Aluminum Co. of America

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Oct 12, 1951

96 N.L.R.B. 781 (N.L.R.B. 1951)

ALUMINUM COMPANY OF AMERICA 781
There are 55 production and maintenance job classifications at War-
ren Glen, out of a total of 67, which are common to the other mills,'
and the Employer has a single job evaluation plan for all 4 mills. In
the past 6 years, there have been 9 general wage increases covering all 4
plants; and also uniform at all plants are holidays, vacations, bonuses,
shift differentials, overtime and Sunday pay, leaves of absence, and
grievance procedure.
Finally, the record shows that many employees live closer to a
plant other than the one in which they work, that many members
of the same family work at different plants, and that there is an ex-
tensive recreational program for employees of all four plants which
is carried on at a company recreation center.
It thus appears that the Employer's four plants are in close prox-
imity to each other, that their organization and operation is highly
centralized and integrated, that there is considerable similarity of
work and working conditions at all four plants, and that the employees
of all four plants otherwise enjoy a close community of interest.
Under such circumstances, we find that a unit confined to the Warren
Glen plant, as sought by the Petitioner, is not appropriate for purposes
of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the
Act, and we shall therefore dismiss the petition."
Order
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the petition in the above-entitled case be,
and it hereby is, dismissed.
' As a result , a substantial number of permanent transfers are made each year among
all four plants.
8 See Farrington Manufacturing Company, 87 NLRB 1051 ; Hass Wholesale, Inc, 92
NLRB 408. Cf. Nashville Wire Products Manufacturing Co., Inc., 89 NLRB 135.
Under the original Act, the Board did find appropriate a unit confined to the Milford
plant ( 55 NLRB 358 ; 63 NLRB 538 ). Those findings , however, were based primarily on
the fact that there had been no attempt to organize any but the Milford plant. The record
here indicates that the Petitioner has attempted to organize all four plants, and in any
event Section 9 (c) (5) of the amended Act now precludes the Board from using "extent
of organization" as a controlling factor in unit determinations.
ALUMINUM COMPANY OF AMERICA and DISTRICT #47 OF INTERNATIONAL
ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS, PETITIONER. Case No. 2-RC--3511.
October 12, 1951
Decision and Direction of Election
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, a hearing was held before James V. Altieri, hearing
officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from
prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
96 NLRB No. 119.
782 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3 (b)' of the Act, the Board
has delegated its powers in connection with this case to a three-member
panel [Members Houston, Murdock, and Styles].
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The 'Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the Act.
2. The labor organizations involved claim to represent certain em-
ployees of the Employer.
3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the representa-
tion of employees of the Employer within the meaning of Section
9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
Local 702 of the International Union, Mine, Mill and Smelter
Workers, herein called the Intervenor, was allowed to intervene at
the hearing because of its contract covering employees at three of the
Employer's plants, including the Garwood, New Jersey, plant, here
concerned. It urges this contract as a ground for its motion to dismiss
this proceeding. The contract in question was executed May 19,1947,
for a 2-year term, thereafter to run indefinitely. On July 23, 1948, it
was modified and extended to May 18, 1950, and on January 20, 1950,
it was again modified and extended to February 1, 1952. The contract
contains the following maintenance-of-membership provision :
All employees who, fifteen (15) days after the date of the sign-
ing of this Agreement, are members of the Union in good standing,
in accordance with its constitution and by-laws and all employees
who become members after that date shall, as a condition of em-
ployment, maintain their membership in the Union in good
standing for the duration of this Agreement.
No election has been conducted by the Board, under Section 9 (e)
of the Act, authorizing the Intervenor to execute a union-security
agreement with the Employer. Therefore, apart from other con-
siderations, the agreement is not an effective bar to a representation
petition,' and the Intervenor's motion to dismiss on that ground is
denied.
4. The Petitioner seeks a unit of all employees in the die room at
the Employer's Garwood plant on the ground that these employees
constitute a homogeneous, departmental group with a skilled craft
nucleus and may properly be severed from the existing production and
maintenance bargaining unit. The Employer and the Intervenor, the
latter again by motion to dismiss, assert that only a unit of production
and maintenance employees, including employees in the die room, is
appropriate. 'Since 1936 the Intervenor or its predecessor has repre-
sented the Garwood employees as a group.
1 Penn Paper & Stock Company, 88 NLRB 17.
ALUMINUM COMPANY OF AMERICA 783
