Gar Wood Industries, Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jun 20, 1942

41 N.L.R.B. 1156 (N.L.R.B. 1942)

,In the Matter of GAR WOOD INDUSTRIES, INC. and LOCAL 250, INTER-
NATIONAL UNION, UNITED AUTOMOBILE, AIRCRAFT & AGRICULTURAL
IMPLEMENT WORKERS OF AMERICA (UAW-CIO)
Case No. R-3850.Decided June 20,1949
Jurisdiction : ordnance and machinery manufacturing industry.
Practice and Procedure : petition dismissed where there was no appropriate unit
within the scope of the petition ; unit requested, comprising time-study men,
pay-roll checkers, and foremen's clerks, did not constitute a functionally
coherent group apart from other, clerical plant workers.
Mr. Milton W. Kleckner, of Detroit, Mich., for the Company.
Mr. Maurice Sugar, by Mr. Jack N. Tucker, of Detroit, Mich., for
the Union.
Mrs. Augusta Spaulding, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
ORDER
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon petition duly filed by Local 250, International Union, United
Automobile, Aircraft & Agricultural Implement Workers of America
(UAW-CIO),1 herein called the Union, alleging that a question affect-
ing commerce had arisen concerning the representation of employees
of Gar Wood Industries, Inc., Detroit, Michigan, herein called the
Company, the National Labor Relations Board provided for an ap-
propriate hearing upon due notice before Jerome H. Brooks, Trial
Examiner. Said hearing was held at Detroit, Michigan, on May 21,,
1942. 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 upon the issues. The
Trial Examiner's rulings made at the hearing are free from
prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the
following :
3 The petition and other formal papers were amended at the hearing to disclose the
correct name of the Union. 4
41 N. L. R. B., No. 209.
1156
GAR WOOD INDUSTRIES', INC.
FINDINGS OF FACT
I. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
1157
Gar Wood Industries , Inc., is engaged in the manufacture of gun
carriages , winches, hoists , bodies, earth -moving machinery, and truck
tanks at four plants in the Metropolitan Area of Detroit, Michigan.
The principal raw materials used by the Company are steel , brass,
copper, cast iron, aluminum , and rubber . During the year 1941, the
Company purchased raw materials and merchandise for its Detroit
plants valued at approximately $9,000,000, of which 75 percent was
shipped to the plants from points outside Michigan . During the
same period products finished at the Detroit plants were valued at-
approximately $20,000,000 , of which approximately 60 percent repre-
sented products shipped to points outside Michigan . The Company
admits that it is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the
National Labor Relations Act.
II. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED
- Local 250, International Union, United Automobile, Aircraft &
Agricultural Implement Workers of America, is a labor organization
affiliated with the United Automobile Workers of America and the
Congress of Industrial Organizations, admitting to membership em-
ployees of the Company.
in. THE ALLEGED APPROPRIATE UNIT
The Union contends that all time-study men, checkers, and fore-.
men's clerks employed at all plants of the Company in the Metro-
politan Area of Detroit, excluding supervisory employees, constitute
an appropriate unit. The Company contends that the proposed unit'
is inappropriate ; that the time-study men as management employees,
and foremen's clerks as employees trusted with confidential matter
should not be included in a unit with other clerical employees; but
that any unit which includes them and checkers should likewise in-
clude other timekeepers, office clerks, other shop clerks, pay-roll and
planning employees, scheduling employees, dispatchers, break-down
clerks, expeditors, and employment department and office employees,
excluding supervisory employees.
In the Detroit Metropolitan Area at the time of the hearing the
Company had in, operation four plants, designated in the record as
plants 3, 4, 6 and 6A, and 8. Another plant, known as plant 2, was
under construction at the time of the hearing and was expected to'
be in operation in 2 or 3 weeks.
0
1158 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Since 1937 the Union has contracted with the Company with respect
to the Company's production and maintenance employees. On March
2, 1942, the Company and the Union executed a new contract cover-
ing all employees of the Company working in and around the Detroit
Metropolitan Area, excluding supervisory employees in several named
categories, office employees, time-study men, pay-roll checkers, plant
protection employees, chief engineers, designing, production, estimat-
ing, and planning engineers, production following-up, shop clerks,
and cost and scheduling clerks.
