Arizona Chemical Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jun 14, 1941

32 N.L.R.B. 653 (N.L.R.B. 1941)

In the Matter of ARIZONA CHEMICAL COMPANY and CHEMICAL
WORKERS UNION No. 22645
Case No. B-2572.-Decided June 14, 1941
Jurisdiction : chemical products manufacturing industry.
Investigation and Certification of Representatives : existence of question: Com-
pany refused to accord union recognition until Board determined the appro-
priateness of the claimed unit and certified the union as exclusive representa-
tive of the employees in such unit ; election unnecessary to resolve question :
majority designation by membership cards ; parties agreed to certification upon
the record.
Unit Appropriate for Collective Bargaining : production and maintenance em-
ployees on an hourly basis, at the Company's Brownfield and O'Donnell,
Texas, plants, excluding executive officers, superintendents, supervisors with
the right to hire and discharge, the office force, chemists and laboratory
workers; no controversy as to.
Mr. George W. Dupree, of Lubbock, Tex., for the Company.
Mr. W. R. Williams, of San Antonio, Tex., for the Union.
Mr. Marvin C. Wahl, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION,
AND
CERTIFICATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
On April 1, 1941, the Chemical Workers Union No. 22645, herein
called the Union, filed with the Regional Director for the Sixteenth
Region (Fort Worth, Texas) a petition alleging that a question
affecting commerce had arisen concerning the representation of em-
ployees of Arizona Chemical Company with plants located at Brown-
field and O'Donnell, Texas, herein called the Company, and requesting
an investigation and certi$cation of representatives pursuant to
Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act, 49 Stat. 449, herein
called the Act. On May 7, 1941, the National Labor Relations Board,
herein called the Board, acting pursuant to Section 9 (c) of the
Act and Article III, Section 3, of National Labor Relations Board
Rules and Regulations-Series 2, as amended, ordered an investiga-
tion and authorized the Regional Director to conduct it and to
provide for an appropriate hearing upon due notice.
32 N. L. It. B., No. 121. '
653
654 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
On May 8, 1941, the Regional Director issued a notice of hearing,
copies of which were duly served upon the Company and the Union.
Pursuant to notice, a hearing was held on May 19, 1941, at Lubbock,
Texas, before Clifford W. Potter, the Trial Examiner duly designated
by the Chief Trial Examiner. The, Company was represented by
counsel and the Union by its representative; both participated in
the hearing. Full opportunity to be heard, to examine and cross-
examine witnesses and to introduce evidence was afforded all parties.
No objections to the introduction of evidence or the rulings of the
Trial Examiner were made by any of the parties. The Board has
reviewed the rulings of the Trial Examiner and finds that no
prejudicial errors were committed. The rulings are hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following:
FINDINGS OF FACT
1. TILE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
Arizona Chemical Company is a Delaware corporation authorized
to transact business in the State of Texas: Its principal executive
offices and main sales offices are located at'New York City.- The Com-
pany operates plants at Brownfield and O'Donnell, Texas, said plants
being approximately 18 miles apart. It also has a plant in Florida,
and mining rights in certain properties in Arizona. The Company
is engaged in the manufacture, sale, and distribution of salt cake
(sodium sulphate). The raw materials used by the Company at
its Brownfield and O'Donnell plants are obtained in Texas ; all of
its manufactures, however, are shipped to points outside the State.
It admits that it is subject to the jurisdiction of the, Board.
11. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED
Chemical Workers Union No. 22645 is a labor organization affiliated
with the American Federation of Labor, admitting to membership
employees of the Company.
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
Prior to filing its petition and on March 14, 1941, the Union wrote
to the general manager of the Company advising that the Union
represented a majority of the employees of the Company employed
at the Brownfield and O'Donnell plants and requested a conference
for the purpose of collective bargaining. The Company by letter,
and at the hearing, refused to recognize the Union as the sole bar-
gaining agent for its employees until the Board determined the
appropriateness of the claimed unit and certified the Union as the
exclusive representative of the employees in such unit.
ARIZO'N'A CI3ENIICAL COMPANY 655
A' report by a Field Examiner for the Board introduced in.evi-
dence at the hearing shows that the Union• represents a substantial
number of employees in the unit hereinafter found to be appropriate.'
We find that a question has, arisen concerning the representation
of employees of the Company.
