R. C. A. Manufacturing Co., Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Oct 28, 1939

16 N.L.R.B. 883 (N.L.R.B. 1939)

In the Matter of R. C. A. MANUFACTURING COMPANY, INC. and
INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS B-957
Case No. R-1542.-Decided October 08, 1939
Radio Mane.!actnring Industry-Investigation of Representatives: controversy
concerning representation of employees: uncertainty concerning present wishes
of employees created by evidence introduced by petitioning labor organization
not resolved by certification of rival labor organization 3 years previously upon
basis of an election in which less than a third of the eligible employees par-
ticipated-Unit Appropriate for Collective Bargaining: hourly paid employees
in production department, model-making shop, engineering depa rtment, and
office service division, excluding all supervisory employees, clerical employees,
lunch club section employees, process engineers, watchmen, and guards; no con-
troversy as to-E'lection Ordered
Messrs. Samuel G. Zack and Jack Davis, for the Board.
Mr. Benjamin R. Simons, of Philadelphia, Pa., for the I. B. E. W.
Mr. James J. Matles, of New York City, and Mr. Saul C. Wald-
baeam, of Philadelphia, Pa., and Mr. M. Mitton, of Camden, N. J., for
the U. E. R. M. W.
Messrs. L. B. Morris, E. C. Morse, and R. R. Kane, for the Com-
pany.
Mr. David Rein, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
On July 10, 1939, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
B-957, herein called the I. B. E. W., filed with the Regional Director
for the Fourth Region (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) a petition
alleging that a question affecting commerce had arisen concerning the
representation of employees of R. C. A. Manufacturing Company,
Inc.,l herein called the Company, at Camden, New Jersey, herein
called the Camden plant, and requesting an investigation and certifi-
cation of representatives pursuant to Section 9 (c) of the National
Labor Relations Act, 49 Stat. 449, herein called the Act. On Septem-
1 The Company was incorrectly named in the petition and notice of hearing as R. C. A.
Manufacturing Company of Camden, N. T.
16 N. L. R. B., No. 72.
883
884 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
ber 15, 1939, the National Labor Relations Board, herein called the
Board, acting pursuant to Section 9 (c) of,the Act and Article III,
Section 3, of National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regula-
tions-Series 2, ordered an investigation and authorized the Regional
Director to conduct it and to provide for an appropriate hearing
upon due notice.
On September 18, 1939, the Regional Director issued a notice of
hearing, copies of which were duly served upon the Company, the
1. B. E. W., and United Electrical Radio and Machine Workers of
America, Local 103, herein called the U. E. R. M. W. Pursuant to
the notice, a hearing was held on September 25 and 26, 1939, at
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, before. George O. Pratt, the Trial
Examiner duly designated by the Board. At the hearing, the
U. E. R. M. W. filed a motion to intervene which was granted by the
Trial Examiner.2 The ruling is hereby afl'irined. The Board, the
Company, the I. B. E. W., and the U. E. R. M. W. were represented
by counsel and participated in the hearing. Full opportunity to be
heard, to examine and cross-examine witnesses, and to introduce
evidence bearing on the issues was afforded all parties.
At the opening of the hearing the I. B. E. W. moved for a' con-
tinuance on the ground that one of its counsel was engaged in another
matter. The Trial Examiner granted a continuance for 1 day but
denied any further extension for the reason that the I. B. E.. W.,
knowing of the engagement of counsel, had failed to make a timely
request for postponement 'of the hearing,' and for the reason that a
further continuance would inconvenience all other parties. The
ruling is hereby affirmed. During the, course of the hearing the
Trial Examiner made several other rulings on motions and on ob-
jections to the admission of evidence. The Board has reviewed the
rulings of the Trial Examiner and finds that no prejudicial errors
were committed. The' rulings are hereby affirmed .3
On October 14, 1939, the U. E. R. M. W. filed a brief, and on Octo-
ber 18, 1939, a supplemental brief. On October 20, 1939, the
I. B. E. W. also filed a brief, which we have considered together with
the briefs submitted by the U. E. R. M. W. At the request of the
parties and pursuant to notice, a hearing was held before the Board
2 The national organization of the United Electrical Radio and Machine Workers of
America filed a separate motion to intervene which was also granted by the Trial Exam-
iner . However, since the national organization and the local were jointly represented by
counsel and presented the same position at the hearing and at oral argument before the
Board , we have, for the purposes of this decision , included both the national organization
and the local within the designation , U. E. R. M. W.
8 The Trial Examiner reserved for ruling by the Board the motion of the U. E. R. M. W.
requesting the taking of the testimony of John E. Johnson. a Field Examiner employed by
the Board, who was in Kansas City, Missouri , at the time of the hearing. We do not
believe that the disposition of the case should be delayed in order to obtain Johnson' s testi-
mony, particularly since an election and not certification upon the record is here sought.
R. C. A. MANUFACTURING - COMPANY, INCORPORATED 885,
on October 19, 1939, for the purpose of oral argument. The Com-
pany, the I. B. E. W. and the U. E. R. M. W. appeared by counsel;
only the I. B. E. W. and the U. E. R. M. W. participated in the
argument.
