Automatic Electric Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jan 19, 1949

81 N.L.R.B. 218 (N.L.R.B. 1949)

In the Matter of AUTOMATIC ELECTRIC COMPANY, EMPLOYER and LOCAL
713, INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS,
PETITIONER
Case No. 13-RC-373.-Decided January 19, 1949
DECISION
AND
ORDER
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before a 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.
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-man panel consisting of the undersigned Board
Members.*
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 organization named below claims to represent em-
ployees 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 a unit composed of all assistants to foremen,
shop clerks, and factory blueprint file clerks at the Employer's
Chicago, Illinois, plant. The Employer contends that the proposed
unit is not an appropriate bargaining unit, alleging that assistants to
foremen are supervisors; that shop clerks are confidential employees;
and that factory blueprint file clerks are appropriately part of a pro-
duction unit.
The Employer is engaged in the manufacture of communications and
electrical equipment at its Chicago plant. It employs approximately
*Chairman Herzog and Members Houston and Gray.
81 N. L. R. B., No. 36.
218
AUTOMATIC ELECTRIC COMPANY 219
2,500 production and maintenance employees. Other employees in-
clude administrative office employees and factory clerical employees.
The employees in the proposed unit fall within three categories of
factory clerical workers whose duties are described as follows :
1. Assistants to foremen: There are 27 assistants to foremen in the
Employer's several production departments. They are clearly dis-
tinguishable from assistant foremen. They were formerly called "dis-
patchers." Although there has been a change in their job title, their
duties have remained the same. It is their function to receive orders
from the order department, break the orders down so that the opera-
tions involved are separable, make requisitions for material, and co-
ordinate all of the foregoing so that production schedules are met.
They administratively assign work jobs in rotation to machine op-
erators capable of performing the work. This assignment is a routine
matter. Approximately 40 to 50 percent of their time is devoted to
clerical work.
Assistants to foremen do not hire, discharge, or discipline other
employees, or make effective recommendations respecting them. In
the absence of foremen, assistant foremen, or group supervisors, take
charge. Assistants to foremen do not substitute for foremen. They
do not attend foremen's meetings. We find that the record does not
support the Employer's contention that assistants to foremen are
supervisors within the meaning of the Act.
2. Shop cler7es: The Employer employs approximately 49 shop
clerks throughout its various production departments. Although as-
signed administratively to the Cost Department, shop clerks are under
the direct supervision of foremen in various production departments.
Shop clerks keep records of the piece-work production of the machine
operators and of material received and disbursed ; they maintain a
record of the hours worked by the production employees; and they
post orders and transfers. They occasionally do some typing for pro-
duction foremen. They are paid a weekly salary and work the same
hours as production employees. Shop clerks do not assist and act in
a confidential capacity to persons who exercise "managerial" functions
in the field of labor relations and are not, therefore, confidential em-
ployees. The Employer's contention that the shop clerks are con-
fidential employees is, therefore, without merit.'
' Matter of Automatic Electric Company , 78 N. L. R. B. 1057, and cases cited therein.
In this earlier proceeding , the Board found that administrative office employees at the Em-
ployer's Chicago plant constituted an appropriate unit. Shop clerks and assistants to fore-
men were specifically excluded . The Board found that shop clerks , although administra-
tively Within the Cost Department, performed their clerical duties in offices within the
production area and under the immediate supvrvicion of the various foremen in whose de-
partments they worked , and concluded that such clerical employees would be more properly
included in units of production workers rather than in units of administrative office workers.
220 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
3. Factory blueprint file clerks: There are four blueprint file clerks
employed in the production department. These clerks file blueprints
and request prints on orders not in the shop. They are on an hourly
pay roll and work the same hours and are subject to the same working
conditions as are production employees. The Employer contends that
these employees are production employees. It clearly appears that
they are factory clerical employees, such as we have on occasion in-
cluded in production units.
The Employer already bargains with a number of labor organiza-
tions for units of employees at its Chicago plant. The Petitioner is
the recognized bargaining representative of approximately 1,400 of
its 2,500 production and maintenance workers. Other labor organi-
zations represent other production and maintenance workers in craft
groups.2
On November 21, 1947, the Board dismissed a petition seeking
representation in a separate bargaining unit of shop clerks employed
at the Employer's Chicago plant, excluding all other employees 3
The Board therein found that the shop clerks. then 40 in number,
were a part of a group of approximately 200 clerical employees work-
ing in the factory department of the plant and that several classifica-
tions of clerical employees in the plant departments did work of a
related nature. On the basis of these findings, inter alia, the Board
refused to segregate shop clerks from other categories of factory cleri-
cal workers for bargaining purposes.
The record in this proceeding does not indicate that conditions at
the Employer's plant have changed since our earlier decisions or that
the proposed unit is other than an arbitrary grouping of those fac-
tory clerical employees organized by the Petitioner. Our previous
decisions indicate that there are over 200 factory clerical employees
scattered throughout the various production departments at the plant.
Employees in the proposed unit number approximately 80. The
proposed bargaining unit is neither coextensive with any existing unit
Finding that assistants to foremen worked in factory areas , gave manual assistance to
production workers and performed some clerical duties , the Board further concluded that
the interests of assistants to foremen were more closely allied with those of production
workers than with those of administrative office clerical employees.
2 According to the Employer 's brief, these labor organizations include ( 1) International
Association of Machinists , Production Workers ; ( 2) International Association of Machin-
ists ; (3) International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local No. 713; (4) Metal Polish-
ers, Buffers , Platers, and Helpers , Local No 6 ; ( 5) United Brotherhood of Carpenters and
Joiners of America; ( 6) Chicago Office, Theater and Amusement Building Janitors, Local
No. 25; ( 7) Automobile Carriage, Car and Equipment Painters Union, Local No. 396; (8)
International Union of Operating Engineers , Local No 399 ; and (9 ) International Brother.
hood of Teamsters , Chauffeurs , Warehousemen and Helpers of America, A. F. of L., Local
No. 705 Neither the Employer 's brief nor the instant record discloses the exact limits of
these several craft groups.
Matter of Automatic Electric Company , 75 N. L. R B. 274.
AUTOMATIC ELECTRIC COMPANY 221
at the plant to which it may be added, nor does it embrace all factory
clericals, as such. Although the Petitioner seeks an election among
employees in any unit found appropriate by the Board within its
proposed unit, it does not seek or desire to include in-its propose& unit
other factory clerical employees. Upon the basis of the instant rec-
ord, and in the light of our earlier decisions, we conclude that the
unit limited to three categories of factory clerical employees, proposed
by the Petitioner, is not appropriate for bargaining purposes and
that there is no appropriate unit within the scope of the petition. We
shall accordingly dismiss the petition filed herein.
ORDER
On the basis of the entire record in this proceeding and for the rea-
sons set forth above, the National Labor Relations Board orders
that the petition filed in the instant case by Local 713, International
Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, be, and it hereby is, dismissed.