Zenith Radio Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

May 30, 1944

56 N.L.R.B. 1077 (N.L.R.B. 1944)

In the Matter Of ZENITH RADIO CORPORATION and EMPLOYEES' ASSO-
CIATION OF ZENITH RADIO
Case No:• 13-R-3'75.Decided May 36, 19.4.
Mr. Irving',Herriott, of Chicago, Ill., for the Company.
Winston, Strawn & Shaw, by Messrs. Frank B. Gilmer and G. B.
Christensen, of Chicago, Ill., for the Union.
Mr. William C. Baisinger, Jr., of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon petition duly filed by Employees' Association of Zenith
Radio, herein called the Union, alleging that a question affecting
commerce had arisen concerning the representation of employees of
Zenith Radio Corporation, Chicago, Illinois, herein called the Com-
pany, the National Labor Relations Board provided for an appro-
priate hearing upon due notice before Mozart G. Ratner, Trial Ex-
aminer. Said hearing was held at Chicago, Illinois, on April 11,
1944. The Company and the Union appeared and participated.,-
All parties were afforded full oportunity to be heard, to examine and
cross-examine witnesses, to introduce evidence bearing on the issues,
and to file briefs with the Board. The Trial Examiner's rulings
made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby
affirmed.
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following :
FINDINGS OF FACT
I. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
Zenith Radio Corporation, an Illinois corporation, is engaged at
,a plant in Chicago, Illinois, in the production and sale of hearing
1 A waiver signed by the Union , introduced into evidence at the hearing, states that the
Union waives the right to protest any election held in the instant proceeding on any
ground set forth in Case No. 13-C-2377.
56 N. L . R. B., No. 190.
1077
1078 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD I
aids and radio and radar equipment. The Zenith radionic hearing
aids are sold to the general public throughout the United States.
The radio and radar equipment manufactured by the Company are
used exclusively by the armed forces of the United States and its
allies. The Company's purchases of raw materials exceed $1,000,-
000 each year, of which 75 percent is shipped to the Company from
points outside the State of Illinois. The Company's sales of finished
products exceed $1,000,000 annually, of which 80 percent is shipped
to points outside the State of Illinois.
The Company admits and we find that at its Chicago, Illinois, plant
it is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the National Labor
Relations Act.
II. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED
Employees' Association of Zenith Radio is an, unaffiliated labor
organization admitting to memebrship employees of the Company.
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
On or about February 17, 1944, the Union requested the Company
to recognize it as the exclusive bargaining representative of employees
within an alleged appropriate bargaining unit. The Company refused
to accord the Union such recognition on the ground that the bargain-
ing unit requested was inappropriate.
A statement prepared by a Field Examiner of the Board, intro-
duced into evidence at the hearing, as supplemented by a statement
made on the record by the Trial Examiner, indicates that the Union
represents a substantial number of employees within the unit herein-
after found to be appropriate 2
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 Union, contends that all employees of the Company's engi-
neering department who regularly perform the work of draftsmen
and who make detailed sketches for manufacturing purposes, exclud-
ing all supervisors with authority to hire, promote, discharge, disci-
pline, or effectively recommend such action, and all other employees
of the Company, constitute an appropriate bargaining unit., The,
2 The Field Examiner 's report, as supplemented by the Trial Examiner 's statement,' shows
that the Union submitted 55 authorization cards bearing the apparently genuine original
signatures of persons whose names appear on a current pay roll of the Company , introduced
into evidence at the hearing, which lists approximately 65 employees in the unit alleged by
the Union to be appropriate.
ZENITH RADIO CORPORATION 1079
Company denies the appropriateness of the unit sought by the Union,
arguing that the functional correlation of the work performed by all
employees in the engineering department militates against arbitrarily
establishing a separate bargaining unit comprised of only a part of
the employees in the department.
The Union is the present reconized bargaining representative of
all hourly paid, production and maintenance employees of the Com-
paiiy. It also represents ,, in a separate bargaining unit, all hourly
paid guards employed by the Company . All employees of the engi-
neering department are paid a salary.
The?engineering department is under the supervision of the Com-
pany's vice-president in charge of engineering, an assistant vice presi-
dent and chief engineer , and a second assistant vice president. 'The
department is, in effect , divided into 2 divisions , the electrical divi-
sion and the mechanical division . The electrical division is headed
by 5 division chiefs , the mechanical division by 6 division chiefs, while
1 division chief is in . charge of specifications , blueprints , and parts in
both divisions . The electrical division includes 32 electrical engineers,
who are technicians and perform little or no drafting work, 18 elec-
trical project engineers , 6 associate electrical project engineers, 21
assistant electrical project engineers , and-11 electrical engineering spe-
cialists who are research consultants . Each of these groups is engaged
primarily in electrical research and development , and, while the elec-
trical project engineers and their assistants and associates at times do-
some drafting work, their sketches are seldom, if ever, used for manu-
facturing purposes, but are transferred to the mechanical division for
detailed draftsmanship work prior to production . The Union would
exclude all employees in the electrical division from its proposed unit.
The engineering department also contains a model-shop which em-
ploys approximately 24 model makers who work under the super-
vision of 4 model shop superintendents. These employees produce
electrical models from the specifications set forth in the drawings pro-
duced by the employees in the mechanical division . The model shop
also regularly employs about 55 hourly paid employees who are on the-
