Federal Telephone and Radio Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Sep 22, 1944

58 N.L.R.B. 472 (N.L.R.B. 1944)

In the • Matter Of FEDERAL TELEPHONE AND RADIO CORPORATION and
METROPOLITAN CHAPTER No. 31, INTERNATIONAL FEDLRATION OF
ARCHITECTS, ENGINEERS, CHEMISTS AND TECHNICIANS, C. I., O.
Case No. 2-B-4662.-Decided September V9,1944
Mr. Charles D. Hilles, Jr., of New York City, and Mr. H. H. Burrell,
of Newark, N. J., for the Company.
Messrs. Leider, Witt & Cammer, by Mess?^. Nathan Witt and S.
Rosenwein, both of New York City, and Mr. Martin Cooper, of New
York City, for the Union.
Mr. David V. Easton, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
ORDER
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon an amended petition duly filed by Metropolitan Chapter No;
31, International Federation of Architects, Engineers, Chemists' and
Technicians, C. I. 0., herein called-the Union, alleging that a question
affecting commerce has arisen concerning the representation of em-
ployees of Federal Telephone and Radio Corporation, Newark, New
Jersey,- herein called the Company, the National Labor Relations
Board provided for an appropriate hearing upon due notice before
Martin I . Rose, Trial Examiner. Said hearing was held at New York
City on July 13 and August 17, 1944. The Company and the Union
appeared, participated, and were afforded full opportunity to be
heard, to examine and cross-examine witnesses, and to introduce evi-
dence 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 an opportunity to file briefs with the Board.
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following:
FINDINGS OF FACT
1. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
Federal Telephone and Radio Corporation, a Delaware corpora-
tion operating more than 35 plants in Newark, New Jersey, and its
environs, is engaged in the manufacture, experimentation, sale, and
distribution of communication equipment and related products. Dur-
58 N. L. R. B., No. 90.
472
FEDERAL TELEPHONE AND RADIO CORPORATION 473
ing the yearly period immediately preceding May 18, 1944, the Com-
pany purchased for use in its operations at the afore-mentioned plants
materials valued at more than $50,000, approximately 50 percent of
which was shipped to these plants from points outside the State of
New Jersey. During the same period the value of the finished prod-
ucts manufactured at said plants amounted to more than $1,00,000,
of which approximately 90 percent was shipped to points outside the
State of New Jersey.
The Company admits that it is engaged in commerce within the
meaning of the National Labor Relations Act. -
II. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED
Metropolitan Chapter No. 31, International Federation of Archi-
tects, Engineers, Chemists and Technicians, is a labor organization
affiliated-with the Congress of Industrial Organizations, admitting to
membership employees of the Company.
III. THE ALLEGED APPROPRIATE UNIT
The Company and the Union are agreed upon the propriety of a
unit consisting of certain of the f-)rmer's non-supervisory and non-
confidential salaried employees. They are further agreed that other
non-supervisory and non-confidential salaried employees possessing
more than usual skill should be permitted to express a preference as
to whether-or not they desire to be represented as part of a general
group of the Company's non-supervisory and non-confidential salaried
employees.' However, disagreement exists between them with respect
to the, scope of the unit. The Union seeks to confine its proposed unit
solely to employees engaged in the Company's Radio Division, includ-
ing those employees who, although not administratively part of the
Radio Divisi-)n, work primarily for it. The Company contends that
the unit should be company-wide in scope.2
The Company was formed in November 1942 as the result of a merger
of International Telephone and Radio Manufacturing Company and'
Federal Telegraph Company. It consists of two productive divisions,
known as the Telephone and Radio Divisions,,' and several non-
productive departments performing services for the Company as a
whole. The productive divisions are headed by vice presidents.
' At the hearing, by stipulation, the Company and the Union enumerated those classi-
fications of sa aried employees and certain named salaried employees who are engaged in
either a supervisory or confidential capacity, and would, therefore, be exclud:d from either
voting group The stipulation also listed those more highly skilled classifications of non-
scp-rvsory and non-confidential salaried employees which would constitute the second
voting group.
2 Both the Company and the Union agree that the employees of the experimental laboratory
maintained by the Company in New York City are not involved in this proceeding.
a After the merger, International Telephone and Radio Manufacturing Company became
known as the Company's Telephone Division , and Federal Telegraph Company as its
Radio Division - -
474 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR 'RELATIONS BOARD
These divisions are divided .into several "product lines" which are
under the supervision of product line managers and produce the vari-
ous items manufactured by the Company. Several of the departments
are known collectively as the General Service Departments and they
are all under the common supervision of an assistant vice president.
