Fisher Controls Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Aug 4, 1971

192 N.L.R.B. 514 (N.L.R.B. 1971)

514 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Fisher Controls Company and United Automobile,
Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of
America (UAW), Petitioner. Case 18-RC-8493
August 4, 1971
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF
ELECTIONS
BY CHAIRMAN MILLER AND MEMBERS JENKINS
AND KENNEDY
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9(c) of the
National Labor Relations Act, as amended, a hearing
was held before Hearing Officer William L. Schmidt.
Following the hearing and pursuant to Section 102.67
of the National Labor Relations Board Rules and
Regulations , Series 8, as amended , the Regional
Director for Region 18 issued an Order transferring
the case to the Board for decision. Subsequent to the
hearing, the Employer and the Petitioner filed briefs
with the Board.'
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the
National Labor Relations Act, as amended, the
National Labor Relations Board has delegated its
powers in connection with this case to a three-member
panel.
The Board has reviewed the Hearing Officer's
rulings made at the hearing and finds that they are
free from prejudicial error. They are hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds:
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within
the meaning of the Act and it will effectuate the
purposes of the Act to assertjurisdiction herein.
2. The Petitioner is a labor organization within the
meaning of Section 2(5) of the Act.
3. A question affecting commerce exists concern-
ing the representation of certain employees of the
Employer within the meaning of Section 9(c)(1) and
Section 2(6) and (7) of the Act.
4. The Petitioner, which represents the Employer's
1 The Employer has requested oral argument . This request is hereby
denied because the record and the briefs adequately present the issues and
the positions of the parties.
2 The Employer moved to dismiss the petition on the grounds: (1) the
unit sought in the petition is inappropriate because it would include office
and plant clerical employees ; (2) the Employer was denied due process
because the Petitioner allegedly refused to state its position on specific unit
inclusions and exclusions other than to agree to stipulations on plant
associated personnel, supervisors, and confidential and managerial
employees. We find no merit in the motion and hereby deny it. As to (1) a
petition is not a pleading and therefore the fact that the Board does not
find appropriate a unit in the exact form requested in the petition does not
justify dismissing the petition . As to (2) during the course of the extensive
hearing the Petitioner made its position absolutely clear with respect to
unit inclusions and exclusions and the Employer had ample opportunity to
become aware of and to meet the issues involved in the Petitioner's unit
request.
E The departments located in this building are as follows : advertising
and exhibits, education center, market planning, order wnte-up, ACE
documentation , design engineering, printing , research, general accounting,
product cost accounting , specialty pricing and billing, parts pricing and
production and maintenance employees, seeks to
represent a single unit of office and plant clerical
employees at the Employer's Marshalltown, Iowa,
facilities, excluding technical employees, summer
student employees, and traditional statutory exclu-
sions. In the alternative, the Petitioner is willing to
proceed with elections in whatever unit or units the
Board deems appropriate. The Employer contends
that all office clerical employees should be in one unit,
that plant clerical employees should be permitted to
vote separately as to whether they desire to be
included in a broader unit, that technical employees
should be included in the same unit with the clerical
employees with whom they are associated, and that
summer student employees should also be included?
The Employer is engaged at Marshalltown, Iowa, in
the manufacture of automatic valves, regulators, and
controllers for controlling fluids, gases, and other
related processes. The Marshalltown facilities consist
of a main office building on Center Street, a plant-and
office building, also on Center Street, which is
connected by a tunnel with the main office building,
and a machining plant and offices on Governor Road.
The main office building has three floors .$ The
clerical employees in this building generally work the
same hours and have substantially the same working
conditions. They do not interchange with employees
at other locations in the Employer's operation.4 They
are separately supervised and perform the kind of
work usually performed by employees classified by
the Board as office clericals. We find that the clericals
in the main office building are office clerical employ-
ees.
As noted, supra, some clerical employees work in
offices located in the machining plant and factory.5
The record shows that the clericals employed at these
locations perform functions closely allied to the
production processes or to the daily operations of the
production facilities at which they work. The hours of
work for many of them are generally tied to those of
billing, export order processing , financial planning and budget, office
service, mail department , file department, stenographic pool, microfilm,
communications, credit payroll, and data processing. The classifications of
employees working in these departments are listed in Appendix A,
attached. Some employees in the above-named departments are technical
employees, discussed infra Their location and job classifications are also
listed in Appendix 4.
4 The record does show that numerous permanent transfers do occur,
but there is no contention that employees temporarily interchange among
departments in the different buildings.
