Day and Night Manufacturing Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Feb 8, 1946

65 N.L.R.B. 916 (N.L.R.B. 1946)

In the Matter of DAY AND NIGHT MANUFACTURING COMPANY and
INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS, MACHINISTS DISTRICT
LODGE No. 94, FOR AND ON BEHALF OF LOCAL 1893
Case No. 91-B-3058.-Decided February 8, 1946
Mr. Thomas L. Moody, of Monrovia, Calif., for the Company.
Mr. E. R. White, of Los Angeles, Calif., for the Machinists.
Mr. Donald Garriga, of Los Angeles, Calif., for the Auto Workers.
Miss Margaret M. Farmer, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon a petition duly filed by International Association of Machin-
ists, Machinists District Lodge No. 94, for and on behalf of Local 1893,
herein called the Machinists, alleging that a question affecting com-
merce had arisen concerning the representation of employees of Day
and Night Manufacturing Company, Monrovia, California, herein
called the Company, the National Labor Relations Board provided
for an appropriate hearing upon due notice before Charles M. Ryan,
Trial Examiner. The hearing was held at Los Angeles, California,
or. October 10, 1945. The Company, the Machinists, and the Interna-
tional Union, United Automobile, Aircraft and Agricultural Imple-
ment Workers of America, UAW-CIO, herein called the Auto
Workers, appeared and participated. All parties were afforded full
opportunity to be heard, to examine and cross-examine witnesses, and
to introduce evidence bearing on the issues. The Trial Examiner's
rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are
hereby affirmed. All parties were afforded opportunity to file briefs
with the Board.
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following :
FINDINGS OF FACT
I. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
Day and Night Manufacturing Company is a California corpora-
tion engaged at its place of business in Monrovia, California, in the
65 N. L. R. B., No. 163.
916
DAY AND NIGHT MANUFACTURING COMPANY 917
manufacture of water heaters, space heaters, panel ray heaters, and
water coolers. During the war the Company also produced mortar
shells, rocket shells, and airplane parts.
The chief materials and products purchased by the Company are
steel sheets, plate and tubing gas valves, thermostats and other con-
trols, pipe fittings, gray iron castings, paints and enamels, crates and
cartons, insulating materials, and welding rods. Total purchases for
the period from January 1, 1945, to August 31, 1945, amounted in
value to approximately $1,000,000, and 70 to 80 percent of said pur-
chases were from sources located outside the State of California.
Approximately 50 percent of the products sold to non-military buyers
was shipped to delivery points outside the State of California.
The Company did not contest the jurisdiction of the Board and we
find that it is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the National
Labor Relations Act.
II. THE ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED
International Association of Machinists, Machinists District Lodge
No. 94, is a labor organization, admitting to membership employees of
the Company.'
United Automobile, Aircraft and Agricultural Implement Workers
of America, is a labor organization, affiliated with the Congress of
Industrial Organizations, admitting to membership employees of the
Company.
Iii. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
The Company has refused to grant recognition to the Machinists
as the exclusive bargaining representative of the Company until the
said organization has been certified,by the Board in an appropriate
unit.
A statement of a Board agent, introduced into evidence at the
hearing, indicates that the Machinists represents a substantial number
of employees in the unit hereinafter found appropriate.2
We find that a question affecting commerce has arisen concerning
the representation of employees of the Company, within the meaning
of Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
1 Machinists District Lodge No. 94, although filing the petition "for and on behalf of
Local 1893," is the only Machinists group herein involved . There is no evidence in the
record concerning Local 1893.
2 The Field Examiner reported that the Machinists submitted 130 cards , bearing the
names of 102 employees , listed on the Company 's pay roll of October 2, 1945, and that
the cards are dated from July to September 1945 , and that the Auto workers submitted
111 cards , bearing the names of 85 employees , listed on the Company 's pay roll of October
2, 1945 , and that the cards are dated from May to September 1945.
There are approximately 300 employees in the appropriate unit.
918 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT
The Machinists requests a unit composed of all production and
maintenance employees of the Company's plant located at Monrovia,
California, including the shipping and receiving department em-•
ployees, and leadmen, except office and clerical employees, truck
drivers, guards, watchmen, firemen, engineering employees, drafts-
men, service men, cafeteria employees, timekeepers, time-study men,
and supervisory employees with authority to hire, promote, discharge,
discipline, or otherwise effect changes in the status of employees, or
effectively recommend such action. With respect to the inclusions in
the proposed unit, the parties are in agreement. They differ, how-
ever, with respect to the requested exclusion of truck drivers, service
men, and cafeteria workers. The Company urges the inclusion of
truck drivers and service men and joins the machinists in urging the
exclusion of cafeteria workers. The Auto Workers, on the other hand,
urges the inclusion of cafeteria workers, and the exclusion of truck
drivers, and neither urges nor opposes the inclusion of service men.
Truck drivers, of whom the Company employed five at the time of
the hearing, load, unload, and drive the company trucks in which
goods and materials are delivered to or picked up from the Company's
distribution point in Los Angeles. A small portion of their time is
spent in helping in the shipping room or elsewhere in the plant. They
remain at all times, however, under separate supervision from the
production and maintenance employees. Neither union has attempted
to organize them and neither desires their inclusion in the unit. Since
they constitute a separate group, whose duties differ substantially from
those of the production and maintenance employees, and since neither
union desires their inclusion, we shall exclude them from the unit.'
