West Virginia Pulp and Paper Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Dec 1, 1937

4 N.L.R.B. 286 (N.L.R.B. 1937)

In the Matter Of WEST VIRGINIA PULP AND PAPER COMPANY and
INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF PULP, SULPHITE AND PAPER MILL
WORKERS, LOCAL No. 36, LUKE, MARYLAND
Case No. B-380.-Decided December 1, 1937
Paper Manufacturing Industry-Investigation of Representatives : agreement
for election-Election Ordered-Certification of Representatives.
Mr. Reeves R. Hilton, for the Board.
Gleason, McLanahan, Merritt d Ingraham, by Mr. Henry Clifton,
Jr., of New York City, for the Company.
Mr. Milton M. Bever, of Keyser, W. Va., for the Union.
Mr. Charles Z. Heskett, of Cumberland, Md., for the Association.
Mr. Henry TF. Lehmann , of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
On October 2, 1937, International Brotherhood of Pulp, Sulphite
and Paper Mill Workers, Local No. 36, Luke, Maryland, herein
called the Union, filed with the Regional Director for the Fifth
Region (Baltimore, Maryland) a petition alleging that a question
affecting commerce had arisen concerning the representation of em-
ployees of West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company, herein called
the Company, at its plant in Luke, Maryland, and requesting an
investigation and certification of representatives pursuant to Section
9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act, 49 Stat. 449, herein called
the Act. On October 13, 1937, the National Labor Relations Board,
herein called the Board, acting pursuant to Article III, Section 3,
of National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 1,
as amended, ordered an investigation and authorized the Regional
Director to conduct it and to provide for an appropriate hearing
upon due notice.
On November 3, 1937, the Regional Director issued a notice of
hearing, copies of which were duly served upon the Company, both
at Luke, Maryland, and in New York City, and upon the Union.
The Regional Director also issued to the Employees' Protective
Association, herein called the Association, which had been named in
286
DECISIONS AND ORDERS 287
the petition as claiming to represent employees of the Company,
and to the Committee for Industrial Organization notices advising
both such organizations of their right to intervene in this proceed-
ing. On November 5, 1937, the Association filed with the Regional
Director a motion to intervene in which it claimed that its member-
ship included a majority of the respondent's employees, exclusive
of salaried, clerical, or supervisory employees, and in which it re-
quested the Board to conduct an election among the employees of the
Company to determine the agency entitled to act as the exclusive
representative of such employees for the purposes of collective bar-
gaining. The Regional Director notified the counsel of the Associa-
tion of its right to intervene.
Contrary to the notices but with the consent of all parties to the
proceeding, the hearing was in fact held in Baltimore, Maryland,
on November 11, 1937, before Mapes Davidson, the Trial Examiner
duly designated by the Board. The Company and the Association
were both represented by counsel, and the Union by the president
of International Brotherhood of Pulp, Sulphite and Paper Mill
Workers.
At the hearing, there was offered in evidence and made a part
of the record without objection, a stipulation' entered into by all
parties which reads in part as follows :
I.
For the sole purpose of providing an agreed statement of
such facts, and thereby avoiding the time and expense involved
in testimony on the facts, the undersigned agree that the follow-
ing facts are true :
A. The West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company is a corpora-
tion duly incorporated under the laws of the State of Delaware,
incorporated in 1899. The said company is capitalized at ' $25,-
000,000 preferred and 1,000,000 shares common of no par value,
and the stock thereof distributed among approximately 2,000
stockholders.
The company is engaged in the business of manufacturing and
distributing pulp and paper products and chemical by-products.
Approximately 70 per cent of the raw materials used by the
company are obtained from States other than the State of Mary-
land, principally pulpwood from West Virginia, Pennsylvania,
and Virginia, coal from West Virginia, clay from Georgia, and
sulphur from Texas. These raw materials are shipped to the
company's mill in Luke, Maryland, by railroad and auto truck.
' The omitted portions of the stipulation are not material to this Decision.
