Armstrong Tire And Rubber Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

May 11, 1953

104 N.L.R.B. 892 (N.L.R.B. 1953)

892 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
The EOM excepted to the Regional Director's conclusion that
this objection was without merit regardless of the truth or
falsehood of the statement complained of. In so doing it ap-
parently takes the position that if the statement was false it was
necessarily coercive and therefore the Board must determine
its truth or falsity. Wee do not agree . Absent threats or other
elements of intimidation we will not undertake to censor or
police union campaigns or consider the truth or falsity of official
union utterances,' unless the ability of the employees to evaluate
such utterances has been so impaired by the use of forged
campaign material or other campaign trickery that the unco-
erced desires of the employees cannot be determined in an
election.4 Such circumstances do not exist here. The statements
complained of are obvious propaganda, clearly recognizable as
such by the employees, who, in our opinion, were and are
entirely competent to evaluate such material. We find this
objection to be without merit, and hereby overrule it.
The EOM filed but one other objection, a general allegation
that the CIO had circulated "other false propaganda" which
did not come within the bounds of legitimate campaigning and
which the Board should investigate. The Regional Director
recommended that the objection be overruled because the EOM
offered no supporting evidence in the course of his investiga-
tion. No exceptions were filed to this recommendation. The
objection is hereby overruled.
ORDER
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that this case be, and it hereby is,
remanded to the Regional Director for the Second Region for
further appropriate proceedings under Sections 102.61 and
102.62 of the Board's Rules and Regulations.
2 Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3 (b) of the Act the Board has delegated its powers
in connection with the supplemental proceedings in the case to a three -member panel [Chair-
man Herzog and Members Houston and Murdock].
'Kearney & Trecker Corporation, 96 NLRB 1214; Western Electric Company, Incorporated,
87 NLRB 183.
4For examples of devices held to have produced such impairment see United Aircraft
Corporation. 103 NLRB 102, and Timken- Detroit Axle Company. 98 NLRB 790.
ARMSTRONG TIRE AND RUBBER COMPANY' and INTER-
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS LODGE NO.
855, AFL, Petitioner. Cases Nos. 15-RC-808, 15-RC-809,
15-RC-810, 15-RC-811, 15-RC-812, 15-RC-813, 15-RC-814,
and 15-RC-815. May 11, 1953
DECISION , ORDER, AND DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
Upon petitions duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National
Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before Joseph Smolen,
i The eight petitions herein were consolidated by order of the Regional Director.
104 NLRB No. 105.
ARMSTRONG TIRE AND RUBBER COMPANY 893
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 these cases, the Board finds:
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning
of the Act.
2. The labor organizations involved claim to represent
certain employees of the Employer.
3. 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.
The Intervenor contends that its contract constitutes a bar
to this proceeding. The latest contract between the Company
and the Intervenor was effective from November 6, 1950, for
a period of 2 years, and was to extend for yearly periods
thereafter unless notice of desire to terminate or modify was
given at least 60 days, but not more than 70 days, prior to the
expiration date. Notice to modify was timely given by the
Intervenor, and the petitions involved herein were filed on
September 5, 1952, prior to the "Mill B" date of the contract.
We find that the contract is not a bar to a pre sent determination
of representation.
4. The Petitioner seeks to sever from the unit of production
and maintenance employees, represented by the Intervenor
since 1945,9 eight separate groups of employees, contending
that the employees in each of these categories constitute an
appropriate bargaining unit of a craft or craft-like type
traditionally recognized as appropriate for bargaining pur-
poses . The Petitioner will accept any appropriate unit or units
designated by the Board, and alternatively claims a unit of all
maintenance employees, except electricians or electrical
workers. Both the Employer and the Intervenor contend that
the requested units are inappropriate and that bnly the plantwide
production and maintenance unit is appropriate, relying on their
history of collective bargaining as well as the alleged pattern
in the tire and tube industry of representation on a plantwide
basis without separate craft representation. Also, the Employer
claims that the manufacturing process employed in the tire and
tube industry is so integrated that units smaller than plantwide
are inappropriate.
So far as the first contention is concerned, the Board has
consistently held and recently reaffirmed that neither the fact
that past bargaining has been successfully conducted on a
plantwide basis, nor the fact that the Board has found a plant-
2 The United Rubber, Cork, Linoleum and Plastic Workers of America, Local No. 303,
CIO, herein called the Intervenor, was permitted to intervene upon the showing of a con-
tractual interest in the employees involved. The Intervenor's request for oral argument
is hereby denied as the record and brief adequately present the positions of the parties.
