Mathieson Chemical Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jul 14, 1952

100 N.L.R.B. 166 (N.L.R.B. 1952)

166 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
to discipline employees, or effectively to recommend any action which
might affect the employees' status. In fact, their duties are sub-
stantially similar to those of employees likewise classified in another of
the Employer's plants, where we included them in the unit.T Under
all the circumstances, we find that these group leaders are not super-
visors within the usual definition. We shall, therefore, include them.
in the unit.
We find that all production and maintenance employees of the
Employer's Baltimore, Maryland, plant, including group leaders,
but excluding office clerical employees, guards, professional employees,
and supervisors as defined in the Act, constitute a unit appropriate
for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section
9 (b) of the Act.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this
volume.]
7 Englander Company, Inc., 65 NLRB 672, 675 (Chicago, Illinois, plant).
MATIIIESON C11E-1%IICAL CORPORATION (DOE RT'N PLANT) and
WORKERS INTERNATIONAL UNION, CIO, PETITIONER. Case
9-RC-1521. July 14,1952
Decision and Direction of Elections
OIL:
No.
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National
Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before Joseph A. Butler,
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 Styles 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.
1 Pursuant to the request of the parties, the record in Mathieson Chemical Corporation,
Case No. 9-RC-1440 , is hereby incorporated into, and made a part of , the record herein
Both Case No. 9-RC-1440 and the instant case, No. 9-RC-1521, involve employees at the
Employer 's Doe Run, Kentucky, plant . The cases were separately processed . On March
31, 1952, in Case No . 9-RC-1440, the Board issued a Decision and Direction of Election
respecting employees of the powerhouse department at the plant and on May 1, 1952,
certified International Brotherhood of Firemen and Oilers , Local 320 , AFL, (herein called
the Firemen and Oilers ) as their exclusive bargaining representative . The powerhouse
department employees included boiler-firemen, water tenders, water treaters , oilers, relief
operators , and powerhouse department maintenance employees . None of the parties to
the instant proceeding presently seeks to include in their several proposed units any of the
powerhouse department employees included in the unit now represented by the Firemen
and Oilers.
100 NLRB No. 32.
MATHIESON CHEMICAL CORPORATION 167
2. The Petitioner, and International Brotherhood of Electrical
Workers, Local 369, AFL, hereinafter called the Electricians; United
Association of Journeymen and- Apprentices of the Plumbing and
Pipe Fitting Industry, Local 522, hereinafter called the Pipefitters;
International Chemical Workers Union, AFL, hereinafter called the
Chemical Workers; International Brotherhood of Firemen and Oil-
,ers, Local •320, AFL, hereinafter called the Firemen and Oilers, claim
to represent 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. The Employer, the Petitioner, and the Chemical Workers agree
that a single unit of production and maintenance employees at the
Employer's Doe Run, Kentucky, plant, excluding office and clerical
employees, office custodial employees, laboratory and professional em-
ployees, guards, and supervisors as defined in the Act, is appropriate
for :bargaining purposes.2 The Electricians seeks a separate unit of
maintenance electricians. The Pipefitters seeks a combination unit
'of pipefitters and their apprentices, welders, instrument mechanics,
maintenance mechanics and their helpers, excluding all powerhouse
department employees and all other production and maintenance em-
ployees. The Doe Run plant is relatively new and there is no history
,.of collective bargaining among its employees.
The Employer's Operations
The Employer, a Virginia corporation, operates 18 plants located
throughout the United States. At its Doe Run, Kentucky, plant, the
only plant involved in this proceeding, it is engaged in the processing
of natural gas strippings, which it obtains by pipeline from the Ten-
nessee Gas Company plant at Gabe, Kentucky. Its finished products
include natural gas, propane, ethane, butane, and related products.
It employs approximately 365 employees in this plant, including 190
production and maintenance employees, 9 electricians, 49 pipefitters,
.and 29 employees in the powerhouse department. Under the plant
:manager, the plant is divided into 3 divisions, production, industrial
.relations, and mechanical. We are herein concerned only with the
:production and mechanical divisions.
The production division, under the over-all supervision of the
production manager, includes the ethylene, glycol, powerhouse, chem-
ical, and engineering departments, each headed by a superintendent.
The mechanical division, under the supervision of the mechanical
engineer, includes the maintenance and construction department, the
mechanical engineering department, and the instrument department.
2 The Chemical workers concedes that the proposed separate groups are craft in nature.
but expresses for its first preference the over-all production and maintenance unit.
