Standard Oil Co. (Indiana)

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Dec 15, 1948

80 N.L.R.B. 1275 (N.L.R.B. 1948)

In the Matter Of STANDARD OIL COMPANY ( INDIANA), EMPLOYER and
OIL WORKERS INTERNATIONAL UNION, C. 1. 0., PETITIONER
Case No. 30-RC-104.-Decided December 15, 1948
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before a hearing officer
of the National Labor Relations Board. 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
this case to a three-man panel consisting of the undersigned Board
Members.*
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the National Labor Relations Act. The plant concerned in this pro-
ceeding is its Casper, Wyoming, refinery, one of six that it operates.
2. The labor organizations named herein claim to represent 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 a
4. The Employer and the Intervenor, or its predecessor Standard
Employees Collective Bargaining Association, have bargained since
1937 on the basis of a unit of all non-supervisory employees at the
Casper refinery.s Early in the hearing the Petitioner was allowed
1 The Intervenor , Central States Petroleum Union, Local 124, moved to dismiss the peti-
tion on the ground that the Petitioner submitted evidence of representation to complete its
30 percent showing several weeks after filing the petition , rather than within the 48-hour
period specified in the Board 's Statements of Procedure , Sec. 202.16 . This motion is
denied . As we have repeatedly stated , representation evidence is an administrative
expedient , not subject to direct or collateral attack. See Matter of Stokely Food8, Ino.,
78 N L . R. B. 842, and cases there cited.
*Houston , Reynolds , and Murdock.
9 The current contract between the Intervenor and the Employer is a year-to-year con-
tract dated September 1, 1946. Because it has been opened for amendment by the parties,
it is not urged as a bar to the petition filed August 4, 1948.
' At the Greybull , Sugar Creek , and Wood River refineries of the Employer a similar unit
has been the basis of contracts with the Intervenor and its predecessor for the same period.
At Its Neodosha refinery secretaries , stenographers, and clerks who handle labor relations
80 N. L. R . B., No. 193. 1275
1276 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
to amend its petition 4 to exclude professional employees and office
employees working under the supervision of the office manager, and
to include clerical employees, if any, working under the supervision
of refinery supervisors. Thus, with the possible exception of plant
clerical employees the unit petitioned for covers only operating and
maintenance employees.5 The Intervenor and the Employer prefer
a continuance of the all-employee unit, excluding only guards, watch-
men, and supervisors.
At the Casper refinery there are approximately 511 operating and
maintenace employees, 33 clerical employees, and 22 professional em-
ployees. Various employee benefit plans, sponsored by the Employer,
apply to all employees alike and the Casper Employees Social and
Athletic Association, to which the Employer sometimes contributes,
is open to participation by all. Personnel records are centrally main-
tained and one pay roll is made up. From the record it appears that
the bulk of employees are paid on an hourly basis, with professional
and most clerical employees paid a salary. The Intervenor intro-
duced in evidence numerous memorandum agreements executed over
the years showing bargaining by it for all types of employees at the
refinery, and pointed to the long no-strike record at Casper in support
of its contention that the all-employee unit is appropriate.
Office clerical employees: All but 4 of the clerical employees work
in the main office at Casper. The exceptions are the 3 clerks in the
storehouse, the machine shop, and the instrument department, and
the secretary to the chief chemists The Employer contends that the
clerical employees, maintenance employees and "day process workers" 7
have the same hours, the same lunch period and the same overtime
supper allowance, and that these employees frequently ride to and from
work together. The Employer also contends that interchange is sub-
files have been excluded from the unit since 1946. At the Whiting, Indiana, refinery, pro-
fessional employees have been excluded since 1944 , as well as secretaries , stenographers,
and clerks handling labor relations correspondence and files.
4 The unit as stated in the petition was : "All operating and maintenance employees
presently employed at the Company's refinery at Casper , Wyoming. Including all employees
set up in the appropriate unit in the agreement between the Company and the Central States
Petroleum Union "
6 Intervenor 's motion to dismiss on the ground that the unit description in the petition
is ambiguous is denied . All parties introduced testimony at the hearing on the unit issue
as clarified by amendment , that is, the propriety of including office clerical employees and
of giving professional employees the option of inclusion.
6 The storehouse is a separate building , a quarter of a mile from the main office building.
The instrument department is located in it. The machine shop is another separate building
over a quarter of a mile from the main office . Although the three clerks employed at these
locations are, like other clerical employees , under the final authority of the office manager,
