General Foods Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jan 24, 1952

97 N.L.R.B. 1243 (N.L.R.B. 1952)

GENE'R'AL FOODS CORPORATION 1243
the Intervenor thereupon executed a supplement to the March 1950
contract, specifically providing for the reinclusion of the Cambridge
plant within the multiplant unit covered by that agreement.
In view of the foregoing facts, and in the light of the substantial col-
lective bargaining history on a multiplant basis which, except for a
single brief interval, has included the Cambridge plant, we find that
a unit limited to the Cambridge plant and Waltham warehouse is in-
appropriate for collective bargaining purposes.- We shall, for this
reason, reaffirm the Board's dismissal of the petition.
Order
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the Petitioner's motion, insofar as it re-
quests that the Board's order dismissing the petition be reversed, be,
and it hereby is denied.
10 Robert (lair Co., Inc., 77 NLRB 649; Bethlehen-Fairfield Shipyard, Incorporated,
58 NLRB 579 . See also Basalt Rock Company, Inc., 96 NLRB 1058; National Cash
Register Company, 95 NLRB 902.
GENERAL FOODS CORPORATION (MAXWELL HOUSE DIVISION) and LOCAL
#304 of INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS, PETITIONER.
Case No. 2-KC--5'186. January 04,1950
Decision and Direction of Elections
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, a hearing was held before Merton C. Bernstein, 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 Act, the Board has
delegated its powers in connection with this case to a three-member
panel [Chairman Herzog and Members 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
Act.
2. The labor organizations involved claim to represent employees of
the Employer.
3. The Employer and Local 56, Meat & Cannery Workers Union,
.affiliated with Amalgamated Meat Cutters & Butcher Workmen of
North America, AFL, herein called the Intervenor, contend that a
current collective bargaining contract, as amended and extended, con-
stitutes a bar to the instant petition. The Petitioner contends that the
contract is not a bar, because it was prematurely extended by the
Employer and the Intervenor.
97 NLRB No. 186.
1244 'DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
On March 25, 1949, the Employer and the Intervenor executed a
2-year collective bargaining contract, with a 60-day automatic renewal
clause, covering production and maintenance employees at the Employ-
er's Hoboken, New Jersey, plant. On November 16, 1950, the Peti-
tioner made an initial demand in writing for recognition as bargaining
representative of certain craft groups in the contract unit. On De-
cember 1, 1950, the Employer and the Intervenor executed a supple-
mental agreement which provided for wage increases and extended
the term of the contract for a period of 2 years, to March 24, 1953.
On December 11, 1950, the Petitioner repeated its request for recogni-
tion and was refused. On December 18, 1950, the Petitioner filed its
instant petition. -
The Employer and the Intervenor contend that, because the Peti-
tioner permitted more than 10 days to elapse between the date on which
it made its initial request for recognition and the date on which it filed
its petition, the current contract, as amended and extended, operates as
a bar, under the General Electric X-Ray doctrine." We do not agree.
As the supplemental agreement of December 1, 1950, was executed prior
to the Mill B date of the contract, this agreement constituted a prema-
ture extension of the contract and cannot therefore operate as a bar to
the petition, which was also filed prior to the Mill B date.2
We find that a question affecting commerce exists concerning the rep-
resentation of the 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 to sever, on a craft basis, four separate groups
of maintenance employees from an existing unit of production and
maintenance employees at the Employer's Hoboken, New Jersey, plant,
as follows: (a) Machinists, including adjusters and mechanics; (b)
pipefitters; (c) welders; and (d) sheet metal workers. In the alterna-
tive, the Petitioner seeks to represent employees in these categories in
whatever units or combination of units the Board may find appropri-
ate. The Employer and the Intervenor allege that the high degree of
integration among all employees at the Hoboken plant and a 4-year
bargaining history on a plant-wide basis preclude the establishment of
the separate units sought by the Petitioner.
The Employer's Operations
The Employer's Hoboken plant is a relatively large installation,
comprising 5 buildings and furnishing employment to approximately
3 General Electric X-Ray Corporation , 67 NLRB 997.
2 Indiana Desk Company, Inc., 82 NLRB 103.
Because the premature extension of the contract removes it as a bar , we find it unnec-
essary to consider the other contentions of the parties with respect to the contract.
