Chrysler Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jul 30, 1942

42 N.L.R.B. 1145 (N.L.R.B. 1942)

In the Matter Of CIRYSLER CORPORATION and UNITED AUTOMOBILE
WORKERS OF AMERICA, LOCAL 371 , AFFILIATED WITH C I 0
1w the-Matter of CHRYSLER CORPORATION' and INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIA-
TION OF MACHINISTS DIE SINKERS LOCAL 1222, AFFILIATED WITH
A F. L
In the Matter of CHRYSLER CORPORATION, A CORPORATION and INTER-
NATIONAL UNION, UNITED AUTOMOBILE WORKERS OF AMERICA,
AFFILIATED WITH THE C. I 0
In the Matter Of CHRYSLER CORPORATION, A CORPORATION and LOCAL
51, INT'L UNION, UNITED AUTOMOBILE WORKERS OF AMERICA (C I O.
AFFILIATE), OF WHICH LOCAL LEO LAMOTTE IS PRESIDENT
Inrthe Matter Of CHRYSLER CORPORATION, and INTERNATIONAL UNION,
UNITED AUTOMOBILE WORKERS OF AMERICA, AFFILIATED WITH THE
CONGRESS OF INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS
In the Matter of CHRYSLER CORPORATION and INTERNATIONAL UNION,
UNITED AUTOMOBILE, AIRCRAFT & AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENT WORK-
ERS OF AMERICA, AFFILIATED WITH THE C I 0
Cases Nos. R-1307, R-1308, R-1398, R-1397, R-2f09, and R-3303,
respectively
SUPPLEMENTAL DECISION
AND
CERTIFICATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
July 30, 194
On May 2, 1942, International Union, United Automobile, Aircraft
and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, C. I 0, herein
called the UAW-CIO, filed with the National Labor Relations Board,
herein called the Board, a motion (1) to consolidate into one appro-
priate unit the units, more particularly described, below, which the
Board had theietoforre found appropriate in these cases for the pur-
poses of collective bargaining with Chrysler Corporation, herein
called the Company, and for which the UAW-CIO or its predecessor,
International Union, United Automobile Workers of America, C.I 0,
had theretofore been certified by the Board as exclusive representa-
tive, and (2 ) to certify the UAW-CIO as the exclusive representa-
42 N L R B, No 208
1145
1146 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Live of such consolidated unit On May 20, 1942, the Board issued
and duly served upon the Company, the UAW-CIO, and all other
parties to these cases, a notice to show cause on or before June 1, 1942,
why the unit-, for which the UAW-CIO or its pi edecessor had been
certified should not be consolidated into a single unit and why the
UAW-CIO should not be certified as the exclusive representative of
the employees in said consolidated unit On May 30,-1942,, the. Com-
pany filed with the Board a memorandum in opposition to the motion
to consolidate and requested oral , aig invent befoi e the Board None
of the other parties served with the notice to show cause responded
thereto On June 16, 1942, the Board issued and duly served upon
all parties a notice of hearing, setting oral argument before the Board
for July 2, 1942, but specifying in the notice that any party desiring
,to argue` should notify the Board of such desiie on or before June
23, -1942, or be deemed to have waived the pi ivilege of presenting
argument' Thereafter the Company and the UAW-CIO, the only
parties responding to the notice of hearing, waived oral ai gument and
an lieu thereof submitted briefs, which the Board has considered
Upon the entree record in the cases, the Board makes the follow-
ing supplemental findings of fact ww hnch, to the extend that they are
'inconsistent there^vith, supersede the findings of fact heietofoie made
in these cases
SUPPLEMENTAL FINDINGS OF FACT
' The UAW-CIO desires that the Board consolidate into one appro-
priate unit the following 3 units previously found appropriate by the
Board and certify it as the exclusive representative of the employees
therein (1) the 12-plant unit, consisting of pioduction and mainte-
nance employees at the Company's Chrysler Jef£eisoii, Chrysler
Kercheval, Dodge Main, Dodge Forge, Dodge Truck, De Soto, High-
land Park, Amplex-Harper, Plymouth, Marysville, Los Angeles, and
New Castle plants, 2 (2) the Company's Evansville, Indiana, plant ;'3
'On June 19, 1942, the Boaid issued and duly scrved on all parties a notice advanerng
the bearing for oral aigunient to June 30
2 The unit found appropuate, and for which the pied cessm of the UAW-CIO was
'certified on November 16, 1939, consisted of all production and maintenance employees
at the foregoing 12 plants, "excluding foremen, assistant foremen, timekeepers, plant-
protection employees, office employees, confidential salaried employees, and salaued engi-
neers, and, in addition, excluding, at the New Castle plant oily, the employees of Depart-
ment No 57 of that plant who are the sinkers or me employed in the manufacture or
maintenance of dies used to complete foigings" bfattei of Clnysler Corporation and
'International Union, United Automobile Wo,keis of Anie)ica, affiliated with the C I 0
,et al , 17 N L R B 737
The predecessor of the UAW-CIO was certified on Febiuirs 28 1941, as the exclusive
repiesentatrse of "all production and maintenance employees at the Evansville plant
excluding foremen, assistant foremen, timekeepers, plant-protection employees, office em-
ployees, confidential salaried empio3ees, and salaued engineers" Mattei of Chrysler Cor-
