Alamo Refining Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Feb 3, 1950

88 N.L.R.B. 505 (N.L.R.B. 1950)

In the Matter of ALAMO REFINING COMPANY, EMPLOYER and INTER-
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MACIIINISTS, LODGE 128, PETITIONER
Case No. 39-RC-1393.-Decided February 3, 1950
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before Charles Y.
Latimer, 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 National Labor
Relations Act, the Board has delegated its powers in connection with
this case to a three-member panel [Chairman Herzog and Members
Houston and Murdock].
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the National Labor Relations Act.
2. The labor organization involved claims to represent certain em-
ployees 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 a unit composed of all machinists, mainte-
nance equipment mechanics, salvageman, toolroom mechanic, and their
respective helpers, excluding all other employees and all supervisors.,
The Employer asserts, however, that only an over-all unit embracing
all employees in the operating, laboratory, and maintenance depart-
ments is appropriate.
The Employer is engaged in the processing of crude oil at its refinery
near Sweeney, Texas. The refinery consists of 3 departments, namely
operating, laboratory, and maintenance. The maintenance depart-
ment is divided into 6 divisions designated as labor; mechanical ; in-
strument-electrical; pipe fitter-boilermaker-welding-material han-
1 Although it desires to represent the toolroom mechanic and his helper , the Petitioner
indicated at the hearing that if the Board finds that these employees should not be in-
cluded in any unit found appropriate it would agree to their exclusion.
88 NLRB No. 99.
505
506 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
dling; miscellaneous crafts; and warehouse. There are approximately
1 70 employees in the maintenance department, all of whom are under
the general supervision of the plant engineer and under the immediate
supervision of their respective division foremen. All employees of the
Employer are subject to one company policy with respect to hours of
employment, vacations and holidays, insurance, medical benefits, and
other conditions of employment.
There is no history of collective bargaining affecting the employees
sought by the Petitioner; 2 and there is no request by any labor organ-
ization to represent a unit of employees at this refinery on a plant-
wide basis as contended by the Employer.
The unit proposed by the Petitioner would embrace approximately
30 employees. They include 15 machinists,3 8 machinists' helpers, 2
maintenance equipment mechanics, 1 salvageman, 2 salvagemen's
helpers, 1 toolroom mechanic, and 1 toolroom mechanic's helper.
With the exception of the latter 2 employees who work in the main-
tenance department toolroom and are supervised by the maintenance
foremen, all of the requested employees are employed in the mechan-
ical division and are under the supervision of the mechanical division
foreman.
THe record shows that the Employer has a progression program
through which craft helpers are trained to become skilled craftsmen;
similarly craftsmen may become eligible for promotion, and to bid
for vacancies in other classifications.
The machinists, and their regularly assigned helpers, have their
headquarters in the machine shop, although their work may take them
throughout the plant. In the performance of their -duties they use
the precision tools of the machinist trade such as lathes, radial and
upright drill presses, shapers, milling machines and grinders, and work
to very close tolerances. It is clear from the record that the Employer
recognizes machinists as true craftsmen.
The maintenance equipment mechanics are engaged in the mainte-
nance and repair of automotive equipment such as tractors, cranes, air
compressors, Diesel motors, and internal combustion engines of all
types. Although they work in a building known as the garage and
firehouse where the above-described equipment is apparently located,
they are like the machinists, under the supervision of the mechanical
division foreman. They are required to have experience of several
a On May 16, 1949, Pipefitters Local Union No. 195, AFL, was certified by the Board
as the bargaining representative of the Employers' pipe-fitters and helpers. However, as
of the date of the hearing, no contract had been negotiated.
3 Of this number , seven are classified as machinist, first class , and eight as machinist,
second class. As the progression from craftsman, second class, to craftsman, first class,
is automatic after the requisite period of time is served within the craft, the Employer
makes no distinction in work assignments between the respective craftsmen.
ALAMO REFINING COMPANY 507
years duration before being considered by the Employer as being quali-
fied to perform the duties of their classification. They receive the
same rate of pay as machinists, first class.
The salvageman and his helpers work in the machine shop and are
engaged in salvaging and reconditioning valves and pipe fittings of
all types. The record indicates that they are highly skilled workers
and that at times they interchange with machinists in their work.
The toolroorn mechanic and his helper are employed in the main-
tenance department toolroom and are under the supervision of the
maintenance department foreman. The toolroom occupied by these
employees is a shop separate and apart from the machine shop which
has its own tool crib. Approximately 75 percent of their time is spent
in issuing and receiving tools and equipment used by the maintenance
department employees and by the operating department; the remain-
ing 25 percent of their time is devoted to the maintenance and repair of
such tools.
The Employer argues that the unit sought is inappropriate because,
taken as a whole, it does not constitute an identifiable craft unit. We
find no merit in this contention. We have, in the past, found depart-
mental units of machinists and other employees, to be appropriate,
where it contained a nucleus of skilled craftsmen, notwithstanding
the fact that not all such employees in the unit possess definite craft
skills.4 Under these circumstances and upon the basis of the entire
record in the case, we believe that the employees in the mechanical
division constitute a machine shop craft group of the kind which the
Board has frequently found to be appropriate.
Although the Petitioner would include in its proposed unit the tool-
room mechanic and his helper, we believe that the interests of these
two employees are not sufficiently related to those of the employees in
the mechanical division to warrant their inclusion in the same bar-
gaining unit. We shall, therefore, exclude the toolroom mechanic and
the tool room mechanic's helper from the unit.
We find that all machinists, maintenance equipment mechanics, sal-
vagemen, and their respective helpers, excluding all other employees
and all supervisors as defined in the Act, constitute a unit appropriate
for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Sec-
tion 9 (b) of the Act.
4 International Harvester Company (Indianapolis Works), 82 NLRB 740; General Elec-
tric Company, Plastics Division of the Chemical Department, 81 NLRB 476; Robertshaw-
Fulton Controls Company (American Thermometer Company), 77 NLRB 316.
508 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the pur-
poses of collective bargaining with the Employer, an election by secret
ballot shall be conducted as early as possible, but not later than 30 days
from the date of this Direction, under the direction and supervision
of the Regional Director for the Region in which this case was heard,
and subject to Sections 203.61 and 203.62 of National Labor Relations
Board Rules and Regulations, among the employees in the unit found
appropriate in paragraph numbered 4, above, who were employed
during the payroll period immediately preceding the date of this
Direction of Election , including employees who did not work during
said payroll period because they were ill or on vacation or temporarily
laid off, but excluding those employees who have since quit or been
discharged for cause and have not been rehired or reinstated prior to
the date of the election , and also excluding employees on strike who
are not entitled to reinstatement , to determine whether or not they
desire to be represented , for purposes of collective bargaining, by
International Association of Machinists , Lodge 128.