Chrysler Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Sep 14, 1944

58 N.L.R.B. 239 (N.L.R.B. 1944)

In the Matter of CHRYSLER CORPORATION , CHRYSLER MOTOR DIVISION
and INT'L UNION, UNITED AUTOMOBILE , AIRCRAFT AND AGRICULTURAL
IMPLEMENT WORKERS OF AMERICA, LOCAL 889 , INDUSTRIAL OFFICE
WORKERS (UAW-CIO)
Case No. 7-R-1776.-Decided September 14,1944
Rathbone, Perry, Kelley and Drye, by Mr. T., R. Iserman, of New
York City, for the Company.
Maurice Sugar and Jack N. Tucker, by Mr. Jack N. Tucker, of De-
troit, Mich., for the Union.
Mrs. Augusta Spaulding, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
,AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon a petition duly filed by Int'l Union, United Automobile, Air-
craft, and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, Local 889,
Industrial Office Workers (UAW-CIO), herein called the Union,
alleging that a question affecting commerce had arisen concerning the
representation of employees of Chrysler Corporation, Detroit, Michi-
gan, herein called the Company, the National Labor Relations Board
provided for an appropriate hearing upon due notice before Robert J.
Wiener, Trial Examiner. Said hearing was held at Detroit, Michigan,
on July 13 and -14, 1944. The Company and the Union appeared,
participated, and were afforded full opportunity to be heard, to ex-
amine 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. The Company's
motion for oral argument is hereby denied.
58 N. L. R. B., No. 49.
239
240 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD I
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following:
FINDINGS OF FACT
1. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
Chrysler Corporation, until February 1942, was primarily engaged
in manufacturing and selling automobiles, parts, and accessories. The.
Company is now • engaged, almost exclusively, in manufacturing
munitions for the United States Government. The Company owns
and operates plants in' Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Cali-
fornia. The value of raw materials used by the Company exceeds
$240,000,000 per annum. The value of its finished products' exceeds
$600,000,000 per annum. Approximately 45 percent of materials used
at each plant is received from points outside the State in which the
plant is located. Substantially all finished products are delivered to
the Government at the plant where they are made. The Jefferson,
Kercheval, and Bofors Gun Plants, including the Curtis Wing Division
of the Jefferson Plant and the Solventol Building of the Kercheval
Plant, at Detroit, Michigan, are the only plants involved in this pro-
ceeding.
We find that the Company is engaged in commerce within the mean-
ing of the National Labor Relations Act.
H. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED
Int'l Union, United Automobile, Aircraft, and Agricultural Imple-
ment Workers of America, Local 889, Industrial Office Workers, is
a labor organization affiliated with the Congress, of Industrial Organ-
izations, admitting to membership employees of the Company.
III. TIIE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
On May 19, 1944, the Union asked for recognition as bargaining
`representative of the Company's clerical employees. On May 24,
1944, the Company refused the request.
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 hereinafter found appropriate.'
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.
' The Union submitted 317 cards , 267 of which bore apparently genuine original signa-
tures of employees listed on the July 3, 1944 , pay roll. Of the cards submitted , 107 were
undated and the remainder bore dates between August 1943 and May 1944. There are
approximately 790 employees in the appropriate unit.
CHRYSLER CORPORATION 241
IV. TILE APPROPRIATE UNIT
The Jefferson Plant, including the Curtis Wing Division, the
Kercheval Plant, including the Solventol Building, and the Bofors
Gun Plant, collectively known as the Chrysler Motor Division, or
the Chrysler Division, of the Company's operations, comprise a single
operating division group under a general plant manager, and they
are the only plants of the Company involved in this proceeding. The
Union is the recognized bargaining representative of employees at
these plants in three separate bargaining units, including production
and maintenance employees,2 plant-protection employees,3 and tech-
nical employees in three specified departments,' respectively. The
instant petition covers office and clerical employees, specifically or
impliedly excluded from these established bargaining units, whom
the Union would group in a general office clerical unit. The Com-
pany contends that if these office and clerical employees are properly
to be covered in any bargaining unit, they should be included in
separate departmental groups, rather than in a single division group,
and that certain employees, more particularly discussed below, should
be excluded from any unit or units found appropriate for bargaining
purposes.
