United Aircraft Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Oct 13, 1944

58 N.L.R.B. 967 (N.L.R.B. 1944)

I n the Matter Of UNITED AIRCRAFT CORPORATION, PR vTT & WHITNEY
AIRCRAFT DIVISION (SOUTHINGTON PLANT) and INTERNATIONAL
UNION, UNITED AUTOMOBILE, AIRCRAFT AND AGRICULTURAL IMPLE-
MENT WORKERS OF AMERICA, LOCAL 535, C. I. O.
Case No. 1-R-1957.-Decided October 13, 1944
Mr. Waif rid G. Lundberg, of Hartford, Conn., for the Company.
Mr. Harold Roitman, of Boston, Mass., for the Union.
Mr. Thomas A. Ricci, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION' OF ELECTION
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon a petition duly filed by International Union, United Auto-
mobile, Aircraft and Agricultural Implement Workers of America,
Local 535, C. I. 0., herein called the Union, alleging that a question
affecting commerce had arisen concerning the representation of em-
ployees of United Aircraft Corporation, Pratt & Whitney -Aircraft
Division (Southington Plant), Southington, Connecticut, herein
called the Company,' the National Labor Relations Board provided
for an appropriate hearing upon due notice before William I.
Shooer, Trial Examiner. Said hearing was held at Southington,
Connecticut, on September 6, 1944. The Company and the Union
appeared and participated. All parties were afforded full oppor-
tunity to be heard, to examine and cross-examine witnesses, and to
introduce evidence hearing on the issues. At the hearing, the Com-
pany moved to dismiss the petition. The Trial Examiner referred
the motion to the Board for determination. For reasons set forth
in ,Section IV, infra, the motion, is denied. The 'Trial Examiner's
rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are
hereby affirmed. All parties were afforded an opportunity to file
briefs with the Board.
'At the hearing the Company's name and the Union's numerical designation were
amended to read as set forth above.
58 N. L R. B., No. 1 84
967
968 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following :
FINDINGS OF FACT
I. THE BUSINESS OF THE C01VIPANY
United Aircraft Corporation, Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Division,
is engaged in the manufacture of airplane engines at several plants
in the States of Connecticut and Massachusetts, one of which is lo-
cated at Southington, Connecticut. This proceeding solely concerns
the employees of the Southington plant. During 1943 the Company
purchased for use at its Southington plant raw- materials valued in
excess of $1,000,C00, of which more than 90 percent was shipped from
points outside the State of Connecticut. More than 98 percent of
the finished products manufactured at this plant is shipped to points
outside the State of Connecticut.
The Company admits that it is engaged in commerce within the
meaning of the National Labor Relations Act.
II. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED
International Union, United Automobile, Aircraft and Agricultural
Implement Workers of America, Local 535, affiliated with the Congress
of Industrial Organizations, is a labor organization admitting to mem-
bership employees of the Company.
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
The Company has refused to grant recognition to the Union.as.the
exclusive bargaining representative of certain of its employees until
the Union has been certified by the Board in an appropriate unit.
A statement of a Board agent, introduced into evidence at the hear-
ing, indicates that the Union represents a substantial number of em-
ployees in the unit hereinafter found appropriate.'
We find that a question affecting commerce has arisen concerning the
representation of employees of the Company, within the meaning of
Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and-(7) of the Act.
IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT
The United Aircraft Corporation operates four divisions, each of
which manufactures airplanes and airplane parts. One of these is the
Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Division, which manufactures airplane
engines. The Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Division includes seven sepa-
2 The Field Examiner reported that the Union submitted 921 membership application
cards, and that there aie 3135 emplovees in the unit hereinafter found appropriate.
UNITED AIRCRAFT CORPORATION 969
.rate plants located at different points in Connecticut and Massachu-
setts , the oldest and principal plant being located at East Hartford,
Connecticut . The Southington plant, which manufactures airplane
engine - cylinders,.,isone of the•separate plants of the Pratt &. Whitney
Aircraft Division.
The Union contends that the hourly rated employees of the South-
ington plant, with certain inclusions and exclusions as agreed between
the parties , form an appropriate unit for collective bargaining pur-
poses. The Company maintains that the operations of the Southing-
ton plant -are so closely integrated with the operations of the entire
Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Division that a separate unit of the em-
ployees of the Southington plant is inappropriate , and that the petition
should therefore be dismissed.
The Southington plant was established in April 1943, pursuant to
orders from the United States Navy Department directing that several
production departments , of the Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Division be
removed from the East Hartford plant and placed in separate and
distant localities in order, by means of such dispersal , to limit any
damage that might be caused by possible enemy bombings . The engine
cylinder department was moved to Southington , the crank -case depart-
ment to Willimantic , Connecticut , and the connecting-rod department
to Longmeadow , Massachusetts . The Company states that the oper-
ations now conducted at Southington are temporary and will be dis-
continued when the conditions that prompted their inception cease to
exist. Of the approximately 3100 employees included in the proposed
appropriate unit, about 600 persons , whom the Company designates
as non-production employees '3 work under supervisors who report
directly to departmental superintendents at the East Hartford-plant.
