American Steel Foundries

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jul 6, 1949

85 N.L.R.B. 19 (N.L.R.B. 1949)

In the Matter of AMERICAN STEEL FOUNDRIES, EMPLOYER and PAT-
TERN MAKERS' LEAGUE OF NORTH AMERICA, AFL, PETITIONER
Case No. 14-RC-659.-Decided July 6,1949
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing in this case was held in St.
Louis, Missouri , on April 19, 1949, before Glenn L. Moller, hearing
officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free
from prejudicial 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 National Labor Relations Act.
2. The Petitioner and the Intervenor, United Steelworkers of Am-
erica, CIO, are labor organizations claiming to represent employees
of the Employer.
3. The question concerning representation :
The Employer and the Intervenor contend that an existing con-
tract between them constitutes a bar to this proceeding. The Em-
ployer has recognized the Intervenor, or its predecessor, as the col-
lective bargaining representative of its production and maintenance
employees since 1937, and for the past 7 years the parties have entered
into a series of multiple-plant 1 contracts for such employees. The
current contract, as did previous ones, excludes among various craft
groups, the wood pattern makers at six plants 2 and the metal pattern
makers at one plant.3 This contract was executed on May 9, 1947, and
had a June 1, 1949, termination date. Pursuant to a wage reopening
I These plants are located at Granite City (the only plant involved in this case ), East St.
Louis, and Galesburg , Illinois ; Hammond and East Chicago , Indiana ; Alliance, Ohio ;
Verona, Pennsylvania , and Newark , New Jersey. Although it appears that the Employer
operates a ninth plant , the record does not disclose its location . We assume, for the pur-
poses of this decision, that the Intervenor's contract is company-wide, and subject to the
usual rules applicable in multiple -plant situations.
2 Granite City, East St. Louis, Hammond , East Chicago, Alliance , and Verona.
Alliance.
85 N. L. R. B., No. 7.
19
857829-50 ----vol. 85-3
20 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
provision, the Employer and the Intervenor executed a supplemental
agreement on August 11, 1948. This agreement, however, not only
adjusted wage rates but also extended the termination date to June
1, 1950. The petition in this case, requesting a unit of all employees
in the metal pattern department of the Granite City plant, was filed
on March 17, 1949.
The Employer and the Intervenor argue that the supplemental
agreement of August 11, 1948, was entered into in good faith for the
purpose of stabilizing wages at a time when no adverse representation
claim was pending, and that the petition in this case should be dis-
missed because it was not filed within a reasonable time after August
11, 1948. They do not deny that there was a premature extension of
the original contract, but urge that the familiar Board practice of
refusing to treat a prematurely extended contract as a bar to a repre-
sentation proceeding should not be applied in this case. We do not
agree. The premature extension doctrine is necessary to preserve to
employees the right to challenge the representative status of an in-
cumbent union at predictable and reasonable intervals, and we see no
reason to amend this principle as suggested here.4 As the petition
was filed before the contract's original expiration date, which has now
passed, the contract cannot operate as a bar in this cases
We find that a question affecting commerce exists 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 appropriate unit :
In its petition, the Petitioner requested a unit of all employees
in the metal pattern department of the Granite City plants The
Employer and the Intervenor contend that these employees are not
true craftsmen, and therefore ought not to be severed from the pro-
duction and maintenance unit now represented by the Intervenor.
The work done in the metal pattern department of the Granite City
plant consists, essentially, of the preparation of metal. patterns, neces-
4 See Matter of Celanese Corporation of America, 83 N. L. R. B. 103; Matter of United
States Finishing Company , 79 N. L. R. B. .699; and Matter of Blair..Limestone Company,
70 N. L. R. B. 689.
5 Matter of Republic Steel Corporation, 84 N. L. R. B. 483 , issued June 23, 1949.
6 At the hearing, without objection , the Petitioner orally amended the petition to include
employees in the wood pattern department. For some years the Petitioner has been the
contract representative, on a noncertified basis, of a six-plant unit of patternmakers,
including the wood patternmakers at Granite City. The Petitioner stated that it amended
the petition in.order to obtain the benefit of a Board certification for the wood pattern-
makers . However, as the amendment covers a group of employees who are but a part of the
multiple-plant unit , we hereby dismiss the petition as to them. See Matter of Poultry
Producers of Central California , 78 N. L. R. B. 1067; Matter of Standard Brands, Inc.,
75 N. L. R. B. 394.
