Bagwell Electric Steel Castings, Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

May 27, 1957

117 N.L.R.B. 1770 (N.L.R.B. 1957)

1770 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
out-of-State purchasers were negligible. As the Employer's direct
inflow exceeds $1,000,000 annually we find, in accord with the decision
in T. H. Rogers Lumber Co.,' modifying the retail jurisdictional
standards set forth in Hogue and Knott Supermarkets,' that it will
effectuate the policies of the Act to assert jurisdiction over this multi-
state retail operation.
2. The labor organization involved claims to represent certain em-
ployees 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) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act. -
4. The parties agree and we find that the following employees at
the Employer's Dallas, Texas, warehouse constitute a unit appropriate
for purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section
9 (b) of the Act.
All warehousemen, packers, order fillers, and shipping and receiv-
ing clerks, excluding all other employees, office clerical employees,
guards, and supervisors as defined in the Act.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.]
MEMBER RoDOERS took no part in the consideration of the above
Decision and Direction of Election.
8117 NLRB 1732.
6 110 NLRB 543.
Bagwell Electric Steel Castings, Inc. and International Broth-
erhood of Boilermakers, Iron Shipbuilders, Blacksmiths, ]Forg-
ers and Helpers, AFL-CIO, Petitioner
Bagwell Electric Steel Castings , Inc. and United Steelworkers of
America, AFL-CIO.' Petitioner
Bagwell Electric Steel Castings , Inc. and International Molders
and Foundry Workers Union of North America , AFL-CIO,'
Petitioner. Cases Nos.10-RC---3780,1O--RC-3784 , and 10 RC-795.
May 27,1957
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
Upon separate petitions duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the Na-
tional Labor Relations Act, a consolidated hearing was held before
David L. Trezise, 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 these cases to a three-
' Herein called Boilermakers, Steelworkers , and Molders , respectively.
117 NLRB No. 235.
BAGWELL ELECTRIC STEEL CASTINGS , INC . 1771
member panel [Chairman Leedom and Members Murdock and
Rodgers].
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 em-
ployees 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) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
4. The Employer is engaged in the manufacture of steel castings
and steel storage tanks. Its operations are divided into three separate
departments-a foundry department, a tank department, and a pat-
tern shop. The Boilermakers and the Steelworkers each seeks to
represent a single plantwide unit of production and maintenance em-
ployees, including the employees in all three departments. The Em-
ployer agrees that this is the appropriate unit. The Molders, how-
ever, seeks to represent only the employees in the foundry department
but is willing to represent the plantwide unit if the Board finds it
alone appropriate. There is no history of collective bargaining among
the Employer's employees.
The foundry is located apart from the other two departments-the
tank and pattern shops-and its employees are separately supervised.
Steel castings are made there and the work is that customarily found
in such a department, including the core, furnace, molding, and clean-
ing rooms. The employees in the tank department, who are primarily
welders, are engaged in making steel storage tanks and their work
consists of cutting the steel into proper shapes and the welding and
testing of the steel tanks. The pattern department designs and sets
up the various castings used in the foundry.
On occasions, some employees in the tank department help out in
the foundry and a few foundry employees have sometimes worked in
the pattern department when necessary. Such temporary transfers
do not, however, detract from the separate identity of the foundry
department. The foundry was established 2 years before the tank
department and the majority of the employees there get more vacation
and perhaps a few more benefits than do the other employees in the
plant.
In view of the foregoing, and upon the record as a whole, we find
that the foundry employees are a functionally distinct, homogeneous
departmental group who may constitute a separate appropriate unit 2
or may be included in the production and maintenance unit. Accord-
ingly, we shall make no final unit determination at this time but shall
2 The Schaible Company, 108 NLRB 2.
1772 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL; LABOR 'RELATIONS- BOARD
permit the foundry employees to express their desires with respect to
separate representation in a self-determination election.
There remains for consideration the status of the four leadmen in
the foundry department whom the Employer and the Boilermakers
would include as nonsupervisors, while the Steelworkers and Molders
take no position as to their unit placement. As the record shows that
any recommendations they make are acted upon on the basis of the
admitted supervisors' own knowledge of the facts, and fails to es-
tablish that the leadmen possess any of the other indicia of supervisory
authority, we find that the leadmen are not supervisors and shall there-
fore include them in the unit.
We shall direct that separate elections be conducted for the follow-
ing groups of employees at the Employer's Leeds, Alabama, plant :
(a) All foundry department employees, including the leadmen, but
excluding the pattern department and tank department employees,
and all other employees.
(b) All production 'and maintenance 'employees, including the
truckdrivers; but excluding the foundry department employees, office
clerical and professional employees, guards, watchmen, and super-
visors as defined in the Act.
If a majority of the employees in voting group (a) select the Mold-
ers to represent them, they will be taken to have indicated their desire
to constitute a separate bargaining unit and the Regional' Director is
instructed to issue a certification of representatives to that labor
organization for such unit which the Board; under these circum-
stances, finds appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining.
In that event, should a majority of the employees in voting group (b)
vote for a labor organization 'appearing on the ballot for that group,
the Regional Director is instructed to issue a certification 'of repre-
sentatives to that labor organization for the unit of employees in that
voting group which the Board, under these circumstances; finds to be
appropriate for purposes of-collective bargaining. On the other hand,
if a majority in voting group (a) do not vote for the Molders, the
ballots of the employees in that voting group will be pooled with those
of the employees in voting group (b).' If either the Boilermakers or
the Steelworkers achieves a majority of the votes in the pooled group,
the Regional Director is instructed to issue a certification of repre-
sentatives to that labor organization for a single unit of the employees
in both voting groups (a) and (b), which the Board, under such
circumstances, finds to be an appropriate unit for the purposes of col-
lective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
[Text-of Direction .of' Elections omitted from publication.]
2If the votes are pooled , they are to be tallied in the manner provided in American
Potash & Chemical Corporation, 107 NLRB 1418 , 1427, footnote 12.