Cities Service Refining Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

May 26, 1949

83 N.L.R.B. 890 (N.L.R.B. 1949)

In the Matter of CITIES SERVICE REFINING CORPORATION , EMPLOYER
and OIL WORKERS INTERNATIONAL UNION, C. I. O., PETITIONER
In the Matter of CITIES SERVICE REFINING CORPORATION ,_ EMPLOYER
and INTERNATIONAL AssocIATION-OF-MACHINISTS, LODGE 13175 PETI-
TIONER
Cases Nos. 15-RC-195 and 15-RC-199, respectively .Decided May
26, 1949
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
Upon separate petitions duly filed, a consolidated hearing was held
before Charles A. Kyle, hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings
made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby
affirmed.
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3 (b) of the National Labor
Relations Act, the Board has delegated its powers in connection with
this case to a three-member panel [Chairman Herzog and Members
Houston and Murdock].
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the
National Labor Relations Act.
2. The Petitioner in Case No. 15-RC-195, herein called the Oil
Workers; the Petitioner in Case No. 15-RC-199, herein called the
IAM; and the Intervenor herein, Lake Charles Metal Trades Council,
A. F. L., herein called the Council," are labor organizations claiming to
represent employees of the Employer.
3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the representa-
tion of employees of the Employer within the meaning of Section 9
(c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.2
1The Council is in compliance with Section 9 (f), (g), and ( h) of the Act . Of its 15
constituent unions, 12 are in compliance , 2 have allowed their compliance to expire, and
1 has failed to initiate compliance . Although bargaining negotiations between the Em-
ployer and the Council have been conducted by a committee composed of representatives
from the Council and from each constituent local which had members among the employees
of the Employer, none of the non-complying locals has participated in such negotiations.
As all the constituent labor organizations having an interest in this proceeding are in
compliance , we shall place the Council on the ballot in the elections hereinafter directed.
Matter of Mathieson Chemical Corporation , Lake Charles Operation, 81 N. L. R. B. 1355.
2 The Council won an election directed in Matter of Cities Service Refining Corporation,
58 N. L. R. B. 28 ( 1944 ) ; and a second election held pursuant to Matter of Cities Service
Refining Corporation , 67 N. L . R. B. 1204 ( 1946 ). Following the latter election , the Em-
83 N. L . R. B., No. 133.
890
CITIES SERVICE REFINING CORPORATION 891
• 4. The-Oil Workers seeks a unit composed of all hourly -paid em=
ployees in the mechanical and operations department- of the Em-
ployer's 'facilities'at Lake Charles, Louisiana, excluding temporary
eiriployees,', cafeteria employee-s` technically trained 'laboratory em-
p1-oy¢es, gilards,•and supervisors. The Employer aiid the-Council are
ih-general agreement with the unit contention of the Oil Workers.
Moreover,-this-is, with the exception of the specific exclusion of tem-
porary employees, discussed below, the identical unit which twice
previously has been found appropriate by the Board.3
The IAM, which heretofore represented its members through par-
ticipation in the Council, now seeks to represent a separate unit of
inside machinists, outside machinists, and garage mechanics. It
contends that all three groups together constitute an appropriate
unit. However, it seeks to represent the machinists and the garage
mechanics in two separate units if the Board should find the com-
bined unit inappropriate.
The Employer's basic refinery and butadiene plant are run as one
integrated operation. In each plant there is a machine shop, which
functions as headquarters for inside and outside machinists and ma-
chinist helpers in that plant, and a garage, where the garage me-
chanics work. Approximately 23 inside machinists work in these
shops, doing the bench and lathe work normally required of such
craftsmen. There are about 49 outside machinists, who work for the
most part throughout the plant, assembling and disassembling ma-
chinery and making on-the-spot repairs. They work in close con-
junction with the inside machinists, and many of the machinists can,
do both inside and outside machinists' work. An outside machinist,
who testified as to the experience required to perform the job, stated
that he had served a 4-year apprenticeship and had qualified as a
journeyman machinist before he was hired by the Employer; that
he was employed as a second-class machinist and later advanced to a
first-class machinist; and that he, like most of the other machinists,
owned his own precision and hand tools which he valued at several
hundred dollars. The Employer's Labor Relations Director stated
that machinists were occasionally transferred from outside to inside
work; that helpers were moved up to outside machinist and, in a few
instances, to inside machinist, when they had demonstrated their
ability to handle the work; and that an apt helper with no previous
experience would require 6,000 to 8,000 hours of on-the-job training
ployer and the Council negotiated a 2-year contract, which expired on February 12, 1949.
Subsequent to the filing of the petitions herein, they executed a contract on March 12, 1949,
to be effective from February 12, 1949, to February 12, 1951. Neither party contended
that this contract is a bar to this proceeding. -
8 See cases cited in footnote 2.
892 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
plus some trade-school training to qualify as a journeyman machinist.
The Employer fills much of its employment needs with first-class
machinists hired on the local market. The equipment on which the
machinists work is similar to that found throughout the heavy, in-
dustry field-large pumps, compressors, air blowers, and steam tur-
bines. The fact that the Employer's product is processed under ex-
treme pressures and temperatures requires that maintenance machine
work be done both with speed and with exacting care and precision.
Consequently, the Employer must have, and considers its outside and
inside machinists to be, highly skilled craftsmen.
It has been the Employer's practice to follow craft lines in the
assignment of work. More than four-fifths of the machinists work on
the day shifts, where they are separately supervised by machinist
foremen, except when an emergency situation arises requiring a crew
of variously skilled craftsmen to work under the direction of a general
mechanical foreman. On the 4 o'clock and midnight shifts at the
