American Transformer Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Apr 27, 1950

89 N.L.R.B. 824 (N.L.R.B. 1950)

In the Matter of AMERICAN TRANSFORMER COMPANY, EMPLOYER and
INTERNATIONAL UNION OF ELECTRICAL, RADIO AND MACHINE
WORKERS, LOCAL 415, CIO, PETITIONER
Case No. 2-RC-1844.-Decided April V, 1950
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before I. L. Broad-
win, hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hear-
ing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
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 Houston, Reynolds, and
Murdock].
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
employees of the Employer.'
3. The question concerning representation :
On October 29, 1948, Local 415, UE, as an affiliate of the CIO,
executed an agreement with the Employer covering the employees
involved in this case, to be in effect until June 28, 1949. The con-
tracting parties thereafter agreed to extend the terminal date of
the contract to June 28, 1950. The UE contends that this contract
operates as a bar to a present determination of representatives.
Local 415, IUE-CIO, contends, on the other hand, that the contract
is not a bar because as the result of a schism in Local 415 of the
UE a substantial number of its former members have affiliated with
the IUE-CIO. The Employer take the position that it does not
know which union represents its employees and it therefore is unwill-
I These labor organizations are International Union of Electrical , Radio and Machine
Workers, Local 415, CIO, herein called Local 415, IUE-CIO, and United Electrical, Radio
and Machine Workers of America , herein called UE.
89 NLRB No. 102.
824
AMERICAN TRANSFORMER COMPANY 825
ing to bargain with either until one has been certified by the Board
as the exclusive representative of its employees.
The record shows that on November 2, 1949, the CIO at its national
convention expelled the UE. On November 4, 1949, at a specially
called general membership meeting, the members of Local 415 then
affiliated with UE, voted to disaffiliate from the UE and to affiliate
with the IUE-CIO as Local 415. The meeting which was attended by
a substantial number of members had been publicized a few days in
advance by notices on the plant bulletin boards and by oral notifica-
tion through shop stewards to individual members. Shortly after the
meeting, Local 415 applied for and received a charter from the IUE-
CIO and the following December, its membership elected new officers.
Since November 5, Local 415, IUE-CIO, has been holding periodic
meetings.
These circumstances reveal that there has been a schism in the con-
tracting union's organization which we find, for reasons stated in the
Boston Mao/ins Works case,2 removes the current contract as a bar to
an immediate determination of representatives.
Accordingly we find that a question affecting commerce exists con-
cerning 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 following employees of the Employer constitute a unit
appropriate for purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning
of Section 9 (b) of the Act:
All production and maintenance employees employed at the
Employer's Newark, New Jersey, plant, including shop apprentices,
truck drivers, shop detailers, janitors, crane operators, and non-
clerical workers in stores, shipping, and receiving departments, but
excluding administrative employees, guards, office employees (includ-
ing department clerks, record clerks, and timekeepers), engineers,
student engineers, draftsmen, technicians, production clerks, electrical
testers, mechanical inspectors, nurses, watchmen, foremen, assistant
foremen, foreladies, assistant foreladies, and all other supervisors as
defined in the Act.
5. The determination of representatives:
The UE requests that all employees laid off by the Employer within
the past year be declared eligible to vote. Neither the Employer nor
Local 415, IUE-CIO, opposes this request. It appears that it is the
practice of the Employer to retain the names of laid-off employees on
its seriority list for 1 year from the date of layoff, and to accord
preferential hiring rights to these employees. In view of these facts,
£ Boston Machine Works Company, 89 NLRB 59.
826 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
we find that employees who have been laid off within 1 year preceding
the Direction of Election herein have a reasonable expectation of reem-
ployment and are entitled to participate in the selection of a bargain-
ing agent unless they have obtained permanent employment elsewhere
or have failed to respond to an offer of reemployment by the
Employer.'
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
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, subject to Sections 203.61 and 203.62 of National Labor Rela-
tions Board Rules and Regulations, and subject to our determination
in paragraph numbered 5, supra, among the employees in the unit
found appropriate in paragraph numbered 4, above, who were em-
plyed during the payroll period immediately preceding the date of
this Direction of Election, including employees who did not work
during said payroll 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
they desire to be represented, for purposes of collective bargaining, by
International Union of Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers, Local
415, CIO, or by United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of
America,4 or by neither.
3 Ozark Dam Constructors, 77 NLRB 1136; Scintilla Magneto Division, 61 NLRB 520.
4 The Board's official records show that Local 415, UE, is not in compliance with the
registration and filing requirements of Section 9 (f), (g), and (h) of the Act. The UE,
however, is in full compliance. With the exception of a meeting held by Local 415, UE,
discussed above, the evidence does not indicate whether or not it has continued to function
as such since the expulsion of the UE from the CIO. The UE contends, however, that its
Local 415 is still in existence. If this Local is in existence, the UE's participation in the
election herein directed is conditioned upon the full compliance within 2 weeks from the date
of this Direction, with Section 9 (f), (g), and (h) of the Act by Local 415 . General
Motors Corporation et at ., 88 NLRB 450.