Airborne Instruments Laboratory, Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Apr 24, 1953

104 N.L.R.B. 367 (N.L.R.B. 1953)

AIRBORNE INSTRUMENTS LABORATORY , INCORPORATED 367
Carpenters for such unit , which unit the Board , under such
circumstances , finds to be appropriate for purposes of col-
lective bargaining . If a majority of, voters in voting group (2)
vote for the Boilermakers , they will have indicated their
desire to constitute a separate appropriate unit and the
Regional Director will issue a certification of representatives
to the Boilermakers for such unit , which unit the Board,
under such circumstances , finds to be appropriate for purposes
of collective bargaining . If a majority of the voters in both
voting groups vote for the Boilermakers they will have
indicated their desire to be represented by the Boilermakers
in a single unit and the Regional Director will issue a certi-
fication of representatives to the Boilermakers for such
unit , which unit the Board , under such circumstances, finds
to be appropriate for purposes of collective bargaining.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.]
AIRBORNE INSTRUMENTS LABORATORY, INCORPORATED
and LOCAL 807, INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF
TEAMSTERS , CHAUFFEURS , WAREHOUSEMEN AND HELP-
ERS OF AMERICA , AFL, Petitioner . Case No . 2-RC-5381.
April 24, 1953
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 Arthur
Goldberg , 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
Murdock and Peterson].
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
representation of employees of the Employer within the
meaning of Section 9 ( c) (1) and Section 2 ( 6) and ( 7) of the Act.
4. The appropriate unit:
The Petitioner seeks to represent unit of the Employer's
drivers and shipping and receiving employees . Alternate unit
requests by the Petitioner include (a) drivers , shipping,
receiving , and mailroom employees ; (b) drivers , shipping,
receiving , and mailroom employees , and spare parts clerks
in the packaging section; and (c) drivers . The Employer
maintains that only an overall unit of all employees is appro-
priate.
104 NLRB No. 51.
368 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
The Employer is engaged in research , design, and develop-
ment work for the armed services under the national -defense
program . Its final products are research reports, prototype
models of its research and development work, and spare
parts for such prototypes.
The operations of the Employer are divided into four
principal divisions : ( 1) Financial--performing the usual finan-
cial and general business services ; ( 2) research and engineer-
ing--performing theoretical research and embodying such
research into written reports , from which prototype models
are, on occasion , constructed ; (3) engineering and production--
performing production work in constructing prototypes and
spare parts and making practical application of the theoretical
work of the research and engineering division ; and (4 ) engineer-
ing services - -performing general services for all other
divisions , including janitors , maintenance men, guards, re-
ceptionists , shipping and receiving employees , mailroom
employees , telephone operators , drivers, property custody
clerks, library employees , publications employees , and others.
A further breakdown shows that the engineering services
division has four departments : Procurement, publications,
a miscellaneous grouping ,' and plant services.
With the exception of the spare parts clerks in the packaging
section ,: all the employees whom the Petitioner seeks to
represent work in two sections of the plant services depart-
ment,3 namely, the transportation and communications section
and the shipping , receiving , and mail section . The two sections
are considered in the order named above.
Transportation and Communication4
The Employer hires 4 drivers to operate its vehicles,
1 truck, 2 suburbans, and I sedan. Although the drivers have
other duties, they are primarily engaged in the actual operation
of these vehicles, while making pickups and deliveries.6
The drivers receive their assignments from the plant services
supervisor , Person,6 although the latter ' s instructions are
usually relayed to the drivers through his assistant. On
occasion, the drivers apparently receive their instructions
from other departments of the Employer's plant.
I This department is not specifically labeled on the Employer's operational chart (Em-
ployer's Exhibit No. 1), but it consists of the following sections : Research, instrument
room, library, and property custody.
2 This section is part of the services department of the engineering and production di-
vision.
6The other sections of the plant services department are guard service and building and
grounds . in the latter section, there are, among others, 11 maintenance employees, 3 or 4
of whom substitute for drivers who are either absent or on vacation. Moreover, some
maintenance employees assist drivers in loading and unloading on the average of once a
day.
&The communications section is composed solely of two telephone operators.
6 The drivers pick up from and deliver to both of the Employer's shipping and receiving
locations and the mailroom.
6 As shown by Employer 's Exhibit No. 1. Person has ultimate supervision over three
sections , besides transportation and communication.
AIRBORNE INSTRUMENTS LABORATORY, INCORPORATED 369
Shipping, Receiving, and Mail
There are 8 employees in the Employer's shipping and
receiving section of whom 5 7 work at its Old County Road
installation while the remaining 3 employees work 3 miles
away at its Stewart Avenue location. These employees check
all incoming mail and materials and wrap, pack, and crate
all outgoing materials.8 The shipping and receiving super-
visor, Boyling, is in overall charge of this section, while
the assistant shipping and receiving supervisor, Terrano,9
apparently is "in charge" of the 3 employees at the Stewart
Avenue location.
