Dravo Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Feb 9, 1944

54 N.L.R.B. 1174 (N.L.R.B. 1944)

In the Matter of DRAVO CORPORATION , ENGINEERING WORKS DIVIsoN,
WILMINGTON SHIPYARD and UNITED OFFICE AND PROFESSIONAL
WORKERS OF AMERICA, CIO
Case No. 4-R-1270.-Decided February 9, 1944
Messrs. K. G. Jackson, J. C. Garvin, D. W. Mack, all of Pittsburgh,
Pa., and Mr. H. A. Heimbac/v, of Wilmington, Del., for the Company.
Mr. Albert Shepard, of Philadelphia, Pa., and Mr. Marcel Scherer,
of Wilmington, Del., for the CIO.
Mr. J. J. Naughton, of Greenville,' Del., and Mr. L. J. Gammache,
of Wilmington, Del., for the Independent.
Mr. William, Strong, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon a petition duly filed by United Office and Professional Workers
of America, CIO, herein called the CIO, alleging that a question af-
fecting commerce had arisen concerning the representation of em-
ployees of Dravo Corporation, Engineering Works Division, Wilming-
ton Shipyard,' Wilmington, Delaware, herein called the Company,
the National Labor Relations Board provided for an appropriate
hearing upon due notice before Eugene M. Purver, Trial Examiner.
Said hearing was held at Wilmington, Delaware, on December 28,
1943. The Company, the CIO, and Independent Office Workers Coun-
cil, herein called the Independent, 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 is-
sues. The Trial Examiner's rulings made at the hearing are free from
prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed. All parties were afforded
an opportunity to file briefs with the Board.
3 The name of the Company , incorrectly shown in some parts of the record , was corrected
,at the hearing.
54 N. L. R. B., No. 180.
1174
DRAVO CORPORATION
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following :
FINDINGS OF FACT
1. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
Dravo Corporation, Engineering Works Division, Wilmington,
Shipyard, Wilmington, Delaware, a Pennsylvania corporation, is en-
gaged at its Wilmington Shipyard in the construction of destroyer
escort vessels for the United States Navy. During 1943 the Company
used raw materials at the Wilmington Shipyard valued in excess of
$15,000,000, of which more than 10 percent in volume and in value was
received from points outside the State of Delaware. During that
same period more than 90 percent of the Wilmington Shipyard's fin-
ished products, totally valued at more than $20,000,000, was shipped
to points outside the State of Delaware.
The Company admits that it is engaged in commerce within the
meaning of the National Labor Relations Act.
II. THE ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED
United Office and Professional Workers of America, affiliated with
the Congress of Industrial Organizations, and Independent Office
Workers Council, unaffiliated, are labor organizations admitting to
membership employees of the Company.
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
The Company has refused to grant recognition to the CIO as the
exclusive bargaining representative of the Company's employees until
the CIO has been certified by the Board in an appropriate unit. The
Company has likewise refused to recognize the Independent.
A statement of the Regional Director for the Fourth Region, intro-
duced into evidence at the hearing, indicates that the CIO represents
a substantial number of employees in the unit hereinafter found ap-
propriate 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.
2 The Regional Director reported that the CIO submitted 223 membership application _
cards , all of which bore apparently genuine original signatures ; that the names of 156
persons appearing on the cards were listed on the Company's pay roll of November 16, 1943,
which contained the names of 502 employees in the alleged appropriate unit.
The Independent submitted authorization petitions which bore 152 apparently genuine
original signatures . The names of 114 persons appearing on the cards appear on the afore-
said pay roll in the CIO's alleged appropriate unit, and of 126 persons in the Independent's
alleged appropriate unit, which would contain 516 of the employees on the November 16,
1943, pay roll.
1176 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT
All parties stipulated that all salaried office and clerical employees
at the Company's main office and yard at the Wilmington, Delaware,
plant,3 excluding executives and their private secretaries and private
stenographers, and professional and confidential employees and su-
pervisors, constitute an appropriate unit.4 The parties disagree as to
the buyers and expediters, the Company and the-CIO seeking their
exclusion, and the Independent desiring their inclusion.
There are six or eight buyers and eight expediters in the purchasing
department of the Company.' All constitute part of the purchasing
department and all are paid on a salary basis. The buyers purchase
material, involving large sums of money, for ship construction and
maintenance work, upon receipt of requisitions from various depart-
ment and section heads. Buyers obtain bids on needed materials, study
the bids .and recommend what bid to accept, and place the orders for
the materials. The buyers deal directly with outside suppliers of
materials, as representatives of the Company. The work hours of buy-
ers are irregular. They are paid a minimum $175 a month. Stenog-
raphers and typists perform stenographic work for the buyers.
