Western Electric Co., Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jul 30, 1952

100 N.L.R.B. 420 (N.L.R.B. 1952)

420 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
tually employ over 10,000 workers. The first of 5 planned buildings
will be ready for operation this summer, the second this fall, and the
third early in 1953. The model shop is temporarily located in a
Louisville building but will be transferred to the new plant and become
a part of a permanent combined toolroom and model shop that will
service the entire division.
The 21 model shop employees presently employed, classified as model
makers and sheet metal workers, are engaged in making full-scale
working samples and models of appliances for laboratory testing. In
this work, these model makers exercise the usual skills of tool and die
makers. Part of the present operation requires bending materials into
shape to construct electric ranges; this work is now performed by the
sheet metal workers in the model shop. To the present group of model
shop employees, the Employer shortly plans to add new classifications
of craft employees such as tool and die makers, tool makers, lathe
operators, and milling machine operators. By September 1952, these
toolroom and model shop employees will be increased to 75; by the end
of 1952, to 150 employees; and by June 1953, to 250 employees. Be-
cause of the imminence of this substantial expansion, the present group
of model shop employees is not representative of all categories of
employees to be included in the ultimate toolroom and model shop
unit of which they will be a part; nor do they constitute a substantial
proportion of the expected full complement of such employees. In
these circumstances, we believe that any unit determination affecting
these employees would, at present, be premature.' Accordingly, we
shall dismiss the petition without prejudice.
Order
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the petition filed herein be, and it hereby
is, dismissed.
1 Westinghouse Electric Corporation, 85 NLRB 1519; Coast Pacific Lumber Company,
78 NLRB 1245.
WESTERN ELECTRIC COMPANY, INCORPORATED and COMMUNICATIONS
WORKERS OF AMERICA, CI(), PETITIONER . Case No. 18-RC-1330.
Julj 30, 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 Max Rotenberg, hearing
officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free
from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
100 NLRB No. 67.
WESTERN ELECTRIC COMPANY, INCORPORATED = 421-
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 [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 Act.
2. The labor organization involved claims to represent certain
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 Petitioner seeks to represent a unit of all salaried employees
of the Employer's telephone division employed at the Employer's
distributing house in Minneapolis, Minnesota, including methods
analysts, stock maintainers, assistant stock maintainers, buying assist-
ant, and personnel investigator, but excluding professional employees,
managerial employees, confidential secretaries, guards, and super-
visors as defined in the Act. The Employer agrees with the general
composition of the unit sought but urges that the methods analysts,
stock maintainers, assistant stock maintainers, and buying assistant
should be excluded on the ground that they are managerial employees,
and that the personnel investigator is a professional employee and
should be permitted to vote separately to decide whether or not he
desires to be included in the unit with the salaried office and clerical
employees.
- Methods analysts: There are 4 employees in this group who are
located in the repair shop office although their duties take them to all
parts of the shop. Their work concerns the ultimate determination
of costs which form the basis of the Employer's prices on repairs to
communication equipment for the Employer's customers, principally
the Northwest Bell Telephone Company. The analyst first inspects
the item of equipment and determines the economic feasibility of
making repairs. He determines the tools, layout, floor space, and
grade of labor to be used. When necessary, the analyst makes a time
and motion study and a test run of a particular repair job. The deter-
minations are entered on a standard cost sheet, which, after approval
but without detailed review by the analyst's supervisor, goes to the
accounting division where the costs are extended and a price is estab-
lished, usually on lots of 100. About 75 percent of the employee's
time is spent on making analyses of repair on which there are estab-
lished specifications. The remainder of the analyst's time is divided
about equally between jobs which have only analogous specifications
and those which have no specifications at all. ^ The analyst confers
with his supervisor and also-with the operating foreman, who will be
responsible for the job and whom the analyst instructs in the proper
422 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS,BOARD
method of performing the operations. About 10 percent of the
Employer's prices is questioned by its principal customer, the tele-
phone company, and on such occasions the analyst confers with a
representative of the customer and supplies information to justify the
price. The analysts are high school graduates who have had broad
experience in the repair shop and receive the highest salary grade of
nonsupervisory salaried employees.