168 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
The Electricians' Group
There are four first-class and five second-class electricians working
under an electrical supervisor, who reports directly to the mechanical
engineer, the head of the mechanical division. Electricians work
throughout the plant, but are at all times under the same electrical
supervision . The minimum requirement of a first-class electrician
is ability to work on 110-220 ;volt lines, though there are some 440-volt
lines in the plant. Electricians and all other maintenance employees
work out of the maintenance and construction department, a depart-
ment within the mechanical division. They, are assigned to various
other departments or sections of the plant as the need arises, and work
under such department supervision. Electricians, wherever assigned,
always remain under the supervision of the electrical supervisor.
Second-class electricians are generally selected from maintenance
mechanics who have shown ability to wire, etc., or have had some ex-
perience in household wiring or construction work. There is one
first-class electrician on the day shift and on each of the two night
shifts. Second-class men work only on the day shift. Of the four first-
class electricians , three were hired as first-class and one was promoted
from second class. One of the four second-class electricians was pro-
moted from maintenance mechanic. First-class electricians' rates equal
those of the highest hourly paid employees, and they receive the same
benefits as other employees. The Employer rates its electricians
"first-class" on the basis of their ability to meet emergencies primarily
in connection with electrical pumps breaking down, switches burning
out, and lines needing repairs, and not on the length of time they
have spent doing electrical work.
The Employer and the Petitioner urge that the Employer has no^
apprentice or job training program at its plant, and that the elec-
tricians do not possess journeymen or craft skills. The Employer
further urges that the integrated and interdependent nature of its
operations and the general pattern of bargaining in the chemical
industry militates against the establishment of separate craft units.
Although the Employer has no training program for electricians,
the Employer hires as electricians only men with previous electrical
experience and training. Under all the circumstances, we find that
the Employer's electricians are craft employees, and that they have
sufficient interests apart from production and other maintenance
employees to warrant their establishment as a separate unit if they,
should so desire.3
a [;lass Fibers, Inc., 93 NLRB 1289; United States Time Corporation, 95 NLRB 941,-
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company , 80 NLRB 1347; Jefferson Chemical Company, 81
NLRB 1393.
MATHIESON CHEMICAL CORPORATION 169'
The Pipefitters' Group
The Pipefitters seeks to represent a maintenance unit of pipefitters,
welders, instrument mechanics, and maintenance mechanics, or alter-
natively, separate units for employees in each of these classifications,
or any combination thereof.
As indicated above, pipefitters and other craft employees, except-
instrument mechanics, are employed in the maintenance and construc-
tion department, but many of them are assigned to other sections of
the plant as needed and remain there indefinitely .4 Four pipe fitters
are presently assigned to the maintenance and construction depart-
ment; three to the glycol department; and two to the ethylene depart-
ment. Pipefitters first-class are required to have 4 years' experience
in high-pressure powerhouse work. Second-class pipefitters are re-
quired to have 3 years' experience, and helpers are required to have
from 6 months to a year. Five welders are presently assigned as fol-
lows : Two in the maintenance and construction department, one in
the ethylene department, and two in the glycol department. It was
conceded at the hearing that both the pipefitters and the welders are
skilled employees, some having passed the American Society of Me--
chanical Engineers' test. Fifteen maintenance mechanics, who per-
form work similar to that of millwrights or pump doctors , are as-
signed to the maintenance and construction department; three to the-
ethylene department; and three to the glycol department. Seven-
maintenance mechanic helpers are assigned to the maintenance and
construction department and one to the glycol department. The
helpers are called "leg men" and are shifted throughout the plant as
needed. Five instrument mechanics and seven helpers work in the-
instrument department, a separate department under the supervision
of the instrument engineer. Instrument mechanics, like other main-
tenance men, are assigned to other departments as needed, and when
so assigned, work under the supervision of the several department
foremen. At the present time, two instrument mechanics are in the
instrument department; one in the glycol department; and one in the
ethylene department. They install, calibrate, and repair instruments.
Instrument helpers report to the instrument supervisor daily and are
assigned to the different departments as needed .r,
It is clear that the various categories of employees, whom the Pipe-
fitters would join in a single unit in this case, together form a skilled,
but heterogeneous group having no common supervision or place of
8 Thus, in addition to the employees herein enumerated, three pipefitters , two main-
tenance mechanics , and one instrument, mechanic are assigned to the powerhouse
department unit represented by the Firemen and Oilers.
6 Other classifications in the maintenance and construction department not requested by
the Pipefitters include riggers, painters , cabinetmakers , insulators , and the tool crib
attendant.