It is the function of expediters to expedite the delivery of materials
and supplies by contacting vendors and others, to check and follow
the progress of delivery, and to perform other functions necessary to
assure proper and timely deliveries of materials and supplies. At
least 2 years of general mercantile experience is a prerequisite for the
job. Expediters deal directly with outsiders involved in supplying
the Company with materials, with the United States, Navy Depart-
ment insofar as it has control over supplies, inspection, and other
matters relevant to production by the Company, and directly with
the Company's various department heads. Expediters operate to a
large extent independently, on their own initiative, without super-
vision, although there is a chief expediter, and are responsible for
8 The parties stipulated for purposes of clarification that , except for the disputed cate-
gories discussed-elsewhere herein , the unit inclusions should consist of the following cate-
gories of employees : ( 1) typists , (2) clerks , ( 3) office machine operators , (4) stenographers,
(5) escorts (messengers ), and (6 ) telephone operators ; that the exclusions should include
the following categories of confidential employees • ( 1) the industrial relations department,
including (a) personnel , (b) training , (c) labor relations , (d) morale, and ( e) rationing,
( 2) wage and salary administrative department and (3 ) salary pay-roll office.
4 There appears to be another labor organization , identified at the hearing as "Local 36,"
which represents hourly paid clerical workers, and possibly other hourly paid employees in
categories in which salaried employees are sought to be included in the stipulated unit. At
the hearing the parties appear to have disposed of the representation problem which would
arise when a salaried employee in the unit became hourly paid at the same type of work,
by agreeing that such an employee would remain in the salaried unit for purposes of repre-
sentation . We cannot agree with this proposed solution. Employees included in the unit
which we below find to be appropriate will remain in that unit only so long as they occupy
salaried jobs within the included categories of work.
5 The Company also employs other types of expediters in its yard , with whom we are not
concerned here.
DRAVO CORPORATION 1177
the allocation, delivery and expedition of needed materials, supplies
and parts. The expediters are in effect coordinators as well as expe-
diters.
Specialized knowledge of materials, and the supplying industry is
needed by both buyers and expediters." The work of the buyers and
the expediters is intertwined to a certain degree, since the expediters
take over the expediting of orders which have been placed by the buy-
ers, and refer the problem of obtaining supplies back to the buyers
whenever supplies are not forthcoming from the vendors. '
Since the work of both buyers and expediters requires much greater
initiative and more direct contact with outsiders, and is of a much
more responsible nature than that of the employees in categories
which the parties would include in the unit, we are of the opinion that
it would best serve the policies and purposes of the Act to exclude the
buyers and expediters from the office and clerical employees unit. This
is not to say, however that buyers and expediters are to be denied the
right to self-organization and to collective bargaining under the Act.
The precise relationship of the buyers and expediters to management
here is not now being determined by us.
We find that all salaried office and clerical employees at the Com-
pany's main office and yard at the Wilmington, Delaware, plant, ex-
cluding executives and their private secretaries and private stenog-
raphers, buyers and expediters, professional and confidential em-
ployees, and supervisors with authority to hire, promote, discharge,
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.
V. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
We find that the question concerning representation which has arisen
can best be resolved by means of an election by secret ballot. The
CIO urges that the date of the filing of its petition be used to determine
eligibility to vote. Inasmuch as no persuasive reason appears as to
why we should depart from our usual practice, we shall direct that
those eligible to vote shall be the employees in the appropriate unit
who were employed during the pay-roll period immediately preced-
ing the date of the Direction of Election herein, subject to the limita-
tions and additions set forth in the Direction.
6 The Thdependent takes the position that the expediters under consideration "are more or
less pushers , or purchasing pushers n * * more or less clerical workers rather than a
true expedites in the meaning of the word "
1178 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
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 Relations
Board Rules and Regulations-Series 3, it is hereby
DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation to ascertain representa-
tives for the purposes of collective bargaining with Dravo Corpora-
tion, Engineering Works Division, Wilmington Shipyard, Wilming-
ton, Delaware, 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 Fourth 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 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, includ-
ing employees 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 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 United Office and Professional Workers
of America, affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations, or
by Independent Office Workers' Council, for the purposes of col-
lective bargaining, or by neither. ,