Diebel Die & Manufacturing Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Aug 5, 1948

78 N.L.R.B. 861 (N.L.R.B. 1948)

In the Matter of DIEBEL DIE & MANUFACTURING COMPANY AND DI
MACHINE CORPORATION ,' EMPLOYER and DIE AND TOOL MAKERS
LODGE, No. 113, INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS,
PETITIONER
Case No. 13-RC-129.-Decided August 5, 1948
• DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before 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.
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-man panel consisting of the undersigned Board
Members.*
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer 2 is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the National Labor Relations Act.
2. The labor orbanization named below claims to represent em-
ployees of the Employers.
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 a unit of all the employees in the Employer's
toolroom, excluding the toolroom attendant. The Employer takes a
neutral position with respect to the proposed unit except that it would
include production machinists.
' The original petition names Diebel Die & Manufactuiing Company as the Employer, but
during the course of the hearing, the petition was amended to include Di Machine
Corporation
*Chairman Heizog and Members Reynolds and Murdock
2 The Employer' s business consists of two corporations, one of which is known as Diebel
Die & Manufacturing Company. while the other is known as Di Machine Corporation The
Employer admits , and we find, that these two corporations are operated as a single enter-
prise and that together they constitute a single Employer within the meaning of Section 2
(2) of the Act
78 N L R. B, No. 115
861
862 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
The Employer's toolroom is in a separate section of the Employer's
plant and is under the supervision of the plant superintendent. The
Employer's other operations are supervised by departmental foremen.
The toolroom personnel consists of tool and die makers and toolroom
machinists. Their function is to fabricate tools, dies, jigs, and fixtures
and they are the only employees who perform this work. Their rate of
pay is higher than that of the other employees and they participate in
a bonus plan which is not shared by the rest of the employees. All the
toolroom employees are members of a traditional craft group within
the craft jurisdiction of the Petitioner. Under these circumstances, we
find that they may be appropriately represented for bargaining pur-
poses in a separate unit .3
The Employer takes the position that nine employees classified as
production machinists should be considered part of the toolroom de-
partment for the purposes of collective bargaining. The Petitioner
would exclude these employees from the appropriate unit. These em-
ployees are engaged primarily in production work-assembling punch
press machines, one of the products manufactured by the Employer.
In connection with the assembly of these machines, the production
machinists may occasionally be required to perform work related to
that of the toolroom machinists. However, their work as a whole is
routine and repetitive in character and is essentially connected with
the production process. Furthermore, they work outside the toolroom
under the supervision of their own foreman; their rate of pay is lower
than that of the toolroom craftsmen; they are not eligible to partici-
pate in the bonus plan peculiar to the toolroom employees; and they
have very little contact with the toolroom employees. Under these
circumstances, we find that the interests of the production machinists
are more closely allied with those of the production employees than
with those of the highly skilled toolroom employees. We shall, there-
fore, exclude them from the appropriate Unit .4
We find that all the employees in the Employer's toolroom excluding
the toolroom attendant, the production machinists, office and clerical
employees, professional employees, guards, all supervisors, and all
other employees, constitute a unit appropriate for purposes of collec-
tive bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the pur-
pose of collective bargaining with the Employer, an election by secret
8 Matter of The Beach Company, 72 N. L. R. B 510; Matter of General Motors Corpora-
tion, 74 N. L. R. B. 5.
Cf. Matter of International Harvester Company, McCormick Works, 77 N. L. R. B. 520.
DIEBEL DIE & MANUFACTURING COMPANY 863
ballot shall be conducted as early as possible , but not later than 30 days
from the date of this Direction , under the direction and supervision 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-Series 5, among the employees in the
unit found appropriate in paragraph numbered 4 , above, who were em-
ployed during the pay-roll period immediately preceding the date of
this Direction of Election , including employees who did not work dur-
ing said pay -roll period because they were ill or on vacation or tem-
porarily 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 or not they
desire to be represented , for purposes of collective bargaining, by Die
and Tool Makers Lodge, No. 113, International Association of
Machinists.