The Employer and the Intervenor moved to dismiss the petitions filed herein because of
certain unit contentions. We deny the motions for reasons hereinafter stated.
3The Intervenor was certified for this unit in 1945 following a Board-directed election.
Since 1945 the Employer and the Intervenor have maintained contractual relations.
894 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
wide unit appropriate in an earlier proceeding, precludes the
severance of craft units.'
As to the remaining contention, the record reveals that in
this plant, as in most continuous-process operations in which
preventive maintenance is an important factor, there is a
relatively high degree of integration between production and
maintenance. However, we do not perceive in this particular
industry that degree of integration between production and
maintenance which has impelled the Board to the conclusion
in certain industries that only units embracing all production
and maintenance employees are appropriate.5
There remains for determination the question of whether the
eight groups of employees petitioned for constitute appropriate
units for severance. At the Nachez, Mississippi, plant, involved
herein, the Employer manufactures tires and tubes from natural
and synthetic rubber, rayon, cotton and nylon cord, carbon
black, sulphur, zinc oxide, and other chemicals. The raw
materials are mixed in large quantities under controlled heat.
These mixtures are applied to fabrics which are molded into
tires. After processing in a curing room, they become mar-
ketable. The building of a tire fundamentally involves control
of heat at all stages, and each production step must follow at
determined intervals. Interference with the schedule at any
stage results in damage to the quality of the tires.
Administratively the plant consists of 3 main divisions:
production, service, and the division under the treasurer.
Under the production manager are various department6 super-
intendents who in turn have at least 3 foremen under them.
On the Z night or back shifts the shift superintendent assumes
the duties of all the department superintendents.8 The service
division is divided into approximately 8 departments.' This
case is concerned primarily with the plant engineering depart-
ment of which the maintenance and stores departments are a
part. Approximately 600 employees constitute the present
bargaining unit of production and maintenance employees. Most
production workers are incentive workers and maintenance
work must be well coordinated with production if loss in pay
is to be avoided. While seniority is computed on a plantwide
basis, all employees have departmental seniority under the
present contract. All employees share the same cafeteria,
4See Section 9 (b) (2) of the Act; Westinghouse Electric Corporation, 75 NLRB 638; W. C.
Hamilton and Sons, 104 NLRB 627.
Chairman Herzog, while deeply impressed by the arguments made by Member Peterson
in the Hamilton case ( in which he did not participate), believes that the Board should await
the possible action of Congress, which has heard witnesses critical of its present policy on
craft severance, before changing a trend which has been constant for about 6 years.
i E. g., National Tube Company, 76 NLRB 1199
6 The preparation department, assembly department, and the curing and final finish depart-
ment.
7 The larger departments are divided into subdivisions and a foreman is in charge of each
subdivision.
8 There are 3 shift superintendents who rotate on the 2 night shifts.
9Industrial relations , industrial engineering , plant engineering , inspection, technical
scheduling, stores, and warehousing, shipping, and receiving.
ARMSTRONG TIRE AND RUBBER COMPANY 895
locker room, and showers, and participate equally in the
hospital and medical service program. Bargaining between the
Intervenor and the Employer has resulted in an integrated wage
structure for all employees, and contractual rights are usually
agreed upon after the industry pattern has been determined by
the Big Four10 and wages are settled on the basis of the industry
pattern. The Employer does not have apprenticeship programs
for any of the maintenance groups involved and fills vacancies
by hiring from outside the plant or by transferring employees
from production departments. Only about 25 percent of the
maintenance work is pre scheduled; the remaining maintenance
is of an emergency nature.
Case No. 15-RC-808--The original petition in this case
sought all machinists and toolroom employees including tool
sharpeners and toolroom clerks. At the hearing, the petition
was amended to also include the mold maintenance man and
his helper, and the machinist in the salvage department.
The Employer has approximately 16 employees in this group
including 10 machinists in the machine shop and 1 machinist
and helper in the salvage department, 1 mold maintenance man
and 1 helper, and 2 toolroom employees, a tool sharpener, and
a toolroom clerk. The machinists, who work under the supervi-
sion of the mechanical foreman, spend most of their time
within the machine shop which is in the basement of the curing
building, a production building, making parts for machines and
repairing machines used in the manufacturing process. They
use micrometers in the close precision work about 50 percent
of their time. The machinist in the salvage department does
machinist work which requires the same skill as the other
machinists have, and he is paid on the same wage scale. He
has one regularly assigned helper. Machinists are divided into
grades "A" and "B", there being a difference of 4 cents per
hour between the top grade of each range. Progression among
the machinists is based on their becoming familiar with the
Employer's machinery; the average seniority among the
machinists is 5 or 6 years and all but 1 are of the "A" grade.
