The Boeing Company

A union (plaintiff) petitioned to form a unit consisting of two classifications of employees who worked on a production line producing 787 aircraft for The Boeing Company (Boeing) (defendant). The proposed unit was to include flight-line readiness technicians (FRTs) and flight-line readiness technician inspectors (FRTIs). Together, these two classifications included 178 of the production line’s 2700 employees. Both FRTs and FRTIs were paid more than many other employees, and they were required to hold special licensing possessed by only 6 percent of excluded employees. FRTs and FRTIs were occasionally loaned to other stages of the production line to help eliminate backlogs, but employees from other stages were never assigned to temporarily work as FRTs or FRTIs. FRTs and FRTIs shared most other terms and conditions of employment with excluded production and maintenance employees, including the hiring process, payroll, timekeeping system, leave policies, benefits, and discipline system. FRTs and FRTIs worked together in a separate area of the facility, but they belonged to separate departments, had different supervisors, and their job functions differed. The regional director of the National Labor Relations Board (the board) approved the union’s petition, and Boeing requested that the board review the decision.