The mailroom comprises a separate area adjacent to the
shipping and receiving room at Old County Road. It is staffed
by three employees whose work is supervised by Boyling.
These employees are responsible for sorting and delivering
incoming mail and for picking up and stamping outgoing
mail.10 Each piece of mail must be accounted for pursuant
to security regulations and accurate records must be kept.
Spare Parts Clerks in the Packaging Section
As noted above, the employees, five in number, in this
section are part of the services department of the engineering
and production division. This section is located in a separate
wire-enclosed area adjacent to the Stewart Avenue shipping
and receiving room. These employees prepack component
parts for prototypes, following special wrapping instructions
or specifications. After the parts have been prepacked, they
are examined by the inspectors in the quality control section
of the engineering and production division, and then passed
to the shipping and receiving room where they are packed,
crated, and made ready for shipment to their destination.11
It is further noted that there are stock clerks and tool
clerks in both the engineering services division and the
engineering and production division. The Petitioner does
not seek any of these employees in its unit requests, although
both stock and tool clerks handle materials and supplies, as
do the shipping and receiving employees and the spare parts
clerks.
The record indicates that strict lines of demarcation in the
Employer's operations are not followed; thatpersonnelpolicies
7Of these 5 employees, 2 are concerned solely with typing , filing, and keeping records.
The Petitioner would exclude these 2 employees from any unit found appropriate.
8 They also assist the drivers in the loading and unloading of vehicles.
9The supervisory status of Terrano is in dispute . The parties were not prepared to
produce evidence on that issue at the hearing.
10 The Petitioner would exclude and the Employer include 1 of the 3 mailroom employees.
The disputed employee spends 75 percent of her time in opening and sorting mail and 25
percent of her time in paper work in connection with registered mail.
11 The Petitioner does not seek the three spare parts clerks in the spare parts section,
as their work is allegedly clerical in nature . They handle all the paper work for the packaging
section.
370 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL RELATIONS BOARD
have been uniform for all of the Employer's employees; 12
that, except for guards and one mailroom employee, all
employees work the same hours and all enjoy the same
facilities; and that there has been no employee interchange
between the classifications in each of the units requested by
the Petitioner.'3
Under these circumstances, we find that the units sought
by the Petitioner, including the principal unit and alternate
units (a) and (b), are not proper departmental units, but
constitute instead artificial groupings without sufficient ho-
mogeneity and cohesiveness to warrant representation in the
separate units sought herein. In so finding, we note the inte-
grated nature of the Employer's operations, the centralized
management control, the similar employment conditions for
all employees, and the lack of common supervision. and a
common working area between the employees within-the'
units requested by the Petitioner. Moreover, it appears
that the duties and interests of the requested employees are
not otherwise so clearly distinguishable from those of other
employees in this plant as to warrant a finding of appropriate
units based upon either the principal or first two alternate
unit contentions of the Petitioner. Such a finding would require
the Board to accord controlling weight to the Petitioner's
extent of organization among these employees. However,
Section 9 (c) (5) of the Act forbids this result. Accordingly,
we find the Petitioner's principal unit request and alternate
requests (a) and (b) inappropriate."
We find merit, however; in the third alternate unit con=
tention (c) where the Petitioner seeks a unit limited to
drivers alone. As the record shows that the duties of the
drivers are materially distinct from those of other employees
and as drivers are employees to whom the Board has tradi-
tionally granted the right of separate representation, 15, we
find that all drivers (transportation employees) at the Em-
ployer's Long Island, New York, plants, excluding supervisors
within the meaning of the Act, constitute a separate appropriate
unit for the purposes of collective bargaining within the
meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.]
12A wage and salary committee, composed of five of the Employer's officers, establishes
uniform. plantwide personnel policies and administers a wage- rate review system for all
employees.
19 There have been, on the other hand , a substantial number of transfers by employees in
or out of the requested units since January 1951.
14 Engineering Research Associates, Inc., 11 NLRB 207; California Research & Develop-
ment Co., 100 NLRB 1385; National Cylinder Gas Co., 100 NLRB 768; American Optical
Co., 96 NLRB 233; Cannell & Chaffin, Inc., 85 NLRB 887. Although the record indicates
that the larger unit proposed by the Employer could be appropriate, we shall not direct
an election in such unit. To do so would require a major modification of the Petitioner's
requested unit, unsupported by a sufficient showing of interest on the part of the Petitioner.
Sidney Meyers, Inc., 92 NLRB 112.
1sGeneral Box Co., 93 NLRB 789; D. B. Thornton Co., 94 NLRB 1188; Sidney Meyers,
Inc., supra.