portatron and International Union, United Automw' bile Workers of America , affiliated with
the Cotgiess of Industrial Oiganizat iots, 29 N L R B 1164
CHRYSLER CORPORATION - 1147
died' (3) the -Company's Kokomo, Indiana, plant 4 , In our decisions
Involving the Evan'sville'and Kokomo plants we rejected the request
bf'the-UAW-CIO that, in the event it won the election, each of those
plants be included in a unit with the' 12-plant unit previously found
;appropllate We stated, in substance, that the request was piema-
'ture`--since no collective bat gaining' representative 'had been certified
,for' those plants and no request had been made upon the Company
to baigarn upon the basis of a unit thus'expanded 5 Accordingly,
eve denied the request, stating, however, in the Kokomo case, that if
after-certification of the UAW-CIO for that plant "the Company
T
s to bargaining upon a 14-plant unit basis we will entertain forobject
consideration at that time a motion to consolidate the `certifications
previously issued and to Include all [14] plants of the Company in
xa single appiopiiate unit"" -
The UAW-CIO on or about March 16, 1942, addressed a letter to
the Company, requesting that the Company "bargain ,6th our rep-
resentatives on behalf of the employees in the Kokomo plant along
-with the employees in the 13 other plants; described in the first two
certifications ""of the Board as a single baigaining unit " On
or about April.3, 1942, the Company replied that the Board had, on
March 10, 1941, denied the motion of the UAW-CIO to include the
`employees of the Evansville plant with those in the 12-plant runt,
'and that the Company was "not willing to agree that the employees
at the Kokomo plant be included within the twelve plant unit
In support of its notion to coiisolyd'ate, the UAW-CIO set out the
foregoing exchange of correspondence rind further stated-that it had
enter ecl into coati acts covering the employees in the units for which
t had been 'certified' which`, contracts contained substantially the
,same provisions and had been negotiated iuith the same Labor Rela-
't'ions Department and officers of -the Company
- In opposition to the motion'to consolidate, the Company asserts
that the consideiat-ions W-hich led the-Board to deny the prior' lno-
tions of the UAW-CIO to consolidate the, Evansville and Kokomo
plants with the 12-plant unit are equally applicable at the present
time and`regnrne, therefore, that'the motion be denied The-Company
also urges that the Board ought not 'to curtail the might of self-
'deteimination that employees at the Evansville and Kokomo, plants
'have enjoyed by merging them with'those in the 12-plant unit, par-
4 The UAW CIO was certified on Februaiv 6 1942, as the exclusive representative of
'all production and maintenance employees of Chi sier Corporation at its Kohonso, Indi-
ana, plant, excluding foremen, assistant foremen, timelceepeis,' plant-protection employees,
office employees, confidential sal,uied employees, and salaried engineers',' Matter of
Clirilsler Co, poiation and Intc)national-Union, United Automobile, Aircraft R Agricultural
Implement Il o1 be, s of Amei ice, affiliated with the C 1 O , 38 N - L R B 974 - -
5 28 N L R B 1038, 37 N L R B 877
0 37 N L R B 877, 880
1148 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
titularly since in the last election at Evansville the UAW-CIO ob-
tained a plurality of only 12 votes out of 703 eligible employees and
in view of the fact that when the last election was held at Kokomo
only a few employees were working Finally, the Company con-
cedes that it has not recognized the UAW-CIO as the representative
of a single 14-plant unit, but claims that it has not objected "to
bargaining upon a 44,plant' unit --basis": -and that, in- consequence,
the condition on which the Board stated it would consider a motion
for consolidation has not occurred. In support of this latter posi-
tion, the Company states that it could not establish "a single bar-
gaining unit" consisting of the 14 plants as requested by the UAW-
CIO in the letter of March 18, 1942; that it has dealt with the UAW-
CIO for all 14 plants; that the contract covering the Evansville
employees is identical with that for the 12-plant unit except with
respect to seniority; that following certification of the UAW-CIO'
for the Kokomo plant the Company and the UAW-CIO agreed that
the employees at that plant would be covered by the terms and con-
ditions of the contract for -the 12-plant unit, as, modified and ex-
tended; and that in bargaining and handling grievances since the
execution of the Evansville and Kokomo agreements, the Company's
dealings with the UAW-CIO with respect to the employees at those
,plants have been the same as with respect to employees at plants in the
12-plant unit The Company concludes, therefore, that there is no
occasion to entertain the motion to consolidate, since the employees
at Evansville and Kokomo have enjoyed whatever benefits there are
in centralized bargaining, without losing their right to self-deter-
mination
We are of the opinion that the employees at the 14 plants constitute
a single appropriate -unit In our original decision issued July 31,
1939, involving these 14 plants, we found that the Chrysler Jefferson
