B. B.Crystal Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Mar 29, 1943

48 N.L.R.B. 701 (N.L.R.B. 1943)

In the Matter of LEON BROZEN & PROSPER BROZEN, CO-PARTNERS, DOING
BUSINESS UNDER THE TRADE AND STYLE NAME OF B. B. CRYSTAL COM-
PANY and WHOLESALE AND WAREIIOUSE1 WORKERS UNION, LOCAI,
#65, C. I. O.
Case No. R-41974.-Decided March 29, 1943 '
Jurisdiction : watch crystals manufacturing industry.
Investigation and Certification of Representatives : existence of question : coin-
pany refused to accord the union recognition because it doubted the union's
majority and believed the unit sought by the union to be inappropriate ; election
necessary. . '
Unit Appropriate for Collective Bargaining : production, maintenance, and fac-
tory, clerical' employees, excluding all office employees, members of the firm,
and all supervisory employees, notwithstanding company's contention that there
should be three separate units of skilled, semi-skilled, and unskilled, employees,
when the company's operations were integrated.
Mr. Daniel D. Trause, of New York City, for the Company.
Messrs. Leo Bernstein. and. Louis Kalb,,of New York City, for the
Union.
i'. Glenn L. Moller, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
STATEMENT OF THE'.CASE
Upon petition duly filed by Wholesale and Warehouse Workers
Union, Local #65, C. I. 0., herein called the Union, alleging that a
question affecting commerce had-arisen concerning the representation
of employees of Leon Brozen and Prosper Brozen, Co-partners, doing
'business under the trade and style name of B. B. Crystal Company;
New York City, herein called the Company, the National Labor Rela-
tions Board provided for an appropriate hearing upon due notice
before Daniel Baker, Trial Examiner. Said hearing was held at New
York City on March 4, 1943. The Company and the Union appeared,
participated, and were afforded full opportunity to be heard, to ex-
amine and cross-examine witnesses, and to introduce evidence bearing
on the issues. The Trial Examiner's rulings made at the hearing are
free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
48 N. L R. B., No. 88. -
701
702 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following :
FINDINGS OF FACT
1. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
Leon Brozen and Prosper Brozen, Co-partners, doing business
under the trade and style name of B. B. Crystal Company, are en-
gaged, in the manufacture and sale of watch crystals in New York
City. The Company's principal raw material consists of sheet glass
which is cut, shaped, and polished into the finished product, glass
watch crystals. During 1942, the Company purchased raw materials
for use in its New York plant exceeding $25,000 in value, of which
GO percent was purchased and shipped to the plant from points out-
side the State of New York. During the same period, the Company's
finished products exceeded $250,000 in value, of which about 90 per-
cent was shipped from the plant to points outside the State of New
York.
The Company admits that it is engaged in commerce within the
meaning of the National Labor Relations Act.
H. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED
Wholesale and Warehouse Workers Union,-Local #65, affiliated
with the Congress of Industrial Organizations, is a labor organization
admitting to membership employees of the Company.
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
In February 1943, the Union requested the Company to accord it
recognition as the exclusive bargaining representative of certain
employees. The Company 'refused the request for the reason that it
doubted the Union's majority and for the- further reason that it
believed the unit sought by the Union to be inappropriate.
A statement of the Regional Director, introduced into evidence at
the hearing; indicates that the Union represents a substantial number
of employees in the unit hereinafter found appropriate.'
We find that a question affecting commerce has arisen concerning
the representation of employees of the Company, within the meaning
of Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
1 The Regional Director reported that the Union submitted 161 application -for-member-
ship cards which bear the apparently genuine signatures of persons whose names appeared
on the Company 's pay roll of February 18. 1943. There are approximately 174 employees
in the appropriate unit.
C --- • B..B1, CRYSTAL-. COMPANY. •
; ,,., . • 703
IV.. THE APPROPRIATE' UNIT
The Union'contends that all production, maintenance, and factory
clerical employees, including five named supervisory employees, but
excluding six other named supervisory employees, and also excluding
all office employees and members of the firm, constitute an appropriate
unit. -
The Company contends that there should be three appropriate
units, one of skilled employees, one of semi-skilled employees, and
one of unskilled employees. The Company further contends that in
any event, the five supervisory employees whom the Union seeks to
include in the unit should be excluded.
Crystals are cut from sheet glass in the cutting department, after
which they are sent to the bending department where they are bent
and moulded into the desired shape. The crystals are then glued
together in stacks in the pitching department, forming stacks con-
sisting of approximately 75 crystals. These stacks are then ground
to exact specifications in the grinding department and are thereafter
polished in the polishing department. After the polishing operation
the stacks are sent to the cooking department where the glue is dis-
solved, thereby breaking down.the stacks into the individual crystals.
