General Electric Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jul 5, 1943

51 N.L.R.B. 83 (N.L.R.B. 1943)

In the Matter of GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY and UNITED ELECTRI-
CAL, RADIO & MACHINE WORKERS OF AMERICA
Case No. B-54107.-Decided July 5, 1943
Mr. George H. Pfeil, of Schenectady, N. Y., and Mr. I. H. Free-
man, of Fort Wayne, Ind., for the Company.
Mr. David Scribner, of New York City, and Messrs. Samuel C.
McAfee and Fred Gardner, of Fort Wayne, Ind., for the United.
Mr. A. P. Nobozny, of Lorain, Ohio and Mr. Frank D. Morgan, of
Fort Wayne, Ind., for the I. A. M.
Mr. A. Sumner Lawrence, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
AND
ORDER
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon petition duly filed by United Electrical, Radio & Machine
Workers of America, herein called the United, alleging that a ques-
tion affecting commerce had arisen concerning the representation of
employees of General Electric Company, Fort Wayne, Indiana,
herein called the Company, the National Labor Relations Board pro-
vided for an appropriate hearing upon due notice before Russell
Packard, Trial Examiner. Said hearing was held at Fort Wayne,
Indiana, on May 20 and 21, 1943. The Company, the United, and
International Association of Machinists, herein called the I. A. M.,
appeared, participated, and were afforded full opportunity to be
heard, to examine and cross-examine witnesses, and to introduce evi-
dence bearing on the issues. The motions of the Company and the
I. A. M. to dismiss the petition are hereby denied for reasons here-
inafter stated. The Trial Examiner's rulings made at the hearing
are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed. All parties
were afforded opportunity to file briefs with the Board.
Upon the entire record in the case,' the Board makes the following :
' Subsequent to the hearing the parties filed a stipulation providing for the correction
of certain errors in the transcript of testimony. The record has accordingly been corrected
in accordance with the terms, of the stipulation.
51 N L R. B., No. 21.
540612-44-7 83
84 DECISIONS OF NA'NONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
FINDINGS OF FACT
1. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
General Electric Company, a New York corporation, is engaged in
the manufacture of a large variety of electrical devices and equip-
ment. The Company operates manufacturing plants in several States
and maintains its principal office in Schenectady, New York.
The present proceeding is concerned only with the employees of
the Company's three plants at Fort Wayne, Indiana. Two of the
plants known as the Broadway and Winter Street plants, respectively,
are situated approximately 2 miles apart, and are engaged in the
manufacture of miscellaneous electrical apparatus.2 The third plant,
known as the Taylor Street plant, is slightly less than a mile from
the Broadway plant, is engaged solely in the manufacture of turbo-
superchargers, a war product which the Company manufactures for
the United States Government at its Taylor Street plant only, and is
operated under a lease from a Government agency known as Defense
Plant Corporation. During the calendar year 1939, the Company
received for use at its Taylor Street plant raw materials of a value in
excess of $1,000,000, all of which were obtained from sources outside
the State of Indiana. During the same period, shipments of finished
products from the Taylor Street plant to points outside the State of
Indiana also exceeded $1,000,000 in value. The Company admits that
it is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the National Labor
Relations Act.
H. THE ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED
United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America is a labor
organization affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations,
admitting to membership employees of the Company.
International Association of Machinists is a labor organization
admitting to membership employees of the Company.
III. THE QUESTIONS CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
On or about December 1942, the United requested and was refused
recognition from the Company as exclusive bargaining representative
for all employees at the Taylor Street plant. Prior thereto, the
Board had certified the I. A. M. as the representative of craft tool
employees at the Broadway and Winter Street plants, and had cer-
tified the United as the representative of general hourly production
2 For further details of the business conducted by the Company at its Broadway and
Winter Street plants, see the Board ' s prior decision relating thereto ( Matter of General
Electric Company, 20 N. L. R. B. 1030).
GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY 85
employees employed at these two plants.' The two groups are herein,
referred to as groups A and B, respectively. At that time the Broad-
way and Winter Street plants constituted the only plants of the Com-
pany at Fort Wayne. Thereafter, both the United and the I. A. M.
entered into collective bargaining agreements with the Company cov-
ering the respective groups of employees for whom each union had
been certified as bargaining representative.
