General Electric Supply Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Nov 1, 1951

96 N.L.R.B. 1248 (N.L.R.B. 1951)

1248 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
GENERAL ELECTRIC SUPPLY CORPORATION and INTERNATIONAL BROTHER-
HOOD or ELECTRICAL WORKERS, LOCAL 110, AFL, PETITIONER. Case
No. 18-RC-1223. November 1, 1951
Decision and Order
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, a hearing was held before Erwin A. Peterson, 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 Reynolds and Murdock].
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds:
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the National Labor Relations Act.
2. The Petitioner and the Intervenor, Warehouse Employees Union,
Local 503, AFL, are labor organizations claiming to represent certain
employees of the Employer.
3. No question affecting commerce exists concerning the represen-
tation 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:
Petitioner seeks a unit of all appliance, radio, and television service
and repair men. The Intervenor moved to dismiss the petition,'
contending that the unit is inappropriate. The Employer takes no
position.
The Employer, a wholly owned subsidiary of the General Electric
Company, is engaged in the wholesale distribution of electrical house-
hold appliances in the city of St. Paul, Minnesota. Its operations
are conducted in its main, seven-story building, and in a number of
warehouses. The service department, which occupies the entire sixth
floor of the main building, is under the direct supervision of the serv-
ice shop manager and covers, among other employees, the repairmen
involved herein. The latter are engaged in installing, servicing, and
repairing various kinds of electrical appliances, radios, and televisions,
doing most of their work in homes and places of business. Eight of
the twelve mechanics work on refrigerators and the remaining four
work on radio and television equipment.
The Employer's representative testified that 50 percent of the pres-
ent personnel in the shop has been recruited from the regular ware-
house employees on the ground, mainly, that they showed mechanical
ability. He also stated that whereas no formal technical training
1 The Intervenor's motion to dismiss is granted for reasons hereinafter stated.
96 NLRB No. 193.
GENERAL ELECTRIC SUPPLY CORPORATION . . 1249
is required of applicants for work in the service department, employees
with such training, background, or experience are definitely preferred.
The company has a policy of on-the-job training through the shop
foreman. It takes from 6 months to 1 year to train a man for pro-
ficient performance on general electrical appliances ; from 2 to 3
years to become a first-class refrigerator repairman; and about 4 years
are required for a man to qualify as a journeyman mechanic on radio
and television equipment. There is no license required for such
mechanics by the city of St. Paul. There is no interchange of per-
sonnel between the service department and other departments of the
business. The repairmen are paid about 10 cents an hour more than
the other warehouse employees. They do not punch clocks like the
latter and do not use the same lockers or other facilities. However,
all employees enjoy the same general company benefits.
The Intervenor, which was certified by the State of Minnesota,
Division of Conciliation, in 1945 as bargaining agent for the ware-
house employees, including the service department, has had con-
tracts with the Employer since 1946. The last contract expired in
May 1951. Agreement was reached on the terms of a new contract
for 1951-52, but because of the instant petition, filed June 20, 1951,
the service'and repairmen sought herein were excluded, pending the
decision of the Board.
On the basis of the record, we do not believe that the skills possessed
and exercised by the appliance repairmen justify a finding that they
are craftsmen of the type that may be severed from the broader more
inclusive unit. - While it appears that 4 of the 12 servicemen are
highly skilled, the others in the group perform work which does not
require extensive training or experience. Furthermore, the record
fails to show that these men would qualify as skilled craftsmen. The
Board has held that appliance repairmen such as these are not suf-
ficiently skilled to entitle them to craft status.2 Although the-Board
has, in'some cases, found appropriate units of skilled repairmen en-
gaged in the servicing of electrical appliances, including radio and
television receivers, those cases did not involve severance from a
broader, more inclusive 'Unit .3 In the present case, as the depart-
ment does not consist of craft employees and as it has been covered
by an over-all bargaining history, the employees herein sought are
not severable from the broader unit. Nor do the appliance repairmen
constitute 'a functionally distinct departmental unit, as the service
2 Montgomery Ward & Company, Incorporated, 89 NLRB 1370; 88 NLRB 615, and cases
cited therein ; Liberty Music Shops, Inc., 93 NLRB 178.
8 Admiral Corporation, 96 NLRB No. 99 ; The Dayton Company, 94 NLRB 840, Emerson
Television Service Corp., 88 NLRB 55. Cf. General Electric Supply Cot poration, 88 NLRB
1135, where the Board found a separate department of radio and television appropriate
for separate collective bargaining on the ground that the employees involved were found
not to have been covered in a more inclusive history of collective bargaining."
1250 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
department includes 8 or 9 other employees who do shop clerical work
and whom the Petitioner does not seek to represent 4
Accordingly, we find that the proposed unit is inappropriate for
collective bargaining purposes, and we shall, therefore, dismiss the
petition.
Order
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the petition herein be, and it hereby is,
dismissed.
4 Montgomery Ward & Company , Incorporated , 88 NLRB 615.
WESTINGHOUSE ELECTRIC CORPORATION (LIMA, OHIO, PLANT) and As-
SOCIATION OF LIMA WESTINGHOUSE POLICE, PETITIONER. Case No.
8-RC-1359. November 1, 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 on September 6, 1951, before Philip
Fusco, hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hear-
ing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed .1
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3 (b) of the Act, the Board
has delegated its powers in connection with this case to a .threee-mem-
ber 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 hearing officer referred to the Board the Employer's motion
to dismiss the instant proceeding on the following grounds : (1) The
Petitioner is not a labor organization as defined in the Act and has no
constitution or bylaws in the absence of which it cannot be deter-
mined whether the Petitioner admits employees other than ; guards,
and (2) the members of the Petitioner are still members of IUE-CIO
Local 724 which sponsored and aided the Petitioner. The record
discloses that the Petitioner's membership is restricted exclusively to
guards and exists for the purpose of dealing with the Employer on
matters relating to wages, hours, and working conditions. It is also
clear that despite the use of the hall of IUE-CIO Local 724 and the aid
of its chief steward at the Petitioner's organizational meeting, the
Petitioner, which does not report to the IUE and does not pay dues
I The Lima Westinghouse Salaried Employees Association , the contractual representative
of the salaried employees ; at the Lima plant, was permitted to intervene for the purpose
of stating its position with regard to the category of policeman-receptionist discussed infra.
96 NLRB No. 194.