Campbell Soup Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Mar 12, 1952

98 N.L.R.B. 741 (N.L.R.B. 1952)

CAMPBELL--SOUP- COMPANY 74L
CAMPBELL SOUP COMPANY and DISTRICT No. 8, INTERNATIONAL Assooi-
ATION OF MACHINISTS, PETITIONER. Case No. 1 °3-RC-2197 . March
12,1952
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 Herbert B. Mintz, 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, Murdock, 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 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. As amended at the hearing, the petition in this case requests that
the Board find appropriate six separate units at the Employer's Chi-
cago, Illinois, plant. These units consist of, respectively, all welders
and helpers; all millwrights and helpers including the beltman; all
sheet metal workers and helpers; all carpenters and helpers; all pipe-
fitters and helpers; and all machinists, machine repairmen, die repair-
men, scale repairmen, and their helpers.
The Employer's Chicago plant consists of five buildings containing
six major departments: (1) production; (2) can manufacturing; (3)
warehouse ; (4) powerhouse ; (5) service ; and (6) maintenance.
Since 1940, the Intervenor has represented a broad unit of all produc-
tion, maintenance, service, cafeteria, powerhouse, can manufacturing,
and warehouse employees. The Petitioner herein requests severance
of six craft groups composed of employees assigned to the mainte-
nance department of the plant. The Employer and the Intervenor
oppose the severance of these units on the grounds that there is no
historical basis for the separation of these employees; that the inte-
'1 Local 194 , Food, Tobacco , Agricultural and Allied Workers Union, Distributive , Process
ing and Office Workers of America, herein called the Intervenor , was granted Intervention
at the hearing on the showing of a contractual interest in the representation of these
employees . Local 743, Warehouse and Mail Order Employees Union, AFL , although served
with q notice of hearing , did not appear at the hearing held herein.
98. NLRB No. 112. -
998666-vol. 98-53-48
742 DECISIONS OF • NATIONAL LABOR REI;ATIONS BOARD
gration of the plant makes such segregation undesirable; and that
the employees sought are properly a part of the established broad
unit.
The plant maintenance department is composed of employees in
the classifications included in the units sought by the Petitioner plus
electricians, painters, oilers and greasers, and tool crib attendants,
all of whose representation is not here at issue. The maintenance de-
partment is under the general supervision of the superintendent of
equipment and his assistant. The department personnel is distributed
among the manufacturing building machine shop and two smaller
machine shops located in the can manufacturing building. A master
mechanic exercises direct supervision in the machine shops assisted
by a foreman and an assignment clerk who routes -work orders to the
maintenance employees. There are also four area supervisors who
are assigned portions of the plant to anticipate maintenance needs and
repairs in these areas, and who assume immediate supervision of
maintenance work done in those locations.
The welders, millwrights, sheet metal workers, carpenters, pipe-
fitters, and machinists sought by Petitioner occupy more or less dis-
tinct areas within the machine shop .2 They work, for the most part,
on the same shifts as the production workers and share the same gen-
eral working conditions and "fringe" benefits as those employees: The
Employer does not have any apprenticeship programs for any of the
maintenance groups involved and fills vacancies in its various main-
tenance classifications by either hiring from outside the plant or
transferring employees from other departments. Approximately
one-third of the employees in the units requested were originally em-
ployed in the manufacturing departments of the plant.' There is no
question, however, and the parties agree, that the maintenance em-
ployees concerned herein are highly skilled employees performing
duties which the Board has consistently recognized as constituting
craft work. They are separately supervised at all times and are paid
a higher hourly rate than most production or operating employees.
s The carpenter shop, tool crib, storeroom , paint shop, and the welding shop consist of
partitioned-off spaces within the confines of the main machine shop . Each of the other
maintenance craft groups has an area in the main machine shop considered to be its "shop"
where the tools and machines for that particular work are located , but the boundaries of
these shops are indefinite.
8 Transfers to the maintenance department , however , appear to be generally at the
lower levels of skills , unless past experience , apprenticeship training , or ability qualify
the applicant for a higher grade. There is no showing , herein , that the production
departments operate as a training field for maintenance positions . While maintenance
employees may request transfer to a production or operating department in case of a
maintenance department layoff, it appears that this right has been rarely exercised. In
the few instances such transfers have been made, the transferee has not ^ occupied a
production lob comparable to the maintenance position.
- CAMPBELL SOUP CO141 ANY 743
With one exception, noted hereinafter in the case of the machinists
unit, there are no employees outside the maintenance department who
perform duties or possess skills comparable to those in the requested
units. While seniority is computed on a plant-wide basis, the em-
ployees in the requested units also have departmental and craft
seniority under the present contract.
In view of these facts and the entire record, we find no merit in the
contention of the Employer and the Intervenor that severance of
these employees from the established production and maintenance unit
would be inappropriate. While the bargaining history at the Em-
ployer's other plants as well as the Chicago operations shows a pat-
tern of bargaining on a plant-wide basis, we have held in the case of
comparable industries that self-determination elections among craft
employees such as sought herein are appropriate.
