American Smelting and Refining Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jul 22, 1942

42 N.L.R.B. 736 (N.L.R.B. 1942)

In the Matter of AMERICAN SMELTING AND REFINING COMPANY and
INDEPENDENT LEAD WORKERS' UNION, LOCAL 2
In the Matter of AMERICAN SMELTING AND REFINING COMPANY and
AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR AND ALL AFFILIATED ORGANIZA-
TIONS
Cases Nos R-3925 and R-3926, respectively -Decided July 22, 1942
Jurisdiction : lead smelting and iefining industry
Investigation and Certification of Representatives : existence of question, re-
fusal to accord recognition to any one of rival labor oigamzations, elections
necessary
Unit Appropriate for Collective Bargaining : where either a production and main-
tenance unit or a single 'unit of pioduction and a single unit of maintenance
employees could be found appropriate, employees in maintenance group
directed to indicate by vote whether they desned to be represented separately
or as part of a production and maintenance unit
Oehmke CC Dunham by Mr William C Dunham, of East St Louis,
Ill , and Mr. R. Worth Vaughan, of New York City, for the Company.
Mr Francis J Manning, of Wood River, Ill, for the Independent.
- Mr. Patrick J. McCartney, of East Alton, Ill., for the A F of L.
Mr F. W. Daly, of Alton, Ill, and Mr David M Grant, of St Louis,
Mo, for the U. M. W
Mr Robert E. Tillman, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon petitions duly filed by Independent Lead Workers' Union,
Local 2, herein called the Independent, and by the American Federa-
tion of Labor and all affiliated organizations, herein called the A. F.
of L , alleging that a question affecting commerce had arisen con-
cerning the representation of employees of American Smelting and
Refining Company, New York City, herein called the Company, the
National Labor Relations Board provided for an appropriate hearing
upon due notice, befoie Jack G Evans, Trial Examiner Said hearing
was held at St. Louis, Missouri, on June 5 and 6, 1942 The Company,
the Independent, the A F of L, and District No 50, United Mine
42N L R B, No 144
796
t
AMERICAN SMELTING AND REFINING COMPANY 737
Workers of America, C I 0, herein called the U M W,, appeared,
participated , and were afforded full opportunity to be heard, to ex-
amine and cross -examine witnesses , and to introduce evidence bearing
on the issues The Trial Examiner 's rulings made at the hearing
are free from prejudicial ei i or , and are hereby affirmed
The Company moved at the hearing that the A F of L petition
be dismissed upon the ground that it requested an inappropriate unit.
In view of our findings in Section IV, infra, the motion is heieby
denied
On June 16 and 25, 1942, respectively, the Company and the A F
of L filed bi, iefs which the Boaid has considered
Upon the entree record in the case, the Boaid makes the following
FINDINGS OF FACT
I 1IIE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
American Smelting and Refining Company, a New Jersey coipo-
ration, maintains its pimcipal office and place of business in New York
City It operates several lead smelting and iefining plants thiough-
out the United States , including the one involved in this pi oceeding,
located at Alton, Illinois, hei eni called the Feclei al plant During
the year 1941, the Company puichased for use at its Fedeial plant
appioximately 110,000 tons of ore and concentiates, of which approxi-
mately 98 percent was shipped to the plant from points outside the
State of Illinois Duiing the same period, the Company produced
appioximately 120,000 tons of pig-lead at its Fedeial plant, of which
approximately 70 percent was shipped outside the State of Illinois
The Company admits that it is engaged in commei,ce within the
meaning of the National Labor Relations Act -
II THE ORGANIZATIONS INVOL\ ED
Independent Lead Workers' Union, Local 2, is an unaffiliated labor
organization admitting to membership employees of the Company
American Federation of Labor repiesents seveial laboi oi ganiza-
tions which admit to membership employees of the maintenance
division of the Company
District No 50, United Mine Workers of America, is a laboi oi gani-
zation affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Oiganizations It
admits to membership employees of the Company
III THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
The parties stipulated that each of the three laboi oigamzations
involi ecl herein had made representation to the Company claiming a
472514-42-47
738 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
substantial interest, or a majority , or both, in the various units claimed
as appropriate, and that, since the Company refused to recognize
any of the labor organizations, questions of representation had arisen.