When negotiations were opened in January 1942 for this new
contract, the Union asked the Company to include in the contract
time=study men, pay-roll checkers, and foremen's clerks, all of whom
bad been excluded from past contracts between the Company and
the Union, alleging that a majority of such employees had requested
the Union to represent them in bargaining with the Company. Upon
the Company's refusal to include such employees in the new contract,
the contract was completed as noted above, and on March 4, 1942,
the Union filed the petition in this proceeding.
Time-study men. There were nine time-study men employed by
the Company in the Detroit plants operating at the time of the
hearing. The Company calls them time-study "engineers," though
they are not so designated on the pay roll. These employees make
time and motion studies by watching and timing production
operations. On the basis of their studies, they make recom-
mendations for the rates of pay of each operation. Time-study men
are salaried employees, except for one junior study man who is
employed on an hourly basis during his training. It takes about 21/2
years to train men to measure jobs and set standards. Time-study
men immediately supervise and instruct-the so-called pay-roll or floor
checkers and recommend their discharge or transfer to other work.
The personnel director supervises the time-study men. They receive
2 weeks' vacation with pay.
Checkers. There were 29 pay-roll checkers employed by the Com-
pany at the time of the hearing. Such employees are also called
floor checkers or floor timekeepers. As such, they record individual
piece work, punch the clock for changes of work, and note the kind
of work, the value, and the number of pieces on each production
worker's job. Each checker is a potential time-study man. Checkers
work from enclosed department offices or open desks in the depart-
ment where they work on the production floor. Some checkers are
hourly paid and receive 1 week's vacation with pay. Some checkers
at plant 4 are on a salary. Both checkers and time-study men work
the same hours as production men, but the average wages of a time-
GAR WOOD INDUSTRIES, INC. 1159
study man are 30 to 35 percent higher than the average wages of a
checker. %
Foremen's clerics . Foremen's clerks are part of a large category
of employees known as shop clerks. Foremen's clerks receive ap-
proximately the same wages as checkers and 1 week's vacation with
pay. They are located in offices with the plant foreman. Foremen's
clerks run errands for foremen and do some scheduling on forms.
They do not have any regular routine, but they do any detail work
which the foremen hand over to - them. Job chasing and interde-
partment communication constitute the larger part of their work.
They carry confidential messages orally or in sealed envelopes.
In addition to the time -study men and checkers whose work is de-
scribed above , the Company employs timekeepers in the employment
division of the main office , who compare the master cards with the
piece-work cards turned in by the checkers or floor timekeepers.
Such employees check these records , compute the hours of work, and
.place them on the individual piece-work cards prior to their going
to the pay -roll department . In addition to foremen 's clerks, the
Company employs other shop clerks whose work is not fully defined
in the record, inspection clerks, cost clerks, and scheduling clerks.
Dispatchers and expeditors also are clerical employees who work in
the production departments , who, like stock chasers, follow the work
in the plant and check with the foremen as to the progress of the
work. In addition to the employees in these several categories, there
are clerical employees in the main administrative office and in the
planning, scheduling , and pay-roll departments.
The supervisory work of time -study men makes questionable the
propriety of their inclusion in the same unit with checkers. The
record furthermore does not disclose that time-study men, pay-roll
checkers , and foremen 's clerks constitute a functionally coherent
group, apart from other clerical plant workers. To exclude expedit-
ors, dispatchers , and other plant and shop clerks from the unit which
includes foremen's clerks creates an arbitrary unit justified neither
by the plant organization nor by the bargaining history in the Com-
pany's plants . While the Board has entertained petitions for the
separate representation of groups of employees who are being organ-
ized on an industrial basis on the principle that the organization of
employees has not extended beyond the unit sought, this principle has
not been applied to the - determination of arbitrary and artificial
grouping of employees as appropriate units. For these reasons, we
find that the unit proposed by the Union is inappropriate for the
purposes of collective bargaining.2
2 Cf Matter of Triangle Publications, Inc. and Chicago Editorial Association , Federal
Union 21690, 40 N. L. R B. 1330.
1160 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
IV. THE ALLEGED QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
Since the bargaining unit sought to be established by the petition
is not appropriate, as stated in Section III, above, we find that no
question has arisen concerning the representation of employees of
the Company in a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective,
bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (c) of the Act.
ORDER
Upon the basis of the foregoing findings of fact, the National
Labor Relations Board hereby orders that the petition for investiga-
tion and certification of representatives of employees of Gar Wood
Industries, Inc., Detroit, Michigan, filed by Local 250, International
Union, United Automobile, Aircraft & Agricultural Implement
Workers of America (UAW-CIO), be, and it hereby is, dismissed.