General Motors Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jun 10, 1953

105 N.L.R.B. 488 (N.L.R.B. 1953)

488 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
BUICK MOTOR DIVISION, GENERALMOTORS CORPORATION
JET PLANT, WILLOW SPRINGS1 and LOCAL 134, INTER-
NATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS,
AFL, Petitioner
BUICK MOTOR DIVISION, GENERAL MOTORS CORPORA-
TION JET PLANT, WILLOW SPRINGS and INTERNATIONAL
UNION, UNITED AUTOMOBILE, AIRCRAFT AND AGRIC UL-
TURAL IMPLEMENT WORKERS OF AMERICA, CIO, Peti-
tioner
BUICK MOTOR DIVISION, GENERAL MOTORS CORPORA-
TION JET PLANT, WILLOW SPRINGS and CHICAGO TRUCK
DRIVERS, CHAUFFEURS & HELPERS UNION OF CHICAGO
& VICINITY, LOCAL 705, Petitioner. Cases Nos. 13-RC-3228,
13-RC-3260, and 13-RC-3278. June 10, 1953
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
Upon separate petitions duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the
National Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held in the above-
consolidated cases 2 before Richard B. Simon, hearing officer.
The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from
prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.3
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 [Members Houston, Murdock, and
Style s).
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds:
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning
of the Act.
2. Local 134, International Brotherhood of Electrical
Workers, AFL, herein called the IBEW; International Union,
United Automobile, Aircraft and Agricultural Implement
Workers of America, CIO, herein called the UAW; and Chicago
Truck Drivers, Chauffeurs & Helpers Union of Chicago &
Vicinity, Local 705, herein called Local 705, are labor organ-
izations claiming to represent employees of the Employer.
3. The Employer has moved the dismissal of the IBEW's
petition on the ground that the Employer received no formal
request for recognition from the IBEW. However, at the hearing
the Employer stated that if such a request had been made, the
Employer would have declined to grant it. Accordingly, we
hereby deny the Employer's motion and find that a question of
representation exists concerning the representation of
1 The petitions and other formal papers in this proceeding are amended to show the correct
name of the Employer.
2 On March 31, 1953, the Regional Director, pursuant to Section 102.64 (b) of the Board's
Rules and Regulations, Series 6, consolidated the proceedings in the above cases
3 The Employer and the UAW moved the dismissal of the IBEW's petition, and the Em-
ployer moved the dismissal of Local 705's petition on the ground that the units requested in
these petitions are inappropriate. The hearing officer referred these motions to the Board
For the reasons stated in paragraph 4, below, we find these motions to be without merit,
and they are hereby denied.
105 NLRB No. 67.
BUICK MOTOR DIVISION 489
employees of the Employer within the meaning of Section 9 (c)
(1) and Section 2 (6) and ( 7) of the Act.'
4. Local 134 seeks to represent a unit of the Employer's
maintenance electricians and instrument repairmen at the
Employer ' s Willow Springs jet engine plant. Local 705 requests
the establishment of a unit of the Employer ' s outside truck-
drivers . The UAW and the Employer contend that only a
single plantwide unit of production and maintenance employees
is appropriate , although the UAW does not seek to include truck-
drivers in this unit, as does the Employer.
At the plant involved in this proceeding the Employer
manufactures and tests jet aircraft engines. The engines, the
parts for which are produced in other plants , are assembled
on electrically driven production lines. After test runs in the
test cell area, the engines are dismantled , inspected, and
reassembled for shipment.
The maintenance electricians , sought by the IBEW, are
responsible for the maintenance of the electrically driven
production equipment , for the repair of other electrical equip-
ment and electric trucks, and for new electrical construction.
They do no production work , and there is no evidence that they
work outside their craft or that other employees perform
electrical work. Maintenance electricians are separately super-
vised, own many of their own tools , and have headquarters in
the electrical maintenance crib. Although the Employer has
established no apprenticeship program in this newly constructed
plant, maintenance electricians are required , when employed,
to have substantial training and experience in their trade. We
are satisfied that the maintenance electricians are a homoge-
neous group who exercise , in substantial degree, the skills of
journeymen electricians.5
At the hearing the IBEW amended its petition to include in
the unit of maintenance electricians the instrument repairmen
who work in the test cell area. These employees calibrate,
adjust, and repair the electrical instruments used for testing
the assembled jet engines in the test cells. They are separately
supervised and are stationed in an instrument repair room in
the test cell area. As is the case with the maintenance
electricians , the Employer hires only qualified and experienced
instrument repairmen , able to read schematic drawings, to make
changes and setups in electrical instruments , and to repair
and modify electronic apparatus . Not included in the IBEW's
proposed unit are three instrument repairmen stationed in the
main building , who service small power tools, electrical
equipment , and other gauges and instruments . They have the
same wage rates, classification , and basic work as their
counterparts stationed in the test cell area . We believe that the
instrument repairmen in both the test cell area and in the main
building are craftsmen having employment interests essentially
identical to those of the maintenance electricians.
