Ball Brothers Co., Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Nov 14, 1949

87 N.L.R.B. 34 (N.L.R.B. 1949)

In the Matter of BALL BROTHERS COMPANY, INCORPORATED, EMPLOYER
and FEDERATION OF GLASS, CERAMIC & SILICA SAND WORKERS OF
AMERICA, CIO, PETITIONER
Case No. 35-RC-245.-Decided November 14,1949
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before William A.
McGowan, 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 [Chairman Herzog and Members
Houston and Gray].
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 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 Federation of Glass, Ceramic & Silica Sand Workers of
America, CIO, herein called the Petitioner, seeks to represent a unit
limited to factory clerical employees at the Employer's Muncie, In-
diana, plant, excluding confidential employees and supervisors. In
the alternative it would merge these employees into a single unit with
other employees whom its currently represents. The Glass Bottle
Blowers Association of the United States and Canada, AFL, herein
called the Intervenor, agrees with the Petitioner's unit request. The
Employer asserts that the proposed unit is inappropriate, contending
that the work of all its office and clerical employees is substantially
similar, and there is therefore no distinction between its office and
factory clerical employees.
87 NLRB No. 7.
34
BALL BROTHERS COMPANY, INCORPORATED 35
The Muncie plant is one of several plants operated by the Employer.'
Its operations are carried on in about 35 buildings, including what is
known as a main office building. There is no history of collective
bargaining for any of the office or clerical employees at the Muncie
plant. All of the production and maintenance employees are repre-
sented for collective bargaining purposes.2
There are approximately 185 office and clerical employees, about
125 of whom work in the main office building. In the main office
building are located the cashiers (personnel assigned to treasurer) ;
the production planning and purchasing divisions (personnel assigned
to manufacturing) ; the domestic, domestic home service, packing,
food laboratory, and zinc, rubber, and paper departments (personnel
assigned to sales) ; the invoicing, budget, cost, general accounting and
pay-roll departments (personnel assigned to accounting) ; the indus-
trial relations, traffic, and shipping division; the stenographic, credits,
telephone reception, printing, and filing divisions, and the mail room.
Outside of the main office building are located the personnel, health
and safety, and bills of lading and scheduling divisions; the stock-
room ; the timekeeping and bonus clerks ; and the industrial engineer-
ing, plant service, rubber, zinc, quality control., glass, general
engineering, paper, and research and development divisions (person-
nel assigned to manufacturing). The Petitioner seeks to represent
all of the clerical employees located outside of the main office building,
except those in the personnel, health and safety, and bills of lading
and scheduling divisions, and the secretaries to the plant managers
of the industrial engineering, plant service, general engineering, and
research and development divisions.
A majority of the main office clericals are salaried employees, and
are carried on the office pay roll. The greater number of the factory
clericals are paid on an hourly basis, and are carried on the general
pay roll.3 All office and clerical employees are under the general
supervision of the Employer's office manager. The employees in the
proposed unit are, for the most part, under the immediate supervision
' In addition to the Muncie plant, the Employer operates a strawboard mill at Nobles-
ville , Indiana ; a zinc rolling mill at Greencastle , Indiana ; outside glass factories at
Hillsboro, Illinois ; Okmulgee, Oklahoma ; Wichita Falls, Texas ; and El Monte, California ;
a commercial cap plant in Chicago, Illinois ; and a glass plant in Jacksonville, Florida.
2 The Petitioner represents a miscellaneous group of employees including all employees
in the glass division except the glass machine operators, the moldmakers, and the glass
machine repairmen ; all employees in the zinc, paper, and rubber divisions, and in the
shipping and warehouse department. The Intervenor represents the glass machine oper-
ators and the glass machine repairmen. The American Flint Glass Workers Union of
North America, AFL, represents the moldmakers. The International Association of
Machinists represents the employees in the main machine shop. The Bricklayers, Masons
& Plasterers' International Union of America, AFL, represents the bricklayers.
s Not over 25 of the 125 clerical employees in the main office building are hourly paid,
and not over 10 of the 60 clericals located outside the main office are paid on a salary
basis.
