Westinghouse Electric Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Dec 21, 1950

92 N.L.R.B. 871 (N.L.R.B. 1950)

In the Matter of WESTINGHOUSE ELECTRIC CORPORATION ( STURTEVANT
DIVISION ), EMPLOYER and FEDERATION OF WESTINGHOUSE INDEPEND-
ENT SALARIED UNIONS, PETITIONER
Case No. 1-RC-1716.Decided December 01, 1950
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, a hearing was held before Sidney A. Coven, hearing
officer. 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 Act, the Board
has delegated its powers in connection with this case to a three-mem-
ber panel [Chairman Herzog and Members Houston and Reynolds].
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer i s engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the Act.
2. The labor organization involved claims 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.
4. The appropriate unit :
The Petitioner seeks to represent a unit of all professional employ-
ees, including design engineers, tool designers, service engineers, engi-
neers, engineering assistants, maintenance engineers, advertising as-
sistants, production specialists, generator engineers, junior engineers,
maufacturing engineers, tool engineers, and the nurse, but excluding
application engineering staff assistants and supervisors. The Em-
ployer agrees that the aforesaid unit is appropriate, except that it
would exclude manufacturing engineers, tool engineers, and the nurse
as managerial employees, and would include the application engineer-
ing staff assistants as professionals.
Manufacturing engineers are directly subordinate to the general
superintendent. They have a wide variety of duties involving the
efficient and economical operation of the entire plant. They coordi-
nate the work of the designing and manufacturing staffs, recommend
92 NLRB No. 143.
871
872 DECISIONS. OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
new manufacturing methods, and prepare cost estimates. They are
consulted by the suggestion committee about proposals for improved
methods of manufacture and they make recommendations concerning
such proposals. They do not have subordinates. Recently, in a
case involving another plant of the Employer, the Board decided that
manufacturing engineers having duties and responsibilities like those
of the manufacturing engineers in this case were managerial em-
ployees.' We make a similar finding in this case. We shall therefore
exclude them from the unit.
Tool engineers draft specifications for new tools and work with
the tool designers in designing such tools. They work under the same
supervision as the tool designers who are included in the unit. The
tool engineers occasionally negotiate with outside manufacturers for
tools or parts which are to be manufactured outside the Employer's
plant. However, authority to make the purchase is vested in the tool
engineers' supervisor and not in the tool engineers. We do not
believe that the duties and functions of the tool engineers can be said
to be managerial. Accordingly, we shall include them in the unit.
The nurse is in charge of the dispensary except for 1 hour during
the day when the company doctor is present. She administers first
aid to sick or injured employees. As part of her duties she may
refer a patient to an outside doctor and thereby commit the Employer
to pay necessary doctor and hospital expenses. However, under
Massachusetts law an employee injured in the course of his employ-
ment can choose his own physician to tend his injuries and the Em-
ployer is obligated to pay the physician's fee. The nurse's authority
to commit the Employer financially seems, therefore, hardly to go
beyond the authority of an injured employee similarly to obligate the
Employer. We find that the nurse, like industrial nurses generally,
is not a managerial employee. Nor is she a confidential employee
because she prepares .and completes the records of employee injuries
which are used in compensation cases 2 We shall include her. .
Application engineering staff assistants act as technical assistants
to various production managers in reviewing correspondence dealing
with engineering matters. The Employer requires that all employees
in this classification have engineering degrees or their equivalent.
Contrary to the Petitioner's contention, we find that application en-
gineering staff assistants are professional employees and shall in-
clude them in the unit.
1 Westinghouse Electric Corporation , 89 NLRB 8. See also Westinghouse Electric
Corporation, 91 NLRB No. 40.
2 Westinghouse Electric Corporation , 91 NLRB No. 40; American Locomotive Company,
Alco Products Division, 92 NLRB 115.
WESTII\TGHOUSE ELECTRIC CORPORATION 873
We find that all professional employees employed at the Employer's
Sturtevant Division plant, Hyde Park, Massachusetts, including tool
engineers, design engineers, tool 'designers, service engineers, engi-
neers, engineering assistants, maintenance engineers, advertising as-
sistants, product specialists, junior engineers, application engineering
staff assistants, and the nurse, but excluding office clerical employees,
manufacturing engineers, guards, and supervisors as defined in the
Act, constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bar=
gaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act .3
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this
volume.]
J The Petitioner asked that the professional employees be given the opportunity of
voting on whether or not they desired to be included in the unit of clerical employees
proposed by the Petitioner in Case No. 1-RC-1715. In view of the Employer's objection
to the inclusion of the professional employees in the same unit with the clerical employees,
the Petitioner's request is hereby denied. American Locomotive Company, Alco Products
Division, supra; International Harvester Company, West Pullman Works, 90 NLRB No..
240.
929979 -51-vol. 92--57