The machinists: The Employer has 78 employees in the classifica-
tions of machinist, machine repairman, die repairman, scaleman, and
helper. The machinists spend most of their time within the shop in
the construction and repair of metal parts, tools and machines, and
other work requiring close tolerances. The die repairman is required
to be able to use all machine tools and is assigned to dismantling,
cleaning, rebuilding, hardening, and reassembling punches and dies
while the scale repairman maintains, repairs, and-tests scales used in
the plant. Employees, classified as machine repairmen fit, repair, and
assemble mechanical equipment using hand and machine tools. The
Petitioner would exclude from this proposed unit employees classified
as adjustors and maintenance men. These employees are under the
supervision of manufacturing department foremen and are perma-
nently located in the production area . They make mechanical ad-
justments on the machines, oil and lubricate them, make minor part
changes and generally perform maintenance on the machines except
when a, major overhauling is required. If the adjustors and mainte-
nance men are not able to cope with a maintenance job arising on their
machines , the machine repairmen from the maintenance department
are called and the two work together to perform the necessary repairs.
In view of this close community of skills and duties, and the necessary
integration of the work of these employees with that of the machine
repairmen , the Board finds that the adjustors and maintenance men
should be included in the machinists and machine repair group .4
The pipe fitters: There are approximately 27 pipefitters who perform
the usual duties of that craft including installation of radiators, heat-
ing and ventilating units, sanitary fixtures and thermostatic systems,
& Bee Merck 4 Co., 88 NLRB 875 ; and The John Deere Dubuque Procter Works of Deere
Manufacturing Company, 77 NLRB 1424.
744 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
and other work requiring the use of pipe.: The pipefitters are under
the separate immediate direction of an overseer or subforeman who
the parties agree is not a supervisor as defined in the Act .5 .
The carpenters: Five carpenters, including the overseer, work from
a shop within the main machine shop and cut, shape, and assemble
parts for furniture, fixtures, and production equipment. They are re-
quired to have the usual skills and experience necessary to work with
glass, wallboard, lumber, and linoleum.
The welders: The Employer has seven welders who do both acetylene
and electric are welding of a highly skilled nature. The welders are
required to have the ability to weld and cut steel, stainless steel, cast
iron, bronze, copper, monel metal, aluminum, and nickle, and perform
any necessary brazing. While they frequently work with mainte-
nance employees of other craft skills, they are not assigned to any
one craft group and work as a pool.6'
Sheet metal workers: There are eight sheet metal workers in the
maintenance department who assemble sheet metal parts, brackets,
and hangers, and make various attachments, seams, and joints in such
work. They have skills conforming to those generally found in the
sheet metal trade. The sheet metal helper is stationed at some dis-
tance from the sheet metal shop in the main machine shop but spends
his entire time in grinding aril polishing work for the sheet metal
group. _
The millwrights: The Employer has, two employees in the mainte-
nance department classified-as millwrights. These employees erect
and dismantle machines and install new or repaired parts. The mill-
wrights are situated in or near the carpenter shop but are not under
the direction of the carpenter overseer. The Petitioner requests that
the classification of beltman be included in any unit of millwrights.
There is only one employee in this classification whose duties are to
inspect, make, and repair leather, canvas, or other type belts used
to drive machinery or cbnvey materials. The beltman has a small
truck on which to carry his materials and spends a large portion of his
time working throughout the production and operating areas of the
plant. While he may work with the millwrights on occasions, the
record indicates that he also performs work apart from these em-
ployees, and has separate work quarters in the main machine shop.
As the record shows this employee works independently as well as with
craftsmen other than millwrights, we find that the beltman should, be
excluded from the millwright group.
sMost of the craft groups sought- bythe Petitioner include .the.classification,af overseer,
a, position roughly corresponding to that of leadman. The= parties agree, and. the Board
finds, that these overseers do not possess the status of supervisor as, defined in the; Aet',
6 Cf. International Paper Company ( Southern Kraft Dsvision ), 96 NLRB 295.
4
1
CAMPBELL SOUP COMPANY, •745
On the entire record the Board finds that machinists, machine re-
pairmen, die repairmen, scalemen, adjustors, and maintenance men
and helpers; pipefitters and helpers; carpenters and helpers; welders
and helpers; sheet metal workers and helpers; and millwrights and
helpers, at the Employer's' Chicago plant have skills and functions
similar to those of -employees at other plants whom we have held
to, constitute identifiable, homogeneous, craft groups which may con-
stitute separate bargaining units? The inclusion of these. employees
in the existing plant-wide unit is also appropriate.
Accordingly, we direct that the questions concerning representation
which have arisen among the employees of the Employer at its
Chicago, Illinois, plant, be resolved by separate elections by secret
ballot among the employees in the voting groups enumerated below :
(a) All machinists, machine repairmen, die repairmen, scalemen,
and helpers, including adjustors and maintenance men but excluding
supervisors and all other employees.
(b) All pipefitters and helpers but excluding supervisors and all
other employees.
(c) All carpenters and'helpers but excluding, supervisors and all
other employees.
(d) All welders and helpers but excluding supervisors and all
other employees.
(e) All sheet metal workers and helpers but excluding supervisors
and all other employees.
(f) All millwrights and helpers but excluding the beltman, super`
visors, and all other employees.
I ' If a majority of the employees in each or any of these voting groups
vote for the Petitioner they will be taken to have indicated their
desire to constitute a separate appropriate unit, and the Regional
Director conducting the elections directed herein is instructed to issue
a certification of representatives to the Petitioner for such unit or
units which the Board, under such circumstances, finds to be appro-
priate for purposes of collective bargaining. In the event a majority
in each or any of these voting groups vote for the Intervenor, the
Board finds their inclusion in the existing unit to be appropriate and
the Regional Director will issue a certificate of results of election
to such effect.
[Text of Direction of Elections omitted from publication in this
volume.]
See Merck cE Co , supra, and cases cited therein.