General Electric Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Sep 11, 1967

167 N.L.R.B. 394 (N.L.R.B. 1967)

394 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD General Electric Company and International As- sociation of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, AFL-CIO, Petitioner . Case 15-RC-3432 September 11, 1967 DECISION ON REVIEW AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION BY MEMBERS BROWN , JENKINS , AND ZAGORIA On November 10, 1966, the Regional Director for Region 15 issued his Decision and Order in the above-entitled proceeding, in which he dismissed the petition on the ground that the unit or units requested were inappropriate. Thereafter, in ac- cordance with Section 102.67 of the National Labor Relations Board's Rules and Regualtions and Statements of Procedure, Series 8, as amended, the Petitioner filed a timely request for review of the Regional Director's Decision, contending, inter alia, that in failing to find its primary or alternative unit requests appropriate he departed from established Board policy. The Employer filed op- position. By telegraphic Order dated March 22, 1967, the National Labor Relations Board granted the request for review. Thereafter the Employer filed a timely brief on review and a request for oral argument. 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. The Board has reviewed the entire record in this case' with respect to the issues under review, in- cluding the briefs of the parties, and makes the fol- lowing findings: The Employer, together with The Boeing Com- pany, North American Aviation, Inc., and others, has prime contracts with National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) at its Mississippi Test Facility, herein called the Facility, where the first two stages of the Saturn V Missile are being tested. Under its -contract the Employer performs various functions in support of the test program, in part through the services of a number of subcon- tractors,2 and in part through its own Mississippi Test Support Department which is subdivided ad- ministratively into 10 sections: malta test operation ,3 legal, relations, finance, contracts, advance pro- graming, logistics, site services, engineering, and test support. The total complement of the Em- ployer's employees at the Facility numbers about As the record and the briefs of the parties adequately present the is- sues and the positions of the parties , the request for oral argument is hereby denied 2 The operations of some of the subcontractors are described in Space Services International Corporation, et al, 156 NLRB 1227 3 Malta test operation is located in Boston and New York 4 Also located at the site maintenance building are the utilities subsec- 1,600, of which approximately 380 are production and maintenance employees . There has been no his- tory of collective bargaining for any of such em- ployees. The Petitioner 's primary request is for a unit of the maintenance employees in the test and site maintenance subsection of the test support section. It also makes alternative requests , first, for a broader unit of maintenance employees within the test support section , and second , for several separate units of employees in the test and site maintenance subsection based on the type of craft work they do. The Employer contends that the units requested by the Petitioner are arbitrary seg- ments of a unit of its production and maintenance employees at the Facility , which is alone ap- propriate . The Intervenor , International Brother- hood of Electrical Workers, AFL-CIO, Local Union 903, agrees with the Petitioner 's primary unit request. The test support section has about 150 em- ployees under the section manager . Test support section employees have a substantial amount of work contact with each other and , to a lesser extent, with employees in other sections , and with em- ployees of subcontractors and other prime contrac- tors . Most of the employees in issue are classified as "technicians "; all are salaried and most are in the same pay ranges ; all share the same fringe benefits and conditions of employment . Although there has been little interchange , the Employer practices de- partmentwide seniority in the event of layoffs under which qualified employees may bump into other technician positions. The test support section is subdivided into a number of subsections : test and site maintenance; utilities ; propellants and high pressure gases; and components service facility and phase III. Test and site maintenance , with 50 employees, performs much of the major maintenance work done at the Facility . It is headquartered at the site maintenance building .4 The subsection has fabrica- tion , mechanical , machine , and electrical sub- groups , and employs various craftsmen , including electricians, machinists , mechanics , sheetmetal workers , certified welders , pipefitters , and their ap- prentices , who perform work within their respective crafts either in shops in the site maintenance build- ing or , as required , throughout the facility. Also em- ployed in the subsection are several expeditors, a toolcrib attendant, and a utilityman. The utilities subsection has 20 employees en- gaged in the operation and maintenance of electri- tion linemen , a components service facility shop and cleanroom, about two quality assurance technicians, and employees of certain of the Em- ployer's subcontractors In addition, the Employer's bnef on review states that since the hearing, the test complex support subgroup, formerly part of propellants and high pressure gases, is now under the test and site main- tenance subsection, and that its employees, who number about 13, have been moved to the site maintenance building 167 NLRB No. 49 GENERAL