General Nailing Machine Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Nov 22, 1948

80 N.L.R.B. 575 (N.L.R.B. 1948)

in the Matter of GENERAL NAILING MACHINE CORPORATION, EMPLOYER
and DISTRICT LODGE No. 87, INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION or M9-
CHINISTS , PETITIONER
Case No. 20-RC-284.-Decided November 22,1948
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before a hearing
officer of the National Labor Relations Board. 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 National Labor
Relations Act, the Board has delegated its powers in connection with
this case to a three-man panel consisting of the undersigned Board
Members.*
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 organization named below claims to represent certain
employees of the Employer.
3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the represen-
tation of certain employees of the Employer, within the meaning of
Section 9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
4. The Employer is engaged in the production of nailing machines,
scales, conveyors, and other packing machines. The Employer and
the Petitioner agree that the following employees at the Employer's
Sanger, California, plant constitute an appropriate collective bar-
gaining unit : production and maintenance employees, but excluding
professional, sales, office and clerical employees, draftsmen, service-
men who work outside the counties of Madera, Fresno, Kings, and
Tulare, guards, and supervisors.
*Chairman Herzog and Members HouPton and Gray.
80 N. L. R. B., No. 97.
575
576 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
The parties are in disagreement over the following employees,
whom the Employer would exclude and the Petitioner would include :
(1) service salesmen 1 who work out of the Sanger plant in Madera,
Fresno, Kings, and Tulare Counties, and (2) service salesman
trainees 2
As to (1) : As the parties admit, and the evidence shows, that
there are presently no service salesmen at the Sanger plant, we find
it unnecessary at the present time to determine their unit placement.
As to (2) : Service salesman trainees are employed for an average
period of 2 years under a training program which is essentially a
course of field instruction in service and repair work; there are
no regular classes, hours of instruction, or textbooks. During the
initial stages of the program, trainees are attached to the assembly
department of the plant and perform the same duties as assembly
-workers. As their knowledge and skill increase, they are sent out to
the field on supervised service and repair trips, in the course of which
they are attached to the sales department. These trips increase in
frequency until, by the end of the training period, the trainees are
almost entirely employed in extra-plant work.
When they complete this training and become full-fledged salesmen,
these men then will devote all their time to installation, service, and
repair work away from the plant. As such, they will sell replacement
part kits to customers on a commission basis, in the course of service
and repair calls.
It is our opinion that the interests of the service salesman trainees
lie in extra-plant activities rather than with those of the production
workers within the plant. We shall, therefore, exclude them from
the proposed plant-wide unit of production and maintenance em-
ployees.3
We find that all production and maintenance employees at the Em-
ployer's Sanger, California, plant, but excluding service salesman
trainees, professional, sales, office and clerical employees, draftsmen,
service salesman trainees, and supervisors, constitute a unit appro-
priate for collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b)
of the Act.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the
purposes of collective bargaining with the Employer, an election by
1 Service salesman are listed by the Petitioner as service mechanics.
2 Service salesman trainees are listed by the Petitioner as service mechanics ' helpers
and apprentices.
3 See Matter of 0. Philip Faucher, d /b/a Superior Bakery, 78 N. L. R. B. 1172.
GENERAL NAILING MACHINE CORPORATION X77
secret ballot shall be conducted as early as possible , but not later than
30 days from the date of this Direction , under the direction and
supervision of the Regional Director for the Region in which this
case was heard, and subject to Sections 203.61 and 203.62 of. National
Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 5, as amended,
among the employees in the unit found appropriate in paragraph
numbered 4, above, who were employed during the pay-roll period
immediately preceding the date of this Direction of Election , includ-
ing employees who did not work during said pay-roll period because
they were ill or on vacation or temporarily laid off , but excluding
those employees who have since quit or been discharged for cause and
have not been rehired or reinstated prior to the date of the election,
and also excluding employees on strike who are not entitled to re-
instatement , to determine whether or not they desire to be represented,
for purposes of collective bargaining , by District Lodge No. 87, Inter-
national Association of Machinists.