Briggs Manufacturing Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Sep 12, 1945

63 N.L.R.B. 860 (N.L.R.B. 1945)

In the Matter of BRIGGS MANUFACTURING COMPANY and INTERNA-
TIONAL UNION, UNITED AUTOMOBILE, AIRCRAFT AND AGRICULTURAL
IMPLEMENT WORKERS OF AMERICA (UAW-CIO), AND ITS LOCAL
212
Case No. 7-R 1909.Decided September 12, 1945
Beaumont, Smith ct Harris, by Mr. Albert E. Meder, of Detroit,
Mich., for the Company.
Messrs. Clare Kurth, Leslie Kaines, and Nicholas J. Rothe, all of
Detroit, Mich., for the Union.
Mr. Angelo J. Fiumara, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon an amended petition duly filed by International Union, United
Automobile, Aircraft and Agricultural Implement Workers of Amer-
ica (UAW-CIO), and its Local 212, herein collectively called the
Union, alleging that a question affecting commerce had arisen con-
cerning the representation of employees of Briggs Manufacturing
Company, Detroit, Michigan, herein called the Company, the National
Labor Relations Board provided for an appropriate hearing upon due
notice before Max Rotenberg, Trial Examiner. Said hearing was held
at Detroit, Michigan, on May 14, 1945. 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. 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
I. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
Briggs Manufacturing Company, a Michigan corporation, is engaged
in the manufacture of war materials. In the conduct of its business,
63 N. L. R. B, No. 131.
860
hh^
BRIGGS MANUFACTURING COMPANY 861
the Company owns and operates nine plants'in the Detroit area, eight
of which are the subject of this proceeding.' During the year 1944,
the Company purchased in excess of $10,000,000 worth of raw mate-
rials, approximately 95 percent of which came from points outside the
State of Michigan. During the same period, the Company's sales ex-
ceeded $10,000,000 in value, about 95 percent of which represented ship-
ments made to points outside the State.
The Company admits that it is engaged in commerce within the
meaning of the National Labor Relations Act.
II. THE ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED
International Union, United Automobile, Aircraft and Agricultural
Implement Workers of America, and its Local 212, both affiliated
with the Congress of Industrial Organizations, are labor organiza-
tions admitting to membership employees of the Company.
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
The Union requested recognition of the Company as the exclusive
bargaining representative of its clerical employees in its engineering
departlnents.2 The Company refused, asserting, inter alia, that the
Union is estopped from now seeking to represent such employees be-
cause they are confidential salaried employees and because the Union
has, by virtue of a current contract covering production and mainte-
nance employees of the Company,3 agreed "not to accept for mem-
bership . . . confidential salaried employees." 4
Neither the contract nor the transcript of testimony reveals the
precise meaning the parties attached to the term "confidential salaried
employees." Yet, as indicated by repeated decisions of the Board
' These are the Mack Avenue , Vernor North Side , Vernor South Side, Meldrum, Outer
Drive, Eight Mile, Milwaukee , and Hamtramck plants. Employees at the ninth plant are
presently represented for collective bargaining purposes.
2 Herein referred to as engineering clericals
8 The UAW-CIO was certified as a result of a Board -ordered election in Matter of Briggs
Manufacturing Company and Briggs Indiana Corporation , 13 N L. R B. 1326 in the fol-
lowing unit : "All production and maintenance employees employed by the Company at its
plants situated in the cities of Detroit , Hamtramck and Highland Park, Michigan, Itnd in
Evansville , Indiana, including all operators of Company 's motor transport equipment and
those engaged in its maintenance ; factory clerical employees paid on an hourly rate basis ;
all engineers-whether paid on an hourly rate or salary basis-except those employed on
experimental model work and all those who have the right to hire or discharge , all de-
tailers, draftsmen , and designers , whether paid on an hourly rate or salary basis, except
those who have the right to hire or discharge ," excluding several enumerated categories of
supervisory employees and "time-study men, plant -protection employees , known as watch-
men, and all salaried employees , except those engineers, detailers , draftsmen , and designers,
specifically included above. . . ( See 17 N. L R. B. 749 .) The contract unit conforms
to that established by the Board Local 265 of the UAW -CIO is also a party to the agree-
ment , acting as the local representative of employees of the Evansville plant, which is not
involved herein.
* Engineering clericals , not mentioned specifically in the Board ' s certification , were not
expressly adverted to in the contract.
862 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
beginning with Creamery Package Manufacturing Company,b the
term "confidential employees" has a well defined and established
meaning in the law of collective bargaining. In the absence of affir-
mative proof to the contrary, it can fairly be presumed, therefore,
that by using the phrase "confidential salaried employees," the parties
intended thereby to accept the Board's customary definition as con-
trolling. For reasons appearing hereinafter, we find that the Com-
pany's engineering clericals are not "confidential salaried employees."
Thus, the provision in the contract between the Company and the
Union is inapplicable to these employees and, apart from any other
considerations, is no bar to this proceeding. We need not therefore
consider the estopple contention in its other aspects.
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 alleged by it to be appropriates
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; TIIE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
The Union seeks to represent, either as a separate unit or as part of
the existing production and maintenance unit of which it is the certi-
fied bargaining representative, all clerical employees employed in the
engineering departments of the Company, excluding confidential sec-
retaries to supervisors, employees in the personnel department, indus-
trial relations department, and all supervisory employees within the
Board's customary definition. The Company, on the other hand, con-
tends (1) that these employees are confidential employees and, there-
fore, should not be included in any unit, and (2) that, in any event, a
separate unit of such employees is inappropriate because it does not
include all clerical employees of the Company.
