Potlatch Forests, Inc

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jun 25, 1951

94 N.L.R.B. 1444 (N.L.R.B. 1951)

1444 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
(g) All remaining employees in the operating, laboratory, and
maintenance departments, including insulators, crane and tractor op-
-erators, toolroom mechanic and helper, countermen and storehouse
helpers, general maintenance helpers, painters and painter helpers, and
laborers, but excluding office clerical and professional employees, first-
'aid assistants, safety and equipment inspectors, project section em-
ployees, guards '26 welders,27 machinists'28 and all employees included in
voting groups (a), (b), (c), (d), (e),and (f).29
If a majority of the employees in any of the voting groups from
(a) through (f) vote for the respective intervening unions, they will
be taken to have indicated their desire. to constitute a separate bar-
gaining unit.
[Text of Direction of Elections omitted from publication in this
volume. ]
26 Including patrol and gatemen.
27 See footnote 4, supra.,
26 See footnote 1, supra.
21 All parties stipulated to the following professional and supervisory exclusions : Design,
-process, production , and resident engineers ; senior engineers to the maintenance superin-
tendent and foreman ; mechanical engineer to the mechanical foreman ; electrical engineer to
the electrical and instrument foreman ; chief, supervisory,. and analytical chemists ; refinery
• superintendent and his assistant; personnel officer ; general stills foreman and his technical
assistant ; general stock supervisor ; maintenance superintendent ; mechanical, electrical,
and instrument , terminal, utilities , maintenance, warehouse , stock , night , and gang fore-
men ; assistant maintenance foreman general ; assistant maintenance foremen APE ; and
assistant maintenance foreman.
POTLATCH FORESTS, INC. and INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF PAPER
MAKERS, AFL and INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF PULP, SULPHITE
AND PAPER MILL WORKERS, AFL, JOINT PETITIONERS
POTLATCH FORESTS, INC. and INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF ELEC-
TRICAL WORKERS, LOCAL UNION 73, AFL. Cases Nos. 19-RC-701
and 19-RC-741.. June 05, 1951
Decision and Direction of Elections
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, a hearing was held before Melton Boyd, hearing officer.
The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from pre-
judicial 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 these cases to a three-member
panel [Chairman Herzog and Members Houston and Reynolds].
' After the close of the hearing the Joint Petitioners moved to reopen the record, in order
to offer evidence that the Employer 's pulp and paper mill is designated a division of. .the
Company. In view of our decision herein, the motion is denied.
94 NLRB No. 216.
POTLATCH FORESTS, INC. 1445
Upon the entire record in these cases, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the Act.
2. The labor organizations involved claim to represent certain em-
ployees 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.
The International Woodworkers of America, CIO, herein called the
Intervenor, and the Employer urge their current contract as a bar
to this proceeding. The contract, executed July 14, 1950, covers the
employees of all the Employer's various operations and plants
throughout Idaho. This proceeding is limited to employees of the
pulp and paper mill, one of the plants constituting the Employer's
Clearwater operations _ near Lewiston, Idaho. Construction of the
mill was not completed until December 1950, and none of its em-
ployees was hired before that date. As the Intervenor's contract was
made before inception of the pulp and paper mill's operations, it can-
not bar this proceeding.-'
4. The appropriate unit; the determination of representatives :
The Joint Petitioners in Case No. 19-RC-701 seek a unit of all
production and maintenance employees in the Employer's Lewiston,
Idaho, pulp and paper mill, including the employees in the shipping
and receiving departments. The Petitioner in Case No. 19-RC-741,
herein called the IBEW, requests a separate unit of all electricians
regularly assigned to the pulp and paper mill.' The Intervenor and
the Employer oppose these unit requests and urge that the employees
sought by the Petitioners should be included in the existing company-
wide bargaining unit, because the operations of the pulp and paper
mill are integrated and interdependent with the other Clearwater
plants. The Joint Petitioners oppose the IBEW's request on the
ground that the paper mill operation is too closely integrated to
permit separate craft units.
The Employer is primarily engaged in cutting logs and manufac-
turing lumber products at five locations in Idaho. It has sawmills at
Potlatch, Coeur d'Alene, and Bovill, and logging operations at Head-
quarters and Bovill. At its\Clearwater operations, near Lewiston,
Idaho, there are a log pond, a sawmill, a veneer plant, and a planing
and box factory, as well as the main offices of the Company. The
recently installed pulp and paper mill involved herein is located on
the Clearwater site, within the plant area. The Employer's main
2 Sinclair Refinery Company, 92 NLRB 643.
8 The IBEW also requested inclusion of several other job classifications in the electrical
craft. Because those other classifications do not now exist in the pulp and paper mill,
they will not be considered here.
