Beloit Eastern Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Feb 8, 1957

117 N.L.R.B. 329 (N.L.R.B. 1957)

BELOIT EASTERN CORPORATION
ARTICLE 50
329
Board of International Trustees
SECTION 1. A three (3) member International Board of Trustees shall be created„
charged with the duty of safeguarding all funds and property of the International
Union by causing the books and accounts of the International Secretary-Treasurer to
be audited quarterly. The Board of Trustees shall designate a certified public ac-
countant to make such audits, and shall incorporate same in their report to the
International officers, Board Members, and all affiliated Local Unions as soon as
completed. The Board of Trustees shall report its activities to the quarterly meetings
of the International Executive Board and to the International Convention. It shall
make recommendations to the Board and to the Convention for improving the handling
of the finances of the International Union and for safeguarding its funds and property.
SEC. 2. Members of the Board of Trustees shall devote the time necessary to the
performance of their duties, not to exceed a maximum of thirty (30) days in any
quarter. Members of the Board of Trustees shall be compensated on the basis of
maximum International Representative's salary, and expenses.
SEC. 3. Nominations and elections of Trustees shall take place in the regular order
of business of the International Convention. Candidates shall be nominated and
elected in one election. The candidates shall be nominated for a three (3) term
trusteeship, for a (2) term trusteeship, and for a one (1) term trusteeship. The
candidate receiving the highest number of votes for each of these three (3) positions,
respectively, shall be declared elected. At each Constitutional Convention, a Trustee
shall be elected for a three (3) term period.
SEC. 4. In the event of the death, removal or resignation of a Trustee, the following
procedure shall be utilized to fill the vacancy for the unexpired term until the next
subsequent Convention only. The names of all regular delegates attending the pre-
ceding International Union Convention shall be copied from the official Convention
roll call. The names of all delegates shall be written on uniform sized slips of paper
and deposited in a box by the Secretary-Treasurer, in the presence of the International
Executive Board, and the box shall be sealed and thoroughly shaken. The Interna-
tional Secretary-Treasurer shall then open the container and the member of the In-
ternational Executive Board selected for that purpose, and blindfolded, shall draw the
names of fifteen (15) delegates, .one by one. After these names are drawn they shall
be read by the International Secretary-Treasurer in the presence of the International
Executive Board, and each name in succession shall be set opposite a number from one
(1) to fifteen (15). The vacancy shall be filled by the first individual in numerical
order on the list who accepts and who is eligible.
SEC. 5. A member of the Board of Trustees shall not, while holding such position,
be employed by the International Union as an International Representative or in any
other capacity whatsoever. Such member shall become eligible as a candidate for
office in, or as an employee of, the International Union only subsequent to an Inter-
national Convention which follows his resignation from the Board of Trustees.
Beloit Eastern Corporation and Pattern Makers League of North
America , AFL-CIO, Philadelphia Association , Petitioner. Case
No. 4-RC-3155. February 8,1957
DECISION AND ORDER
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, a hearing was held before Morris Mogerman, 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 this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer' is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the Act.
1 The name of the Employer appears as corrected at the hearing.
117 NLRB No. 46.
330 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
2. The labor organizations involved claim to represent certain
employees 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 Employer purchased the plant involved in this proceeding from
the Downington Manufacturing Co. and continued the former manu-
facturing operations. At that time there was in effect an agreement
between that company and the Intervenor, entered into on February
4, 1953, for an unspecified term and by virtue of section 39 thereof;
the contract was made subject to automatic renewal in the absence of
60 days' notice to terminate "before the end of any current contract
year." On January 9, 1956, the Employer entered into an agreement
with the Intervenor, the certified bargaining representative of Down-
ington's production and maintenance employees, in which the parties
adopted the contract previously entered into by Downington and the
Intervenor, but with substantial modification of the wage provisions.
This agreement provided in section 1 that the adopted contract as
amended would be "extended for the period to February 4, 1957," with
the proviso, however, that wage provisions as modified "shall be bind-
ing upon the parties for the full period from January 9, 1956, to
January 13, 1958." Section 9 states, further, that "except for the
question of wages hereinabove specifically provided for, all other
matters having to do with said contract may be taken up and modified
on and after February 4, 1957, upon sixty (60) days' notice, as is
provided by the contract."
The Employer contends that in view of the foregoing provisions it
has a binding agreement with the Intervenor until January 13, 1958,
which agreement, it maintains, is a bar to the petition, which was
filed on September 25, 1956. We agree. In this connection, we note
that the agreement of January 9, 1956, was not a complete new con-
tract, but was rather an amendment and extension of the preexisting'
contract adopted by the Employer and the Intervenor. Reading
the contracts in their entirety, in order to ascertain the intention
of the parties, we conclude that by designating the period from Jan-
uary 9, 1956, to January 13, 1958, as the "full period," the parties
intended to postpone the effect of the automatic renewal provision
in section 39 of the adopted contract until the end of that period,
and that by extending the term of the agreement with respect to all
provisions other than wages until February 4, 1957, with provision
for modification of such terms on and after that date, the parties
intended to add to their agreement a provision for midterm modifica-
2 Brandywine Employees Association intervened on the basis of its current contract cov-
ering the employees in the requested unit
BROWN MARINE DRILLING COMPANY , 331
tion which was not in the adopted agreement. We find, accordingly,
that the parties have entered into a contract for a fixed term until
January 13, 1958. Although this agreement contains broad midterm
modification provisions, it does not contain any provision permitting
termination prior to January 13, 1958,3 and the mere existence of pro-
visions for modification does not render the contract vulnerable to an
otherwise untimely petition, under well-established principles, as
stated by the Board in Western Electric Company, 94 NLRB 54, at
p. 56, that:
Whether or not an-exclusive bargaining contract contains a pro-
vision for modification and regardless of the scope of such modi-
fication provision if provided in the contract, the parties may
renegotiate or modify any of the provisions of the contract during
its term, if done by mutual assent, without "opening up" the con-
tract to an otherwise prematurely filed petition.
As the petition herein was clearly untimely with respect to the full
term of the contract between the Employer and the Intervenor, we
find that the contract is a bar to a present determination of repre-
sentatives and we shall, therefore, dismiss the petition.'
[The Board dismissed the petition.]
MEMBER RODGERS took no part in the consideration of the above
Decision and Order.
3 Cf Ketchikan Pulp Company , 115 NLRB 279 , at 280-281 ; General Electric Company,
108 NLRB 1290
4 We find no merit in the Petitioner 's contention that the contract is not a bar because
the Intervenor has not been certified as the tepresentative of the Employer 's employees.
Brown Marine Drilling Company and Piledrivers Local Union
No. 2375, United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of
America, AFL-CIO, Petitioner . Case No. 21-RC-4529. Febru-
ary 8,1957
DECISION AND ORDER
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National
Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before Floyd C. Brewer,
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 this case, the Board finds :
The Employer moves to dismiss the petition on the ground that it
will not effectuate the policies of the Act to assert jurisdiction in this
case.
1 The Employer' s name appears herein as amended at the hearing
International Union of Operating Engineers , Local Union No 12, AFL-CIO, intervened
at the hearing on the basis of an adequate showing of interest.
117 NLRB No. 43.