Within a year a grade "B" machinist may be upgraded to grade
"A". In hiring grade "B" machinists the Employer would
prefer men with 6 months' machinist experience. We are of the
opinion that the machinists, including the machinist in the
salvage department, may, with their regularly assigned helpers,
constitute a craft unit if they so desire, despite a history of
collective bargaining on a broader basis."
As for the two toolroom employees who sharpen and issue
tools to all the employees, including the production employees,
and who are under the supervision of the stores department,
we shall exclude them from the machinist group because they
lack a special community of interest with the machinists
sufficient to warrant their inclusion.12
10 Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, B. F. Goodrich
Company, and United States Rubber Company.
ii See Campbell Soup Company, 98 NLRB 741.
12 See Johns -Manville Products Corporation , 98 NLRB 748.
896 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
There is one mold maintenance man and a helper who work
in the basement of the curing building in proximity to the other
alleged maintenance craftsmen. The mold maintenance man is
required to know how to drill, file, and perform a simple cut,
perhaps on a boring mill. His duty is to keep the mold in repair
as it frequently becomes chipped or a steam leak appears. The
work is specific and the Employer stated that he would be
taught exactly what is wanted on the molds. No experience is
necessary for this position, but the Employer would prefer to
have an employee with from 6 months' to a year's experience
handling tools. The present mold maintenance man was for-
merly classified as a machinist, and previous to that was
employed in production. Both he and his helper are under the
supervision of the engineering department. We shall exclude
the mold maintenance man and helper from the machinists
group.
Case No. 15-RC-809--The original petition in Case No.
15-RC-809 sought all millwrights and oilers but was amended
at the hearing to add all mechanics, scale and maintenance.
The millwrights are supervised by a millwright foreman.
They compose a heavy-work gang whose primary duty is to
load and unload machinery to and from freight cars and trucks.
Their work involves crating and uncrating the machinery, and
moving and relocating machinery in all parts of the plant. No
particular skill is necessary prior to hiring. The Employer's
complicated heavy machinery is returned to the manufacturer
for repairs, and most machinery is bought as a "packaged
deal." One of the plant engineers is responsible for the actual
direction of the millwrights in placing the machinery, leveling,
and aligning it. This group of millwrights is regularly composed
of nine employees but is frequently augmented by borrowing or
shifting men from the yard gang or general labor. There are two
general laborers in the same department as the millwrights who
are on the same seniority list. The millwrights are regularly
scheduled to work only on the first shift.
The oilers, scale mechanics, and shift mechanics are in a
different department from the millwrights. The oilers attend
to the lubrication of machinery all over the plant, and from
10 to 25 percent of the time assist the mechanics in their work.
They have the same supervisor as do the carpenters, painter,
and mechanics. Very little special skill is necessary to be an
oiler. The Employer usually prefers that a mechanic have at
least 6 months' prior experience in mechanical work, but at
least 4 of the present 9 employees had no such experience.'s
Knowledge of the Employer's own machinery is considered
more important than prior training. The mechanics make
adjustments, repair machines, and replace parts; the scale
mechanic checks and repairs the scales, spray guns, and other
machines. Much of the work performed by mechanics is
tsHaver worked as a foreman in a box factory for 15 years prior to coming to work for the
Employer and prior to that was a plumber; Bute was a painter; Cothan was a saw filer and
mill foreman; and another's only prior experience was that of a saw filer.
ARMSTRONG TIRE AND RUBBER COMPANY 897
actually directed by production supervisors. Although they
report to the curing building, their workbenches are located
amid the production machinery.14
The record fails to indicate that any of the employees sought
in this group have the journeyman skills and duties which the
Board requires in order to grant severance on a craft basis.
Therefore, we shall dismiss the petition in Case No. 15-RC-809.
Case No. 15-RC-810--The Petitioner under this petition
originally requested all mechanics (including the moldmainte-
nance man and helper, and scale, floor, and shift mechanics)
and maintenance store employees, but amended the petition at
the hearing limiting it to the maintenance store employees.
