Duro Metal Products Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Apr 14, 1947

73 N.L.R.B. 368 (N.L.R.B. 1947)

In the Matter of DuRo METAL PRODUCTS COMPANY, EMPLOYER and
CI31CAG0 DIE SINKERS' LODGE #100 OF THE INTERNATIONAL DIE
SINKERS' CONFERENCE , PETITIONER
Case No. 13-B-4113.-Decided April 14,1947
Messrs. M. M. Tveter and S. H. Bishop, of Chicago, Ill., for the
Employer.
Mr. Walter T. Lynch, of Cleveland, Ohio, and Mr. Lester M.
Shearer, of Oak Park, Ill., for the Petitioner.
Messrs. Anthony Doria and Angelo Incise, of Chicago, Ill., for the
Intervenor.
Mr. Martin Sacks, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
ORDER
As the result of a consent election held on June 25, 1946, in Case No.
13-R-3673, pursuant to a consent election agreement to which the Em-
ployer, the Petitioner, and the Board were parties, the Petitioner was
designated as bargaining representative of "all employees working
on dies or parts of dies for the manufacture of forgings" at the Em-
ployer',, Chicago plant. Petitioner now seeks, in its petition for clari-
fication filed herein, a Board determination that the unit description
set forth above includes the Employer's upset die maker and its two
apprentice upset die makers. Hearing on this petition was held at
Chicago, Illinois, on January 8, 1947, before Robert T. Drake, hear-
ing officer. The hearing officer's rulings are free from prejudicial
error and are hereby affirmed.
Upc--i the entire record in the case, the National Labor Relations
Board makes the following :
FINDINGS OF FACT
In our Decision and Certification of Representatives in Case No.
13-R-3620, issued June 28, 1946, we found appropriate a unit con-
sisting of all production and maintenance employees at the operations'
here involved, excluding the die sinkers, among others, therefrom, and
certified the United Auto Workers, AFL, the Intervenor herein, as
73 N. L. R. B., No. 70.
368
DURO METAL PRODUCTS COMPANY 369
the exclusive bargaining representative of these employees. About
that time, as noted above, the Petitioner was designated in Case No.
13-R-3673 as the bargaining representative of the employees working
on dies or parts of dies for the manufacture of forgings.l Thereafter,
on August 6, 1946, the Intervenor entered into a collective bargaining
agreement with the Employer as to the employees in the certified unit.
Although no specific mention was made therein of the upset die
maker and the two apprentice upset die makers, the parties have never-
theless bargained concerning them. Thus, under the terms of this con-
tract between the Intervenor and the Employer, dues have been
checked off and wage increases have been obtained for the employees
in question. The Petitioner has also entered into a collective bar-
gaining agreement with the Employer covering employees in the die
sinkers' unit, but the Employer has, at all times, resisted Petitioner's
efforts to bargain for the upset die maker and his two apprentices.2
The Petitioner contends, in effect, that the term "die sinkers," as
used by the Board to designate an excluded category in the above
certification, includes the upset die maker and his two apprentices; and
that, consistently-therewith, the Board should find that these three
employees were, in fact, embraced within the unit for which it, the
Petitioner, has been designated as the bargaining representative. The
employer and the Intervenor object to such an interpretation .3
The record in the instant case discloses that the Employer's plant
contains a die sinking department on one floor, and a separate tool-
room department on another floor. The die sinking department is
under the supervision of the die sinker foreman, and consists of
approximately 13 employees who are classified as die sinkers, trimmer
die sinkers, planers, shapers, and apprentice die sinkers. The person-
nel of this department are exclusively engaged in making dies for
drop forgings. The upset die maker and the 2 apprentice upset die
makers are located in the toolroom together with approximately 30
other employees, all of whom are admittedly part of the production
and maintenance unit for which the UAW is presently certified.
There is no interchange between the employees of the die sinking
department and the employees of the toolroom. The upset die maker
and the 2 apprentices in question are, together with the rest of the
toolroom employees, under the supervision of the toolroom foreman.
i The Intervenor filed a waiver of Interest in Case No . 13-R-3673, the proceeding insti-
tuted by the Die Sinkers
' The record shows that none of the employees in question voted in the die sinkers' elec-
tion in Case No 13-R-3673, and that two of them voted with the production and mainte-
nance employees in Case No 13-R-3620, only one of them being challenged. However,
the challenged ballot was never passed upon by the Board, since the counting of the ballot
could not affect the results of the election
3 The Intervenor also urges its contract with the Employer as a bar . However , for reasons
hereinafter indicated , we find it unnecessary to pass upon that issue
370 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
More than half the time of the 3 employees in question is spent on
the maintenance of dies and in the production of parts which differ
from the dies forged in the die sinking department. Upset die making
occupies the balance of their time, although only 10 percent of their
upsetting work is completed to the close tolerance required of other
upsetters in the locality. In this upsetting work, the employees in
question use an upsetting machine; the die sinkers, on the other hand,
use a drop forge or vertical milling machine, the operation of which
requires a greater degree of skill.
Under all these circumstances, we are of the opinion that the mere
fact that the employees in question spend a small portion of their
working time on the manufacture of dies does not warrant a finding
that they are either a part of the die sinkers' department, or that
they are possessed of the die sinkers' craft skill. They are, however,
an integral part of the toolroom department by virtue of their location
in the plant, their supervision, and the nature of the major portion
of their duties. Accordingly, we find that they have been, and
presently are, part of the production and maintenance unit at the
Chicago plant of the Employer.
ORDER
By virtue of and pursuant to the power vested in the National
Labor Relations Board by Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Rela-
tions Act and pursuant to Section 203.54 of National Labor Relations
Board Rules and Regulations-Series 4,
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the Petition for clarification of the
Board's Decision filed by Chicago Die Sinkers' Lodge #100 of the
International Die Sinkers Conference be, and it hereby is, dismissed.
CHAIRMAN HERZOG took no part in the consideration of the above
Decision and Order.