GENERAL FOODS CORPORATION 1245
500 production and maintenance employees. Three buildings 3 house
the Employer's main production departments, known as the regular
coffee, Sanka extraction, and soluble coffee departments. The plant
manager is in over-all charge of the plant. To him report all sub-
ordinate production managers and department heads and the plant
engineer, who is in charge of the engineering department. Employees
directly involved in this proceeding include 41 of the approximately
74 employees in the maintenance division of the engineering depart-
ment and 2 other employees known as maintenance mechanics attached
to the Sanka extraction production department. These latter em-
ployees work under the supervision of the Sanka extraction produc-
tion foreman. Other employees sought by the Petitioner are under
the supervision of maintenance department foremen. They include
employees permanently assigned to work under maintenance super-
vision in specified areas, including production areas, and a mis-
cellaneous group of maintenance employees who daily report to a
labor pool for assignments to maintenance duties throughout the plant
wherever they happen to be needed.
Maintenance employees spend substantial portions of their time
in productiop areas where they install, service, remove, and repair
machinery and equipment. They operate production machinery only
for test purposes. Production employees do not assist them in repair
work except for repairs requiring less than 15 minutes for completion.
In the event of major breakdowns in production machinery, produc-
tion employees are shifted to other production areas, while mainte-
nance division employees perform the necessary repairs, fabricating
new parts whenever necessary and using the customary machines and
tools of their trade. Although the time spent by maintenance em-
ployees in production departments is charged to those departments
for bookkeeping purposes, maintenance division employees remain
attached to their division and under the supervision of maintenance
division foremen.
Production and maintenance employees at the plant are paid on
an hourly basis. Job vacancies are posted for 2 days in the depart-
ments in which they occur, and are then posted plant-wide. Mainte-
nance duties and positions are frequently filled by permanent transfers
from production. departments. Transfers are also made of adjusters
and mechanics and maintenance mechanics within the classifications
sought by the Petitioner.4 The Employer has no formal employee
3 A fourth building houses the main office . The fifth building is under lease to and staffed
by the American Can Company.
* Although the current contract reserves to the Employer the right to transfer maintenance
employees to production jobs, and vice versa, for periods of up to a week in duration, no
such temporary transfers appear to have taken place among employees in the classifications
sought by the Petitioner.
1246 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
apprentice training program, but it normally hires skilled workmen
in traditional craft classifications . Employee benefits are uniform
for all employees.
It is clear from the foregoing that the degree of integration and the
4-year period of bargaining on a plant-wide basis are not sufficient
to override the special community of interests of craft groups in the
maintenance department ,' if the proposed units are in fact craft or
traditional groups generally found appropriate for bargaining on a
separate basis.
The Proposed Units
Pipe fiitters. Three pipefitters, designated as craftsmen B, spend
approximately 80 percent of their time in regular pipe-fitting work,
including the maintenance and repair of water, steam, and metal
conduits. They spend approximately 20 percent of their time in
related activities such as the removal and capping of pipe; the balance
of their time they spend in general mechanical work. Their regular
job entails the making and using of sketches, and cutting, threading,
installing, and removing of many kinds of pipe. They perform this
work in the machine shop, using the traditional skills Qnd standard
tools of their trade.
Welders. Welders,° designated as craftsmen B, spend up to 75 per-
cent of their time welding. They spend approximately 50 percent of
their time in a special welding booth in the machine shop where they
lay out and weld many types of metallic equipment. They perform
are and acetylene welding and are experienced welders. They spend
the remainder of their time performing mechanical work similar to
that done by maintenance mechanics and millwrights.
Sheet metal workers. Two sheet metal workers, designated as
craftsmen A, spend 90 percent of their time in sheet metal work and
nearly all of the balance of their time in allied'work. They perform
approximately 75 percent of their work in the machine shop, where
they do layout, cutting, and finishing of various types of metals,
using machine shop tools and their personal, hand tools. They are
skilled workers.
Machinists. Nine machinists, known as craftsmen A,' repair and
maintain production machinery throughout the plant. In the course
of their work they spend approximately 85 percent of their time in
the machine shop, fabricating tools and machine parts and using
International Paper Company ( Southern Kraft Division), 94 NLRB 483.
At the time of the hearing only one welder was employed but the Employer expected to
have its normal complement of two welders work shortly.
a Employees at the Hoboken plant are designated as craftsmen A or B without specific
craft designations . They are paid wage differentials accordingly.
