Hudson Pulp & Paper Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

May 31, 1951

94 N.L.R.B. 1018 (N.L.R.B. 1951)

1018 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
produce from the roadside to the packing sheds or other processing
stations are not employed as agricultural laborers and may be included
in units otherwise appropriate for bargaining.5
We find that all truck drivers of Malone and Howe, respectively,
who are engaged in hauling vegetable produce from the roadside to the
packsheds, including cull haulers,6 but excluding all operators of me-
chanical loaders, field bugs, and silver kings, all other employees
working as agricultural laborers, packing shed employees, and super-
visors, constitute units appropriate for collective bargaining within
the meaning of the Act.
Truck drivers dividing their time between agricultural and nonagri-
cultural employment are deemed to be within the unit herein found
appropriate, and the Petitioner, if successful, is authorized to bargain
for such employees with respect to that part of their activities which
is not agricultural in nature.'
6 American Fruit Growe,s, Incorporated , 75 NLRB 1157 ; L Maxey, Inc ., 78 NLRB 525,
and cases cited therein.
6 Only cull haulers employed by the respective Employers are deemed included in the
respective units.
T L Maxey, Inc., supra
[Text of Director of Elections omitted from publication in this
volume.]
HUDSON PULP & PAPER CORPORATION and INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION
OF MACHINISTS, DISTRICT LODGE NO. 112, PETITIONER
HUDSON PULP & PAPER CORPORATION and INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD
OF PAPER MAKERS, A. F. OF L., INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF
PULP, SULPHITE AND PAPER MILL WORKERS, A. F. OF L., AND INTER-
NATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS, A. F. OF L.,
PETITIONERS. Cases Nos. 10-RC-995, 10-RC-996,10-RC-10.35, and
10-RC-1031. May 31, 1951
Decision and Direction of Elections
Upon separate petitions duly filed, a consolidated hearing was held
before James W. Mackle, 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 National Labor
Relations Act, the Board has delegated its powers in connection with
these cases to a three-member panel [Members Houston, Reynolds,
and Styles].
Upon the entire record in these cases, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the National Labor Relations Act.
94 NLRB No. 142.
HUDSON PULP & PAPER CORPORATION 1019
2. The labor organizations involved claim to represent certain
employees of the Employer.
3. A 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.
4. International Association of Machinists, District Lodge No. 112,
the Petitioner in Cases Nos. 10-RC-995, 996, and 1035, herein called
the TAM, seeks to represent in three separate units the following
groups of employees at the Employer's paper and paper products plant
near Palatka, Florida : 1 (1) Pipefitters and their helpers, welders, and
leaderman; (2) carpenters, painters, and their helpers and leaderman;
and (3) machinists, grinder machinists, millwrights, millwright weld-
ers, automotive mechanics, and oilers and their helpers, apprentices,
and leadermen. In the alternative to the inclusion of welders in the
units for pipefitters and machinists, respectively, the TAM suggests a
separate unit for welders. International Brotherhood of Paper
Makers, A. F. of L., International Brotherhood of Pulp, Sulphite and
Paper Mill Workers, A. F. of L., and International Brotherhood of
Electrical Workers, A. F. of L., the joint Petitioners in Case No.
10-RC-1031, herein called the Joint Petitioners, contend that the units
sought by the TAM are inappropriate and that the only appropriate
unit for employees at the Employer's plant should include all produc-
tion and maintenance employees, including those sought by the TAM;
and they seek to represent jointly employees in this larger plant unit.
The Employer agrees that the plant unit sought by the Joint Petition-
ers is the appropriate unit.
In support of the contention that the units proposed by the TAM
are not appropriate for bargaining purposes, the Joint Petitioners
point (1) to the integrated character of the production processes in
the basic pulp and paper industry, and (2) to the past history of collec-
tive bargaining on a broader basis at the Palatka plant, in which the
TAM participated. As to (1), the Board has recently affirmed its
earlier decisions permitting craft severance in the pulp and paper
industry 2 on the ground that the paper industry does not possess the
basic elements which, present in other industries,3 has led the Board
to deny craft severance. As to (2), with respect to the bargaining
history, it is true that, from 1948 to 1950, the TAM and the Joint
1In the alternative, the IAM suggests that all employees whom it desires to represent
be included and severed in a single multicraft unit. Because we do not sever multicraft
groups in the face of bargaining on a more inclusive basis , we reject this alternative
contention . Heyden Chemical Corporation , 85 NLRB 1181 , and cases cited therein.