288 NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Process used in the manufacture of products consists of soda and
sulphate pulp preparation and paper manufacturing by the
Fourdrinier and coating machine processes. Approximately
1,700 to 1,800 employees are engaged in the above operations.
About 95 per cent of the finished product is shipped by railroad
out of the State of Maryland to other States, principally New
York, Illinois, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. The volume of
production for the last peak month, May, 1937, was about 6,100
tons and the pay roll for the same period was $181,706. The
gross value of the company's products at Luke for the past fiscal
year ending October 31, 1937, was approximately $7,000,000.
The product is sold directly by salesmen and through agents to
printers, publishers, and paper converters. The following ma-
chinery is used by the company in the manufacture of its prod-
ucts : Fourdrinier and coating paper machines, rewinders, cal-
enders, cutters, trimmers, pulp digesters, chippers, kilns, rotary
furnaces, power plant and boiler equipment, etc., and was pur-
chased principally in Massachusetts, Delaware, Ohio, New York,
Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Wisconsin, Illinois, and
Missouri. Replacement and repair parts are purchased mostly
in same States and shipped by railroad to the plant. The com-
pany is considered a major factor in the industry ...
The company agrees that it is engaged in interstate commerce
within the meaning of the decisions of the United States Su-
preme Court interpreting the National Labor Relations Act.
B. Luke Local 36, International Brotherhood of Pulp, Sul-
phite, and Paper Mill Workers, affiliated with the American
Federation of Labor, claims a substantial number of members
among the employees of the "company".
C. The Employees' Protective Association, Luke Mill, claims
a substantial number of members among the employees of the
"company".
D. The "company" has bargained collectively under a work-
ing agreement with the Employees' Protective Association, Luke
Mill, since December 1, 1933; has authorization to deduct dues
from over eleven hundred members in the Employees' Protective
Association, Luke Mill, but has no other knowledge of which or-
ganization represents the majority of the employees and ques-
tions whether Luke Local 36, International Brotherhood of
Pulp, Sulphite, and Paper Mill Workers, affiliated with the
American Federation of Labor, represents a majority of the
employees.
E. The Luke Local No. 36, International Brotherhood of
Pulp, Sulphite, and Paper Mill Workers, affiliated with the
DECISIONS AND ORDERS 289
American Federation of Labor, is a labor organization within
the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act.
F. Employees' Protective Association, Luke Mill, is a labor
organization within the meaning of the National Labor Rela-
tions Act.
II.
It is hereby agreed among the parties hereto :
A. That an election pursuant to an order of the National
Labor Relations Board is desired by the parties hereto to be
held in accordance with the rules and regulations of the Na-
tional Labor Relations Board.
All employees of the company except those paid on a salary
basis, on the pay roll the week of September 1, 1937, is agree-
able to the parties hereto as the proper unit for the purpose of
collective bargaining.
III.
The parties hereby agree that if it is determined by the Na-
tional Labor Relations Board that either of the above-mentioned
labor organizations represents a majority of the employees
herein described in accordance with the above procedure, then
the said company agrees to proceed to bargain collectively with
said organization, as certified by the National Labor Relations
Board, as the sole bargaining agency for all the employees of
the particular unit.
Without objection, it was then stated for the record that em-
ployees who had been furloughed were part of the appropriate unit
as defined in the stipulation.
On the basis of the stipulation quoted above, the Board will issue
a Direction of Election.
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 Rela-
tions Act, 49 Stat. 449, and pursuant to Article III, Section 8, of
National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 1,
as amended, it is hereby
DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation directed by the Board
to ascertain representatives for the purposes of collective bargaining
with West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company, an election by secret
ballot shall be conducted within fifteen (15) days from the date of
this Direction, under the direction and supervision of the Regional
Director for the Fifth Region, acting in this matter as agent for
290 NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
the National Labor Relations Board, and subject to Article III, Sec-
tion 9, of said Rules and Regulations, among all employees of the
Company at its Luke, Maryland, plant on its pay roll during the
week of September 1, 1937, including employees furloughed since
September 1, 1937, whose names have been retained on the pay roll,
but excluding employees compensated on a salary basis, to determine
whether they desire to be represented by International Brotherhood
of Pulp, Sulphite and Paper Mill Workers, Local No. 36, or by
Employees' Protective Association for the purposes of collective
bargaining, or by neither.
