Continental Oil Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Mar 20, 1950

88 N.L.R.B. 1302 (N.L.R.B. 1950)

In the Matter of CONTINENTAL OIL COMPANY, EMPLOYER and UNITED
ASSOCIATION OF JOURNEYMEN AND APPRENTICES OF THE PLUMBING
AND PIPEFITTING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA,
LOCAL UNION No. 30, A. F. L., PETITIONER
Case No. 19-R6'-444.-Decided March 20,1950
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before Howard A.
McIntyre, hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the
hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed. At
the hearing, the Employer moved to dismiss the petition on the ground
that the unit sought was inappropriate. For reasons given below, the
motion is hereby denied.
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
Reynolds and Styles].
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 labor organizations involved claim to represent certain em-
ployees 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.
4. The Petitioner seeks to represent a unit of pipe fitters, their ap-
prentices and helpers, at the Employer's Billings, Montana, oil re-
finery. The Employer and the Intervenors 1 contend that only a
plant-wide unit is appropriate.
The Billings refinery is newly constructed. It has no history of
collective bargaining. Refinery operations are divided into an oper-
ating division which handles the distillation of crude oil, and a mechan-
ical division which does maintenance work. Employees who come
I Oil Workers International Union , C. I. O. ; Independent Oil Workers Union of Mon-
tana; and International Union of Operating Engineers , Local No. 376, A. F. L.
88 NLRB No. 224.
1302
CONTINENTAL OIL COMPANY 1303
under the mechanical division include, among others , pipe fitters,.
carpenters, boilermakers, welders, truck drivers, laborers , and helpers.
The entire mechanical division is under the supervision of a resident
engineer who has as other supervisors, an assistant and a labor fore-
man. Where members of a particular occupational group are suffi-
ciently numerous, as in the case of pipe fitters, a group leader is
appointed to act as a conduit for orders 2
The pipe fitters are all skilled at their trade. Most of them have
served 5-year apprenticeships. Practically all their time is devoted to.
pipe fitting work. The Board has held that pipe fitters at other oil
refineries having skills and duties similar to those of the pipe fitters
involved herein area craft group, who may constitute a separate appro-
priate unit, notwithstanding that, as is true here, other employees may
be required in an emergency to do some part of the work of a pipe fitter?
We so hold in this case.
The Petitioner desires to include apprentices and helpers in its unit.
The Employer has no apprentices. It does employ helpers, but these
belong to a common pool of helpers who assist all the various crafts
employed in the mechanical division. No helper is permanently as-
signed to work with pipe fitters or any other craft group. There seems
no reason therefore for including helpers with the pipe fitters. We
shall exclude them.
As stated above, the pipe fitters may constitute a separate unit. On
the employees involved. We shall direct an election in the following
maintenance employees, as contended by the Employer and the Inter-
venors.' In these circumstances, we shall first ascertain the desires of
the employees involved. We shall direct an election in the following
voting group. If a majority vote for the Petitioner, they will be taken
to have indicated their wish to constitute a separate appropriate unit.
The voting group is:
All pipe fitters at the Employer's refinery in Billings, Montana,
excluding supervisors as defined in the Act.-'
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the
purposes of collective bargaining with the Employer, an election by
2 There is no contention that the group leaders are supervisors within the meaning of
the Act.
'Alamo Refining Company , 82 NLRB 1227; Mid-Continent Petroleum Corporation, 65
NLRB 109.
° A consent election in a production and maintenance unit in which the Intervenors
appeared on the ballot has been held, but the ballots have been impounded pending the
outcome of the present proceeding.
This voting group includes only those pipe fitters who are working at their trade for
the Employer. It does not include any pipe fitters who may be working at other than
pipe fitting work.
1304 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
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 Region in which this case was
heard, and subject to Sections 203.61 and 203.62 of National Labor
Relations Board Rules and Regulations, among the employees in the
voting group described in paragraph numbered 4, above, who were
employed during the payroll period immediately preceding the date of
this Direction of Election, including employees who did not work
during said payroll 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 reinstated
prior to the date of the election, and also excluding employees on strike
who are not entitled to reinstatement, to determine whether they desire
to be represented, for purposes of collective bargaining, by United
Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and
Pipefitting Industry of the United States and Canada, Local Union
No. 30, A. F. L., or by Oil Workers International Union, C. 1. 0., or by
Independent Oil Workers Union of Montana, or by International
Union of Operating Engineers, Local No. 376, A_ F. L., or by none.