Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jul 11, 1952

100 N.L.R.B. 105 (N.L.R.B. 1952)

KAISER ALUMINUM & CHEMICAL CORPORATION 105
priate and the Regional Director will issue a certificate of results of
election to such effect.,'
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this
volume.]
a The record shows that all the 14 local unions of the Hotel & Restaurant Employees
& Bartenders International Union , APL, in the Chicago area are constituent members
of the Local Joint Executive Board, which is the Petitioner herein . The Joint Board
consists of 3 delegates from each of the locals . It was testified at the hearing in this
case that, none of the employees sought are members or are eligible to be members of
the 14 locals presently established ; that none of these locals claims any interest in
the representation of these employees ; and that, while the Employer 's cafeteria em-
ployees are not eligible for membership in the Local Joint Board itself, that organiza-
tion Intends to establish and charter a new local for industrial cafeteria employees.
The bylaws of the Joint Board, however , provide that the Joint Board shall enforce
wage and hour scales, conduct all strikes , determine jurisdictional questions, and
approve all contracts of its constituent locals. Contracts are negotiated by representa-
tives of the interested locals and Joint Board representatives and must be ratified by
the interested locals and by a two-thirds majority of the members of the Joint Board.
None of the 14 local unions in the Chicago area is, at the present time, in compliance
with the filing provisions of Section 9 (f), (g), and ( h). In view of the participation
of these local unions through membership on the Joint Board, in contract negotiation
and ratification procedures which will affect the employees in the unit requested if the
Petitioner is successful in the election ordered herein , the Board finds that participa-
tion in the election by the Petitioner shall be conditioned upon the full compliance with
the filing procedures of the Aot by each of the 14 locals . Cf. Mathieson Chemical
Corporation , Lake Charles Operation , 81 NLRB 1355; The Prudential Insurance Com-
pany of America, 81 NLRB 295 ; United States Gypsum Company, 77 NLRB 1098 ;
Lane-Wells Company, 77 NLRB 1051.
KAISER ALUMINUM & CHEMICAL CORPORATION and INDEPENDENT
LOCAL OF KAISERS ALUMINUM WORKERS No. 1 OF TACOMA, WASH-
INGTON , PETITIONER . Case No. 19-RC-916. July 11, 1952
Decision and Order
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, a hearing was held before Kenneth McClaskey, hearing
officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free
from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
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 2
'The Employer 's motion for oral argument in this case is denied inasmuch as the,
record and the briefs filed by the parties adequately present the issues and positions-
of the parties.
$ The United Steelworkers of America , CIO, herein termed the Intervenor, was
granted intervention at the hearing for itself and on behalf of its Locals Nos . 329, 338,
341, and 2626 upon showing of a contractual interest in the representation of these
employees.
100 NLRB No. 19.
106 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
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 requests that the Board find appropriate a unit
consisting of all production and maintenance employees at the Em-
ployer's Tacoma, Washington, aluminum reduction plant including
shop clerical employees, timekeepers, and chauffeurs, but excluding
executives, administrative and professional employees, office and cleri-
cal employees, guards, full-time first-aid and safety employees, fore-
men, and all supervisors as defined in the amended Act. The
Employer and the Intervenor contend that the requested unit is in-
appropriate and that the employees of the Tacoma plant are appro-
priately a part of the multiplant unit now represented by the
Intervenor.
The Employer's Tacoma, Washington, plant is concerned with the
reduction of raw alumina and the production of aluminum pig. The
Employer also operates reduction plants at Mead, Washington, and
Chalmette, Louisiana, as well as aluminum fabricating plants at
Trentwood, Washington, Newark, Ohio, and Halethorpe, Maryland.
The employees in all these plants, with the exception of the Chalmette,
Louisiana, reduction facility, are represented by the Intervenor at
the present time in a five-plant unit. The Tacoma plant was pur-
chased by the Employer in 1946 and put into operation the following
year. On December 6,1947, the Employer and the Intervenor entered
into a contract covering a unit of employees at the Tacoma plant.
Thereafter, on a petition filed by Aluminum Workers Federal Labor
Union No. 24335, AFL, the Board found a unit of employees at that
plant to be appropriate for purposes of collective bargaining, and
directed an election among the Tacoma personnels The Aluminum
Workers did not secure a majority of the ballots cast in that election
and the Employer and the Intervenor subsequently continued the
December 6, 1947, contract. In June 1949 contracts between the
Intervenor and the Employer were executed merging the Tacoma
plant employees into a multiplant group of the Employer's operations
at Tacoma, Mead, and Trentwood, Washington. Thereafter, the
Newark, Ohio, and Halethorpe, Maryland, plants were added to this
unit.
On February 25, 1950, the Employer and the Intervenor executed a
collective bargaining agreement putting into effect certain standard
wage rates and other conditions of employment for the multiplant
BPermanente Metals Corporation , Case No. 19-RC-16 (August 18, 1948), not reported
in_ printed volumes of Board decisions . The Intervenor . did not appear on the ballot
in the election therein directed because of noncompliance , at that time , with the
provisions of Section 9 (f), (g), and ( h) of the amended Act.
KAISER ALUMINUM & CHEMICAL CORPORATION 107
unit. At a membership meeting of Intervenor's Local No. 2626, at
the Tacoma plant, strong opposition was expressed to this contract.
Later that year, on September 1, 1950, another contractwas executed
by the Intervenor and the Employer codifying the preceding agree-
ments affecting the multiplant unit, which, at that time, consisted of
employees at the Mead, Trentwood, and Tacoma, Washington, plants,
and the Newark, Ohio, plant. The dissatisfaction evidenced at the
February meeting of the Tacoma local intensified and resulted in an
ineffective attempt to withdraw that Local from the multiplant agree-
ment and unit. When this attempt was unsuccessful, the instant
petition resulted.
The Petitioner contends that the dissatisfaction of the Tacoma
employees over their representation by the Intervenor as a part of
the multiplant unit, and the fact that the employees at the Tacoma
plant are outnumbered and outvoted by the employees at other plants
with .which they have little contact, are valid grounds upon which to
sever the Tacoma plant from existing multiplant unit. We do not
agree. The Board has carefully considered the history of bargaining
at the Employer's plants and the conditions affecting the multiplant
unit. We find that the integration, interdependence, and centralized
control of the Employer's operation and management, the history of
multiplant bargaining, and the uniformity of interests, skills, and
working conditions in the multiplant unit militate against severance
of the Tacoma plant .4 Accordingly, we shall dismiss the petition
filed herein.
Order
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the petition filed in this case be, and it
hereby is, dismissed.
See Lever Brothers Company, 97 NLRB 1240 ; International Paper Company, Tona-
ebanda Mill, 97 NLRB 764, and cases cited therein . See also Kaiser Aluminum ci Chem-
ioal Corporation,. 100 NLRB 107.
KAISER ALUMINUM & CHEMICAL CORPORATION as INTERNATIONAL
BROTHERHOOD OF ELECTRICAL WOR$ERs , AFL, PETITIONER. Case
No. 8-RC-1487. July 11, 1960
Decision and Order
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, a hearing was held before Charles A. Fleming, hearing
officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free
from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
100 NLRB No. 18.