Georgia-Pacific Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jan 17, 1966

156 N.L.R.B. 946 (N.L.R.B. 1966)

946 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
If employees have any question concerning this notice or compliance with its pro-
visions, they may communicate directly with the Board's Regional Office, 6617 Fed-
eral Office Building, 515 Rusk Avenue, Houston, Texas, Telephone No. Capitol
8-0611, Extension 4271.
APPENDIX B
1. Donald L. Alsobrooks 22. Jerry C. Hairgrove 44. Lyt M. Pape
2. Gene E. Ansley 23. Eunice E Hale 45. Granville B. Powell, Jr.
3. Robert C. Baxter 24. Pete M. Harris 46. Troy L. Rawls
4. Jerry W. Broccolo 25. James A. Hibler 47. Joseph J. Raymond
5. Herbert R. Broussard 26. Charles D. Hoover 48. Olie B. Reaves
6. Douglas C. Brown 27. Carl W. James 49. James K. Simmons
7. Jerry W. Brown 28. Edwin A. Keely 50. George A. Smith
8. Jodie Brown 29. Clifton E. Kelley 51. Ralph C. Smith
9. Jones H. Byrd 30. Alois E Kohut 52. Alvin Sofka
10. Dennis E. Cain 31. Woodrow L. Lahrmann 53. Lee R. Sorrels
11. Howard D. Campbell 32. Larry L. Langham 54. Mack Strain
12. Joseph S. Caswell 33. Kenneth L. McHenry 55. Elroy A. Tesch
13. Tex W Cloud 34. Floyd C. Mathews 56. Jimmie D. Tillie
14. James A. Douglas 35. Charles W. Matlock 57. George G. Tinnin
15. Glenn B. Edgeman 36. Emanuel P. Maywald 58. Innis Wagner, Jr.
16. Arthur M. Fedrick 37. Noah T. Melton 59. Melvin W Whitlock
17. Lonnie M. Fedrick 38. Elroy 0 Michael 60. Terry S. Williams
18. Teddy R. Fitchner 39. Jimmy H. Montgomery 61. Daniel M. Wolff
19. Alfred C. Gloyna 40. Arthur T. Nix 62. Willie F. Wolff, Jr.
20. Cletus J. Goetz 41. Jerry L. Odneal 63. John M. Woodson
21. Alexander A. Gutowski 42. Pete P. Ognoskie 64. Eddie R. Zwernemann
43. John H. Owen
APPENDIX C
1. General E. Alsobrooks 9 Charles S. Le Cara 17. Billy J. Phillips
2. David T. Buchanan 10. Louis Manchack 18. Buren E . Risinger
3. Edmund Duve 11. Tommy R. McSwain 19. Paul R. Rush
4. Woodrow Duve 12. Glenn A. Moore 20. Karl D . Strain
5. Ernest R. Eggert 13. Albert L. Ognoskie 21. Zack Strain
6. William C. Herrin 14. Robert L. Parrott 22. Lloyd Tully
7. Jerry W. Kelley 15. Raymond W. Pawlik 23. Roscoe Wells
8. Johnnie Ketchey 16. Alex J. Perez
APPENDIX D
1. Alfred A. Baack 5. Lee R. Kubecka 9. Perry Thomas
2. Andrew S. Duncan 6. Harold D. Lebeck 10. D. A. Weiss
3. Charles D. Felchak 7. Joe E. Stzelecke 11. Eddie J. Zientek
4. James C. Followell 8. Jerry P. Patterson
Georgia-Pacific Corporation and Association of Western Pulp
and Paper Workers, Petitioner
Georgia-Pacific Corporation and Local No . 482, International
Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, AFL-CIO , Petitioner
Georgia-Pacific Corporation , Paper Division , Samoa, Petitioner
and International Brotherhood of Pulp , Sulphite and Paper
Mill Workers , AFL-CIO. Cases Nos. 20-RC-6507, -0O-RC-6544,
and £O-RM-769. January 17,1966
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon separate petitions duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the
National Labor Relations Act, as amended , a consolidated hearing
156 NLRB No. 92.
GEORGIA-PACIFIC CORPORATION 947
was held before Hearing Officer Kenneth Hecht. 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 National
Labor Relations Board has delegated its powers in connection with
these cases to a three-member panel [Chairman McCulloch and Mem-
bers Brown and Zagoria].