Others are included within another group headed by the comptroller
of the Company, and still others have separate supervision.
The General Service Departments merit special consideration, since
the Union desires to include many of the employees of these depart-
ments within its proposed unit. These departments provide the tele-
graph, telephone, mail, transp9rtation, printing, plant protection, and
other services for the Company as a whole. Since the operations of
the Company are presently divided among more than 35 plants, the
employees of these General Service Departments are,-of necessity,
widely scattered.4 All, however, are responsible to their own super-
visors who are, in turn, responsible to the assistant vice president in
charge of the General Service Departments. They are not subject to
the instruction, control, or discipline of supervisors of the productive
divisions, although they work in close proximity to the employees in
these divisions, and, in some instances, provide services solely for one
or the other of these divisions. The assigned places of work of these
employees are subject to change at the discretion of the Company, and
thus they may be working at one time for one productive division, and'
at another time, for the other productive division. It is equally true
that the services of these employees are, in many instances, utilized by'
both productive divisions simultaneously.
While, superficially, each of these divisions and departments pos-
sesses some indica of autonomy, the Company's functional operations
are closely integrated. Thus, the Company, under a centralized
policy-making body, maintains a central hiring and personnel depart-
ment as well as a central industrial relations department. The pay-
roll department, under the comptroller's supervision, prepares a single
pay roll for the salaried employees, divided according to plant sites,
and not in accordance with divisional or departmental lines. The
policies of the Company with respect to salaries, holidays, vacations,
and overtime pay are company-wide in scope, all employees are in-
cluded within the same pension plan, and all have access to the"sanne
sick benefit plan. Furthermore, there is frequent collaboration, con-
sultation, and common application of effort by engineers, draftsmen,
and other technical employees in connection with production and ex-
perimentation without regard to divisional lines. Committees formed
of employees of both productive divisions fix company-wide standards
"The Company is currently in the process of building a plant which will house all of its
operations. This plant is, at the present time, only partially completed
5 Tcus, a plant housing employees of both the Telephone and Radio Divisions uses services
provided by the General Service Departments in common.
FEDERAL TELEPHONE AND RADIO CORPORATION 475
for various phases of production, and expediters are shifted across
divisional lines to meet production problems wherever they arise.
There is substantial interchange of personnel between the productive
divisions and between each division and the General Service Depart-
ments e Moreover, finished products of one productive division are
necessary for the completion of. products manufactured by the other.?
Apart from the functional integration of the Company's productive
divisions and the various departments servicing these divisions, the
Company's history of collective bargaining lends further support to
its contention that only company-wide units of its employees are
appropriate. The Company presently recognizes a labor organiz:I-
tion as the collective bargaining agent of its hourly paid production
and maintenance employees, and another labor organization as the
representative of its drivers. Both labor organizations have executed
contracts with the Company covering the employees whom they re-
spectively represent on the basis of company-wide units.
In view of the foregoing faits, we are of the opinion that a unit
of the Company's Lion-supervisory, non-confidential salaried em-
ployees which is not company-wide in scope is inappropriate for the
purposes of collective bargaining.
IV. THE ALLEGED QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
Since, as indicated in Section III, above, the bargaining unit which
the Union seeks is inappropriate for the purposes of collective bar-
gaining, we find that no question affecting commerce has arisen con-
cerning the representation of employees of the Company in an appro-
priate unit. Accordingly, we shall dismiss the amended petition.
ORDER
Upon the basis of the above findings of fact, the National Labor
Relations Board hereby orders that the amended petition for inves-
tigation and certification of representatives of employees of Federal
Telephone and Ridio Corporation, Newark, New Jersey, filed by
Metropolitan Chapter No. 31, Inter-national Federation of Architects,
Engineers, Chemists and Technicians, C. I. 0., be, and it hereby is,
dismissed.
The Company mtioduced into evidence a list of approximately 120 employees who were
transfeued with'n the past 12 months f,om one productive d.vision to another, fiom a
General Service Department to a productive division , and from a productive division to a
Geneial Service Department
-"The Company cited many such examples . Among other sp_ciflc instances , the Intelin
Product Line, which is in the Telephone nivis'on, supplits coaxial cable to the Radio Equip
ment Product Line of the Radio Division , quartz crystals manufactured in the Crystal
Product Line of the Radio Division will be utiLzed in the manufacture of telephone filters
which are produced in tha Telephone Division , and vacuum tubes produced by the Vacuum
Tube Product Line in the Radio Division are used in the manufacture of telephone receivers
and carriers produced by the Telephone Division.
E