American Smelting and Refining Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Oct 31, 1949

86 N.L.R.B. 1172 (N.L.R.B. 1949)

In the Matter of AMERICAN SMELTING AND REFINING COMPANY, EiNI-
PLOYER and INTERNATIONAL UNION OF OPERATING ENGINEERS, LOCAL
No. 480 , A. F. OF L., PETITIONER
Case No. 4-RC-439.-Decided October 31, 19419
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before Julius Topol,
hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing
are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed. The Em-
ployer's motion to dismiss is denied for reasons stated hereinafter.
The Employer's request for oral argument is also denied as the record
and briefs, in our opinion, adequately present the issues and the
positions of the parties.
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 [Members Reynolds, Murdock, and
Gray]
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 organizations involved claim 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 of a] 1 employees of the Employer at
its Perth Amboy, New Jersey, plant, employed in the powerhouse, the
boilerhouse, and at the waste heat boilers, excluding clerical employees,
guards, and supervisors. The Employer and Perth Amboy Smelter
and Refinery Workers Union No. 365, of the International. Union of
Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers, Intervenor herein, oppose the peti-
tion and contend that the employees in the proposed unit should not
be severed from the current contractual bargaining unit principally
upon the grounds: (1) that the employees in the proposed unit are
86 N. L. R. B., No. 114.
1172
AMERICAN SMELTING AND REFINING COMPANY 1173
neither true craftsmen nor a homogeneous identifiable group func-
tionally distinct from production and maintenance employees ; ( 2) that
the operations at the Employer 's plant are highly integrated and.
interdependent ; and (3 ) that there is a long history of collective bar-
gaining on a more comprehensive basis.
The Employer is engaged at its Perth Amboy, New Jersey, plant,
in the refining and production of copper , lead, silver , gold, antimony,
tin, platinum , palladium, and such metalic derivatives as nickel sul-
phate, zinc oxide, antimony oxide, and tin tetrachloride . The primary
functions of the employees in the proposed unit are to produce steam
to generate electricity and to compress air for use in the production
processes.
There are about 1,500 employees in the existing plant-wide unit. Of
these, about 39 employees would be eligible for inclusion in the pro-
posed power department unit. , The work area of these men is pri-
marily within the powerhouse , the boilerhouse , and at the waste heat
boilers.2 The power engineer is in charge of the power department.
However, there are under him 2 supervisors of whom one supervises
the powerhouse employees and the other the boilerhouse and the waste
heat boiler employees . While in some instances employees other than
those within the proposed unit are under the same supervision as those
within the unit, the supervision of power department employees re-
mains substantially separate and distinct . Moreover , notwithstanding
some contact with other personnel ,3 power department employees con-
stitute a distinct functional group.
The Employer and the Intervenor maintain that the employees in
the proposed unit are not craftsmen . However, the absence of craft
skill does not necessarily preclude the Board from recognizing that
such a group of employees may constitute an appropriate bargaining
unit. We have, on many occasions , severed from larger units depart-
mental groups which are homogeneous and particularly distinct, al-
though they are not pure craft groups , if they have a tradition of sepa-
rate representation . Generally , we have found that powerhouse,
boilerhouse , and waste heat boiler employees constitute such a depart-
mental unit and we have permitted them self -determination elections
1 Of the 39 employees in the power department 16 are licensed firemen and engineers
as required by the law of New Jersey.
2 There are five waste heat boilers attached to the copper casting furnaces which are
about 500 feet from the main boilerhouse . These boilers are used for salvaging waste heat
,from the copper casting furnaces and account for about 35 percent of the steam and power
-produced by the power department.
' This contact results from the fact that maintenance employees from the plant are called
upon to supplement the maintenance force permanently stationed in the power and boiler
'houses, and other employees , not in the proposed unit, work alongside the unit personnel
at the dock pump house and at the waste heat boilers.
867351-50-vol. 86-75
1174 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
to express their desires with respect to separate representation.4 We
believe that the power department employees involved herein do not
differt substantially from other power department employees whom
the Board has repeatedly found to constitute a readily identifiable and
functionally coherent group appropriate for the purposes of collective
bargaining.5
The Employer and the Intervenor urge further that the proposed
unit is inappropriate because the operations at the plant are highly
integrated and interdependent. In support of this argument, they
point to the fact that about 70 percent of the electricity generated is
used in the electrolytic process for refining copper. The Employer
and the Intervenor further argue that compressed air supplied by the
powerhouse becomes a component part of one of the Employer's end
products, namely, zinc oxide. These contentions are without merit.
While the powerhouse employees operate the compressor that com-
presses and blows air into the converter which in turn extracts from
the air the oxygen used in the production of zinc oxide, we do not
regard the compressed air as furnished by the powerhouse employees
as either the end product or a component part of the end product
within the meaning of this term as used by the Board in cases involv-
ing public utilities." Although the functions of the employees in the
proposed unit are essential to' the operations of the plant and their
activities must be coordinated with the activities of the production
employees, these factors alone, including the furnishing of electricity
by powerhouse employees for use in the electrolytic process, do not
constitute the kind of integration which we deem necessary before
we will deny severance to a group which might otherwise constitute
an appropriate unit.7 Despite some evidence of integration of the
power department employees' operations with the Employer's pro-
duction process, we do not consider such employees an inseparable part
of the over-all production unit."
We believe that despite the history of collective bargaining at the
Employer's plant on a different basis, the employees in the proposed
unit may, if they so desire, constitute a separate bargaining unit.
4 See Matter of West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company, 81 N. L, R. B. 208, and cases
cited therein.
G See footnote 4, supra.
9 See Matter of Lynn Gas and Electric Company, 78 N. L. R. B. 3; Matter of Boston
Consolidated Gas Company, 79 N. L. R. B. 337.
P Cf. Matter of Reynolds Metal Company, 85 N. L. R. B. 110.
8 See Matter of The Beattie Manufacturing Company, 86 N. L. R. B., No. 101 ; Matter
of Western Condensing Company, 85 N. L. R. B., No. 174; Matter of Aluminum Ore Corn-
pany, 85 N. L. R. B. 121 ; Matter of Kennecott Copper Corporation, Ray Mines Division,
Haden Operations, 84 N. L. R. B. 836; Matter of Baugh and Sons Company, 82 N. L. R. B.
1399 ; Matter of West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company, 81 N. L. R. B. 261.
AMERICAN SMELTING AND REFINING COMPANY 1175
However, we shall reserve final determination in this respect, pending
the outcome of the election hereinafter directed.
We shall direct an election among the following group of employees
at the Perth Amboy, New Jersey, plant, of the Employer excluding
all other employees and supervisors as defined in the Act :
All powerhouse, boilerhouse and waste heat boiler employees, in-
cluding engineers, boiler firemen, oilers, reliefinen, switchboard opera-
tors, repairmen, pipe fitters second class, water tenders, metermen,
tube blowers, laborers, and monorail crane operators.
If a majority of the employees vote for the Petitioner, they will be
taken. to have indicated their desire to constitute.a separate bargain-
ing unit.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION t,
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the
purposes 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 super-
vision 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 pay-roll period immediately preceding the date
of this Direction of Election, including employees who did not work
during said pay-roll 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 rein-
stated 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 bargain-
ing, by International Union of Operating Engineers, Local No. 480,
A. F. of L.
9 We shall not place the Intervenor ' s name on the ballot as it has not complied with
Section 9 (f), (g), and ( h) of the Act , as amended.