United States Gypsum Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Sep 22, 1950

91 N.L.R.B. 404 (N.L.R.B. 1950)

In the Matter of UNITED STATES GYPSUM COMPANY, EMPLOYER and
INTERNATIONAL UNION, UNITED AUTOMOBILE, AIRCRAFT & AGRICUL-
TURAL IMPLEMENT WORKERS OF AMERICA, CIO, PETITIONER
Case No.'2-RC---3098.-Decided September 02, 1950
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 Jennie M. Sarrica, 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 Houston and Rey-
nolds].
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 organization involved claims 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 parties agree that an appropriate unit should comprise all
production and maintenance employees at the Employer's Clark
Township, New Jersey,2 plant, including shipping and receiving em-
ployees, but excluding office and clerical employees, the storekeeper,
guards, watchmen, and supervisors. They agree further to the exclu-
sion of 16 specific classifications as managerial or supervisory. These
16 classifications comprise 19 individuals, below the rank of works
' The hearing officer referred to the Board the Employer 's motion to dismiss the petition
upon the ground that the Petitioner failed to establish that it was a labor organization
within the meaning of the Act. As we have repeatedly found the Petitioner to be such a
labor organization , the motion is hereby denied.
2 This plant is engaged in producing the types of paper used by other United States Gyp-
sum plants in manufacturing paper board . It is also equipped to manufacture roofing
felt, but no roofing felt operations are carried on at present.
91 NLRB No. 65.
404
UNITED STATES GYPSUM COMPANY 405
manager, who exercise supervisory authority over production and
maintenance employees.
The Employer would also exclude as supervisors, four categories
of lead mechanics, a mechanic B painter, refiner engineers, machine
tenders, and back tenders. The Petitioner contends that none of
these classifications is supervisory. These disputed classifications
comprise at least 17 individuals. The unit deemed appropriate by the
Employer comprises only 97 employees. Thus the Employer is con-
tending that there are 36 supervisors to 97 production and mainte-
nance employees, a ratio exceeding 1 to 3. The Employer would also
exclude, on other ground, trainees and testers whom the Petitioner
would include.
Trainees: There are six trainees, all college graduates, hired under
a training program set up to develop personnel capable of filling
supervisory and managerial positions. There is no specific training
period, and no assurance that a trainee will ever become a supervisor.
None of the positions to which trainees are assigned during training
is supervisory. Their wages and other conditions of employment are
identical with those of other employees in the position to which they
are assigned. The only advantage trainees enjoy, which other em-
ployees do not, is the possibility of gaining a more varied experience,
in a shorter time, through greater flexibility of assignment. We find
that trainees while in training have a clear community of interests with
other employees performing the same work. Accordingly, we shall
include them in the unit.
Testers: We have frequently excluded laboratory testers from pro-
duction and maintenance units in other United States Gypsum plants
because of the technical nature of their work, and the fact that they
work under separate supervision in a separate location." The testers
in the Clark Township plant satisfy all these conditions, except that
four of the eight testers conduct their tests at wet-end testing stations
on the plan floor. The other four perform their tests in a separate
laboratory. • However, all the testers are trained to perform both
laboratory and wet-end testing and are interchanged. Accordingly,
we find that their work does not differ substantially from that of
testers in other United States Gypsum plants whom we have excluded
from production and maintenance units. We shall therefore exclude
the testers.
Disputed Supervisory Classifications
Lead. mechanics: The pipe and powerhouse lead mechanic, construc-
tion lead mechanic, electrical lead mechanic, and the.maintenance
2 United States Gypsum Company, 85 NLRB 9, 80 NLRB 779 , and cases cited therein.
406 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
lead mechanic direct crews of two to six men. Although they work
with their crews, the plant engineer testified, without contradiction,
that they spend 90 percent of their time in supervision and have the
authority effectively to recommend changes in the status of subordi-
nates. We find that the lead mechanics are supervisors. We shall
therefore exclude them from the unit.
Mechanic B painter: The mechanic B painter is in charge of the
paint crew, consisting of two other painters and a painter's helper.
He works. with his crew and directs their activities. Although the
'Employer estimated that 30 percent of mechanic B painter's time is
spent in directing the work of the crew members, it was established
that this direction amounted to nothing more than telling them where
to paint and checking on safety requirements. It is not alleged that the
mechanic B painter possesses any power to recommend personnel
action. Accordingly, we find that the mechanic B painter is not a
supervisor, and shall include him in the unit.
