General Cable Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Mar 13, 1945

60 N.L.R.B. 1177 (N.L.R.B. 1945)

In the Matter of GENERAL CABLE CORPORATION and UNITED ELECTRI-
CAL, RADIO & MACHINE WORKERS OF AMERICA, C. I. O.
Case No. 21-R-92593.-Decided March, 13, 1945
Mr. Russell L. Greenman, of New York City, and Mr. L. W. Kloss-
ner, of Los Angeles, Calif., for the Company.
Mr. Carl Brant, of Los Angeles, Calif., for the Union.
Mr. Herbert C. Kane, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon a petition duly filed by United Electrical, Radio & Machine
Workers of America, C. I. 0., herein called the Union, alleging that
a question affecting commerce had arisen concerning the representa-
tion of employees of General Cable Corporation, Los Angeles, Cali-
fornia, herein called the Company, the National Labor Relations
Board provided for an appropriate hearing upon due notice before
William T. Whitsett, Trial Examiner. Said hearing was held at Los
Angeles, California, on February 1, 1945. The Company and the
Union appeared and participated. All parties were afforded full op-
portunity to be heard, to examine and cross-examine witnesses, and
to introduce evidence 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
I. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
General Cable Company, a New Jersey corporation engaged in the
manufacture of wire and cable, operates a plant located in Los Angeles,
California, the only one involved in this proceeding.
During the year 1944 the Company used at said plant raw materials
consisting principally of copper, lead, and cotton valued in excess of
60 N. L R B., No. 200.
1177
1178 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
$1,800 ,000 of which more than 95 percent represents shipments made
to said plant from points outside the State of , California . - During the
same period the Company manufactured finished products at said
plant having a value in excess of $2,000 ,000 of which more than 15
percent was shipped to points located outside the State of California.
The Company admits that it is engaged in commerce within the
meaning of the National Labor Relations Act.
II. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED
United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America, affiliated
with the Congress of Industrial Organizations, is a labor brgariiaation
admitting to membership employees of the Company.
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
The Company has refused to grant recognition to the Union as the
exclusive bargaining representative of its employees until the Union
has been certified by the Board in an appropriate unit.
A statement of a Board agent, introduced into evidence at the hear-
ing, indicates that the Union represents a substantial number of
employees in the unit hereinafter found appropriate'
We find that a question affecting commerce has arisen concerning
the representation of employees of the Company, within the meaning
of Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT
The parties agree generally that a unit of all production and main-
tenance employees at the Los Angeles plant, excluding office and super-
visory employees, is appropriate. The Union would include inspectors
and guards in the unit, while the Company contends that the Board
should find separate units for inspectors and guards, respectively.
The inspectors had been included in the plant wide unit under
contract between the Company and the predecessor of the petitioner
from 1938 to 1944, when a separate contract was executed covering
these employees due to a change in their supervision 2 There are
about 11 inspectors. The inspectors use rules, calipers, scales, microm-
eters, elongation and tensile machines, make lead tests, and chem-
' The Field Examiner reported that the Union submitted 107 application for membership
cards; that there are 116 employees in the appropriate unit ; and that 83 of the cards
were dated in December 1944, 18 in January 1945, and 6 were undated
2 In 1943, the Company set up a separate department for inspectors under the ultimate
authority of the Director of product inspection in New Jersey , each plant has a superin-
tendent of product inspection over the inspectors Prior thereto , the inspectors were
under the supervision of the plant manager, as were all the other employees . Following
this change , the Company refused to bargain with the Union on any basis other than a
separate unit for mspectore.
GENERAL CABLE CORPORATION 1179
ical tests in the course of.their inspection. Part of their work is done
on the floor of the plant and part in the laboratory. They have no
authority to recommend the discharge or changes in the status of
the production employees. Their duty is to pass or reject material and
make 'reports. Tliey exercise no supervisory authority over those
whose work they inspect. The confidential nature of their duties is
in regard to specifications and not labor relations. While the more
recent bargaining history reveals a separation of inspectors from the
remaining production and maintenance employees, we are of the
opini9n that their long inclusion in the plant-wide unit prior thereto
and the fact that their recent-separation was not due to any-substan-
tive change in their duties, warrants adherence to our customary
practice of including them in a plant-wide unit. We shall, therefore,
include them in the unit.' -
Plant-protection employees are armed and wear the uniform of the
Company. They guard the entrance to the plant, check the passes
of those entering, patrol the grounds, look for fires, report violations
of plant rules,' and generally perform the duties usually associated
with such employees. Since they are now neither deputized nor
militarized ,4 we shall include them in the unit.5
We find that all production and maintenance employees, including
inspectors and plant-protection employees below the rank of ser-
geant, but excluding all office employees, the shift foremen, sergeants
and their superiors in the plant-protection department, and all or
any other supervisory employees with authority to hire, promote,
discharge, discipline, or otherwise effect changes in the status of em-
ployees, or effectively recommend such action, constitute a unit ap-
propriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the mean-
ing of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
V. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
The Union has requested that the Board use the pay roll for the
week ending January 14, 1944, to determine eligibility, since
Union allegedly has prepared for an election based upon that pay
roll. Inasmuch as no sufficient reason has been shown to warrant de-
parting from our usual practice in this regard, we shall direct that
the question concerning representation which has arisen be resolved
by an election by secret ballot among the employees in the appropriate
unit who were employed during the pay-roll period immediately
preceding the date of the Direction of Election herein, subject to the
limitations and additions set forth in the Direction.
8 See Matter of Gardner-Denver Company , 44 N L. R B. 1192.
4 Since shortly after December 7, 1941, the plant-protection employees had been auxiliary
military police. Recently , however, they received their discharges from the Ninth Service
Command
,'-Matter of Joseph Bancroft & Sons Company, 60 N L. R. B. 1053.
1180 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
By virtue of and pursuant to the power vested in the National
Labor Relations Board by Section 9 ( c) of the National Labor Re-
lations Act , and pursuant to Article III, Section- 9, of National
Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 3, as amended,
it is hereby
DIRECTED that, as part of the - investigation to ascertain representa-
tives, for the purposes of collective bargaining with General Cable
Corporation , Los Angeles , California , an election by secret ballot
shall be -conducted as early as possible , but not later than sixty (60)
days from the date of this Direction, under the direction and super-
vision of the Regional Director for the Twenty -first Region, acting
in this matter as agent for the National Labor Relations Board and
subject to Article III, Sections 10 and 11, of said Rules and Regula-
tions, among the employees in the unit found appropriate in Section IV,
above, who were employed during the pay-roll period immediately
preceding the date of this Direction , including employees who did
not work during the said pay -roll period because they were ill or on
vacation or 'temporarily laid off, and including employees in.the
armed forces of the United States who present themselves in person
at the polls , 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 , to determine whether or not they
desire to be represented by United Electrical , Radio & Machine
Workers of America, C. I. 0., for the purposes of collective
bargaining.