877359-50-vol. 87-4
.36 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
.of the foreman and. plant managers of the various production de-
partments where they are located.
Prospective employees are interviewed by the manager of the di-
vision concerned, who makes his recommendations to the office man-
ager. The office manager makes the final determination as to
employment of all office and clerical employees.
All employees in the proposed unit, except the timekeepers and
{bonus clerks, are personnel assigned to manufacturing.4 The time-
keepers and bonus clerks are under the supervision of the paymaster
in the pay-roll department, which is part of the accounting division.
. Although the Employer argues that the employees sought to be rep-
resented by the Petitioner should not be placed in a separate unit
apart from its other office and clerical employees, it offered no evidence
of the latter's duties and functions to support its contention that the
work of all these employees is substantially similar. The record does
not show that the office and clerical employees whom the Petitioner
wishes to exclude from the unit have any contact or interests in com-
mon with those of the employees it seeks to represent. The employees
in the proposed unit do the usual clerical work in connection with
manufacturing operations carried on throughout the plant. The
Board has previously declined to establish a single unit of office and
factory clerical employees 5 We believe that these factory clericals
are a sufficiently homogeneous and distinct group to warrant estab-
lishing them in a separate unit.
The Petitioner would exclude from the unit the following employees
who are located outside the main office building :
Bills of lading and scheduling department: Two clerks from this
department were moved into the factory in order to facilitate the
loading of trucks. Bills of lading for rail shipments are still handled
by clerks in the main office building. The work of both groups is
similar, and all work under the supervision of the traffic manager.
Personnel department: The three clerks in this department work
directly with the industrial relations department. They are all en-
gaged in the collecting of materials and records relating to personnel
and labor matters.
Safety and health department: The four employees in this depart-
ment work on company records pertaining to safety matters for all
.employees in the plant. In addition, they also do similar work for all
4 The only personnel assigned to manufacturing not included in the proposed unit are
two employees in the production planning division, and five in the purchasing division, all
located in the main office building. The record does not show the classification of these
employees, or what kind of work they do.
5 Minneapolis -Moline Company, 85 NLRB 597 ; Auto -Fite Battery Corporation (Vincennes,
Indiana, Division ), 85 NLRB 1034 ; Chrysler Corporation, 76 NLRB 55 . Cf. General
Petroleum Corporation, 83 NLRB 514.
BALL BROTHERS COMPANY, INCORPORATED 37
.of the Employer's other plants, working through the plant managers
of these plants.°
We believe that these employees have a greater community of in-
terest with the office clericals than with factory clericals. We shall
therefore exclude them from the unit.
The Employer and the Petitioner agree that the personal secretaries
to the heads of the industrial engineering, plant service, general engi-
neering, and research and development divisions should be excluded
from the unit. They disagree with respect to the secretaries to the
heads-of the rubber, zinc, glass, and paper divisions. The Employer
contends that these secretaries should be excluded from the unit as con-
fidential employees. The Petitioner would include them in the unit.
. The secretaries about whom the parties are in dispute do general
clerical and stenographic work. All do substantially the same type
of work. The Employer argues that they are confidential employees
because their work includes matters pertaining to merit increases,
personnel seniority records, and absenteeism reports, and because they
type grievance forms, and memoranda to the industrial relations divi-
sion pertaining to grievances. The plant managers for whom these
secretaries work handle labor relations for their divisions. They do
not, however, establish labor relations policy for the entire company.
This general policy is established by others in conjunction with the
various factory managers. The secretaries do not attend the,meetings
at which general labor relations policy is formulated. Inasmuch as
these employees do not have access to general labor relations policy
data, we find that they are not confidential employees.' We shall in-
clude these secretaries in the factory clerical unit.
