Dictaphone Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Apr 12, 1946

67 N.L.R.B. 307 (N.L.R.B. 1946)

In the Matter of DICTAPHONE CORPORATION and UNITED ELECTRICAL,
RADIO & MACHINE WORKERS OF AMERICA, C. I. O.
Case No. 2-R-6118.-Decided April 1. ,1946
Mr. James J. Winters, of New York City, and Mr. Charles J. Hodge,
of Bridgeport, Conn., for the Company.
Miss Marian Danforth and Mr. Joseph Caiazza, of Bridgeport,
Conn., for the Union.
Mr. Elmer P. Freischlag, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon an amended petition duly filed by United Electrical, Radio
& Machine Workers of America, C. I. 0., herein called the Union,
alleging that a question affecting commerce had arisen concerning the
representation of employees of Dictaphone Corporation, Bridgeport,
Connecticut, herein called the Company, the National Labor Relations
Board provided for an appropriate hearing upon due notice before
George Turitz, Trial Examiner. The hearing was held at Bridgeport,
Connecticut, on February 1, 4, and 6, 1946. The Company and the
Union 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
Dictaphone Corporation, a New York corporation, with its prin-
cipal office in New York City, and branch and district sales offices
throughout the United States, has a factory at Bridgeport, Connect-
67 N. L R. B., No. 41.
307
308 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
icut, and a subdivision at Fairfield, Connecticut, 4 miles distant. The
Company manufactures and sells dictating, recording, transcribing,
and resurfacing machines. During the year 1945, the Company pur-
chased raw materials consisting of metals, plastics, rubber, fiber, and
electronic components, valued in excess of $500,000, more than 50 per-
cent of which represented shipments to the Bridgeport factory from
points outside the State of Connecticut. During the same period, the
Company sold finished products amounting in value to over $500,000,
over 80 percent of which represented shipments to points outside the
State.
The Company admits, and we find, that it is engaged in commerce
within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act.
It. TILE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED
United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America is a labor
organization affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations,
admitting to membership employees of the Company.
III. TILE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
By letter dated December 6, 1945, the Union advised the Company
that it represented a majority of the Company's employees, and re-
quested recognition as their exclusive bargaining representative. The
Company has refused such recognition until the Union has been cer-
tified by the Board.
A statement of a Board agent, introduced into evidence at the
hearing, indicates that the Union represents a substantial number of
employees in the unit hereinafter found appropriate'
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.
IV. TILE APPROPRIATE UNIT
The Union requests a unit covering all production, maintenance,
and shipping employees in the Company's Bridgeport plant, includ-
ing inspectors, expediters, truck drivers, store employees, and
truckers, but excluding watchmen, guards, timekeepers, time-study
employees, engineering employees, production planners, office em-
' The Field Examiner reported that the Union submitted 343 cards , and that the cards
are dated as follows : 15 from January to April 1945 , 185 from May to August 1945, 42
in September and October 1945, 42 in November and December 1945, , ,nd 59 are undated,
There are approximately 690 employees in the appropriate unit.
At the hearing , the Company moved to dismiss the petition on the ground that the
Union had failed to make a showing of present substantial representation among the
employees in the unit petitioned for inasmuch as 200 cards are over 6 months old and 59
are undated. We find the contention to be without merit, and the motion is hereby denied.
See Matter of Baker & Company , Inc, 65 N L R B. 646, and cases cited therein.
DICTAPHONE CORPORATION 309
ployees, sales employees, foremen's clerks, assistant foremen, foremen,
and all supervisors with authority to hire, promote, discharge, disci-
pline, or otherwise effect changes in the status of employees, or
effectively recommend such action. The Company would, however,
extend the scope of the unit to include employees in its Fairfield
plant, and takes the further position that, in any event, the follow-
ing employees should be excluded from any unit found appropriate:
all inspectors in Departments 9, 22, and 41; electric motor inspectors
in Department 20, and the expediters.