Upon the entire record in these cases, including the briefs,' the
Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the Act.
2. The labor organizations involved claim to represent certain
employees of the Employer.2
3. Questions affecting commerce exist concerning the representa-
tion of certain employees of the Employer within the meaning of
Sections 9(c) (1) and 2(6) and (7) of the Act.
4. The Employer processes, manufactures, and sells lumber and
lumber products. Its recently constructed pulp and paper mill, the,
only plant involved herein, is located at ,Samoa, California, on the
same site as the Employer's redwood lumber mill and plywood mill.
There is no bargaining history at the pulp and paper mill.
The Association and the Employer have requested, an election in an
overall unit of production and maintenance employees, which they
contend is the only unit appropriate on the basis of the integrated
nature of the operation and the pattern of bargaining on such basis in
that area. Local 482 seeks elections in separate units of maintenance
electricians and recovery steampower group employees. International
Brotherhood of Pulp, Sulphite and Paper Mill Workers, AFL-CIO,
herein referred to as the International, does not, oppose the units
sought by Local 482.
The Association and the International desire to appear on the ballots
in any election directed, but Local 482 does not desire to appear on the
ballot in the election among the production and maintenance
employees.
The recovery steampower group consists of about 46 employees, 12
in the powerhouse, a separate facility located near the two lumber
mills, and 34 in the recovery area in the pulp and paper mill here
involved. The employees in the powerhouse are engaged exclusively
in the production of power, supplying the two lumber mills as well as
I Briefs were filed by the Employer , the Association of Western Pulp and Paper Work-
ers, herein referred to as the Association , and Local No. 482, International Brotherhood
of Electrical Workers, AFL-CIO, herein referred to as Local 482.
2 At the hearing, all the labor organizations were granted leave to intervene in the
cases in which they were not already parties.
217-919-66-v of 156-61
948 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
the pulp and paper mill. The employees in the recovery area are
similarly engaged, supplying power to the two lumber mills, and
producing about 70 percent of the steam requirements for the pulp and
paper mill. The employees in the recovery area are also engaged in
the recovery of spent chemicals from the production process. Thus,
the production process produces spent chemicals which, after going
through an evaporation process, are fired into two recovery boilers.
These boilers heat the spent chemicals in order to burn off the residue
thereby producing waste heat which is used in the production process
and also in the production of electrical power. The spent chemicals
are recovered from the boilers and processed through a chemical
reactivation process. The reactivated chemicals are then automatically
returned to the first step of the production process, thereby com-
pleting a continuous cycle. Both the chemical recovery and power
production operations are interdependent and necessary for the con-
tinuous production process.
The recovery steampower group employees work under the imme-
diate supervision of the recovery steampower group foreman and of
the power recovery lead operator, who goes back and forth between
the powerhouse and the recovery area. A power boiler fireman is in
charge of the powerhouse.
There is a fixed pattern of job progression within the recovery
steampower group. A new employee in the group begins either in the
powerhouse or in the recovery area as a general helper or utilityman,
and progresses through a series of about 12 jobs to that of recovery
lead operator, the highest job in the recovery steampower group.
Some of the 12 jobs are located in the powerhouse and others in the
recovery area, so that the progression involves working at times in
the powerhouse and at others in the recovery area.
