Bendix Aviation Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Sep 28, 1945

63 N.L.R.B. 1265 (N.L.R.B. 1945)

In the Matter of BENDIx RADIO DIVISION OF BENDIx AVIATION CORP.
and INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS, A. F. OF L.
Case No. 5-B-1908.-Decided September 08, 1945
Mr. M. A. Heidt, of South Bend, Ind., and Mr. R. C. Smyth, of
Baltimore, Md., for the Company.
Mr. J. E. Poulton, of Baltimore, Md., for the IAM.
Mr. Donald H. Frank, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon an amended petition duly filed by International Association
of Machinists, A. F. of L., herein called the IAM, alleging that a
question affecting commerce had arisen concerning the representa-
tion of employees of Bendix Radio Division of Bendix Aviation Corp.,
Baltimore, Maryland, herein called the Company, the National Labor
Relations Board provided for an appropriate hearing upon due notice
before Herman Goldberg, Trial Examiner. The hearing was held at
Baltimore, Maryland, on June 8, 1945. The Company and the IAM
appeared and participated.' All parties were afforded full oppor-
tunity to be heard, to examine 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. All parties were afforded an opportunity to file
briefs with the Board.
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following:
FINDINGS OF FACT
1. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
Bendix Aviation Corp. is a Delaware corporation with a sub-
division known as Bendix Radio Division, of which the principal
' United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America, C. I 0., was served with
Notice of Hearing , but did not appear or participate at the hearing.
63 N L. R. B, No. 200.
1265
1266 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
office and place of business is located at Baltimore, Maryland. This
division encompasses plants at Fort Avenue, 25th Street, Monument
Street, Belvedere Avenue, and Fayette Street, Baltimore, and at
Towson and Beltsville, Maryland. These plants, the only opera-
tions of the Company involved in this case, are engaged in the manu-
facture, sale, and distribution of aircraft, radios, and general radio
equipment. During 1943 the Company used at these plants in its
manufacturing processes raw materials valued at approximately
$15,000,000, all of which were shipped to them from points outside
the State of Maryland. In that year, the Company shipped to points
outside the State of -Maryland finished products, manufactured at
these plants valued at approximately $40,000,000.2
The Company admits that it is engaged in commerce within the
,meaning of the National Labor Relations Act, and we so find.
II. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED
International Association of Machinists , affiliated with the Amer-
ican Federation of Labor , is a labor organization admitting to mem-
bership employees of the Company.
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
The Company has refused to grant recognition to the IAM as
the exclusive bargaining 'representative of the Company's plant-
protection employees until the IAM has been certified by the Board
in an appropriate unit.
A statement of a Board agent, introduced into evidence at the
hearing, indicates that the IAM represents a substantial number of
employees in the unit hereinafter found appropriate.3
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.
IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT
The IAM seeks a unit of all the Company's plant-protection em-
ployees, consisting of guards and fire marshals employed at the Com-
pany's Baltimore area and Beltsville, Maryland, plants, including the
guardettes, guard clerk, and sergeants, but excluding the commissioned
officer personnel and all other supervisory employees. The Company
agrees that the commissioned officer group, consisting of a lieutenant-
colonel, captains, and lieutenants, are supervisory employees within
2 The parties agree that these facts , taken from the findings of fact in Matter of Bendix
Radio Dtivisaon of Bendix Aviation Corp,. 59 N. L. R. B. 1470, remain applicable.
8 The Field Examiner reported that the IAM submitted 103 application -for-membership
cards, and that there were 118 employees in the unit sought.
BENDIX RADIO DIVISION OF BENDIX AVIATION CORP. 1267
our usual definition, but the Company asserts that the guard clerk
and the guardette who assists him should be excluded from the unit
because they have access to confidential information ; that the guardette
who acts as receptionist should be excluded as a clerical employee;
and°that the sergeants should be excluded as supervisory employees.
The unit sought by the IAM would thus consist of 6 sergeants,
1 guard clerk, 3 guardettes, and approximately 82 guards and fire
marshals. All of these employees are militarized; consequently, all of
them are authorized to carry arms, but the guardettes and the guard
clerk are not armed; all are uniformed.
Each sergeant is in charge of a platoon of guards. He sees that his
men are at their posts, performing their duties, All irregularities
of which he is advised or which he observes, he reports to his superiors.
