Servel, Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Mar 29, 1943

48 N.L.R.B. 712 (N.L.R.B. 1943)

In the Matter of SERVEL , IN c. and UNITED ELECTRICAL, RADIO &.
MACHINE WORKERS OF AMERICA, C. I. O.
Case Nos. R-4853 and R-4854.-Decided March 09, 1943
Jurisdiction : ordnance manufacturing industry.
Investigation and Certification of Representatives : existence of question: dis-
pute as to the appropriate unit; election necessary
Unit Appropriate for Collective Bargaining : unit confined to foundry depart-
ment found appropriate notwithstanding prior determination that a plant-
wide unit was appropriate, when among other considerations, previous de-
cision did not result in the certification of a bargaining representative and
in that proceeding the question of establishing the foundry as a separate
unit was not in issue ; unit restricted to the breech casing department, held
not to constitute a sufficiently definable and. identifiable group,to warrant its.
establishment as a separate appropriate unit.
Mr. John J. Manning, of Indianapolis, Ind., for the Board.
Messrs. Chadbourne, Hunt, Jaeckel d Brown, of New York City, by
Mr. Newton D. Crane, of New York City, and Mr. Isidor Kahn, of
Evansville, Ind., for the Company.
Mr..William Sentner, of St. Louis, Mo., and Mr. James Payne, of
Evansville, Ind., for the Union.
Mr. Glenn L. Moller, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
ORDER
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon petitions duly filed by United Electrical, Radio & Machine
Workers of America, affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Or-
ganizations, herein called the Union, alleging that questions affecting
commerce had arisen concerning the representation of employees of
Servel, Inc., Evansville, Indiana, herein called the Company, the
National Labor Relations Board thereafter consolidated the cases
and provided for an appropriate hearing upon due notice before
Charles E. Persons, Trial Examiner. Said hearing was held at In-
dianapolis, Indiana, on February 4, 1943. The Company and the
Union appeared, participated, and were afforded full, opportunity
to-be heard, to examine and cross-examine witnesses, and to intro-
48 N. L R. B., No. 90.
712
SERVEL , INC. 713
duce evidence bearing on the issues . At the' beginning of the hear-
ing, at the close of the petitioner 's evidence , and at the conclusion
of all the evidence , the Company moved to dismiss the petitions. The
Trial , Examiner • denied this motion on the first two occasions and
on the third referred it to the Board for final disposition . For the
reasons appearing hereafter , the motion is sustained • withirespect to
Case No. R-4853 and denied with respect to Case No. R-4854. Toward
the end of the hearing the petitioner moved to amend its petition
to exclude from the unit claimed by it to be appropriate in Case No.,
R-4854, Department 11, composed of the pattern makers, and "tempo-
rary employees ." This motion was also referred to the Board. The
motion to amend is granted. The Trial Examiner made other rulings
at the hearing, all of which we have reviewed and found to be free
from prejudicial error. They ' are hereby affirmed. Both parties
filed briefs which we have duly considered.
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following :
FINDINGS OF FACT
I. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
Servel, Inc., is a Delaware corporation normally- engaged in the
manufacture and sale of refrigerators, electric commercial refrigera-
tion machines, and allied products. Its plant is located in Evansville,
Ifftliana, covers 60 acres of ground, and is housed in a large number of
buildings. The Company is now engaged in the manufacture of war
materials, including airplane wings; airplane engine cylinder heads,
cartridge cases, bomber turrets, army field ranges, and breech casings.
During the past several years, the Company has purchased annually
raw-materials valued at more than $1,000,000, approximately 75 percent
of which was shipped to the Evansville plant from points outside the
State of Indiana. During the same period the Company's annual sales
have also been in excess of $1,000,000, approximately 75 percent of
which was shipped from the aforesaid plant to points outside the State
of Indiana.'
H. THE ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED
United Electrical, Radio & Machine `Yorkers of America, is a labor
organization, affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations,
admitting to membership employees of the Company.
III. THE QUESTIONS CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
A. The Foundry Division
-On or about November 5, 1942, the Union requested recognition from
the Company-as the exclusive bargaining agent for the employees of
714 DECPSIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
the Foundry Division. The Company refused to extend such recogni-
tion upon the ground that it doubted the Union's claim that it repre-
sented a majority of the employees in the foundry and upon the further
ground that the unit claimed was inappropriate for the reason that
a plant-wide unit was the appropriate unit, which fact had already
been established by the Board.'