'International Paper Company, Southern Kraft Division , 94 NLRB 483 ; Interna-
tional Paper Company, Southern Kraft Division (Rayon Plant), 94 NLRB 500.
' The Permanente Metals Corporation, 89 NLRB 804; Weyerhaeuser Timber Company,
87 NLRB 1076, Ford Motor Company (Maywood Plant), 78 NLRB 887; National Tube
Company, 76 NLRB 1199.
1020 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Petitioners jointly bargained for production and maintenance em-
ployees at the Palatka plant as a single plant unit. However, craft
severance where feasible is not precluded by a history of bargaining
on a more comprehensive basis.4
The Employer is engaged in the manufacture of paper and paper
products at its plant near Palatka, Florida, the only plant involved in
this proceeding. The Employer divides its operations into several
sectors, including a general maintenance sector under the over-all
supervision of the plant engineer. The maintenance sector is func-
tionally subdivided into (1) a steam and power section; (2) an elec-
trical section; and (3) a mechanical section under the supervision of
the steam and power superintendent, the electrical superintendent, and
the master mechanic, respectively. The employees sought by the TAM
constitute the working force in the Employer's mechanical section.-'
The proposed pipe fitters' unit: The Employer's five pipefitters and
their four helpers construct pipelines, and repair and maintain pipes
and valves under the direction of the leaderman, performing the usual
skilled work of pipefitters. Although the Employer has no formal
apprentice program for pipefitters, helpers generally require a train-
ing period of about 2 years before reaching the maximum pay rate
for their classification. Six welders, regularly assigned to work with
pipefitters, sometimes work with the Employer's millwrights. We
find that pipefitters and their helpers and the pipefitter leaderman
may constitute an appropriate unit and-bargain with the Employer
as an appropriate unit if they so desire 6
The proposed carpenters' and painters' unit: The Employer's four
carpenters and three carpenter- helpers repair the wood work at the
plant and make skids, pallets, staging, and scaffolding. The Em-
ployer's nine painters do protective painting about the plant. Em-
ployees who are classified as helpers for carpenters and painters,
respectively, generally require about 2 years' training before they
reach the maximum pay rate for their classifications. Although car-
penters and painters work under the direction of the carpenter leader-
man, employees in these two distinct categories have different
headquarters and skills, and there is no interchange between them.
The proposed unit of carpenters and painters is a multicraft group
such as we have found may not be severed to form a separate multi-
craft unit, when collective bargaining has been conducted on a broader
basis." We see no reason, however, why carpenters and their helpers
4 Eagle Pencil Company, 82 NLRB 263, and cases cited therein, International Paper
Company , Southern Kraft Divistion, supra
, So far as the record discloses, leadermen variously proposed for inclusion among the
several groups hereinafter set forth are not supervisors within the meaning of the Act.
6 McCarthy Chemical Company, 86 NLRB 14, and cases cited therein.
7 Heyden Chemical Corporation, supra.
HUDSON PULP & PAPER CORPORATION 1021
and painters and their helpers may not, respectively, constitute sep-
arate appropriate units. We shall include the carpenter leaderman
in the carpenters' group. We therefore find that (1) carpenters and
their helpers and leaderman and (2) painters and their helpers may,
respectively, constitute separate appropriate craft units, if they so
desire.
