. All of these cases, therefore, can be said to confirm the positions of the court below as to these concepts. We must, however, dispose of this action on other grounds.
Subsequent to the filing of this appeal with this Court, Congress amended the federal Labor-Management Relations Act, 29 U. S. C. §141 et seq., to include nonprofit hospitals, such as Columbia, within the coverage of the Federal Act effective August 26, 1974. Columbia now argues, therefore, that the appeal is moot because the Federal Act now divests both the PLRB and this Court of continued jurisdiction. It cites the National Labor Relations Board preemption doctrine established in Guss v. Utah Labor Relations Board, 353 U.S. 1 (1957) and again in San Diego Building Trades Council v. Garmon, 359 U. S. 236 (1959).
. Section 1502 of the Public Employe Relations Act, Act of July 23, 1970, P. L. 563, as amended, 43 P. S. §1101.1502.