ELECTRIC CO 395 cal, natural gas, water , sewerage , air-conditioning, heating , and ventilating systems throughout the Facility. It has two subgroups : high pressure indus- trial water plant and electrical distribution. All of the employees of the former subgroup and half the employees of the latter work at the Industrial Water Pump Station , where they operate electrical genera- tors , consoles, and switches . Much of this work is similar to that done by typical powerhouse em- ployees . In addition , they perform some main- tenance work upon the aforementioned devices, and upon portable and emergency electric generat- ing equipment , diesel engines , valves , and pumps. The other half of the electrical distribution sub- group employees are linemen who are headquar- tered at the site maintenance building but spend most of their time throughout the Facility, maintain- ing the high -voltage lines and electrical substations, repairing lighting fixtures, and replacing lights. The propellants and high pressure gases subsection has 53 employees engaged in the opera- tion and maintenance of storage and transfer systems for liquid hydrogen , liquid oxygen, and RP-1,5 all used as rocket propellants, and hydrogen , nitrogen , helium , and air , kept under high pressures . The employees are pipefitters, mechanics , electricians, and eletronic technicians. There are three subgroups : propellants , high pres- sure gases , and test complex support .6 The high pressure gases employees normally work at two compressor stations , where they operate and main- tain compressors , filters and purifiers , electric mo- tors , and various control and instrumentation systems . They also check a 17-mile network of pipe and related valves for leaks , removing and replacing valves when necessary. At other times they bottle and deliver gases to points to which the pipeline does not extend . The propellants subgroup em- ployees perform similar maintenance functions upon the motors , pumps , valves, and instrumenta- tion on the cryogenic barges , which store liquid hydrogen and oxygen at very low temperatures. They also perform maintenance functions at the RP-I storage area ; and for a related system of pipeline . The test complex support subgroup per- forms functions similar to those described above, performed by the utilities subsection , and by the high pressure gases and propellants subgroups, ex- cept that its employees work within the test com- plexes, the area immediately adjacent to the stands where the rockets are tested , and perform their work upon request of the stage contractors. The interim components service facility, a sub- group of the components service facility and phase III subsection,' is engaged in disassembling , repair- ing, cleaning , reassembling , testing and sealing fuel and high-pressure valves, and cleaning fuel and high-pressure lines and all other components that NASA requires to be free from contamination. The subgroup employes about 22 mechanics and pipefit- ters with cryogenic valve experience. As previously indicated, its shop and cleanroom are located in the site maintenance building. The Employer urges that the appropriate unit should include about 230 additional employees who are employed in the engineering, logistics, and site services sections. The engineering section has a number of subsec- tions, among them, electronics, instrumentation and materials laboratories (EI&M); test data systems; and quality control and reliability. EI&M has about 80 employees who perform test- ing and calibration in a number of laboratories housed in one of a cluster of buildings located near the Facility administration building. Thus, the materials analysis and chemical laboratories test materials, propellants, and gases; the measurement standards laboratory maintains standards for calibration; the pressure and strain laboratory and the temperature and flow laboratory calibrate and test various gauges. In addition, a photographic laboratory processes film and repairs photographic equipment. EI&M has a technical service subgroup which makes various prototypes. It also has a field support subgroup which maintains and repairs television, telemetric, and other electronic gear, in- cluding various sitewide systems, such as the inter- communications, fire alarm, oral warning, and dis- play systems. In connection with the foregoing ac- tivities, EI&M operates small machine, fabrication, and electrical shops, and a small cleanroom. Most of the EI&M employees spend the bulk of their time in the laboratory building where they have a considerable amount of work association with professional employees in the engineering section. Many EI&M employees have had at least some col- lege training. The test data systems subsection has 55 techni- cians who operate and maintain measurement equipment at the test complexes, and ground telemetry, computer, and related equipment at the Data Handling Center, adjacent to the EI&M build- ing. The preventive and corrective maintenance work they do is related solely to such equipment. The quality control and reliability subsection is responsible for reviewing quality control data and performing quality control tests in order to assure NASA that various jobs performed by the Em- ployer and its subcontractors meet NASA specifi- cations. The approximately 60 quality assurance technicians are accordingly stationed at various lo- cations throughout the Facility, including some 5 RP-l is a feul similar to kerosene r So far as appears from the record, other subgroups of the subsection 6 As above noted, it appears that the employees in the text complex employ no maintenance employees support subgroup are now under test and site maintenance 396 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD