General Time Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Dec 6, 1949

87 N.L.R.B. 406 (N.L.R.B. 1949)

In the Matter Of WE, STCLOx DIVISION, GENERAL TIME CORPORATION,
EMPLOYER and LODGE No. 1629, INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF
MACHINISTS, PETITIONER
Cases Nos. 13-RC-696 through 13-RC-699.-Decided December 6,
194
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
Upon separate petitions duly filed, a hearing in these consolidated
matters 1 was held before Morris Slavney, hearing officer. The hear-
ing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error
and are hereby affirmed.
Purusant to the provisions of Section 3 (b) of the National Labor
Relations Act, the Board has delegated its powers in connection with
this case to a three-member panel [Chairman Herzog and Members
Houston and Gray].
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 labor organizations involved claim to represent certain
employees of the Employer.
3. Questions affecting commerce exist concerning the representation
of employees of the Employer within the meaning of Section 9 (c) (1)
and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
4. The appropriate units :
The Petitioner seeks separate units of carpenters, maintenance elec-
tricians, and pipe fitters 2 on a craft basis. The Employer opposes the
units requested, contending in substance that these employees are not
journeymen as they are generally recruited from among the production
workers and the Employer maintains no formal apprenticeship pro-
gram for them; that they are subject to the same conditions of employ-
' By order of the Regional Director issued May 24, 1949 , Cases Nos . 13-RC-696, 13-RC-
697, 13-RC-698 , and 13-RC-699 were consolidated.
2 The Petitioner originally also sought a unit of maintenance millwrights , machinists,
welders, and tinners ( Case No. 13-RC-697). However , at the hearing , the Petitioner
requested permission to withdraw its petition in that case . Neither the Employer nor the
Intervenor objected to the Petitioner's request . Accordingly , permission to withdraw the
petition in Case No . 13-RC-697 is hereby granted.
87 NLRB No. 39.
406
WESTCLOX DIVISION 407
ment as the other production and maintenance employees ; and that
because of the nature of the Employer's operations, they constantly
mingle and work with the other employees in the plant. The Inter-
enor 3 also opposes the units requested.
The Employer is engaged in the manufacture of timing devices and
instruments, clocks, and watches, and operates a plant at Peru, Illi-
nois, where it employs approximately 3,900 employees, of which 3,300
are production and maintenance employees. The 3 units sought in this
proceeding are in the maintenance division. There are 2 carpenters,
13 electricians, and 6 pipe fitters.
In February 1943, after Board-conducted elections, the Intervenor
was certified as collective bargaining representative of a unit of the
Employer's production and maintenance employees, and the Peti-
tioner was certified as collective bargaining representative of a unit
of the Employer's toolroom employees 4 Since March 1943, the Em-
ployer has had collective bargaining agreements with the Intervenor
for the production and maintenance unit and with the Petitioner for
the toolroom unit.
The two carpenters work in the carpenters' shop, located in the
north end of the maintenance building. Their work consists of build-
ing cabinets, benches, furniture, platforms, trays, making simple
wooden patterns, splicing endless belts, and repairs. One of the two
carpenters has been doing carpentry work for the Employer for more
than 30 years; he acts as leadman 5 directly responsible to the plant
engineer who is in charge of the maintenance division as a whole. The
other carpenter has been doing carpentry work for 4 years. They own
their own carpentry tools. Although the Employer also has construc-
tion workers who occasionally, in the absence of carpenters, do some
of the minor work of the carpenters, the construction workers gen-
erally do unskilled work clearly distinguishable from the skilled work
of the carpenters.
The maintenance electricians work under their own supervisor who
supervises no other employees. They are headquartered in a separate
room in one of the buildings and spend about 70 percent of their time
performing their duties in the various production departments. Their
job classification is subdivided into three grades. Class A electricians
install and service electronic control equipment, potentiometer instru-
ments, electric furnaces and heating equipment, and dust collector
3 The hearing officer granted the motion of District 50, United Mine Workers of America,.
to intervene on the basis of an existing collective bargaining agreement covering the pro-
duction and maintenance employees.
' Westclox Division, General Time Instruments Corporation , 47 NLRB 418.
