Comptometer Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jan 8, 1962

135 N.L.R.B. 74 (N.L.R.B. 1962)

74 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
five for all employees in the unit herein found to be appropriate with respect to
wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of work, including any differential in
wages caused by Respondent moving its plant on December 3, 1960, without af-
fording said Union an opportunity to bargain with respect to its effect upon the
working conditions of such employees.
Upon the basis of the foregoing findings of fact, and upon the entire record in
.the case, I make the following:
CONCLUSIONS OF LAW
1. Production , Maintenance and Service Employees Union, Local 3, is a labor
-organization within the meaning of Section 2(5) of the Act.
2. All regularly employed production workers, excluding salesmen, bookkeepers,
and plant foremen , employed by Royal Optical Manufacturing Co, Inc., at Passaic,
New Jersey, constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining
within the meaning of Section 9(c) of the Act.
3. At all times since November 7, 1960, the aforesaid Union has been and now is
the duly designated and exclusive bargaining representative of all employees in the
aforesaid appropriate unit within the meaning of Section 9(a) of the Act.
4. By interrogating its employees concerning their union affiliations, promising re-
wards and threatening reprisals to induce them to abandon membership in the
Union, the Respondent interfered with, restrained , and coerced its employees in the
exercise of the rights guaranteed in Section 7 of the Act, thereby discouraging mem-
bership in a labor organization in violation of Section 8(a)(1) of the Act.
5. By postponing negotiations , concealing preparations to move its plant to Pas-
saic, New Jersey, not affording an opportunity for their bargaining representative
to bargain with respect to the effect thereof upon working conditions of its em-
ployees, thereafter dealing directly and individually with such employees in deroga-
tion of their bargaining representative with respect to subjects of collective bargain-
ing, and refusing to discuss and negotiate a collective -bargaining agreement, the
Respondent refused to bargain collectively within the meaning of Section 8(a)(5)
and (1 ) of the Act.
6. The aforesaid unfair labor practices are unfair labor practices within the mean-
ing of Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
[Recommendations omitted from publication 7
'Comptometer Corporation and International Union of Electrical,
Radio and Machine Workers, AFL-CIO, Local 1198, Petitioner.
Case No. 13-RC-1095. January 8, 1962
SECOND SUPPLEMENTAL DECISION AND ORDER
On September 20, 1950, the Board issued a Supplemental Decision
and Certification of Representatives in the above-entitled proceeding,
in which the Petitioner was certified as the bargaining representative
of the production and maintenance employees at the Employer' s plant
located at 1735 N. Paulina Street, Chicago, Illinois. On April 25,
1961, the International Union of Electrical, Radio and Machine Work-
ers, AFL-CIO, and its Local 1198, filed a motion to amend certifica-
tion to provide for inclusion in the certified unit of the production
and maintenance employees at the Employer's 5600 Jarvis Avenue
plant in Niles, Illinois. The Petitioner contended, generally, that
commencing in 1960, certain of the Employer's operations were trans-
ferred from the Chicago plant to the Niles project, and that the Niles
operation constituted an accretion to the unit represented by it. In
response thereto, the Employer filed a statement of its position in
135 NLRB No. 15.
COMPTOMETER CORPORATION 75
;opposition to the Petitioner' s motion, setting forth that the Niles in.
stallation is a new operation , the products of which are entirely,dif-
ferent from those of the Chicago plant, and that the granting of such
an amendment would constitute, a denial to the employees of the
Niles project of their freedom of choice under the Act.
On August 22, 1961, the Board issued an order referring the matter
to the Regional Director for the Thirteenth Region,, and directing that
a hearing be held for the purpose of taking evidence on the issues
raised by the motion to amend.' Pursuant to said order, a hearing was
held before William D. Boetticher, hearing officer. The hearing offi-
cer's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and
are hereby affirmed.
