General Electric Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Mar 30, 1955

111 N.L.R.B. 1246 (N.L.R.B. 1955)

1246 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
contrary to the contentions of the Employer and the Intervenor, we
find that all die room employees and all machine shop and blacksmith
and welder shop employees, respectively, may constitute two separate
appropriate units, if they so desire.
Accordingly, we shall direct that elections be held in the following
voting groups of employees of the Employer at its Wicomico plant :
(a) All die room employees, including group leaders, but exclud-
ing all other employees, and supervisors as defined in the Act.
(b) All machine shop and blacksmith and welder shop employees,
including group leaders, but excluding all other employees and super-
visors as defined in the Act.
If a majority of the employees in either of the voting groups above
vote for the Petitioner, they will be taken to have indicated their desire
to constitute a separate appropriate unit, and the Regional Director is
hereby instructed to issue a certification of representatives to the Peti-
tioner for such unit, which the Board, under such circumstances, finds
appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining. In the event
the Petitioner fails to secure a majority of the employees in either unit,
the Board finds the existing unit to be appropriate with respect to
them, and the Regional Director will issue a certification of results
of election to such effect.
[Text of Direction of Elections omitted from publication.]
GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY and FRANK PELC , PETITIONER . Case No.
3-RC-1475. March 30,1955
Decision and Direction of Election
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National
Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before John W. Irving, hear-
ing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free
from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the
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.'
'International Union of Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers, Local No. 320, CIO,
herein called the IUE, intervened by virtue of its claim of contract covering the employees
here involved . International Association of Machinists , herein called the IAM, inter-
vened upon a showing of interest.
3 The IUE asserts its contract covering the Employer 's employees in the Syracuse area
as a bar to this proceeding . For reasons appearing in the discussion of the appropriate
unit, infra, we find that this contract is not a bar
111 NLRB No. 172.
GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY 1247
4. The Petitioner seeks to represent a unit consisting of the pro-
duction and warehouse employees employed at the Employer's tube
warehouse located at Industrial Park, Syracuse, New York. The
IAM agrees with the Petitioner's unit request. The Employer and
the IUE assert that a separate unit of the tube warehouse employees
is not appropriate, and that the only appropriate unit is one compris-
ing all the production and maintenance employees in the Syracuse
area, for which the IUE is the contractual representative.
The Employer's operations at Syracuse are conducted at a number
of locations in and about that city, the farthest being separated by a
distance of about 8 miles. The tube warehouse was originally a part
of the Employer's Electronics Park operations, which is one of the
Employer's several installations in this area. The duties of the tube
warehouse employees consist of testing, inspecting, branding, packing,
and shipping cathode ray television receiving tubes, some of which
are manufactured at Electronics Park, some at Buffalo, New York,
and some of which are manufactured by other companies. These
tubes are utilized in the assembly of the Employer's television sets and
also flow into the tube replacement market. The tube manufacturing
facilities, which had been set up in 1947, and the tube warehouse, set
up in 1949, were housed in the same building at Electronics Park until
February 1952. During that time there was frequent employee inter-
change between the two operations. At that time the tube warehouse
was bargained for as part of the existing unit of employees in the
Syracuse area represented by the IUE.
In February 1952 the Employer, needing additional space for the
tube manufacturing operations, moved the tube warehouse to Auburn,
New York, approximately 25 miles from Syracuse. That move is as-
serted by the Employer to have been merely a temporary one. How-
ever, those employees who did not desire to transfer to Auburn were
allowed to exercise their seniority rights and take other jobs within
the bargaining unit at Syracuse. Four of the employees transferred
to Auburn, but about 20 remained in Syracuse and the job vacancies
thus created in the tube warehouse were filled by employees hired at
Auburn. The operations of this warehouse at Auburn were deemed
to be outside the Syracuse unit, and in April 1952 a consent election
was held among these employees. The IUE failed to obtain a major-
ity in this election and during the remaining 21/2 years at Auburn
these employees were not represented by any union.
In the fall of 1954, the Employer decided to move the tube ware-
house facilities nearer to manufacturing operations and accordingly
moved the warehouse back into the Syracuse area, locating it in Indus-
trial Park approximately 5 miles from its original location in Elec-
tronics Park. The Employer regarded the warehouse as again within
IUE jurisdiction and began taking steps to terminate the Auburn
1248 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
employees, who now commute from Auburn, and to fill their places
from the ranks of unemployed within the Syracuse area unit. When
the petition in this case was filed, the Employer suspended these plans
in order to await Board determination.