4 American Fruit Growers, Inc., 101 NLRB 740.
SUnited States Time Corporation, 95 NLRB 941; Ravenna Arsenal , Inc., 98 NLRB 1;
Simmons Company, 100 NLRB 1111.
490 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
The Board has previously recognized that maintenance
electricians and instrument repairmen may together constitute
an appropriate unit.6 Although the IBEW has not requested them,
we shall include in the unit the three instrument repairmen
stationed in the main building, in keeping with the Board policy
that all employees exercising the skills of a particular craft
be included in a single unit.T We find that the maintenance
electricians and the instrument repairmen stationed in the test
cell area and in the main building may, if they so desire,
constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective
bargaining , and accordingly we shall establish them as a
separate voting group.
The unit requested by Local 705, and opposed by the
Employer, consists of two outside truckdrivers whom the other
petitioners do not seek to include in their respective units.
These employees are engaged principally in the delivery of
packages and parts to and from the plant . They do no production
work nor do any of the production employees drive company
trucks outside the plant. We find that these truckdrivers may,
if they so desire , constitute a separate bargaining unit ,! and we
shall accordingly establish them as a separate voting group.
5. Although the instant case concerns a new plant in which
the size of the present production and maintenance force has
not reached the employee complement ultimately anticipated,
none of the parties has objected to the direction of an immediate
election . At the time of the hearing , 20 percent of the full
working force had been employed and the Employer indicated
that approximately 50 percent would be employed by May 31,
1953. Upon the entire record in this case , we find that the
employees presently employed are representative of all the
employees to be employed when the plant reaches full pro-
duction. We shall therefore direct an immediate election.9
We shall direct separate elections among the following
groups of employees at the Employer's Willow Springs jet
engine plant:
Group 1. All maintenance electricians, and all instrument
repairmen located in the test cell area andin the main building,
excluding all other employees and all supervisors as defined
in the Act.
Group 2. All outside truckdrivers, excluding all other
employees and all supervisors as defined in the Act. ,
Group 3. All production and maintenance employees and
mechanical employees in the engineering department shops,
excluding the employees in voting groups 1 and 2, employees
of sales, accounting, personnel, and industrial relations
departments; superintendents and assistant superintendents,
general foremen, foremen and assistant foremen, and all other
persons working in a supervisory capacity, including those
6Aluminum Company of America, 86 NLRB 1176; Ford Motor Company, Aircraft Engine
Division, 96 NLRB 1075; Norris-Thermador Corporation, 103 NLRB 1625 Cf. Jefferson
Chemical Company, inc., 98 NLRB 805.
T Westinghouse Electric Corporation, 101 NLRB 441
8 International Paper Company, 94 NLRB 483, 495.
9Delta Match Corporation, 102 NLRB 1400
SHEN- VALLEY MEAT PACKERS, INCORPORATED 491
having a right to hire or discharge, and those whose duties
include recommendations as to hiring or discharging (but not
leaders); and those employees whose work is of a confidential
nature, time-study men, plant-protection employees (but not
to include maintenance patrolmen or fire patrolmen); all
clerical employees, chief engineers and shift operating
engineers in powerplants , drawing board designers , production
estimating and planning engineers , draftsmen and detailers,
physicists, chemists, metallurgists, artists, design artists,
timekeepers , technical school students , indentured appren-
tices , and those technical or professional employees who are
receiving training, kitchen and cafeteria help.10
If a majority of the employees in groups 1 and 2 vote, respec-
tively, for the labor organization seeking to represent that
group separately, the Board finds that the employees in each
group constitute a separate appropriate unit; if a majority
of the employees in group 3 select a different bargaining agent
than that selected by employees in groups 1 and 2, the Board
finds that the employees in group 3 also constitute a separate
appropriate unit. If the employees either in groups 1 and 2 or
both select the same bargaining agent as group 3 employees,
the Board finds that the employees in these groups together
constitute an appropriate unit. The Regional Director conducting
the elections is instructed to issue a certification of represent-
atives to the union or unions for the unit or units which may
result from the elections.
[Text of Direction of Elections omitted from publication.]
to Voting group 3 is substantially the unit agreed to by the Employer and the UAW.
SHEN-VALLEY MEAT PACKERS, INCORPORATED and
PEAR LIE H. BAKER
AMALGAMATED MEAT CUTTERS AND BUTCHER WORKMEN
OF NORTH AMERICA, LOCAL 393, AZ L and PEARLIE H.
BAKER
SHEN-VALLEY MEAT PACKERS, INCORPORATED and
DORIS RODEFFER
AMALGAMATED MEAT CUTTERS AND BUTCHER WORKMEN
OF NORTH AMERICA, LOCAL 393, AFL and DORIS
RODEFFER. Cases Nos. 5-CA-513, 5-CB-86, 5-CA-514,
and 5-CB-87. June 11, 1953
DECISON AND ORDER
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon separate charges duly filed by Pearlie H. Baker and
Doris Rodeffer on September 27, 1951, and amended charges
105 NLRB No. 56.