A statement of the Regional Director for the Board, introduced in
evidence at the hearing, indicates that the Union represents a sub-
stantial number of employees in the unit hereinafter found appro-
priate?
B. The Breech Casing Department
On or about October 5, 1942, the Union requested recognition from
the Company as the exclusive bargaining agent for all the machine
operators employed in the Breech Casing section of the Company's
operations, excluding clerical workers, supervisors, foremen, assistant
foremen, group leaders, and inspectors. The Company refused to
extend such recognition on the ground that the Union did not represent
a majority 'of the employees in the proposed unit and on the further
ground that the proposed unit was inappropriate.
We'find that a question affecting commerce has arisen concerning
the representation of employees of the Company within the meaning
of Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT
A. The Foitndnj
The Union contends that a unit of all employees of the Foundry
Division , excluding - inspectors , foremen, assistant foremen, Division-,
superintendent , assistant superintendent , supervisory employees, tern-
porary employees , and pattern makers, is appropriate.
The Company takes the position that the Board's finding of a plant-
wide unit in the prior case is determinative of the unit issue in this
proceeding . Alternatively , it asserts that if the question is subject
to reexamination, the record in the present case shows that a unit
smaller than a plant-wide unit is inappropriate.
There are five-departments in the Foundry Division , consisting of
the gray iron molding department , core room , cast iron ' cleaning
1 Matter of Servel , Inc. and Local 1002, United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of
America , C 1 0 , 35 N L R . B 733, decided September 24, 1941. In that proceeding a
former local of the same union here involved filed a petition for an election and certification
among all production and maintenance employees The Board ordered an election, but
before the election was held , the Union requested leave to withdraw its petition. The
Board granted this request on October 9, 1941, "without prejudice ." 35 N L R. B. 738.
2 The Regional Director reported that the Union submitted 100 membership cards of
which 86 bore the apparently genuine signatures of employees whose names appear on the
Company's pay roll of November 6, 1942. The pay roll contained the names of 212 em-
ployees in the Company 's Foundry Department.
SERVEL, INC. ' -715
department, aluminum assembly and cleaning department, and the
pattern shop. The pattern shop is located in a different building,
completely separate from the other departments of the Foundry.
The Union has made no effort to organize its employees. The other
four departments are located in a single room. The Foundry, in
addition to producing various items used by the Company in manu-
facturing its own products, produces items which are sold to other
firms. Aluminum cylinder heads for airplane engines produced for
another company, constitute most of the Foundry's production.
Other products of the Foundry include parts for cast iron field ranges
,for the Army, various parts for refrigerators and heaters, dies used
.elsewhere in the plant and zinc nodes which are used in the plating
-department. . '
The Foundry normally employed about 170 men, and at the present
time has about 250 persons on its pay roll, an increase of about 70.
Of this complement of employees about 170 are employed in work
classifications not found in any other department. There are other
departments of the Company in the same building as the Foundry,
but they are separated from the Foundry by walls or wooden parti-
tions. The one exception to this, the machine service department, is
partially partitioned.
The previous decision referred to by the Company did not result in
the certification of a bargaining representative and the parties did
not engage in collective bargaining on the basis of the unit established
therein nor on any other basis. Furthermore, in the prior proceeding
the question of establishing the foundry as a separate unit was not
an issue. Here the record shows that the foundry is a well-defined
department or division, that the employees therein are engaged in
operations not performed in other departments, and that the skills
required in the foundry differ materially from those required else-
where in the Company's operations. There has been no bargaining
on a plant-wide or other basis. We have frequently found that a
foundry department constitutes an appropriate unit.3 -Moreover, the
employees in the Foundry have shown a greater interest in collective
bargaining, and the fact that the rest of the plant is not yet organized
is no reason for depriving them of the present opportunity to bargain
collectively. We find, therefore, that the foundry employees comprise
an appropriate unit, but our determination in this respect does not
preclude a finding at another time that a plant-wide unit is
appropriate.
