American Locomotive Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Nov 16, 1950

92 N.L.R.B. 115 (N.L.R.B. 1950)

In the Matter of AMERICAN LOCOMOTIVE COMPANY, ALCO PRODUCT s
DIVISION, EMPLOYER and UNITED STEELWORKERS OF AMERICA, CIO,
PETITIONER
Case No. 3-RC-40.-Decided November 16, 1950
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National
Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before William J. Cavers,
hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are
free from prejudical error and are hereby affirmed.
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 organizations involved claim to represent certain
employees of the Employer'
3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the represen-
tation 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 a unit of all salaried and ' hourly paid office;
clerical, technical, and professional 2 employees employed by 'the
Employer at its plant at Dunkirk, New York, excluding production
and maintenance employees,3 guards, and supervisors.. The Employer
and the intervening unions contend that these employees should con-
stitute two units, one composed of office and 'clerical employees and
another composed of technical employees.
1 At the hearing , the hearing officer granted motions to intervene on the basis of a show-
ing, of interest to Office Employees International Union, A. F. L., herein called the Office
Employees ; and to International Federation of Technical Engineers , Architects and Drafts-
men's Union, A. F. L., herein called the Federation.
2 This classification was added by motion at the hearing to amend the petition. The
Employer opposed the motion on the ground that the Petitioner could not have made the
requisite showing of interest. It is well established that the showing of interest is an
administrative matter not subject to collateral attack. We are satisfied that the Peti-
tioner ' s showing of interest is sufficient.
3 The . Petitioner already represents the Employer 's production and maintenance
employees . There is no bargaining history covering the employees sought in this proceeding.
92 NLRB No. 22. .
115
116 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
In International Harvester Company, West Pullman Works ,4 we
said :
Under well-established Board principles, office and clerical em-
ployees may not appropriately be grouped with technical
employees where any party objects to such a. grouping.
Accordingly, we find that the office and clerical employees and the
technical employees constitute separate appropriate units.
The parties are in substantial agreement as to the composition of
the two units. The Employer, however, would exclude the cashier,
the telephone and teletype operators, the nurses, and the buyers from
the unit of office and clerical employees, and would exclude the opera-
tional planners, the time-study engineers, and the first class designers
from the technical unit. The unions concerned contend that these
employees should be included.
A. The office and clerical unit
1. The cashier signs checks written for the Employer. He has
charge of a considerable sum in petty cash, and handles the Employer's
banking business at local banking establishments. He does not deal
with matters affecting labor relations, however, and takes no part
in formulating the Employer's policies. The Employer would exclude
the cashier as a representative of management. We do not, however,
exclude such an employee "simply because he has the custody of com>
pany money." 5 We shall therefore include the cashier in the unit.
2. The telephone and teletype operators perform the usual duties
of their classification. On occasion they may receive or send messages
,affecting labor relations. The Employer contends that under the cir-
cumstances they must be excluded as confidential employees. We have
previously held, however, that the occasional dispatch of messages
relating to labor matters is not alone enough to constitute telephone
and teletype operators confidential employees.6 We shall therefore
include these employees in the unit.
3. The buyers purchase about six million dollars worth of material
for the Employer's account each year. They negotiate for credit or
replacements when material delivered is defective, and try to direct
their profitable business to those suppliers who will give the Employer
special consideration on orders of critical material. The Office Em-
ployees would include the buyers in the office and clerical unit, or,
alternatively, place them in a separate unit. The Employer main'
90 NLRB No. 240.
Chrysler Corporation., 58 NLRB 239.
"Southern Alkali Corporation, 84 NLRB 120 ; Phillips Oil Company, 91 NLRB 534.
AMERICAN LOCOMOTIVE COMPANY 117
tains that the buyers are representatives of management. As it ap-
pears that the buyers are authorized to make substantial purchases
,for the Employer, we find that they are representatives of manage-
ment, and as such may not be accorded bargaining rights under the
Act.7
4. The nurses are agreed by the parties to be professional employ-
ees. The Employer contends that they are also representatives of
management because they work in the personnel office, enter medical
data in the personnel files of other employees, and may be called upon
to testify in compensation cases. As the nurses are not directly con-
cerned with the Employer's labor relations, however, and have no part
in formulating personnel policy, we find that they may be included in
the unit of office and clerical employees.8 In view of their profes-
sional status, we shall direct that they be permitted to vote as a sep-
arate group to-ascertain whether or not they desire to be represented
as part of the office and clerical unit.
B. The technical unit
1. Operational planners study blueprints of the item to be pro-
duced, and plan the schedule and the methods of operation to be per-
formed, endeavoring to devise the most economical production
sequence possible. Piecework rates are set by these employees on the
basis of data supplied by time studies made by other employees. An
engineering degree or considerable practical experience is required
for this kind of work .9 Operational planners are paid from $190 to
to $350 a month.