Employees covered in the office clerical unit sought by the Union
include typists, stenographers, office machine operators, file clerks,
and other variously classified and technically trained clerks and office
specialists throughout the office, production, and maintenance depart-
ments of the Company's plants not covered in established units, in-
cluding pay-roll clerks, accountants or cost clerks, company work
' On July 31, 1939, the Board found that production and maintenance employees at the
Company's Jefferson and Kercheval Plants constituted an appropriate unit and directed
an election among these employees and separate elections among employees in like
categories at each of 11 other plants of the Company. Matter of Chrysler Corporation,
13 N L R B. 1303. On November 16, 1939, the Board included production and mainte-
nance employees of the Company, including employees at the Jefferson and Bercheval
Plants, in one 12-plant multiple unit. Matter of Chrysler Corporation, 17 N. L. R. B 737.
Excluded from this unit are supervisory employees, timekeepers, plant-protection employees,
office employees, confidential salaiied employees, and salaried engineers
'Matter of Chrysler Corporation, 46 N L. R B. 411 The unit is limited to plant-
protection employees at the Jefferson and Kerclieval Plants, and specifically excludes
supervisory employees and confidential clerks
4 Matter of Chrysler Corporation, 55 N. L R. B 1039; 57 N L. R B. 759 Em-
ployees included in this unit are all employees at the Jefferson and Kercheval Plants in
the master mechanics, plant engineering, and engineering research divisions in the
classifications of designer, detailer, tool, die, and gauge engineer, checker, lay-out man,
tool-trouble man, tool follow-up man, draftsman, property officer, plant lay-out engineer,
tool record clerk, engmeeiing record clerk, tool estimator, and learner. On July 28, 1944,
the Board denied a request to expand the unit to include ordinary clerical employees in
these divisions. The Board's decision had not been issued at the time of the hearing
upon the instant petition. The Union and the Company agreed at the hearing in the
instant proceeding that clerical employees in these divisions, if not covered by the Board's
certification in the prior proceeding, are to be included in the office clerical unit proposed
by the Union in the instant case.
609591-45-vol. 58-17
242 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
order clerks, invoice clerks, bookkeepers, billing clerks, telephone op-
erators, mail and stationery clerks, and timekeepers in the accounting
division; follow-up men, stock chasers, authorization men, schedule
men,' specification men, and other office specialists in the planning
division; clerical employees in the time-study department and in the
office service department; follow-up men and clerks in the spare=parts
department; routing and other clerks in the traffic department; clerks
in the rationing department; salesmen, the cashier, and timekeepe>s
in the service garage; typists, expediters, schedule men, compilers of
operating manuals and parts books, and special staff clerks in the sales
division of the marine and industrial engine division, including the
industrial engine division, the service department, the sales division,
and the marine engine department of the sales division. ` h file -the
Company contends that employees in these several departments, if in-
eluded in any bargaining unit, should be divided into separate de-
partmental units, it does not propose any specific units of these em-
ployees which it affirmatively contends would be appropriate for bar-
gainin.g-purposes.' The office plants unit proposed by the Union ad-
mittedly includes file clerks, typists, stenographers, other skilled and
semi-skilled office clerical employees doing special and general routine
clerical work, and office specialists. We find that they may properly
be included in a single clerical bargaining unit analogous to the plant-
wide unit previously found appropriate for production and mainte-
nance employees at these plants.' -
The Company and the Union agree that employees in the following
categories should be excluded from any unit or units found by the
Board to be appropriate as a result of this proceeding: employees of
the Company's general office at Highland Park who are temporarily
housed at the Jefferson Plant; employees at the plants included in
any bargaining unit previously found by the Board to be appropriate;
employees who spend a major portion of their time outside continental-
United States; employees in the marine and industrial sections of the
service department who spend most of their time outside the plants
in customers' service; all employees in the labor relations, employment,
5 Employees in the accounting department are subject not to the over -all control of the
general manager of the Jeffei son and Kercheval Plants, but to the factory auditor of those
plants who reports directly to the office of the comptroller at the Company ' s general offices
at Highland Park. The Company does not contend that it multiple -plant unit is desirable
for employees in the accounting divisions at its several Detroit plants, nor does it even
concede that the employees in the several departments of the accounting division-at the
Jefferson and Kercheval Plants, which constitute an administrative department, are
sufficiently homogeneous to constitute a single bargaining unit apart from office employees
in other departments Under these circumstances , we find that the Company 's objections
to the generally inclusive office clerical unit pioposed by the Union have no merit . Matter
of Chrysler Corporation, 55 N L R B 1039
0 Matter of Chrysler Corporation , 13 N L R . B 1303 , cited in footnote 2, supra ; Matter
of Olivet Farm Equipment Company , 53 N L R B 1078 1
CHRYSLER CORPORATION 243
mutual aid, medical,' and safety departments; time-study men as
distinguished from clerical employees in the time-study department;
foremen's clerks; all secretaries to heads of departments, divisions or
groups; the head of the planning division; the field engineer in the
marine and industrial engine departments; and all supervisory em-
ployees within the Board's usual definition of that term. The Com-
pany would also expressly exclude from the unit pay-roll clerks,
cost clerks, timekeepers, the factory cashier, telephone operators, em-
ployees in the time-study department, employees in-the office service
department, spare-parts men, and staff employees in the sales depart-
ments. The Union opposes these exclusions.