It is apparent, from the foregoing and the entire record, that the
recovery steampower group employees who work in the powerhouse
comprise a functionally distinct group to whom the Board customarily
grants separate representation. Their functions, performed in the
powerhouse, are similar to those performed by the employees in the
recovery area. Both groups of employees share the same supervision,
which is separate from that of other departments. They have a
common pattern of job progression, which involves work in both the
powerhouse and the recovery area, but involves no interchange with
employees in other departments. Under all the circumstances, we
find that all the recovery steampower group employees, including those
in the powerhouse and those in the recovery area, constitute a func-
tionally distinct powerhouse department, appropriate for representa-
tion in a unit by themselves .3
8 Whippany Paper Board Company, Inc., 119 NLRB 1615.
GEORGIA-PACIFIC CORPORATION 949
The 10 maintenance electricians are part of the maintenance depart-
ment, which is under the general supervision of the maintenance
department superintendent. While most of the maintenance depart-
ment employees work under the supervision of general maintenance
foremen, the maintenance electricians work under the immediate
supervision of an electrical supervisor and an electrical foreman.4
Most or all of these maintenance electricians were journeymen with
experience in this industry before they were hired by the Employer,
and they were hired on the basis of such experience. Although these
.maintenance electricians occasionally work alongside other mainte-
nance employees on problems involving more than one trade, their
work is confined to electrical maintenance and repairs. They are
required in the performance of their duties to be familiar with the
maintenance of motors, generators, electronic controls, and other
electrical equipment. If, for example, an electrical motor were to burn
out, a maintenance electrician would determine the cause, and either
repair or replace the motor. A maintenance electrician is also respon-
sible for the electrical work required for instrument installation.
In view of the foregoing and the entire record, particularly the
facts that the maintenance electricians are separately supervised by
electrical supervisors, perform only electrical duties, and are journey-
men hired on the basis of experience in electrical maintenance work,
we find that these electricians constitute a homogeneous group of
skilled craftsmen, appropriate for representation in a unit by them-
selves.5
In determining in this case the character and scope of the unit
or units that will assure employees here involved the fullest freedom
in exercising their Section 7 rights, we have considered the evidence
regarding the integration of the Employer's new operation and the
plantwide pattern of bargaining in the area, together with all other
relevant factors. Upon our appraisal of all the circumstances, includ-
ing the absence of a bargaining history in the plant here involved
on a more inclusive basis, we find the craft and departmental units
above described may be appropriate for the purposes of collective
bargaining if the employees involved desire separate representation.'
In view of our determination that the recovery steampower group
employees and the maintenance electricians may constitute separate
units if they so desire, and as a production and maintenance unit' is
4 We find, in accord with the Employer's contention at the hearing, and contrary to
that of Local 482, that Christianson is a supervisor within the meaning of the Act as he
can effectively recommend hire and discharge of employees.
6 Griffin Wheel Company, 119 NLRB 336.
6 Ketchskan Pulp Company, 115 NLRB 279, 281.
7 This unit description is set forth in accord with the Employer's petition rather than
the Association's petition as it is more nearly in conformity with the 'Board' s usual
terminology.
950 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
a normal unit appropriate for purposes of collective bargaining, we
shall make no final unit determination at this time, but shall direct
separate elections by secret ballot among the following employees
at the Employer's Samoa, California, pulp and paper mill:
(a) All production and maintenance employees, excluding office
clerical employees, professional employees, recovery steampower group
employees, maintenance electricians, guards, and all supervisors as
defined in the Act.
(b) All recovery steampower group employees, including those in ,
the powerhouse and those in the recovery area, excluding all other
employees, guards, and all supervisors as defined in the Act.
(c) All maintenance electricians, excluding all other employees,
guards, and all supervisors as defined in the Act.
If a majority of the employees in voting groups (b) or (c) vote for
Local 482, they will be taken to have indicated their desire to con-
stitute a separate bargaining unit, and the Regional Director con-
ducting the elections is hereby instructed to issue a certificate of
representatives to Local 482 for such unit or units, which the Board
under the circumstances finds to be appropriate for the purposes
of collective bargaining. If, in those circumstances, a majority of the
employees in voting group (a) elect to be represented by either the
Association or the International, then the Regional Director is
instructed to issue a certification of representatives for a separate
unit of production and maintenance employees, which the Board
under the circumstances finds to be appropriate for purposes of col-
lective bargaining.
However, if a majority of the employees in voting group (b) or
(c) do not vote for Local 482, such group or groups will appropriately
be included in the unit with the employees in voting group (a) and
their votes will be pooled with those of voting group (a) .8 The
Regional Director conducting the election is instructed to issue a
certification of representatives to either the Association or the Inter-
national if selected by a majority of the employees in the pooled
group, which the Board in such circumstances finds to be appropriate
for purposes of collective bargaining.
[Text of Direction of Elections omitted from publication.]
8 Pooled votes shall be tallied as follows : Votes for Local 4'82 shall be counted as valid
votes, but neither for nor against the Association or the International All other votes
are to be accorded their face value, whether for representation by the Association, the
International , or for no union.