they receive work directions from refinery superintendents . The secretary to the chief
chemist works in the research building , close to the main office.
7 There is a shift differential in effect at the Casper refinery. Apparently clerks work
only on the day shift . No testimony was taken as to the number and type of employees on
other shifts.
STANDARD OIL COMPANY (INDIANA) - 1277
stantial considering the size of the clerical staff, as evidenced by 14
transfers between 1938 and 1948 from the clerical to the mechanical
or operating departments, or to the inspection laboratory, or vice
versa . However, lines of promotion exist within the clerical group
and within the refinery group, but not across these groups. It also
appears that office workers have a separate "hiring-in" point from
other employees.
The Employer concedes that as a general rule the Board has found
production and maintenance units proper in oil refineries , excluding
office clerical employees. But it argues that, as its main office is in
Chicago, all clerical employees at the Casper refinery are in effect
factory or plant clericals, whom the Board often includes in a produc-
tion and maintenance units The record does not support the Em-
ployer's position with respect to the clerical employees generally at
Casper, but only with respect to the three clerks in the storehouse, the
machine shop, and the instrument department. All the other clerical
employees at Casper have little contact with the operating and main-
tenance employees and we think no persuasive reason has been ad-
vanced for departing from the Board's general practice of excluding
office clerical employees from a unit of physical workers .9
Professional employees: The professional employees at Casper are
engineers with college degrees . They work under the supervision of
the chief engineer. Historically it has been the Board's policy to ex-
clude professional and technical employees from units of production
and maintenance employees.10 However, the Employer contends that
under Section 9 (b) (1) of the amended Act the Board lacks authority
to exclude these professional employees without affording them a
separate election. We think it clear from the wording of the section
that it is only when the Board deems it appropriate to include profes-
sional employees in a unit with non-professional employees, that the
professionals must be given a separate election to determine whether
they shall be included. When the Board determines, as it does here,
that they should be excluded, the Act requires no vote by them.
8 The Employer also argues that a strike by the clerical employees at Casper , if they were
represented as a separate unit, would cause a shut-down of the entire refinery due to
inability to continue shipments . This may be true , but the fact that a strike by one group
of employees is likely to throw another group out of work, does not alone control the issue
whether the community of interest between the two groups is sufficient to warrant or require
their placement in a single bargaining unit.
9 Matter of Savage Arms Corporation, 62 N. L R. B. 1156 ; Matter of Standard Oil Co.
(Ohio ), 48 N. L. R . B 1291 ( Toledo Refinery ) ; 52 N. L R B. 802 (Cleveland Refinery) ;
53 N L. R B 925 ( Lima Refinery) ; Matter of Standard Oil Co. ( New Jersey), 56
N L R. B. 1590 ( Bayonne Refinery ) ; 57 N. L It. B. 650 ( Bayway Refinery ) ; Matter of
Standard Oil Co. ( California ), 63 N L R B. 471 ( El Segundo Refinery ) ; 67 N. L. R. B.
139 and 79 N. L. R. B . 1466 ( Richmond Refinery).
11 Matter of Continental Motors Corporation , 73 N. L. R. B. 888.
1278 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
We find that the following employees of the Employer constitute
a unit appropriate for purposes of collective bargaining within the
nneaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act: All operating and maintenance
employees at the Employer's Casper, Wyoming, refinery, including the
stockman ," the storehouse clerk'12 the machine shop clerk, and the
instrument department clerk, but excluding all office clerical em-
ployees,13 all professional employees,'' and all guards, watchmen and
supervisors as defined in the Act.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the pur-
poses of collective bargaining with the Employer, an election 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-Series 5, as amended, among
the employees in the unit found appropriate in paragraph numbered
4, above, who were employed during the pay-roll period immediately
preceding the date of this Direction of Election, 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 election, and also excluding em-
ployees on strike who are not entitled to reinstatement, to determine
whether they desire to be represented, for purposes of collective bar-
gaining, by Oil Workers International Union, C. I. 0., or by Central
States Petroleum Union, Local 124, or by neither.
"The stockman receives and unpacks materials , and supplies parts to employees on
requisition.
12 The storehouse clerk is not to be confused with the four storehouse material clerks
who work in the main office and keep a running inventory of materials . The latter are
excluded from the unit with other main office clerical employees.
18 The secretary to the chief chemist is excluded along with the office.clerical employees.
14 The parties agreed that the three employees who do manual work in the research depart-
nnent assisting the chemists are non-professionals and belong in the over -all unit.