GENERAL FOODS CORPORATION 1247
machine and personal hand tools. They work occasionally from blue-
prints and to tolerances of 5/10000 of an inch. The machinists are
highly skilled.
Mechanics and adjusters. The seven mechanics and adjusters,
whom the Petitioner seeks to include in the machinists' unit, repair
and maintain packing machinery, in the course of which four of their
number,-who alone have knowledge of machine tools, work in the
machine shop. They are less skilled than machinists and serve no
apprenticeship.
Other mechanics. Two maintenance mechanic-millwrights, desig-
nated as craftsmen B, spend 20 to 40 percent of their time in the
machine shop, and install machinery, perform machinery repairs,
rigging, and a small amount of electrical pipe fitting and sheet metal
work. They have no special craft training. The scale mechanic,
designated as craftsman B, using his own hand tools, spends half
his time in testing, repairing, and maintaining nonelectrical scales
throughout the plant, and the remainder of his time in rigging and
heavy labor. Two maintenance mechanics, attached to the Sanka ex-
traction department, perform general maintenance work, including a
substantial amount of pipe fitting. These mechanics constitute only
a segment of the mechanics in the maintenance division at the Hoboken
plant, which also includes electric truck mechanics, elevator mechanics,
instrument mechanics, and a building maintenance mechanic.a
We find that, of the several classifications of employees sought to
be represented by the Petitioner, pipe fitters, welders, sheet metal
workers, and the machinists, respectively, constitute traditional craft
groups of specially skilled workers who perform the customary work
of their respective crafts and that these separate groups may, if they
so desire, constitute separate collective bargaining units.9
With regard to the various classifications of mechanics and machine
adjusters, we find, contrary to the Petitioner's contention, that these
employees constitute a heterogeneous group without distinct particu-
lar craft skills, and that they are not entitled to severance as a separate
craft unit nor should they in whole or in part be joined to the ma-
chinists' group for bargaining on a craft basis.19
We shall direct separate elections among the following groups of
employees at the Employer's Hoboken, New -Jersey, plant, excluding
therefrom machine adjusters and mechanics, maintenance mechanics-
B. P. Avery t Sons Company, 86 NLRB 24.
°International Paper Company (Southern Kraft Division ), supra . Compare Scotten
Dillon Company, 93 NLRB 1112, and The Nestle Company, 92 NLRB 1250, cited by the
Employer and the Intervenor, where the Board denied severances to employee groups
without craft skills.
10 Scotten Dillon Company, supra.
1248 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
millwrights , the scale mechanic, maintenance mechanics , trades
helpers," clerical and professional employees , watchmen , guards, and
supervisors , within the meaning of the Act :
( a) All machinists.
(b) -All pipefitters.
( c) All welders.
(d) All sheet metal workers.
5. If a majority of the employees in any of the voting groups de-
scribed in paragraph numbered 4 indicate, by voting for the Petitioner,
their desire to be represented in a separate unit, the Board finds such
unit to be appropriate , and the Regional Director conducting the elec-
tions directed herein is instructed to issue a certification of representa-
tives to the Petitioner for each such unit. If a majority of the em-
ployees in all the voting groups vote for the Intervenor , the Board
finds the existing production and maintenance unit to be appropriate,
and the Regional Director shall issue a certificate of results of elections
to that effect . If a majority of the employees in some, but not all, of
the voting groups vote for the Intervenor , the Board finds all em-
ployees in the groups so voting to be appropriately represented in the
residual production and maintenance unit, and the Regional Director
shall issue a certificate of results of elections to that effect.
[Text of Direction of Elections omitted from publication in this
volume.]
"Trades helpers assist employees in most of the voting groups, but do not specialize in
their craft work . The parties agree to their exclusion.
GENERAL CHEMICAL DIvIsIoN, ALLIED CHEMICAL AND DYE CORPORATION
and INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS, LOCAL
UNION 11, AFL, PETITIONER. Case No. 21-RC-2128. January 25,
1952
Decision and Order
Upon a petition filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, a hearing was held before Ben Grodsky, hearing officer.
The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from preju-
dicial error and are hereby affirmed.
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3 (b) of the Act, the Board
has delegated its powers in connection with this case to a three-member
panel [Chairman Herzog and Members Houston and Murdock].
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the
Act.
97 NLRB No. 209.