AMERICAN STEEL FOUNDRIES 21
sary for repetitive production, from the wood patterns created by the
wood patternmakers. The work is done with machine and hand tools,
but the department does not contain all the machine tools needed in a
completely equipped metal pattern department. Some of the machine
work, therefore, is done in the machine shop, which adjoins the metal
pattern department. The employees in the metal pattern department
vary in skill from top pattern craftsmen to apprentices. Their rates
of pay are among the highest in the plant, and are almost identical
with those received by the machinists.7 Although there is no fixed
apprenticeship requirement in the metal pattern department, there are
presently 2 employees in the department serving a 4-year apprentice-
ship. There are approximately 40 employees in the metal pattern
department; of these, 5 have served pattern making apprenticeships,
and at least 5 others have served other craft apprenticeships. The 2
pattern making departments are 300 yards apart, in separate build-
ings, but both are supervised by the general pattern foreman. Serv-
ing under the latter are foremen for each of the departments.
The Board has uniformly considered patternmakers among the
very highest skilled of all craftsmen, and has consistently found such
employees to constitute a craft group entitled to separate representation
despite a history of collective bargaining on a more comprehensive
basis.8 While it is true that the record in this case reveals that the
employees in the metal pattern department do not exercise the whole
gamut of skills within the patternmakers' craft, they nevertheless
perform the usual functions of patternmakers engaged in the making
and finishing of metal patterns. We find that the employees in the
metal pattern department constitute a craft group, and that they may,
if they so desire, constitute a separate unit not withstanding their pre-
vious inclusion in a broader unit.°
Under established Board principles, craft severance should be co-
extensive with an established multiple-plant unit.10 The Petitioner
has, for many years, represented many, but not all, of the Employer's
patternmakers, and for 6 years it has negotiated multiple-plant con-
tracts covering wood patternmakers at six of the Employer's plants,
including Granite City.11 The metal patternmakers of the Alliance
plant are also included in the current contract,12 but the metal pattern-
4 The machinists constitute a separate unit , excluded from the Intervenor ' s production and
maintenance unit, and are represented by another labor organization.
8 Matter of Standard Stoker Company , Inc., 77 N . L. R. B. 1369 ; Matter of Westinghouse
Electric Corporation, 75 N. L. R. B .. 638; and Matter of General Electric Company, 58
N. L. R. B. 57.
9 See Matter of American Chain and Cable Company , Inc., 77 N . L. R. B. 850.
10 Matter of American Viscose Corporation, 79 N. L. R. B. 958; Matter of T. C. King Pipe
Company, et al., 74 N . L. R. B. 468.
11 The other five plants are : East St . Louis, Hammond , East Chicago , Alliance , and Verona.
1R Effective for 2 years from June 1, 1948.
22 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
makers at East St. Louis and Granite City are presently a part of the
production and maintenance units at those plants. There are no metal
patternmakers at the other three plants covered by the Petitioner's
contract. Although the record does not disclose whether there are
any metal patternmakers at the Newark plant, it is clear that all
patternmakers at that plant are included in the production and
maintenance unit of the Intervenor's contract. As some metal pat-
ternmakers are already in the Petitioner's contract unit, we see no
objection to the separate severance of the metal patternmakers at
Granite City from the production and maintenance unit.
Accordingly, we shall direct that an election be held among all
,employees 18 in the metal pattern department of the Employer's Gran-
ite City, Illinois, plant, excluding all other employees, and supervisors
as defined in the Act. If a majority of these employees select the
Petitioner as their bargaining representative, they may be repre-
sented by the Petitioner for the purposes of collective bargaining as
a part of the unit of patternmakers it currently represents. If a ma-
jority of the employees vote against the Petitioner, we shall dismiss
the petition.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION 14
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-Series 5, as amended, 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 reinstated prior to the date of the election, and also exclud-
ing employees on strike who are not entitled to reinstatement, to deter-
mine whether or not they desire to be represented, for purposes of
collective bargaining, by Pattern Makers League of North America,
AFL.
13 The laborer , who is an unskilled maintenance employee , is excluded from the unit in
accordance with the agreement of the parties.
14 As the Intervenor has not effected compliance with the filing requirements of the Act, it
will not be accorded a place on the ballot.