5 The offices located in the machining plant at Governor Road are as
follows: receiving and shipping, quality control , maintenance , machining
manufacturing, tool engineering, purchasing, manufacturing equipment
engineering, manufacturing control, toolcrib, industrial engineering,
facilities engineering, and employee relations. Those located in the factory
at Center Street are as follows : shipping, quality control, finished stores,
receiving, reserve stock , assembly and stores , purchasing, inventory control,
customer service , traffic, gas regulator, industrial engineering , facilities
engineering, advertising and exhibits, and electronics . The classifications of
employees working in these departments are listed in Appendix B.
attached.
192 NLRB No. 66
FISHER CONTROLS"CO.
the production shifts on which they serve; and their
daily contacts are with plant personnel. None of, them
interchange with the clerical employees employed in
the -general office building although -there have been
several instances of permanent transfers The parties
have stipulated that at . least some of the clerical
employees inthe factory buildings are plant clericals.
Absentgagreement of the parties, the Board does not
join office and-plant clerical employees in•a single
unit .? We perceive no reason for departing from that
rule in the instant case . Contrary to the Petitioner's
primary position, we find, therefore,, that a unit
containing both office and plant ' clericals is not
appropriate., However, we find that a unit limited to
office clerical employees is appropriate.
Petitioner's -alternative' willingness to accept the
requested plant clericals on any other basis we may
deem appropriate presents no problem because the
group of plant clericals whom the Petitioner„ seeks, is
composed, in the main, of employees assigned to
operations which contain the production and mainte-
nance employees . whom Petitioner currently -repre-
sents. Where, as here, plant clericals are sought to be
represented by a -union -which enjoys , recognized
status-as the representative, of production and
maintenance employees;8 the Board has made a
practical judgment that the interests of all concerned
would best , be served -byadding related-plant clericals
to the established unit of production and maintenance
employees if they desire to be represented by the same
union.9 We shall, accordingly, establish a voting
group composed of, and limited to, all plant clerical
employees. If a majority of the employees in this
voting group selects Petitioner, we shall require
Petitioner to represent this group as part of its
established unit of production and maintenance
employees.
We turn now to determine which employees are to
be included in or excluded from the unit or the voting
group described herein.
The Employer and Petitioner agreed that clerical
employees who work in certain departments, marked
by an asterisk after the name of the department'listed
in Appendix B, attached, were plant clerical employ-
ees because they perform clerical functions on the
shop floor and in near proximity to and in association
with the production and maintenance employees. The
record-shows that the remaining clericals in factory
buildings work' in, close association with the conceded
plant clerical employees. They have little personal
contact with employees who work in the main office
6 See fn. 4, supra.
7 See, eg., The Rudolph Wurfitzer Company, 117 NLRB 6; V'ulcanized'
Rubber and Plastics ,=Company, Inc, 129 NLRB 1256; Weyerhaeuser
Company, 173 NLRB -1170.'
8 Swift & Company, 119 NLRB 1556 ; Robbins & Myers, Inc., 144 NLRB
295, 299 ; The Armstrong Rubber Company, Pacific Coast Division, 144
5115
building, and are subject to=-different supervision.
Accordingly, we find thatall clerical employees. who
work in the offices ( in-, the- machining, plant on
Governor Road,and,the Center, Street-factory; and
listed- in Appendix B, attached, 'are plant'. clerical
employees. We shall4iriclude,theitinthe-plant€leril
voting group.',
Teehnicdl -employees. ,Petitioner would exclude as
technicals and the Employer would include the
following- categories° -of" employees:--,-designers and
layout men-in facilities engineering;- assistant=drafts-
men, senior -draftsmen ^ draftsmen,, and,,designers in
design -engineering;, assiitait`draftsmen, draftsmen,
technicians, senior r ,technicians;, ,electronics. engineer-
ing associates innelectronics; applicator analysts; work
measurement analysts, and senior w.or'k measurement
analysts- in` industrial,-engineering,`; order,-detailer
-trainees;" order detailers grades A and -and.: order
detailer complex : in order write-up; and assistant
technicians, technicians, senora technicians, and
research associatesyin research. The record shows that
employees` in the, above=named job classifications
perform work which requires both extensive'tecbnical
training and knowledge and the exercise of, independ-
ent judgment. They are paid-salaries which are at the
top of the grade cafe, and-their,work is `uillike that of
any of the other employees whom Petitioner seeks to
represent.. , . <