Deere & Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jun 18, 1951

94 N.L.R.B. 1286 (N.L.R.B. 1951)

1286 DECISIONS OF, NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Accordingly, we find that the following employees of the Employer
at its Dearborn, Michigan, plant constitute appropriate units for the
purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b)
of the Act :
(1) All office and clerical employees, including the payroll clerk;
but excluding the secretary to the district manager,' and supervisors
as defined in the Act. -
(2) All stockroom and/or parts employees, excluding supervisors as
defined in the Act.
[Text of Direction of Elections omitted from publication in this
volume.] I
0 As the payroll clerk does not have access to matters pertaining to the Employer's
general labor policy, we find, contrary to the Employer ' s contention , that the payroll clerk
is not a confidential employee . We include her in the unit. Chicago - Railway Equipment
Company, 85 NLRB 586.
7 As the secretary to the district manager is a confidential employee who handles
correspondence pertaining to the Employer ' s general labor policy , we exclude her from
the unit. Minneapolis-Moline Company, supra; Intermountain Telephone Company, 79
NLRB 715.
JOHN DEERE PLOW WORKS OF DEERE & COMPANY and DISTRICT No. 102,
INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS, PETITIONER. Case Na.
13-RC'-1697. June 18, 1951
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 Edward T. Maslanka, hearing
officer.' The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free
from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
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-member
panel [Members Houston, 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 Act.
2. The labor organizations involved claim to represent employees
of the Employer.
3. On July 26, 1949, the Employer and Local No. 150, United Farm
Equipment and Metal Workers Council of United Electrical, Radio
& Machine Workers of America,. herein called the FE, entered into
a 2-year contract bearing the terminal date of July 26, 1951, and con-
taining a reopening clause, for wage negotiations upon proper notice.
I At the hearing the formal papers were amended to refleet the correct name of the
Employer.
94 NLRB No. 166.
JOHN. DEERE PLOW WORKS 1287
On November 27, 1950, the Petitioner asked the Employer for rec-
ognition as bargaining representative of its toolroom employees in
the unit herein alleged as appropriate and, on November 28, filed the
instant petition. On November 30, the Employer notified the peti-
tioner that it had a contract with the FE covering the employees con-
cerned, which would expire on July 27,1951, and refused the requested
recognition.
On January 19, 1951, the, Employer and the FE, having reopened
their contract as to wages, executed a new contract effective that date
until July 27, 1955, with automatic renewal effective thereafter for
successive 5-year periods, subject to 60 days' notice to change or
terminate the contract before the end of the 5-year period.
The Employer and the FE contend that the new contract is a bar
to this proceeding. We do not agree. The Board has held that where
parties, during the term of the contract, prematurely extend the con-
tract term, the contract, as extended, is a bar only to the original
expiration date.2 Because the termination date of the 1949 contract
is less than 2 months from the date of the issuance of this decision, we
find that the contract is not a bar to a determination of representatives
at this time.
We find that 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 Petitioner seeks to sever from the unit of production and
maintenance employees, for which the FE and its predecessor have
been the bargaining representative since 1942, toolroom, machine shop,
and gauge room employees located in Building G of the Employer's
farm machinery manufacturing plant at Moline, Illinois. At the
hearing the Employer, the FE, and United Automobile, Aircraft and
Agricultural Implement Workers of America, CIO, an intervenor,
herein called the UAW-CIO, took the position that the existing pro-
duction and maintenance unit was the only appropriate unit for these
employees.
The machine shop, toolroom, and gauge room are respectively
located on the first, second, and third floors of Building G. Working
in and out.of the machine shop are machinists who use the tools of
their trade in the repair and maintenance of the various machines
used by the Employer; millwrights,3 who tear down, reassemble, and
repair machinery; and an elevator repairman and a tractor repair-
man, who perform work in the plant similar to that of the mill-
wrights, but restricted to the repair and maintenance of elevators and
to the repair of trucks, tractors, and similar equipment, respectively;
2 Republic Steel Corporation , 84 NLRB 483 ; 89 NLRB 500; Phelps-Dodge Corporation,
92 NLRB 1564.
s Millwrights are otherwise called maintenance men at the plant.
1288 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
and a welder, who Works with the millwrights under the supervision
.of the machine shop foreman. Working in the toolroom under the
,toolroom foreman are tool and die makers who, using the tools of
their craft, work from blueprints to close tolerances; welders who
work on dies and fixtures for the die makers; and die service and die
chipper employees, who chip and grind dies to fit patterns to close
tolerance. Associated with the tool and die makers is a heat treat Juan
and helper, who anneal, harden, and test tools and parts for tool
makers in the electric and gas-fired heat treat furnaces; and it skilled
.grinding machine and dust box maintenance nuui who, using stand-
ard repairman's tools, removes and replaces motors, and repairs and
maintains dust boxes, grinding and polishing machines and other
maintenance machines at the plant,. Gauge makers, who work in
the gauge room, are former tool makers of the Employer who do
work, under the toolroom foreman, similar to that of the tool makers,
but requiring greater precision.
It seems clear that employees in the toolroom, machine shop, and
gauge room set forth above, including their apprentices and assigned
helpers, but excluding supervisors, constitute an identifiable, lionio-
;geneous group of skilled employees who may constitute it traditional
separate unit for bargaining purposes, notwithstanding their prior
inclusion in an over-all unit of production employees, if they so
,desire.' We shall direct an election among them. We shall snake no
final unit determination at this time. If a majority of the employees
:select the Petitioner, they will be taken to have indicated their desire
to constitute a separate bargaining unit, and we shall certify the
Petitioner as their exclusive bargaining representative.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this
volume.]
* Layne & Bowler, Inc., 90 NLRB 1872; Victor Metal Products Corporation , 90 NLRB
No. 144, not reported in printed volumes of Board decisions . We are not persuaded that
there is such a degree of integration among the Employer 's several operations, as the
Employer contends , as to preclude the severance of this proposed unit. International
Harvester Company, Harvester Division , East Moline Works, 90 NLRB 1905, and cases
cited therein.
ALLEN WALES ADDING MACIIINE DIVISION OF TILE NATIONAL CASII
REGISTER COMPANY and ROBERT RIBBI.E, PETITIONER and LODGE 1607,
INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS. Case No. 3-RD-42.
June 18, 1951
Decision and Direction of Election
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National
Labor Relations Act, it hearing was held before Ralph E. Kennedy,
94 NLRB No. 192.