Collins Radio Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Sep 20, 1973

206 N.L.R.B. 108 (N.L.R.B. 1973)

108 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Collins Radio Company and Chauffeurs, Teamsters &
Helpers Local Union No . 238, affiliated with Inter-
national Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs,
Warehousemen, and Helpers of America, Petitioner.
Case 18-RC-9325
September 20, 1973
DECISION ON REVIEW AND ORDER
BY MEMBERS FANNING, KENNEDY, AND PENELLO
On February 6, 1973, the Regional Director for
Region 18 issued a Decision and Direction of Election
in the above-entitled proceeding in which he found
appropriate the Petitioner's requested unit of key-
punch operators in the Data Conversion Section of
the Employer's Computer Services Division located at
its Cedar Rapids, Iowa, plant. Thereafter, in accor-
dance with Section 102.67 of the National Labor Re-
lations Board Rules and Regulations, the Employer
filed a timely request for review of the Regional
Director's Decision on the ground that, in making his
unit determination, he departed from officially re-
ported precedent.
On March 8, 1973, the Board, by telegraphic order,
granted the request for review and stayed the election
pending decision on review. The Employer thereafter
filed a brief on review.
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the
National Labor Relations Act, as amended, the Na-
tional Labor Relations Board has delegated its au-
thority in this proceeding to a three-member panel.
The Board has considered the entire record in this
case with respect to the issues under review, including
the Employer's brief on review, and finds that no
question affecting commerce exists concerning the
representation of certain employees of the Employer
within the meaning of Sections 9(c)(1) and 2(6) and
(7) of the Act, for the following reasons:
The Regional Director's findings with respect to the-
Petitioner's unit` request are excerpted from his Deci-
sion and attached hereto as an appendix. The Em-
ployer contends that the facts as found by the,
Regional Director pertaining to the duties, skills, and
interests of the requested keypunch operators do not
warrant a finding that they constitute a separate ap-
propriate unit, apart from other office clerical em-
ployees at its Cedar Rapids plant. We agree.
As found by the Regional Director, the Employer's
Computer Services Division operations at Cedar Rap-
ids is subdivided into several sections: data' conversion
which has 60 keypunch operators; computer operations
which has 44° computer operators; tabulating with 2
employees; operations engineering,' document program
library; and order desk. Each of the three last named
sections employs a small number of employees. The
Petitioner currently represents in a separate unit the
employees in the computer operations and tabulating
sections. The record indicates that this was an agreed
unit certified in a 1964 election proceeding. 'It appears
that in 1964 the data conversion operation was locat-
ed in the factory building adjacent to a production
area. At present it is in a corner of an administration
building where other Computer Services Division em-
ployees are located. Computer operations are located
in a separate room with special atmospheric controls
in the opposite corner of the building; the tabulating
employees are in a room adjacent to data conversion;
other division employees work in the same building or
an adjacent building. Also located in the administra-
tion building are the executive offices, as well as mar-
keting, accounting, and industrial relations offices.
Under the Regional Director's findings of facts, the
only factors setting the keypunch operators apart
from other office clerical employees in the administra-
tion building are their separate location and supervi-
sion and their utilization of specialized skills in the
operation of keypunch machines. Contrary to the Re-
gional Director, we do not view these factors as a
sufficient basis for finding that the keypunch opera-
tors alone possess a distinct community of interest
separate from other office clerical employees, some of
whom also operate keypunch machines located in
their offices as an incident to their work, and many of
whom have specialized skills in operating other types
of office machinery. We therefore find the unit pri-
marily requested to be inappropriate as an arbitrary
segment of the Employer's office clerical employees.'
Near the close of the hearing, the Petitioner stated
that it believed an alternative appropriate unit would
be "all Cedar Rapids hourly-paid employees who ap-
pear on Employer's Exhibit No. 2," in effect, a divi-
sionwide unit. However, the record is inadequate to
enable us to determine whether the unit currently rep-
resented by the Petitioner is an appropriate one or
whether all division employees possess a sufficiently
distinct community of interest apart from office cleri-
cal employees outside the division to qualify as an
appropriate departmental Unit .2 Accordingly, we shall
i The case of Safeway Stores, Inc, 174 NLRB 1274, relied on by the
Regional Director, is inapposite . In that case, the group sought to be sepa-
rately represented cbmprised all electronic data processing employees and
there was`a history of the separate representation, by the petitioner, prior to
their relocation.
2 Member Fanning-agrees that Petitioner's primary unit request is inappro-
priate , but would direct an election in Petitioner's alternative request for a
unit of all hourly paid employees in the Computer Services Division located
at Cedar Rapids. This division has a distinctive function of converting data
from the Employer's operating divisions into, a form useful to management
in overseeing operations ; it has separate overall supervision ; and its employ-
ees are not interchanged with other clerical employees of the Employer. It
206 NLRB No. 12
COLLINS RADIO COMPANY 109
dismiss the instant petition.
ORDER
It is hereby ordered that the petition herein be, and
it hereby is, dismissed.
APPENDIX
The Petitioner seeks a unit of approximately 60 key
punch operators in the Data Conversion Section at
the Employer's plant located at Building 120, 5225
"C" Avenue N.E., Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The Interve-
nor agrees that the proposed unit is appropriate. The
Petitioner also proposed an alternate unit consisting
of all hourly paid employees in the Employer's Com-
puter Service Division at Cedar Rapids. The Interve-
nor took no position on the Petitioner's alternate
proposed unit. The Employer moved to dismiss the
petition contending that neither of the proposed units
is appropriate for collective bargaining because they
are too restrictive in scope.