There remains for consideration the supervisory status of the assist-
ant foreman in the plant service division, and of the mold shop expe-
diter in the glass division.
The assistant foreman works principally with the general labor
crew who do maintenance work. The direction of this crew is done
on instructions received from his foreman. He also works as an expe-
diter, checking up on hourly rated jobs to see how much time the
employees spend on each particular job. The information which he
:secures is for cost distribution purposes, and goes to the cost depart-
ment. He does not have authority to hire or discharge.. We do not
believe that the assistant foreman in the plant service division is a
6 The Employer does not have separate safety directors in its other plants.
Aliieneapolis-Aloline Company, 85 NLRB 597; Ampler Manufacturing Company, 85
NLRB 523; Hotpoint, Inc., 85 NLRB 485 ; Wise, Smith & Company, Inc., 83 NLRB 1019;
Ozark Central Telephone Company, 83 NLRB 258; The Ohio Associated Telephone Com-
pany, 82 NLRB 972.
38 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
nnpervisor within the meaning of the Act. Accordingly, we shall in-
clude him in the unit.
The mold shop expediter sets up work schedules, assigns work to
the mold shop employees, and follows the work through to see that all
specifications are met. He does no mold work, and is an hourly paid
employee. He supervises approximately 35 to 40 moldmakers, whose
hiring and discharge he may effectively recommend. We find that
the mold shop expediter is a supervisor. We shall exclude him from
the unit.
We have heretofore held that factory clerical employees should,
if there is a history of bargaining for the production and maintenance
employees from which-they have been excluded, be given an oppor-
tunity in a self-determination election to voice their desire for or
against representation in the production and maintenance unit." In
the instant case, the Employer's production and maintenance em-
ployees are represented in a number of separate units. In the absence
of any presently existing over-all unit embracing the production and
maintenance employees, we find that the factory clerical employees
constitute a separate appropriate unit.
We find that all factory clerical employees at the Employer's
Muncie, Indiana, plant, including those in the stockroom, the indus-
trial engineering, plant. service, rubber, zinc, quality control, glass,
general engineering, paper, and research and development divisions,
and the timekeepers and bonus clerks," but excluding the clerical em-
ployees in the personnel, health and safety, and bills of lading and
scheduling division, the secretaries to the plant managers of the indus-
trial engineering, plant service, general engineering, and research and
development division, the clerical employees in the Employer's main
office building, the mold shop expediter, and all supervisors, consti-
tute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining
within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION 10
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the
purposes of collective bargaining with the Employer, an election by
secret ballot shall be conducted as early as possible, but not later than
8 Gemmer Manufacturing Company, 85 NLRB 700 ; Watson-Flagg Machine Co., 83 NLRB
734; General Petroleum Corporation, 83 NLRB 514; Chrysler Corporation, 76 NLRB 55.
9 As the timekeepers and bonus clerks are clearly factory clerical employees such as we
have previously included in units of factory clerical or production and maintenance
employees, we shall include them in the unit, although they are under the supervision of
the paymaster. Chrysler Corporation, 76 NLRB 55; Hotpoint, Inc., 85 NLRB 485 ; The
Clark Thread Company, 79 NLRB 542.; II. J. Heinz Company, 77 NLRB 1103.
]U Either participant in the election herein may, upon its prompt request to, and approval-
thereof by, the Regional Director, have its name removed front the ballot.
BALL BROTHERS COMPANY, INCORPORATED 39
S30 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
unit found appropriate in paragraph numbered 4, above, who were
'employed during the pay-roll period immediately preceding the date
of this Direction of Election, including employees who did not work
during said pay-roll 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
they desire to be represented, for purposes of collective bargaining,
by Federation of Glass, Ceramic & Silica Sand Workers of America,
CIO, or by Glass Bottle Blowers Association of the United States and
Canada, AFL, or by neither.