Crown Zellerbach Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Sep 25, 1951

96 N.L.R.B. 378 (N.L.R.B. 1951)

378 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
guards, and supervisors as defined in the Act, constitute a unit ap-
propriate for the purposes of collective bargaining, within the mean-
ing of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this
volume.]
'CROWN ZELLERBACH CORPORATION and INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF
MACHINISTS, PETITIONER. Cases Nos . 3-RC-724, 725, 726, 727, and
728. September 25, 1951
Decision and Direction of Elections
Upon separate petitions duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the Na-
tional Labor Relations Act, a consolidated hearing was held before
Ralph E. Kennedy, hearing officer., The hearing officer's rulings made
at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby af-
firmed.
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, Reynolds, 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. Questions affecting commerce exist 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.2
4. The Petitioner seeks to sever from the existing plant-wide unit
five separate units composed respectively of machinists, painters,
pipefitters, millwrights, and firemen and their helpers, at the Em-
ployer's Carthage, New York, plant, where it is engaged in the manu-
facture of paper and paper products. For 14 years the Employer has
executed collective bargaining agreements with the Joint Intervenors
' International Brotherhood of Pulp, Sulphite and Paper Mi11 Workers of the United
States and Canada, AFL, and International Brotherhood of Paper Makers, AFL (herein-
after called Joint Intervenors ), were permitted to intervene on the basis of a joint contract
with the Employer covering the employees in the proposed bargaining unit
9 At the hearing none of the parties to this proceeding asserted that the current contract
between the Employer and the Joint Intervenors is a bar to a present determination of
representatives . However, in its brief , the Employer contends that the petitions were
untimely under the rule recently announced by the Board in De Soto Creamery and Produce
Company, 94 NLRB 1627. We do not agree . While there are other factors which dis-
tinguish this case from the De Soto case , it is sufficient for our conclusion that the rule of
that case is not applicable here to note that the petitions in the instant case were filed on
.May 29, 1951 , prior to the execution of the current contract on July 9, 1951.
96 NLRB No. 57. -
CROWN ZELLERBACH CORPORATION 379
covering a single unit of all production and maintenance employees
including the employees now sought by the Petitioner. Relying on
this history, on the contention that the integration of the Employer's
operations precludes craft severance, and on the further contention
that, in any event, the employees involved herein are not craftsmen,
the Employer and the Joint Intervenors oppose the severance of these
groups.
The Board has recently reexamined the problem of craft severance
in the paper industry and reaffirmed its earlier conclusion that the
operations involved in typical paper plants do not present the kind
of integration that precludes craft severance.3 Although the instant
plant is smaller and the number of different skills used in maintenance
work fewer, than was involved in that case, we find nothing in the
present record that would justify the conclusion that ' maintenance
work is so inextricably interwoven with production in the plant in-
volved herein as to render inappropriate true craft units of main-
tenance employees.
Nor can we agree that the machinists, painters, pipefitters, and
millwrights sought by the Petitioner are not craftsmen of the type
which the Board permits to be separately represented despite a his-
tory of prior inclusion in a plant-wide unit. The machinists work
primarily in the machine shop operating lathes, milling machines,
doctor blade grinders and other machine shop equipment in connec-
tion with the repair of production machinery. The painters paint
the buildings and machinery throughout the plant.. The pipe fitters
perform maintenance work on boilers as well as pipe work through-
out the plant. The millwrights make general repairs throughout the
plant, and install equipment. All of these employees are supervised
by the master mechanic, who reports to the resident engineer. The
record indicates that none of these employees does any production
work, that the production employees do not assist them in their main-
tenance work and that, with rare exceptions,4 they confine their work to
the type normally performed by craftsmen bearing their job titles. The
record clearly indicates that employees in each of these categories are
required to possess a high degree of skill. Although the Employer
has no formal apprenticeship training program for its maintenance
employees, the record indicates that it maintains a comparable helper-
training program, into which employees enter upon their employment
in the maintenance department. We conclude that the employees in
these four groups constitute traditional craft groups who may, if
they so desire, properly constitute separate bargaining units, together
3 International Paper Company, Southern Kraft Division , 94 NLRB 483.
4 Such exceptions occur when , for example , millwrights do some carpentry or welding
in connection with the installation of equipment , and pipefitters do some masonry in
connection with their pipefitting work.
380 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
with their helpers, notwithstanding their prior inclusion in an over-all
unit of production and maintenance employees .5
The fifth group sought. by the Petitioner is composed of firemen,
who work in the boiler room, and their helpers. Except for the oc-
casional assistance of pipefitters on major repair jobs, the firemen
and their helpers are the only persons working in the boiler room.
There is no interchange between boiler room and other employees.
The steam produced in the boiler room is used for the driers on the
paper machines and for the operation of two small turbines which
generate direct current for drives on two of the smaller paper ma-
chines, as well as for heating the plant buildings. We find that the
firemen and their helpers constitute a homogeneous, identifiable power-
house group and may properly constitute a separate bargaining unit
despite a history of collective bargaining on a broader basis.6
However, we shall make no final determination with respect to the
unit or units appropriate for employees at the Employer's Carthage,
New York, plant, deferring such conclusions until separate elections
shall have been held among the following voting groups, including
helpers in each group, but excluding from each all supervisors as de-
fined in the Act.
1. All millwrights.
2. All pipefitters.
3. All painters.
4. All machinists.
5. All firemen.
If a majority of the employees in any group select the Petitioner
the employees in that group will be taken to have indicated their
desire to be separately represented.
[Text of Direction of Elections omitted from publication in this
volume.]
6International Paper Company, supra. See also International Paper Company, 94
NLRB 500 (pipefitters, machinists, millwrights, and painters).
6 Crocker, Burbank & Co. Asscn., 80 NLRB 774.
F. W. WOOLWORTH CO. and RETAIL CLERKS' INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIA-
TION, LOCAL. UNION No. 324, PETITIONER. Case No. 21-UA-3098.
September 25, 1951
Second Supplemental Decision and Certification of Results
On November 30, 1950, pursuant to Section 9 (e) (1) of the Act,
an election was conducted under the supervision of the Regional
Director for the Twenty-first Region to determine whether the em-
96 NLRB No. 56.