The maintenance store employees consist of 1 inventory
clerk and 2 issuance clerks who hand out supplies to both
production and maintenance employees. They are under the
supervision of the store department and the Employer and the
Intervenor would exclude them from any units as office cleri-
cals, but the Petitioner desires to represent them separately
as plant clericals. Although the Board certification of the
production and maintenance unit includes employees of the
receiving, stores, warehouse, and shipping departments, the
present contract between the Employer and the Intervenor
excludes these maintenance store employees as office clericals.
There are other plant clericals: the toolroom clerks who work
near the maintenance stores employees and are under the
supervision of the stores department, and 2 or 3 clerks who
work in a small office located near the stores employees in the
basement. Neither of these groups is sought by the Petitioner.
We shall dismiss the petition in Case No. 15-RC-810.
Case No. 15-RC-811--The Petitioner seeks a unit of all
welders . The Employer has four welders who are under the
ultimate supervision of the maintenance foreman. They are
assigned to work with various groups of service employees
and are subject to the immediate direction of the supervisor
of the group to which they are assigned . Hence their immediate
supervision changes from time to time. They spend all their
time working with other maintenance employees, pipefitters,
mechanics, machinists, and millwrights. Several of the em-
ployees in these classifications to which they are assigned also
do welding in connection with their regular work. The Employer
requires very little experience prior to hiring.is The welders do
no specialized welding or work requiring a high knowledge of
stresses in heattreatment.16 We do not find that these employees
have the journeyman skills and duties of craftsmen. Therefore,
we shall dismiss the petition in Case No. 15-RC-811.
l4Most operators of machines are paid on an incentive basis and when the machine needs
repair his pay reverts to a minimum basis. Therefore , when a mechanic works on the
machine , the operator assists him in an effort to return the machine to production work
as soon as possible.
is The Employer prefers that a new employee "have at least had a torch in his hand done
some simple welding"; that he have at least 6 months ' experience.
isOn one occasion when a boiler tube needed welding it was necessary to obtain a welder
from outside who was qualified under the State regulations to perform such welding.
898 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Case No. 15-RC-812--The Petitioner by this petition seeks
a unit of pipefitters including the instrumentman. The Employer
has 7 pipefitters and 5 shift pipefitters whose primary duty is
to repair water and air piping throughout the plant. The pipe-
fitters are on the day shift and are separately supervised by a
pipefitter foreman. The shift pipefitters who work on the two
back shifts are ultimately responsible to the same foreman,
but are directly supervised by the production shift foremen. In
spite of the fact that both groups are paid the same rate, the
record indicates that some of the so-called pipefitters are
actually general laborers.17 One pipefitter does no work other
than changing molds used in the curing department and he is
under the supervision of production scheduling personnel. The
Employer prefers, however, that new employees have a year's
pipefitters' experience prior to hiring. We are of the opinion,
although the record is somewhat limited on the craft duties
and skills of this group, that some of the Employer's pipefitters
are skilled pipefitters and together with those lesser skilled
pipefitters constitute a craft group. We shall direct an election
to determine their desires.
The instrumentman's duty is to keep the instruments record-
ing correctly. On most of the instruments there is more
regulation required than repairing. All the instruments have
some pipe connections, and the instrumentman may take an
instrument off and replace it. However, the record indicates
that approximately 80 percent of his time is spent checking and
reading the instruments located in the curing department and
the mixing department. Although the basic training of the
instrumentman may have included the rudiments of pipefitting,
it does not appear that as an instrumentman he is exercising
the skill of a pipefitter and we shall exclude him from the above
grouping.
Case No. 15-RC-813--The Petitioner here seeks aunitof all
painters and carpenters. The 2 carpenters have been with the
Employer 9 and 10 years. At the hearing the testimony revealed
that the Employer's carpenters work exclusively at jobs requir-
ing the exercise of craft skills, do not interchange with other
employees, and accumulate seniority within the individual craft
group. On the entire record the Board finds that the Employer's
carpenters comprise a highly skilled, identifiable, and homo-
geneous group who may appropriately form a separate bar-
gaining group or be included in a larger unit depending, in part,
upon the expression of their wishes in the elections herein
directed.
