General Foods Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Oct 6, 1954

110 N.L.R.B. 265 (N.L.R.B. 1954)

GENERAL FOODS CORPORATION 265
GENERAL FOODS CORPORATION, MAXWELL HousE DIVISION and INTER-
NATIONAL UNION OF OPERATING ENGINEERS, STATIONARY LOCAL No_
39, AFL, PETITIONER. Case No. 2O-RC-556. October 6, 1954
Decision and Direction of Election
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before Albert
Schneider, 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 National Labor Relations Act.
2. The labor organizations involved claim 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 appropriate unit :
The Petitioner seeks a unit of all boiler operators, excluding office
clerical employees, production and maintenance employees, guards,
and all supervisors. The Employer and the Intervenor, Warehouse
Union, Local No. 12, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauf-
feurs, Warehousemen & Helpers of America, AFL, contend that the
only appropriate unit is one of all hourly paid production, mainte-
nance, shipping, and receiving employees, excluding office clerical
employees, professional employees, guards, and all supervisors.' Both
the Employer and the Intervenor urge that the unit proposed by the
Petitioner is inappropriate (1) because of the high degree of integra-
tion between the boilerroom operations and the production process,
particularly that of the soluble coffee process division, and (2) because
the employees sought are allegedly not engineers of the type tradition-
ally represented by Petitioner.
The Employer operates a coffee processing plant at San Leandro,
California, consisting of a main building and warehouse, an auxiliary
warehouse, a soluble process building, and a boilerroom building. The
purpose of the boilerroom operation is to produce steam used in the
processing operations of the plant and to burn and dispose of the spent
or waste coffee grounds from the soluble process. The boilerroom
building houses the boilers, a specially equipped furnace, the cooler
tower, food water pumps, deaerators, and other auxiliary boilerroom
equipment, and the coffee grounds disposal equipment including
vibrating screens, screw conveyors, waste press, and the feeder to the
furnace which uses the waste grounds as fuel.
' This is substantially the unit covered by the bargaining agreement currently being rene-
gotiated by the Employer and Intervenor.
110 NLRB No. 31.
266 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
The four boiler operators, under the supervision of the assistant
plant engineer, operate and maintain all of the boilerroom equipment
,on 3 shifts of 8 hours, 7 days a week. In connection with their work
they are required to keep a log of temperatures, pressures, and events
which take place while on duty, and to perform general maintenance
keeping piping connections tight, packing pumps, and lubricating
pumps and conveyors. Major repairs are performed by maintenance
department employees. The Employer has no apprentice training
program for boiler operators. The boiler operators were hired some
18 months ago on the basis of their prior boilerroom experience. Their
job titles and wage rates were incorporated into the Intervenor's 1951
bargaining agreement by a supplemental agreement effective June 12,
1953. Although certain employees in the soluble coffee process opera-
tion use steam pressure equipment, there is no interchange or transfer
of employees between the boilerroom and other departments.
In view of the foregoing, we find that the boiler operators in the
boilerroom constitute a distinct, homogeneous, and functionally coher-
ent departmental group such as the Board has held may constitute a
separate appropriate unit.' Moreover, they are requested by a union
which historically and traditionally represents such powerhouse units.
Under these circumstances, we find that the following employees may
constitute a separate unit appropriate for the purposes of collective
bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act, if they
-so desire :
All boilerroom employees at the San Leandro, California, plant
,of the Employer, excluding office clerical employees, production,
maintenance, shipping and receiving employees, guards, and all super-
visors as defined in the Act.
If a majority vote for the Petitioner, they will be taken to have
indicated their desire to be represented in a separate unit, and the
Regional Director conducting the election directed herein is in-
structed, in that event, to issue a certification of representatives to the
Petitioner for such unit, which the Board, under the circumstances,
finds to be appropriate for purposes of collective bargaining. If, how-
ever, a majority vote for the Intervenor, they will be taken to have
indicated their desire to remain part of the existing production and
-maintenance unit, and the Regional Director is instructed to issue a
,certificate of results of election to such effect.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.]
2 We find no merit in the contention that, because the steam produced by the boilers is
used in the processing of the product rather than to produce power to drive production
machinery , boiler operators are removed from the category of employees usually found in
powerhouse units, nor do we agree that this factor of integration militates against the
propriety of a separate unit. See American Potash & Chemical Corp., 107 NLRB 1418.
Also see New England Confectionery Company, 108 NLRB 728; Stauffer Chemical Com-
,pany , 108 NLRB 1037