The Employer contends that the planners are representatives of
management because they may be called upon to defend their sched-
ules to the employees or their bargaining representatives. The Peti-
tioner and the Federation deny that the planners are managerial, and
the Petitioner contends that they do not exercise even the degree of
judgment necessary to qualify them as professionals. As it does not
appear that the planners formulate, determine, or effectuate man-
agement policies to any substantial degree, we find, as we have in pre-
vious similar cases, that they are not managerial. 10 We agree, how-
4 Wise, Smith & Company, Inc ., 83 NLRB 1019 ; Westinghouse Electric Corporation,
89 NLRB 8.
8 Union Electric Power Company, 83 NLRB 872; Westinghouse Electric Corporation,
89 NLRB 8 ; Westinghouse Electric Corporation, 91 NLRB No. 40. To the extent that
Standard Oil Company (Indiana), 80 NLRB 1022 is inconsistent, it is hereby overruled.
9 None of the present planners has an engineering degree, but one testified that he had
20 years' experience and had previously been superintendent of another plant.
"General Electric Company, 89 NLRB 726 , and cases cited therein . We do not agree
with the Employer that, the nature of its business is so much more varied than that
of General Electric Company as to render this case distinguishable on that ground.
118 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR 'RELATIONS BOARD
,ever, with the Employer's contention that the planners, by, reason of
their special knowledge and. constant exercise of- independent judg-
ment, are professional employees. Accordingly, we shall make no
'present determination with respect to the unit placement of these em-
ployees, pending the outcome of a self-determination election which
we shall direct. -
2. Time-study engineers observe operations in the production area
and, after applying fatigue allowances and other standard modifying
data, arrive at the amount of time to be allowed for various individual
operations: The standards established by these employees may be
the subject of grievances; in the settlement of which the time-study
employees are required to defend their results. None of the present
incumbents is`. a, college graduate, but a college degree in engineering
or 3 to 5 years'. experience is required. Salaries of these employees
range from $250: to $350 a month.
The Employer contends that these employees -are professional and
are also representatives of management; the Petitioner and the Fed-
eration oppose both contentions. We *do not believe the work per-
formed by these employees differs. substantially from that performed
by time-study employees involved in several recent cases." We find,
a.s. we did in those cases, that the time-study employees are not man-
agerial but are professional. Accordingly, we shall include them in
a professional voting group-
. 3. First. class designers are responsible for the mechanical design
of all. equipment manufactured. The designers must take. into ac-
'count the tools available at the plant,.and must reconcile, as economi-
.cally as possible, the requirements of the customer and the safety codes
prescribed by local regulation or by insurance companies. The de-
signers endeavor -to keep costs, including labor costs, to a minimum,
and recommend subcontracting for those items which can .be bought
,more cheaply than they can be made by the Employer. In the case
of a new product, they participate in the conferences at which the
Employer's policies regarding this article are formulated. After a
design has . been completed, the first class designer advises and in-
structs the section supervisors who are in charge of the drafting rooms
where drawings are made for the use of other employees.
All parties are in agreement that these employees are professional.
The Employer contends that as they work in close conjunction with,
and occupy positions equivalent to, the rating engineers,12 who all
the parties agree are .managerial, they should be excluded as repre-
"General Electric Company, supra; Westinghouse Electric Corporation, 89 NLRB 8, and
cases cited therein.
12 Rating engineersare responsible for the thermal capacity of the equipment.
AMERICAN LOCOMOTIVE COMPANY . 119
sentatives of management. In view of the fact that these employees
help formulate policy regarding the type of orders the Employer will
.accept, and decide the amount and quality of material and labor to be
employed in filling such orders, we believe that their interests are
more closely allied with those of the management than with those of
the employees. Accordingly, we shall exclude first class designers
from the professional voting group.
In accordance with the foregoing determinations, we find that all
office and clerical employees at the Employer's Dunkirk, New York,
plant, including the cashier and the telephone and. teletype operators,
but - excluding the buyers, 'production and maintenance employees,
guards, and supervisors, constitute a unit appropriate for the purpose
of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the
Act. We further find that all technical employees employed by the
Employer at its plant at Dunkirk, New York, excluding production
and maintenance employees, guards, and supervisors, constitute a unit,
appropriate for the purpose of collective bargaining within the mean-
ing of Section 9 (b)-of the Act.
In order to ascertain the desires of the professional employees as.
to inclusion in a single unit with nonprofessional employees, we, shall
direct separate elections in the following voting groups, excluding.
from each all other employees and supervisors:.
(1) All registered nurses.
(2) All operational planners and time-study engineers.
The employees in each' voting group will be asked two questions on
their ballot :
(A) Do you desire to be included with nonprofessional employees
in a single unit for the purpose of collective bargaining?
(B) By which union, if any, do you desire to be represented?
If a majority of the professional employees in either separate voting
group votes "yes" to. the first question, indicating their wish to be
included in the unit with the nonprofessional employees, the em-
ployees in that group will be sb included. Their votes on the second
question will then be counted together with the votes of the nonpro-
fessional employees to .decide the representative for the single com-'
bined unit.
[Text of Direction of.'Elections omitted from publication in this
volume.]