General Electric Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Nov 8, 1948

80 N.L.R.B. 174 (N.L.R.B. 1948)

In the Matter of GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY, EMPLOYER and INTER-
NATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS , LOCAL 716, AFL,
PETITIONER
Case No. 16-RC-186.-Decided November 8, 1948
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before a hearing
officer of the National Labor Relations Board. 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-man panel consisting of the undersigned Board
Members.*
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 organizations named below claim to represent em-
ployees of the Employer.
3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the representa-
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 unit composed 'of all production and main-
tenance employees in the Employer's Service Shop at 1312 Live Oak
Street, Houston, Texas, including the stockroom attendant and the
shipping and receiving clerk, but excluding clerical employees, drafts-
men, foremen, and all supervisors as defined in the Act. The In-
tervenor 1 contends that all machinists, machinist leadmen, machinist
apprentices, machinist helpers, and all employees engaged in the
erection, installing, maintaining, dismantling, and/or repairing of
* Houston, Reynolds , and Murdock.
1 International Association of Machinists , Lodge No. 12 , District 37.
80 N. L. R. B., No. 39.
174
GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY 175
machinery at the Employer's Houston plant, including the stockroom
attendant, but excluding supervisors as defined in the Act and all
other employees, constitute a separate appropriate unit. The Em-
ployer urges that the appropriate unit should be composed of all
production and maintenance employees of its Service Shop in Houston,
Texas, including machinists and machinist apprentices, and exclud-
ing stockroom attendants, shipping and receiving clerks, summer
employees, and all other clerical employees, draftsmen, foremen, and
supervisors as defined in the Act.
The Employer maintains a building at 1312 Live Oak Street, Hous-
ton, Texas, in which is included the warehouse unit, a sales organiza-
tion, the General Electric Supply Corporation, and the Service Shop.
The Service Shop occupies approximately 9,000 square feet of this
space, and is entirely separated from the rest of a building by a fence.
Approximately 32 employees are engaged in the Service Shop opera-
tions which are conducted in 4 sections. Three of these sections en-
gaged respectively in the manufacture of coils; the repair of transform-
ers; and the winding and repair of all types of electrical, rotating
types of equipment and certain stationary equipment that does not
fall under the heading of transformer work. The fourth section is the
machine shop. A superintendent and general foreman are in charge of
the Service Shop. A group leadman is in charge of each section.
There is no prior history of collective bargaining with respect to the
Employer's Houston plant.
The Machinists' Unit
The employees in the machine-shop section, whom the Intervenor
seeks to establish as a separate unit, include two journeymen machin-
ists, one of whom is the group leadman, and an employee classified as a
machinist second-class by the Employer. These machinists are highly
skilled employees whose duties include welding, lathe, milling machine,
and motor bearing work, and on occasion, the fabrication of machine
parts. None of the other employees is qualified to do their work. The
machine-shop section is located in a particular portion of the general
space occupied by the whole Service Shop, with no physical separation
between it and the other sections. Employees from the other sections
do not perform the normal work of the machinists, nor do the ma-
chinists perform the work of other sections. Occasionally a machinist
may be sent into another section to perform some duty requiring his
particular kind and degree of skill.
The machinists in the proposed unit constitute an identifiable,
homogeneous craft group such as the Board has, in the past, found
176 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
appropriate as a separate unit for purposes of collective bargaining.2
Under these circumstances, we are of the opinion that the machinists
in the group sought by the Intervenor may appropriately form a sepa-
rate bargaining unit if they so desire. It is also evident, on the other
hand, that they might properly be included in the broader production
and maintenance unit advocated by the Petitioner. We shall, there-
fore, make no present determination of the appropriate unit or units
as affecting the employees hereinabove referred to, but shall reserve
such finding, pending the result of separate elections which we shall
hereinafter direct among the machine shop and the remaining pro-
duction and maintenance employees, respectively. Upon the results
of these elections will depend, in part, the scope of the bargaining unit
or units.
There remains for consideration the disposition to be made of lead-
men, the stockroom attendant, the shipping and receiving clerk, help-
ers, and part-time employees.
Leadmen: There are 4 leadmen, each of whom has charge of from
2 to 11 employees. As noted above, each leadman is in charge of
a section, and is responsible only to the general foreman. The Peti-
tioner and Intervenor would include the leadmen in their respective
units. The Employer takes no position regarding their disposition.