The Fairfield plant: The Company contends that the Fairfield plant
is in effect part of the Bridgeport plant, and that the unit should
include employees in both plants. The Company commenced oper-
ations at Fairfield in 1941, because there was insufficient space in
Bridgeport to handle the reconditioning of old machines. In the
latter part of 1944 the Company set up assembly lines at the Fairfield
plant for its acoustical machine, which operation had previously
been carried on at Bridgeport. On or about December 30, 1945, the
Company began to transfer this operation back to Bridgeport. At
the time of the hearing, only nine production employees, including
a supervisor, remained at Fairfield, and the Company planned to
return them to the Bridgeport plant by February 15, 1946. The
Company's plans, as revealed at the hearing, are to abandon produc-
tive operations at Fairfield and install therein various sales and office
departments, and a distribution center, and to have all maintenance
work at the Fairfield plant performed by employees working out of
the Bridgeport plant, as heretofore. Although the Company has
indicated that the distribution center at Fairfield will include some
shipping employees, the evidence indicates that its plans are at best
only speculative. In view of the probability that the Company has
already discontinued, or will very shortly discontinue, its productive
operations at Fairfield, and because of the present impossibility of
establishing the nature of the resulting integration between the
two plants once the change over of the Fairfield plant has been com-
pleted, we perceive no present basis for extending the scope of the
unit to embrace any employees at Fairfield. Accordingly, we shall
exclude employees at the Fairfield plant from the unit.
Inspectors: The Union would include in the unit all inspectors,
while the Company disputes the inclusion of only those inspectors in
Departments 9, 22, and 41. and electric motor inspectors in Depart-
ment 20.1 Department 9 einploN s inter-departmental or floating in-
spectors, bench inspectors, and salvage inspectors. Inter-depart-
mental or floating inspectors, by the use of various testing equipment,
check parts produced by the machines in the production departments
' Departments 9, 22, and 41 are solely concerned with inspection , chile Department 20
Is a production department.
310 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
for defects in quality, finish, and tolerances. Bench inspectors gauge
a given lot of parts produced, and report on the number of defective
parts therein, and salvage inspectors determine which parts can be,
salvaged and which must be scrapped. After final assembly, the
machines are given mechanical and acoustical tests with voltmeters,
ammeters and other equipment by the inspectors in Department 22.
The electronic equipment on the machines are tested by the inspectors
in Department 41, with respect to features listed on appropriate test
sheets. The Company requires these inspectors in Department 41 to
have a trade school training in electronics, since the testing devices
used require a knowledge of this subject. In Department 20, the elec-
tric motor inspectors make performance, poise and lead tests on motors,
rejecting a motor for such things as rough commutators and speed
irregularity. The tests depend principally on their judgment and
discretion, rather than the measuring devices they use. In general,
whenever any inspector discovers a defect, the operator or assembler
responsible must correct it, and if that employee is found to be at fault,
he may thereby suffer a loss of pay. In the event the supervisor of the
operator or assembler disagrees with the inspector as to his determina-
tion that a part or machine is defective, the matter is taken up with
the inspector's foreman, and then with higher authority, the latter
making the final decision as to the responsibility. All the inspectors
in issue work the same hours, and receive vacations on the same basis
as the production employees. Some of the inspectors, especially those
in Department 41, are more highly skilled than many of the production
workers. However, some toolmakers, who are more highly skilled and
receive more pay than these inspectors, are included in the proposed
unit without objection by the Company. Nor has the Company ob-
jected to the inclusion of other inspectors in other departments, al-
though their duties are presumably similar. And the Company would
also include control box and armature inspectors in Department 20,
who do routine checking on simple parts, because they perform some
production work. It appears further that many inspectors were trans-
ferred to their present positions from other jobs in the production,
maintenance, and shipping departments.
The Company's opposition to the inclusion in the unit of these
groups of inspectors seems to be based upon its fear that such inclusion
would result in the passing of defective work of an operator or as-
sembler which would otherwise be rejected. However, the effect of an
inspector's activities on the status of the production employees is too
indirect to lend any substantial weight to this contention. Moreover,
it is clear that improper inspection work would be traced to the in-
spector thus affectifig his own position 3 Accordingly, because the in-
See Matter of Aluminum Company of America, 52 N. L. R. B. 1040.
DICTAPHONE CORPORATION 311
spectors in issue have interests closely related to those of the other
inspectors, and to those of the production employees, and inasmuch as
there is no evidence in the record that they have -supervisory authority
over the production employees Whose work or machines they inspect,
we shall include all inspectors in the unit.'
Expediters : The Union would include expediters in the appropriate
unit, whereas the Company would exclude them. It is the chief func-
tion of the expediters who form part of the Shop Expediting Depart-
ment to insure a proper flow of parts from the production departments
to the Part Stores Department, each expediter being assigned to a
certain area of the factory. At the beginning of each week the fore-
man of the expediters gives each expediter a list of parts to be needed,
and supplemental lists are distributed during the week. The expediter
gives the supervisor of the production department making those parts
a list of the parts needed, and arranges with that supervisor as to the
time within which the parts are to be produced. Should the super-
visor advise the expediter that he cannot meet the time limit set, the
expediter reports that fact to his foreman, who then handles the matter.