A statement of the Regional Director introduced in evidence at
the hearing indicates that the Independent, the A F. of L, and the
U. M. W each represents a substantial number of employees in the
unit each contends to be appropriate 1
We find that a question affecting commerce has arisen concerning
the representation of employees of the Company, within the meaning
of Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act
IV THE APPROPRIATE UNIT
The Independent, the Company, and the U M W. are agreed
upon a unit of all production and maintenance employees, excluding
executives, supervisors., technical foremen, extra foremen, clerks, ac-
countants, assayers, chemists, secretaries, stenographers, metallurgists,
engineers, and watchmen The A F of L requests a unit of all main-
tenance employees of the Company, including maintenance men, main-
tenance men helpers, maintenance appi entices, machinists, electricians,
plumbers, pipe fitters, carpenters, millwrights, track maintenance men,
hearth mechanics, and general repair employees, but excluding all
supervisory employees, all clerical employees, all production em-
ployees, and all other employees not included above
The Federal plant, located on 60 acres of ground, is composed of
from 25 to 50 buildings or other stiuctures, including a blast furnace,
38 Scotch hearths, a refinery, a machine shop, and other departments.
The unit agreed upon by the Company, the Independent, and the
U M W embraces 434 employees, of which approximately 53 would
comprise the maintenance unit sought by the A F of L
1 The Regional Duector reported that the Independent submitted to him a petition dated °
May 6 , 1942, bearing 200 signatures , all of which appeared to be genuine and original,
that 189 of the signatures were names of persons w hose names appeared on the pay roll
for May 13, 1942, which listed 434 persons in the unit alleged to be appropriate by the
Independent , that the Independent further submitted to him 25 applications for member-
ship cards , all bearing apparently genuine original signatures , that 21 of these signatures
were the names of persons whose names appeared on the aforementioned pay roll, and that
altogether the Independent thus pioduced 210 designations which appeared to be those
of employees in the unit alleged by it to be appiopiiate
The U M W submitted 303 authorization cards to the Regional Director , all bearing
apparently genuine original signatures , 234 of the signatures were names of persons
whose names appeared on the afore-mentioned pay roll
The A F of L submitted 45 authorization cards, all bearing apparently genuine
original signatures , 42 of the signatures weie names of persons whose names appeared
on the Company 's pay roll for May 22, 1942, which listed 53 persons in the unit alleged
to be appropriate by the A F of L
The U M w submitted 8 authorization cards bearing names of poisons whose names
appeared on the May 22, 1942 , pay roll in the unit alleged to be appropriate by the A F
of L , and the Independent submitted 15 authorization cards bearing names of persons
whose names appealed on the same pay roll in the unit claimed to be appropriate by the
A F of L
AMERICAN SMELTING AND REFINING COMPANY 739)
The maintenance employees are all assigned by the Company to a,
separate department designated as the maintenance or mechanical
division or the machine shop The machine shop is a separate building
which houses such miscellaneous tools as forges, welding egnnpment,
drills, saws, and lathes. The shop is headed by a shop foreman Un-
der him is a master mechanic who supervises all maintenance employees
with the possible exception of a group of four or five electricians who,
work under a separate foreman A wide variety of maintenance em-
ployees, most of whom the Company classifies as handy men and the
A F of L regards as carpenters, pipe fitters, machinists, electricians,
and so on, work from the machine shop Only 7 or 8 of these 53 em-
ployees work steadily in the shop, the remainder are engaged through-
out the plant in maintaining and repairing machinery and other equip-
ment and spend approximately 10 percent of them working time in
the shop.
The plant manager testified that production men work on a 4D-hour
week, three shifts a day basis, whereas the maintenance men work 40,
hours a week, but generally, on a single daylight shift basis There
are occasions when maintenance employees are called in on week ends i
and holidays in order to perform necessary repass while production is
not going on, hence the working hours of maintenance employees are
not as fixed as are those of production employees In the production
department, approximately one-half the employees are paid on, a piece-
rate basis and the remainder are hourly paid, maintenance employees
are all hourly paid Vacation and life insurance privileges are the
same for all employees Many men are promoted from the production
department to the mechanical division As a rule, new mechanical di-
vision employees are hired through the plant's central personnel office,
the exception being that there are instances when the master mechanic
hires maintenance men directly
The Federal plant has had no extended history of collective bar-
gaining The U M W first established an orgamzatmon at the plant
in August 1941 Shortly thereafter, on September 23, 1941, the Com-
pany and the U M W entered into a consent election agreement pro-
viding for an election among production and maintenance employees.