butadiene plant, and on the midnight shift at the basic refinery, there
are only two or three machinists, who are supervised, along with other
maintenance craftsmen, by the shift foreman. The Employer main-
tains separate departmental or craft seniority lists including one for
inside machinists, one for outside machinists, and one for machinist
helpers.
There are eight garage mechanics at the basic refinery and one,at
the butadiene plant. There are no helpers in the garage. The garage
mechanics repair mobile equipment, such as caterpillars, tractors, au-
tomobiles, trucks, and gas and Diesel-driven cranes. The Employer
considers the garage mechanics to be as highly skilled craftsmen as
the machinists, and pays them at the same rate, $2.021/2 per hour.
The garage mechanics are under the supervision of the machinist
foreman and they have a separate seniority list.
In Matter of Cities Service Refining Corporation, 58 N. L. R. B. 28
(1944), a unit of inside and outside machinists sought by the IAM
was found inappropriate. That finding was based in part upon the
failure of the IAM to include all the related craftsmen in their pro-
posed unit. As we have recently had occasion to state, machinists and
garage mechanics, such as those herein involved, constitute an identifi-
able and homogeneous group .4 As the IAM now seeks to include the
garage mechanics in the unit with the machinists, it appears that the
proposed unit is a homogeneous craft group comprising all the em-
ployees who have similar skills and perform similar duties.
A further factor on which the Board relied in its earlier decision
was the bargaining history on an industrial basis at this and other
4 Matter of Weyerhauaer Timber Company, 82 N. L . R. B. 820, and cases cited therein.
CITIES SERVICE REFINING CORPORATION 893
plants of the Employer and in the industry generally. The bargaining
history at this plant began in' June 1944 with a contract between the
Employer and. the Oil Workers. Since the certification of the Council
in 1944, the employees here in question have had their own steward to
handle their grievances and have been represented in bargaining nego-
tiations by the IAM, as a constituent local of the Council. The IAM,
which is no longer affiliated with the American Federation of Labor,
now seeks to represent the employees directly and exclusively. The
bargaining history does not, therefore, appear conclusive. Moreover,
the Board's present policy normally is to permit employees in a true
craft group to vote for separate representation, even in the face of
bargaining history on an industrial basis." Consequently, we find that
a unit composed of all inside machinists, outside machinists, machinist
helpers, and garage mechanics, excluding all other employees and
supervisors, may constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of
collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
However, we shall make no final unit determination at this time, but
shall be guided in part by the desires of these employees as expressed
in the election hereinafter directed.
The Oil Workers contends that temporary employees hired by the
Employer during its "turn around" periods, when the cracking and
refining units are successively shut down and completely overhauled,
should be excluded from the plant-wide unit. The Employer and the
other unions do not oppose such exclusion. It does not appear in the
record that the Employer now has any such employees on its pay roll.
The plant is not shut down turing turn-arounds, but processing con-
tinues on a restricted scale, throughout the period of approximately 3
months required to overhaul all operating units. Turn-arounds are
not seasonal in nature, but occur at irregular intervals of from 8 to 18
months. Employees hired for such work are terminated at the end of
the period; and, unless a vacancy has occurred during the period, such
employees cannot expect regular or permanent employment. There-
fore, if, at the time of the election, there are such employees on the pay
roll of the Employer, they shall be excluded from the unit .6
Accordingly, we shall direct that elections shall be held in the
following voting groups of employees of the Employer at its facilities
at Lake Charles, Louisiana :
5 Matter o f Marshall Field and Company, 76 N. L. R. B. 479; Matter of International
Harvester Company (Fort Wayne, Indiana Plant), 80 N. L. R. B. 1451. Cf Matter of
National Tube Company, 76 N. L. R. B. 1199.
In view of their exclusion from the unit, these temporary turn-around employees shall
also be excluded from voting. Matter of Jefferson Chemical Company, 79 N. L. R. B. 584;
Matter of Joseph M. Lassonde, 80 N L R. B. 1387.
894 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
(1) • All inside machinists, outside -machinists, machinist helpers,
and garage mechanics, excluding all other employees and supervisors,
(2) All hourly paid employees in the mechanical and operations
department, excluding all employees in-group (1) above, and also
excluding temporary employees, cafeteria employees, technically
trained laboratory employees, guards, and supervisors.
DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the
'purpose of collective bargaining with the Employer, elections by secret
ballot shall be conducted as early as possible, but not later than 30
days from the date of this Direction, under the direction and super-
vision of the Regional Director for the Fifteenth Region, and subject
to Sections 203.61 and 203.62 of National Labor Relations Board Rules
and Regulations-Series 5, as amended, among the employees in the
'voting groups described in paragraph numbered 4, above, who were
employed during the pay-roll period immediately preceding the date
of this Direction of Election, including employees who did not work
during said pay-roll period because they were ill or on vacation or
temporarily laid off, but excluding those employees who have since
quit or been discharged for cause and have not been rehired or re-
instated prior to the date of this election, and also excluding employees
on strike who are not entitled to reinstatement, to determine - (a)^
whether the employees in voting group (1) desire to be represented,
"for purposes of collective bargaining,, by, International Association of
Machinists, Lodge 1317, or'by Lake'Charles Metal Trades Council,
A. F. L., or by Oil Workers International Union, C. I. 0., or by
none ; and (b) whether the employees in voting group (2) desire to be
represented, for purposes of collective bargaining, by Oil Workers
International Union, C. I. 0., or by Lake Charles Metal Trades Coun-
cil, A. F. L., or by neither.