The Company considers the pitching and cooking departments as
one since they are adjacent and the employees in each department fre-
quently perform both types of work. After the crystals are separated,
the surfaces are then smoothed and beveled in the beveling depart-
ment and thereafter are cleaned, inspected and placed in stock. Each
department is dependent for its continued.operation upon all the de=
partments which precede it in processing the crystals.
The Company's contention that: there should `be separate units of
skilled, semi-skilled, and unskilled employees is not supported even
by the Company's evidence. Prosper Brozen, who testified for the
Company, was himself unable to 'decide into which of the proposed
units several groups of employees should fall. Nor is there any his-
tory of bargaining to indicate the propriety of the units which the
Company desires. The employees had begun to organize themselves
on the basis of a single industrial unit before they sought affiliation
with the Union. We are of the opinion that the units sought by the,
Ccmpany are inappropriate, and that the industrial unit sought by the
Union is appropriate.
The Union desires to include in the unit and the Company to exclude
from it 5 supervisory employees.2 The Union contends that. these
Frances Olashafsky, forelady of the examining and labeling department ; Fernande
Nichols, forelady of the pitching and cooking department; Felice De Cicilio,.foreman of
the slant edge department; Charles Eberhart, foreman of the polishing department; and
Claire Willers, one of three foreladies in the bevel ung,depirtment.
704 DECISIONS OF: NATIONAL -LABOR, RELATIONS BOARD
employees should be included because they are working foremen or
foreladies who earn little more than their subordinates. It appears,
however, that all-the foremen and foreladies, including the 6 whom
the Union agrees should be excluded from the unit, are classified by
the Company as working foremen or foreladies. Heinen and Bach, 2
of the foremen excluded by stipulation of the parties, are considered
by the employees to be next in authority to the owners of the Company
and have some power to hire and-discharge; they, nevertheless, spend-
as much as 50 percent of their time in production work. `,Of'the re=
maining 9 supervisors, all have complete control over their respective
departments; all are consulted by the Brozens before new persons are
employed in their departments; all make recommendations as to dis-
charges and transfers of employees to other departments ; and all are
responsible for making certain that their subordinates do their work
properly. It is true that the foremen and foreladies whom the Union
seeks to include earn -little more than their subordinates, while .the
remaining supervisors earn considerably more than their subordinates.
However, we do not regard this fact, standing alone, as determinative
of the issue. There is no evidence that any of these 9 supervisors
have substantially greater, supervisory authority than the others in
the group. We shall exclude all the 11 foremen and foreladies from
the unit.
We find that, all production, maintenance, and factory clerical em-
ployees of the Company, but excluding all office employees, members'
of the firm, and all supervisory employees, constitute a unit appro-
priate for the,purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning
of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
V. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
We shall direct that the question concerning representation which
has arisen be resolved by an election by secret ballot among the -em-
ployees in the appropriate unit who were employed during the pay-
roll period immediately preceding the-date of the Direction of Elec-
tion herein, subject to the limitations and additions set forth in the
Direction.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
By virtue of and pursuant to the power vested in the National
Labor Relations Board by Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Rela-
tions Act, and pursuant to Article III, Section 9, of National Labor
Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 2, as amended, it is
hereby '
DIRECTED that, as,part of the investigation to ascertain representa-
tives for the purposes of collective bargaining with Leon Brozen and
B. B. CRYSTAL COMPANY 705
Prosper Brozen, Co -partners , doing business under the trade and style
name of B. B. Crystal Company, New York City, an election by secret
ballot shall be conducted as early as possible , but not later than thirty
(30) days from the date of this Direction , under the direction, and,
supervision:of , the Regional Director for the Second Region, aotinb
in this matter as agent for the National Labor Relations Board, and
subject to Article III, Section 10, of said Rules and Regulations,
among , the employees in the unit found appropriate in Section IV,
above, who were employed during the pay-roll period immediately
preceding the date of this Direction, including employees who did not
work during said pay-roll period because they were ill or -on vacation
or temporal. ily laid off , and including employees in the armed forces
of the United States who present themselves in person at'the polls,
but excluding those employees who have since quit or been discharged
for cause , to determine whether or not they desire to be represented
by Wholesale and Warehouse Workers Union, Local • #65, affiliated
with ,the Congress of Industrial Organizations , for the .purposes of
collective bargaining.
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