Collins Radio Co.Download PDFNational Labor Relations Board - Board DecisionsSep 20, 1973206 N.L.R.B. 108 (N.L.R.B. 1973) Copy Citation 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. Copy with citationCopy as parenthetical citation