Allied Chemical & Dye Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Dec 12, 1949

87 N.L.R.B. 593 (N.L.R.B. 1949)

In the Matter of ALLIED CHEMICAL & DYE CORPORATION (SOLVAY
PROCESS DIVISION), EMPLOYER and INTERNATIONAL HOD CARRIERS,
BUILDING AND COMMON LABORERS UNION OF AMERICA, AFL, LOCAL
1367, PETITIONER and INTERNATIONAL UNION OF OPERATING ENGI-
NEERS, LOCAL 520, AFL, PETITIONER and INTERNATIONAL BROTHER-
HOOD OF TEAMSTERS, CHAUFFEURS, WAREHOUSEMEN & HELPERS OF
AMERICA, AFL, LOCAL 50, PETITIONER
Cases Nos. 14-RC-682,14-RC-686, and 14-RC-689.-Decided
. December 12, 1949
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
Upon separate petitions duly filed, a consolidated hearing was held
before Milton O. Talent, 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 Reynolds].
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. International Hod Carriers, Building and Common. Laborers
Union of America, AFL, Local 1367, herein called Hod Carriers ;
International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 520, AFL, herein
called Operating Engineers; and International Brotherhood of Team-
sters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen & Helpers of America, AFL, Local
50, herein called Teamsters, are labor organizations claiming to repre-
sent employees of the Employer.
1 The hearing- officer referred to the Board the Employer's motions to dismiss the peti-
tions herein, or in the alternative, to modify the petition in Case No. 14-RC-682. For
reasons hereinafter stated these motions are denied.
87 NLRB No. 63. -
593
594 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
3. Questions affecting commerce exist 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 Hod Carriers seeks a unit of all production and maintenance
employees, including scalers, crusher feeders, car cleaners and patchers,
jackhammer men, powder men, drillers, switchmen, bin and chute men,
baggers, screen men, carloaders, pitmen, general maintenance men,
mill laborers, all other laborers and all other helpers and relief men in
any of the above classifications, excluding machine operators and truck
drivers.
The operators of power shovels, crane operators, Diesel locomotive
operators, Diesel power plant engineers, bulldozer operators, phint
operators, crusher operators, oilers, relief men in any of the above
classifications and operators of all other machines, excluding all other
employees.
The Teamsters seeks a unit,of all drivers or chauffeurs, excluding all
other employees of the Company.
The Employer is engaged in mining and selling limestone at its
operation in Prairie du 'Rocker, Illinois. It purchased its mine from
the Columbia Quarry Company, herein called Columbia, in November
1948. From 1941 to the date of the sale, Columbia and the Petitioners
negotiated separate collective bargaining agreements for each of the
units above described. A short time after the purchase, the Peti-
tioners made their demand for recognition upon the Employer for the
same units previously bargained for with Columbia. The Employer
refused recognition contending then, as it does now, that the Peti-
tioners' units are inappropriate and that only a plant-wide production
and maintenance unit is appropriate.
The Petitioners, relying on an 8-year prior history of collective
bargaining with Columbia, contend that the units historically estab-
lished at the Employer's plant should not be disturbed. We agree
with the Petitioners' contentions. No labor organization seeks these
employees on a broader basis. The present operations at the mine are
substantially the same as when they were conducted by Columbia. The
equipment, the employees, and substantially the same conditions of
employment pertain now as previously. Moreover, the Employer has
to a certain extent observed the departmental lines established by the
Petitioners' contracts with Columbia, as evidenced by a reduction in
force statement of policy issued in April 1949, which recognized the
existence of the three departments which the Petitioners seek herein.
The statement of policy set up seniority for all employees on a depart-
mental as well as a plant-wide basis. Furthermore, despite common
supervision of all the employees of all three departments, there has
ALLIED CHEMICAL & DYE CORPORATION 595
been no substantial interchange of employees from one department to
an other except on a permanent basis.
From the foregoing facts, we conclude that where, as here, employ-
ees have bargained collectively for a long period of time along well-
.defined departmental lines, a subsequent change of ownership, with-
out substantial change in operations, is not of itself sufficient cause for
disrupting the desires of employees whose interests have long been
divorced .from one another.2 Accordingly, we find the units sought by
.the Petitioners are appropriate for purposes of, collective bargaining.
We find that the following employees of the Employeer constitute
units appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the
meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act, excluding in each case office and
clerical employees, guards, professional employees, and supervisors
as defined in the Act :
(a) All production and maintenance employees, excluding machine
,operators and truck drivers;
(b) All machine operators including crane, power shovel, Diesel
locomotive, bulldozer, plant and crusher operators, Diesel power
plant engineers, oilers and/or pitmen '3 relief men in any of the above
classifications, excluding all other employees; and
(c) All drivers or chauffeurs of the Employer, excluding all other
employees.
DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the pur-
poses of collective bargaining with the Employer, separate elections
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 voting groups described in paragraph numbered 4, above, who
were employed during the pay-roll period immediately preceding
the date of this Direction of Elections, including employees who did
not work during said pay-roll period because they were ill or on va-
-cation 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 riot :
3 Cf. Illinois Cities Water Company, 87 NLRB 109.
3It appears from the record that oilers and/or pitmen act as relief men for machine
operators. Under the circumstances we find their interests are more closely allied with
the interests of the machine operators ; we shall, therefore, include them in the unit.
877359-50-vol. 87-39
596 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
(a) All employees in group (a) desire to be represented, for pur-
poses of collective bargaining, by International Hod Carriers, Build-
ing and Common Laborers Union of America, AFL, Local 1367;
(b) All employees in group (b) desire to be represented, for pur-
poses of collective bargaining, by International Union of Operating
Engineers, Local 520 AFL; and
(c) All employees in group (c) desire to be represented, for pur-
poses of collective bargaining, by International Brotherhood of Team-
sters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen & Helpers of America, AFL,
Local 50.