George D. Roper Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jun 10, 1949

84 N.L.R.B. 103 (N.L.R.B. 1949)

In the Matter of GEORGE D. ROPER CORPORATION, EMPLOYER and UNITED
AUTOMOBILE, AIRCAFT & AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENT WORKERS OF
AMERICA, UAW-CIO, PETITIONER
Case No. 13-RC-4,71.-Decided June 10, 1949
DECISION
AND
ORDER
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before Herman J.
DeKoven, 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-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
National Labor Relations Act.
2. The Petitioner is a labor organization claiming to represent cer-
tain employees of the Employer.
3. No 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, for the following
reasons:
From the position finally taken by the Petitioner at the hearing it
appears that the Petitioner seeks a unit composed solely of the experi-
mental engineers in the Employer's Stove Engineering Department.
The Employer contends that the unit sought is inappropriate. No
labor organization currently represents any of the Employer's engi-
neering employees.
The Employer is engaged at its plant in Rockford, Illinois, the
manufacture of domestic gas stoves and rotary pumps. Its operations
are divided into two divisions, the Stove Division and the Pump Divi-
sion, each of which is under the supervision of a separate works man-
ager. In each division there is an engineering department. The em-
84 N. L. R. B., No. 15.
103
104 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
ployees in the Stove Engineering Department , which is supervised by
a director of engineering and development , are divided into several
groups under the immediate supervision of a plant engineer , product
designer, ceramics engineer , and a chief engineer . The chief en-
gineer supervises several groups of employees including the six experi-
mental engineers sought herein , several research engineers , testing
engineers , a special development engineer , a job simplification and
production engineer , and a blueprint operator.
The six experimental engineers hand-fabricate stove parts on the
basis of which dies , from which the parts are later manufactured, are
produced . They assemble fabricated parts into a complete unit to
test the assembly and mechanical operation of the parts . They ap
prove dies to insure proper production of the fabricated parts and are
required to work on diversified general problems arising in connection
with the development of new stoves or the performance of stoves al-
ready produced . Although most of the projects of these experimental
engineers involve working from their own designs , in about 20 percent
of the projects they fabricate parts from designs prepared by other
engineers in the Stove Engineering Department not included in the
proposed unit. In general, experimental engineers are consulted by
and work on problems with the research engineers , testing engineers,
the advance structural design engineers , drafting and development
engineers , special development engineer , job simplification and pro-
duction engineer , methods engineers and the engineering coordinator,
all of whom perform tasks which are similar to those performed by
the experimental engineers . In addition , the experimental engineers
in the Stove Department , at times, consult with engineers in the Pump
Department on common problems . The training and experience re-
quired for the work performed in both engineering departments is,
for the most part, acquired on the job.
In addition to the close relationship and coordination of the work
of all engineers in the Stove Department , the record discloses that
engineering employees have frequently transferred from one en-i-
neering position to another in the Stove Department , and that there
have also been occasional transfers of engineers from the Pump Divi-
sion to the Stove Division . All employees in the Engineering Depart-
ments are paid on a salary basis except the experimental engineers
and the testing engineers who are hourly paid. The Employer, how-
ever, is in the process of placing the hourly paid employees on a salary
basis. All engineering employees work 40 hours a week, enjoy the
same hospitalization and life insurance program and other conditions
of employment.
GEORGE D. ROPER CORPORATION 105
From the foregoing, it appears that the experimental engineers
function as an integral "part of the Stove Engineering Department.
A unit confined to the experimental engineers is too restricted in its
scope to function as an appropriate collective bargaining unit, and we
shall therefore dismiss the instant petition.'
ORDER
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the petition filed in the instant case by
United Automobile, Aircraft & Agricultural Implement Workers of
America, UAW-CIO, be, and it hereby is, dismissed.
' See Matter of F. W. Sickles Company, 81 N. L R B 390; Matter of The Union Switch't
Signal Company, 76 N. L. R. B. 205 ; Matter of Philharmonic Radio Corporation, 61
N. L. R. B. 1232.