American Cyanamid & Chemical Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

May 28, 1937

2 N.L.R.B. 881 (N.L.R.B. 1937)

In the Matter of AMERICAN CYANAMID & CHEMICAL CORPORATION and
LOCAL No. 1, AMALGAMATED POWDER WORKERS OF NORTH AMERICA
Case No. R-148.Decided May 98, 1937
Erplosave Manufacturing Industry-Investigation of Representatives : contro-
versy concerning representation of employees : refusal by employer to recognize
union as exclusive representative-Unit Appropriate for Collective Bargaining:
hourly rate employees ; eligibility for membership in only organization among
employees-Representatives : proof of choice : membership in union-Certifica-
tion of Representatives : after investigation but without election.
Mr. Robert H. Kleeb for the Board.
Mr. George R. Martin, of Latrobe, Pa., for the Corporation.
Mr. Alexander B. Hawes, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
STATEMENT OF CASE
On April 22, 1937, Local No. 132, United Powder and High Ex-
plosives Workers of America, hereafter called the Old Union, filed
a petition with the Regional Director of the National Labor Rela.
tions Board for the Sixth Region (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), alleg-
ing that a question affecting commerce had arisen concerning the
representation of employees in the Latrobe, Pennsylvania, plant of
American Cyanamid & Chemical Corporation, and requesting the Na-
tional Labor Relations Board to conduct an investigation and certify
representatives pursuant to Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Rela-
tions Act, 49 Stat. 449. On April 27, 1937, the Board, acting pursuant
to Section 9 (c) of the Act and Article III, Section 3 of National Labor
Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 1, as amended, author-
ized the Regional Director to conduct an investigation and to provide
for an appropriate hearing. On May 4, 1937, the Regional Director
issued a notice of hearing to be held at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on
May 13, 1937. On May 13, 1937, an "amended" petition was filed with
the Regional Director by Local No. 1, Amalgamated Powder Workers
of North America, in all respects similar to the petition filed April 22,
1937, except for the date and.the change in the name of the petitioner
throughout the petition. As appears later, the membership of the
01d Union voted to dissolve the Union, an affiliate of the American
Federation of Labor, to organize as Local No. 1, Amalgamated
881
.882 NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Powder Workers of America , hereafter called Local No. 1, and to
apply for affiliation with the Committee for Industrial Organization.
Pursuant to the original notice, and after waiver by the Company
of further notice by reason of amendment of the petition , a hearing
was held on May 13, 1937 , at Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania , before Walter
Wilbur, duly designated by the Board as Trial Examiner . Full op-
portunity to be heard , to examine and cross -examine witnesses, and
-to introduce evidence bearing on the issues , was afforded to all parties.
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following :
FINDINGS OF FACT
I. THE COMPANY AND ITS BUSINESS
American Cyanamid & Chemical Corporation, incorporated in Dela-
ware, but qualified to do business in Pennsylvania, operates a plant
at Latrobe, Pennsylvania, for the manufacture of electric blasting
caps, electric squibs and igniters. The Company owns and oper-
ates over twenty manufacturing plants in various States through-
out the United States. In the plant at Latrobe, it uses raw materials
of which approximately 80 per cent in value are shipped in from
outside the State of Pennsylvania; of the materials thus shipped in
approximately 15 per cent in value come from other plants.of the
Company. Of the finished products of this plant, approximately 40
per cent in value are shipped out of the State, either directly to
customers or to warehouses of the Company for subsequent local
distribution. Such shipments are made in part by railroad and in
part by the facilities of trucking companies.
The Company raises no question as to the jurisdiction of the Board
so far as its plant at Latrobe, Pennsylvania is concerned.
II. ORGANIZATION OF THE COMPANY'S EMPLOYEES
During the period with which we are concerned there has been
only one labor organization at any one time among the employees at
the Latrobe plant. As of April 22, when the original petition was
filed, this organization was Local No. 132, United Powder and High
Explosive Workers of America, a local of an international union
affiliated with the American Federation of Labor. Membership in
this Union was confined to employees of the Latrobe plant, and,
among such employees, it was open to all hourly wage workers
excepting foremen. On April 22, it numbered 140 members. On
May 7, 1937, at a meeting attended by approximately 90 of the mem-
bers, those present voted unanimously to dissolve as a local of the
American Federation of Labor international, and to organize as
Local No. 1, Amalgamated Powder Workers of North America, with
DECISIONS AND ORDERS' 883
the intention of affiliating with the Committee for Industrial Or-
ganization . All of the 140 members of the dissolved Union became
members of Local No. 1. Their action is evidenced by their signature
of cards addressed to the Company directing it to deduct from their
wages and pay over to the financial secretary of the new local out
of their wages the amounts of dues owing to it. It is one of the
purposes of Local No. 1, as it was of the Old Union , to bargain col-
lectively with the Company on the subject of rates of pay, wages,
hours of employment, and other conditions of employment.
III. THE QUESTION OF REPRESENTATION
On or about March 18, 1937, petitions were circulated among
the employees at the Latrobe plant addressed to the Company in. the
following language : "We, the undersigned employees of the General
Explosives Division of American Cyanamid and Chemical Corpora-
tion, by this petition, make it known to the management that we
desire to'continue working under the present conditions which are
satisfactory to us. And that we do not desire to be represented by
