Douglas Aircraft Co., Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Sep 21, 1943

52 N.L.R.B. 781 (N.L.R.B. 1943)

In the Matter of DOUGLAS AIRCRAFT COMPANY , INC. and INTERNATIONAL
BROTHERHOOD OF ELECTRICAL WORBERs , LOCAL B-1141, A. F. of L.
Case No. R-5933.-Decided September 21, 19.43
Mr. Walter B. Barnes, of Oklahoma City, Okla., for the Company.
Mr. A. W. Edwards, of Oklahoma City, Okla., for the Union.
Mr. Joseph E. Gubbins, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon an amended petition duly filed by International Brotherhood
of Electrical Workers, Local B-1141, affiliated with the A. F. of L.,
herein called the Union, alleging that a question affecting commerce
had arisen concerning the representation of employees of Douglas
Aircraft Company, Inc., Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, herein called the
Company, the National Labor Relations Board provided for an ap-
propriate hearing upon due notice before Robert F. Proctor, Trial
Examiner. Said hearing was held at Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, on
August 17,1943. The Company and the Union appeared, participated,
and 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
Douglas Aircraft Company, Inc., is a Delaware corporation en-
gaged in manufacturing aircraft and aircraft parts, and has its prin-
cipal office at Santa Monica, California. The Company operates a
number of plants in the States of California, Oklahoma, and Illi-
nois. This proceeding is concerned only with its Oklahoma City,
52 N. L. R. B., No. 137.
781
782 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Oklahoma, plant. The purchases on a company-wide basis of raw
materials used by the Company from approximately May 31, 1942, to
March 31, 1943, were valued in excess of $75,000,000, and approxi-
mately 40 percent of which was shipped across State lines before be-
ing received by the Company at its various plants. In excess of
$3,500,000 of such purchases represented the cost of raw materials
used at the Oklahoma City plant, and approximately 40 percent of
this amount was shipped across State lines. , During the same period
the sales on a company-wide basis were in excess of $400,000,000, of
which $30,000,000 represented sales made at the Oklahoma City plant.
All of the sales made at the Oklahoma City plant were represented
by the delivery of aircraft to the United States Army Air Force, de-
livery being made at an airport adjacent to the plant. In a prior
proceeding before the Board, the Company admitted that it was
engaged in commerce within the meaning of the National Labor
Relations Act.'
II. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local B-1141,
affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, is a labor organi-
zation admitting to membership employees of the Company.
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
The Union requested the Company by letter to recognize it as the
exclusive bargaining representative of the employees in the unit
alleged by the Union to be appropriate. The Company refused to
grant such request claiming that since another labor organization
was attempting to organize its employees, the matter should be sub-
mitted to the Board.
A statement of the Field Examiner, introduced into evidence at
the hearing, indicates that the Union represents a substantial num-
ber 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 (Co) and (7) of the Act.
IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT
The Union seeks a craft unit of all building maintenance electricians
who are employed at the Company's Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, plant.
i Douglas Aircraft Company, Inc., (El .Segundo Division.), 49 N. L. R. B., 819.
'The Field Examiner reported that the Union submitted 95 authorization cards, all of
which bear apparently genuine signatures , and 90 of which bear names of persons whose
names aie listed on the Company 's pay roll of August 1, 1943 ; there are approximately 167
employees in the appropriate unit.
DOUGLAS AIRCRAFT COMPANY, INC. 783
The unit proposed by the Union is described in its amended petition
as follows :
Building maintenance electricians engaged in electrical main-
tenance and repairing, replacing and caring for all electrical
appliances and apparatus and equipment including light and
power, wiring and fixtures, sprinkler systems, temperature con-
trols, refrigeration electrical maintenance, escalators, conveyors,
private telephone systems, air-conditioning equipment, tube sys-
tems, radios, public address systems, elevators, motor generators
and all other electrical equipment used in generation, transmis-
sion, distribution or application of electrical current, but exclud-
ing supervisors, leadmen, and trainees and airplane electricians.