Pay-roll clerks; In the pay-roll department of the accounting divi-
sion there are about 15 pay-roll clerks, 6 general and junior clerks
who are learninpay-roll work, 6 addressograph operators, 37 comp-In
operators, and 1 file clerk. The pay-roll clerks are directly
responsible for showing that the amounts indicated on the employees'
pay checks are correct and they arrange the checks for distributiol .8
To insure correctness, they check the time computed by the comptom-
eter operators with the time shown on the record cards from the time
department and the rate of wages authorized by management" and they
check the aiilounts of all pay-roll deductions, such as, deductions for
social security, loans, war savings bonds, etc. They see that checks
are issued only to persons whose names appear on the pay roll. They
handle errors in case of overages and shortages in the checks. In
response to appropriate information which they receive, they check
the addition and removal of names of employees on the pay roll.
We find that pay-roll clerks are especially skilled clerical employees,
that they are not confidential employees within our usual meaning
of that term a and that they may be properly included in-the general
office unit proposed by the Union.10 We shall include theni in the bar-
gaining unit.
Cost clerks: Cost clerks are accountants in the cost department of
the accounting division who compute standard costs of products made
at the plants and variances from standard costs, basing their cal-
' The medical department was not included in the list of departments which the parties
agreed at the hearing should be excluded from coverage in this proceeding . Subsequent
to the hearing , on July 21, 1944 , the Company , with the consent of the Union, advised the
Bo.n d that the medical department was included in the exclusions . The agreement of
th, parties relative to the medical department is hereby made, and is, part of the record
in this proceeding.
8 The pay roll under their charge is the pay roll of hourly paid employees at the plants-
The pay roll of salaried employees is the work of employees in the Company 's general office
at the Highland Park Plant
8 Matter of The Hoover Company, 55 N. I. R. B 1321 ; Matter of West Penn Power Com-
pa ny,, 55 N L R. B. 1356 ; Ma. ter of Utah Copper Company, 57 N. L. It B. 322
i8 Matter of General Motors Corporation , 53 N. L. R. B. 1096, 1098; Matter of The
Cool ('rotor Company, 53 N L. R. B 461.
244 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
culations largely upon the cost of materials and of labor. The Com-
pany relies on the records made by this department in carrying on its
competitive business. We have, in other representation proceedings,
determined that cost clerks, to whom the employer entrusts the proc-
essing of records which it considers confidential for business reasons,
are not to be denied bargaining rights when they are themselves not
executives, nor concerned with confidential-labor matters." We shall,
therefore, include cost clerks in the bargaining unit.
Timekeepers: Timekeepers are hourly paid employees and in this
respect they differ from the great majority of office employees who
constitute the appropriate unit12 The duties of the timekeepers at
these plants are generally similar to those of employees in like cate-
gories at the Company's Newcastle and Plymouth Plants. They note
the time and manner by which production and maintenance employees
ring in and out of the plant and they spot check to determine that these
employees are working in the classification and at the wage rate shown
by the respective time records. They compute the hours spent by
each employee at- a specific rate and they deduct time for lateness
according to the Company's rules. • They distribute pay checks. In
prior representation proceedings involving timekeepers at the Com-
pany's Newcastle is and Plymouth " Plants, we found that timekeepers
were employees to be included in units for bargaining purposes. We
see no reason to exclude them from the' general unit for office and
clerical employees, and we shall, therefore, include them in the appro-
priate unit is
The factory cashier: The factory cashier, in the bookkeeping de-
partment of the accounting division, performs his work under the
direction of the factory auditor, the head of the division. In addi-
1-14latter of The Coolerator Company, supra.