any outside interests of any nature whatsoever". The signatures of
approximately 114 hourly wage employees, including seven foremen,
were obtained.
A few days later, at a meeting between representatives of the Old
Union and of the Company, eight or nine employees appeared to
claim that they represented non-members of the Union and to pre-
sent the petition. The management then stated that it would not
bargain with any agency as the exclusive agency for its employees.
After the decisions of the Supreme Court on April 12, 1937, up-
holding the National Labor Relations Act, however, the Company
altered its position, announcing that it would bargain exclusively
with any organization which was properly designated as the sole
bargaining agency of its employees, but refusing the proposal of the
Old Union for a consent election. Instead it insisted that the desig-
nation of the sole bargaining agency should be made by certification
of the National Labor Relations Board. Further demand for col-
lective bargaining with Local No. 1 as exclusive agent has not been
made upon the Company since the dissolution of the Old Union
and organization of Local No. 1, but there is no reason to believe that
the change will affect the attitude of they Company, and, indeed, its
counsel at the hearing, after notice of the change, again stated that
the Company wished to have the question of representation settled
by certification by the Board.
We find that the question of representation which has thus arisen,
in connection with' the operations of the Company described in Sec-
tion I above, has a close, intimate, and substantial relation to trade,
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884 NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
traffic, and commerce among the several States, and tends to lead to
labor disputes burdening and obstructing commerce and the free
flow of commerce.
IV. THE APPROPRIATE BARGAINING UNIT
The payroll for the last period prior to the hearing, that , is from
April 16, 1937, to April 30, 1937, shows 193 hourly wage workers.
Of these, nine were foremen or foreladies. Five more were assistant
foreladies, who were, however, normally engaged in production, tak-
ing over the duties of foreladies only in case of absences. Member-
ship in both the Old Union and Local No. 1 has been open in the
past to all hourly wage employees, including assistant foreladies,
but excluding foremen and foreladies. The record discloses no con-
tention that this is not the appropriate classification for the bargain-
ing unit.
We find that in order to insure to the employees of the Latrobe
plant of American Cyanamid & Chemical Corporation the full benefit
of their right to self-organization and to collective bargaining, and
otherwise to effectuate the policies of the National Labor Relations
Act, the unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining
consists of the hourly wage employees, including assistant foreladies.
but excluding foreman and foreladies.
V. THE EXCLUSIVE BARGAINING AGENCY
The evidence that 140 of this unit of 184 hourly wage employees
of the Latrobe plant have, since May 7, 1937, become members of
Local No. 1 is sufficient upon which to base a certification of repre-
sentatives, without a secret ballot. The signatures to the petitions
dated March 18, 1937, were obtained nearly two months prior to this
action, at a time when the members of Local No. 1 were affiliated
with a different parent organization and before the Company had
changed its position as a result of the Supreme Court decisions up-
holding the National Labor Relations Act.
We find that Local No. 1, Amalgamated Powder Workers of North
America, having been selected for the purposes of collective bar-
gaining by the majority of the employees in a unit appropriate for
such purposes is, by virtue of Section 9 (a) of the National Labor
Relations Act, the exclusive representative of all the employees in
such unit for the purposes of collective bargaining in respect to
rates of pay, wages, hours of employment, and other conditions of
employment.
DECISIONS AND ORDERS
CONCLUSIONS OF LAW
885
Upon the basis of the foregoing findings of fact, the Board makes
the following conclusions of law :
1. A question affecting commerce has arisen concerning the rep-
resentation of the employees of the American Cyanamid and Chemi-
cal Corporation in its Latrobe plant, within the meaning of Section
9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act.
2. The hourly wage employees of the American Cyanamid and
Chemical Corporation in its Latrobe plant, including assistant fore-
ladies, but excluding foremen and foreladies, constitute a unit ap-
propriate for the purposes of collective bargaining, within the
meaning of Section 9 (b) of the National Labor Relations Act.
3. Local No. 1, Amalgamated Powder Workers of North America,
having been selected for the purposes of collective bargaining by the
majority of the employees in a unit appropriate for such purposes,
is, by virtue of Section 9 (a) of the National Labor Relations Act,
the exclusive representative of all the employees in such unit for the
purposes of collective bargaining in respect to rates of pay, wages,
hours of employment, and other conditions of employment.
CERTIFICATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
By virtue of and pursuant to the power vested in the National
Labor Relations Board by Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Rela-
tions Act, 49 Stat. 449, and pursuant to Article III, Section 8 of
National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 1,
as amended,
IT IS HEREBY CERTIFIED that Local No. 1, Amalgamated Powder
Workers of North America, has been designated and selected by a
majority of the hourly wage workers in the Latrobe, Pennsylvania,,
plant of the American Cyanamid & Chemical Corporation, including
assistant foreladies, but excluding foremen and foreladies, as their
representative for the purposes of collective bargaining and that,
pursuant to the provisions of Section 9 (a) of the Act, Local No. 1,
Amalgamated Powder Workers of North America, is the exclusive
representative of all such employees for the purposes of collective
bargaining in respect to rates of pay, wages, hours of employment,,
and other conditions of employment.