Blue Diamond Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Feb 7, 1949

81 N.L.R.B. 484 (N.L.R.B. 1949)

In the Matter of BLUE DIAMOND CORPORATION , ARROw ROCK COMPANY,
AZUSA ROCK & SAND COMPANY , CITY ROCK COMPANY, CONSOLIDATED
ROCK PRODUCTS COMPANY, GRAHAM BROTHERS INCORPORATED, JOHN
D. GREGG COMPANY , MANNING BROTHERS ROCK & SAND COMPANY,
INC., OwL ROCK PRODUCTS COMPANY , TRANSIT Mix CONCRETE COM-
PANY , EMPLOYERS and INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS,
DISTRICT LODGE No . 94, FOR ITSELF AND ON BEHALF OF DISTRICT
LOCAL LODGE No. 1186, PETITIONER
In the Matter Of CONSOLIDATED ROCK PRODUCTS COMPANY , EMPLOYER
and INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS, LOCAL
UNION 11, A. F. OF L., PETITIONER
In the Matter of SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ROCK PRODUCTS ASSOCIATION,
EMPLOYER and INTERNATIONAL UNION OF OPERATING ENGINEERS,
LOCAL 12, A. F. OF L., PETITIONER
.Cases Nos. 01-RC-347, 01-RC-34.9 through 21-RC-357, 21-RCD02,
and 21-RC-365, respectively.Decided February 7,1941)
DECISION
DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
AND
ORDER
Upon separate petitions duly filed, a hearing in the above-consoli-
.dated cases was held before a hearing officer of the National Labor
Relations Board. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing
are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in these cases, the Board finds :
1. The business of the Employers :
The following Employers in the sand and gravel business are en-
gaged in commerce within the meaning of the National Labor Rela-
tions Act: Blue Diamond Corporation; Graham Brothers, Incorpo-
rated; Consolidated Rock Products Company; Owl Rock Products
Company; Azusa Rock & Sand Company; and Transit Mix Concrete
Company. However, with respect to the operations of the remaining
81 N. L. B. B,, No. 89.
484
BLUE DIAMOND CORPORATION 485
Employers herein concerned, while we do not find that such operations
are wholly unrelated to commerce, we are of the opinion that as the
relationship is remote, and these operations are essentially local in
character, to assert jurisdiction as to them would not effectuate the
policies of the Act. The petitions involving such Employers will,
therefore, be dismissed."
2. International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local Union
11, affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, herein called the
IBEW; International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 12, affil-
iated with the American Federation of Labor, herein called the Engi-
neers; International Association of Machinists, District Lodge No. 94,
for itself and on behalf of its District Local Lodge No. 1186, herein
called the JAM; and United Cement, Lime & Gypsum Workers Inter-
national Union, affiliated with the American Federation of Labor,
'herein called the Gypsum Workers,2 are labor organizations claiming
to represent employees of the Employers.
3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the representa-
tion of employees of the Employers named in paragraph 1, above,
within the meaning of Section 9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7)
of the Act.
4. The appropriate unit; the determination of representatives :
The contentions of the parties
The IBEW seeks a unit consisting of maintenance-construction
electricians, including helpers and apprentices, employed solely by
the Consolidated Rock Products Company in Los Angeles (including
the Claremont plant), Orange, Ventura, and Santa Barbara Coun-
ties, but excluding supervisors as defined by the Act.
The Engineers seeks a multiple-employer unit covering employees
of the members of the Southern California Rock Products Associa-
1 The Employers over which we shall not assert jurisdiction comprise the following :
John D. Gregg Company ; Granite Materials Co. ; Arrow Rock Company ; Edw. Sidebotham
and Son , Inc. ; Chandler 's Palos Verde Sand and Gravel Co. ; Manning Brothers Rock &
Sand Company , Inc. , and P . J. Akmodzich d/b/a City Rock Company.
Chairman Herzog and Member Murdock would not exercise jurisdiction over the following
additional individual Employers : Graham Brothers , Incorporated ; Owl Rock Products
Company ; Azusa Rock & Sand Company ; and Transit Mix Concrete Company. Matter
of Richter Transfer Company, 80 N. L. R. B. 1246; and Matter of Knoxville Satrgravl
Material Company, Inc., 80 N L R. B. 1461. Accordingly, they would take jurisdiction
only of Blue Diamond Corporation and Consolidated Rock Products Company.
Member Houston would not assert jurisdiction in the case of Consolidated Rock Products
Company for the reasons given above as to those Employers whose operations are found
remote in respect to commerce.
However , Member Reynolds would assume jurisdiction over all Employers herein con-
cerned for reasons stated in his dissenting opinion in Matter of Texas Construction Mate-
rial Company, 80 N. L. R. B. 1248.
