Burke Millwork Co., Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Aug 7, 1952

100 N.L.R.B. 522 (N.L.R.B. 1952)

522 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
voting group, which the Board, under such circumstances, finds to be
appropriate for purposes of collective bargaining. In the event a ma-
jority vote for the Intervenor, the Board finds the existing unit to be
appropriate and the Regional Director will issue a certification of
results of election to such effect.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this
volume.]
BURKE MILLWORK Co., INC . and LOCAL 193, INTERNATIONAL BROTHER-
HOOD OF FIREMEN & OILERS, AFL , PETITIONER . Case No. 19-RC-
1017. August 7, 1952
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 Rachel Storer, 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 [Chairman Herzog and Members Murdock and
Peterson].
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 organizations involved 1 claim to represent employees
of the Employer.
3. The Employer and the Intervenor allege their current contract
is a bar to the petition. We do not agree. By its terms, the contract
became automatically renewed on March 1, 1952, for a 2-year period
succeeding its May 1 anniversary date. As the petition herein was
filed February 29, 1952, it was clearly timely, and thus prevented the
contract from operating as a bar.
We find that a question affecting commerce has arisen concerning
the representation of employees of the Employer within the meaning
of Section 9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
4. The Petitioner seeks to carve out from the existing production
and maintenance unit, a unit confined to the steam licensed employees
in the Employer's boiler room. The Employer and the Intervenor
object to the severance of these workers from the existing plant-wide
3 Lumber and Sawmill Workers, Local 2519 , United Brotherhood of Carpenters and
Joiners of America , AFL, intervened in this proceeding . It is referred to hereafter as
the Intervenor.
100 NLRB No. 80.
BURKE MILLWORK CO., INC. 523
unit on the ground that the Employer's operations are highly inte-
grated in character. In support of this position, the parties so op-
posing the petition claim that the Employer's operations fall into
the category of "lumber industry" enterprises to which the "Weyer-
haeuser Timber" doctrine is applicable.2 We are unable to agree
with this position. The Employer is engaged in the manufacture of
stock millwork items and other wood products and in the distribution
of building supplies. Although the Employer's operations are simi-
lar in some respects to those of companies forming part of the kind
of "lumber industry" involved in the Weyerhaeuser Timber case, and
the Employer follows the labor relations patterns of such companies,
there are important distinguishing characteristics. Whereas the
main business of enterprises such as the Weyerhaeuser Timber Com-
pany is the cutting of trees and the processing of the logs so obtained
into lumber, the primary business of the Employer is the manufac-
ture and fabrication of lumber purchased from concerns such as
Weyerhaeuser into finished wood products. The two types of enter-
prises are not, in the main, competitors. We hold therefore that the
Employer is not engaged in the portion of the "lumber industry" to
which the "Weyerhaeuser Timber" doctrine is applicable 3
Nor do we believe that, apart from the "lumber industry" conten-
tion, the Employer's operations are so integrated as to preclude the
establishment of a unit such as is here sought by the Petitioner. It
may not be denied that the Employer's boiler room is an essential
unit of its operations. But the Board has frequently held that similar
employee groups at plants where operations are similarly dependent
upon continuous supply of power and heat may constitute separate
appropriate units .4 On the other hand, these employees may also
appropriately constitute part of the production and maintenance
unit.
In these circumstances we shall make no final unit determination at
this time, but shall direct that an election be held among the employees
in the voting group hereafter described to determine their desires.
In the event the employees choose the Petitioner, they shall be deemed
to have indicated their desire to be represented in a separate appro-
priate unit, and the Regional Director shall issue to the Petitioner a
certification of representatives for such unit. In the event they choose
2 Weyerhaeuser Timber Co., 87 NLRB 1076 , in which the Board held that only plant-
wide units embracing all production and maintenance employees are appropriate in saw-
mill and logging operations.
8 Compare our holdings that a manufacturer and fabricator of steel products is not
engaged in the "basic steel" industry , and that, accordingly , unit problems of such a
manufacturer are not controlled by the principles we deemed applicable to the "basic steel"
Industry . Standard Steel Spring Mfg. Co., 90 NLRB 1805 ; Mesta Machine Co., 94
NLRB 1624.
4 E. g., American Boa Board Co., 90 NLRB 122 ; Micamold Radio Corp ., 94 NLRB 1191 ;
Cf. Soler Mall Co., 92 NLRB 1680.
524 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
the Intervenor, the employees shall be deemed to have indicated-their
desire to continue being represented as part of the existing plant-
wide unit, and the Regional Director shall then issue a certificate of
the results of the election.
The voting group consists of all steam licensed employees of the
Employer engaged in the Employer's boiler room, including those
classified as firemen, but excluding chief firemen,a and all other super-
visors as defined in the Act.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this
volume.]
6 The record shows that Robert Simms, the only person classified as chief fireman,
possesses power effectively to recommend hire or discharge of firemen.
CAMP & MOINNES, INC., ALAMO DIvISION and INTERNATIONAL LADIES'
GARMENT WORKERS UNION, AFL. Case No. 39-CA-176. August
8,1952
Decision and Order
On January 5, 1952, Trial Examiner Stephen S. Bean issued his
Intermediate Report in the above-entitled proceding, finding that the
Respondent and engaged in and was engaging in certain unfair labor
practices within the meaning of Section 8 (a) (1), (3), and (5) of
the Act, and recommending that it cease and desist therefrom and take
certain affirmative action, as set forth in the copy of the Intermediate
Report attached hereto. Thereafter, the Respondent filed exceptions
to the Intermediate Report and a supporting brief.
The Board 1 has reviewed the rulings made by the Trial Examiner
at the hearing and finds that no prejudicial error was committed.
The rulings are hereby affirmed. The Board has considered the Inter-
mediate Report, the exceptions and brief, and the entire record in the
case, and hereby adopts the Trial Examiner's findings, conclusions,
and recommendations.
Order2
Upon the entire record in the case, and pursuant to Section 10 (c)
of the National Labor Relations Act, the National Labor Relations
Board hereby orders that the Respondent, Camp & McInnes, Inc.,
I 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 [ Chairman Herzog and
Members Houston and Murdock].
2 The record shows, as the Trial Examiner found , that the Respondent has discontinued
operations in the State of Texas . Our order that the Respondent bargain with the Union
for its employees is therefore conditioned upon the Respondent 's having in its employ
employees in the appropriate unit. Walter Holm dl Company, 87 NLRB 1169.
100 NLRB No. 85.