Bethlehem Steel Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

May 2, 1945

61 N.L.R.B. 854 (N.L.R.B. 1945)

In the Matter of BETHLEHEM STEEL COMPANY and LOCAL 3144, UNITED
STEELWORKERS of AMERICA, AFFILIATED WITH THE C. I. O.
Case No. 3-RD44.Decided'May 2,191k5
Mr. Gerald J. Reilly, of Bethlehem, Pa:, for the Company.
Mr. Julian Bruce, of Lackawanna, N. Y., for the Union.
Miss Katharine Loomis, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon a petition duly filed by Local 3144, United Steelworkers of
America, affiliated with the C. I. 0., herein called the Union, alleging
that a question affecting commerce had arisen concerning the repre-
sentation of employees of Bethlehem Steel Company, Lackawanna,
New York, herein called the Company, the National Labor Relations
Board provided for an appropriate hearing upon due notice before
Eugene von Wellsheim, Trial Examiner. Said hearing was held at
Buffalo, New York, on March 23, 1944. The Company and the Union
appeared and participated. All parties were afforded full opportunity
to be heard, to examine and cross-examine witnesses, and to introduce
evidence bearing on the issues. At the hearing the Company moved
to dismiss the petition on the ground that the unit petitioned for in-
cludes both salaried and hourly paid employees and is, therefore, in-
appropriate. Ruling on this motion was reserved for the Board. For
reasons stated in Section III, infra, the motion is denied. The Trial
Examiner's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial
error and are hereby affirmed. All parties were afforded an oppor-
tunity 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
Bethlehem Steel Company, a Pennsylvania corporation, operates a
plant at Lackawanna, New York, where it manufactures steel products.
61 N. L. R. B., No. 138.
854
BETHLEHEM STEEL COMPANY 855
During 1944 the aggregate value of raw materials used by the Com-
pany at its Lackawanna, New York, plant was in excess of $60,000,000,
of which more than 80 percent was delivered to the plant from points
outside the State of New York. During the same period the Com-
pany manufactured at the Lackawanna, New York, plant finished
products valued in excess of $100,000,000, of which more than 80 per-
cent was shipped to points outside the State of New York.
We find that the Company is engaged in commerce within the mean-
ing of the- National Labor Relations Act.
II. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED
Local 3144, United Steelworkers of America, affiliated with the Con-
gress of Industrial Organizations, is a labor organization admitting
to membership employees of the Company.
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
The Company has refused to grant recognition to the Union as the
exclusive bargaining representative of the Company's mill office em-
ployees until the Union has been certified by the Board in an appro-
priate unit.
A statement of a Board agent, introduced into evidence at the hear-
ing, indicates that the Union represents a substantial number of em-
ployees 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.
IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT
The Union seeks a unit composed of all the mill office employees
working under the jurisdiction of the general superintendent of mills
at the Company's Lackawanna plant, excluding supervisory and confi-
dential employees.
Both the Union and the Company are in agreement that all chief
clerks and all clerks who act as confidential secretaries to department
or mill superintendents and to the general foreman of the billet yard
should be excluded. They are in disagreement, however, as to whether
three employees, the bonus clerk in the billet yard, the order clerk
in the billet yard, and the clerk in the B. P. department sharing the
1 The Field Examiner reported that the Union submitted 41 application cards ; that the
names of 38 persons appearing on the cards were listed on the Company ' s pay roll of Feb-
ruary 25, 1945 , which contained the names of 63 employees in the appropriate unit , and
that 39 cards were dated between September 1944 and February 1945, and two were
undated.
856 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
chief clerk's work, should come within the category of confidential
employees, the Company contending that they fall within this category
and the Union asserting the contrary. In addition, the Company
requests the exclusion of the bonus and order clerks in the billet yard
on the ground that, as salaried employees, their interests are different
from those who it concedes are properly part of an appropriate unit.
The bonus clerk in the billet yard receives information relative to
the amount of steel worked on by each employee. He determines, by
applying to the amount of work done a pay factor applicable to the
type of work performed, the amount to be paid each employee. He
also distributes pay checks to the employees in the billet yard. Be-
cause of the nature of his duties the bonus clerk has access to rates-of-
pay schedules, the factor used in figuring steel tonnage, and the amount
of pay which each employee in his department receives. The order
clerk in the billet yard has charge of the order book. Because of the
nature of his duties, he acquires information regarding the amount
of steel that comes into the yard, inventories on hand, the various proc-
esses that the steel undergoes, and the final destination of finished
products. The Company does not contend that this information is
confidential except insofar as it is not to be divulged promiscuously.
He also, at times, acts as paymaster in the yard. Although the record
shows that these two clerks have access to important information, it
also shows that such information in no instance relates directly to the
Company's labor relations. Access to important information is not
sufficient in itself to justify their exclusion.2
The Company's contention that salaried employees should not be
included in a bargaining unit with hourly paid workers is based on
the premise that the interests of these two groups are substantially
different. The record, however, does not bear out this contention with
respect to the bonus and audit clerks in the billet yard, both of whom
are salaried employees. On the contrary, it shows that their interests
are much the same as the hourly paid employees admittedly within
the unit. Accordingly, we shall include them in the unit.
The clerk in the B. P. department who shares the chief clerk's work,
unlike the other two clerks discussed, has access to correspondence of
the superintendent of his department which deals with labor relations.
In addition, he types the superintendent's answers to grievances of
employees so that he learns of the Company's position on a particular
grievance before it is made known to the employee concerned. We
shall, therefore, exclude him from the unit.3
We find that all mill office employees working under the jurisdiction
of the general superintendent of mills at the Company's Lackawanna,
2 See Matter of Creamery Package bfanufacturtng Company ( Lake Mills Plant), 34
N L. R. B. 108.
3 See Matter of General Motors Corporation, 53 N L. It. B. 1096 at 1111.
13ETHLEHEM STEEL COMPANY 857
New York, plant, including the bonus and order clerks in the billet
yard, but excluding the clerk in the B. P. department who shares the
chief clerk's work, all chief clerks and all clerks who act as confidential
secretaries to department or mill superintendents and to the general
foreman of the billet yard, and all supervisory employees with author-
ity to hire, promote, discharge, discipline, or otherwise effect changes
in the status of employees, or effectively recommend such action, con-
stitute a unit appropriate 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 Election
herein, subject to the limitations and additions set forth in the
Direction.4
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 Relations
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 Bethlehem Steel
Company, Lackawanna, New York, 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 Third 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 preced-
ing 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 those employees 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 Local 3144, United Steelworkers of America, C. I. O., for
the purposes of collective bargaining.
4 We hereby grant the Union's request that it be designated on the ballot as its name
appears in the Direction.