Gemmer Manufacturing Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Aug 16, 1949

85 N.L.R.B. 700 (N.L.R.B. 1949)

Ili the Matter of GEMMER MANUFACTURING COMPANY, EMPLOYER and
LOCAL UNION No. 80, INTERNATIONAL UNION, UNITED AUTOMOBILE,
AIRCRAFT AND AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENT WORKERS OF AMERICA,
CIO (UAW-CIO) , PETITIONER
Case No. 7-RC-537.-Decided August 16, 1949
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held. before Harold L.
Hudson, hearing 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 in connection with
this case to a three-member panel [Chairman Herzog and Members
Houston and Gray].
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 certain
employees of the Employer.
3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the represen-
tation of employees of the Employer within the meaning of Section
9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
4. The appropriate unit:
The Petitioner seeks a separate unit of all "factory clerks" em-
ployed at the Employer's Detroit, Michigan, plant, or in the alterna-
tive, it would merge these employees in a single unit with the pro-
duction employees whom it currently represents., The Employer
I The Petitioner is successor to International Union, United Automobile Workers of
America, Local Number 80 , which was certified April 29, 1939, as bargaining representa-
tive for a unit consisting of hourly rated production employees and gang leaders , excluding
all other salaried employees, office employees , watchmen , superintendents , foremen, and all
other executive employees and supervisors . Matter of (hemmer Manufacturing Company,
12 N. L. R. B. 584 . The Petitioner ( and its predecessor ) and the Employer have bargained
collectively from 1939 to the present date. The most recent contract is dated October 25,
1948. The unit placement of the factory clerks was not considered in the afore -mentioned
representation proceeding , nor were the factory clerks represented thereafter by the Peti-
tioner ( or its predecessor ) for purposes of collective bargaining.
85 N. L. R. B., No. 127.
700
GEMMER MANUFACTURING COMPANY 701
contends that the factory clerks are confidential employees and should
not be represented by the same union that represents the production
employees.
The Employer is engaged in the manufacture, sale, and distribution
of steering gears for automobiles, trucks, and boats. It employs ap-
proximately 1,300 employees; 10 employees are involved in this
proceeding.
The factory clerks are employed in 8 out of the Employer's 10 de-
partments. They are hourly paid and work in the department to
which they are assigned, under the supervision of a production fore-
man. They receive a shift pay differential, enjoy the same vacation
plan as production workers, punch time clocks, and are promoted from
among the production workers, and, at times, are transferred to pro-
duction work or to office clerical positions. Their principal duties
consist of keeping and tabulating daily records of part numbers and
finished material and writing requisitions for repairs and tool re-
leases, checking time cards and making absentee reports to super-
vision, keeping and tabulating daily production records, and labor
charges of particular departments, and checking the production fig-
ures against established time-study data 2 They deliver time cards
to the timekeeping department where computations for determining
production workers' earnings are made. In connection with their
work, they have access to the Employer's "six-week production
schedule" to which production workers have no access.
It appears from the record that factory clerks are not required to
exercise independent judgment as to whether production workers are
performing their duties properly, loafing, violating a factory rule, or
whether they should be transferred, demoted, or disciplined. Nor are
the factory clerks required to make any confidential reports, either
written or oral, concerning these matters to the supervisors of the
several departments.
The Board has heretofore held that factory clerical employees such
as those involved in this proceeding are not confidential employees,3
and that they may be represented in the same unit with other produc-
tion employees.4 However, as the factory clerks have not previously
been included in the unit of production employees currently repre-
sented by the Petitioner, we shall make no final unit determination
with respect to them pending the outcome of the election hereinafter
directed among them. If they select the Petitioner as their bargaining
representative, they will be taken to have indicated their desire to be
2 The factory clerks are not engaged in time-study operations . The Employer has a sepa-
rate time-study department. Cf. Matter of Chicago Pneumatic Tool Co., 81 N. L. It. B. 584.
3 Matter of H. C. Canfield Company, 76 N. L. R. B. 606, 609.
4 Matter of Art Metal Construction Company, 75 N. L. It. B. 80, 82.
702 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
included in the existing unit of production employees and the Peti-
tioner may bargain for them as part of such unit.'
Accordingly, we shall direct an election in the following voting
group:
All factory clerks at the Employer's plant at Detroit, Michigan,
excluding supervisors.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the pur-
poses of collective bargaining with the Employer, an election by secret
ballot shall be conducted as early as possible, but not later than 30
days from the date of this Direction, under the direction and super-
vision of the Regional Director for the Region in which this case was
heard, and subject to Sections 203.61 and 203.62 of National Labor
Relations Board Rules and Regulations, among the employees de-
scribed in paragraph numbered 4, above, who were employed during
the pay-roll period immediately preceding the date of this Direction
of Election; including employees who did not work during said pay-
roll period because they were ill or on vacation or temporarily laid off,
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, and also excluding employees on strike who are not
entitled to reinstatement, to determine whether (or not) they desire
to be represented, for purposes of collective bargaining, by Local No.
80, International Union, United Automobile, Aircraft and Agricul-
tural Implement Workers of America, CIO (UAW-CIO).
5 Matter of Chicago Pneumatic Tool Co., supra.