General Steel Castings Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jun 10, 1952

99 N.L.R.B. 607 (N.L.R.B. 1952)

GENERAL STEEL CASTINGS CORPORATION 607
Order
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the results of the election held among the
employees of Maine Fisheries Corporation, Portland, Maine, on March
14,1952, be, and they hereby are, set aside.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this
volume.]
GENERAL STEEL CASTINGS CORPORATION and INTERNATIONAL BROTHER-
HOOD OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS, LOCAL 309, AFL, PETITIONER. Case
No.14RC 1841. June 10, 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 Benjamin E. Cook, 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 claim to represent certain
employees 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 a result of Board-directed elections in 1937, the employees
of the Employer have been represented by labor organizations on
the basis of four units : production and maintenance, welders, main-
tenance machinists, and patternmakers. The Petitioner now desires
to be certified as the bargaining representative of a unit of elec-
tricians A, electricians B, electrician helpers, and electrician learn-
ers, at the Employer's Granite City, Illinois, plant. These employees
have been represented by the Intervenor as part of the production
and maintenance unit. The Employer and the Intervenor maintain
i United Steelworkers of America , Local 1022, CIO , was allowed to intervene in this
proceeding on the basis of a contract with the Employer in which the Intervenor represents
the production and maintenance employees . International Brotherhood of Boilermakers,
Iron Ship Builders and Helpers of America , AFL, Local 530, moved to intervene , but later
withdrew its motion and did not participate in the hearing.
In view of our decision herein, the motion of the Intervenor to dismiss the petition is
denied.
99 NLRB No. 94.
608 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
for the following reasons that the only appropriate unit is the exist-
ing production and maintenance unit : (1) The proposed unit is not
a true craft unit; (2) the employees in question comprise an integral
part of the over-all production process, and severance should be denied
under the doctrine of National Tube Company; 2 (3) the industrial
relations of the Employer would become confused and complicated
if the Employer should become obligated to bargain for another unit
of employees in addition to the four units which already exist.
The electricians are employed in the maintenance repair depart-
ment. They engage in the installation, repair, and overhaul of elec-
trical equipment, and generally perform electrical maintenance work
throughout the entire plant. These employees report to the electrical
shop at the beginning of each shift, and from there are assigned to
the particular production department in which they are needed.
However, these electricians perform no production work, and have
separate supervision from employees engaged in that type of work.
Although the Employer has no formal apprenticeship program, it
maintains a training system whereby a learner is advanced every 500
hours, until at the completion of 1,500 hours he becomes a "B" electri-
cian. Moreover, a "B" electrician may progress to the status of an
"A" electrician whenever he can meet the requirements for that rating
as prescribed by the foreman. Accordingly we are satisfied that
these employees exercise to a substantial degree the skill of the elec-
trical craft.
Upon the foregoing facts, and notwithstanding a bargaining his-
tory on a broader basis,3 we find that these employees constitute an
identifiable, skilled, homogeneous craft group who may, if they desire,
constitute an appropriate unit.'
The severance of this group is not precluded by the doctrine of the
National Tube case. In that case the Board enunciated the prin-
ciple that, due to the integrated nature of operations in the "basic
steel" industry, it will deny, in that industry, severance of a craft
group from a production and maintenance unit.
The Employer operates a steel foundry. It manufactures steel
castings, and specializes in railroad equipment such as locomotives
and certain types of freight cars. The manufacturing process com-
mences when ingot or scrap steel is melted down in open hearth fur-
naces, and terminates with the fabrication of the finished machine
2 76 NLRB 1199.
a See The Atlantic Refining Company, 92 NLRB 651.
• See Ravenna Arsenal, Inc., 98 NLRB 1 ; The Brush Beryllium Company, 96 NLRB
1383; S i 9 Corrugated Paper Machinery Co., 93 NLRB 333.
GENERAL STEEL CASTINGS CORPORATION 609
device. The Employer's operations differ from those of the "basic
steel" industry in that it manufactures its products from cold scrap
steel or steel ingots, and does not purchase or use iron ore nor operate
a blast furnace. Furthermore, the Employer does not produce ingot
steel, rolled steel; or sheet metal products which are the principal
products of "basic steel." We hold therefore that the Employer is
not primarily engaged in the "basic steel" industry and that the
National Tube doctrine does not control this decision.,
Nor do we believe that, apart from the "basic steel" contention, the
Employer's operations are so integrated as to preclude the establish-
ment of craft units. It is apparent from the record that the employees
whom the Petitioner seeks to represent do not perform routine and
repetitive tasks of a type which are integrated and inseparable from
the production process.6 We also find without merit the contention
of the Employer and the Intervenor that to find appropriate a separate
unit of electricians would hamper industrial relations in the plant
and disrupt the processes of collective bargaining, to the extent that
severance should not be granted 7
Under these circumstances we find that these electricians constitute
a group which could be either separately represented or included in the
production and maintenance unit at present represented by the Inter-
venor. We shall therefore direct an election in a voting group com-
posed of all electricians A, electricians B, electrician helpers, and
electrician learners employed at the Employer's Granite City, Illinois,
plant, excluding professional employees, guards, and supervisors as
defined in the Act." If a majority of the electricians vote for the
Petitioner, they will be taken to have indicated their desire to consti-
tute a separate appropriate unit, and the Regional Director conducting
the election directed herein is instructed to issue a certificate of repre-
sentatives to the Petitioner for the group described above, which in
that event the Board finds to be a unit appropriate for the purposes of
collective bargaining. In the event a majority vote for the Intervenor,
the Board finds the existing production and maintenance unit to be
appropriate, and the Regional Director will issue a certification of
results of election to such effect t
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this
volume.]
5 Mesta Machine Company, 94 NLRB 1624; cf. Scullin Steel Co., 95 NLRB 530.
6 See Mesta Machine Company, supra; Ravenna Arsenal, Inc., Supra; Ford Motor Com-
pany, Aircraft Engine Division, 96 NLRB 1068; cf. Ford Motor Company (Maywood Plant),
78 NLRB 887.
18 d S Corrugated Paper Machinery Co., supra.
8 The description of the voting grouD anoears as amended at the hearing.