and Chrysler Kercheval plants constituted one unit, and that each
of the 12 remaining plants constituted a separate unit' We there
noted that the past history of bargaining had not established a pat-
tern of bargaining upon a single unit basis and, in view of the then
recent division of the International Union into 2 groups, one affiliated
with the C. I O. and the other with the A. F. of L , the record af-
forded no indication of the relative strength of the two groups in the
various plants Following the- elections, in which the UAW-CIO
obtained a majority in 12 plants, and upon motion of the UAW-CIO,
the Board, on November 16, 1939, established those 12 plants as one
unit in view of the fact that the employees at those plants had selected
the same representative and since problems of wages, hours, and
7 13 N L R B 1303
CHRYSLER CORPORATION 1149
Working conditions at each plant were similar 8 Since the establish-'
ment of the 12-plant unit, the UAW-CIO has been selected by a
majority of the employees at the Evansville and Kokomo plants 9
and, as the Company concedes, has been and now is recognized as
their exclusive iepresentative The separate contracts for , these
plants ` embody the same terms and conditions ^ of employment as
obtained for the 12-plant unit, except with respect to seniority in the
Evansville plant Under these circumstances, it is appropriate for
the UAW-CIO to bargain with the Company as the representative
of all the employees in a single consolidated unit and it is likewise
appropriate for the Company to recognize the UAW-CIO as the
representative of all the employees in such unit
We accordingly find that all production and maintenance employees
of the Company at the Chrysler Jefferson, Chrysler Kercheval, Dodge
Main, Dodge Forge, Dodge Truck, De Soto, Highland Park, Amplex-
Harper, Plymouth, Marysville, Los Angeles, New Castle, Evansville,
and Kokomo plants, excluding foremen, assistant foremen, time-
keepers, plant-protection employees, office employees, confidential
salaried employees, and salaried engineers, and, in addition, exclud-
ing, at the New Castle plant-only, the employees of Department No.
57 who are die sinkers or are employed in the manufacture or main-
tenance of dies used to complete forgings, constitute a single unit
appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the mean-
ing of Section 9 (b) of the Act
CERTIFICATION - OF REPRESENTATIVES
By virtue of and pursuant to the power vested in the National
Labor Relations Board by Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Re-
lations Act, 49 Stat 449, and pursuant to Article III, Sections 8 and
9, of National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations—
Series 2; as amended,
- IT IS HEREBY CERTIFIED that International Union,- United Auto-
mobile, Aircraft -and 'Agiiciiltural^Implement Workers of America,
C I 0, has been designated and selected by a majority of all pro-
'17 N L R B 737 The Board thereafter found the Evansville plant, which was not
one of the 12 referred to above, to constitute a, separate unit, and certified the UAW-AFL
foi that plant Since the election at the Kokomo plant resulted in a majority voting for
neither, no representative was certified for that plant 17 N L It B 746
9 While the vote at the Evansville plant resulted in the UAW-CIO obtaining 344 'votes
to 332 for the UAW-AFL, out of 681 valid ballots cast, that fact does not detract from
the repiesentative status of the UAW-CIO Following certification of the UAW-CIO for
this plant, the Board , on March 10, 1941, denied the motion of the UAW-CIO to consoli-
date this plant with the other 12 It is to be noted, however, that so far as appears the
UAW-CIO had- not at that time requested the Company to bargain on a 13-plant unit
basis In connection with the Company 's statement that -only a few ,men - were working
at the Kokomo plant` at the time of the last election , we note that 504 of 798 eligible
,voters voted , and that of 490 votes counted, 396 were for and 94 against the UAW-CIO
1150 DECISIONS OF, NAT10,NAL; LABOR. -RELATIONS BOARD
diction and maintenance employees of Chi-,sler Corporation at its
Chrysler Jefferson, Chry'slei,,Keicheval, Dodge Main, DodgeI Forge,
Dodge Truck, De Soto, Highland Park, Amplex-13aiper; Plymouth,
Aiarysville, Los Angeles, New Castle, Evans-, ille, ' and Kokomo
plants, excluding. foremen, assistant foremen, tiineceepers, plant
protection employees,,,, office ,employees, confidential salaried em-
ployees, and salaried engineers and, in addition, excluding, at the
New Castle plant only, the' employees of Department No 57 who
are die sinkers of are employed ,in„ the manufacture or maintenance
of dies used to complete, foigings, as their representative for the,
purposes of collective bargaining, and that, puisuant to the' pro-
visions of Section 9 (a),,,of the, Act, International Union, United
Automobile, Aircraft and Agricultural_ Implement Workers of
America, C I. 0, is the exclusive representative of all such em-
ployees for the purposes of collective bargaining in respect to rates
of pay, wages, hours of employment, and other conditions of em-
ployment.
AIR GERARD D REILLY took no part in the consideration of the
above Supplemental `Decision and Certification of Representatives.