Service men, of whom the Company employed four at the time of the
hearing, deliver heaters produced by the Company to purchasers, and
make service calls to customers who have purchased such heaters to
make minor adjustments. The service men travel in small company
pickup trucks and cover the metropolitan area of Los Angeles. They
report at the Company's plant in the morning and return their trucks
to the plant in the evening. They spend approximately 50 percent of
their time in the field and approximately 50 percent in the plant,
where, in addition to work in connection with their service calls, they
sometimes help in the shipping department. They are under different
supervision from the production and maintenance employees. The
petitioner urged that they be excluded from the unit on the ground that
they spend a large part of their time away from the factory and have
8 Matter of Ksnyan & Co ., incorporated, 61 N. L. R. B. 1222; Matter of Rauland corpora-
tion, 62 N. L R. B. 248; Matter of New Jersey Worsted Mails and Gera Mills, 63 N. L R B.
455.
DAY AND NIGHT MANUFACTURING COMPANY 919
little community of interest with the production and maintenance
employees. The Auto Workers stated that it was willing that they
be included in the unit. Since they constitute a separate group with
duties substantially different from those of other employees in the
plant, we are of the opinion that they are not sufficiently allied in inter-
est with other employees to warant their inclusion in the unit. We
shall therefore exclude them.
Cafeteria workers, of whom there are approximately 10, are em-
ployed in the preparation and serving of food in the company cafe-
teria. They are under separate supervision from the production and
maintenance employees, are listed on a separate pay roll, and work in
a building which does not house any production unit. The Machinists
and the Company desire their exclusion from the unit. The Auto
Workers has organized them and desires to include them in the unit.
Since, however, their functions are not related to production, and since
they have no direct contact and no community of interest with the
production and maintenance employees, we shall exclude them from
the unit 4
The parties agreed upon the propriety of including leadmen in the
unit. These employees work with tools, as do other production em-
ployees, and have no authority to hire or discharge. They do not
participate in the rating of employees. We shall include them in the
unit.
During the course of the hearing, the parties agreed in requesting
that dispatchers, who deliver materials to the various departments
of the plant, be included in the unit. These employees work in close
proximity to the production and maintenance employees and are
closely allied to them in interest. We shall include dispatchers in
the unit.
We find that all production and maintenance employees of the
Company's plant located at Monrovia, California, including the ship-
ping and receiving department employees, dispatchers, and leadmen,
except office and clerical employees, truck drivers, guards, watchmen,
firemen, engineering employees, draftsmen, service men, cafeteria em-
ployees, timekeepers, time-study men, and supervisory employees with
authority to hire, promote, discharge, discipline, or otherwise effect
changes in the status of employees, or effectively recommend such ac-
tion, constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bar-
gaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
" Matter of Mock, Judson, Voehringer Company of North Carolina, Inc, 63 N. L. R. B.
96; Matter of Rockford Machine Tool Company, 64 N. L. R B. 1400; Matter of Servel,
Inc, 58 N L . R. B, 5, Matter of Standard Oil Company of California, 58 N. L. R B 560;
Matter of Harrison Steel Castings Company, 63 N. L R. B. 585.
920 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
V. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
We shall direct that the question concerning representation which
has arisen be resolved by an election by secret ballot among employees
in the appropriate unit who were employed during the pay-roll pe-
riod immediately preceding the date of the Direction of Election
herein, subject to the limitations and additions set forth in the Direc-
tion.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
By virtue of and pursuant to the power vested in the National Labor
Relations Board by Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations
Act, and pursuant to Article III, Section 9, of National Labor Rela-
tions Board Rules and Regulations-Series 3, as amended, it is hereby
DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation to ascertain representa-
tives for the purposes of collective bargaining with Day and Night
Manufacturing Company, Monrovia, California, an election by secret
ballot shall be conducted as early as possible, but not later than thirty
(30) days from the date of this Direction, under the direction and
supervision of the Regional Director for the Twenty-first Region,
acting in this matter as agent for the National Labor Relations Board,
and subject to Article III, Sections 10 and 11, of said Rules and Regu-
lations, among employees in the unit found appropriate in Section IV,
above, who were employed during the pay-roll period immediately
preceding the date of this Direction, including employees who did not
work during said pay-roll period because they were ill or on vacation,
temporarily laid off, or temporarily on assignment from the Mon-
rovia plant to the company plant at Azusa, California,5 and including
employees in the armed forces of the United States who present
themselves in person at the polls, 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, to determine whether
they desire to be represented by International Association of Machin-
ists, Machinists District Lodge No. 94, or by International Union,
United Automobile, Aircraft and Agricultural Implement Workers
of America, CIO,s for the purposes of collective bargaining, or by
neither.
c At the healing the Company testified that it planned to open a packing and painting
plant at Azusa , California, for a maximum period of 8 or 9 months , and that its operations
there might be partially staffed by employees temporarily assigned there from its Monrovia
plant.
U The requests of the Machinists and the Auto Workers made at the hearing concernieg
their specific designations on the ballot is hereby referred to the Regional Director.