IV. THE EFFECT OF THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
UPON COMMERCE
We find that' the question concerning representation which has
arisen, occurring in-connection with the operations of the Company
described in Section I above, has a close, intimate, and substantial
relation to trade, traffic, and commerce among the several States and
tends to lead to labor disputes burdening and obstructing commerce
and the' free flow of commerce.
V. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT
The Union contends that all production and maintenance employees
on an hourly basis, at the Company's Brownfield and O'Donnell,
Texas, plants; excluding executive officers, superintendents, super-
visors with the right to hire and discharge, the office force, chemists,
and laboratory workers constitute an appropriate unit for the pur-
poses of collective bargaining. The Company did not dispute the
appropriateness of the claimed unit.
We find that all production and maintenance employees on an
hourly basis, at the Company's Brownfield and O'Donnell, Texas,
plants, excluding executive officers, superintendents, supervisors with
the right to hire and discharge, the office force, chemists, and labora-
tory, workers ' constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of
collective bargaining and that said unit will insure to employees
of the Company the, full benefit of the right to self-organization
and to collective bargaining and otherwise' effectuate the policies of
the Act.
VI. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
At the hearing the Company and. the .Union agreed that in the
event the Board found the unit requested by the Union to be ap-
propriate it might certify the Union as the exclusive- collective
bargaining representative for all the employees in such unit without
an election. A report of a Field Examiner of the Board introduced
into evidence at the hearing stated that the Union had submitted to
him 41 cards authorizing' the Union to represent the signers for the
' The evidence in support of the Union 's claim to represent employees in the unit herein-
after found to be appropriate is set forth in Section vI, infra.
656 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
purposes of collective bargaining, 38 of which cards bore genuine
original signatures of persons whose names appeared on the Com-
pany's pay roll of April 5, 1941, 16 , naming employees at the
O'Donnell plant and 22 at the Brownfield plant. The report also
stated that all the cards were dated between March 17 and April 1,
1941. The Union's authorization cards were available at the hearing.
After examining them, the manager of the' Company testified that
the names of 43 of the employees who had signed the Union's author-
ization cards 2 appeared on its May 17, 1941, pay roll, which con-
tained 44 names in all, and that the signatures on said authorization
cards appeared to be genuine.
On the basis of the foregoing we find that the Union has been
designated and selected by a majority of persons employed by the
Company in the unit herein found to be appropriate as the repre-
sentative of such persons for the purposes of collective bargaining.
It is therefore the exclusive representative of all the employees in
such unit for the purposes of collective bargaining, and we will so
certify.
Upon the basis of the above findings of fact and upon the entire
record in the case, the Board makes the following :
CONCLUSIONS OF Liw
1. A ,question affecting commerce has arisen concerning the repre-
sentation of employees of Arizona Chemical Company, within the
meaning of Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the National
Labor Relations Act.
2. The production and maintenance employees on an hourly basis,
at the Company's Brownfield and O'Donnell, Texas, plants, exclud-
ing executive officers, superintendents, supervisors with the right to
hire and discharge, the office force, chemists, and laboratory workers
constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining
within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the National Labor Relations
Act.
3. Chemical Workers Union No. 22645 is the exclusive representa-
tive of all the employees in such unit for the.purposes of collective
bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (c) of the National -
Labor Relations Act.
CERTIFICATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
By virtue of and pursuant to the power vested in the National
Labor Relations Board by Section 9 (c), of the National Labor
2 By the time of the hearing , the Union had more signed authorization cards than it had
when it submitted the cards to the Field Examiner.
ARIZONA CHEMICAL COMPANY 657
Relations Act. and pursuant to Article III, Section 8, of National
Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 2, as amended,
IT IS HEREBY CERTIFIED that Chemical Workers Union No. 22645
has been designated and selected by a majority of all production and
maintenance employees on an hourly basis , at the Company 's Brown-
field and O'Donnell, Texas, plants , excluding executive officers, super-
intendents , supervisors with the right to hire and discharge, the
office force , chemists , and laboratory workers as their representative
for the purposes of collective bargaining and that pursuant to the
provisions of Section 9 (a) of the Act, Chemical Workers Union
No. 22645 is the exclusive representative of all such employees for the
purposes of collective bargaining with respect to rates of pay, wages,
hours of employment , and other conditions of employment.