1446 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
purpose in establishing this mill was to utilize more economically
the waste products from the rest of the Clearwater operations. The
paper mill uses power as well as waste products from the other opera-
tions and at times its powerhouse serves the sawmill. The paper mill
also uses the services of some of the centralized departments which
handle all administrative and clerical functions, and which are re-
sponsible directly to supervision at company-wide level. One em-
ployment office and one time office serve all of Clearwater.
With respect to its productive operations, however, the pulp and
paper mill is separately supervised. Its manager is responsible di-
rectly to the president and general manager of the Company. Under
the paper mill manager are a general superintendent and an assistant
general superintendent of the pulp and paper mill, as well as lesser
supervisors. Supervision of the rest of the Clearwater operations is
under another manager, who reports to the Company's assistant gen-
eral manager in charge of manufacturing. His work is not concerned
with the pulp and paper production and, concededly, he is not familiar
with the work performed in that industry.
The manufacture of pulp and paper calls for employee skills pecu-
liar to the industry. It is a complicated, around-the-clock process
which, unlike most of the other Clearwater operations, requires three
shifts of employees. In a constant flow, the wood fibers are "cooked,"
screened, bleached, brushed, and sheared, with frequent chemical
baths and washes, and finally, ironed to a proper paper finish. Skilled
employees are needed to run the machines and to make both chemical
and mechanical adjustments. The parties agree that these skills re-
quire special training or experience. When the mill operations com-
menced, it was necessary to bring in at least 29 skilled nonsupervisory
employees from other pulp and paper mills throughout the country.
The regular day-to-day maintenance work in the pulp and paper
mill is performed by its own employees, such as utilityman, oiler, and
motorman, or by maintenance workers regularly assigned to the mill
from the over-all Clearwater maintenance department. Other em-
ployees from this maintenance department work at the mill only occa-
sionally; thus, members of the labor gang care for the grounds and the
roads, and carpenters and painters, when necessary, are sent to the mill
for specific jobs irregularly required.4
Among the maintenance employees regularly assigned to the mill,
is a group of electricians, whom the IBEW would establish in a sepa-
rate unit. These electricians do the electrical inspection and repair
* While the pulp and paper mill was being built, a number of other employees from the
maintenance department performed extensive construction work there . This work is now
in its final stages and soon those workmen , whose duties are unrelated to the operations
of the mill , will no longer be required.
POTLATCH FORESTS, INC. 1447
work typical of paper mill operations, such as checking the approxi-
mately 300 meters along the production line. They also look after the-
continuing construction needs of the mill. Eight of them work in,
teams of two on regular rotating shifts like the other mill employees.
The others work day shifts, relocating electrical equipment and making
permanent installations. Major electrical repairs are made at the.
main electrical shop of the Clearwater installation. Occasionally,
electricians from the principal maintenance department are sent into.
the paper mill for specific jobs only; they always return to their regu-
lar stations elsewhere. Except for one, who is an apprentice, the main-
tenance electricians regularly assigned to the paper mill were selected:
because of their experience and training as skilled electricians; all of
them work under an assistant -chief electrician who is also regularly
assigned to the mill.
The employees in the pulp and paper mill have never been repre-
sented in collective bargaining. Bargaining between the Employer-
and the Intervenor, which dates back to 1944, has not, as found in,
paragraph numbered 3, above, embraced the employees here involved.
It is clear that the operation of the pulp and paper mill is not func-
tionally dependent upon the other operations, which together comprise
the Employer's Clearwater installation. Indeed, the Employer's'
paper mill manager conceded that the production process used here is
not different from that used in other sulphite mills in the United
States. The distinctive interests of the paper mill employees in their-
working conditions, with which we are primarily concerned here, is
particularly emphasized by the fundamental difference between the.
skills and methods of operation required for paper manufacture and.
those found in the lumber processing industry. Now that the mill'
is in operation with its own regular staff of production and mainte-
nance employees, the fact that workmen from the other nearby plants.
were used extensively for construction of the mill is irrelevant to the-
appropriate bargaining unit issue raised by this proceeding. The-
present regular operation of the mill requires no significant normal.
interchange of personnel with the other Clearwater plants.
Upon the record as a whole, and considering particularly the sepa-
rate supervision of the mill, the special skills exercised by the em-
ployees there, their different hours of work, and the absence of any.
bargaining history at the mill, we are satisfied that the employees of
the pulp and paper mill enjoy a sufficient community of interest, apart
from that of the remaining employees of the Clearwater installation to,
warrant their placement in a separate bargaining unit or units, if they
so desire.b The record also contains sufficient evidence to justify inclu-
Weyerhaeuser Co., 78 NLRB 1267 , 81 NLRB 472.