The Employer is engaged in the manufacture of
electronic units, systems, and components for com-
munication control, navigation, and computations in
avionics, telecommunications and other applications
for a variety of classes of industrial customers. It has
plants located in Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Dallas, Texas;
Newport Beach, California; and Toronto, Ontario,
Canada. The Cedar Rapids plant is the only one
involved in these proceedings. At its Cedar Rapids
facility the Employer employs approximately 7,000
persons, approximately 4,200 are in a production and
maintenance unit represented by the Intervenor, 44
computer operators and 2 tabulators are represented
by the Petitioner, and the remainder, approximately
2,700, are unrepresented. The unrepresented employ-
ees consist of approximately 850 hourly paid clericals,
about 400 technicians, draftsmen and technical sup-
port personnel, about 600 salaried and administrative
personnel and about 900 engineers in research, devel-
opment and maufacturing. Located at Cedar Rapids
are parts of four operating divisions of the Employer:
avionics, telecommmunications, industrial products
and services as well as parts of the following support
divisions: industrial relations, marketing, accounting
and computer services. The Computer Services Divi-
sion has sections in Newport Beach, Dallas and Cedar
Rapids; and virtually all its work is for internal use
converting data from the operating divisions at each
includes employees already bargained for by the Petitioner as the result of
voluntary recognition. Member Fanning considers the record adequate to go
to an election in said unit.
location into a form useful to management in over-
seeing operations. There is only rare and sporadic
work for outside customers.
The Computer Services Divison at Cedar Rapids
consists of the following sections: (1) Data Conver-
sion which employs the 60 key punch operators who
are the subject of this petition; (2) Computer opera-
tions which employs 44 computer operators; (3) Ta-
bulating with 2 employees; (4) several additional
segments, each employing small numbers of clerical
employees: Operations Engineering, Document Pro-
gram Library, and Order Desk. Of these groups, Peti-
tioner currently represents groups (2) and (3) in one
separate unit established by a stipulation of the par-
ties in 1964.
The key punch operators of the proposed unit work
in a pool in the northeast corner of Building 120,
operating 43 machines on two shifts (unlike the other
clericals employed elsewhere in Cedar Rapids opera-
tions who work on one shift). Their work consists of
transcribing data from source documents to punch
cards so that they can be read by computers and
tabulated. The key punch operators use a machine
with a keyboard similar to a standard typewriter
which punches holes in data cards. Many of the data
cards are for recurring reports which the operator
learns to do routinely. For non=recurring reports, op-
erators refer to a book entitled "Data Conversion In-
structions."
The other clerical employees are made up primarily
of typists, file clerks and secretaries, majority of
whom work in buildings other than Building 120, on
tasks including data production, preparation of
equipment use direction books, documentation of
customers on their products and production control.
Generally the Employer recruits and hires employ-
ees specifically for key punch operator positions. Un-
like other clericals, key punch operators are required
to pass a prehire qualification test, are hired as trainee
operators, and remain in that status for six months.
During this time they receive on-the-job training
which includes classes and lesson exercises as well as
individual instruction from their supervisors. The key
punch pool has completely separate supervision of the
first two levels, consisting of two supervisors on each
shift and a department head whose sole responsibility
is the key punch pool. All five current supervisors
were promoted from key punch operator positions.
There is no routine interchange between key punch
operators and other clerical employees. Building 120
has three entrances and two timeclocks and the em-
ployees of Building 120 are free to use either entrance
and either clock, and all Building 120 employees use
the one general lunchroom of Building 120. All cleri-
cals including key punch operators are hourly paid
110 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
and have the same fringe benefit programs. Like other
office clerical employees, key punch operators have a
6-month merit review of their salaries.
In addition to the 43 key punch machines operated
by the employees in the proposed unit, there are 19
key punch machines distributed throughout the four
operating divisions and located in the other buildings
in the Employer's Cedar Rapids operation. These are
operated for brief periods by various categories of
employees, non-key punch operators, usually to redo
damaged cards without sending them back to the key
punch pool and as incident to their other duties. Un-
like the key punch operators, they are not required to
take a qualification test on the key punch machine
and there is no occasion for these employees to have
contact with the employees of the key punch pool.
Likewise there is no occasion for work contacts'
between the key punch operators and the other cleri-
cal employees. The source documents and finished
cards are distributed by intra-company mail which is
processed by specific employees other than key punch
operators.
Based upon the above facts I find that the key
punch operators in the Data Conversion Section are
a homogeneous and identifiable group with a suffi-
cient separate community of interest from the rest of
the employees of the Employer's Cedar Rapids facili-
ty to warrant their representation in a separate unit.
In reaching this conclusion, I note that no union seeks
representation in a broader unit. While the key punch
operators are office clerical employees sharing com-
mon fringe benefits with other clericals and while
there are key punch machines located in the operating
division areas, these considerations are outweighed by
the facts that the employees requested by the Peti-
tioner, work exclusively on key punch machines, us-
ing skills which require special training and aptitude,
work together in a separate work area, are recruited
for the performance of key punching work , are sepa-
rately supervised by persons who have been promoted
from the unit and who do not supervise any other
categories of employees, and they do not interchange
with other clerical employees. Under these circum-
stances while the proposed unit may not be the'only
appropriate unit or the optimum one, I find that it
does constitute a unit appropriate for collective bar-
gaining. See Safeway Stores, Inc., 174 NLRB 1274.
For reasons stated above, the Employer's motion to
dismiss the Petition is hereby denied.