As there is only one painter who in addition to his regular
work of painting walls and equipment does glazing and replaces
window glass, we are precluded from establishing a separate
craft unit for the painter, and he does not appear to have
associations and interests with any other craft sufficient to
warrant inclusion therein. Accordingly, he will continue to
17 The Petitioner's representative stated, "To my knowledge there are only 4 pipefitters
and there are some general laborers "
ARMSTRONG TIRE AND RUBBER COMPANY 899
remain a part of the production and maintenance unit repre-
sented by the Intervenor.18
Case No. 15-RC-814--The Petitioner inthis case seeks a unit
of four powerhouse employees, called boilerroom engineers.
They perform the usual duties of powerhouse engineers, i.e.,
keeping the boilers operating properly and regulating the water
and steam pressure used throughout the plant. They are licensed
stationary engineers, have separate seniority from others in
the plant, and are immediately supervised by the assistant to
the chief engineer . We find that the powerhouse employees are
a distinct, homogeneous, and functionally coherent group similar
to other powerplant units to which we have granted severance.
Case No. 15-RC-815--Finally, the Petitioner seeks a unit of
sheet-metal workers. There are two employees in this classi-
fication. The Employer stated that both these employees are
highly skilled sheet -metal workers, but that the company does
not utilize all their skills. The Employer would, however,
require 3 years of experience prior to hiring. The sheet-metal
workers have the same supervision as the machinists and mold
maintenance man, are in the same department, and have
seniority with them. The bulk of their work is fitting connec-
tions, repairing duct work, making guards, and similar opera-
tions as the Employer has very little preassembly and cutting
of sheet metal. Their machinery is located in the basement of
the curing house, adjacent to other maintenance employees,
but they are required to work all over the plant. We find that
the sheet-metal workers are a distinct craft group entitled to
separate representation if they so desire. Accordingly, we
shall establish a separate voting group for them.
In view of the foregoing, we shall direct separate elections
among the Employer's employees at its Natchez, Mississippi,
plant in the voting groups set forth below, including in each
group any regularly assigned helpers and excluding from each
group all other employees and supervisors as defined in the
Act:
1. All machinists excluding the toolroom employees and the
mold maintenance man.
Z. All pipefitters excluding the head instrumentman.
3. All carpenters.
4. All powerhouse employees.
5. All sheet-metal workers.
If a majority of the employees in any of the voting groups
indicate, by voting for the Petitioner, their desire to be repre-
sented in a separate unit , the Board finds such unit to be
appropriate and the Regional Director conducting the elections
directed herein is instructed , in that event , to issue a certifi-
cation of representatives to the Petitioner for each such unit.
If a majority of the employees in any voting group vote for the
Intervenor, the Regional Director shall issue a certification of
results of elections to that effect, and the employees in that
group will remain a part of the existing production and mainte-
nance unit.
18 See Johns-Manville Products Corporation, supra.
900 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
CRDER
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the petitions in Cases Nos.
15-RC-809, 15-RC-810, and 15-RC-811 be, and they hereby
are, dismissed.
[Text of Direction of Elections omitted from publication.]
Member Peterson, dissenting:
In this case there has been a successful 8-year bargaining
history; the bargaining pattern in the tire and tube, industry
tends toward representation on a plantwide basis; the Em-
ployer's operations are highly integrated; there is no evidence
that the proposed craft groups maintained their identity as
such during the period of bargaining on a more comprehensive
basis; nor is there evidence that the Petitioner had obtained
membership among the craft employees prior to the establish-
ment of the broader unit; and the petitioning IAM does not seek
only machinists and related crafts. Under these circumstances,
and for the reasons more fully set forth in my dissenting
opinion in the Hamilton19 case, I would dismiss the petitions
herein.
19 W. C. Hamilton and Sons, 104 NLRB 627.
PITTSBURGH PLATE GLASS COMPANY (MILWAUKEE PAINT
DIVISION)' and INTERNATIONAL UNION, UNITED PLANT
GUARD WORKERS OF AMERICA, AMALGAMATED PLANT
GUARD LOCAL 555,1 Petitioner. Case No. 13-RC-3203.
May 11, 1953
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National
Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before Joseph 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 Act, the
Board has delegated its powers in connection with this case to
a three-member panel [Chairman Herzog and Members Styles
and Peterson].
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds:
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the mean-
ing of the Act.
2. The labor organizations involved claim to represent em-
ployees of the Employer.
3. The question concerning representation:
International Union, United Plant Guard Workers of America,
Amalgamated Plant Guard Local 555, the Petitioner herein,
1 The names of the Employer and Petitioner appear as corrected at the hearing.
104 NLRB No. 110.