Armstrong Cork Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Apr 11, 1950

89 N.L.R.B. 296 (N.L.R.B. 1950)

In the Matter Of ARMSTRONG CORK COMPANY, EMPLOYER and UNITED-
PAPERWORKERS OF AMERICA, CIO1 PETITIONER
In the Matter of ARMSTRONG CORK COMPANY, EMPLOYER and INTERNA-
TIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS, LOCAL UNION 1316,.
AFL, PETITIONER
Cases Nos. 10-RC-827 and 10-RC-8.48. Decided April 11, 1950
DECISION
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
AND
ORDER
Upon petitions duly filed, a consolidated hearing was held before,
Gilbert Cohen, hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at
the hearing 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 Petitioner in Case No. 10-RC-827, United Paperworkers,
of America, CIO, herein referred to as the Paperworkers, and the-
Petitioner in Case No. 10-RC-848, International Brotherhood of
Electrical Workers, Local Union 1316, AFL, herein referred to as-
the IBEW, are labor organizations claiming to represent employees
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) andSection2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
4. The Paperworkers has petitioned for a unit of all production.
and maintenance employees in the Employer's Macon, Georgia, plant,.
excluding office, clerical, and salaried employees, professional em-
ployees, guards, watchmen, and all supervisors as defined in the Act_
89 NLRB No. 57.
296
ARMSTRONG CORK COMPANY 297
The IBEW seeks to represent a unit of all electricians in the Employ-
er's mechanical department. The Employer 'contends that only
a plant-wide unit composed of all production and maintenance em-
ployees is proper and moved to dismiss the IBEW's petition on the
ground :that the Board in a prior case involving this same plant of
the Employer 1 had made, in effect, a determination that the unit re-
quested by the IBEW was inappropriate. The Paperworkers joined
in the Employer's motion to dismiss and then made its own motion
to dismiss the IBEW's petition on the ground that the unit requested
was not appropriate.
The Employer is engaged in manufacturing insulating board, in-
sulating sheathing, insulating lath, panels, planks, and acoustical tile.
The primary operation of the plant involves the conversion of pine
logs into insulation board by an uninterrupted process from the un-
loading of the logs to the final packing and shipping of the product.
There are approximately 400 employees in the unit requested by the
Paperworkers and approximately 6 employees in the unit requested
by the IBEW.
The 'Employer's physical operations consist of one plant building,.
an office building, a woodyard, and several fire and hose houses. The
production plant is divided into five departments : woodyard, board
mill, fabricating, warehousing and shipping, and mechanical.
The mechanical department has approximately 34 employees, 61
of whom are classified as electricians. Other classifications include
mechanics, machinists, pipe fitters, carpenters, saw filers, painters, a,
truck driver, and a toolroom man. All these employees are under
the supervision of the master mechanic, who in turn is assisted by the
assistant master mechanic and the chief electrician. The electricians
work under the chief electrician, or when he is absent under the as-
sistant master mechanic or the master mechanic. In the event the
latter two supervisors are absent, the chief electrician assumes super-
vision of the department.
The electricians do general maintenance and repair work on elec-
trical machinery located throughout the plant. However, they per-
form work other than electrical as a matter of normal routine. Work
commonly attributed to mechanical skills is performed by electricians,,
and work normally considered of an electrical nature is performed
by employees classified as mechanics. An example of this occurs when
the brakes on a crane fail and an electrician may be called to adjust
and repair them, or when a mechanic replaces the collector shoes on
an electric crane, a job classed as electrical work. Daily interchange.
180 NLRB 1328.
298 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
of work is not confined to mechanics and electricians. The entire
mechanical department is a service organization for the production
crews, and it is the normal responsibility of employees in the mechani-
cal department to do whatever may be asked at any time to keep the
operation going without regard to the classification of work. There
is a weekly shutdown of the plant for maintenance- of. equipment,
and the entire mechanical department labor force is utilized indis-
criminately for the particular work that has to be done without ref-
erence to any particular skill each employee might have. Only a
small portion of the electrical work is required to be done by the elec-
tricians; this work occurs when. there is "hot power" in the unit.