The production schedules of all plants in the division are determined
by a central management located at the East Hartford plant, and,
except for test cylinders delivered directly to the Army or Navy, all
cylinders produced at Southington are delivered to the East Hartford
plant.
The Southington plant is located 20 miles distant from the East
Hartford plant and a still greater distance from some of the other
plants in the division . One superintendent is in charge of the entire
plant in matters of discipline . Superintendents in the Southington
plant are in complete charge of all production operations , that plant,
as the complete cylinder production department of the Pratt & Whitney
Aircraft Division , functioning as a single production entity. There
is a separate pay roll for all the employees of the Southington plant
8 The 600 employees constitute the following departments maintenance, janitors, tool
crili,- machine - repair,, toolroom , electricals , power plant , materials, inspectors , gauges,
cutting tools , and oil and coolant.
970 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
and all raw materials purchased by the Company for use at Southing-
ton are delivered there directly from outside vendors. New employees
from the Southington area are recruited through an employment office
located at the Southington plant. The personnel director of`the Com-
pany stated at the hearing that about SO percent of the approximately
2700 employees who were transferred from the East Hartford plant
to the Southington plant resides near the latter, and that this fact
was considered in selecting the site for the new plant.
The United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America,
C. I. 0., has requested recognition of the Company as the exclusive
representative of the employees of the Longmeadow plant. The Inter-
national Association of Machinists, A. F L., has petitioned the Board
for certification as the representative of the production and main-
tenance employees of the Buckland plant, another plant of the Pratt
& Whitney Aircraft Division.4 The Union has limited its organ-
izing activities to the employees of the Southington plant. In the
light of the foregoing facts, and particularly in vieiv of the degree of
functional independence of the Southington plant from the remainder
of the Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Division, the apparent absence of a
community of interest among all employees of the entire division, and
the limited scope of the Union's organizing activities, we are of the
opinion that the hourly rated employees of the Southington plant form
an appropriate unit.
We find, in accordance with the stipulation of the parties, that all
hourly rated employees of the Company, at its Southington, Con-
necticut, plant, including inspectors, line checkers, crib attendants,
material handlers, factory clerks, and -working group leaders, but ex-
cluding timekeepers, engineering, technical, and laboratory employees,
-foremen's clerks, salaried office and clerical employees, medical depart-
ment employees, plant-protection employees, executives, plant super-
intendepts, division superintendents, general foremen, foremen, assist-
ant foremen, group leaders, and all other supervisory employees with
authority to hire, promote, discharge, discipline, or otherwise effect
changes in the status of employees, or effectively recommend such
action, constitute a 'unit appropriate for the purposes of collective
bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
V. THE DETI nMINATION OF PEPAESENTATIVES
We shall direct that the question concerning representation which
has arisen be resolved by an election by secret ballot among the em-
ployees in the appropriate unit who were employed during the pay-
roll period immediately preceding the date of the Direction of Election
herein, subject to the limitations and additions set forth in the Di-
rection.
' Carr No :-11-3070
UNITED AIRCRAFT CORPORATION
DIRECTION OF ELEC'T'ION
971
By virtue of and pursn.uit to the power vested in the National Labor
Relations Board by Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act,
and pursuant to Article III, Section 9, of National Labor Relations
Board Rules and Regulations-Series 3, as amended, it is hereby
DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation to ascertain representa-
tives for the purposes of collective bargaining with United Aircraft
Corporation, Pratt S: Whitney Aircraft Division, Southington, Con-
necticut, an election by secret ballot shall be conducted as early as pos-
sible, but not later than thirty (30) days from the date of this Direc-
tion, wider the direction and supervision of the Regional Director for
the First Region, acting in this matter as agent for the National Labor
Relations Board, and subject to Article III, Sections 10 and 11, of said
Riles and Regulations, among the employees in the unit found appro-
priate in Section IV, above, who were employed during the pay-roll
period immediately prececlmg the date of this Direction, including
employees who did not work during the said pay-roll period because
they were ill or on vacation, or temporarily laid off, and including
employees in the armed forces of the United States who present them-
selves in person at the polls, 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, to determine whether or not
they desire to be represented by International Union, United Auto-
mobile, Aircraft and Agricultural Implement Workers of America,
Local 535, C. I. 0., for the purposes of collective bargaining.
MR. GER.vRD D. REILLY tool. no part in the consideration of the above
Decision ;nil Direction of Election.