The Company employs about 1,564 clerical employees in the 8 of its
9 plants involved herein. Among these are the approximately 124
clerkals in the engineering departments who are designated by the
following industrial classifications: file clerk, typist, stenographer,
ditto machine operator, tool and die clerk, engineering clerk, blueprint
clerk, engineering follow-up, follow-up engineering material, blue-
print machine operator, and blueprint trimmer, all of whom are geo-
graphically situated in 3 of the plants,7 although they do work for all
plants of the Company.
5 34 N. L . R. B 108.
6 The Field Bxaminer reported that the Union submitted 71 designation cards, all of
which were dated during April and May 1945 ; and that, according to a Company pay roll
submitted on March 19, 1945, there are 124 employees in the alleged appropriate unit.
7 The three are the Mack Avenue, Vernor South Side , and Outer Drive plants.
BRIGGS MANUFACTURING COMPANY 863
The Company employs individuals of similar classifications else-
where in the plants. All employees in these classifications are salaried
and the same salary range applies throughout the Company's plants
to similar classifications, irrespective of the department in which they
are employed. The engineering clericals are not more highly skilled
nor are higher qualifications required of them than either those em-
ployees working in similar classifications in other departments or sal-
aried clerical employees generally employed by the Company. The
record shows that they enjoy the same company benefits and are gov-
erned by the same company rules and regulations as are all other sal-
aried clerical employees. In addition, there is testimony that some
13 engineering clericals have been transferred to non-engineering de-
partments since the beginning of the year, and that there have been
some transfers from non-engineering to the engineering departments.
It also appears, however, that, within the last 2 or 3 months, no em-
ployee has been transferred from the non-engineering departments to
the engineering departments for the asserted reason that the Company
intends to curtail its engineering clerical staff as it reconverts.
Moreover, the engineering clericals work in offices separate and apart
from the nonengineering clericals. They are under the separate super-
vision of a chief engineer who heads the engineering departments,
and they are engaged in work in close proximity to the production
processes. Depending upon their own individual classification, the
engineering clericals generally make blueprints from drawings made
by the draftsmen to be used by the production employees in the plant;
file prints and tracings; type various reports and take dictation; dupli-
cate papers; keep record of the movement of tools and dies; record
the movement of materials from one department to another; follow
up engineering materials from various sources within and without the
plants; trim the excess paper from the blueprints and cut them into
sections for distribution to the different departments where production
is made from the blueprints.
. In the course of their work, engineering clericals have access to
important company information such as estimates of the cost of
manufacturing a particular article. These estimates are blueprinted
and are handled not only by the blueprint clerks but also by the file
clerks, typists, and others of the engineering departments' clerical
force. Reports of the pay-roll and of the auditing departments are
also handled by these employees and in some instances are photostated
by them. Further, they are in a position to acquire information of
an entire design of articles, whereas the draftsmen who are in the
bargaining unit have only sections of the design at their disposal.
The record indicates, however, that none of them possesses informa-
tion directly relating to the problems of labor relations.
864 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
As to the Company's first contention, we have frequently held, as
we do now, that access to important information relating to business
and not to labor relation matters, of itself, is insufficient to justify
exclusion from the right to collective bargaining. 'Accordingly, we
find that the information accessible to these employees is not of such
character as to warrant the conclusion that they are confidential em-
ployees within the meaning of our customary definition.9 That they
may be bargained for in some unit is consequently clear.
Although the Company regards the engineering clericals as part
of its general clerical force, it is, nevertheless, true that they are dif-
ferentiated from the latter group. Their work is principally related
to the engineering departments where they work in offices which are
physically separated from those of the other clerical employees.
Furthermore, their duties have a direct relation to the work of pro-
duction employees. Under all the circumstances of the case, we are
of the opinion, and find that the engineering clericals may, if they
so desire, form a part of the bargaining unit presently represented
by the Union. In view of the absence of any question concerning
representation among the employees in the present contract unit, we
shall direct that a separate election be held among the group of engi-
neering clericals wherein a question concerning representation has
arisen.9 If a majority of the employees concerned select the Union
as their bargaining representative, they will thereby have indicated
their desire to be bargained for as part of the more comprehensive
unit presently represented by the Union.
We shall direct that an election by secret ballot be held among the
Company's clerical employees in its engineering departments in the
Detroit area, excluding confidential secretaries to supervisors, em-
ployees in the personnel department, industrial relations department,
and all supervisory employees with authority to hire, promote, dis-
charge, discipline, or otherwise effect changes in the status of em-
ployees, or effectively recommend such action, who were employed by
the Company 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.
. 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-
tions Act, and pursuant to Article III, Section 9, of National Labor
8 See Matter of Bethlehem Steel Company, 52 N. L . R. B. 190; Matter of Armour and
Company, 49 N. L. R. B. 688.
1 See Matter of The Emerson Electric Manufacturing Company, 55 N. L. R. B. 110.
BRIGGS MANUFACTURING COMPANY 865
Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 3, as amended, it is
hereby
DrimcTnn that, as part of the investigation to ascertain representa-
tives for the purposes of collective bargaining with Briggs Manufac-
turing Company, Detroit, Michigan, 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 Seventh Region, acting in this mat-
ter 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 voting group described 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 represented by Interna-
tional Union, United Automobile, Aircraft and Agricultural Imple-
ment Workers of America (UAW-CIO), and its Local 212, affiliated
with the Congress of Industrial Organizations, for the purposes of
collective bargaining.