Butler Manufacturing Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Sep 13, 1950

91 N.L.R.B. 217 (N.L.R.B. 1950)

In the Matter of BUTLER MANUFACTURING COMPANY, EMPLOYER and
INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS, DISTRICT LODGE No.
115, LOCAL LODGE 1330, PETITIONER'
Case.No. 20-RC-777.-Decided September 13,1950
DECISION AND ORDER
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, a hearing was held before Nathan R. Berke, 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 Houston and Styles].
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 claim to represent employees
of the Employer.
3. No 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, for the following
reasons:
The Petitioner seeks to represent a unit of welders and welders'
helpers at the Employer's Richmond plant. The Employer and United
Steelworkers of America, CIO, Local No. 4113, herein called the
Intervenor, contend that the proposed unit is not appropriate for
bargaining purposes and that the existing plant-wide unit is the only
appropriate unit for these employees.
The Employer is engaged in the manufacture of prefabricated steel
buildings and welded tanks at its Richmond, California, plant. The
plant consists of 1 large open building, with no physical. partitions
separating the 11 departments into which the plant is divided. Pro-
duction processes include fabrication, assembly, welding, and finishing
operations of a highly integrated nature. Steel is received from
storage at department 64, the press work department, where it is
91 NLRB No. 34.
217
218 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
fashioned into component parts for steel buildings and storage and
trailer tanks. Building parts so produced are sent. to department 75
for assembly and welding and thence to the paint shop for painting.
Storage and trailer tank parts, on the other hand, are sent to depart-
ment 73 for assembly and welding. Following this operation, the
small storage tanks are removed to the paint shop for painting; the
large storage tanks which cannot readily :be moved, however, are
painted in department 73. From this department, trailer tanks are
sent, prior to painting, to department 71, for the assembly of wheels,
pumps, and meters and the welding of pipelines, trim, and skirting,
and are then removed to the paint shop.
Of approximately 76 persons employed at the Richmond plant, 26
are welders and 6 are welders' helpers.' Welders are subject to no
separate supervision. They are paid at the salve rate as maintenance
employees and at a lower rate than several categories of skilled em-
ployees? Welders, attached to departments 71, 73, and 75, spend 90
percent of their time performing welding operations, most of which
are of a semiskilled nature and are performed on parts produced
according to established specifications. In these departments they
Work closely with other categories of employees.3 The Employer
produces a larger volume of prefabricated buildings than of storage.
and trailer tanks combined. Building parts are generally standard-
ized and the welding thereof requires less skill than storage tank
welding, which in. turn requires less skill than the welding of trailer
tanks, often made to customers' orders. In addition to welding,
welders also daily perform, in whatever plant departments they may
be needed, production and-maintenance work requiring lesser skills,
such as packing, .crating, press work, and general maintenance work;
for this work they are paid at the salve rate.
There is no apprenticeship program at the Richmond plant. Weld-
ers' helpers who complete a course in welding at an outside training
school are eligible to become welder trainees. At the end of 4 months,
welder trainees are eligible to become class 3 welders ; at the end of a
' Welders' helpers perform no welding and do not assist in welding operations ; instead,
they move parts to be welded into position, hold them together, clean up weld slag, and
move unwanted material out of the way. They are given the same employment interviews
as other helpers and are required to have no special aptitudes for, or knowledge of, welding.
2 Employees . paid at a higher rate than welders include tool and die makers , electricians,
and layout men.
3 Thus, in department 71, pipe fitters , metal finishers , automotive equipment workers, as-
semblymen , and helpers work together with welders and welders ' helpers on tank produc-
tion ; and in department 75, welders weld building parts and pass them on to assemblymen,
who bolt them together. Even in department 73, which is occupied for the most part by
welders and welders' helpers, grinders and polishers apply finishes to stainless steel and
aluminum tanks, for which the Employer receives occasional orders and painters paint the
afore-mentioned large storage tanks which cannot conveniently be moved to the paint shop.
BUTLER MANUFACTURING COMPANIY 219
year, crass 3 welders are eligible to become class 2 welders; and
whenever there is an opening and their ability warrants their promo-
tion, class 2 welders may become class 1 welders. The Employer
sometimes hires experienced welders from outside sources, usually from
the State employment agency. There are presently employed at the
Richmond plant 3 class 1 welders, 10 class 2 welders, 3 class 3 welders,
and 1 welder trainee.
The Intervenor has represented welders and other employees at the
Richmond plant in a single unit since 1948. At three other similar
plants of the Employer, at Minneapolis, Minnesota, Kansas City, Mis-
souri, and Galesburg, Illinois, the Intervenor represents the employees
in plant-wide units.
In other representation proceedings, the Board has found that
welders may constitute an appropriate bargaining unit and has severed
welders and their helpers from plant-wide units. In those cases, it
appeared that welders possessed craft skills and worked in separate
areas, under separate supervisors, or otherwise constituted a homo-
geneous and clearly identifiable group.4 The Board has, on the other
hand, declined to sever welders from plant-wide units where it ap-
peared that the welders lacked craft skills or did not otherwise con-
stitute a homogeneous group.-' In the instant case the welders in the
Richmond plant are engaged in work which, for the most part, does
not require a high degree of skill; furthermore, they not only work
closely together with other categories of employees in highly integrated
production work, but they are frequently called on to perform non-
welding jobs anywhere in the plant and they share common super-
vision and conditions of employment with other plant employees.
On the basis of these facts, and in further view of the history of
collective bargaining on a plant-wide basis at this and other plants
of the Employer, we find that the unit sought by the Petitioner is not
appropriate for bargaining purposes.6 We shall therefore dismiss the
instant petition.
ORDER
'IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the petition filed in the instant case be,
and the same hereby is, dismissed.
4 Owens -Corning Fiberglass Corporation, 84 NLRB 298 ; Gabriel Steel Company, 80 NLRB
1361 (affirmed, 88 NLRB 201) ; Potash Company of America, 80 NLRB 1035.
6 Aluminum Company of America, 54 NLRB 421, and cases cited therein. . Cf. Hunt Tool
Company, 82 NLRB 399.
6 we find it unnecessary , for this reason , to pass upon the other issues raised in this
proceeding. .