Buckeye Oil Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Feb 6, 1953

102 N.L.R.B. 1151 (N.L.R.B. 1953)

BUCKEYE OIL COMPANY 1151
In these circumstances, there does not exist at this plant a clearly
identifiable group of employees engaged essentially in truckdriving
work. Rather it appears, and we find, that those production and
maintenance employees who in varying degree spend only a part of
their time driving trucks, have substantially the same interest in
working conditions as all other production and maintenance workers.
We conclude, therefore, that the Teamsters has not requested an
appropriate unit and, accordingly, we shall dismiss the petition in
Case No. 1-RC-3048 4
In view of the foregoing conclusion, we find that all production
and maintenance employees at the Employer's Portland, Maine, plant,
including employees who drive trucks, but excluding office and clerical
employees, guards, professional employees, executives, foremen, and
all other supervisors as defined in the Act, constitute a unit appropriate
for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Sec-
tion 9 (b) of the Act.
Order
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the petition in Case No. 1-RC-3048 be,
and it hereby is, dismissed.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this
volume.]
+ We have not accorded the Teamsters a place on the ballot in the election herein directed
as it did not indicate at the hearing that it desired to represent all production and
maintenance employees in the event its petition was dismissed . The Teamsters will,
however, upon proper application to the Regional Director , be placed on the ballot.
BUCKEYE OIL COMPANY, CHEMICAL PULP DIVISION and INTERNATIONAL
BROTHERHOOD OF PULP, SULPHITE AND PAPER MILL WORKERS, AFL,
PETITIONER. Case No. 32-RC-516. February 6, 1953
Supplemental Decision and Direction
Pursuant to a Decision and Direction of Election issued by the
Board on October 21, 1952,1 an election by secret ballot was conducted
among the employees in the appropriate unit on October 30, 1952,
under the direction and supervision of the Regional Director for
the Fifteenth Region. At the conclusion of the election, the parties
were furnished with a tally of ballots. The tally shows that there
were approximately 414 eligible voters and that 290 cast valid ballots,
of which 148 were for the Petitioner, 141 for the Intervenor (Local
19, Distributive, Processing and Office Workers of America), and 1
1101 NLRB 30.
102 NLRB No. 112.
1152 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
for no union. In addition, there were 3 void and 32 challenged ballots.
On October 31, 1952, the Petitioner filed objections to the election.
Thereafter, in accordance with the Board's Rules and Regulations,
the Regional Director investigated the objections and the challenges,
which were sufficient in number to affect the election results. On
December 18, 1952, the Regional Director issued a report on chal-
lenged ballots and objections, which he duly served upon the parties.
In his report, the Regional Director found that the Petitioner's ob-
jections raised no substantial and material issues affecting the election
and recommended that they be overruled. He further found that, of
the employees who cast challenged ballots, 16 were ineligible to vote
and 16 eligible. Accordingly, he recommended that challenges to
the ballots cast by the ineligible employees be sustained and those by
the eligible employees be overruled and the latter ballots opened and
counted. The Petitioner timely filed an "appeal" in the nature of
exceptions to the Regional Director's rulings on the objections and on
15 of the 16 challenges recommended to be overruled 2
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3 (b) of the Act, the Board
has delegated its powers in connection with this case to a three-mem-
ber panel [Members Houston, Styles, and Peterson].
Objections: The Petitioner objected to the election on the ground
that the Employer, immediately before the election, gave the Inter-
venor a list of laid-off employees considered eligible to vote, so that
the Intervenor might contact and carry these employees to the polls,
but never offered this list to the Petitioner. However, the Regional
Director found that the Intervenor requested the list on October 27
and received it on October 28; that the Employer gave the Petitioner
an identical list on October 29, the day before the election; that there
was no evidence, or offer of evidence, to show that the list was given
to the Intervenor in order to enable it to contact and carry employees
to the polls; and that it was not attributable to the Employer that
the list was in fact so used. In its exceptions, the Petitioner does not
dispute the Regional Director's findings of fact, but asserts that inter-
ference resulted because the list was used to transport laid-off em-
ployees to the polls. We find no merit in the Petitioner's exception.
As found by the Regional Director, there was no evidence of dis-
criminatory treatment by the Employer. The mere fact that a list,
which the Employer furnished to the Petitioner and Intervenor, was
used by the latter to transport employees to the polls does not consti-
tute interference with the election. We therefore overrule the Peti-
tioner's objections.
2 As no exceptions were filed to the Regional Director's recommendations that 16
challenges be sustained and 1 (cast by Amos Dodds) be overruled, we hereby adopt these
findings and recommendations.
STEWART-WARNER CORPORATION . 1153
Challenges: The Petitioner, as already noted, excepted. to the Re-
gional Director's recommendation that 15 challenged ballots be
opened and counted.-' These 15 ballots, as the Regional Director
found, were cast either by regular seasonal employees who were em-
ployed at the time of the election or by temporarily laid-off employees
who had a reasonable expectancy of further employment. The facts
relating to the status of the voters in question, as found by the Re-
gional Director, are substantially undisputed. It is Board policy,
long established, that such employees are'eligible to vote in a Board-
directed election. Accordingly, we shall adopt the Regional Direc-
tor's recommendation that these 15 challenges be overruled and that
the ballots so challenged be opened and counted.
Direction
IT IS HEREBY DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation to ascertain
representatives for the purposes of collective bargaining with the
Employer, the Regional Director for the Fifteenth Region shall,
within ten (10) days from the date of this Direction, open and count
the ballots of Warren Johnson, James Johnson, Ellison Flagg, George
Isabel, Jr., Andrew Mason, Joe W. Hudson, Daniel Rutledge, Jimmy
D. Traylor, Amos Dodds, C. L. Mane, Sam McNeil, Robert Grays,
Walter Knox, Joseph L. Key, Willie Lewis, and Otis Johnson and
shall thereafter prepare and cause to be served upon the parties a sup-
plemental tally of ballots, including therein the count of the ballots
described above.
8 These ballots were cast by the following employees : Warren Johnson , James Johnson,
Ellison Flagg, George Isabel , Jr., Andrew Mason, Joe W. Hudson, Daniel Rutledge, Jimmy
D. Traylor , C. L. Mane, Sam McNeil, Robert Grays, Walter Knox, Joseph L. Key, Willie
Lewis , and Otis Johnson.
STEWART-WARNER CORPORATION and INTERNATIONAL UNION OF ELW-
TRICAL, RADIO & MACHINE WORKERS, CIO, PETITIONER. Case No.
13-RC-2667. February 6, 1953
Supplemental Decision and Certification of Representative
Pursuant to a Decision and Direction of Election issued by the
Board herein on August 13, 1952,1 an election by secret ballot was held
on September 11, 1952, under the direction and supervision of the
Regional Director for the Thirteenth Region. Upon completion of
the election, the Regional Director issued and duly served upon the
parties a tally of ballots which showed that of approximately 3,833
eligible voters, 3,520 cast valid ballots, of which 1,700 were in favor
1 100 NLRB 608.
102 NLRB No. 130.