American Viscose Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jun 13, 1949

84 N.L.R.B. 202 (N.L.R.B. 1949)

In the Matter of SYLVANIA DIVISION, AMERICAN VISCOSE CORPORATION ,I
EMPLOYER and UNITED ASSOCIATION OF JOURNEYMEN & APPRENTICES
OF THE PLUMBING & PIPE FITTING INDUSTRY, LOCAL UNION No. 10,
PETITIONER
Case No. 5-RC-224.-Decided June 13, 1949
DECISION
AND
ORDER
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before Robert E.
Mullin, hearing officer of the National Labor Relations Board. The
hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial
error and are hereby affirmed. The requests of the Employer and
Intervenor for oral argument are denied because the record and the
briefs submitted by the parties, in our opinion,, adequately' present
the issues and the positions of the parties. The motions of the Em-
ployer and the Intervenor to dismiss the petition are granted for the
f easons set forth in paragraph 3, infra .2
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board 3 finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the National Labor Relations Act.
2. The Petitioner and Textile Workers Union of America, CIO,
herein called the Intervenor, are labor organizations claiming to repre-
sent employees of the Employer.
3. No 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, for the following
reasons:
The Petitioner seeks to sever -from the unit of production and
maintenance employees, represented by the Intervenor since 1945,' a
1 The Employer's name appears as amended at the hearing.
2 In Matter of Celanese Corporation of America ( 84 N. L R B 207 ), the Intervenor
moved to consolidate that case with the instant proceeding . The motion was denied
therein, In footnote 2.
3 Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3 (b) of the National Labor Relations Act, as
amended , the Board has delegated its powers in connection with this case to a thiee-man
panel [Chairman Herzog and Members Houston and Murdock].
4 The Intervenor was certified for this unit on July 5, 1945 , following a Board -directed
election . Matter of Sylvania 'Indostrial Corp., 61 N. L. R B 1585. ( The name of the
84 N. L . R. B., No. 25.
202
SYLVANIA DIVISION, AMERICAN VISCOSE CORPORATION 203
unit consisting of employees designated in the current contract between
the Employer and the Intervenor as "pipe fitters first class, pipe fitters
second class, tank car unloaders, pipe coverers first class, pipe coverers
second class, welders first class, welders second class" and helpers as-
signed thereto from a common pool.' The Petitioner contends that
these jobs constitute a severable craft group. The Employer and the
Intervenor, on the other hand, contend that the requested unit is in-
appropriate and that only the present plant-wide production and main-
tenance unit is appropriate.
At the Fredericksburg plant, involved herein, the Employer manu-
factures cellophane, cellophane byproducts, and allied chemical prod-
ucts. The production is 'a continuous-time chemical process, involving
1 to 8 days. The production of cellophane involves four stages,,
handled in four sections of the plant. In the viscose section of the
plant, wood pulp and caustic are mixed and the mixture steeped. Af-
ter proper steeping, the resulting compound is shredded and aged.
From the aging vats, the mixture is piped to a xanthator for the ad-
dition of the reagents which produce viscose syrup. The syrup is then
piped into the spinning section where it is extruded under pressure
through nozzles into a hardening bath in which it becomes cellophane.
The cellophane is then run to the the coating section where it is rolled,
washed, desulphurized, bleached and softened, and dried. The com-
pleted cellophane is then slit and cut by the finishing section, packed,
and shipped out.
Because the plant operations must be continuous, maintenance work
must be well coordinated with production if losses are to be avoided.
To minimize emergency repairs, the Employer preschedules most of its
maintenance work. One crew spends all of its time rebuilding spinning
machines, following a 21-month schedule. Another spends all its
time in the "wash up" of spinning machines, following the staggered
spinning operations. Other maintenance crews are permanently
assigned to various production units. Emergency or "spot" crews are
used only on the night and Sunday shifts. These various maintenance
crews consist of millwrights, pipe fitters, carpenters, sheet metal work-
ers, and helpers. Members of the crews are called upon to perform
various job functions without regard to their individual job classifica-
tions. Thus, with particular reference to pipe fitting, the record dem-
Company was changed in 1946 ) Since 1945 the Employer and the Intervenor have
maintained contractual relations.
5
The contract between the Intervenor and the Employer, covering all maintenance and
production employees, including the employees herein, expires December 31, 1950 It
\sas signed, however, after the filing of the present petition, and is not urged as a bar to
this proceeding. The alleged purpose of the contract job classifications is to implement
divisional seniority. There is no assertion that the employees requested herein have been,
inadequately represented or have failed to participate in the benefits of the contracts
204 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
onstrates that in some cases millwrights do pipe-fitting work 70 per-
cent of their working time, whereas pipe fitters do millwright work
about 30 percent of the times In general, employees with job classi-
fications other than those requested by the Petitioner do about 75
percent of the work described in the Petitioner's constitution and
bylaws as pipe-fitting work.
