General Electric Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

May 1, 1950

89 N.L.R.B. 949 (N.L.R.B. 1950)

In the Matter of GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY, CIRCLEVILLE LAMP
'WORKS,' EMPLOYER and GLASS BOTTLE BLOWERS ASSOCIATION OE THE
UNITED STATES AND CANADA, AFL, PETITIONER
Case No. 9-RC-707.-Decided May 1, 1950
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before William
Naimark, 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 [Members Houston, Reynolds, and
Murdock].
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 representa-
tion of employees of the Employer within the meaning of Section 9
(c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
4. The Petitioner seeks a unit composed of all the maintenance
employees employed at the Circleville, Ohio, plant of the Employer,
including electrical maintenance men, janitor-watchmen, mainte-
nance machinists, general maintenance men, boiler operator mainte-
nance men, machine shop stockroom attendant, and the oiler-janitor,
but excluding the lamp machine maintenance men and all other
employees. The Employer opposes the establishment of a. separate
unit of maintenance employees and contends that only a plant-wide
unit consisting of production and maintenance employees is appro-
priate. The Employer further contends that the requested unit is
inconsistent with the pattern of collective bargaining in its other like
plants.
I The Employer's name appears as amended at the hearing.
89 NLRB No. 110.
949
950 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
The Employer is a New York corporation operating many plants
located in various cities in the United States. The only plant here
involved is the Circleville, Ohio, plant, where the Employer is engaged
in the production of fluorescent lamps. The plant employs a total
of 135 persons of whom 115 are production and maintenance workers.
Except in minor respects, there is one policy as to hours of work,2 pen-
sions, insurance benefits, vacations, holidays, and overtime for both
production and maintenance workers.
The employees the Petitioner seeks to represent, of whom there are
20, work under the supervision of the general maintenance foreman
and his assistant. The large majority of these employees spend all
their time performing general plant maintenance work of a skilled or
semiskilled nature. The 2 electrical maintenance men do electrical
work although they are sometimes called upon to do welding, pipe
fitting, and sheet metal work. The /. janitor-watchmen spend between
20 and 30 percent of their time as watchmen and the balance of their
time as janitors, performing the usual duties of such employees.3
The 3 maintenance machinists maintain, repair, and replace parts on
machinery and equipment. In connection with these duties they do
welding, sheet metal, and pipe-fitting work. The 4 general m72,ainte-
nance employees, as their title indicates, perform general maintenance
work. Two of them act as helpers to the electricians, 1 acts as a
helper to the welders and pipe fitters, and the remaining employee
maintains the coiling equipment. The 4 boiler operator maintenance
men are licensed firemen. They operate the burner which heats the
plant, and in addition, care for the plant grounds and assist other
maintenance workers in the performance of their respective duties.
The machine shop stockroom attendant keeps records of all hand tools
and machine shop supplies and places orders for spare parts for equip-
ment. The oiler-janitor divides his time between oiling equipment
and doing miscellaneous maintenance jobs.
The unit here requested is composed of a homogeneous, readily iden-
tifiable, and functionally coherent group of employees. The Board
has in the past found such a unit to be appropriate absent any prior
bargaining history on a broader basis.4 There is no history of collec-
tive bargaining covering this plant. We do not deem controlling the
2 All the production and maintenance employees work a 40-hour week except the boiler
operator maintenance men and the janitor-watchmen who work an average of 42 hours a
week.
.3 In view of the fact that these employees devote most of their time to janitorial duties,
we find that they are janitors.
4 Hotpoint, Inc., 85 NLRB 485; Borden's Soy Processing Company, 88 NLRB 213;
General Mills, Inc., 84 NLRB 831 ; Armstrong Cork Company, 80 NLRB 1328.
GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY 951
fact that no similar unit has been established in other like plants of
the Employer.'
There remains for consideration the question of whether the lamp
machine maintenance men should be included. The Petitioner con-
tends that these employees are primarly production workers and
should be excluded. Of the nine employees in this group, six are
assigned to the day shift, two to the second shift, and one to the night
shift.. Each of the six day-shift lamp machine maintenance men is
responsible for the output of a particular machine operated by a pro-
duction worker.' While they adjust and change parts on these ma-
chines so that the machines can be operated at maximum efficiency
they are also obliged to see that the operators achieve maximum pro-
duction of a high quality, thus performing an important role in the
plant's actual production. The two lamp machine maintenance men
assigned to the second shift prepare certain machines for operation
on the following day by the day shift production workers. They
change mercury, check head alignments, remove drippings, and make
necessary adjustments. The night shift lamp machine maintenance
man provides the proper coating for the coating equipment which is
part of the production equipment. These nine employees spend all
their time tending the particular machines to which they are assigned
on the manufacturing. floor.. Like the machine operators, they are
under the supervision of production foremen. As the duties and func-
tions of the lamp machine maintenance men are highly integrated with
the production process and because they are supervised by production
foremen, we are of the opinion that their interests are more closely
allied with those of the production workers than with those of the
maintenance workers. Accordingly, we shall exclude them.
We find that all maintenance employees employed at the Circleville,
Ohio, plant of the Employer, including electrical maintenance men,
janitor-watchmen, maintenance machinists, general maintenance men,
boiler operator maintenance men; machine shop stockroom attendant,
and the oiler-janitor, but excluding the lamp machine maintenance
men and all supervisors as defined in the Act, constitute a unit appro-
priate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning
of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the
purposes of collective bargaining with the Employer, an election by
8 Westinghouse Electric Corporation , 87 NLRB 463 ; St. Regis Paper Company (Hulti-
Wall Bag ), 84 NLRB 454.
952 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
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 in the
unit found appropriate in paragraph numbered 4, above, who were
employed during the payroll period immediately preceding the date
of this Direction of Election, including employees who did not work
during said payroll 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 re-
instated 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 bargain-
ing, by Glass Bottle Blowers Association of the United States and
Canada, AFL.s
O At the hearing , the Glass , Ceramic and Silica Sand Workers of America, CIO , herein
called Silica Sand Workers , and American Flint Glass Workers Union of North America,
AFL, herein called the Flint Glass Workers, each appeared for the sole purpose of re-
questing that their names be placed on the ballot in any election ordered herein. As the
Silica Sand Workers subsequently notified the Board that It desired to withdraw its re-
quest and the Flint Workers have failed to make a showing of interest among the
employees , we shall not direct that the names of these two unions appear on the ballot.