In the ensuing election, the U M W failed to win a majority of the
votes cast The Independent was organized subsequent to this elec-
tion It was not until March 5, 1942, that the A. F. of L began
organizing employees of the plant The A F of L concentrated its
organizational drive among employees in the maintenance division,
having as its alleged objective the allocation of the maintenance em-
ployees among several craft locals affiliated with the A F of L, these
locals to be members of a central trades council which would act as,
the bargaining representative for the entire maintenance department.
'740 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
`The A F of L admits seeking members in the production departments,
but claims that it intended to put production employees into a federal
-union, not subject to the central trades council
The Fedeial plant has no exclusive collective bargaining contracts,
but 19 of the Company's other smelting plants have such agreements
All of these piovide for a single production and maintenance unit, 3
having been signed with A F of L oiganizations,1 with an unaffiliated
organization, 3 with the Steel Workers Organizing Committee, C. I 0,
and 12 with the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter
Wotkeis, C I 0
Under the circumstances heiein presented, we find that the main-
-tenatice employees could properly function as a separate bargaining
unit, of as a part of a unit ' conipi ising the production and main-
tenance employees generally We hold theiefoie that the desires of
the employees shall govern, and we shall direct that separate,elections
be held (1) among the maintenance department employees to cletei-
mine whether they desire to be represented by the Independent, the
A F of L , the U M W , or none, and (2) among the remaining
production and maintenance employees of the Company to determine
whether they desire to be represented by the Independent, the U M W,
of neither Upon the results of these elections will depend in part
our determination of the appropriate unit or units. If a majority of
the maintenance department employees select the A F of L as their
i epi esentative, they will constitute a sepal ate unit, if a mad of ity of
them choose the same iepiesentative as is chosen by a majority of the
i emaimng pi oduction and maintenance employees, then the mainte-
nance department employees shall be included in the laigei industiial
unit
V THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
We shall direct that the question conceining iepiesentation which
has ai isen be i esolved by means of elections by secret ballot The
A F of L requested that eligibility to vote be determined by a pay
roll current at the time of hearing, because of the alleged rapid turn-
over of employees We shall, however, adhere to our customary prac-
tice and direct that `those eligible to vote shall be the employees in
the afoiesaid voting groups who were employed during the pay-roll
pei nod immediately preceding the date of our Dix ection of Elections,
subject to the limitations and additions set foith therein.
DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
By viitue 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
AMERICAN SMELTING AND REFINING COMPANY 741
National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 2,
as amended, it is hereby
DIREOTID that, as part of the investigation to ascertain representa-
tives foi the purposes of collective bargaining with Amer scan Smelting
and Refining Company, New York City, elections by secret ballot shall
be conducted as early as possible, but not later than thirty (30) days
from the date of this Direction of Elections, under the direction and
supervision of the Regional Director for the Fourteenth Region, act-
ing in this matter as agent for the National Labor Relations Board
and subject to Article III, Section 9, of said Rules and Regulations,
among the following gi oups of employees who were employed during
the pay-roll period immediately preceding the date of the Direction
of Elections, including employees who did not work during such pay-
I oil period because they were Ill or on vacation or in the active military
service or training of the United States, or temporarily laid off, but
excluding those employees who have since quit or been discharged for
cause
1 All maintenance employees of the Company, including main-
tenance men, maintenance men helpers, maintenance apprentices, ma=
chmists, electricians, plumbers, pipe fitters, carpenters, millwrights,
track maintenance men, hearth mechanics, and geneial repair em-
ployees, but excluding all supervisory employees, all clerical em-
ployees, all production employees, and all other employees not in-
cluded above, to determine whether they desire to be represented by
Independent Lead Woikers' Union, Local 2, or by the American
Federation of Labor, or by District No 50, United Mine Workers of
America, C I 0, for the purposes of collective bargaining, or by
none of these organizations
2 Among all production and maintenance employees of the Com-
pany, excluding executives, supervisors, technical foremen, extra fore-
men, clerks, accountants, assayers, chemists, secretaries, stenographers,
metallurgists, engineers, watchmen, and all employees included in
group 1 above, to determine whether they desire to be represented
by Independent Lead Workers' Union, Local 2, or by District No 50,
United Mine Workers of America, C I 0, for the purposes of col-
lective bargaining, or by neither
Signed at Washington, D C, this 22nd day of July 1942
CHAIRMAN Mn,Ias took nb part in the consideration of the above
Decision and Direction of Elections