At its Garwood plant the Employer manufactures aluminum die
castings on specific orders from numerous individual customers. The
die room employees, who constitute a separate department on the
Employer's payroll, include the following classifications : Die casting
die makers, tool makers, precision grinders, die maker apprentices, die
machinists, tool maker leadman, tool maker apprentice, die repair
helpers, and stockroom and tool crib attendants. The die makers, tool
makers, and precision grinders are highly skilled. An apprenticeship
training program is in effect at the plant which requires 61/2 years of
training for a die maker and 5 years for a tool maker. Although not
included in the apprentice program, apparently the training required
for a precision grinder is also 5 years. The die machinists are semi-
skilled and can apply for a tool maker position if no apprentice has
completed his 5-year training, or for a precision grinder position.
All these employees, including the two stockroom and tool crib
attendants,2 work in the die room, which is a separate room in the
plant. They are supervised by a foreman and four assistants, whose
activities are confined to the die department. Die makers occasionally
leave the die room to watch the sample run of a new die, and tool
makers leave more frequently to make repairs or adjustments on dies
that are on the casting machines or set up in the presses. Likewise a
precision grinder is called out of the die room, on an average of once
a day, in case of die tool trouble. Conversely, employees from other
departments-principally foremen, however-come into the die room
to discuss difficulties with dies and tools. Permanent transfers of em-
ployees to the die room have occurred with some frequency in the less
skilled positions, but none to the positions of die maker, tool maker, or
precision grinder.
The Employer urges-that inasmuch as the employees of this plant
have been organized and bargained for as one group for a period of
approximately 20 years, no reason now appears to allow the die room
employees separate bargaining. In addition it contends that a high
degree of integration exists in its "jobbing type of operation" at the
Garwood plant.
The Board has frequently found that bargaining history alone may
not bar severance of a craft group.3 The craft characteristics of the
die makers, tool makers, and precision grinders are clearly established,
and together with the die machinists, the various apprentices, the
helpers, and the stockroom and tool crib attendants, they may, we
believe, properly constitute a separate departmental bargaining unit
2 The only tool crib in the plant is in the die room. Maintenance department em-
ployees also use these tools and occasionally employees from other plant departments
may use them.
s The Gates Rubber Co., 95 NLRB 351; The Atlantic Refining Company (Atreco Re-
finery), 92 NLRB 651; Oregon Portland Cement Company, 92 NLRB 695.
784 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
despite a history of collective bargaining on a broader basis 4 Con-
trary to the Employer's contention, this record indicates no inseparable
integration of the craft functions of the die room employees with the
production processes. In addition, the Garwood plant is obviously
a manufacturing plant, the operations of which are not a part of
the basic reduction and rolling mill phases of the aluminum industry
within the meaning of our decision in The Permanents Metals Corpo
ration, 89 NLRB 804.5
In these circumstances, we believe that, unlike the situation in the
Permannente case, no cogent reason appears for denying separate rep-
resentation to the die room employees, who, as herein found, are en-
titled to such representation by our usual standards.s Accordingly,
we deny the Intervenor's motion to dismiss because of the alleged in-
appropriateness of the unit and find that the employees in the proposed
unit may, if they so desire, constitute a separate bargaining unit.
However, we shall reserve final determination as to the unit until the
outcome of the election hereinafter directed.
We shall direct an election among all die room employees of the
employer at its Garwood, New Jersey, plant, excluding all other
employees and supervisors as defined in the Act.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this
volume.]
4 See John Deere Plow Works of Deere & Company, 94 NLRB 1286.
1 See Reynolds Metals Company , 93 NLRB 721 , wherein the Permanente decision was
distinguished and a self -determination election was granted boiler room employees in an
aluminum plant devoted to scrap reclamation , an operation the Board found "merely
ancillary to a manufacturing process " ; see also, Mesta Machine Company , 94 NLRB
1624 , wherein the Board found that a manufacturer of steel plant equipment was, in
greater part , competing with foundries and hence not primarily engaged in the basic
steel industry.
6 John Deere Plow Works, footnote 4, supra.
H. T. DAVENPORT D/B/A ENTERPRISE LUMBER & SUPPLY Co.'' and
INTERNATIONAL WOODWORKERS OF AMERiIOA , CIO, PETITIONER. Case
No. 34-RC-324. October 12, 1951
Decision and Direction of Election
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, a hearing was held before Lincoln Klaver, hearing
officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free
from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3 (b) of the Act, the Board
1 The name of the Employer appears as amended at the hearing.
96 NLRB No. 111.