The record shows that despite the removal of the tube warehouse
to and from Auburn, the job descriptions, functions, and employee
complement of the operation have remained the same. During the
period at Auburn there was no employee interchange with other opera-
tions, nor has there been any since the return to the Syracuse area.
The tube warehouse is 1 of 5 warehouses within the Employer's tube
department, located at widely separated points throughout the United
States, and all under the general supervision of the Employer's man-
ager of commercial services and warehouses at Schenectady, New
York. Other intermediate supervisors over the tube warehouse are
likewise located outside the Syracuse area. This is not true, however,
of the warehouse employees in other departments within the Syracuse
area. As noted above, during the time that the tube warehouse was
located at Auburn it was regarded as outside the Syracuse bargaining
unit. The only practical change that the recent relocation has effected
appears to be that the tube warehouse is now 5 miles from the manu-
facturing facilities with which it was formerly associated, rather than
25 miles as it was at Auburn.
In the light of all the foregoing circumstances, we believe that the
tube warehouse's relocation within the Syracuse area presents a situ-
ation comparable to that of a newly established plant, and that the
warehouse employees should be given an opportunity to express their
desires as to inclusion in the existing areawide unit. We find that the
tube warehouse may appropriately be included in such unit if the em-
ployees so desire, or on the other hand may constitute a separate appro-
priate unit. We shall therefore make no determination as to unit
inclusion of the tube warehouse employees at the present time, but
shall first ascertain the desire of these employees as expressed in the
election directed herein a
We shall direct an election among the following employees : All pro-
duction and warehouse employees at the Employer's Industrial Park,
Syracuse, New York, tube warehouse, excluding all office clerical em-
ployees, guards, professional employees, and supervisors as defined
in the Act.
If a majority of the employees in the above voting group vote for
the Petitioner or the IAM they will be taken to have indicated their
desire to constitute a separate appropriate unit, and the Regional Di-
rector conducting the election directed herein is instructed to issue a
certification of representatives to such representative for the unit de-
scribed as in paragraph numbered 4, which the Board, under such cir-
. s Scrsvner Stevens Company, 104 NLRB 506 at 507.
GULF ATLANTIC WAREHOUSE COMPANY 1249
cumstances, finds to be appropriate for purposes of collective bargain-
ing. In the event a majority vote for the IUE, they will be taken to
have indicated their desire to be part of the existing unit of employees
in the Syracuse area which the Board, under such circumstances, finds
to be appropriate, and the Regional Director will issue a certification
of results of election to such effect.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.]
GULF ATLANTIC WAREHOUSE COMPANY' ( TERMINAL WAREHOUSE) and
INTERNATIONAL LONGSHOREMEN 'S ASSOCIATION , INDEPENDENT, LO-
CALS 1525 AND 1581, PETITIONER. Case No. 39-RC--881. March 30,
1955
Decision and Order
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, a hearing was held before Wilton Waldrop, hearing
officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from
prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the Act.
2. The labor organizations involved claim to represent certain em-
ployees of the Employer.'
3. No question affecting commerce exists concerning the represen-
tation of employees of the Employer within the meaning of Section
9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act, for the following
reasons:
The Employer, a Delaware corporation engaged in the business of
cotton compressing and warehousing, maintains branch operations in
many of the major cities throughout the South. Its branch operations
at Houston, Texas, comprise four plants, namely, the Terminal Ware-
house plant, the Fifth Ward plant, the Clinton plant, and the Long
Reach plant. The Petitioner, which has represented the employees at
the Long Reach plant since 1938, here seeks a separate unit of produc-
tion employees at the Terminal Warehouse plant, which it contends is
appropriate. The Intervenor contends that the Terminal Warehouse
plant is now, and has been for 5 years represented by the Intervenor
as part of a multiplant unit, and therefore, a unit confined to this plant
is inappropriate. The Employer takes no position on this issue.
The record discloses that in December 1941, as a result of separate
proceedings and individual certifications, the Intervenor became the
'At the hearing, Retail, Wholesale & Department Store Union, CIO, Local 75, was per-
mitted to intervene based upon its contractual relations with the Employer.
111 NLRB No. 175.