1448 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
.sion of these employees in the existing company-wide bargaining unit,
if the employees of the paper mill so desire. Accordingly, we shall
make no final unit determination now, but shall await the results of
the self-determination elections hereinafter directed. If a majority
,of the employees of the paper mill select the Joint Petitioners., they
will be taken to have indicated their desire to constitute a separate
bargaining unit.
The Joint Petitioners would join with the pulp and paper mill em-
ployees certain workers who operate the - hydraulic barkers and
-chippers. These operators work in the sawmill, a considerable dis-
tance away from the paper mill. Supervised exclusively by the saw-
mill superintendent, they prepare wood chips, which are then carried
over an 1,800-foot long conveyor to the paper mill. Their work re-
.quires no contact with pulp and paper mill employees, nor are their
operations comparable to those of the paper mill employees. In these
•circumstances, we find that the interests of the barker and chipper
-operators are more closely related to those of the sawmill employees
than to those of the paper mill workers, and we shall therefore not
include them in the pulp and paper mill voting group.
As to the electricians, the record shows that they possess skills and
-perform duties similar to those of electricians whom the Board has
-frequently found may constitute a separate craft unit appropriate for
the purposes of collective bargaining 6 Accordingly, we find that
-the electricians regularly assigned to the Employer's pulp and .paper
mill may also, if they so desire, constitute a separate bargaining unit.
They may, of course, also be. represented together with the remaining
-employees of the pulp and paper mill. We shall, therefore, establish.
-a separate voting group for them. If a majority of the electricians
-select the IBEW they will be taken to have indicated a desire to con-
-stitute a separate bargaining unit.
We shall direct that separate elections be-conducted among the fol-
lowing groups of employees at the Employer's Clearwater operations,
near Lewiston, Idaho, excluding from each group all supervisors as
defined in the Act :
(1) All production and maintenance employees at the pulp and
paper mill, including receiving and shipping employees,' and main-
tenance employees regularly assigned to the mill, but excluding ad-
-ministrative, sales, accounting, stenographic, and office employees,
electricians, and all their employees.
6 International Paper Co., Southern Kraft Division, 94 NLRB 483.
7 The record does not show whether any of the receiving and shipping employees are
regularly assigned to the pulp and paper mill ; if they are so assigned, they are included
in voting group (1).
THE CONNECTICUT ELECTRICAL MANUFACTURING CO . 1449,
(2) All electricians regularly assigned to the pulp and paper mill,
excluding all other employees.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this
volume.]
THE CONNECTICUT ELECTRICAL MANUFACTURING Co. and INTERNA-
TIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF ELECTRICAL Woinmus, A. F. L., PA:TI-
TIONER. Case No. 1-RC-1770. June 25, 1951
Supplemental Decision and Certification of Representatives
Pursuant to a Decision and Direction of Elections 1 in the above-
entitled proceeding, the Regional Director for the First Region con-
ducted a representation election among the employees of the Employer
at Bantam, Connecticut, on January 5,1951.
Upon the conclusion of the election, a tally of ballots was furnished
the parties in accordance with the Rules and Regulations of the Board.
The tally shows that of approximately 61 eligible voters, 61 voted.
Twenty-nine valid votes were cast for the Petitioner, 28 against, and
4 ballots were challenged.
Thereafter, on January 9, 1951, the Employer filed timely objec-
tions to the conduct affecting the result of the election and requested'
an investigation and hearing on the issue of the challenged ballots.
After an investigation, the Regional Director issued a consolidated
report on objections and challenges in which he recommended that the
Petitioner's challenges to the ballots of four group leaders be sustained
and the objections be overruled. On February 13, 1951, the Employer
filed timely exceptions to the Regional Director's report.
Upon notice duly served, a hearing on the objections and challenges,
was held before Torbert H. Macdonald, hearing officer of the National
Labor Relations Board on April 5, 1951. The hearing officer's rul-
ings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are
hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in this case, the National Labor Relations
Board makes the following findings :
The Employer's objections to the conduct of the election go to the-
propriety of the Board agent's conduct in impounding the ballots
of four group leaders, which were challenged by the Petitioner on the
ground that they were supervisors within the meaning of the amended
Act. We agree with the Regional Director that the impounding of
the challenged ballots by the Board agent, pending determination of
I Unpublished decision , dated December 12, 1950.
94 NLRB No. 215.