Cutter Laboratories

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Feb 29, 1952

98 N.L.R.B. 414 (N.L.R.B. 1952)

414 . DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
general manager to discuss clarification of the wage increase in the
current contract with regard to probationary employees. The group
was not and did not represent itself as a shop committee of either the
Intervenor or Petitioner. Kirk's testimony reveals that the initiative
in seeing the general manager came from the other three employees
and that they-had invited him to accompany them. The decision to
meet with the general manager and the meeting itself appear to have
been informal and the meeting was not prearranged. Another em-
ployee rather than Kirk was the spokesman for the group. Although
Kirk testified that he believed he was still the president of Local 13346,
he also testified that he had never seen the charter of that organization
and that he did not keep or supervise any of its records.
On the basis of these facts we conclude thaj Local 13346 is for all
practical purposes defunct at the Employer's plant. Accordingly, in
view of this and the scope of the action taken, we find that the existing
contract with the Employer is not a bar to an immediate election 3
A. question affecting commerce exists concerning the representation
of employees of the Employer within the meaning of Section 9 (c)
(1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
4. The following employees of the Employer constitute a unit ap-
propriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning
of Section 9 (b) of the Act;
All production and maintenance employees employed at the Em-
ployer's Carbondale, Illinois, plant; including inspectors; but exclud-
ing office clerical employees, guards, professional employees and all
supervisors as defined in the Act.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this
volume.]
3,T. J. Tourek Manufacturing Co., 90 NLRB 5.
CUTTER LABORATORIES and OIL WORKERS INTERNATIONAL UNION, CIO,
PETITIONER
CUTTER LABORATORIES and OFFICE EMPLOYEES INTERNATIONAL UNION7
LOCAL 29, AFL, PETITIONER. Cases Nos. 20-RC-1561 and 20-RC-
1582. February 29,1952
Decision and Direction of Elections
Upon petitions duly filed, a consolidated hearing was held before
Robert V. Magor, a hearing officer of the National Labor Relations
Board. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free
from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
98 NLRB No. 69.
CT9'PTER LABORATORIES 415
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 '[Members Houston, Murdock, 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 named below claim to represent employees
of the Employer.
3. A question of representation exists concerning the representation
of employees of the Employer, within the meaning of Section 9 (a)
(1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
4. The Oil Workers seeks a unit of all employees at the Employer's
Berkeley, California, plant, excluding executives, administrative
employees, confidential employees, professional employees, and super-
visors. This has been the established bargaining unit at the plant
since 19441 Currently, Local 6 of the International Longshoremen's
and Warehousemen's Union, which was allowed to intervene at the
hearing, has succeeded to the contractual rights of Bio-Lab Union 225,
United Office and Professional Workers of America, CIO, with which
the Employer has had contracts covering the over-all unit since 1944.
The Intervenor was negotiating with the Employer at the time the
petitions were filed herein; it would continue the over-all unit.
The AFL Office Employees seeks a unit of office employees only,
specifically those listed in the "Office and Clerical Schedule" printed
in the 1949 agreement between the Employer and the Bio-Lab Union.2
The office employees sought to be severed are approximately 60 of
the 525 employees in the established unit.3 They are represented in
the following of the Employer's divisions : research, production,
control, sales, and general finance ¢ About one-half of them work
in the main office building, and another 15 in an "overflow" building
for the office. The remaining 15 to 20 work in various buildings, 1 or
2 in open production areas. Their supervision varies- according to the
division in which they work.
The record indicates that the classification of employees by contract
pursuant to a "Production Work Schedule" and an "Office and Clerical
Schedule" was suggested by the Union, and that wages rates were
1 See Cutter Laboratwse8 , 80 NLRB 213. The professional employees were granted a
severance election in 1949
2 Another group of employees whose work is largely clerical but who are included on
the "Production Schedule" are not requested by the AFL Office Employees on the ground
that they are "plant" clericals.
1 Total employment at Berkeley was about 900 at the time of the hearing.
Personnel is the sixth division ; apparently its clerical employees have been excluded
from the unit as confidential.
416 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL, LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
assigned on that basis by a War Labor Board order in 1945 directing
