A. O. Smith Corp. of Texas

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

May 13, 1953

104 N.L.R.B. 977 (N.L.R.B. 1953)

A. O. SMITH CORPORATION OF TEXAS 977
A. O. SMITH CORPORATION OF TEXAS and SHOPMEN'S
LOCAL UNION 694 OF THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIA-
TION OF BRIDGE, STRUCTURAL AND ORNAMENTAL
IRON WORKERS, AFL, Petitioner
A. O. SMITH CORPORATION OF TEXAS and PIPEFITTERS
LOCAL 211, UNITED ASSOCIATION OF JOURNEYMEN &
APPRENTICES OF THE PLUMBING & PIPE FITTING
INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES & CANADA, AFL,
Petitioner
A. O. SMITH CORPORATION OF TEXAS and MILLWRIGHTS
LOCAL 2232 OF THE UNITED BROTHERHOOD OF CAR-
PENTERS AND JOINERS OF AMERICA, AFL, Petitioner.
Cases Nos . 39-RC-567, 39-RC-568, and 39-RC-570. May 13,
1953
DECISION, ORDER, AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon separate petitions duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the
National Labor Relations Act, a consolidated hearing was held
before Clifford W. Potter, hearing officer. The hearing of-
ficer'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 these
cases to a three-member panel ,Chairman Herzog and Mem-
bers Styles and Peterson].
Upon the entire record in these cases, the Board finds:
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the mean-
ing of the Act.
2. The labor organizations involved claim to represent cer-
tain employees of the Employer.
3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the
representation of employees of the Employer within the mean-
ing of Section 9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
4. At Houston, Texas, the Employer operates a steel pipe
manufacturing plant, with approximately 275 production and
maintenance employees. The production operations, by means
of which sheet steel is converted into piping of various sizes
through successive applications of chemical, mechanical, and
heat processes, are highly integrated and function continuously
on a 20-hour-a-day basis.
The Employer, the Iron Workers,' and the Steel Workers=
agree that an existing collective-bargaining unit, currently
represented by the Steel Workers, and composed of all
production and maintenance employees, excluding electricians
and their helpers, A office and clerical employees, professional
employees, chemists, metallurgists, laboratory technicians,
t Shopmen's Local Union 694 of the International Association of Bridge , Structural and
Ornamental Iron Workers, AFL.
2 United Steelworkers of America. CIO.
(Currently represented by international Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. AFL.
104 NLRB No. 115.
9 78 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
guards, watchmen , and supervisors as defined in the Act,
constitutes the only appropriate collective -bargaining unit for
employees at the Employer ' s plant.
The Pipefitters4 seeks to sever from the existing unit em-
ployees engaged in the maintenance of pipe and piping equip-
ment, including their helpers and apprentices , but excluding
all other employees and supervisors as defined in the
Act.
The Millwrights6 seeks to sever from the existing unit two
separate units, as follows : (a) All machine repairmen, in-
cluding machine repairmen B, but excluding all other em-
ployees and supervisors as defined in the Act; and (b) all
maintenance welders, including the welder in the machine
shop , but excluding all arbor welders, all other welders, all
other employees , and supervisors as defined in the Act.
The Employer' s plant is administratively organized for the
primary purpose of promoting the uninterrupted flow of its
production operations .6 With 2 exceptions ,7 the 9 pipefitters,
13 machine repairmen, and 6 welders herein sought to be
severed work with other maintenance employees O within a
single department known as the mechanical maintenance
department , under the supervision of a maintenance super-
visor. There is no separate supervision for any of the em-
ployee groups within this department , and there are no
separate pipe, machine repair, or welding shops for the
employee groups herein sought to be separately represented,
all of whom perform bench and booth work in a common
working area. The plant is equipped with a system of coded
whistle calls which inform these employees of maintenance
jobs to be performed anywhere in the plant and of the type of
job to be performed . These whistle - call jobs, which take
precedence over other mechanical maintenance department
work, are under the jurisdiction of the production supervisor,
who operates the whistle , instructs maintenance employees
who respond to the calls with respect to the nature of the jobs
to be performed , and frequently directs them in the per-
formance of their work.
None of the pipefitter, machine repairman , or welder groups
herein sought to be separately represented possess specific
4Pipefitters Local 211, United Association of Journeymen & Apprentices of the Plumbing
& Pipe Fitting Industry of the United States & Canada, AFL.
SMillwrights Local 2232 of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America,
AFL.
6 The Employer's production operations are briefly described as follows: Steel plate which
arrives at the freightyard is cleaned in an acid bath and trimmed and shaped into cylinders,
in 4 successive stages , in the press department. Lugs are then welded to either end of the
cylinders and butt-welding machines attached thereto, which machines flash-weld the entire
seam, 40 feet in length , in a single operation . The pipe is trimmed of excess flash, tested,
inspected, and loaded on trucks or railroad equipment for shipment.
7 These exceptions include the machine- shop welder and a pipefitter in the butt-weld depart-
ment, a production department.
s These include pump operators , oilers, truckdrivers , chipmen, janitors , sweepers, and
