The Procter & Gamble Manufacturing Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Aug 17, 1948

78 N.L.R.B. 1054 (N.L.R.B. 1948)

In the Matter of THE PROCTER & GAMBLE MANUFACTURING COMPANY,
EMPLOYER and INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF ELECTRIC WORK-
ERS, LOCAL UNION 11, AFL, PETITIONER and UNITED ASSOCIATION
OF JOURNEYMEN AND APPRENTICES OF PLUMBING AND PIPE FITTING
INDUSTRY , LOCAL 250, AFL, PETITIONER and INTERNATIONAL
BROTHERHOOD OF BOILERMAKERS , IRON SHIP BUILDERS , WELDERS &
HELPERS OF AMERICA, LOCAL No. 92, AFL, PETITIONER and THE
PROCTER & GAMBLE EMPLOYEES ASSOCIATION, INTERVENOR
Case Nos. 21-RC-11, 21-RC-84, and 21-RC-122.-Decided
August 17, 194.8
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
Upon petitions duly filed, a consolidated hearing was held before
a hearing officer of the National Labor Relations Board. The hear-
ing 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-man panel consisting of the undersigned Board
Members.*
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.
2. The labor organizations named below claim to represent em-
ployees of the Employer.
3. Questions affecting commerce exist 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. The Petitioners respectively propose separate craft units of elec-
trical, pipe fitting, and boilermaking employees at the Employer's
Long Beach, California, plant. The Employer and the Intervenor
oppose the severance of the craft group on the basis of the past history
*Houston, Reynolds , and Gray.
78 N. L. R. B., No. 145.
1054
THE PROCTER & GAMBLE MANUFACTURING COMPANY 1055
of plant-wide barg:lining, and the Board's decisions in two earlier cases
affecting these employees.' Subject to this position, the Employer and
the Intervenor do not take issue with respect to the proposed composi-
tion of the three craft groups, except that the Employer would include
instrument repairmen in the electrical employees' group.
Section 9 (b), (2) of the Act, as amended, specifically provides that
prior unit determinations by the Board per se shall not defeat petitions
for craft severance. Thus, we do not now regard a bargaining history
based in part on such earlier determinations, as necessarily determina-
tive of the scope of an appropriate unit.
The instrument repairmen whom the Employer would include in
the proposed electrical unit spend a portion of their time in electrical
work, but we find that their interests are too remote from those of the
electrical workers to justify their inclusion in the craft group'
The employees in the following groups at the Employer's Long
Branch, California, plant may constitute units appropriate for the
purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b)
of the Act :
(a) All maintenance and construction electricians, their appren-
tices, and their regularly assigned helpers, but excluding instrument
repairmen, the electrical foreman,'and all other supervisors; 3
(b) All pipe fitters and all pipe-fitter welders, their apprentices,
and regularly assigned helpers, but excluding foremen and all other
supervisors ; 4
(c) All boilermakers and boilermakers welders, including their
apprentices and regularly assigned helpers, but excluding blacksmiths,
foremen, and all other supervisors.'
However, we shall make no final unit determinations at this time,
but shall be guided in part by the desires of these employees as ex-
pressed in the elections hereinafter directed. If a majority in any
voting group vote for the Petitioner for that group, they will be taken
to have,indicated their,desire to constitute a separate appropriate unit.
' Matter of The Procter and Gamble Manufacturing Company, 52 N L. it. B. 661; Matter
of The Procter t Gamble Manufacturing Company, 70 N. L. it. B. 1121.
' Matter of The B. F. Goodrich Rubber Company , 55 N. L. it. B. 338 ; Matter of Mathoeson
Alkali Works ( Inc ), 67 N. L it. B. 716.
3 Case No. 21-RC-71.
4 Case No. 21-RC-84. Pipe-fitter welders in the unit proposed by the pipe fitters includes
pipe-fitter welders in the pipe -fitter welder department and the process mechanics depart-
ment.
6 Case No. 21-RC-122.
1056 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the
purposes of collective bargaining with the Employer, separate elec-
tions 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 supervision 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, among the
employees in the three 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 exclud-
ing employees on strike who are not entitled to reinstatement, to de-
termine :
(1) Whether the employees in the voting group 4 (a) desire to be
represented, for purposes of collective bargaining, by International
Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local Union 11, AFL, or by The
Procter & Gamble Employees Association, or by neither;
(2) Whether the employees in voting group 4 (b) desire to be repre-
sented, for purposes of collective bargaining, by United Association of
Journeymen and Apprentices of Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry,
Local 250, AFL, or by The Procter & Gamble Employees Association,
or by neither;
(3) Whether the employees in voting group 4 (c) desire to be-repre-
sented, for the purposes of collective bargaining, by International
Brotherhood of Boilermakers and Iron. Ship Builders, Welders and
Helpers of America, Local No. 92, AFL, or by The Procter & Gamble
Employees Association, or by neither.