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following :
FINDINGS OF FACT
I. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
On August 3, 1936, the Board issued a Decision and Direction of
Election in a case involving the representation of employees of the
Company at its Camden plant,4 and therein made certain findings of
fact with respect to the business of the Company. The parties to
the present proceeding stipulated, and we find, that the findings of
fact made in the previous case are correct as of the present time. In
that case we found as follows :
The R. C. A. Manufacturing Company, Inc. is engaged at its
Camden plant in the manufacture and distribution of radio and
sound transmission and receiving products. A substantial portion
of these products are produced and distributed pursuant to orders
from the Radio Corporation of America, a corporation engaged in
the business of radio and wireless communication throughout the
United States and various countries and which controls the R. C. A.
Manufacturing Company, Inc. The products so produced are essen-
tial to the maintenance of the interstate and international communi-
cations system operated by the Radio Corporation of America. In
the course of its operations at the Camden plant, the Company pur-
chases and has transported from States other than New Jersey large
quantities of materials, such as steel, rubber, glass, lumber, copper,
aluminum, durielium, porcelain, magnesium, tungsten, celluloid,
paints, mica, iron, and other goods. It maintains sales and service
branches and distributing points throughout the United States and
in foreign countries for the purpose of selling, distributing, and serv-
icing the products manufactured at Camden. Certain parts and
equipment assembled and produced at Camden are transported by the
Company to other plants, assembly points and distribution centers,
owned by the Company and located in States other than New Jersey,
and there assembled with other parts and equipment into finished
products which are thereafter distributed among the several States
and- in foreign countries. A substantial number of the employees at
the Camden plant are employed in the shipping department of the
Company and are engaged in the preparation and packing of the
products for shipment and the actual shipping of the products. An-
'2 N. L. R . B. 159.
886 , DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
other substantial group of employees are engaged in the 'servicing
and installing of the products of the Company throughout the United
States.
All of the aforesaid operations constitute a continuous flow of:
trade, traffic, and commerce among the several States and with foreign
countries.
The present record discloses that as of September 16, 1939, the
Company had in its employ 7,473 employees in the appropriate unit
as found below.b
II. THE ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers B-957 is a labor
organization chartered as a local by the International B' rot-lie rhood of
Electrical Workers, which is affiliated with the American Federation
of Labor. It admits to membership employees of the Company at
the Camden plant.
United Electrical Radio and Machine Workers of America, Local
103, is a labor organization chartered as a local of the United Elec-
trical Radio and Machine Workers of America, which is affiliated
with the Congress of Industrial Organizations. It also admits to
membership employees of the Company at the Camden plant.
III. THE . QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
As stated above in Section I, the Board in 1936 directed that an
election be held among the employees of the Camden plant of the
Company. At this election there appeared upon the ballot the names
of the U. E. R. M. W., which had filed the petition,° and an unaffili-
ated labor organization known as Employees' Committee Union.'
Of 9,752 eligible employees, 3,163 participated in the election. Of
these, 3,016 cast their ballots for the U. E. R. M. W. Upon the basis
of this election the Board, on November 7, 1936, certified the
U. E. R. M. W. as the exclusive representative of the employees in an'
appropriate bargaining unit, at the Camden plant."
In October 1937, the U. E. R. M. W. entered into a contract with
the Company, which was renewed on October 7, 1938, for a further
1-year term. The contract provided, among other things,' for the
recognition of the U. E. R. M. W. as the exclusive bargaining repre-
5 This is the same appropriate unit as found by the Board in the previous case involving
the employees at the Camden plant. * See infra.
d The petition was filed by the national organization which at the time was known as
United Electrical and Radio Workers of America.
7 At that time the I. B. E. W had not sought to organize the employees at the Camden
plant. See infra.
9 2 N. L. R. B. 168,
R. C. A. MANUFACTURING COMPANY, INCORPORATED 887
sentative for the employees of the Company at the Camden plant, in
the unit determined by the Board to be appropriate, and for auto-
matic renewal unless notice of termination were given within 60 days
prior to the date of expiration. The record does not reveal whether
or not such notice of termination has been given.,'
The I. B. E. W. was organized at the Camden plant in October
1937. In July 1938, prior to the expiration of the first contract be-
tween the Company and the U. E. R. M. W., the I. B. E. W. addressed
a letter to the Company in which it requested that its claims be con-
sidered prior to any extension of the agreement. This letter was
ignored by the Company and, as stated above, the contract was re-
newed in October 1938, for a further year. As we have also stated
above, the I. B. E. W. filed a petition with the Board on July 10, 1939,
claiming that it represented a majority of the Company's employees
at the Camden plant.