The Company takes the position that a building maintenance craft
unit is inappropriate and that only an industrial unit composed of
all production and maintenance employees at the plant is appropriate.
The record discloses that building maintenance electricians are
grouped by the Company in a separate department, known as its
electrical maintenance department, which is a part of its plant engi,
neering division. Except for about 15 employees whom the Union
does not desire to include in the unit, this department is composed en-
tirely of building maintenance electricians .3 Although it appears
that the employees in the requested unit are engaged in electrical
maintenance work throughout the plant and that their functions
are to some extent integrated with that of other maintenance employees
who are not electricians, they are members of a well-defined and long-
established craft, and, it is clear from the record that they constitute
a functional, distinct, and' cohesive group, accorded recognition as
such by the Company.
Under these circumstances, the contention of the Company that
only an industrial unit, is appropriate for purposes of collective
bargaining between the Company and the employees is not persuasive.4
Moreover, there is no evidence that, other than among the welders
and maintenance electricians, any effective organizational efforts have
been conducted among the employees at the Oklahoma City plant;
the Union has confined its organization at the plant to building
maintenance electricians. We are of the opinion that a unit limited
to building maintenance electricians is here appropriate.
The employees in this department whose inclusion the Union does not seek are engaged
in work of a clerical or mechanical nature Their job classifications are as follows . depart-
ment and stockroom clerks, battery room employees , repair mechanic-electric or pneumatic
portable tool, and repair mechanic -spray gun.
4 That the Company has recognized the appropriateness of a unit, other than an industrial
one, is evidenced by its recent entrance into a cross -check agreement with the National
Union of United Aircraft Welders of America, as a result of which that union was certified
by the Regional Director as the bargai n ing representative for welders employed at the
Company 's Oklahoma City plant.
784 DECISIONS OF NAIPIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
We find that all building maintenance electricians who are em-
ployed by the Company at its Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, plant, ex-
cluding airplane electricians, trainees, and all supervisory employees
with authority to hire, discharge, discipline, or btherwise 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.5
V. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
At the hearing, the Company contended that, because it contem-
plated an expansion of the number of persons employed by it as
building maintenance electricians, no election should be ordered until
a substantial percentage of its estimated total complement of em-
ployees in the unit had been employed. In support of its contention,:
the Company states that maintenance electricians would probably
be increased from the present number of 160 employees to about
250 employees within 6 months because of new buildings being and
,to be constructed. However, since more than 50 percent of the
expected total complement is presently employed, in accordance with
our usual practice,6 we shall direct that the question concerning
representation which has arisen be resolved by an election by secret.
ballot among the employees in the appropriate unit who were em-
ployed during the pay-roll period immediately preceding the date
of the Direction of Election herein, subject to the limitations and_
additions set forth in the Direction.
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 Re-
lations Act, and pursuant to Article III, Section 9, of National Labor-
Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 2, as amended, it is
hereby
DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation to ascertain represent-
atives for the purposes of collective bargaining with Douglas Air-
craft Company, Inc., Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 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 Sixteenth Region,
acting in this matter as agent for the National Labor Relations
' A similar unit was found appropriate in Matter of Douglas Aircraft Company, Inc., 50•
N. L. R. B. 784.
0 See Matter of Remington Rand, Inc., Propeller Division, 50 N. L . R. B. 819.
DOUGLAS AIRCRAFT COMPANY, INC. 785
Board, and subject to Article III, Sections 10 and 11, of said Rules
and Regulations, among the 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 em-
ployees who did not work during said pay-roll period because they
were ill or on vacation or temporarily laid off, and including em-
ployees in the armed forces of the United States who present them-
selves in person at the polls, but excluding any who have since quit
or been discharged for cause, to determine whether or not they desire
to be represented by International Brotherhood of Electrical Work-
ers, Local B-1141, affiliated with the A. F. of L., for the purposes
of collective bargaining.