In hiring or filling vacancies for the job classification of electrician
the Employer usually promotes men with the necessary aptitude from
the production line and trains them for the special tasks required.
No formal training or apprenticeship program is provided but rather
on-the-job training under the direction of the chief electrician. At
the present time, the Employer has an application for an electrician's
job from a toolroom employee, who has no electrical experience. The
Employer states that it intends transferring this employee when a
vacancy occurs.
As already indicated, the electricians work constantly throughout
the plant, coming into contact with all other job classifications. There
is no one place or department set apart for the electricians; and their
work bench is located in the shop area alongside the work benches
of the other mechanical department employees.
All employees of the plant work on an hourly wage rate basis,
have the same hours of work, are covered by the same vacation plan,
department and plant seniority, retirement plan, and share in the
same group insurance and hospitalization programs. The electricians,
punch the same time clock, are on the same payroll, and receive the
same rates of pay according to standard job classifications as other
employees of the mechanical department.
We have generally required that a group of employees, such as
is here involved, be composed of skilled craftsmen in order to war-
rant its establishment as a separate unit or its severance from a larger
unit.2 In the instant case, although the duties of the employees clas-
sified as electricians in the mechanical department require some
technical electrical skills, they do not run the gamut of skills required
of a journeyman electrician. Further, it is clear that the mechanical
'National Carbide Corporation, 85 NLRB 103; Aluminum Ore Company, 85 NLRB 121;
Aluminum Company of America, 83 NLRB 398; Seeger Refrigeration Company, 80 NLRB
-586; Mergenthaler Linotype Company, 80 NLRB 132; George S. Mepham Corporation, 78
.NLRB 1081.
ARMSTRONG CORK COMPANY 299
department is an integrated operating group with no clear demarca-
tion along craft lines,'and that the employees classified as electricians
often perform tasks not confined.to electrical work. We find that the
unit sought by the IBEW in Case No. 10-RC-848 does not comprise
a skilled craft group, and that it does not on any other basis constitute
a separate appropriate unit for the purposes of collective bargaining -
We shall therefore grant the motion of the Paperworkers to dismiss.
the petition in this case.4
On the other hand, the plant-wide production and maintenance unit
sought by the Paperworkers in Case No. 10-RC-827 is, in our opinion,
an appropriate bargaining unit.
Accordingly, we find that all production and maintenance employ-
ees employed at the Employer's Macon, Georgia, plant, excluding
office, clerical, and salaried employees,5 professional employees, guards,
watchmen, and all supervisors as defined in the Act, constitute a unit
appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the mean-
ing of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
ORDER
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the petition filed in Case No. 10-RC-848
be, and it hereby is, dismissed.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the pur-
poses 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
8 National Distillers Products Corporation, 84 NLRB 818 ; Schlumberger Well Surveying
Corporation, 83 NLRB 375; Monsanto Chemical Company, 83 NLRB 106; National Carbide
Corporation, 77 NLRB 454; Rice-Stix Dry Goods Company, 78 NLRB 311.
4 The Employer's motion to dismiss on the ground that the Board's ruling in the prior
case of this Employer, cited in footnote 1, precludes the filing of the IBEW's petition is
denied. In that case, the International Association of Machinists requested a unit of all
the maintenance employees and if that was found inappropriate, then a unit of the
machinists only. The Board found that the employees in the mechanical department might
constitute a separate unit, and held "it unnecessary to discuss the alternative unit, in
view of our finding that the departmental unit is appropriate." In that case, then, we
accepted the primary request of the petitioner and it does not follow that therefore we.
specifically or impliedly rejected the secondary one.
6 The Paperworkers would include and the Employer would exclude the storekeeper from
the unit found appropriate. This employee is on a salary basis and it appears from the
record that he is not classified as a production line employee. We shall exclude him from,
the unit.
;300 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
unit found appropriate in paragraph numbered 4, above, who were
:employed 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
4or not they desire to be represented , for purposes of collective bargain-
ing, by United Paperworkers of America, CIO.