General Electric Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jul 23, 1942

42 N.L.R.B. 833 (N.L.R.B. 1942)

In the Matter of GENERAL ELECTRIC Co, ERIE WORKS and DRAFTSMEN'S
ASSOCIATION (INDEPENDENT)
Case No. R-3757 -Decided July 23, 1914
Jurisdiction . electrical equipment manufacturing industry
Investigation and Certification of Representatives : existence of question re-
fusal to accord petitioner recognition until certified by Board, election
necessai y
Unit Appropriate for Collective Bargaining : all draftsmen in Company's Erie
plant, excluding supervisors, held to constitute 'an appropriate unit where
among other considerations petitioner had limited its oiganization to them
-Mr William R Burrows, of Schenectady, N. Y, and Mr. H L R.
Emmet, of Erie, Pa, for the Company.
Mr Elmer D. Loose, of Erie, Pa , for the Association.
Mr Hugh Harley, Jr, and Mr Alfred R McGill, of Erie, Pa, and
Mr Edwin Beal, of New York Chty, for the United.
Mr. Raymond J Heilman, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION -
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon petition duly filed by Diaftsmen's Association; unaffiliated,
heiem called the Association, alleging that a question affecting com-
merce had arisen concerning the representation of employees of Gen-
eral Electric' Company, Erie Works, Erie, Pennsylvania, herein called
the Company, the- National Labor Relations Board provided for an
appiopriate hearing upon due notice before W G Stuart Sherman,
Ti ial Examiner. Said hearing was held at Erie, Pennsylvania, on
April 22, 1942 The Company, the Association, and United Electrical
Radio & Machine Workers of Ameiica, Local No 618, C I 0, herein
called the United, 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 hereby
affirmed
42 N L R B, No 161
472814-42-von 42-53 833
834 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following-
FINDINGS OF FACT
I THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
General Electric Company, a New York corporation, is engaged in
the manufacture and the assembly of electrical devices, and equipment
and has its principal office at Schenectady, Nenv York It owns and
operates 25 manufacturing plants in 10 States, 20 service shops in 15
States; and 28 warehouses in 23 States The Company's Erie, Pennsyl-
vania, plant is here involved
The principal raw materials used in the course of manufacturing at
the Erie plant are steel, copper, and insulating material More than 50
percent of these raw materials, exceeding annually in value the sum
of $10,000,000, are shipped to the plant from outside the Common-
wealth of Pennsylvania -
The principal products of the Company's Erie plant are electric
refrigerators, electric railway locomotives, electric motors, electrical
control apparatus, ai mament apparatus, ship propulsion apparatus,
malleable castings, and brass alloy castings The approximate annual
value of the products of the Erie plant is in excess of $25,000,000, of
which more than 50 percent represents shipments to points outside the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
The Company admits that it is engaged in commerce within the
meaning of the National Labor Relations Act
II THE ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED
Draftsmen's Association is an unaffiliated labor organization ad-
mitting to iiiembership draftsmen employed by the Company at its
Erie plant
United Electrical Radio & Machine Workers of America is a labor
organization, affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations,
admitting to membership, through its Local No 618, salaried em-
ployees of the Company at its Erie plant
III THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
On or about November 1, 1941, the Company, in response to a request
made by representatives of the Association, declined to recognize that
organization as the exclusive bargaining representative for the drafts-
men employed at the Eiie plant unless it should be certified by the
Board as such representative
The Association submitted evidence that it represents a substantial
GENERAL ELECTRIC CO , ERIE WORKS -835
number of employees within the unit alleged by the Association to
be appropriate 1
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 National Labor Rela-
tions Act
IV THE APPROPRIATE UNIT
The Association seeks to have established a bargaining unit conn-
piising only the draftsmen employed by the Company at its Erie plant,
excluding supervisors
The United, asking,that the petition be dismissed, opposes the estab-
lishment of a unit composed only of draftsmen and contends that a
unit consisting of all salaried employees of the Company at its Erie
plant, including draftsmen and other technicians as well as office
and clerical woikers, but excluding supervisory employees, is appro-
priate.2
The Association contends that the draftsmen need a bargaining
agency composed solely of their own group for the reasons, inter
alga, that : Draftsmen are more highly ti aided and have had more
technical experience than most other salaried employees of the Com-
pany, the salary interests of draftsmen differ from those of the Com-
pany's employees generally, including non-professional salaried em-
ployees; and the difference in salary scales between draftsmen and
other salaried groups would prevent such other groups from fairly
representing the draftsmen
The United in opposing the petition, contends that a separate bar -
gaining unit of draftsmen would adversely affect, the interest of the
other employees of the Company and that the draftsmen, as a separate
group, could not bargain effectively
The Company is opposed to the setting up of a sepal ate bargaining
unit consisting of draftsmen alone. Its'vice president testified that
its policy is to have collective bargaining confined to a single agency
or representative, not only in par titular plants but, throughout its
entire organization
The membership of the Association is limited to draftsmen em-
ployed by the Company at its Erie plant, excluding supervisors The
United rnaintams two locals at the Erie plant One, Local No 506,
' The Acting Regional Director for the Sixth Region reported that the Association sub-
mitted, in support of its claim of iepieseutation of a majority of employees in the alleged
appropriate unit , 3 undated petitions bearing a total of 102 apparently genuine signatures,
designating the Association as sole collecttte bargaining agency for the signets The Acting
Regional Director stated that 72 of the 102 names appealed on the Company's pay roll for
the period ending December 10, 1941, ant that such pay roll contained the names of 75
persons in the alleged appropriate unit
The United did notclaim to i epresent any of the draftsmen
'The Acting Regiomtl Directors report states that the Company 's pay roll of December
10 1941, lists 1,800 salaried emploSees in the Erie plant
836 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
I;epresents production and maintenance employees, for whom it has
sole collective bargaining rights 3 The, other, Local No 618, has
existed for salaried employees, including draftsmen, on a plant-wide
basis since January 1941, but no petition for certification as collective
bargaining representative has been filed on its behalf with the Board.