3 Matter of E T. Fraam Look Co et al and International Molders £ Foundry Workers'
Union of North America (A. F. of L.), 39 N. L. R B. 202; Matter of Rosendale Foundry CC
Machine Company and International Molders and Foundry Workers , Local Union 46, affiliated
with the A F of L, 35 N. L. R. B. 1; Matter of American Scale Company and Frank Daven-
port and Local #149, International Molders Union of North America , affiliated with Ameri-
can Federation of Labor, 19 N. L. R. B. 124.
716 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
The.group of so-called temporary employees whom the Union seeks
,to exclude was defined by the Union to mean any employee who has not
,.been employed in the Foundry for at, least 6 months. Exclusion of
'employees of less than 6months' service in the Foundry would elim-
,inate at least 30 employees in the Foundry 'from' the unit. There is
no showing that any significant proportion of these newer employees
- are unlikely to remain as permanent employees. We shall include
them in the unit. -
We find that the employees in the Company's Foundry Division, ex-
cluding inspectors, foremen, assistant foremen, the divisional super-
intendent, assistant superintendent, all other supervisory employees,
and all employees in Department 11, consisting of the Pattern Shop,
constitute a unit appropriate fbr purposes of collective bargaining
within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
B. The Breech Casing Department
The Union contends that a unit of all machine operators in the
Breech Casing Department, excluding clerical workers, supervisors,
-foremen, assistant foremen, group leaders, and inspectors, is appro-
priate. The Breech Casing Department is a new section of the Com-
pany's operations, having been set up to produce-breech casings, which
constitute a part of a certain type of mihtary,gun. It was organized
and created during the retooling period and includes such machinery
and tools as could be converted from former uses to this work, together
with such additional new machinery as was necessary. The depart-
Inent occupies a little less than 25 percent of the floor space of one of
the buildings. ,It is separated from adjoining departments only by
-lines marked on the floor and by aisles. The department employs
about 200 employees, 89 of whom have been transferred from other
departments. When the Company's normal operations are resumed
the department will be dismantled and its convertible machinery and
'employees distributed among other departments. Almost all of the
'work in the Breech Casing Department is machine work, comparable
to that performed in other departments, and, 185 of the 200 employees
are in job classifications which are also found in numerous other
departments of the plant.
From all the facts, it does not appear that the Breech Casing Depart-
ment constitutes a sufficiently definable and identifiable group to war-
rant its establishment as a separate appropriate unit for the purposes
of collective bargaining.
We find that the machine operators employed in the Breech Casing
'Department of Servel, Inc., do not constitute a unit appropriate for
the purposes of collective bargaining. -Accordingly, we shall dismiss
the petition for investigation and` certification of employees in the
Breech Casing Department.
SERVEL, INC.
1'. TIIE 1)ETFRDMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
717
We shall direct that the question concerning representation which
has arisen be resolved by an election by secret ballot among the em-
ployees in the appropriate unit who were employed during the pay-roll
period immediately preceding the date of the Direction of Election
herein, subject to the limitations and additions set forth in the
Direction.
ORDER
Upon the basis of the foregoing findings of fact and the entire record
in the case, the National Labor Relations Board hereby orders that the
petition for investigation and certification of representatives of the
,employees of the Breech Casing Department of Servel, Inc., filed by
United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America, C. I. 0., in
,case No. R-4853 be, and it hereby is, dismissed.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION S
By virtue of slid pursuant to the power vested in the National Labor
Relations Board by Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act,
and,pursuant to Article III, Section 9, of National Labor Relations
Board Rules and Regulations-Series 2, as amended, it is hereby
DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation to ascertain representa-
tives for the purposes of collective bargaining with Servel, Inc.,
Evaiisville, Indiana, 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, under the direction and supervision of the Regional
Director for the Fourteenth Region, acting in this matter as, agent for
the National Labor Relations Board, and subject to Article III, Section
'10, of said Rules and Regulations, among the employees in the unit
found appropriate in Section IV, above, who were employed during
,the pay-roll period immediately preceding the date of this Direction,
including any such employees who did not work during said pay-roll
period because they were ill or on vacation or temporarily laid off, and
including employees in the armed forces of the United States who
present themselves in person at the polls, but excluding any who have
since quit or been discharged for cause or transferred to another de-
partment to determine whether or not they desire to be represented by
United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America, affiliated
with the Congress of Industrial Organizations, for the purposes of
collective bargaining.
MR. JOAN M. HOUSTON took no part in the consideration of the
above Decision and Direction of Election.