V.      UNPAID AND PAID STAFF SHARE A CO MMUNITY OF INTEREST AND ARE
         APPROPRIATELY INCLUDED IN THE EXISTING UNIT

         Having established that "unpaid staff" are employees under the Act if the Hearing

Officer fails to grant the Union's MoTion to Dismiss and entertains the instant petitions,

the question remains as to whether paid and unpaid staff share a sufficient community of

interest to be included in a single bargaining unit.  The Board distinguishes between an

employee's status as "an employee" and his or her status with respect to the appropriate

bargaining unit.  Critical to that determination is whether employees in the unit share a

community of interest.  Oak Apparel-Inc., 218 NLRB 701 (1975).  The considerations

relevant to this determination include:

        (1) integration of operations, (2) centralization of managerial and administrative
        control, (3) geographic proximity, (4) similarity of working conditions, skill, and
        functions, (5) common control over labor relations, (6) collective bargaining history,
        and (7) interchangeability of employees.

N.L.R.B. v. Paper Manufacturers Co., 786 F.2d 163, 167 (3d Cir. 1986).  All of the

above listed factors are identical for the paid staff and the unpaid staff in the existing 

bargaining unit.

        A.   Collective bargaining history and common control over labor relations

        The Board will not clarify a bargaining unit to interfere with or change a long term

collective bargaining history absent "recent, substantial changes in their operations

or other compelling circumstances." Batesville Casket Co., 283 NLRB 795, 797 (1987)(emphasis in 

the original).  In Batesville Casket Co., the Board refused to clarify an existing two-company 

single unit into separate units.  The single unit had been in existence for many years without 

substantial change prior to the filing of the petition.  The Board emphasized that any changes 

must be recent.  In the instant case, there have been no changes whatsoever in the composition

of the unit over the


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