Electro-Mechanical Research, Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jul 19, 1960

128 N.L.R.B. 111 (N.L.R.B. 1960)

ELECTRO-MECHANICAL RESEARCH, INC. 111
Electro-Mechanical Research, Inc. and International Brother-
hood of Electrical Workers, AFL-CIO, Petitioner. Case No.
1 2-RC-833. July 19, 1960
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, a hearing was held before Joseph V. Moran, hearing
officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are from
prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the Act, the Board
has delegated its powers in connection with this case to a three-
member panel [Chairman Leedom and Members Bean and Jenkins].
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the Act.
2. The labor organization involved claims to represent certain em-
ployees of the Employer.
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 to represent a unit of production and main-
tenance employees at the Employer's Sarasota, Florida, electronic
products manufacturing plant. The Employer concedes that the unit
requested is generally appropriate but the parties disagree with
respect to the inclusion of the following categories.
The Plant Clerical Group
The Employer would include, and the Petitioner would exclude,
test clerks, operations expeditors, dispatcher, operations clerks, record
clerks, scheduling clerks, progress clerks, planners, planner's or
planning clerks, material clerks, inspection planner, inspection co-
ordinator, inspection clerical clerk, and purchasing clerk. The peti-
tioner seeks the exclusion of these employees on the ground that they
have nothing to do with the actual physical assembly or manufacture
of the product. It appears from the record that these employees do
routine clerical work in connection with procurement of raw ma-
terials; planning, scheduling, expediting, and control of production;
testing and inspection of materials, parts, and finished products, and
the packing and shipping of finished products to customers. All of
them work in the two buildings of the plant which are devoted to
production activities and under the general supervision of production
supervisors. They spend varying amounts of time on the production
floor working in proximity to, and gathering information from, pro-
128 NLRB No. 17.
112 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
duction employees. They are hourly rated and are assigned for pay
purposes to the labor grades to which production and maintenance
employees are assigned. We find that employees in the classifications
enumerated above perform work, and have interests, closely allied to
those of production and maintenance employees and we shall, accord-
ingly, include them in the unit.
In addition to the clerical employees described above there are three
secretaries to production managers or department heads whom Peti-
tioner would exclude as confidential employees. The employees in
question act as secretaries, respectively, to the production manager,
the quality control manager, and the systems manager. Approxi-
mately 40 percent of their working time is spent on the production
floor where they gather information and deliver messages pertaining
to recordkeeping and other production and inspection clerical func-
tions. The secretary to the systems manager also acts as a part-time
stock clerk since the systems department does not have sufficient stock
activity to warrant a full-time stock clerk. All three are hourly paid
and assigned for pay purposes to the same labor grade in which many
of the assemblers are found.
The record does not indicate that these secretaries assist or act in a
confidential capacity to those exercising managerial functions with
respect to general labor policy and are not, therefore, "confidential
employees" as that term is defined by the Board. We shall, therefore,
include them in the unit as plant clerical employees.'
The Technician Group
The Employer would include, and the Petitioner would exclude, on
the ground that they require specialized training and are therefore
technical employees, all test technicians, test equipment testers, mate-
rial expediters, quality control technicians, process technicians, sys-
tems technicians, and pilot technicians. The record merely indicates
that applicants for these positions must possess some specialized train-
ing or experience in electricity and electronics and that they inspect,
adjust, and test equipment and also build parts required for special
orders. The record, however, fails to indicate whether technicians
work with or under the supervision of engineers or whether their work
involves the exercise of independent judgment. Nor is there any
record evidence relating to the nature, difficulty, or complexity of
their work assignments. In these circumstances, as the record does
not affirmatively support the Petitioner's claim regarding the status
of these employees, we cannot find them to be technical.2 We shall,
therefore, include them in the production and maintenance unit.
I The Yale and Towne Manufacturing Company, 112 NLRB 1268, 1271.
2 See Litton Industries of Maryland , Incorporated, 125 NLRB 722.
V.I.P. RADIO, INC. 113
Plant Service Department
The Employer's plant service department is composed of janitors,
maintenance men, P.B.X operators, a T.W.X operator, and a messen-
ger. The parties agree that janitors and maintenance men should
be included in the unit but the Petitioner would exclude the P.B.X
and T.W.X operators and the messenger on the ground that they have
only casual contact with production and maintenance employees. The
Employer would include each of these classifications in the unit.
P.B.X operators are located in the switchboard room which is in the
administration building which houses the office clerical force. The
T.W.X operator is similarly situated but she sends teletype messages
instead of operating a telephone switchboard. Since these operators
are essentially office clerical employees we shall exclude them from the
unit.3 The messenger receives incoming mail, sorts it by departments,
and delivers it throughout the plant. He also picks up and delivers
interdepartmental mail. In accordance with the Board policy we
shall exclude him from the production and maintenance unit 4
We find that the following employees of the Employer constitute
a unit appropriate for purposes of collective bargaining within the
meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act : All production and maintenance
employees of the Employer's plant at Sarasota, Florida, including
plant clerical employees, technicians, test equipment testers, and mate-
rial expeditors, but excluding office clerical employees, professional
employees, technical employees,' guards, and supervisors as defined
in the Act.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.]
3 Haleyville Textile Mt.lls, Inc., 117 NLRB 973
4 Heintz Manufacturing Company, 100 NLRB 1521, 1524.
5 In accordance with Board policy we exclude technical employees where a party objects,
as the Petitioner does here , to their inclusion See Litton Industries of Maryland,
Incorporated, supra; Freeman Loader Corporation , 127 NLRB 514.
V.I.P. Radio, Inc. and Radio & Television Broadcast Engineers
Union, Local 1212, IBEW , AFL-CIO, Petitioner. Case No.
2-RC-10612. July 19, 1960
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, a hearing was held before William G. McCreery, hear-
ing officer. 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 herein to a three-
member panel [Chairman Leedom and Members Bean and Fanning].
128 NLRB No. 28.