General Electric Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jan 25, 1952

97 N.L.R.B. 1265 (N.L.R.B. 1952)

GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY 1265
involved herein would embrace approximately 21 employees exclusive
of office clericals working in close proximity with and under the super-
vision of 3 executives, 2 managers, and 1 cold storage room man, an
inordinately high ratio of supervisors to employees. We find that
Lonas does not exercise supervisory authority within the meaning of
the Act and we shall therefore include the freezer and cold storage
room man in the unit as an employee 8
Retail store cashier-Both the Petitioner and the Employer would
exclude the retail store cashier from the unit. The cashier remains
behind the cash register at all times and performs neither clerical nor
fish handling work. Because the cashier works in close proximity to
and under the same supervision as the other retail store employees,
however, we believe that the interests of the cashier are more nearly
aligned with those of other employees in the unit than with the office
and clerical employees.
Accordingly, we find that all employees at the Employer's Miami,
Florida, wholesale fish house and retail store, including local truck
drivers, seasonal employees, temporary and casual employees, the
freezer and cold storage room man, and the retail store cashier, but
excluding long distance truck drivers, order clerk, office and clerical
employees, watchman,9 wholesale fish house floor manager, retail
store manager, and all other supervisors as defined in the Act, con-
stitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining
within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this
volume.]
e Silverwood 's, 92 NLRB 1114.
The watchman is on duty only after working hours and patrols the premises of the
store, fish house, and parking lot . In agreement with the parties , we shall exclude the
watchman as a guard.
GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY and INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF
MACHINISTS, AFL, PETITIONER. Case No. 2-RC-3937 . January
25, 1952
Decision and Direction of Election
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before Lloyd S.
Greenidge, 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
97 NLRB No. 194.
1266 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
this case to a three-member panel [Members Houston, Murdock, and
Styles].
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 involved claim to represent certain em-
ployees 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. On September 26, 1950, the Petitioner in this proceeding was
certified by the Board as bargaining representative in a unit of :
... all tool and die makers and apprentices regularly and per-
manently assigned to them, die maker leadermen, and tool and die
inspectors, of the General Electric Company at its atomic energy
plants located at Peek Street, Sacandaga Road, Alplaus, Knolls
Atomic Power Laboratory (Knolls II) and Campbell Avenue;
Schenectady, New York, excluding all other employees.
On the same date the Intervenor, International Union of Electrical,
Radio and Machine Workers, Local 301, CIO, was certified in a unit
of all hourly paid employees at the same plants with certain ex-
clusions among which were the employees in the unit for which the
Petitioner was certified. -
In the present proceeding the Petitioner seeks to add all develop-
ment machinists, grinders in the toolroom, tool crib attendants, and
toolroom machine operators in the plants operated for the Atomic
Energy Commission at Knolls II, Nishkuyana, and at Peek Street,
Schenectady, New York, to its certified unit of tool and die makers.
The Intervenor, however, contends that the over-all unit of all
hourly paid employees at the atomic energy plants (in which it was
certified), which includes the employees now sought by the Petitioner,
is the appropriate unit.
After the hearing the parties stipulated that the Employer has
ceased operations of atomic energy plants at the Sacandaga Road and
Campbell Avenue locations, and that there are no machinists em-
ployed at present at the Alplaus plant, but that there is no objection
to including the Alplaus plant in the unit description. At the request
of the Employer, Petitioner, and Intervenor the record is hereby
reopened, and the stipulation is hereby received fir evidence and made
part of the record in this proceeding.
The development machinists, grinders, toolroom machine operators,
and tool crib attendants sought to be added by the Petitioner to its
present certified unit are under the direction of the same assistant
general foreman as the employees in that unit. The machinists work
with the tool and die makers on the same type of work-the making
GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY 1267
of experimental parts and apparatus. According to the record the
only difference between the categories of employees is that the tool
and die makers are required to be more highly skilled and to work at
closer tolerances than the machinists. Six or eight machinists have
been upgraded to tool maker. The toolroom machine operators are
referred to as "machinist trainees" and are considered by the Em-
ployer to be in training for machinists' jobs. The grinders work with
the tool makers and machinists; they do their own setup, and their
duties consist of sharpening tools and grinding parts of fabricated
pieces of apparatus, some of which requires work at close tolerances.
The tool crib attendants are located in the same rooms as, and devote
90 percent of their time to servicing, the other employees now sought
or now represented by the Petitioner. They dispense precision and
cutting tools and related supplies, but do not handle general supplies.
It is apparent that the tool and die makers (now in a craft unit)
together with the additional employees now sought by the Petitioner
form an identifiable homogeneous group with a nucleus of skilled
workers of a type which the Board has held may constitute an appro-
priate unit.'
Accordingly, we shall direct an election among all development
machinists, grinders in the toolroom, tool crib attendants, and toolroom
machine operators in the plants 2 operated by the Employer for the
Atomic Energy Commission at Knolls II, Nishkayuna, at Peek Street,
Schenectady, New York, and at the Alplaus Site, Rexford, New York,
excluding all other employees of the Employer and supervisors as
defined in the Act.
If a majority vote for the Petitioner, they will be taken to have
indicated their desire to be included in the unit for which the Petitioner
was certified on September 26, 1950, and the Regional Director con-
ducting the election directed herein is instructed to issue a certification
of results of election to that effect. If, however, a majority vote for
the Intervenor, they will be taken to have indicated their desire to
remain in the existing unit for which the Intervenor was certified on
September 26, 1950, and the Regional Director will issue a certificate
of results of election to that effect .3
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this
volume.]
I Sargent & Company, 95 NLRB 1515.
2 Including the employees in these classifications working in the special metals shop at
the Knolls II plant. The employees in the special metals shop , which is located near the
main urachine shop at Knolls II, are under the direction of the same assistant general fore-
man as those sought to be merged into one appropriate unit, perform substantially the same
work, and are therefore included in the voting group.
8 See Great Lakes Pipe Line Company, 92 NLRB 583. Compare The Broderick Company
( Header Press Divistion ), 97 NLRB 926 , and W. S. Tyler Company, 93 NLRB 523.