SAME TITLE]
CERTIFICATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
January 10, 1938
On October 2, 1937, International Brotherhood of Pulp, Sulphite
and Paper Mill Workers, Local No. 36, Luke, Maryland, herein
called the Union, filed with the Regional Director for the Fifth
Region (Baltimore, Maryland) a petition alleging that a question
affecting commerce had arisen concerning the representation of em-
ployees of West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company, herein called
the Company, at its plant in Luke, Maryland, and requesting an
investigation and certification of representatives pursuant to Section
9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act, 49 Stat. 449, herein
called the Act.
On November 3, 1937, the Regional Director issued a notice of
hearing, copies of which were duly served upon the Company, both
at Luke, Maryland, and in New York City, and upon the Union.
The Regional Director also issued to the Employees' Protective As-
sociation, herein called the Association, which had been named in the
petition as claiming to represent employees of the Company, and to
the Committee for Industrial Organization notices advising both
such organizations of their right to intervene in this proceeding.
Contrary to the notices but with the consent of all parties to the
proceeding, the hearing was in fact held in Baltimore, Maryland,
an November 11, 1937, before Mapes Davidson, the Trial Examiner
duly designated by the Board. The Company and the Association
were both represented by counsel, and the Union by the President of
the International Brotherhood of Pulp, Sulphite and Paper Mill
Workers. On the basis of the record and a stipulation entered into
at the hearing by all parties, the Board issued a Decision and a
Direction of Election on December 1, 1937. The Direction of Elec-
tion provided that an election by secret ballot be held within 15
days from the date of the Direction among all employees of the
Company at its Luke, Maryland, plant on its pay roll during the
I
DECISIONS AND ORDERS 291
week of September 1, 1937, including employees furloughed since
September 1, 1937, whose names have been retained on the pay roll,
but excluding employees compensated on a salary basis, to determine
whether they desired to be represented by International Brother-
hood of Pulp, Sulphite and Paper Mill Workers, Local No. 36; or
by Employees' Protective Association for the purposes of collective
bargaining, or by neither.
Pursuant to the Direction balloting was conducted on December
14, 1937. Full opportunity was accorded to all of the parties to this
investigation to participate in the conduct of the secret ballot and
to make challenges.
The Regional Director, acting pursuant to Article III, Section 9,
of National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 1,
as amended, issued and duly served upon the parties to the proceed-
ing his Intermediate Report on the ballot. No exceptions to the
Intermediate Report have been filed by any of the parties.
As to the balloting and its results the Regional Director reported
as follows :
Total number of eligibles------------------------- --- 1, 713
Total number of ballots cast------------------------------ 1,352
Total number of blank ballots----------------------------- 0
Total number of void ballots------------------------------
0
Total number of challenged votes-------------------------- 0
Total number of votes for International Brotherhood of Pulp,
Sulphite and Paper Mill Workers------------------------ 607
Total number of votes cast for Employees' Protective Asso-
ciation------- ----------------------------------- 698
Total number of votes cast for neither organization--------- 47
By virtue of and 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 8, of National
Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 1, as amended,
IT IS HEREBY CERTIFIED that Employees' Protective Association has
been designated and selected by a majority of the employees of the
Company at its Luke, Maryland, plant on its pay roll during the
week of September 1, 1937, including employees furloughed since
September 1, 1937, whose names have been retained on the pay roll,
but excluding employees compensated on a salary basis, as their
representative for the purposes of collective bargaining, and that,
pursuant to Section 9 (a) of the National Labor Relations Act, Em-
ployees' Protective Association is the exclusive representative of all
such employees for the purposes of collective bargaining in respect
to rates of pay, wages, hours of employment, and other conditions
of employment.
MR. DONALD WAKEFIELD SMITH took no part in the consideration
of the above Certification of Representptives.