St. Regis Paper Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Nov 28, 1952

101 N.L.R.B. 656 (N.L.R.B. 1952)

656 DECISIONS OF. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
department. The Petitioner would sever 11 machinists who are part
of this maintenance group from the existing bargaining unit.
The record discloses that in 1943 the Intervenor represented the
employees in question as part of the production and maintenance em-
ployees at the Alliance Works.2 The record also shows that since
1945 the Intervenor has bargained uninterruptedly for these em-
ployees as part of a single unit of production and maintenance em-
ployees- at all eight plants of the Employer, inclining the Alliance
Works 3
In view of such an established history of collective bargaining on
a multiplant basis, it has been Board policy to require that severance
of craft employees be coextensive with the multiplant Unit .4 As the
unit sought by the Petitioner is limited to the Alliance Works, we find
that it is inappropriate. We shall therefore dismiss the petitions
Order
On the basis of the entire record in this case, the National Labor
Relations Board hereby orders that the petition filed in the instant
matter be, and it hereby is, dismissed.
2 Pursuant to a consent election in 1943, the machinists and the millwrights, voting as a
single unit, elected to become part of the over-all production and maintenance unit repre-
sented by the Intervenor at the Alliance Works.
s Excluded from this unit are patternmakers at the Granite City and East St. Louis
Works, Verona Works, Alliance Works, Hammond Works, and Indiana Harbor Works,
brick masons at the Indiana Harbor Works, electricians and certain other maintenance
employees at the Granite City and East St. Louis Works. See American Steel Foundries,
51 NLRB 78.
4 T. C. King Pipe Company, 74 NLRB 468; Western Electric Company, Inc., 74 NLRB
1029; Bethlehem Steel Company, 97 NLRB 205; Union Steel Castings Division of Blaw-
Knox Company, 88 NLRB 209; American Viscose Corporation, 79 NLRB 958; Robert (lair
Company, Inc., 77 NLRB 649. American Steel Foundries, 85 NLRB 19, is not applicable
as the Board merely directed in that case a self-determination election to be held among
metal patternmakers at the Granite City plant in order to determine whether to add them
to an existing mult.iplant unit of patternmakers.
5 In view of our determination herein we find it unnecessary to pass upon the other con.
tentions raised by the Employer and Intervenor.
ST. REGIS PAPER COMPANY and LODGE 1009, INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIA-
TION OF MACHINISTS, AFL, PETITIONER. Cases Nos. 3-RC-1017,
,3-RC-1018, and 3-RC-1019. November 28, 1952
Decision and Direction of Elections
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National
Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before John Weld, hearing
officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free
from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
101 NLRB No. 129.
ST. REGIS PAPER COMANY 657
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 certain em-
ployees 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 Petitioner seeks to be certified as the exclusive bargaining
representative of (1) machinists, (2) millwrights, and (3) pipe-
fitters in respective craft units at the Employer's Deferiet, New York,
plant. International Brotherhood of Pulp, Sulphite and Paper Mill
Workers, AFL, and International Brotherhood of Paper Makers,
AFL, the Intervenors herein, contend that the proposed craft units
limited to the Deferiet plant are inappropriate because of a history
of collective bargaining on a multiplant basis.
For 11 years preceding 1950, the Employer, the Petitioner, and the
Intervenors executed periodically single agreements covering pro-
duction and maintenance employees at the several plants, including
the Deferiet plant, comprising the Employer's northern mills on a
multiplant basis. The Petitioner participated in these contracts as
the recognized representative of certain Deferiet plant craft em-
ployees. Although the Petitioner participated in the 1950 contract
negotiations, it did not sign, as party thereto, the resultant multiplant
contract between the Employer and the Intervenors, from which the
employees herein sought and represented by the Petitioner were ex-
cluded by agreement.
On April 27, 1951, the Petitioner herein filed six separate petitions
seeking separate craft units limited to employees at the Deferiet plant,
including the three craft groups sought in the instant case. On
September 19, 1951, before any decision issued, the Petitioner and
the Employer signed a contract effective from May 1, 1951, to May
1, 1952, and automatically renewable yearly thereafter, covering em-
ployees in the three craft units for which the Petitioner seeks certifi-
cation herein. Following the execution of this contract, however,
the Board, on January 15, 1952, issued its decision, dismissing the
then pending craft petitions on the ground that the bargaining prac-
tices of the Employer and the several labor organizations named
herein from 1938 through 1950 established a controlling multiplant
pattern of collective bargaining for production and maintenance em-
ployees at the Employer's northern mills, including the Deferiet
plant.' On June 4, 1952, the Petitioner filed the instant petitions.
St. Regis Paper Company, 97 NLRB 1051. On May 20, 1952, the Petitioner 's motion
for reconsideration was denied.
658 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
For over 30 years the Petitioner has represented the craft employees
at the Deferiet plant involved herein. The Intervenors bargained
for employees in the same categories at other plants of the northern
mills as part of its larger unit. Although the Petitioner was a signa-
tory with the Intervenors to the multiplant contracts for 11 years, it
represented only employees at the Deferiet plant and in comity bar-
gained for them according to its jurisdictional agreement with the
Intervenors. It appears that this joint bargaining plan has broken
down, in view of the exclusion, without objection of the group herein
sought from the 1950 multiplant contract and the more recent bar-
gaining history covering the craft units for which Petitioner seeks
certification. Under these circumstances in this case, we conclude
that the past bargaining history does not preclude the finding that
units of craftsmen limited to the Deferiet plant may be appropriate
for bargaining apart from other employees at the Employer's northern
mills.
On the entire record, it appears that the three groups of employees
sought by the Petitioner constitute clearly identifiable craft groups,
and may, if they so desire, constitute separate bargaining units. Ac-
cordingly, we shall direct separate elections among the voting groups
of employees at the Employer's Deferiet plant described below, ex-
cluding therefrom all other employees, office clerical employees, pro-
fessional employees, guards, and supervisors, as defined in the Act : 2
Group No. 1.-All machinists and rollgrindermen and their helpers.
Group No. 2.-All millwrights.
Group No. 3.-All pipefitters and pipe coverers.
If a majority of the employees in any of the groups vote for the
Petitioner, they will be taken to have indicated their desire to con-
stitute a separate bargaining unit, and the Regional Director con-
ducting the elections directed herein is instructed to issue a certification
of representatives to the Petitioner for such unit, which the Board,
under such circumstances, finds to be appropriate for collective bar-
gaining. In the event a majority in any of the groups vote for the
Intervenors, the Intervenors may bargain for such groups as part of
the northern mills multiplant unit and the Regional Director will
issue a certificate of results of election to such effect.
[Text of Direction of Elections omitted from publication in this
volume.]
CHAIRMAN HERZOG and MEMBER MURDOCK took no part in the consid-
eration of the above Decision and Direction of Elections.
3 By agreement between the Petitioner and the Intervenors , helpers of millwrights and
pipefitters are included in the over -all unit represented by the Intervenors . On promotion
they become craftsmen in the respective craft groups.