14 There are other hourly paid clerical employees in the ' baigaining unit, notably shop
workers in the planning division. The fact that some employees are hourly paid and
other employees are paid on a salary basis does not alone constitute a sufficient reason to
require their severance in separate bargaining units. Matter - of Chrysler Corporation,
56 N. L. R. B. 1302 ; Matter of Coolerator Company, supra.
13 Matter of Chrysler Corporation , 55 N L R. B. 1215
14 Matter of Chrysler Corporation , 56 N. L. R. B. 1302 . The entire record in Case No.
7-11-1713, the prior representation proceeding involving timekeepers at the Company's
Plymouth Plant, was admitted into evidence in -the instant proceeding. In connection
with our consideration of timekeepers in the instant case, the Company seeks a review of
the Board ' s finding respecting the appropriate unit for timekeepers at the Plymouth Plant,
which it contends is contrary to the evidence introduced in that proceeding. We have
reviewed the record in that case and we find no reason to make any changes in our findings
therein. The record in the instant case indicates that the word "keynian" and the words
"group leader" are synonymous terms In the instant case the Union and the Company
agree that group leaders at the Jefferson and Kercheval Plants ha ;e supervisory authority
under the Board's usual definition of that term and the record indicates that group leaders
may have under them as many as 15 employees . Timekeepers described as "keymen" at
the, Plymouth Plant work alone or with an occasional assistant and with one or two
assistants We are of the opinion that the record concerning timekeepers at the Plymouth
Plant does not disclose that keymen exercise in any appreciable degree the functions that'
the Board calls supervisory.
25 Matter of Bohn Aluminum & Brass Corporation , 17 N. L R. B. 1229.
CHRYSLER CORPORATION 245
tion to usual functions, he handles the petty cash fund for the Chrysler
Division and cash receipts of the service garage and restaurants in the
plants, does the banking for the factory auditor, sells stamps and war
bonds, and handles garnishments levied by creditors of employees
against their salaries and wages. There is nothing in -the record to
indicate that the factory cashier is a supervisory employee or an
employee charged with determining the Company's management
policies. The factory cashier is clearly not to be excluded from a
bargaining unit simply because he has the custody of company money.16
We shall include him in the bargaining unit.
Telephone operators: Telephone operators perform the duties usual
to employees in this employment category. The Company alleges that
these employees have obvious opportunities to obtain confidential in-
formation on labor relations and other matters by overhearing tele-
phone conversations, and contends that they should for this reason be
excluded from the bargaining unit as "confidential" employees. We do
not agree. The record does not indicate to what extent the Company
uses telephonic communication for its important labor negotiations.
Assumably, telephone operators do not overhear conversations except
by violating instructions. We are of the opinion that the fact that
telephone operators may, by violating instructions, occasionally obtain
information on labor relations does not constitute a substantial reason
to deny them the exercise of the rights of collective bargaining 17 We
shall include them in the bargaining unit.
Time-study department: The time-study department includes the
supervisor of time-study, 16 time-study men and estimaters, 4 clerks,
and 2 typists. The time-study men determine job classifications and
make efficiency studies upon which rates of production and mainte-
nance employees are based and their wages are settled. Time-study
men also prepare special memoranda for the Company's use in discus-
sions with the Union on grievances relating to the job classifications
of employees. Such grievances are not infrequent, although the record
does not disclose how large a proportion of the work of time-study
men is spent specifically on studies for grievance conferences. While
these studies do not actually decide a grievance issue in advance of a
conference between the Company and the Union, they substantially
bear upon the Company's position at later conferences. Clerks in the
time-study department transcribe the hand-written reports prepared
by the time-study men and they file all such reports. The Company
and the Union agree that the time-study men, as distinguished from the
purely clerical employees in the department, should be excluded from
the bargaining unit. The Union would include the clerical employees.
19 Matter of Armour and Company, 54 N. L. R. B. 1462.
27 Matter of Armour and Company , supra ; Matter of The Murray Corpo, ation of America,
45 N. L . R. B. 854, 857.
246 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
The Company urges that those clerical employees 'not only have free
and immediate access to all files containing the Company's labor studies,
but have appreciable advance information concerning their employer's
position on labor issues. Since it appears that clerical employees in
the time-study department have substantial opportunity to learn in
advance the Company's position on important labor issues, we shall,
on the basis of the record herein, exclude them with other employees in
the time-study department from the appropriate unit.