2 The Gypsum workers intervened herein to protect their interest in connection with the
units claimed by the Engineers and the IAM at the Blue Diamond Corporation.
486 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
tion, herein called the Association,3 in Los Angeles (including the
Claremont plant of the Consolidated Rock Products Company),
Orange, Ventura, and Santa Barbara Counties and consisting of em-
ployees in the following classifications : Universal equipment opera-
tors (shovel drag line, steam locomotive cranes), crusherman and
screenman, switchman, oiler or fireman, dinky operator, plant opera-
tor (assistant working plant foreman), working plant foreman, cable-
line drag scraper operator, plant repair crew, heavy duty repairman,
locomotive engineer, but excluding all employees engaged in gypsum
production at Blue Diamond Corporation, laborers, electricians,
guards and watchmen, and supervisors as defined by the Act.
The JAM seeks individual employer units among the employees of
the Employers named in its petitions in their operations in Los
Angeles (including the Claremont plant of the Consolidated Rock
Products Company), Orange, Ventura, and Santa Barbara Counties,
and comprising employees engaged regularly and predominantly in
repairing and maintaining equipment used primarily in the trans-
portation of materials, including automotive mechanics, machinists,
welders, body builders, maintenance mechanics and machinists, heavy
duty repairmen and their apprentices and helpers, but excluding
greasers, washers, tire men, laborers, electricians, linemen, guards,
watchmen, yard janitors, and supervisors as defined by the Act.
All the Employers agree in opposing on the basis of past collective
bargaining history, the multiple-employer unit claimed in the peti-
tion of the Engineers. However, the Employers take various posi-
tions with respect to the composition of the several units sought herein.
Thus Azusa Rock & Sand Company and Graham Brothers Incor-
porated would include heavy duty repairmen in the unit sought by
the Engineers. On the other hand, Blue Diamond Corporation takes
no position on this issue. The remaining Employers concerned would
include heavy duty repairmen in the unit sought by the IAM. The
Consolidated Rock Products Company, the only Employer involved in
the IBEW's petition, is in agreement with the unit sought therein.
All the Employers concerned oppose an alternative unit proposal
made by the Engineers which would include in a single unit the em-
ployees sought by both the Engineers and the IAM.
3 The Southern California Rock Products Association consists of the following com-
panies : Blue Diamond Corporation ; Graham Brothers, Incorporated . Manning Brother,
Rock & Sand Company, Inc , Consolidated Rock Products Company, P. J Akmodzich, an
Individual d/h/a City Rock Company; Owl Rock Products Company , Azusa Rock & Sand
Company, Inc ; John G Gregg, an individual; Arrow Rock Company, Edw Sidehotham &
Son, Inc ; Chandler ' s Palos Verde Sand & Gravel Company In addition , the Engineers
indicated a showing of interest as to the Granite Materials Company and Transit Mix
Concrete Company, which are not members of the Association , and seek elections as to
them also.
BLUE DIAMOND CORPORATION 487
The scope of the appropriate unit
As previously noted, the JAM seeks separate Employer units cover-
ing employees within its jurisdiction. The Engineers, on the other
hand, has requested a multiple-employer unit. While there is some
evidence in the record that the Employers who are members of the
Association may have bargained upon a multiple-employer basis, we
do not regard this fact as established by the record, in view of testi-
mony offered by the Employers showing that their bargaining in the
past had in fact been conducted upon an individual-employer basis'
Moreover, tfie Employers' representative stated at the hearing that
the Employers desired to continue on this basis in the future .5 The
Engineers introduced no evidence at the hearing to refute this state-
ment of the Employers' representative. Under the circumstances we
find that the multiple-employer unit requested by the Engineers is
inappropriate. However, since the Engineers has already indicated
its willingness to amend its petition to an employer-unit basis, we
shall not dismiss the petition.6
The unit proposed by the IBEW
The electricians in the unit sought by the IBEW at the Consoli-
dated Rock Products Company are under the separate supervision of
a chief electrician. They are quartered in separate work shops and
use their own tools and equipment. The electricians perform mainte-
nance work upon electrical equipment exclusively. The group is com-
posed of journeymen electricians, apprentices and helpers. The un-
contradicted testimony adduced at the hearing indicates that these
employees are highly skilled workers and members of the electricians'
craft. Furthermore, there is no over-all bargaining history. We
shall, therefore, find appropriate a craft unit of maintenance con-
struction electricians employed by the Consolidated Rock Products
Company.
We find that all maintenance-construction electricians, including
helpers and apprentices, employed by the Consolidated Rock Prod-
ucts Company in Los Angeles (including the Claremont plant),
Orange, Ventura, and Santa Barbara Counties, but excluding super-
visors as defined by the Act, constitute a unit appropriate for the pur-
poses of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of
the Act.