The Board' has considered the motion to amend, the response there-
to, the briefs submitted by the parties, and the entire record in this
case, and hereby' makes the following supplemental findings :
The record shows that following the Board's certification of repre-
sentatives in September 1950, the Employer and Petitioner entered
into a number of successive bargaining agreements covering the em-
ployees of the Chicago plant. The most recent contract, effective
from April 12, 1959, to April 12, 1961, was, under the automatic re-
newal provisions thereof, extended to April 12, 1962.
At the time of The Baord's certification, the Employer's Chicago
plant was engaged in the manufacture of comptometers (business ma-
-chines), and the service and repair of such machines. Subsequently,
the Employer began a period of expansion culminating in the addi-
tion of three subsidiary companies, namely, the Union Thermo-
Electric Company, with its subsidiary, Western Apparatus Company,
the Radio Electronics Company, and the Crystal Division. In July
1959 the Employer completed arrangements to lease the Greyhound
Corporation Building in Niles, Illinois, and in December 1959 con-
solidated the operations of its three subsidiaries at that facility. The
executive headquarters of the Employer, formerly at the Chicago
plant, were also relocated in the Niles facility.
The Chicago plant has continued to manufacture comptometers, as
well as a number of new products. It also does service and repair work
on the comptograph, a business machine produced in Germany, and
sold in this country by the Employer through an arrangement with
the Walther Company. The plant is under the supervision of Arnold
Murphy, plant superintendent. There has been a sizable contraction
in the work force at the Chicago plant since the Board's certification
in 1950, which, as the Employer contends, appears to have resulted
" In the order remanding the proceeding to the Regional Director , the Board, in the
absence of objection thereto, amended the name of the Employer on the certification from
Felt & Tarrant Manufacturing Company to Comptometer Corporation.
'Pursuant to Section 3(b) of the National Labor Relations Board Act , the Board has
delegated its powers herein to a three -member panel [ Chairman McCulloch and Members
Leedom and Brown].
76 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
from a decline in sales of comptometers. Thus the record shows that
the production of comptometers has dropped from a level in 1941 of
nearly 2,000 units a month to a level in 1958 of a little better than 325,
units monthly, and that there has been a considerable further drop
since 1958.
The Niles facility, as noted, represents a consolidation of the oper-
ations of three of the Employer's subsidiaries, and is located about 10,
miles from the Chicago plant. It is often referred to as an office rather
than a plant, since about two-thirds of its floor space is devoted to.
offices and laboratories. It is under immediate supervision separate
from that at the Chicago, plant. The Niles facility is engaged pri-
marily in research and development work, mostly in the field of Gov-
ernment contracts. It also assembles the electrowriter, an electronic
device used in connection with communication equipment, the parts
for which are purchased, in part, from the Employer's Chicago plant.
Its sole item of manufacture is the Thermodot, an electronic protective
device. There have been no transfers between the two installations
except for a few supervisory employees and nonbargaining unit per-
sonnel, and very little, if any, employee interchange. While each in-
stallation employs assemblers and shipping and receiving clerks, job,
classifications are in most respects dissimilar.
Thus, the above facts show that the Niles plant is a separate oper-
ation from the one in Chicago, both physically and with respect to its
production and supervision; that the extent of transfer to the Niles,
plant of either production processes or employees in the certified unit
has been insubstantial; and that there is little, if any, employee inter-
change between the two plants. Under these circumstances, it is clear,
and we so find, that the Niles plant is not an accretion to the one at
Chicago .s Consequently, its employees do not come within the scope of
our Chicago plant certification. We shall, therefore, deny the Pe-
titioner's motion to amend certification.
[The Board denied the Petitioner's motion to amend certification.]'
U Illinois Malleable Iron Company and Appleton Electric Company, 120 NLRB 451, 453-
454; United States Rubber Company, 109 NLRB 1293, 1294.
Pure Seal Dairy Company' and United Dairy Workers , Local
No. 383, Retail , Wholesale, and Department Store Union,
AFL-CIO. Case No. 7-RC-4964. January 8, 1962
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9(c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, a hearing was held before Charles Fine, hearing officer.
i The name of the Employer appears as amended at the hearing.
435 NLRB No. 12.