The office service department: In general, executives and department
heads have one secretary each. Employees in the office service depart-
ment, who include a budget analyst, a number of transcribing operators,
typists, file clerks, teletype operators, and a ditto machine operator,18
serve as an executive pool, taking over all clerical work which individ-
ual secretaries cannot perform and furnishing substitutes for them dur-
ing vacations and other absences. Executives and department heads
dictate a considerable amount of their work to dictaphone machines to
be transcribed by typists in the office service department. Clerks in the
department keep central files-of records and correspondence-of execu-
tives.. The teletype operator receives and sends all telegrams, and the
ditto machine operator prepares copies of instructions and directions
.for distribution to departmental heads and supervisors. Employees
in this department cover a wide range of subject matter in their clerical
work, some of which admittedly may concern the consideration of labor
problems. The Company contends that employees in the office service
department are confidential employees and especially urges that the
teletype operator should be excluded on the ground that communica-
tions between the Company and bargaining representatives of its em-
ployees constitute some part of the telegraphic communications that
pass through the hands of this operator. Granted that, in some small
measure, matters dealing with .labor relations may pass through the
hands of any of the employees before -they are made public_byethe.-
Company, we are of the opinion that they are not of such magnitude
that these employees should be denied rights guaranteed under the Act.
The record does not specifically disclose that the teletype operator
handles confidential labor relations material in any appreciable de-
gree to require her exclusion from the bargaining unit as a confidential
employee. Other employees in this department stand in a more re-
mote relation to labor matters. We shall, therefore, include employees
in the office service department in the bargaining unit.
Staff men: The Company further contends that spare-parts men in
the spare-parts department and the so-called staff men in the sev-
eral departments of the Chrysler Sales Division, such as spare-parts
men, expediters, scheduling clerks, and employees who compile op-
18 The department also includes a receptionist who is the official "greeter " for men in
the armed services who may visit the plants.
CHRYSLER CORPORATION 247
crating manuals in the marine and industrial division, office special-
ists in the industrial engine division who work on priorities and
schedules for marine and industrial engines, a claims correspondent,
and price clerk in the sales division, and liaison men in the marine
engine department of the Sales division, should be excluded from
the bargaining unit on the ground that these employees have
special office training and that they do not fall into any regular
office category. While the record discloses that employees in these
several departments have specialized training and are competent to
work without close supervision, the record does not indicate that
they initiate company policies and practices or work independent of
explicit direction. While it is true that these employees may possess
greater special skills than the ordinary clerical employees in the bar-
gaining unit, we see no reason to prevent these employees from being
grouped -in the same clerical unit with other office and clerical em-
ployees.19
We find- that all office and clerical employees of the Company in
the offices -and plants of the Jefferson, Kercheval, and Bofors Gun
Plants at Detroit, Michigan, including the Curtis Wing Division
of the Jefferson Plant and the Solventol Building of the Kercheval
Plant, including pay-roll clerks, cost clerks, timekeepers, the factory
cashier, telephone operators, employees in the office service depart-
ment, spare-parts men, and staff employees in the sales department,
but excluding employees of the Company's general office at Highland
Park who are temporarily housed at the Jefferson Plant; employees
included in any bargaining unit previously found to be appropriate
by the Board; employees who spend a major portion of their time
outside continental United States; employees in the marine and in-
dustrial sections of the service department who spend most of their
time outside the plants in customer's service; all employees in the
labor relations, employment, mutual--aid, medical, safety, and time-
study departments; foremen's clerks; all secretaries to the heads of
departments, divisions, or groups; the field engineer in the marine
and industrial engine departments; the head of the planning divi-
sion ; and all supervisory employees with authority to hire, promote,
discharge, discipline, or otherwise effect changes in the status of em-
ployees, or effectively recommend such action, constitute a unit appro-
priate for the purposes of collective bargaining, within the meaning
of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
V. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
We shall direct that the question concerning representation which
has arisen be resolved by an election by secret ballot among the em-
19 clatter of Oliver Farm Equipment Company, supra.
248 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
ployees in the unit found appropriate in Section IV, above, who
were employed 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 Relations
Act, and pursuant to Article III, Section 9, of National Labor Re-
lations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 3, as amended, it is
hereby
DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation to ascertain representa-
tives for the purposes of collective bargaining with Chrysler Cor-
poration, Detroit, Michigan, an election by secret ballot shall be con-
ducted as early as possible, but not later than thirty (30) days from the
date of this Direction, under the direction and supervision of thef
Regional Director for the Seventh Region, acting in this matter 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 unit found appropriate 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
the said pay-roll period because they were ill or-on vacation or tempo-
rarily laid off, and including employees in the armed forces of the
United States who present themselves in person at the polls, but ex-
cluding 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 Int'l Union,
United Automobile, Aircraft, and Agricultural Implement Workers
of America, Local 889, Industrial Office Workers (UAW-CIO), for
the purposes of collective bargaining.
CHAIRMAN MiLLis took no part in the consideration of the above
Decision and Direction of Election.