The proposed mnxwhinists' unit: The Employer's 7 machinists use
the precision tools of the machinists' trade and work to close tolerances
as skilled employees. There is 1 apprentice machinist and 1 grinder
machinist. The apprentice machinist requires 4 years' training to
become it finished apprentice. The machinists and the machinists'
apprentice spend the greater part of their time in the machine shop
and the bag factory. The grinder machinist regularly spends his
time in an area near the machine shop. Two automotive mechanics
maintain the Employer's automotive equipment under the direction
of the machinists' leaderman. They are skilled employees. Nine
millwrights and 10 millwright helpers repair and adjust plant ma-
chinery, spending approximately 90 percent of their working time in
production areas and the remainder of their time in the millwright
shop. Approximately 8 oilers do lubricating work in the mills under
the direction of an oiler leaderman. They also serve as millwright
helpers and, as openings occur, are promoted to millwright classifica-
tions. The record does not disclose what proportion of their time
these oilers work with millwriL,:hts. Other oilers work in the wood
room under other supervision and are normally promoted to produc-
tion jobs. Of 9 millwrights, 5 work on the clay shift under the direc-
tion of the millwright leaderman and 4 on the night shift -under the
direction of tour foremen. One welder is regularly assigned by the
Employer to work with millwrights under the millwright leadernian.
It appears that the machinists, the grinder machinist, the apprentice
machinist, and automotive mechanics, and their helpers, apprentices,
and leaderman have mechanical duties requiring a high degree of skill
and form a traditional craft group which the Board has customarily
granted the opportunity of voting for separate representation 8 We
shall exclude from this group all oilers, both those who work as mill-
wrights' helpers and those who work in the wood room. We shall,
8 Cities Service Refining Corporation, 83 NLRB 890
The slitter knife grmdeiman in the gummed tape department, whom the JAM would
include in the machinists' group, spends more than 90 percent of his working time in
gi inding knives and the remainder in making minor mechanical repairs in the gummed
tape department Although about once a clay he uses the emery wheel in the machine
shop, lie at all times works under the supervision of the superintendent of the gumnmedl
tape department Ills duties are smnlar to the mechanical duties of the slitter knife
grindernian in the paper mill, whom the IA1l does not seek to represent. The slitter
knife giinderman in the gummed tape department' does not appear to be a craftsman, and.
his interests appear to lie with other general maintenance employees we shall not include
him in the machinists' group
1022 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
however, set up a separate voting group for millwrights.° We find
that (1) machinists, grinder machinists, and automotive mechanics,
and their helpers, apprentices, and leadermen and (2) millwrights,
millwright helpers, and the leadermen, respectively, may,, constitute
appropriate bargaining units, if they so desire.
Welders: As noted above, the TAM asks that welders be included
in the unit with the craftsmen with whom they regularly work or in
a separate unit of welders. We shall establish a separate voting group
for welders, including the welders who regularly work with the pipe-
fitters and the welder who regularly works with the millwrights; and
find that these welders may constitute a separate bargaining unit, if
they so desire.'°
The unit proposed by the Joint Petitioners is the conventional
production and maintenance unit, and it may clearly be an appropriate
unit for such employees at the plant.
We shall make no determination as to the scope of the unit or units
appropriate for the Employer's Palatka plant employees, until we
have first ascertained the desires of the employees as expressed in the
elections herein directed.
We shall direct separate elections by secret ballot among the fol-
lowing groups of employees at the Employer's plant near Palatka,
Florida, excluding from each voting group office clerical employees,
guards," and supervisors :
Group 1: All pipefitters and their helpers and leadermen.
Group 2: All carpenters and their helpers and leadermen.
Group 3: All painters and their helpers.
Group 4: All machinists, automotive mechanics, and the grinder
machinist, and their helpers, apprentices, and leadermen.
Group 5: All millwrights and their helpers and leadermen.
Group 6: All welders, including the welders who regularly work
with the pipefitters and the welder who regularly works with the
millwrights.
Group 7: All production and maintenance employees, including
all oilers, the slitter knife grindermen in the paper mill and the
gummed tape department, and fire watchmen,l" but excluding all em-
ployees in groups 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 above.
[Text of Direction of Elections omitted from publication in this
volume.]
6 International Paper Company , Southern Kraft Division , supra.
lO International Paper Company, Southern Kraft Division, supra
11 In its brief, the Joint Petitioners withdrew their earlier contention that the Employer's
four gate watchmen should be included in the production and maintenance group. Gate
watchmen are clearly employed as guards within the meaning of the Act, and as such
excluded from any unit of plant employees.
12 Two fire watchmen , who make hourly rounds watching for fires, are not employed as
guards within the meaning of the Act Georgia Feitiltzer Company , 83 NLRB 180