In carrying out his duties, the expediter consults with foremen, assist-
ant foremen, group leaders, and set-up men in the production depart-
ments assigned to him, but with no one below these levels. The expedi-
ters are paid by the hour, and work the same schedule as the production
employees. The record indicates that the duties of the expediters are
directly concerned with production operations, and are unlike the
essentially clerical duties of the production planners in the same de-
partment, who prepare the list of parts to be required and submit them
to the foreman of the department. In addition there is no evidence
that expediters exercise any managerial or supervisory authority.
We shall, therefore, include expediters in the unit.5
We find, therefore, that all production, maintenance, and shipping
employees in the Company's Bridgeport plant, including inspectors,
expediters, truck drivers, store employees, and truckers, but excluding
watchmen, guards, timekeepers, time-study employees, engineering
employees, production planners, office employees, sales employees,
foremen's clerks, assistant foremen, foremen, supervisors, and all or
any other supervisory employees with authority to hire, promote, dis-
charge, discipline, or otherwise effect changes in the status of employees,
or effectively recommend such action, constitute a unit appropriate for
the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9
(b) of the Act.
4 See Matter of Brad Foote Gear Works, Inc., 60 N. L R. B 97; Matter of Crane Enamel-
ware Company, 56 N. L. R. B 259; and Matter of Snead & Company, 55 N. L. R. B 1206
See Matter of E. B. Gunzburg, Jacob Mandell, Sidney Scheinman and Arnold Schein-
man, d/b/a Bridge Metal Products Co., 62 N. L. R. B. 644; Matter of Pacific Mills, 60
N. L. R. B. 467; Matter of Joseph Bancroft & Sons Company, 60 N. L. R. B. 1053; and
Matter of Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation, Louisville Division, 58 N. L. R. B.
300.
312 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
V. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
The Company moved at the hearing that, if an election is ordered,
its employees on military leave be permitted to cast ballots by mail.
There were approximately 62 employees on military leave at the time
of the hearing as evidenced by a list of such employees received in
evidence. We are of the opinion that the facts in this case do not
substantially differ from those in Matter of South West Pennsylvania
Pipe Lines .:s Accordingly, we shall grant the Company's motion and
provide for the mail balloting of employees in the armed forces who
fall within the appropriate unit, subject to the conditions hereinafter
mentioned.
We shall direct that the question concerning representation be
resolved by an election by secret ballot among employees in the ap-
propriate unit who were employed during the pay-roll period im-
mediately preceding the date of the Direction of Election herein,
subject to the limitations and additions set forth in the Direction.
The Regional Director shall mail ballots to employees within the
appropriate unit on military leave, provided one or more of the parties
hereto, within seven (7) days after receipt of the Direction of Elec-
tion, files with the Regional Director a list containing the names,
most recent addresses, and work classifications of such employees.
The Regional Director shall open and count the ballots cast by mail
by employees on military leave, provided that each ballot must be
returned to and received by the Regional Office within thirty (30)
days from the date they were mailed to such employees by the
Regional Director.'
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 Rela-
tions Act, and pursuant to Article III, Section 9, of National Labor
Relations 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 Dictaphone Cor-
poration, Bridgeport, Connecticut, an election by secret ballot shall
6 64 N. L R. B. 1384.
° A free interchange between the interested parties of information on the addresses and
work categories of the employees to be voted by mail will be necessary, in order to avoid
challenges and post-election objections. Accordingly, the Board will make available to
all interested parties any information of this nature furnished it by any other party. In
the event that the parties should send the absentee voters information or literature
bearing directly or indirectly on the pending election , copies of all such documents should
be simultaneously filed with the Regional Office for inspection by or transmittal to the
other parties. However, acceptance or transmittal of such literature by the Board's
Office is not to be construed as conferring immunity on the filing party in the event that
objections are later interposed concerning its content. The usual principles will apply.
DICTAPHONE CORPORATION 313
be conducted as early as possible, but not later than forty-five (45)
days from the date of this Direction, under the direction and super-
vision of the Regional Director for the Second 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 Regulations,
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 or
temporarily laid off, and including employees in the armed forces of
the United States, but excluding those employees who have since
quit or been discharged for cause and have not been rehired or re-
instated prior to the date of the election, to determine whether or not
they desire to be represented by United Electrical, Radio & Machine
Workers of America, C. 1. 0., for the purposes of collective bargaining.