Continental Electric Co., Inc.Download PDFNational Labor Relations Board - Board DecisionsNov 26, 1954110 N.L.R.B. 1062 (N.L.R.B. 1954) Copy Citation 1062 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD by The Item Company, New Orleans, Louisiana, but excluding elec- tricians and all other employees, guards, professional employees, and supervisors as defined in the Act, have selected New Orleans News- paper Guild, Local 170, CIO, as their bargaining representative, and as it appears that this organization is now the recognized exclusive bargaining representative of the existing unit of editorial-circulation department employees, we find that the employees in the above-de- scribed category may be part of a single unit together with the employees in the existing unit of editorial-circulation department employees, which in the circumstances we find appropriate. [The Board certified New Orleans Newspaper Guild, Local 170, CIO, as the bargaining representative of the employees in the unit of editorial-circulation department employees.] CONTINENTAL ELECTRIC CO., INC. and INTERNATIONAL UNION OF ELECTRICAL , RADIO AND MACHINE WORKERS, C. I. 0., PETITIONER. Case No. 2-RC-7070. November 26,1954 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 John J. Carmody, hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed. Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds : 1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the Act. 2. The labor organizations involved claim to represent employees of the Employer. 3. The Intervenor, United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers, Local 437, herein called UE, contends that the current contract with the Employer, which is effective until May 15, 1955, is a bar to this proceeding. The Petitioner, herein called IUE-CIO, asserts that the contract is not a bar because of a schism within the ranks of the contracting union. On August 17, 1954, the executive board of Local 437, U E, voted unanimously that a special meeting be called on August 26, 1954, to consider the executive board's recommendation that Local 437 disaffiliate from the UE and affiliate with the IUE-CIO. The reason for this proposed action was the alleged Communist domination of the UE. Written notices were posted in the regular manner specifying the purpose of the special meeting. On August 26, 1954, the meeting was 110 NLRB No. 172. CONTINENTAL ELECTRIC CO., INC. 1063 held. Representatives from the IUE-CIO and UE, previously hav- ing been invited by the executive board, spoke to the members of the Local; however, the IUE-CIO and UE representatives left the meeting hall prior to the voting. There is no evidence that the IUE-CIO sponsored the meeting. By a hand vote of 168 to 0, the recommendations of the executive board were affirmed. The next day all employees in the unit working at the time, about 227 in number, signed cards authorizing the IUE-CIO to represent them as their exclusive bargaining representative. The Board has held under circumstances comparable to those in the present case, that the expulsion of a labor union by its parent coupled with the later disaffiliation action on the local level for reasons related to the expulsion creates a schism which warrants the holding of an election despite a contract existing between the local and the employer.' Accordingly, for this reason we find that the contract between the Employer and the Intervenor does not bar the instant proceeding. 4. The parties stipulate and we find that the following employees of the Employer constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act: All hourly, piecework, and salaried production and maintenance employees, but excluding all office and clerical employees, timekeepers, firemen, nurses, matrons, janitors, administrative employees, guards, and supervisors, as defined in the Act. 5. The record reveals that the Petitioner's local has officers, has processed grievances, and that its executive board is representing the workers. Although the International alone is the Petitioner in the present proceeding, we conclude by reason of the foregoing that the local of the IUE-CIO is sufficiently in the picture to require the lo- cal's compliance with Section 9 (f), (g), and (h) of the Act. Ac- cordingly, the holding of the election directed herein is conditioned upon the IUE-CIO local achieving compliance within 2 weeks after the Decision and Direction of Election. No election will be held pending compliance by the local. [Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.] 'A C Lawrence Leather Compasi,j, 108 NLRB 546; International Harvester Company, East Mohne Works, 108 NLRB 600, General Electric Apparatus & Seivice Shop, 110 NLRB 1054 Member Rodgers concurs in the direction of election herein, but finds it unnecessary to decide whether there has been a schism Instead , he would refuse to recognize the contract of the Intervenors as a bar for reasons of broad public policy. Local 437's parent organization , the UE , was expelled from the Congiess of Industrial Organiza- tions because of Communist domination. Under these circumstances the availability of the Board 's processes to the Intervenor would not , in Member Rodgers ' opinion, effectuate the policies of the Act nor properly serve the interests of national security. Copy with citationCopy as parenthetical citation