Carborundum Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Nov 23, 1948

80 N.L.R.B. 756 (N.L.R.B. 1948)

In the Matter of CARBORUNDUM COMPANY, EMPLOYER and UNITED
ASSOCIATION OF JOURNEYMEN AND APPRENTICES OF THE PLUMBING
AND PIPE FITTING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA,
LOCAL 129, A. F. OF L., PETITIONER
Case No. 3-RC-50-Decided November 23, 1948
DECISION
AND
ORDER
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing 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. At the close of the hearing, the Employer and the
Intervenors moved to dismiss the petition. The hearing officer re-
served decision on the motion for the Board. For the reasons here-
inafter stated, the motion is granted.
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board' finds:
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the Act.
2. The Petitioner, and United Gas, Coke and Chemical Workers
of America, C. I. 0., and its Local 12058, herein called the Intervenors,
are labor organizations, claiming to represent employees of the Em-
ployer.
3. No question affecting commerce exists concerning the represen-
tation of employees of the Employer within the meaning of Section
9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act, for the following
reasons:
The Petitioner seeks to sever, from a plant-wide unit of production
and maintenance employees, a unit of pipe fitters and pipe fitter ap-
prentices employed at the Employer's main plant at Niagara Falls,
New York, excluding assistant foremen, and other supervisors as de-
' Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3 (b) of the National Labor Relations Act, the
Board has delegated its authority in connection with this case to a three-man panel con-
sisting of the undersigned Board Members [ Chairman Herzog and Members Reynolds and
Gray).
80 N. L. R. B., No. 115.
756
CARBORUNDUM COMPANY 757
fined in the Act. The Employer and the Intervenors contend that a
plant-wide production and maintenance unit is the only appropriate
unit.
The Employer is engaged at its Niagara Falls, New York, plant,
in the manufacture of abrasives and related products. The plant con-
sists of 80 buildings and covers approximately 45 acres. The Em-
ployer employs a total of 5600 employees at its Niagara Falls plant,
of which approximately 3300 are presently included in the production
and maintenance unit represented by the Intervenors. The group
which the Petitioner seeks to sever consists of 18 pipe fitters and 2 ap-
prentices.
From January 1942 to May 1948,2 the Employer and the Inter-
venors 3 have had contractual relations covering all production and
maintenance employees including the pipe fitters and their appren-
tices' Pipe fitters have participated in bargaining and grievance ac-
tivities. They have also been included in the plant-wide job evalua-
tion system adopted by the Employer and the Intervenors in 1947.
The record also discloses that the Employer's four major competitors
located in the Niagara Falls area all bargain on a plant-wide basis.
The maintenance department of the Employer's plant at Niagara
Falls, New York, is under the supervision of a works manager. There
are two major subdivisions of the maintenance department, each sub-
division having a general foreman in charge who is responsible directly
to the works manager. One such subdivision is known as Repair,
Maintenance, Installation, and Sanitation, the other as Feeder, Re-
pair and Service Shops. These two major subdivisions are in turn
divided into smaller departments in charge of assistant foremen.
The pipe fitters sought by the Petitioner are found in three of these
t.maller departments which are considered separately below.
Area Repair and Maintenance: This department is a part of the
major subdivision of Repair, Maintenance, Installation and Sanita-
tion and comprises four areas into which the plant is divided for the
purposes of repair and maintenance, each area being under the super-
vision of an assistant foreman. Crews of craftsmen, including such
crafts as millwrights, electricians, pipe fitters, tinsmiths, and welders,
are assigned to each area. The assistant foreman in charge r,f each
2 At the time of the hearing , the Employer and the Intervenors were engaged yn negotiat-
ing a new contract.
8 Before 1942, Local 12058 was an affiliate of United Mine Workers of Amrrica, District
50, C. I 0. When the United Mine Workers terminated its affiliation with the C. I. 0.,
Local 12058 transferred its affiliation to the United Gas, Coke and Chemical Workers,
C. I. O.
4 The first collective bargaining contract at this plant was executed in 1938 by the
Employer and the Carborundum Employee Association Their contractual relationship
continued until November 1941, when , by Board order, the Association was disestablished.
758 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
area and the operators in charge of each crew are usually millwrights
by trade.
New Work and Installation: Three crews of craftsmen make up
this department. The crews work directly under the supervision of
a foreman and are responsible for the installation, or moving and
reinstallation, of machinery throughout the plant. Of the three
crews, one consists solely of electricians, another of pipe fitters, and
the third of millwrights, riggers, welders, tinsmiths, and painters.
Pipe Shop, Service Boiler House and Fuel Oil System: Unlike those
considered above, this department is under the major division of the
Maintenance Department known as Feeder, Repair and Service Shops.
There is a foreman in charge of the department who has two assistant
foremen under him. One of the assistant foremen has charge of three
crews. One crew is responsible for the river water, hydraulic, com-
pressed air, and refrigeration systems. This crew consists of two
pump room operators and an apprentice. Another crew is respon-
sible for the heating, drinking fountain, sanitary and plumbing sys-
tems. This crew consists of an operator in charge, who is a pipe fitter,
and four pipe fitters. The third crew consists of an operator in
charge, who is a pipe fitter, two pipe fitters, an apprentice and a de-
greasor.5 All these crews are stationed in the pipe shop.6 The other
assistant foreman supervises the operator in charge, fireman, helper,
fuel oil operator, repairman, apprentice, and two laborers who work
in the boiler house. All the pipe fitters punch the same time clock,
use the same locker rooms, have the same working hours, and generally
enjoy the same benefits as the production workers and other mainte-
nance employees.
The record indicates that other employees also do pipe work. The
millwrights repair and maintain the pneumatic tube system; instru-
ment men clean, connect, and disconnect pipes to CO2 recorders and
indicators; pump room repairmen and operators' maintain the vari-
ous air hydraulic and refrigeration compressors, and connect and
disconnect pipes in the maintenance and repair thereof; and the fuel
oil operators operate and maintain the entire fuel oil system which
supplies the tunnel kilns, roasters, and driers.
There is an apprentice training program for pipe fitters, but the
same program is also used to train employees for work in a number
of other classifications. The program is divided into four phases, of
which the first three are: (1) pipe fitting; (2) operation and mainte-
The degreasor is an unskilled employee who cleans grease off machinery that is brought
to him from all operations throughout the plant.
6 These systems pipe fitters , however , spend the major portion of their time working on
the various systems throughout the plant.
7 Pump room employees are included in the pipe fitters' seniority group.
CARBORUNDUM COMPANY 759
nance of refrigerating and air conditioning equipment, pumps, and
compressors; and (3) boiler operation and repair. The fourth phase
is a refresher course in each of the preceding types of training. Upon
completion of the entire program, the employee may indicate a choice
as among the various types of positions for which he is then fitted.
In view of the long history of collective bargaining on a plant-wide
basis in the Employer's plant, the uniform conditions of employment
for pipe fitters and other production and maintenance employees, the
use of the same apprentice training program to prepare employees for
assignment as pipe fitter as well as other job classifications, and the
substantial amount of pipe fitting work done by employees in job
classifications other than that of pipe fitter, we find that the unit sought
by the Petitioner is inappropriate for purposes of collective bargain-
ing. We shall, therefore, order that the petition be dismissed.8
ORDER
Upon the basis of the above findings of fact and upon the entire
record in this case, the National Labor Relations Board hereby orders
that the petition filed herein be, and it hereby is, dismissed.
8 Cf. Matter of Monsanto Chemical Company, 78 N. L. R. B. 1249.