American Optical Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Sep 18, 1951

96 N.L.R.B. 233 (N.L.R.B. 1951)

AMERICAN OPTICAL COMPANY 233
AMERICAN OPTICAL COMPANY and UNITED OPTICAL AND INSTRUMENT
WORKERS OF AMERICA, CIO, PETITIONER. Case No. 1-RC-92204.
September 18,1951
Decision and Order
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, a hearing was held before Torbert H. MacDonald,
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
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 organization involved claims to represent employees
of the Employer.
3. No 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, for the following
reasons:
The Petitioner seeks a unit of all employees in the lens production
and lens development engineering departments at the Employer's
Southbridge, Massachusetts, plant, excluding executives, office clerical
employees, professional employees, draftsmen, engineers, designers,
guards, and supervisors as defined in the Act. The Employer contends
that the unit sought is inappropriate because : (1) The functions of
this unit are integrated with, and dependent upon, other processes at
the Southbridge plant; (2) there is no community of interest among
the employees in the proposed unit which sets them apart from the
other employees at the plant; and (3) the sole basis for the requested
unit is the Petitioner's extent of organization which cannot be control-
ling. There is no history of collective bargaining with respect to the
employees at the Southbridge plant.
The Employer is a Massachusetts business trust engaged in the
manufacture and sale of lenses, frames, mountings, optical supplies,
and optical materials and equipment. The Employer operates 7
manufacturing plants and more than 260 branch offices, with labora-
tories which fit lenses and frames, throughout the United States. The
Employer's main plant at Southbridge, which is alone involved herein,
is engaged chiefly in the manufacture of ophthalmic lenses, frames,
and cases, and ophthalmic machinery. The Southbridge plant con-
sists of about 85 buildings or sections in an area enclosed for the most
96 NLRB No. 47.
234 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
part by a wall and a fence. There is a total of approximately 4,400
employees at this plant.
The Southbridge plant is headed by a general manufacturing
manager, and reporting to him is a manufacturing committee con-
sisting of the main plant manager, plant engineer, lense production
manager, lens development engineering manager, frame production
manager, case production manager, plastics plant manager, the cen-
tral purchasing manager, and three assistants-to the vice president.
The approximately 1,300 employees sought by the Petitioner work
under the lens production manager and the lens development engi-
neering manager.
The lens production division 1 is composed of a number of depart-
ments, such as the moulding department, surfacing department, and
fusing department. This division is engaged mainly in manufactur-
ing ophthalmic lenses. Here, rough glass is moulded to size , ground,
polished, washed, and inspected. The lenses produced, which may be
single or fused bifocals, are then sent to a separate storage building.
The lens development engineering division, consisting of various de-
partments, including the machine shop, chemical laboratory, and
drafting department, designs and manufactures ophthalmic ma-
chinery, and studies and evaluates machines, tools, and processes
utilized by the Employer.
Lenses produced by the Employer in the lens production division
are sent to its own laboratories or are sold to other concerns. While
lenses and frames are generally distributed separately, the same sales-
men handle both products, a direct ratio of the production of lenses
and frames is maintained,2 and some spectacles are actually assembled
at the Southbridge plant, either in the prescription department, which
is part of the lens production division, or in the frame division. The
ophthalmic machinery produced in the lens development engineering
division is used not only at Southbridge, but also at other branches
of the Employer.
The lens production and lens development engineering divisions
are situated in about 11 separate buildings or sections, and have a
separate warehouse. However, these buildings or sections are not
all contiguous' and their operations are dependent upon -many func-
tions performed by other plant employees outside the scope of the
requested unit: Thus, all raw materials used in lens manufacturing
and other operations are purchased by a central purchasing office and
' For convenience , the term "division" is used in this decision in referring to the employ-
ees responsible to the lens production manager , and to those responsible to the lens develop-
ment engineering manager. The designation "department" used by the Petitioner in its
unit request is generally used by the Employer in referring to smaller production groups, or
to administrative groups, such as the legal department and sales department.
2 Approximately 1% to 2 pairs of lenses are produced in the lens production division for
each frame produced in the frame division. About 40 to 50 percent of the lenses are
designed to fit special frames manufactured by the Employer.