The Employer contends that the methods analysts are managerial
employees. In this case it is unnecessary for the Board to determine
whether or not these employees are in fact, managerial employees, for
it seems clear from the description of their duties that at least they
are highly skilled technical employees., As the unit petitioned for,
and herein found appropriate, is an office and clerical unit, we shall,
in accordance with Board policy, exclude the methods analysts as
technical employees?
Stock maintainers and assistant stock maintainers: These employees,
of whom there are eight, are located in the general office of the stores
division. The work of these employees consists of maintaining the
required level of stocks carried on the Employer's stock list for dis-
tribution to its customers. In the performance of his work the stock
maintainer (and the assistant stock maintainer) receives an inventory
report showing, among other things, the quantity of the item on hand.
Relying on his judgment of the movement of stock, the current special
needs of customers, and the historical data contained on the stock card
maintained by him, the stock maintainer (and the assistant stock main-
tainer) enters on the stock card the quantity and kind of stock re-
quired to bring the stock up to an appropriate level. Stock is then
ordered in that amount. The stock maintainer has the authority to
order up to $1,000 of any one stock code item in any one order. The
limitation on orders by the assistant stock maintainer is $200. Ap-
proximately 75 percent in cost and 90 percent in numbers of items of
all purchases of stock replacements are made on the signatures- of .the
stock maintainers and assistant stock maintainers.
The Employer contends that stock maintainers and assistant stock
maintainers are managerial employees. Although the functions of
these employees are important to the Employer and understocking or
overstocking may result in loss to it, these factors alone do not make
these employees managerial employees. We find that stock main-
tainers and assistant maintainers are not managerial employees and, as
office, employees, we shall include them in the unit.
Buying assistant: This employee works in the buying deparfinent
and is under the supervision of the buyer. The function of the buying
s Bulldog Electric Products Company, 96 NLRB 642.
91 Willard Storage Battery Company , 94 NLRB 1423.
EFCO MANUFACTURING , INC. 423
department is to buy stock from outside suppliers (as distinguished
from stock received from the Employer' s own manufacturing facili-
ties) for resale to customers . These supplies are ordered under general
contracts, which are negotiated by the Employer's New York office,
and local contracts, which are negotiated by the buyer and usually
cover small cost items. Local contracts are awarded on competitive
bids. The buyer has authority to purchase up to $1,000 on any one
item. The duties of the buying assistant are to do some of the pre-
liminary work leading up to the award of a local contract and sub-
stitute for the buyer who is away from the office approximately 30
percent of the time. Inasmuch as the buying assistant has authority
to commit the Employer for the purchase of materials for a substan-
tial part of his work time, we find that he is a managerial employee and
shall accordingly exclude him from the unit.
Personnel investigator: The duties of the personnel investigator
are to recruit employees, to interview and screen applicants for jobs,
to make recommendations with regard to hiring, and to do the paper
work with respect to rehiring former employees. He also arranges for
medical examinations of new employees and explains to them the
Employer's practices with regard to employee benefit plans, mode of
payment, and other policies of the Employer. As the personnel in-
vestigator recommends the hiring of prospective employees whom he
has interviewed, we shall exclude him from the unit.8
We find that all salaried employees of the Employer's telephone
division employed at the Employer's distributing house in Minne-
apolis, Minnesota, including stock maintainers and assistant stock
maintainers, but excluding methods analysts, buying assistant, per-
sonnel investigator, professional employees, managerial employees,
confidential secretaries, guards, and supervisors as defined in the Act
constitute a unit appropriate 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.]
S Bo, wit Teller, Ino., 84 NLRB 414.
EFCO MANUFACTURING, INC. and UNITED STEELWORKERS OF AMERICA,
CIO. Case No. 1-CA-1149. July 31,19&2
Decision and Order
On April 29, 1952, Trial Examiner Louis Plost issued his Inter-
mediate Report in the above-entitled proceeding, finding that Re-
spondent had engaged in and was engaging in certain unfair labor
100 NLRB No. 75.