170 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
work and performing substantially unrelated work. We believe, there-
fore, that they lack a sufficient community of interest to warrant their
-placement in a single bargaining unit apart from all other employees
in the plant.' It is also clear, however, that the pipefitters in the
plant constitute a skilled craft group to which separate representation
may be accorded.' As to the welders, we find that they perform craft
-functions and may therefore also function- separately 8 The main-
tenance mechanics perform work similar to that of millwrights. We
have frequently found that millwrights are craftsmen for whom sep-
arate representation is feasible and may be granted .9 The instrument
_mechanics in the instrument department perform a functionally dis-
tinct aspect of the plant, work under separate supervision, and func-
tion as a cohesive group. We believe that they, too, apart from all
-other employees, may, if they so desire, constitute a separate bargain-
ing unit."' The fact that many of the above craft employees may
-work along side of or in close association with other employees, and are
at times assigned to work away from their own department under
the supervision of a foreman other than their own, does not derogate
-from their right to constitute separate bargaining units 11
We shall at this time make no final determination with respect to
the unit or units appropriate for employees at the Employer's Doe
Run, Kentucky, plant, deferring such conclusions until separate elec-
tions shall have been held among the following voting groups, exclud-
ing from each group office clericals employees, powerhouse depart-
ment employees, guards, and supervisors, as defined in the Act :
(1) All electricians
(2) All pipefitters -
(3) All welders -
(4) All maintenance mechanics
(5) All instrument mechanics'
(6) All production and maintenance employees, including office
custodial employees ,12 but excluding " laboratory and professional em-
6 Although the Board has directed elections for multieraft department units in the
absence of a prior history of collective bargaining , such units have been department-wide,
embracing all employees in the department . Armstrong Cork Company, 80 NLRB 128;
Jefferson Chemical Co , 81 NLRB 1393.
7 Owens-Corning Fiberglass Corporation , 84 NLRB 298 ; Tin Processing Corporation,
78 NLRB 96.
International Paper Company , Southern Kraft Division , et al ., 94 NLRB 483 and
96 NLRB 295 ; United States Rubber Company, 91 NLRB No. 213.
' Owens-Corning Fiberglass Corporation , 84 NLRB 298 ; Victor Electric Company, 79
NLRB 373.
10 Phillips Oil Co , 94 NLRB 1438 ; Goodyear Synthetic Rubber Corporation, 78 NLRB
1264 Cf International Paper Company, 94 NLRB 500.
1' Danly Machine Specialties, Inc., 90 NLRB No. 14; International Harvester Co.,
Canton Works , 91 NLRB 487.
. 12 Notwithstanding the agreement of the parties , we shall include the office custodial
employees in the production and maintenance unit. International Paper Company, 94
NLRB 500; Southern Desk Company , 92 NLRB No . 137, and cases cited therein.
JACKSON GARMENT COMPANY, INC. 171
ployees, and all employees included in voting groups (1), (2), (3),.
(4), and (5).
The Firemen and Oilers desires to participate in the election among
employees in voting group (6) and we shall place its name on the
ballot in that election. It does not appear that the Chemical Work-
ers desires to participate in the separate elections among the craft
groups (1), (2), (3), (4), and (5), and we make no specific provision
for its name on these ballots. If, however, the Chemical Workers de-
sires to do so, it may participate in one or more of these elections by
notifying the Regional Director of its desire in this matter within 5
days of the date of issuance of this Decision.
If a majority of the employees in voting groups (1), (2), (3), (4),,
or (5) select a labor organization other than that selected 'by a ma-
jority of the employees in voting group (6), those employees will be
taken to have indicated their desire to constitute a separate bargain-
ing unit and the Regional Director conducting the election is in-
structed to issue a certification of representatives to the labor organiza-
tion selected by the employees in each group for such unit or units
which the Board, in such circumstances, finds to be appropriate for
purposes of collective bargaining. If a majority of employees in
voting groups (1), (2), (3), (4), or (5) select the labor organization
chosen by a majority of employees in voting group (6), those em-
ployees will be taken to have indicated their desire to constitute part
of the production and maintenance unit and the Regional Director
conducting the election is instructed to issue a certification of repre-
sentatives selected by the employees in such groups which the Board,
in such circumstances, finds to be a single unit appropriate for pur-
poses of collective bargaining.
[Text of Direction of Elections omitted from publication in this
volume.]
JACKSON GARMENT COMPANY, INC. and UNITED PAPER WORKERS OF
AMERICA, CIO . Cases Nos. 3f-CA-190 and 32-RC-306. July 15,,
1950
Decision and Order
On December 11, 1951, Trial Examiner Louis Plost issued his In-
termediate Report in the above-entitled proceeding, finding that the
Respondent had engaged in and was engaging in certain unfair labor
practices, and recommending that it cease and desist therefrom and
take certain affirmative action, as set forth in the copy of the Inter-
mediate Report attached hereto. Thereafter, the General Counsel
100 NLRB No. 30.