AMERICAN OPTICAL COMPANY 235,
are tested and inspected by the material control and process engi-
neering department 3 Some light machinery used in the lens pro-
duction division is produced by employees in the optical machinery
department, located in the main plant building which does not house
any of the requested employees. Heat and power are supplied to the
entire Southbridge area by a single powerhouse under the super-
vision of the plant engineer. General maintenance service 4 and watch-
men service are supplied to the whole plant area by employees also
under the supervision of the plant engineer. The carpenter shop
in the main plant building makes benches used in the entire plant
and "row boards" 5 which are necessary to move the lenses from one
operation to another. Envelopes and cartons for shipping the lenses.
to customers are made and printed in the Employer's print shop and
box shop in the main plant building. Water for the entire Southbridge
plant is purified and processed at the Employer's pump house located
in the plant area. All wiping cloths and Employer-supplied work
clothes are cleaned by the same laundry in the plant area. Trucking
and shipping of all the Employer's products are handled by a central
shipping department.
The employees in the divisions requested by the Petitioner are
mainly semiskilled, exercising a level of skill comparable to that of
most of the other plant employees.6 While some skilled employees,
such as machinists and millwrights, are employed within the unit,
like employees in other departments of the plant are not sought by
the Petitioner. The employees requested are hourly paid, receiving
wages similar to those of the other plant employees.' Seniority is,
largely on a plant-wide basis. Similar vacation benefits, insurance
plans, parking and recreational facilities, cafeterias's factory medical
and optical services, and grievance procedure are enjoyed by all the
employees in the Southbridge plant. All hiring at Southbridge is
done by a central personnel office .9 Although foremen of the va-
rious departments have the right to refuse the assignment of em-
' While most of the testing by the employees in the material control and process engineer-
ing department is performed separately , these employees do some of their testing and
inspecting in the immediate area in which the employees in the requested unit are working.
4 Although the lens development engineering division has its own maintenance machin-
ists , the maintenance employees of the powerhouse , in case of a major breakdown, work with
those machinists
' "Row boards" are slotted wood trays upon which the lenses are placed to avoid scratch-
ing and breakage.
'' Approximately, 3 or 4 weeks' training is required to learn the skills for most jobs within
the unit.
Occasionally, employees in the lens production division work a different number of hours
than those in other divisions.
8 The Employer maintains three cafeterias at its plant for its employees . Although one
cafeteria is situated for the convenience of the employees in the requested unit, it is open
to all the employees in the plant.
9 A personnel committee comprising managers of the lens production and frame production
divisions , as well as the office manager, personnel director , budget director , and an assistant
to the Employer 's president , work with the personnel office in determining personnel
policies for the entire Southbridge plant.
236 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
ployees and can recommend that employees in their departments
be transferred or discharged, the ultimate authority in these respects
is in the personnel office. A central accounting department performs
payroll and accounting services for the entire plant. And there have
been some transfers of employees between the lens production and
lens development engineering divisions and other departments of the
plant 1°
Under all the circumstances, including the integrated nature of the
Employer's operations, the character of the work performed by the
requested employees, the centralized management control, and the
similar employment conditions of all the plant employees, we believe
that a unit limited to the employees of the lens production and lens
development engineering divisions is inappropriate.11 The only
ground for such a unit, in our opinion, is the extent of the Petitioner's
organization, which the Act provides shall not be controlling.12 Ac-
cordingly, we shall dismiss the petition.
Order
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the instant petition be, and it hereby is,
dismissed.
10 Within the last year , there have been about 58 transfers in or out of the requested unit.
11 Flora Cabinet Company, Inc., 94 NLRB 12; Standard-Coosa-Thatcher Company, 80
NLRB 50. Cf. Sol Baum and. Julie Baum, a Co-partnership , 91 NLRB 708.
12 Section 9 (c) (5).
MEYER & WELCH, INCORPORATED and INTERNATIONAL UNION, UNITED
AUTOMOBILE, AIRCRAFT AND AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENT WORKERS OF
AMERICA, CIO, (UAW-CIO), REGION 6 and INTERNATIONAL Asso-
CIATION OF MACHINISTS, LODGE 1186, PARTY TO THE AGREEMENT.
Case No. 1-CA-973. September 90, 1951
Decision and Order
On May 31, 1951, Trial Examiner Irving Rogosin issued his In-
termediate Report in the above-entitled proceeding, finding that
the Respondent had engaged in and was engaging in certain unfair
labor practices and recommending that it be ordered to cease and desist
therefrom and take certain affirmative action, as set forth in the copy
of the Intermediate Report attached hereto. Thereafter the Respond-
ent filed exceptions 1 to the Intermediate Report and a supporting
brief.
The Respondent's request for oral argument is denied, inasmuch
as the record, including the exceptions and brief filed herein ade-
quately sets forth the issues and the contentions of the parties.
I These exceptions were limited to that portion of the Intermediate Report relating to the
discharge of Eldon Clark.
96 NLRB No. 49.