factory pay roll . These employees create mechanical models from the
drawings made in the mechanical division . Since none of these model
shop employees do 'any drafting work, the Union does not desire to
have them included in its proposed unit.
The mechanical division of the engineering department employs
approximately 12 mechanical project engineers ; 16 associate project
engineers , 11 assistant project engineers, 14 mechanical draftsmen,
and 12 apprentice draftsmen . The Union 's proposed unit comprises,
the foregoing classifications of employees in the mechanical division.
of the engineering department . The Union contends that all these
1080 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
employees regularly perform the work of draftsmen in making de-
tailed sketches and mechanical drawings which are used for manufac-
turing purposes. The duties performed by this group of employees,
argues the Union, sufficiently distinguish ,them from all other em-
ployees in the engineering department to warrant their establishment
as a separate bargaining unit. The Company, as previously noted,
does not agree.
The function of the engineering department is to develop and design
the electrical and mechanical features of the products manufactured
by the Company. Each new electrical unit or product to be manu-
factured is called a project. When anew project is contemplated,
either the vice-president in charge of engineering or the chief engineer
appoints an electrical and -a mechanical division chief to take charge
of the project. Each of- these division chiefs selects the particular,
electrical and mechanical project engineers, associate project engineers,
and assistant project engineers to work with him on the project. The
necessary draftsmen and apprentice draftsmen are also ,assigned to
,each new project. This entire group of engineering department em-
ployees works on a single project until it is completed. The electrical
division employees work out the electrical details while the mechanical
division employees are concerned only with the mechanical aspects of
the project. The mechanical division produces the final detailed
drawings from which the finished product is manufactured. It ap=
pears that the basis for distinction between project engineers, associate
project engineers, assistant project engineers, and draftsmen in the
mechanical division is their varying degrees of skill as draftsmen and
ability to handle more difficult work. All convey their ideas through
the medium of mechanical drawings, and all use drafting instruments
and other recognized tools-of their profession. It also appears that
the titles bestowed upon these employees is 'the Company's method
of grading them according to their background, experience, and skill
in their profession.
Upon the basis of the foregoing findings of fact and upon the entire
record in the case, we are of the opinion and conclude that the em-
ployees sought by the Union herein constitute- a homogeneous group
of technical and professional employees engaged in work sufficiently
identifiable from that performed by other employees in the Company's
engineering department to warrant establishment as a separate bar-
gaining unit. 'There remains for consideration the specific composition
of the appropriate unit. ,
The Company contends that the mechanical project engineers ex-
ercise supervisory authority over other employees in the mechanical
division and should therefore be excluded from any unit which the
Board may find to be appropriate. On the other hand, the Union
ZENITH RADIO CORPORATION 1081
desires, to include the mechanical project engineers. Although the
evidence on this point is in sharp, conflict, two associate project en-
gineers-mechanical and one project engineer-mechanical, testified, that
they had not been advised that the project engineers possested the
'authority to effect changes in the status of employees or effectively
recommend such action. In fact, these witnesses were apparently un-
aware of their exact titles before seeing the classified pay roll prepared
by the Company and introduced in evidence at the hearing. Moreover,
it appears from the record that the project engineers-mechanical are
not rated as executives for overtime pay purposes - under the Fair
Labor Standards Act of 1938. We are of the opinion and find that
the duties and authority-of the project engineers-mechanical do not
bring them within the Board's customary definition of supervisory
employees. Accordingly, we shall include them in the appropriate
unit.
We find that all salaried employees employed in the engineering
department of the Company's Chicago plant who regularly perform
the work of draftsmen and who make detailed sketches for manufac-
turing purposes, including mechanical project engineers, associate
mechanical project engineers, assistant mechanical project engineers,
draftsmen and apprentice draftsmen, but excluding division chiefs 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 DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
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 Elec-
tion herein, subject to the limitations and additions set forth in the
Direction.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
By virtue of and pursuant 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, it is hereby
DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation to ascertain representa-
tives for the purposes of collective bargaining with Zenith Radio
Corporation, Chicago, Illinois,,an election by secret ballot shall be
1082 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL-LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
conducted as early as possible, but not later than thirty (30) days
from' the date of this Direction, under the direction and supervision
of the Regional Director for the Thirteenth Region, acting in this
matter as agent for the national Labor Relations Board, and subject
to Article III, Sections 10 and 11, of said Rules and Regulations,
among the employees in the unit found appropriate in Section IV,
above, who were employed during the pay-roll period immediately
preceding the date of this Direction, including employees who did
not work during said pay-roll period because they were ill, or on vaca-
tion or temporarily laid off, and including employees in the armed
forces of the United States who present themselves in person at the
polls, but excluding any '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 Employees' Association of Zenith Radio, for the purposes of
collective bargaining.