General Electric Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jul 30, 1952

100 N.L.R.B. 419 (N.L.R.B. 1952)

GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY 419
Intervenor, they will be taken to have indicated their desire to con-
tinue to be included in the existing production and maintenance unit,
and the Regional Director shall issue a certificate of results of elec-
tions to that effect.
[Text of Direction of Elections omitted from publication in this
volume.]
GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY and DISTRICT #27 , INTERNATIONAL
ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS, A. F. OF L., PETITIONER. Case No. 9-
RC1599. July 30,1952
Decision and Order
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National
Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before Lloyd R. Fraker,
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 [Chairman Herzog and Members Houston and Murdock].
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 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 model shop employees, including
tool and die makers, model makers, toolroom machinists, tool machine
operators, welders, sheet metal men, and their helpers and apprentices.
The Employer and the two Intervenors, International Union of Elec-
trical, Radio and Machine Workers, CIO, and United Electrical,
Radio & Machine Workers of Amerik;ar, contend that the petition was
filed prematurely because the Employer's operations are expanding.
The Employer's major appliance division, operating 6 plants in the
eastern part of the United States, manufactures electric refrigerators,
freezers, ironers, washing machines, clothes dryers, dishwashers, food
disposers, and room coolers. In 1951, the Employer decided to cen-
tralize its electrical appliance operations and for that purpose began
constructing, near Louisville, Kentucky, a large plant which will even-
100 NLRB No. 66.
227260-53-vol. 100-28
420 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
tually employ over 10,000 workers. The first of 5 planned buildings
will be ready for operation this summer, the second this fall, and the
third early in 1953. The model shop is temporarily located in a
Louisville building but will be transferred to the new plant and become
a part of a permanent combined toolroom and model shop that will
service the entire division.
The 21 model slop employees presently employed, classified as model
makers and sheet metal workers, are engaged in making full-scale
working samples and models of appliances for laboratory testing. In
this work, these model makers exercise the usual skills of tool and die
makers. Part of the present operation requires bending materials into
shape to construct electric ranges; this work is now performed by the
sheet metal workers in the model shop. To the present group of model
shop employees, the Employer shortly plans to add new classifications
of craft employees such as tool and die makers, tool makers, lathe
operators, and milling machine operators. By September 1952, these
toolroom and model shop employees will be increased to 75; by the end
of 1952, to 150 employees; and by June 1953, to 250 employees. Be-
cause of the imminence of this substantial expansion, the present group
of model shop employees is not representative of all categories of
employees to be included in the ultimate toolroom and model shop
unit of which they will be a part; nor do they constitute a substantial
proportion of the expected full complement of such employees. In
these circumstances, we believe that any unit determination affecting
these employees would, at present, be premature.' Accordingly, we
shall dismiss the petition without prejudice.
Order
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the petition filed herein be, and it hereby
is, dismissed.
1 Westinghouse Electric Corporation, 85 NLRB 1519 ; Coast Pacific Lumber Company,
78 NLRB 1245.
WESTERN ELECTRIC COMPANY, INCORPORATED and COMMUNICATIONS
WORKERS OF AMERICA, CI(1, PETITIONER . Case No. 18-RC-1330.
Juhy 30, 1952
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 Max Rotenberg, hearing
officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free
from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
100 NLRB No. 67.