Schwien Engineering Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Nov 28, 1952

101 N.L.R.B. 662 (N.L.R.B. 1952)

662 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
unit finding nor direct an election as to the employees of these two
plants at this time s
Upon the basis of the entire record, and in accordance with the
foregoing considerations, we find the following unit appropriate for
the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section
9 (b) of the Act :
All production and maintenance employees of Frost Hardwood
Floors, Inc., at its plant in Shreveport, Louisiana, including watch-
men 9 and truck drivers, but excluding clerical, professional, and
supervisory employees within the meaning of the Act.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this
volume.]
8 The hearing officer ordered the Employer to produce for the record a copy of its con-
tract with the American Lumber and Treating Company for the purpose of aiding the
Board in determining whether the employees of the latter company who perform their
duties in the Employer's treating plant might also be deemed to be employees of the Em-
ployer. In view of our disposition of the Petitioner's request for a unit of the treating
plant employees, we deem it unnecessary to require the Employer to produce a copy of this
contract. Accordingly, the Employer' s motion to dismiss the hearing officer 's order is
hereby granted.
L In accord with established Board policy , any person classified as a watchman who
spends 50 percent or more of his time performing services which conform to the statutory
description of guards is to be excluded from the unit.
SCHWIEN ENGINEERING COMPANY and INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD
OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS, LOCAL UNION No. 11, AFL, PETITIONER.
Case No. 21 RC--2589. November 28, 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 Norman H. Greer, a
hearing officer of the National Labor Relations Board. 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 National Labor
Relations Act, the Board has delegated its powers in connection with
this case to a three -member panel [Members Houston, Murdock, and
Styles].
Upon the entire record in this case the Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the
National Labor Relations Act.
2. The labor organization , International Brotherhood of Electrical
Workers, Local Union No. 11, AFL, claims to represent certain em-
ployees of the Employer.
101 NLRB No. 116.
SCHWIEN ENGINEERING COMPANY 663
3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the representa-
tion of certain employees of the Employer within the meaning of
Section 9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
4. The Petitioner seeks a unit of maintenance and/or construction
electricians, their apprentices or full-time helpers 1 The Employer
contends that the unit sought by the Petitioner is inappropriate and
that the petition should therefore be dismissed, or, in the alternative,
proposes that a unit of all production and maintenance employees, or
a unit of all maintenance employees, or a unit of all employees en-
gaged in electrical work, may be found appropriate.
The Employer is a California corporation engaged in the general
development and manufacture of aircraft flight and missile instru-
ments. It operates a plant in Los Angeles and a closely integrated
newer plant at nearby Van Nuys? The Employer's production proc-
esses are dependent upon electric power. Ninety percent of the
products manufactured are electrical; the production machinery
is electrically driven; and extensive testing is done by means of elec-
trical devices designed and built by the Employer.
When the Van Nuys plant was opened a substantial amount of elec-
trical construction was necessitated. Most of this work was done by
outside contractors. Maintenance electricians who were employed
when the Employer began its expansion are responsible for the re-
maining construction work and the maintenance electrical work on
the physical plant and on the many electrically motivated machines
throughout the plants The maintenance electricians furnish their
own hand tools and confine their work to the electrical field. There
have been no transfers to or from the group of maintenance elec-
tricians.
Maintenance electricians are part of the maintenance department
composed of a janitorial and yard crew, general maintenance helpers
and maintenance men, and specialized maintenance employees such
as carpenters, plumbers, and painters. Members of the yard crew
from time to time act as helpers and do cleanup work for electricians
and other specialized maintenance employees. Maintenance helpers
and maintenance men are combination maintenance employees who
also do some work with maintenance electricians but are not regularly
assigned to do so. Each specialized group of maintenance employees
1 The Petitioner indicated at the hearing that it would be willing to represent any unit
the Board found appropriate.
2 At the Los Angeles plant there are 185 employees and at Van Nuys , approximately
400 employees. The operations at Los Angeles consist of the final assembly of some instru-
ments and the plating department. Administration , finance, design, experimental machine
parts , fabrication , and final assembly are located at Van Nuys.
. Electrical construction work consists of any addition or betterment of the plant and
may include running conduit, stringing wires, and installing machinery . Electrical main-
tenance work includes inspecting and maintaining equipment already installed.