the. Employer and the Uiiion to include the said classifications and
rates of pay in the agreement to be signed by them. Originally all
employees had been paid on a monthly basis; from then on those
covered by the "Production Work Schedule" were paid on an hourly
basis. However, the record indicates, that benefits for all employees
are the same and seniority is on a company-wide basis. All new
employees are give the same orientation, including pamphlets to read,
a tour of the plant, and the showing of a film, with emphasis on the
degree of care required in the manufacture and shipment of and
record keeping concerning biological products. Although skill tests
are given applicants for strictly office work and dexterity tests for
production work, the record shows that the average education for
each type applicant during the year before the hearing was slightly
more than a high school education. Only a third of the employees
in the over-all unit are engaged in strictly production activities
Job openings are posted and office employees may apply for production
work and vice versa.
A severance election is urged by the AFL Office Employees, who
refer to the Board's customary exclusion of office clerical employees
from production and maintenance units. The Oil Workers and the
Employer urge the long bargaining history and the type of industry
as indicative of the appropriateness of the existing over-all unit.
Although this record shows little dissimilarity of work and working
conditions, between those employees on;the "Office and Clerical Sched-
ule" and those on the "Production Schedule," no persuasive reason
is advanced for the Board departing from its usual policy of sanction-
ing the exclusion of office clerical employees from a production and
maintenance unit even though there has been an established bargaining
history on a single unit basis .3 We think that the employees sought
by the AFL Office Employees may constitute a separate bargaining
unit if they so desire.
We direct that the questions concerning representation which have
arisen be resolved by separate elections by secret ballot among the
employees in the following voting groups :
1. All office clerical employees of the Employer at its Berkeley,
California, plant, excluding confidential employees, all supervisors
and all other employees,
2. All production and maintenance employees of the Employer at
its Berkeley, California, plant including regular part-time employees,7
5 150 to 175 employees work on an assembly line basis.
Savage Arms Corporation , 62 NLRB 1156, 1159.
° Part-time employees have been excluded from previous contracts and the Employer
would retain a 30-hour a week employment minimum as the distinction Eight or ten
employees regularly work 8 to 20 hours a week . The Oil Workers and the Longshoremen
RCA SERVICE COMPANY, INC. 417
but excluding executives, administrative employees, confidential em-
ployees, professional employees, office clerical employees, salesmen,"
watchmen, guards, and supervisors as defined in the Act.
If the employees in group 1 select a bargaining representative differ-
ent from that selected by the employees in group 2, the Board finds that
the group 1 employees constitute a separate appropriate unit; and if,
in these circumstances, the employees in group 2 also select a bargain-
ing agent, the Board finds that the employees in group 2 also consti-
tute an appropriate unit. If the employees in the two groups select.
the same bargaining agent, the Board finds that together they con-
stitute an appropriate unit. The Regional Director conducting the
elections directed herein is instructed to issue a certification of repre-
sentatives to the union or unions in the unit or units which may result
from the elections. If either group selects no bargaining agent, the
Regional Director shall issue a certificate of results of elections to such
effect.
[Text of Direction of Elections omitted from publication in this
volume.]
would include these. In addition the Employer has some part-time employees who are
on call and work occasionally, but with no regularity. We include in the unit, and find
eligible to vote, all regular part-time employees. See Illinois Bell Telephone Company,
95 NLRB 913.
8 The Employer has 60 outside salesmen who have no assigned hours of work. They have
never been included in the unit. We agree with the parties that they are properly
excluded.
RCA SERVICE COMPANY , INC. and INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF
ELECTRICAL WORKERS, LOCAL UNION 1481, AFL,1 PETITIONER.
Case No. 5-RC-930. February 29, 1952
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 William A. McGowan, hear-
ing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free
from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.2
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3 (b) of the Act, the Board
has delegated its powers in connection with this case to a three-mem-
ber panel [Members Houston, Murdock, and Styles].
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the Act.
i Herein called the IBEW.
2 The Office Employees International Union, Local 33, APL, was permitted to intervene
on the basis of its showing of interest among the employees involved herein.
98 NLRB No. 62.