where test support section employees are also sta- tioned. They are shifted around the Facility accord- ing to need. The quality assurance technicians uti- lize electrical, electronic, electromechanical, cryogenic, and high pressure skills in performing their duties. The logistics section is engaged in purchasing, provisioning, inventory control, warehousing, and related functions. About 25 employees, all clas- sified as supply processors, are stationed at a warehouse near the site maintenance building where they perform material handling duties and make deliveries to other locations at the Facility. They perform no maintenance work. The site services section is engaged in such func- tions as delivering mail and operating duplicating and reproduction machines. The section also has about nine employees classified as bridge and lock tenders and tugboat crewmen who, as part of their duties, perform unspecified maintenance work. The Regional Director was of the opinion that the nature of the Employer's function at the Facil- ity-to test-obliterates the distinction between production and maintenance work and that the level of integration in the Employer's operation is suffi- ciently high to preclude the appropriateness of any unit smaller than an overall production and main- tenance unit comprising all the employees described above. The Petitioner contends that the Regional Director departed from established Board precedent in failing to find appropriate a unit com- posed of employees who perform the bulk of the Employer's maintenance work. We find merit in the Petitioner's contention. It is clear from the foregoing that the overall production and maintenance unit proposed by the Employer may be appropriate. However, in the absence of any history of collective bargaining, and where no labor organization is seeking a broader ap- propriate unit, the Board has long held that the peti- tioning labor organization needs only to establish that the narrower unit of employees it seeks to represent is also appropriate.8 With respect to the Petitioner's primary unit request, inasmuch as the test and site maintenance subsection is not a major administrative subdivision of the Employer's opera- tions, as its employees share maintenance functions and have substantial work contacts with employees in other subsections of the test support section, we find, in agreement with the Regional Director, that the subsection employees do not constitute an ap- propriate unit of maintenance employees. However, the facts above set forth demonstrate to our satisfaction that the test support section is a major administrative subdivision of the Employer's Mississippi Test Support Department, and that the section employees, under separate supervision, per- form traditional maintenance functions for the Facility. Although employees in other major sub- divisions do some maintenance work, we find that such employees are either technical employees as defined by the Board or specialists and that the maintenance work they do is incidental to the pri- mary specialized functions they perform. Moreover, the test support section is comprised al- most entirely of technicians in the same labor grades who are primarily engaged in maintenance functions and whose work contacts are primarily with each other rather than with employees in other sections. We find, therefore, in accord with the Peti- tioner's first alternative request, that the main- tenance employees in the test support section are an identifiable and distinct group with a community of interest apart from other employees, and that they constitute an appropriate unit for the purposes of collective bargaining.9 Accordingly, we find that a question affecting commerce exists concerning the representation of certain employees of the Employer within the meaning of Sections 9(c)(1) and 2(6) and (7) of the Act, and that the following employees of the Em- ployer constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Sec- tion 9(b) of the Act: All maintenance employees employed in the test support section of the Employer's Mississippi Test Support Department at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Mississippi Test Facili- ty, Hancock County, Mississippi, excluding office clerical employees, professional employees, all other employees, watchmen, guards, and super- visors as defined in the Act. [Direction of Election10 11 omitted from publica- tion.] 8 Adams Drug Co, Inc, 164 NLRB 594, The Western and Southern Life Insurance Company, 163 NLRB 138 8 S. D Warren Company, 144 NLRB 204, 150 NLRB 288, enfd. 353 F.2d 494 (C.A 1), cert denied 383 U S 958, Chas Pfizer & Co, Inc, 162 NLRB 1501 18 As the Petitioner 's showing of interest in the unit found appropriate is not clear, the Direction of Election is subject to the Regional Director's ascertaining that the Petitioner has an adequate showing of interest in that unit. 11 An election eligibility list, containing the names and addresses of all the eligible voters , must be filed by the Employer with the Regional Director for Region 15 within 7 days after the date of this Decision on Review and Direction of Election The list may initially be used by the Regional Director to assist in determining an adequate showing of in- terest The Regional Director shall make the list available to all parties to the election when he shall have determined that an adequate showing of interest among the employees in the unit found appropriate has been established. No extension of time to file this list shall be granted by the Regional Director except in extraordinary circumstances Failure to comply with this requirement shall be grounds for setting aside the elec- tion whenever proper objections are filed Excelsior Underwear Inc., 156 NLRB 1236