The Association seeks to represent the following classes of em-
ployees included in the term "draftsmen".
Senior designers, who receive specifications, especially those for the
more complicated types of machines and apparatus, from the engineer-
ing department and initiate designs from these-specifications;
Junior designers, who initiate designs for the less complicated types
of machines and apparatus and who also complete designs originated
by senior designers;
Senior detailers, who place the details of the more complicated de-
signs on paper in preparation for the making of blue-prints;
Junior detainers, who, similarly, place on paper the details of the
less complicated designs;
Tracers, who place drawings on tracer cloth in preparation for the
making of blue-prints in the blue-print department
The record shows that draftsmen are required to have specialized
technical training and experience comparable only to the training and
experience of the engineers, among the salaried employees of the Com-
pany. The draftsmen are organized in units, called sections, dis-
tributed throughout the Erie plant, and each unit is located in a
drafting room generally adjacent or near to an office in which en-
gineers work. The engineers and the draftsmen perform their work
apart from each other but there is frequent, consultation between
them Aside from the engineers and the staff incidental to the draft-
ing department,4 there is no group of employees in the Erie plant
whose work is directly connected with that of the draftsmen None
of the engineers has sought to be represented by the Association, the
United, or any other labor organization.
We are of the opinion that a unit which coincides with the extent
of the Association's organization is appropriate To find otherwise
merely for the reason that organization of the Association has not ex-
tended beyond the draftsmen or that the engineers are as yet unor-
ganized, would unjustifiably deprive the draftsmen of the benefits of
collective bargaining 5 Our determination herein as to the appro-
3 Since 1938 , a contract has been in effect between the Company and the United by winch
the Company has agreed to recognise the United as the sole bargaining agency for the
Company's employees in those plants or units in which the United, through a Board election
or certification, or other appropriate means satisfactory to both parties, should be desig-
nated or recognized as such agency
* Including secretaries, stenographers , typists, blue-print clerks , blue -printers , calculators,
methods, men, and duplicatois
6 See Matter of The Patterson -Kelley- Company, Inc and Industrtial Brotherhood of
Boilermakers, Iron Shipbuilders, Welders, Welders' Helpers of America , Local No 397
(A F ofL),38N L R B 1229
GENERAL ELECTRIC CO, ERIE WORKS 837
% 1
priate unit , however, Is no bar to a later revision in accordance with
any changes which may occur in the status of self-organization of the
Company's employees
We find that all draftsmen employed by the Company in its Erie
plant, excluding supervisors, constitute a unit appropriate for the
purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9
(b) of the National Labor Relations Act
V THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
We find that the question concerning representation which has arisen
can best be resolved by an election by secret ballot We shall direct,
therefore , that an election- be conducted among the draftsmen em-
ployed by the Company at its plant at Erie, Pennsylvania.
Since the United has made no showing of iepresentation among the
di aftsmen, we shall omit the name of the United from the ballot
Since neither labor organization nor the Company has signified a
desire to have the eligibility of employees to vote in an election deter-
mined as of any specified date or period , we shall direct , in accordance
with our usual practice , that such eligibility be determined on the basis
of the pay roll of the Company for the period next preceding the date
of this Direction , subject to the limitations and additions set forth
in the Direction
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 Relations
Act, and pursuant to Article III, Section 8, of National Labor Relations
Board Rules and Regulations-Series 2, as amended, it is hereby
DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation to ascertain representa-
tives for the purposes of, collective bargaining with General Electric
Co , Erie Works, Erie , Pennsylvania , an election by secret ballot shall
be conducted as early as possible but not later than thirty (30) days„
from the date of this Direction , under the direction and supervision
of the Regional Director for the Sixth Region, acting in this matter
as agent for the National Labor Relations Board and subject to
Article III, Section 9, of said Rules and Regulations, among the
draftsmen who were employed at its Erie, Pennsylvania , plant during
the, pay -roll period immediately preceding the date of this Direction,
including any such employees who did not work during said pay-roll
peiiod because they were ill or on vacation or 'in the active military
service or training of the United States, or temporarily laid off, but
excluding supervisory employees and employees who have since quit or
been discharged for cause , to deteimine whether or not they desire to
be represented by the Draftsmen 's Association for purposes of collec-
tive bargaining.