On July 25, 1939, the I. B. E. W., at a conference at the Philadel-
phia Regional Office of the Board, presented to John E. Johnson, a
Field Examiner employed by the Board, 4,181 cards which Johnson
classified as follows :
Application
Dated : cards
Authoriza-
tion cards
1937--------------------------------------
1938 --------------------------------------
1,060
291 379
1939-------------------------------------- 1,080 -----
Undated-------------------------------------- 321 1,050
At the` hearing the I. B. E: W. presented testimony that such cards
R ere exclusive of duplications and had been signed by employees at
the Camden plant. The U. E. R. M. W. did not present any proof
of membership, but stated. that while it was able to offer such proof,
it was satisfied that the I. B. E. W. had failed to introduce any evi-
dence which established the existence, of a. question concerning
representation, and that the petition should, therefore, be dismissed.
We are of the opinion that the evidence warrants further investiga-
tion by the holding of a secret ballot. The results of such an election
would serve to dispel the uncertainty. concerning the present wishes
of the employees of the Camden plant, which is created by the evi-
dence introduced by the I. B. E. W., and which is not resolved by a
certification issued upon'the basis of an election held more than 3
years ago in which less than one-third of the eligible employees
participated.
We find that a question has arisen concerning representation of
employees of the Company at its Camden plant.
O At oral argument, the representative of the:U: E..R. M.•w.'stated that the contract
had been renewed with modifications for an additional year.
2473S3-40--vol. 16--57
888 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
IV. THE EFFECT OF THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
UPON .COMMERCE
We find that the question concerning representation which has
arisen, occurring in connection with the operations of the Company
described in Section I above, has a close , intimate, and substantial
relation to trade, traffic , and commerce among the several States and
with foreign countries , and tends to lead to labor disputes burdening
and obstructing commerce and the free flow of commerce.
V. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT
In our previous decision,10 we found that the hourly paid employees
in the production department, the model-making shop (Division No.
77), in the engineering department, and the office service division
(Division No. 03) employed by the Company, at its Camden plant,
exclusive of the following groups : all supervisory employees down
through and including working group leaders, all clerical employees
wherever located, all lunch club section employees, process' engineers,
watchmen, and guards, constitute an appropriate unit. The
I. B. E. W. and the U. E. R. M. W. stipulated that such employees
presently constitute an appropriate unit.
We find that the hourly paid employees in the production depart-
ment, the--model-making shop, (Division No. 77), in the engineering
department, and the office service division (Division No. 03) employed
by the Company at its Camden plant exclusive of the following
groups : all supervisory employees down through and including work-
ing group leaders, all clerical employees wherever located, all lunch
club section employees, process engineers, watchmen, and guards,
constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargain-
ing and that said unit will insure to employees of the Company the
full benefit of their right to self-organization and to collective bar-
gaining and otherwise effectuate the policies of the Act.
VI. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
Under the circumstances we find that the question which has arisen
concerning the representation of employees of the Company can best
be resolved by the holding of an election by secret ballot. We will
use as the date for determining eligibility of employees to vote the
pay-roll date immediately preceding the date of this Direction of
Election.
Upon the basis of the above findings of fact and upon the entire
record in the case, the Board makes the following:
10 2 N. L. R. B. 159.
R. C. A; MANUFACTURING COMPANY, INCORPORATED 889
CONCLusIIONs of LAW
1. International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers B-957 and
United Electrical Radio and Machine Workers of America, Local 103,
are labor organizations within the meaning of Section 2 (5) of the
Act.
2. A question affecting commerce has arisen concerning the repre-
sentation of employees of R. C. A. Manufacturing Company, Inc. at
its plant at Camden, New Jersey, within the meaning of Section
9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
3. The hourly paid employees in the production department, the
model-making shop (Division No. 77), in the engineering depart-
ment, and the office service division (Division No. 03) employed by
the Company at its Camden plant exclusive of the following groups :
all supervisory employees down through and including working
group leaders, all clerical employees wherever located, all lunch club
section employees, process engineers, watchmen, and guards, consti-
tute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining
within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
By virtue of and pursuant to the power vested in the National
Labor. Relations Board by Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Re-
lations Act and pursuant to Article III, Section 8, of National
Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations- Series 2, it is hereby
DIRECTED 'that, as part of the investigation authorized by the Board
to ascertain representatives for the purposes of collective bargaining
with R. C. A. Manufacturing Company, Inc., Camden, New Jersey,
an election by secret ballot shall be conducted as early as possible but
not later than thirty (30) days from the date of this Direction of
Election under the direction and supervision of the Regional Director
for the Fourth Region acting in this matter as agent for the National
Labor Relations Board and subject to Article III, Section 9, of said
Rules and Regulations, among the hourly paid employees in the pro-
duction department, the model-making shop (Division No. 77), in the
engineering department, and the office service division (Division
No. 03) whose names appear upon the pay roll of the Company for
its Camden plant next preceding the date of this Direction of Elec-
tion and including the employees whose names did not appear upon
such pay roll,because they were ill or on vacation or temporarily
laid off, and excluding all supervisory employees down through and
including working group leaders, all clerical employees wherever
located, all lunch club section employees , process engineers , watch-
890 'DECISIONS' OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
men, and guards, and employees who between such pay-roll date and
the date of the election have quit or been discharged for cause, to
determine whether they desire' to be represented by International
Brotherhood of Electrical Workers B-957, or United Electrical Radio
and Machine Workers of America, Local 103, or neither, for the
purposes of collective bargaining.