laborers . The Employer has two other maintenance departments , known as the electrical
maintenance department and the machine shop.
A. O. SMITH CORPORATION OF TEXAS 979
craft skills not shared by other employees in the plant; in
fact, the Employer hires employees within these groups
primarily for their ability to handle any of the several
different types of mechanical difficulties which arise in
the course of its operations, rather than for any peculiar
skills which they may possess in a single craft field. Such
hirings are from within the plant and are frequently from the
ranks of production employees. The Employer has no ap-
prentice training program for its mechanical maintenance
department employees.
The employees herein sought to be severed are engaged in
work which follows the functional requirements of the Em-
ployer's continuous plant operations, rather than traditional
craft work patterns. Accordingly, these employees frequently
work in teams, with or without other mechanical maintenance
department employees and production employees;' theyfre-
quently perform a variety of jobs not associated with a
particular craft;1° and other plant employees, using similar
skills, frequently perform' pipefitting, machine maintenance,
and welding work essentially similar to that performed by the
pipefitters, machine repairmen, and maintenance welders."
On October 12, 1950, following consent elections, the
Steelworkers was certified as the exclusive collective -bargain-
ing representative of the Employer's production and mainte-
nance employees , with the aforementioned exclusions, in
separate units of (a) machine shop employees and (b) all
other employees. Since December 4, 1950, the Steelworkers
has contractually represented these employees in a single
production and maintenance unit.
Under these circumstances, we conclude that the three
separate groups of pipefitters, machine repairmen, and main-
tenance welders herein sought to be separately represented
lack both the craft skills and the group homogeneity and
identity prerequisite to their establishment by this Board in
separate bargaining units,'2 and that the unit of production
and maintenance employees herein sought is the only ap-
propriate collective-bargaining unit at this time.
Accordingly, we find that the separate units of pipefitters,
sought by the Pipefitters in Case No. 39-RC-568, and of
machine repairmen and of maintenance welders, sought by the
9 Thus, pipefitters assist machine repairmen, maintenance welders, and other mainte-
nance employees , and production employees work as a team to keep the butt -weld machine- -
the Employer 's most important production machine-- in operation . Similar teamwork occurs
during bimonthly changeovers of machinery , which occur when pipe of a different size is to
be produced.
10 For instance , machine repairmen also perform rigging and iron work, and pipefitters
also perform brick work, light burners, adjust lubrication on the dispatch washer , grind,
repair , and replace valve seats , and clean and drain septic tanks.
11 There are, in addition to the maintenance welders herein sought to be severed , several
categories of production welders , known as test head welders, lug welders , repair floor
welders, and arbor welders . Production employees also do machine repair work, and other
maintenance employees do pipefitting.
uChicago Retort and Fire Brick Division of Laclede-Christie Company, 99 NLRB 335;
Automatic Electric Company, 94 NLRB 1125.
980 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Millwrights in Case No . 39-RC-570, are inappropriate for the
purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section
9 (b) of the Act, and we therefore dismiss the petitions in those
cases . We further find that all production and maintenance em-
ployees at the Employer' s Houston , Texas, steel pipe manu-
facturing plant , including pipefitters , machine repairmen, and
welders, but excluding electricians and their helpers, office
and clerical employees , professional employees , chemists,
metallurgists , laboratory technicians , guards, watchmen, and
supervisors as defined in the Act, constitute aunit appropriate
for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning
of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
ORDER
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the petitions in Cases Nos.
39-RC-568 and 39-RC-570 be, and the same hereby are,
dismissed.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.]
E. W. LOUDER AND C. E. DUNMIRE, d/b/a SOUTH FORK
FOUNDRY AND MACHINE COMPANY and UNITED STEEL-
WORKERS OF AMERICA, CIO, Petitioner
UNIVERSAL ELECTRIC AND MANUFACTURING COMPANY
and UNITED STEELWORKERS OF AMERICA, CIO, Petitioner
NATIONAL BOOTH AND LOUNGE COMPANY and UNITED
STEELWORKERS OF AMERICA, CIO, Petitioner
FLOOD CITY BRASS AND ELECTRIC COMPANY and UNITED
STEELWORKERS OF AMERICA, CIO, Petitioner
WESTINGHOUSE ELECTRIC CORPORATION JOHNSTOWN
MANUFACTURING AND REPAIR PLANT and INTERNA-
TIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS, AFL,
Petitioner . Cases Nos. 6-RC-1226 , 6-RC-1227, 6- RC-1228,
6-RC-1230, and 6-RC-1234, May 13, 1953
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
Upon separate petitions duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the
National Labor Relations Act, a consolidated hearing was held
before Harold L. Hudson, hearing officer. The hearing officer's
rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error
and are hereby affirmed. At the hearing , United Electrical,
Radio, and Machine Workers of America , and its amalgamated
Local 619 , herein called the UE and Local 619 , moved to dis-
miss the petitions upon the ground that its several contracts
with the individual Employers involved herein constitute re-
104 NLRB No. 123.