He assigns his men to their posts, and relieves them at their posts when
necessary. He submits reports on the performance of his men 4 The
lieutenant colonel, who is the Director of, Plant-Protection, investi-
gates the statements in each report if an adverse criticism has been
submitted, before he decides what action he will take thereon. If a
sergeant observes one of his men sleeping, intoxicated, or negligent
while on duty, he reports this to his superior officer, and removes the
man from his post. Sergeants are not permitted to attend the regu-
lar meetings of the commissioned officers, whether or not they are tem-
porarily substituting for a lieutenant. Sergeants and guards are
hourly paid, and the difference in their wages does not exceed 5 cents
an hour. Commissioned officers are paid on a -salary basis. We are
of the opinion that the authority exercised by the sergeants is not of
such a supervisory nature as to warrant their exclusion, and we shall
include them in the unit hereinafter found appropriate.
The guax'd clerk performs stenographic work in 'the lieutenant
colonel's office. Among his regular duties in that position is the typing
of all reports involving investigations of charges made against mem-
bers of the guard force. Thus, the guard clerk is clearly a confi-
dential-employee within our customary definition, and we shall ex-
clude him from the unit hereinafter found appropriate. One of
the guardettes, in addition to her regular guard duties, on occasion
assists the guard clerk in the performance of his duties when a backlog
of work accumulates in his office. This occurs rarely. It is apparent
that in the performance of her duties she seldom has access to con-
fidential information, and we shall, therefore, include her in the
unit hereinafter found appropriate.
4 Although a company representative testified that the sergeants submit recommenda-
tions concerning the guards , based on observation of their performance , a sergeant testi-
fied that he had never made a recommendation and had never been informed that he had
authority to make such recommendations He stated, moreover, that he had never been
consulted as to the disposition of the cases of guards involved in his reports , and that he
knew of no case wherein action was taken on a sergeant 's report.
662514-46-vol. 63-81
1268 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
One guardette acts as receptionist, receiving all visitors in the lobby
of the plant. Because she is uniformed and militarized and performs
one of the normal duties of a guard, we are of the opinion that her
interests in employment conditions is similar to that of the other
employees in the unit. Moreover, her exclusion from this unit, under
these circumstances, would result in her exclusion from any unit of
the Company's employees. We shall, therefore, include her in the
unit hereinafter found appropriate.
The Company asserted that the IAM should be required to state
a local name to be published on the ballot, since the IAM presently
represents the Company's production and maintenance employees.
We have not required unions representing plant-protection personnel
in separate units to establish separate locals for that purpose, but have
insisted that the union involved represent the plant-protection em-
ployees separately from other employees in all phases of collective bar-
gaining and their day-to-day activities. Here, the IAM made clear
its intention to follow this mandate of the Board. We are of the opin-
ion, therefore, that it is not necessary for the JAM to furnish us a
local designation for ballot purposes.
We find that all the Company's plant-protection employees, em-
ployed at the Company's Baltimore area and Beltsville, Maryland,
plants, including the guardettes and the sergeants, but excluding the
guard clerk, and the commissioned officers and any other supervisory
employees with authority to hire, promote, discharge, discipline, or
otherwise effect changes in the status of employees, or effectively
recommend such action, constitute a unit appropriate for the pur-
poses of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b)
of the Act.s '
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-
L Matter of National Lead Company , Titanium Division, 62 N. L. R. B. 107 ; Matter of
Standard Steel Spring Company, 62 N. L R. B. 660.
9 Matter of B F. Goodrich Company, 62 N. L. R. B. 206; Matter of General Motors Cor-
poration, Packard Electric Division, 62 N. L. R. B. 174; Matter of Sealed Power Corpora-
tion, 61 N. L. R. B. 1639; Matter of Pullman-Standard Car Manufacturing Company, 61
N L R. B. 1398; Matter of International Harvester Company, Milwaukee Works, 61
N. L. R. B . 912; Matter of The Babcock & Wilcox Company, 61 N. L. R. B. 529.
BENDIX RADIO DIVISION OF BENDIX AVIATION CORP. 1269
tions Act, and pursuant to Article III, Section 9, of National Labor
Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 3, as amended, it is
hereby
DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation to ascertain representa-
tives for the purposes of collective bargaining with Bendix Radio
Division of Bendix Aviation Corp., Baltimore. Maryland, 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 direc-
tion and supervision of the Regional Director for the Fifth Region,
acting in this matter as agent for the National Labor Relations
Board, and subject to Article III, Sections 10 and 11, 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 temporarily laid off, and including employees in the
armed forces of the United States who present themselves in person
at the polls, but excluding any who have since quit or been discharged
for cause and have not been rehired or reinstated prior to the date
of the election, to determine whether or not they desire to be repre-
sented by International Association of Machinists, A. F. of L., for the
purposes of collective bargaining.