The I. A. M. contends that its contract on behalf of the craft
employees in group A is a bar to the present proceeding. The con-
tract is dated September 9, 1940, and by its terms covers only those
hourly rated employees designated as group A in the prior decision
and certification of the Board. The contract is also of indefinite
duration, subject to termination upon 90 days' notice. Since the
contract is limited to employees covered by the Board's prior decision
and certification which extended only to the -Broadway and Winter
Street plants, the contract is clearly not applicable to a proceeding
affecting the employees of the Taylor Street plant. Moreover, since
it appears not only that the contract has been in effect without modi-
fication for more than 21/, years but also that it may be terminated
upon notice and was executed at a time when there were no employees
at the Taylor Street plant, we find that the contract is not a bar to the
present proceeding.-
A statement of a Field Examiner of the Board, introduced in evi-
dence at the hearing, indicates that the United and the T. A. M. each
represents a substantial number of employees in the unit claimed
by each to be appropriate.5
We find that questions affecting commerce have arisen concerning
the representation of employees of the Company, within the meaning
of Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the National Labor
Relations Act.
See 27 N. L. R. B. 1082
See Matter of Chaie B, ass C Copper Co , Inc, 47 N . L R B 298 , Matter of J A.
Zurn Manufacturing Co., West 16th , Street Dtvasion, Erie, Pennsylvania, 48 N. L. R. B
100.
5 The Field Examiner reported that the United had submitted 1528 authorization cards
from a total of 1545 authorization and withdrawal cards dated between February 1942 and
March 1943 with 41 undated ; that of the 1528 cards , 1238 bore the names of persons whose
names are on the Company's Taylor Street plant pay ioll of March 6, 1943, containing the
names of 2475 employees within the claimed appropriate unit . The Field Examiner stated
that of the 1238 cards , 111 bore the names of persons appearing in group A, comprising 323
employees , and 1127 bore the names of persons appearing in group B covering 2152 em-
ployees, coresponding to the groups similarly described in the Board 's prior certification of
representatives covering the Broadway and Winter Street plants (27 N. L. R . B 1082) The
Field Examiner further reported that the I. A. M. had submitted 207 cards dated in January
and February 1943 with 1 undated in support of its representation claims at the Taylor
Street plant, and 447 cards in support of its representation claims at the Broadway plant;
that of the 207 cards , 172 bore the names of employees listed in gi oup A on the said pay
roll of the Company and 5 bore the names of employees listed in group B, the latter
employees being designated on the pay roll as "Factory Training School" ; and that the
signatures of 48 employees appearing on cards submitted by the United also appeared on
cards rubn'tterl by the I. A M
86 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
DIV. THE APPROPRIATE UNITS; THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
The United contends that the appropriate unit should be confined
to the Taylor Street plant and should consist of all production and
maintenance employees including maintenance machinists, experi-
mental men, tool makers, tool repairmen, die makers, die repairmen,
mold makers, mold repairmen and machinists' apprentices, engaged
in the production and repair of mechanical devices, and excluding
executive and supervisory employees, office and clerical employees,
timekeepers and guards. The United further contends that there
should be a separate unit of guards other than supervisory employees
at the Taylor Street plant. The Company maintains that any unit
of guards should include not' only the guards at Taylor Street but
also those at the Broadway and Winter Street plants.
The I. A. M. and the Company urge the establishment of a multiple
plant unit carrying over to the Taylor Street plant the group classi-
fications established by the Board for the two original Fort Wayne
plants. Both the Company and the I. A. M. moved at the hearing
that the petition be dismissed upon the ground that the unit proposed
by the United was inappropriate. In the event that its motion to
dismiss is denied, the I. A. M. requests an election among the craft
employees at the Taylor Street plant within the categories included
in group A established for the Broadway and Winter Street plants
to permit them to determine whether they desire to constitute a
separate unit. This course is also acceptable to the United in the
event its broader unit is not found appropriate. The Company takes
no secondary position with respect to the unit in the event that its
motion is denied.
With respect to the issue as to whether the appropriate unit shall
cover one or more of the plants of the Company at Fort Wayne, it is
clear that while upon the opening of the Taylor Street plant a num-
ber of craft employees were transferred from the Broadway and Win-
ter Street plants to serve as a nucleus for the subsequent plant organ-
ization, the balance of the employees at the Taylor Street plant have
been recruited largely from the outside and have been thereafter train-
ed at the Taylor Street plant fou the performance of the work required
in connection with the manufacture of the particular product for
which the Taylor Street plant was specifically designed. As a result,
it appears that less than one-third of the craft tool and machine em-
ployees at Taylor Street are similar in training and experience to
those in group A at the Broadway and Winter Street plants. More-
over, though the Company has-established a common general supervi-
sion for all three of its plants in Fort Wayne, the record discloses that
the Taylor Street plant is substantially self-contained and function-
GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY 87
ally independent of the other two plants. It has a separate super-
intendent and there is little if any interchange of employees be-
tween plants. Under these circumstances and upon the entire record,
we are of the opinion and find that the employees of A he Taylor
Street plant may function effectively as a separate unit for the pur-
poses of collective bargaining.6 Since, however, it appears that a
craft labor organization is seeking to represent the craft tool and
machine employees at the Taylor Street plant and in view' of the his-
tory of collective bargaining upon a craft basis for the adjacent plants
at Winter Street and Broadway, which bargaining has been extended
on a like basis to the Taylor Street plant, we are of the opinion that
the considerations are sufficiently balanced to make the desires of the
craft tool and machine maintenance employees themselves a factor in
our determination of the type of unit through which they shall bar-
gain? We shall therefore make no present determination of the ap-
propriate unit but shall reserve such finding pending the result of the
separate elections which we shall hereinafter direct.