He is not a supervisor ; he merely transmits to the other carpenter the work orders
given him by the plant engineer.
408 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
units. The Class B electricians install and service motors and allied
equipment, such as power lines, control instruments, and switches.
The Class C electricians assist the Class B electricians and also perform
minor installation jobs. The electricians are recruited from among the
.production workers; they first serve under some of the more experi-
enced employees. Some have also taken courses in electronics and
related subjects. The maintenance electricians own their own tools,
which are common to the electricians' trade, perform no production
work, and are not interchangeable with production employees. No
other employees in the plant perform the work of the electricians..
The pipe fitters work under the separate supervision of a supervisor
who is a registered journeyman pipe fitter. They are classified as
Class A, B, and C, depending on their degree of skill. Thus, the pipe
fitter who testified at the hearing, a journeyman pipe fitter with 11
years' service with the Employer in the performance of this work, is
classified as Class A. Their work consists of the installation, repair,
and maintenance of all pipes and fixtures used for supplying heat,
water, gas, and air equipment used in the operation of the plant. They
engage in no production or new construction work, and are not inter-
changed with any of the production employees. They use their own
tools which are common to the pipe-fitting trade, and have their own
headquarters.
On the basis of the record, we are satisfied that all of the employees
involved in this proceeding possess and exercise in substantial degree
the skills traditionally associated with their respective crafts.6 Al-
though the Employer maintains no formal apprenticeship program,
the record shows that the employees involved herein nevertheless re-
ceive the necessary training equipping them for the performance of
their respective duties.7 Nor do we find any merit in the Employer's
contention that the proposed units are inappropriate because of alleged
mingling and working with production workers. It does not appear
that the functions of these employees are so intimately related with
those of the production workers as to preclude the severance or separa-
tion of craft'groups. Although these employees are on occasion in-
structed by production department supervisors as to where to do cer-
tain maintenance work, they are at all times under separate supervision
and take their orders and instructions directly from their own super-
visors.s
0 Reynolds Metals Company, 85 NLRB 110 (as to maintenance electricians) ; General
Aniline & Film Corporation, Ansco Division, 85 NLRB 547 (as to pipe fitters) ; Anaconda
Wire cG Cable Co ., 81 NLRB 1235 ( as to carpenters).
7 General Aniline & Film Corporation, Ansco Division, supra; see also Dayton Steel
Fundry Company, 85 NLRB 1499.
8 See General Electric Company, 86 NLRB 327.
WESTCLOX DIVISION 409
Under the circumstances, we believe that these employees should be
given an opportunity to demonstrate in a Board election whether they
desire representation on a separate basis or as part of the production
and maintenance unit. Accordingly, we shall make no final unit deter-
mination at the present time, but shall direct separate elections among
the following groups of employees, excluding supervisors, at the Em-
ployer's Peru, Illinois, plant :
(a) All carpenters.
(b) All Class A, B, and C maintenance electricians.
(c) All Class A, B, and C pipe fitters.
If a majority of employees in each of the voting groups select the
Petitioner, they will be taken to have indicated their desire to consti-
tute a separate appropriate unit.
DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the
purposes of collective bargaining with the Employer, elections by
secret ballot shall be conducted as early as possible, but not later than
30 days from the date of this Direction, under the direction and super-
vision of the Regional Director for the Region in which this case was
heard, and subject to Sections 203.61 and 203.62 of National Labor
Relations Board Rules and Regulations, among the employees in the
voting groups described in paragraph numbered 4, above, who were
employed during the pay-roll period immediately preceding the date
of this Direction of Elections, including employees who did not work
during said pay-roll period because they were ill or on vacation or
temporarily laid off, but excluding those employees who have since quit
or been discharged for cause and have not been rehired or reinstated
prior to the date of the elections, and also excluding employees on
strike who are not entitled to reinstatement, to determine whether or
not they desire to be represented, for purposes of collective bargaining,
by Lodge No. 1629, International Association of Machinists.9
9 Having failed to achieve compliance, or to initiate steps for compliance with the filing
requirements of Section 9 (f), (g), and (h) of the Act, the Intervenor, District 50, United
Mine Workers of America, will not be accorded a place on the ballot.