Westinghouse Electric Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Sep 21, 1951

96 N.L.R.B. 316 (N.L.R.B. 1951)

316 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL -LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
coordinator, temporary employees, trainees, guards, and all other
employees, and supervisors as defined in the Act.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this
volume.]
MEMBER STYLES took no part in the consideration of the above Deci-
sion and Direction of Election.
WESTINGHOUSE ELECTRIC CORP. and LOCAL 410, WESTINGHOUSE PLANT
GUARDS, PETITIONER. Case No. 2-RC-3583. September 01, 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 Eugene M. Purver,
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-
member panel [Members Houston, Reynolds, and Murdock].
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the Act.
2. The labor organization involved claims to represent. certain
employees of the Employer.
3. The question concerning representation :
The Petitioner seeks' two units of plant guards. The Employer
alleges that the Petitioner is presently affiliated with the labor organ-
ization which currently represents the Employer's production and
maintenance employees and that therefore under Section 9 (b) (3)
of the Act, it is ineligible to be certified as the collective bargaining
representative of the guards here requested.
The production and maintenance employees at the Employer's Belle-
ville and Bloomfield, New Jersey, plants have been covered by collec-
tive bargaining agreements for a number of years, separate agreements
having been executed for the employees in each plant. The contract
unit in each plant included guards until sometime in 1950. On March
<'9, 1950, the Board issued a Decision and Direction of Elections
'in a case involving the Employer, in which it found, inter alia, that
the production and maintenance employees at each of the afore-
mentioned plants excluding guards constituted separate appropriate
units.' The elections in each plant were won by Westinghouse Local
1 89 NLRB S.
96 NLRB No. 50.
WESTINGHOUSE ELECTRIC CORP. 317
410, IUE-CIO, International Union of Electrical, Radio and Machine
Workers, hereinafter called Local 410, IUE-CIO, which received
its certificates on May 5, 1950.2 Since that date, Local 410, IUE-CIO,
has been acting as the bargaining agent of the production and main-
tenance employees at the Employer's Belleville and Bloomfield plants.
Shortly after the Board's Decision excluding them from bargain-
ing units of which they had long been a part, the guards decided to
form the Petitioner to represent them in their dealings with the Em-
ployer. During the organization of the Petitioner, the guards ques-
tioned the president of Local 410, IUE-CIO, as to the procedure to
be followed for establishing an independent union and persuaded him
to attend the Petitioner's first meeting .3 This meeting was held at
IUE-CIO headquarters on February 27, 1950. About the same time,
the Petitioner engaged as its legal adviser the attorney who handles
the legal affairs of Local 410, IUE-CIO. The record also shows that
a guard who currently acts as a steward for the Petitioner formerly
served in the same capacity when the guards were part of the produc-
tion and maintenance unit.
Since its first meeting, the Petitioner has not solicited nor obtained
any advice or other assistance from Local 410, IUE-CIO. No officer
or other representative of Local 410, IUE-CIO, has been present at
the meetings, all of which have been conducted in a hall in Bloom-
field, New Jersey, known as the Labor Lyceum. This hall is privately
owned and it was rented to the Petitioner with the understanding that
the Petitioner would pay for its use as soon as it began to collect dues
from its membership.
The foregoing facts, in our opinion, do not justify the conclusion
that the Petitioner is affiliated directly or indirectly with Local 410,
IUE-CIO, or any other labor organization which admits to its mem-
bership persons other than guards 4
, We find that a question affecting commerce exists concerning the
representation of employees of the Employer, vvithin the meaning of
Section 9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
4. The following employees of the Employer constitute units ap-
propriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the mean-
ing of Section 9 (b) of the amended Act:
(1) All plant guards employed at the Employer's Belleville, New
Jersey, Works, excluding all other employees and all supervisors as
defined in the Act.
T Before the election , the bargaining agent of the production and maintenance employees
had been UE Local 410, United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE).
8 The record shows that the vice president of Local 410, IUE-CIO , also was present at
this meeting.
4 International Harvester Company , 81 NLRB 374 and cases cited therein.
318 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
(2) All plant guards employed at the Employer's Bloomfield, New
Jersey, Works, excluding all other employees and all supervisors as
defined in the Act.
[Text of Direction of Elections omitted from publication in this
volume.]
WESTERN ELECTRIC COMPANY, INCORPORATED and COMMUNICATIONS
WORKERS OF AMERICA, CIO, PETITIONER . Case NO. 35-RLC-528.
September 21, 1951
Decision and Direction
On June 19, 1951, pursuant to the terms and conditions of a Stipu-
lation for Certification Upon Consent Election, the Regional Director
conducted an election by secret ballot among certain employees of
the Employer at its manufacturing division in Marion County,
Indiana.
Upon the conclusion of the election, a tally of ballots was furnished
the parties in accordance with the Rules and Regulations of the Board
and in conformity with the Stipulation. The tally shows that of 4,378
eligible voters, 1,905 votes were cast for the Communications Workers
of America, CIO, hereinafter referred to as the CWA, 1,725 votes
were cast for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers,
AFL, hereinafter referred to as the IBEW, and 144 votes were cast
against the participating labor organizations, and that there were 58
challenged ballots.'
Thereafter, on June 25, 1951, the IBEW filed timely objections to
the conduct of the election and to conduct affecting the results of the
election. In accordance with the Board's Rules and Regulations, the
Regional Director investigated the objections. On July 20, 1951, the
Regional Director issued and duly served upon the parties his report
on challenged ballots and objections to election, in which he made cer-
tain recommendations concerning the objections and recommended
that the Board find ineligible 17 of the challenged voters, find eligible
31 of the challenged voters, declare 3 challenged ballots void, and
defer ruling on the disposition of 7 challenged ballots until the issu-
ance of a supplemental tally of ballots. The IBEW filed exceptions
to certain parts of the Regional Director's report.
'Of the 58 challenged ballots, 54 were challenged by the Board's agents , 3 ballots
counted by the Board 's agent in charge of the election as void were challenged by the CWA,
and 1 ballot was challenged jointly by the CWA and the IBEW.
96 NLRB No. 55.