Refiner engineers: The refining operations, which comprise all steps
necessary to prepare stock for the paper machine, are performed, on
each of the four shifts, by a refiner crew which consists of a refiner
engineer and five fellow crew members. Directly over each refiner
crew is a refiner foreman, whose sole function, as described by the mill
superintendent, is responsibility for all refining operations and the
personnel engaged in performing them .4
The work of the refiner engineers is substantially equivalent to that
of beater engineers, or head beater men, whom we have included in
production and maintenance units at other plants of the Employer.5
We find that refiner engineers are not supervisors. Accordingly, we
shall include them in the unit.
Machine tenders: The machine tender is responsible for the opera-
tions of the wet-end of the paper machine, comprising the whole paper-
forming machine, including screens, auxiliary pumps, the machine
itself (which is a complicated one), cylinder baths, felts, and suction
equipment. These operations require his constant skilled attention.
The only employee working with the machine tender is a screen man
whose primary duty is to keep the screens clean. Although the pro-
duction of some types of paper requires the almost constant presence
of the screen man, others require very little, or even none. When the
screen man is not required for cleaning screens, or other wet-end clean-
ing jobs, the tour foreman assigns him to work in other'parts of the
mill.
4It is evident from the above that such personnel on each shift consists exclusively of
the refiner crew.
6 United States Gypsum Company , 85 NLRB 162 and 80 NLRB 779.
UNrrED STATES GYPSUM COMPANY 407
As the screen man's duties are routine in character and not complex„
the machine tender spends little time in directing him. The Employer
estimated that 10 percent of his time at the most is spent in direction,
and this estimate includes time spent directing several men in the per-
formance of prearranged tasks on the monthly clean-up days when
the machinery is shut down.
We find that the relationship of the machine tender to his screen
men is that of a highly skilled workman to his helper and that he is
not a supervisor.. We shall therefore include him in the unit.
Back tenders: Back tenders are highly skilled employees respon-
sible for the operation of the dry end of the paper-making machine.
In addition to the back tender, the dry-end crew includes a winder
man, fourth and fifth hands, a truck operator, and a loader. Each
member of the crew has his own assigned duties. Most of the back
tender's directions to other crew members are merely signals. as to
when to perform certain types of work. When the back tender
detects imperfections in the paper, he takes steps to correct them.
This involves giving directions to some of the crew, but as the types
of difficulty are recurrent, it is not necessary for the back tender to
give detailed directions in each case. The mill superintendent testi-
fied that a back tender spends 25 percent of his time in direction.
This statement is qualified by the fact that the operation of the
machine requires the unremitting attention of the back tender, who
can rarely leave his post. It includes all direction given while the
back tender continues his own work.
The Employer testified that back tenders have the power effectively
to recommend personnel action and exercise that power. However,
a member of the dry-end crew, a truck operator, testified that the
other crew members had never been told that back tenders were super-
visors and that they were not so regarded by the men. When he
inquired of his tour foreman, in another connection, whether he had
more than one supervisor, the tour foreman replied that he alone
was the truck driver's supervisor.
Although there is no previous bargaining history in this plant,,.
bargaining contracts throughout the paper industry have normally
included back tenders in the production and maintenance units. We
have so included them in other United States Gypsum plants.?
In view of all the circumstances, we find that the direction given,
by back tenders to the men working with them.is merely the general
supervision normally exercised by highly skilled and experienced
employees over those who are less skilled. We find that they are not
° United States Gypsum Company , 80 NLRB 779.
408 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
supervisors within the meaning of the Act. Accordingly, we shall
include back tenders in the unit.
We find that all production and maintenance employees, at the
Employer's Clark Township, New Jersey, plant, including shipping
and receiving employees, trainees, mechanic B painter, refiner engi-
neers, machine tenders, and back tenders, but excluding office and
clerical employees, the storekeeper, guards, watchmen, testers, paper
buyer, works manager, mill superintendent, plant engineer, warehouse
foreman, receiving and shipping warehouse leaders, general fore-
man, tour foremen, refiner foremen, quality superintendent, quality
supervisor, steam and powerhouse superintendent, operating engineers,
master mechanic, construction engineer, chief electrician, pipe and
powerhouse lead mechanic, construction lead mechanic, electrical lead
mechanic, and maintenance lead mechanic constitute a unit appro-
priate 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.]