664 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
has a leadman or foreman in charge. Until recently the maintenance
electricians worked under the supervision of an electrical maintenance
foreman. During the course of the hearing this foreman was pro-
moted to the newly created job of maintenance superintendent, but
continues to be in direct charge of the electrical construction and
maintenance work.4
The Employer has no apprenticeship program for maintenance
electricians. However, the maintenance superintendent, in charge of
the electricians, received formal apprenticeship training and holds a
master electrician's license from the city of Los Angeles. He is called
in by the personnel office to interview applicants for electricians' jobs.
The Employer now employs three maintenance electricians. One of
these men is a journeyman electrician licensed by the city of Burbank;
a second man was formerly licensed as an electrical contractor but
lost that license; the third man is not a journeyman and was hired as
an electrical helper.
Upon the above. facts concerning the duties and qualifications of
the Employer's maintenance electricians we conclude that they con-
stitute a craft group. The Employer contends, however, that they
are only a segment of a craft and that the only appropriate unit of
electricians is one which would include all employees who are assigned
full time or part time to electrical maintenance or repair duties.
Specifically the Employer would enlarge the unit to include the com-
bination maintenance employees, certain employees who perform
emergency electrical maintenance work, and employees in the test
laboratory.
The duties of combination maintenance employees are discussed
above. In addition to these maintenance employees who perform
some electrical maintenance work, one employee in the plating depart-
ment at the Los Angeles plant and an employee in the machine shop
at the Van Nuys plant have been assigned the duty of taking care of
emergency electrical breakdowns during the night. We find that the
combination maintenance employees, who are not regularly assigned
to work with the maintenance electricians, and the employees who per-
form emergency electrical maintenance duties only are not appropri-
ately a part of the craft unit of maintenance electricians. However,
we find that the combination maintenance leadman at the Los An-
geles plant (Warner) who is responsible for electrical work there
under the supervision of the maintenance superintendent is a regular
part-time maintenance electrician and should be included in the unit
of full-time maintenance electricians.
Employees in the test laboratory who the Employer urges should
be included with maintenance electricians are test engineers and engi-
4 At the hearing the Employer indicated that it intends to make one of the maintenance
electricians leadman of the group.
SEARS, ROEBUCK & COMPANY 665
neering aides. They have varying amounts of experience in the fields
of electronics, radio, and television. Test engineers are salaried em-
ployees; a engineering aides are hourly paid.' These employees build,
from blueprints prepared by professional engineers, electrical test
equipment used in checking the Employer's product, repair such
equipment after it is put into use, and inspect certain parts. Test
engineers frequently make repairs on production machinery when the
work cannot be handled by maintenance electricians. Although
maintenance electricians may perform maintenance work on test
equipment in use, the plant engineer testified that in 90 percent of
the instances when such equipment breaks down it can be repaired
only by test laboratory employees because the repair requires knowl-
edge beyond the capacity of the maintenance electricians. He further
testified that test laboratory employees could probably perform the
work assigned maintenance electricians but that the latter could not
do the work of test laboratory employees. There have been no trans-
fers between maintenance electricians and test laboratory employees.
These facts indicate that although test laboratory employees perform
electrical maintenance work, they have specialized electrical skills, are
more closely associated with the engineering field than with the tra-
ditional electrical craft, and are not a necessary part of the unit of
maintenance electricians.
Accordingly, we find that the following unit is appropriate for the
purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b)
of the Act :
All maintenance and/or construction electricians and regularly as-
signed helpers at the Employer's plants at Los Angeles and Van Nuys,
California, excluding all supervisors.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this
volume.]
• Teat engineers are not professional engineers.
• Engineering aides earn approximately $1.45 to $2 per hour ; maintenance electricians
receive from $1.85 to $2.30 per hour.
SEARS, ROEBUCK & COMPANY and TRUCK DRIVERS , WAREHOUSEMEN
AND HELPERS LOCAL UNION #340, INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF
TEAMSTERS , CHAUFFEURS, WAREHOUSEMEN & HELPERS OF AMERICA,
AFL, PETITIONER. Case No. 1-RC-2920. December 1, 1952
Decision and Order
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before George A.
Sweeney, hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the
hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
101 NLRB No. 136.