All maintenance employees-machinists, millwrights, electricians,
carpenters, sheet metal workers, painters, laborers, pipe fitters, pipe
coverers, tank car unloaders, welders, etc.-operate out of a central
machine shop, use the common tool crib, and have common working
facilities. However, the maintenance crews, described above, are vari-
ously supervised depending upon the department in which they are
working. Permanently assigned maintenance employees and emer-
gency crews are supervised by production foremen.
The Employer has no strict apprenticeship program or training
,requirements but provides a voluntary 6-month course for all mainte-
nance helpers, covering mathematics, mechanical drawing, safety,
elementary chemistry, and blueprint reading. After completing this
general training program, newly hired maintenance employees are
trained on the job to do the specialized type of work the plant requires.
For this reason, the Employer does not hire maintenance employees on
the basis of their prior training in traditional craft work, finding it
necessary in all cases to train its own "specialists."
Under the present contract, maintenance and production employees
enjoy the same employee benefits. The contract provides for both
plant-wide and divisional seniority. Although there have been few
temporary transfers to maintenance divisions, there have been perma-
nent transfers between maintenance and production departments.
The contract coverage of both production and maintenance employees
conforms to the bargaining practice in the major part of the chemical
industry to which the industrial operations of the Employer belong.'
A study of the collective bargaining contracts in that industry shows
that 86.6 percent provide for over-all production and maintenance
groups, with only the standard supervisory, clerical, etc., exclusions .8
d In the viscose section the crew of permanently assigned pipe fitters and millwrights
do pipe-fitting work 70 percent of the time In the coating section a similar crew does
pipe-fitting work 50 percent of the time , although the pipe fitters do somewhat more pipe
fiting than do the millwrights . The emergency crews perform work of a pipe -fitting
nature 70 percent of their time
7 A majority of those making craft exceptions originated prior to any bargaining history
or Board certification on an industi tal basis
The Employer introduced in evidence a report by the Bureau of National Affairs, Inc ,
of Washington , D. C., on "Bargaining Units in the Chemical Industry ," based on contracts
filed with the BNA and with the Industrial Relations Branch of the Bureau of Labor
Statistics , Department of Labor.
SYLVANIA DIVISION, AMERICAN VISCOSE CORPORATION 205
Within the subdivision of synthetic textiles and fabrics,9 over-all main-
tenance and production units are even more prevalent.
From the 403 hourly paid maintenance employees in the Employer's
plant, the Petitioner seeks to sever 63 alleged craftsmen. Of the
requested employees 27 are first- and second-class pipe fitters, who work
on the maintenance crews described above, rebuilding spinning
machines, "washing up" spinning machines, on permanently attached
assignments to production units, or on the emergency crews. Five are
pipe coverers who along with 4 helpers do all the work necessary where
insulation is applied to control temperatures, but who spend 70 percent
of their time covering items other than pipe, e. g., refrigeration rooms,
process kettles, storage tanks, etc., under the supervision of both pipe
fitter and millwright foremen. Eleven are welders who work with
the maintenance crews, repair tubing and structural steel, or make tub-
ing for the pipe fitters, under the sheet metal foremen machinists, and
others. The one tank car unloader and helper connect and discon-
nect the tank cars and barges from which chemicals are piped into the
plant. The tank car unloader is responsible for the allocation of
inbound shipments to the proper production departments and is super-
vised in making his deliveries by the different production department
foremen.
From the facts above we are persuaded that the unit sought by the
Petitioner does not constitute a true craft group. We believe, more-
over, that the requested unit lacks the necessary characteristics for
separate representation on a noncraft basis. The pipe fitters and
other classifications sought to be severed by the Petitioner perform
specialized tasks peculiar to the industrial operations of the Employer,
rather than tasks which are typical of the pipe fitter's craft.'° In this
connection, we note the absence of a true apprenticeship program and
the fact that the pipe fitters are frequently supervised by production
employees or supervisors of other crafts. Moreover, the unit sought
does not include all persons engaged in the same or similar operations,
for, as noted above, pipe-fitter jobs in this plant are commonly per-
formed by employees with other classifications.u In essence the unit
requested constitutes a subdivision of a maintenance group, and the
nature and situs of the work performed is indistinguishable from that
of many other employees who are excluded from the unit.
See Standard Industrial Classtifications, Bureau of the Budget, "Chemical and Allied
Products ," Sec 2823 , including rayon and cellophane manufacturing within this subdi-
vision, over -all contracts exist in all production plants except 7. Supra, note 7. See
Matter of George S. Mepham Corp, 78 N. L R. B 1081.
10 See Matter of National Tube Company , 76 N. L. R. B. 1199 , 1207 footnote 19
11 See Matter of St. Louis Public Service Co., 71 N. L. R. B 160. 165.
206 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Upon the basis of all of the foregoing facts, and in view of the
highly integrated and interdependent operations at the Employer's
plant, we find that the unit sought by the Petitioner is inappropriate
for purposes of collective bargaining, and we shall therefore order that
the petition be dismissed.12
ORDER
Upon the entire record in this case, the National Labor Relations
Board hereby orders that the petition herein be, and it hereby is,
dismissed.
1' See Matter of Monsanto Chemical Company , 78 N. L. R. B . 1249; Matter of Car.
.borundum Company, 80 N. L R B 756.