The working time of each leadman is divided between performing
production work and supervising the work of the employees in his
section. One spends 95 percent of his time supervising the work of
others, while such duties occupy only 10 to 25 percent of the time
of the other 3. However, all 4 leadnien are paid over 10 cents per
hour more than the highest hourly rate paid to employees in their
respective sections. Moreover, they are consulted by the superintend-
ent or general foreman before any hiring or firing or disciplinary
action is taken, and their recommendations are given effective weight
by their superiors. Under these circumstances, even though substan-
tial time is spent in production work by several of the leadmen, we
are of the opinion that they are supervisors within the meaning of
the Act, and they will therefore be excluded from both voting groups.a
Stockroom attendant: The Petitioner and the Intervenor seek to in-
clude the stockroom attendant in the respective unit proposed by each.
The Employer takes the position that this employee is a clerical em-
ployee and should not be included in either unit. The function of
the stockroom attendant is to keep track of the stock, to maintain
3 Matter of National Traffic Guard Company , 78 N. L. It. B. 846; Matter of Western Elec-
tric Company , incorporated, 78 N. L It. B 160
3 Matter of United States Gypsum Company, 79 N L. R B. 194; Matter of Bryant Heater
Co., 77 N L It. B. 744
GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY 177
it in an orderly manner, and to disburse the stock as it is ordered out.
He is paid by the hour and is subject to the supervision of the account-
ant. This employee does not confine his services to any particular
section but he serves the entire Service Shop. His work requires no
skill. His interests, we find, are most closely allied with those of the
residual production and maintenance group. We shall therefore in-
clude him as a plant clerical in the residual voting group .4
Shipping and receiving clerk: The Petitioner contends that the
shipping and receiving clerk should be included in its proposed unit.
The Employer would exclude him as a clerical employee. The duties
of the shipping and receiving clerk are to make records, to prepare
receipts for apparatus coming into the shop, to see that the equip-
ment is properly identified and tagged for outgoing shipments, and
to make shipping arrangements with trucking lines and railroads.
Like the stockroom attendant, he is paid by the hour and supervised
by the accountant. There is nothing in the record to indicate that
the working conditions of this employee differ sufficiently from those
of the production and maintenance employees to warrant his exclu-
sion. We shall therefore include him in the residual production and
maintenance voting group.5
Helpers: The Employer employs six employees as general helpers
who may work in any or all of the four sections enumerated above.
Apparently the inclusion in the unit of these employees is not contested
by the Petitioner, the Intervenor, or the Employer. Since they are
general helpers, and because their duties and interests lie with the
production and maintenance group rather than with the machinists,
we shall include them in the residual voting group.
Part-time employees: The Employer has four temporary employees
who are students and work only during their summer vacation, with
the understanding that they will resign in September. The Employer
and the Petitioner contend that they should be excluded. These
employees serve as general helpers, each serving one of the four sec-
tions. If any of the same employees work the following summer,
they will be shifted to other sections. Under these circumstances,
and in view of the temporary nature of their part-time employment,
Nye shall exclude them.s
We shall direct separate elections in the following voting groups :
1. All machinists, machinists apprentices, and all employees en-
gaged in the erection, installing, maintaining, dismantling, and/or
4Matter of Mississippi Products, Inc., 78 N L. R. B. 873.
e Matter of W C. Nabors Company, 79 N. L R. B. 40.
Matter of Pittsburgh Plate G lass Company , 76 N. L. R. B 452.
178 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
repairing of machinery employed in the Employer's Service Shop at
1312 Live Oak Street, Houston, Texas, excluding the stockroom at-
tendant, the machinist leadman, and all other supervisors as defined
in the Act.
2. All remaining production and maintenance employees in the
Employer's Service Shop at 1312 Live Oak Street, Houston, Texas,
including the stockroom attendant, the shipping and receiving clerk,
and helpers, excluding clerical employees, draftsmen, temporary part-
time employees, the superintendent, the general foreman, leadmen,
and all other supervisors as defined in the Act.
DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the
purposes of collective bargaining with the Employer, separate elec-
tions 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 supervison of the Regional Director for the Sixteenth Region,
and subject to Sections 203.61 and 203.62 of the National Labor Re-
lations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 5, as amended, among
the employees in the voting groups described 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 ex-
cluding employees on strike who are not entitled to reinstatement, to
determine whether, for the purposes of collective bargaining, (a) the
employees in group 1, above, desire to be represented by the Inter-
national Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 716, AFL, or by
the International Association of Machinists, Lodge No. 12, District
37, or by neither; and (b) the employees in group 2, above, desire to
be represented by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Work-
ers, Local 716, AFL.