4In the case of the Blue Diamond Corporation, a member of the Association, it is clear
that collective bargaining has been conducted upon an individual -employer basis.
We infer from this statement that each Employer desires to act individually with
respect to labor relations
" Matter of Procter and Gamble Manufacturing Company, 78 N L . R. B. 1054.
488 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
The units proposed by the Engineers and the IAM
The Engineers seeks a unit consisting of (1) equipment operators
under the direct supervision of the plant superintendent; (2) plant
repair crew, likewise under the supervision of the plant superintend-
ent; and (3) heavy duty repairmen who come under the supervision
of the master mechanics. The unit sought by the IAM consists of
the automotive mechanics ' and heavy duty repairmen who come under
the direct supervision of the master mechanic in each plant. A com-
parison of the unit contentions discloses that the issue between the
Engineers and the IAM is the representation of heavy duty repair-
men. In the past, the heavy duty repairmen have been represented
by the Engineers together with the plant repair crew and equipment
operators 8 It is further urged by the Engineers that the appro-
priateness of their unit is supported not only by the history of collec-
lective bargaining but also by the similarity of duties performed by
the equipment operators, plant repair crew, and heavy duty repairmen.
The record discloses that the equipment operators make minor or
emergency repairs to their own equipment, but where major re-
pairs are required, these are handled by either the plant repair crew
or by the heavy duty repairmen, or in some instances by the automo-
tive mechanics hereinafter described . It also appears that equip-
ment operators are not highly skilled from a mechanical point of view,
and that such repairs as they make are in reality incidental to the•
operational functions performed by these employees. By comparison,
it appears that the plant repair crew is a relatively more skilled group,
which.is employed primarily in the maintenance and repair of sta-
tionary plant equipment such as conveyors, screens, crushers, elevators,
feeders, and the like. Even more skilled are the heavy duty repair-
men who are primarily assigned to the dismantling and assembling of
Universal equipment.9 These latter employees perform work upon
heavy machinery and are highly skilled mechanical workers.
So far as the relationship between heavy duty repairmen and auto-
motive mechanics is concerned, it appears that automotive mechan-
ics work in the machine shops of the Employers concerned; that they
are engaged in the repair and maintenance of equipment with closer
tolerance, use smaller tools and perform more delicate machine work
than in the case of heavy duty repairmen. However, both groups
share the same shop facilities in the smaller plants. The automotive
T Automotive mechanics have since 1946 been represented by the IAM.
"The Engineers has for some time been the sole bargaining representative of the equip-
ment operators, plant repair crew , and heavy duty repairmen at each of the Employers'
plants involved in the present controversy between the Engineers and the IAM.
0 These would include shovels , drag lines , cranes and clam shell , skiff loaders, truck
laying tractors, and bulldozers , transfer rigs, B . G. loaders , cable-line scrapers, locomo-
tives and pit railroad cars.
BLUE DIAMOND CORPORATION 489
mechanics also repair the power units, either Diesel or gasoline motors,
used in the Universal equipment which is otherwise maintained by
heavy duty repairmen. In connection with the above, automotive
mechanics use lathes, milling and boring machines and other equipment
and tools usually found in a machine shop operated by skilled person-
nel, including heavy duty repairmen. Furthermore, it appears that
there is frequent interchange between the automotive mechanics and
heavy duty repairmen; 10 that the automotive mechanics and the
heavy duty repairmen possess similar skills; and that both the heavy
duty repairmen and the automotive mechanics are under the common,
supervision of the master mechanic.
From the foregoing it is apparent that heavy duty repairmen and
the automotive mechanics comprise a cohesive, well defined, homogene-
ous group whose establishment as a separate collective bargaining
unit is feasible 11 Accordingly, we find that these two classifications,
may constitute an appropriate unit. On the other hand, the fact that
the history of collective bargaining for the past few years has included
the heavy duty repairmen in the same group with the equipment op-
erators and the plant repair crew, indicates the feasibility of including
heavy duty repairmen in the latter group. Under the circumstances,,
we shall make no final unit determination at this time, but shall first
ascertain the desires of the heavy duty repairmen as expressed in the
elections hereinafter directed. We shall also direct that elections be,
held among the equipment operators and the plant repair crew com-
prising the residual employees in the group covered by the history of
collective bargaining between the Employers and the Engineers, and in
the group of automotive mechanics traditionally represented by the
IAM.12
We shall direct that separate elections by secret ballot be held on
an individual-employer basis, among the employees of the Employers
at the plants involved herein,13 within the electricians' unit found
appropriate above, and within the following voting groups, excluding
therefrom laborers, electricians, guards, watchmen, greasers, washers,.
