Harris-Seybold-Potter Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Feb 26, 1946

65 N.L.R.B. 1423 (N.L.R.B. 1946)

In the Matter Of HARRIS-SEYBOLD-POTTER COMPANY and UNITED ELEC-
TRICAL, RADIO & MACHINE WORKERS OF AMERICA, C. I. O.
Case No. 9-R-1951.-Decided February 26, 1946
Messrs. C. C. Sorenson and G. C. Houck, of Cleveland, Ohio, and
Mr. D. E. Dredge, of Dayton, Ohio, for the Company.
Messrs. Forrest Payne and Leonard Goar, of Dayton, Ohio, for the
Union.
Mr. Julius Topol, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon a petition duly filed by United Electrical, Radio & Machine
Workers of America, C. I. 0., herein called the Union, alleging that a
question affecting commerce had arisen concerning the representation
of employees of Harris-Seybold-Potter Company, Dayton, Ohio, herein
called the Company, the National Labor Relations Board provided for
an appropriate hearing upon due notice before James A. Shaw, Trial
Examiner. Said hearing was held at Dayton, Ohio, on November
20, 1945. The Company and the Union appeared and participated.
All parties were afforded full opportunity to be heard, to examine and
cross-examine witnesses, and to introduce evidence bearing on the is-
sues. The Trial Examiner's rulings made at the hearing are free
from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed. All parties were
afforded an opportunity to file briefs with the Board.
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following :
FINDINGS OF FACT
1. THE BUSINESS OF COMPANY
Harris-Seybold-Potter Company, a Delaware corporation, operates
two plants in the State of Ohio, one located in Dayton, and the other
in Cleveland. We are here concerned with the Company's Dayton
plant. At the time of the hearing the Company was engaged in the
manufacture, sale, and distribution of paper cutting and paper proc-
65 N. L. R. B., No. 235.
1423
679100-46-vol. 65-91
1424 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
essing machinery and offset printing presses. During, the 12-month
period preceding the hearing the Company produced equipment val-
ued in excess of $2,000,000, of which 60 percent was shipped to points
outside the State of Ohio.
The Company admits that it is engaged in commerce within the
meaning of the National Labor Relations Act.
II. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED
United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America, affiliated
with the Congress of Industrial Organizations, is a labor organization
admitting to membership employees of the Company.
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
The Company has refused to grant recognition to the Union as the
exclusive bargaining representative of the time checkers at its Dayton
plant until the Union has been certified by the Board in an appropriate
unit.
A statement of a Board agent, introduced into evidence at the hear-
ing, indicates that the Union represents a substantial number of em-
ployees in the unit hereinafter found appropriate'
We find that a question affecting commerce has arisen concerning
representation of employees of the Company, within the meaning of
Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT
The Union seeks an election among all time checkers in the Com-
pany's plant at Dayton, Ohio, and requests that, if a majority of those
voting in that election select the Union, the time checkers be found to
be part of the production and maintenance unit already represented
by the Union. In the alternative the Union requests that the time
checkers ' be found to constitute a separate appropriate unit. The
Company not only opposes the inclusion of the time checkers in the
same unit with the production and maintenance employees, but also
contends that they are so closely allied with management that they
cannot constitute any appropriate unit.
The time checkers, of whom there are about 12, work at various
locations in the plant area. They are engaged primarily in obtaining
data as to time spent by employees on various jobs. Production em-
ployees report to the time checkers when they begin and when they
complete their job assignments so that their time may be allocated to
' The Field Examiner reported that the Union submitted 8 authorization cards, 6 of
which bore the names of time checkers in the Company 's employ. There are approximately
12 employees In the appropriate unit.
HARRIS-SEYBOLD-POTTER COMPANY 1425
the proper jobs and recorded by the time checkers on appropriate
forms . These records are then sent to the pay-roll department for
computation of the employees' earnings and also provide the basis for
determining the cost of each job. They exercise no supervision over
the production employees and their work, although distinctly differ-
ent in type from that of the production employees, is of a routine
nature and is not confidential with respect to labor relations matters.
Unlike production employees who are hourly paid, the time checkers
are paid a monthly salary. On the entire record, we are of the opinion
and find that the functions and duties of time checkers are not such
as to preclude their inclusion in a collective bargaining unit. We
are, however, satisfied that their interest and duties are sufficiently
different from those of the production employees to warrant their
being set apart in a separate bargaining Unit .2
Accordingly, we find that all time checkers in the Company's plant
at Dayton, Ohio, excluding all or any supervisory employees with
authority to hire, promote, discharge, discipline, or otherwise effect
changes in the status of employees, or effectively recommend such
action, constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes. of collective
bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
V. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
We shall direct that the question concerning representation which
has arisen be resolved by an election by secret ballot among the
employees in the appropriate unit who were employed during the
pay-roll period immediately preceding the date of the Direction of
Election herein, subject to the limitations and additions set forth in
the Direction.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
By virtue of and pursuant to the power vested in the National
Labor Relations Board by Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Rela-
tions Act, and pursuant to Article III, Section. 9, of National Labor
Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 3, as amended, it is
hereby
, See Matter of General Motors Corporation , Eastern Aircraft, Trenton Division, 51
N. L. R. B . 1366: see also Matter of Harris-Seybold -Po t ter Company, 63 N L. R. B. 1371,
which involved time checkers at the Company ' s Cleveland plant and in which we found
a similar unit appropriate.
The Company contends , in its brief , that the work of the time checkers in the present
case is sufficiently dissimilar to that of the time checkers at its Cleveland plant to warrant
a different result. In support of its claim , the Company refers to certain data which the
time checkers in the plant here involved are required to compile and which are presumably
not required of the time checkers in the Cleveland plant. We are of the opinion that
the difference adverted to is one of degree rather than of kind and affords no basis for a
different result in the instant case . Accordingly , we find the contention to be without
merit.
1426 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation to ascertain representa-
tives for the purposes of collective bargaining with Harris-Seybold-
Potter Company, Dayton, Ohio, an election by secret ballot shall be
conducted as early as possible, but not later than thirty (30) days
from the date of this Direction, under the direction and supervision
of the Regional Director for the Ninth Region, acting in this matter
as agent for the National Labor Relations Board, and subject to
Article III, Sections 10 and 11, of said Rules and Regulations, among
the employees in the unit found appropriate in Section IV, above,
who were employed during the pay-roll period immediately preced-
ing the date of this Direction, including employees who did not work
during said pay-roll period because they were ill or on vacation or
temporarily laid off, and including employees in the armed forces
of the United States who present themselves in person at the polls,
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, to determine whether or not they desire to be repre-
sented by United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America,
C. 1. 0., for the purposes of collective bargaining.