Electric Auto-Lite Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Dec 30, 1949

87 N.L.R.B. 1552 (N.L.R.B. 1949)

In the Matter of ELECTRIC AUTO-LITE COMPANY, EMPLOYER and
MECHANICS EDUCATIONAL SOCIETY OP AMERICA, LOCAL No. 4,
PETITIONER
Case No. 8-RC-540.-Decided December 30,1949
DECISION
AND
ORDER
. Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before Carroll L.
Martin, hearing officer. At the hearing, the Employer moved to
dismiss the petition upon the ground that the issue raised by the peti-
tion is res judicata. For reasons stated below, the motion is granted.
The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from prej-
udicial 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-member panel [Chairman Herzog and Members
Houston and Reynolds].
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the National Labor Relations Act.
2. The labor organization involved claims to represent employees
of the Employer.
3. No 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 for the following
reasons:
. The Petitioner, which presently represents a unit of planning de-
partment employees at the Employer's Champlain Street, Toledo,
Ohio, plant, seeks to include in that unit all employees classified as
material purchasing supervisors and assistant planning managers.'
1 The Petitioner originally requested a unit of all planning department employees. At
the hearing it stated that, as it presently represents all planning department employees
except material purchasing supervisors and assistant planning managers , it seeks only a
determination of the status of these employees.
87 NLRB No. 149.
1552
ELECTRIC AUTO-LITE COMPANY 1553
The Employer contends that 'these employees are supervisors and
would exclude them.
In July 1944,2 the Board found a unit of planning department em-
ployees at the Champlain Street plant appropriate, but excluded
material purchasing supervisors and assistant planning managers as
supervisors. The Petitioner now contends that conditions have
changed within the planning department and that these individuals
no longer perform supervisory functions. We do not agree.
The record discloses that the material purchasing supervisors and
assistant planning managers, with the exception of Warren Greene,
are each in charge of from 2 to 10 planning department employees.
They responsibly direct their subordinates and have the power effec-
tively to recommend salary increases for them. They may also accept
or reject new employees and may effectively recommend discharge.
Accordingly, we reiterate our finding made in the earlier case that
the material purchasing supervisors and the assistant planning man-
agers, with the exception of Warren Greene, are supervisors within
the meaning of the Act.3
Warren Greene, although classified as an assistant department
manager, has no subordinates. He is stationed at the Employer's
Plant No. 20, which is approximately 5 miles from the Champlain
Street plant, where the planning department is located. Greene acts
as liaison man and coordinator at Plant No. 20 for the planning de-
partment manager. Because he works away from the planning de-
partment, and his work is different from that of the employees in the
planning department unit who are primarily clerks, we find that,
although not a supervisor, Greene does not have a community of inter-
est with these employees and we shall therefore exclude him from
the unit.
As neither the Petitioner nor the Employer desires an election among
planning department employees, exclusive of material purchasing
supervisors and assistant planning managers, we shall dismiss the
petition.
ORDER
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the petition filed herein be, and it hereby
is, dismissed.
2 Electric Auto-Lite Company, 57 NLRB 723.
We do not rest our decision on any res judicata doctrine.
877359-50--99