10 The record indicates that although integration is more pronounced in the smaller
plants, it does exist to a relatively high degree in the larger ones.
uMatter of A. 0. Smith Corporation ( Kankakee Works ), 78 N. L. R. B. 1050; Matter of
Tin Processing Corporation, 80 N. L. R. B. 1369 ; see also Matter of Western Electric
Company, Incorporated, 78 N. L R. B. 160.
12 Although not specifically requested at the hearing, the fact that the Engineers has
filed a petition for its entire historical group indicates that it seeks a Board certification
as to the equipment operators and the plant repair crew as well as the heavy duty
repairmen . On the same basis , we shall afford the IAM the opportunity of Board certifica-
tion of automotive mechanics as well as heavy duty repairmen.
18 The parties by stipulation agreed that the plants involved should include only those
of the Employers listed whose operations came within Orange, Ventura , and Santa Barbara
Counties , and should also include the Claremont plant of the Consolidated Rock Products
Company.
490 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
tiremen, yard janitors, working plant foremen 14 and supervisors, as
defined by the Act :
Voting Group No. 1: All heavy duty repairmen, including their
apprentices and helpers, employed by each of the Employers herein
involved.
Voting Group No. 2: All equipment operators 11 and the plant
repair crew 18 employed by each of the Employers herein involved.
Voting Group No. 3: All the automotive mechanics, including their
apprentices and helpers, employed by each of the Employers herein
involved,
DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS 17
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the
purposes of collective bargaining with the Employers, separate elec-
tions by secret ballot shall be conducted as early as possible, but not
later than 30 days from the date of this Direction, under the direction
and supervision 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-Series 5,
as amended, among the employees in the appropriate unit and the
voting groups referred to in paragraph numbered 4, above, who were
employed during the pay-roll period immediately preceding the date
of this Direction of Elections, 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 elections, and also excluding employees
on strike who are not entitled to reinstatement, to determine :
(1) Whether or not the employees in the appropriate unit desire
to be represented by the International Brotherhood of Electrical
Workers, Local Union 11, A. F. of L.;
11 The working plant foreman whose inclusion is requested by the Engineers is an assistant
to the plant superintendent and is in charge of the plant when the superintendent is absent.
Moreover , the working plant foreman has been given the authority to hire and discharge
employees within the plant. While there Is no evidence that such authority has ever
been used , uncontradicted testimony reveals the fact that he can effectively recommend
the hiring and discharge of employees . We shall, therefore, exclude the working plant
foreman under well -established precedents . See Matter of Thathimer Brothers , Inc., 77
N. L R. B. 1249.
1e To include crane operators ( shovel drag line, steam locomotive crane ), tractor oper-
ators, batch plant operator , ( non-manual ), crusherman , and screenman , switchman, oiler
or fireman , dinky operator, plant operator , cable-line drag scraper operator , and locomo-
tive engineer.
1e As stipulated by the parties , this group is to include only employees who spend more
than 50 percent of their time in plant repair duties which consist of maintaining and
repairing the plant equipment of the producing plants, batch plants or distributing bunkers
such as conveyors , scales, grizzlers , crushers , elevators , chutes, gates , bins, feeders, grinders,
and similar facilities.
17 Any participant in the elections directed herein may , upon its prompt request to and
approval thereof by the Regional Director , have Its name removed from the ballot.
BLUE DIAMOND CORPORATION 491
(2) Whether the employees in Voting Group No. 1 desire to be
represented by International Association of Machinists, District
Lodge No. 94, for itself and on behalf of District Local Lodge No.
1186, or by International Association of Operating Engineers, or by
neither ; 18
(3) Whether or not the employees in Voting Group No. 2 desire
to be represented by the International Association of Operating
Engineers;
(4) Whether or not the employees in Voting Group No. 3 desire
to be represented by the International Association of Machinists,
District Lodge No. 94, for itself and on behalf of District Local
Lodge No. 1186.
ORDER
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the petitions for investigation and certifi-
cation of representatives of employees of John D. Gregg Company;
Granite Materials Company ; Arrow Rock Company ; Edw. Sidebotham
& Son, Inc.; Chandler's Palos Verde Sand & Gravel Company;
Manning Brothers Rock & Sand Company, Inc.; and P. J. Akmodzich
d/b/a City Rock Company, filed by the International Union of
Operating Engineers, Local 12, AFL and the International Associa-
tion of Machinists, District Lodge No. 94, for itself and on behalf of
District Local Lodge No. 1186, be, and they hereby are, dismissed.
'B In the case of Blue Diamond Corporation, to determine whether the employees in
Voting Group No. 1 desired to be represented by International Association of Machinists,
District Lodge No. 94, for itself and on behalf of District Local Lodge No. 1186, or by
International Association of Operating Engineers, or by the United Cement, Lime &
Gypsum Workers International Union, or by none.