Owens-Illinois, Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Mar 17, 1970

181 N.L.R.B. 713 (N.L.R.B. 1970)

LILY-TULIP DIV. OF OWENS-ILLINOIS 713
Lily-Tulip Division of Owens-Illinois , Inc. and Local
Union 453, International Brotherhood of Electrical
Workers, AFL-CIO, Petitioner . Case 17-RC-6221
March 17, 1970
DECISION AND ORDER
BY CHAIRMAN MCCULLOCH AND MEMBERS
FANNING AND JENKINS
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9(c) of
the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, a
hearing was held before John S. Boyer, Jr., Hearing
Officer. Following the hearing, this case was
transferred to the National Labor Relations Board
in Washington, D.C. pursuant to Section 102.67 of
the National Labor Relations Board Rules and
Regulations, and Statements of Procedure Series 8,
as amended. Subsequently, the Petitioner, the
Employer, and the Intervenor' filed briefs with the
Board.
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.
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 assert jurisdiction herein.
2. The labor organizations involved claim to
represent certain employees of the Employer.
3. No question affecting commerce exists
concerning the representation of certain employees
of the Employer within the meaning of Sections
9(c)(1) and 2(6) and (7) of the Act for the following
reasons:
The Employer is a manufacturer of various plastic
and paper containers at its plant located in
Springfield, Missouri, where it employs about 1400
hourly-paid production and maintenance employees,
including approximately 95 machine attendants. The
Petitioner presently represents the maintenance
employees. The remaining employees are
unorganized.
The Petitioner seeks an election in a unit of all
machine attendants in the production department.2
The Employer and the Intervenor oppose a unit of
machine attendants, and would favor a unit of all
hourly paid employees in the warehouse and
production departments, including the machine
attendants.
There are approximately 95 machine attendants in
the plant. They work on three regular shifts and are
assigned to the several production departments,
named according to the type or style of cup or
container produced. Because of the difference in the
type of machine used, machine attendants are
trained and assigned to only one department. There
is no interchanging of machine attendants between
the various departments.
The usual crew operating a machine consists of
the machine operator, a packer, an inspector, a
tester, a department serviceman, and a machine
attendant. The machine attendants spend as much as
85 -percent of their time making adjustments on
machines in the production departments. When they
are not making adjustments, they usually patrol the
machines assigned to them to make sure that they
are functioning properly. It is part of the
responsibility of the machine attendant to keep the
cups moving through the machine. He may observe
any trouble himself, or this may be called to his
attention by the other employees in the department.
The hiring of an individual as a machine
attendant is a joint decision of the production
foreman in the particular department and the
superintendent of the Maintenance Department.
Vacancies for the positions are filled according to
seniority among the other production employees
within that department. If a vacancy is not filled in
this way, it is filled from an outside source, but not
from employees in the other production
departments.
There is no requirement of previous mechanical
experience for promotion to the job of machine
attendant. Every employee in the production
department is given a mechanical aptitude test when
hired. This test is considered along with other
factors in selecting the most senior employee for
promotion to the position of machine attendant.
There is a 90-day probation period for new machine
attendants. However, the training consists primarily
of a 3- to 4-week period of working on the job with
another machine attendant.
The machine attendant receives advances in pay
upon being promoted to that position. However, a
machine attendant receives the same shift
differential as the other production employees In
the event of a layoff, the machine attendants are
reassigned to the production crew within their
respective departments.
Although the shift assignments of machine
attendants are made by a maintenance supervisor,
the machine attendants work directly under the
supervision of a production foreman who also
directs the work of the other production employees
within the department.
'International Brotherhood of Pulp, Sulphite and Paper Mill Workers,
AFL-CIO, was permitted to intervene at the hearing on a showing of
interest in the form of authorization cards
'The machine attendants were once before the subject of the Board's
ruling In LJy-Tulip Cup Corporation. 177 NLRB No 3, Local 453,
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers sought a unit of all
maintenance employees , and the Regional Director included the machine
attendants. The Board concluded that the machine attendants spend a
great majority of their time performing a production function and should
not be included in the maintenance unit
181 NLRB No. 106
714 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
In addition to working in close proximity to the
production employees, the machine attendants
receive the same fringe benefits and use the same
employee facilities as the other production
employees.
Upon reviewing the facts in this case, we conclude
that the machine attendants' role is an integral part
of the Employer's production process and one upon
which the production now is dependent, and that it
will not effectuate the purposes of the Act to find a
separate unit of machine attendants to be
appropriate.
In light of the machine attendants' functional
integration in the plant's production operations,
their community of interest with the operational
personnel in the production departments, and the
absence of any compelling countervailing
considerations, we conclude that the unit sought by
the Petitioner is inappropriate. Accordingly, we shall
dismiss the petition.
ORDER
It is hereby ordered that the petition filed herein
be, and it hereby is, dismissed.