Great Lakes Terminal Warehouse Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Dec 13, 1949

87 N.L.R.B. 607 (N.L.R.B. 1949)

In the Matter of GREAT LAKES TERMINAL WAREHOUSE COMPANY, EM-
PLOYER and LOCAL No. 10, INTERNATIONAL UNION OF OPERATING
ENGINEERS, AFL, PETITIONER
Case No. 8-RC-523.-Decided December 13, 1949
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before Bernard
Ness, hearing officer. 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
Reynolds and Gray].
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 em-
ployees 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 Petitioner seeks to represent a separate unit consisting of the
stationary engineers and firemen at the Employer's Toledo, Ohio,
warehouse. The Employer and Intervenor 1 contend that the existing
plant-wide unit of production and maintenance employees is the only
appropriate unit.
There are four engineers who work in an engine room which is part
of the Employer's warehouse. This room is separate from the rest
of the plant. It contains ammonia compressors which furnish re-
frigeration for the warehouse and a boiler which is used to heat the
building during the winter months. The engineers are under the
I The Intervenor , Distribution and warehouse workers Union Local No. 22, International
Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs , Warehousemen and Helpers of America ( AFL),
was permitted to intervene by virtue of its contractual interest . None of the parties
assert , however, that there is a contract bar.
87 NLRB No. 93.
607
608 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
direct supervision of a chief engineer, who is on the same supervisory
level as the warehouse superintendent, who supervises all the ware-
house employees. Three of the engineers have third-class licenses as
engineers while the fourth is licensed as a first-class fireman. They
all perform the same type of work.
All the work of the engineers is performed in the engine room, ex-
cept for checking temperatures in various locations throughout the
warehouse. They do not work together with any other warehouse
employees, except on rare occasions when they assist maintenance
employees in the engine room, under the direction of the chief engi-
neer. The present complement of engineers was hired from outside
sources.
Under these circumstances we find that the engine room department
employees constitute a functionally cohesive and homogeneous group
of the type which the Board has frequently recognized may constitute
a separate unit despite a history of collective bargaining on a plant-
wide basis.2
Accordingly, we find that the following employees of the Employer
may constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective
bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act: all sta-
tionary engineers and firemen at the Employer's Toledo, Ohio, ware-
house, excluding all office and clerical employees, guards, professional
employees, and all supervisors as defined in the Act.
However, we shall make no final unit determination at this time,
but shall first ascertain the desires of these employees as expressed in
the election hereinafter directed. If a majority vote for the Peti-
tioner, they will be taken to have indicated their desire to constitute
a separate appropriate unit.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION 3
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the
purposes of collective bargaining with the Employer, an election by
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 super-
vision 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, among the employees in the
voting group described in paragraph numbered 4, above, who were
employed during the pay-roll period immediately preceding the date
2 Dallas-Fort Worth Brewing Company, 84 NLRB 681 ; H. L. Handy Company, 81 NLRB
425 ; Stcift d Company, 81 NLRB 333.
3 Any participant in the election herein may, upon its prompt request to, and approval
thereof by , the Regional Director , have its name removed from the ballot.
GREAT LAKES TERMINAL WAREHOUSE COMPANY 609
of this Direction of Election, including 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 reinstatement, to determine whether they
desire to be represented , for purposes of collective bargaining, by
Local No. 10 , International Union of Operating Engineers , AFL, or by
Distribution and Warehouse Workers, International Brotherhood of
Teamsters , Chauffeurs , Warehousemen and Helpers of America, Local
22, AFL, or by neither.