There remains for consideration the question of a separate unit of
guards excluding supervisory employees. Though it appears that by
reason of similarity of wages and working conditions together with
common immediate supervision among the guards at Taylor Street
and those at Winter Street and Broadway a unit composed of guards 8
employed at the three Fort Wayne plants of the Company might not
under other circumstances be inappropriate, there is nothing in the
record to indicate that any attempt has been made to organize the
guards at either the Broadway or the Winter Street plants. Under
the circumstances, we find that the United's request for a separate unit
of guards is at the present time premature. We shall accordingly
make no determination with respect to a unit of guards pending such
time as there shall be brought, to our attention further evidence as to
the extent of organization among the guards at the Fort-Wayne plants
of the Company. The petition for investigation and certification of
representatives insofar as it relates to guards will, therefore, be
dismissed.
We shall direct that the questions concerning representation which
have arisen be resolved by separate elections by secret ballot among
See Matter of Chase Brass & Copper Co , 47 N L R. B. 298; Matter of J. A Zurn
Manufacturing Company, West 16th St, eet Division, Bite, Penn,cyltiania, 48 N L It B
100 The Board has in several prioi decisions involving otlu r plants of the Company
in the vicinity of Fort Wayne found a single plant to constitute an appropriate unit See
Matter of General Electric Company, Kokomo plant of the Fort Wayne Works, 48 N L R B.
1395. See also Matter of General Electric Company (Decata, plant of the Fort Wayne
Works, 11-R-507 )-Regional Director's certification issued Dec 27, 1941, as result of con-
sent election).
See Matter of The Goodyear Aircraft Corp ., 45 N. L. R B 298
ePatrol women aie not guards ; their work is of a maintenance character and, pursuant
to the agreement of the Company and the United, they are included in the production and
maintenance unit.
88 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
the craft employees hereinafter referred to and the remaining pro-
duction and maintenance employees respectively, who were employed
at the Taylor Street plant of the Company during the pay-roll period
immediately preceding the date of our Direction of Elections, subject
to the limitations and additions set forth therein, to determine in the
one instance whether they desire to be represented by the I. A. M. or
the United or by neither organization, and in the 'other to determine
whether or'not they desire to be represented by the United for the pur-
poses of collective bargaining.
Upon the results of these elections will depend in part our deter-
mination of the appropriate, unit or units. If a majority of the craft
employees select the I. A. M. as their representative, they will consti-
tute a separate unit. If a majority of both groups choose the United,
the groups will together constitute a single unit.
The United requests that it appear on the ballots as "United Elec-
trical, Radio & Machine Workers of America, C. I. 0." The I. A. M.
requests that it appear on the ballot as "International Association of
Machinists, Lodge No. 70." The requests are hereby granted.
DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
By virtue of and pursuant to the power vested in the National La-
bor Relations Board by Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations
Act, and pursuant to Article III, Section 9, of National Labor Rela-
tions Board Rules and Regulations-Series 2, as amended, it is hereby
DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation to ascertain representa-
tives for the purposes of collective bargaining with General Electric
Company, Fort Wayne, Indiana, elections by secret ballot shall be
'conducted as soon 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, Section 10, of said Rules and Regulations among the following
groups of employees who were employed at the Taylor Street plant
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 vacation 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 employees
who have since quit or been discharged for cause :
(a) The maintenance machinists, experimental men, tool makers,
tool repairmen, die makers, die repairmen, mold makers, mold repair-
men, and machinists' apprentices who are engaged in the production
or repair of machinery or mechanical devices, excluding supervisory
and office employees not engaged in the production work, to determine
GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY 89
whether they desire to be represented by International Association of
Machinists, Lodge No. 70, or by United Radio and Electrical Machine
Workers of America, C. I. 0., for the purposes of collective bargain-
ing, or by neither;
(b) The production and maintenance employees, other than those
mentioned in paragraph (a) above, excluding executive and super-
visory employees, office and clerical employees, timekeepers and
guards (other than patrol women), to determine whether or not they
desire to be represented by United Electrical, Radio & Machine
Workers of America, C. I. 0., for the purposes of collective
bargaining.
ORDER
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the petition be, and it hereby is, dismissed,
insofar as it alleges that a question affecting commerce has arisen
concerning the representation of guards employed by General Elec-
tric Company, Fort Wayne, Indiana.