Hood Rubber Co., Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Feb 9, 1938

5 N.L.R.B. 165 (N.L.R.B. 1938)

in the Matter of HOOD RUBBER COMPANY, INC. (ARROW BATTERY
PRODUCTS DIVISION ) and `INTERNATIONAL UNION, UNITED AUTOMO-
BILE WORKERS OF AMERICA
Case No. R-345.Decided February 9, 1938
Automobile Battery Container Manufacturing Industry-Investigation of
Representatives : refusal by employer to recognize petitioning union as bargain-
ing agent of its employees until question of representation is determined by
Board-Unit Appropriate for Collective Bargaining: production and mainte-
nance employees ; eligibility for membership in only organization among em-
ployees; functional coherence ; no controversy as to-Representatives : proof of
choice: membership application cards-Certification of Representatives: upon
proof of majority representation.
Mr. Peter J. Crotty, for the Board.
Franchot, Runals, Cohen, Taylor, and Rickert, by Mr. Thomas
Rickert, of Niagara Falls, N. Y., for the Company.
Mr. Daniel B. Shortal, of Buffalo, N. Y., for the U. A. W. A.
Mr. Abraham J. Harris, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
CERTIFICATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
On December 1, 1937, International Union, United Automobile
Workers of America,, herein called the U. A. W. A., filed with the
Regional Director for the Third Region (Buffalo, New York), a
petition alleging that a question affecting commerce had arisen con-
cerning the representation of employees of Hood Rubber Company,
Inc. (Arrow Battery Products Division), Niagara Falls, New York,
herein called the Company, and requesting an investigation and cer-
tification of representatives pursuant to Section 9 (c) of the National
Labor Relations Act, 49 Stat. 449, herein called the Act. On Decem-
ber 28, 1937, the National Labor Relations Board, herein called the
Board, acting pursuant to Section 9 (c) of the Act, and Article III,
Section 3, of National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regula-
1 The petition was filed by International Union, United Automobile Workers of America,
but from the record it is evident that International Union, United Automobile Workers
of America, Local No. 571, seeks certification.
165
166 NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
tions-Series 1, as amended, ordered an investigation and authorized
the Regional Director to conduct it and to provide for an appropriate
hearing upon due notice.
On December 31, 1937, the Regional Director issued a notice of
hearing, copies of which were duly served upon the Company and
upon the U. A. W. A. Pursuant to the notice, a hearing was held on
January 6, 1938, at Buffalo, New York, before Mark De Wolfe Howe,
the Trial Examiner duly designated by the Board. The Board, the
Company, and the U. A. W. A. were represented by counsel and par-
ticipated in the hearing. Full opportunity to be heard, to examine
and to cross-examine witnesses, and to introduce evidence bearing on
the issues was afforded all parties. During the course of the hearing
the Trial Examiner made several rulings on motions and on objec-
tions to the admission of evidence. The Board has reviewed the rul-
ings of the Trial Examiner and finds that no prejudicial errors were
committed. The rulings are hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following :
FINDINGS OF FACT
I. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
Hood Rubber Company, Inc., is a corporation organized in 1929
under the laws of the State of Delaware. Its principal factory is in
Watertown, Massachusetts, but it has since the date of its incorpo-
ration operated the so-called Arrow Battery Products Division at
Niagara Falls, New York, herein called the Arrow Division. The
Arrow Division, the only part of Hood Rubber Company, Inc., here
involved, manufactures automobile battery containers. The princi-
pal raw materials purchased by the Arrow Division are cotton linters,
natural asphalt, petroleum asphalt, pyrophyllite, and 4BB mineral.
All these raw materials used by the Arrow Division in 1937 were
obtained from outside the State of New York.
In 1937 the Arrow Division manufactured approximately 1,000,000
containers having a value of approximately $414,000. Approxi-
mately a third of its total products are shipped to points outside the
State of New York, to buyers in Indianapolis,' Indiana, and Oklahoma
City, Oklahoma.
H. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED
International Union, United Automobile Workers of America,.
Local No. 571, is a labor organization affiliated with the Committee
for Industrial Organization, admitting to its membership all non-
clerical, inonsupervisory' production, and maintenance employees of
the Arrow Division.
DECISIONS AND ORDERS
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
167
Beginning in August 1937, the U. A. W. A. organized the employees
of the Arrow Division. By November 17, 1937, the U. A. W. A.
claimed as members a majority of such employees. On that date, and
on several occasions thereafter , the U. A. W. A. asked the Company to
iecognize it as the exclusive bargaining agency for the Company's
employees in the Arrow Division. The Company refused recogni-
tion stating that it required proof that the U. A. W. A. represented
a majority of the employees of the Arrow Division . When the
U. A. W. A. submitted evidence of such a majority, the Company
was not satisfied with it, and indicated that it desired the Board to
hold a hearing to determine the question of representation.
We find that a question has arisen concerning representation of em-
ployees of the Company.
IV. THE EFFECT OF THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION UPON
COMMERCE
We find that the question concerning representation which has
arisen, occurring in connection with the operations of the Company
described in Section I above, has a close, intimate , and substantial
relation to trade, traffic , and commerce, among the several States, and
tends to lead to labor disputes burdening and obstructing commerce
and the free flow of commerce.
V. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT
The U. A. W. A. considers the appropriate unit to be the noncleri-
cal, nonsupervisory production employees of the Company at Niagara
Falls, New York, all such employees being within the jurisdiction of
the U. A. W. A. There is no, dispute as to the appropriateness of
such a unit . The evidence in the record amply supports it. The
operations of the Arrow Division are closely integrated and interre-
lated and are conducted as a unit.
We find that the production and maintenance employees of the
Company, at Niagara Falls, New York, excluding clerical and
supervisory employees , constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes
of collective bargaining and that said unit will insure to employees
of the Company the full benefit of their right to self-organization
and to collective bargaining and otherwise effectuate the policies of
the Act.
VI. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
It was stipulated at the hearing that on December 31 , 1937, there
were 21 employees in the appropriate unit on the Company's pay roll.
At the hearing the U. A. W. A. introduced in evidence 25 duly
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168 NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
authenticated application cards for membership in the U. A. W. A.,
and it was testified that such applicants had become members of
the U. A. W. A. Eighteen of the Company's employees on Decem-
ber 31, 1937, within the appropriate unit had signed such applica-
tions. The other seven applications had been signed by seven of
thirteen employees of the Company who had been laid off for lack
of work on December 4, 1937.
The Company objected to the admission of the application cards
in evidence on the ground that they were irrelevant as being merely
applications for membership in the U. A. W. A. and not selectiong
of the U. A. W. A. as the bargaining agent of the applicants. Theo
Trial Examiner overruled the objection. We affirm his ruling. The
objection has no merit. The applicants, merely by requesting mem-
bership in the U. A. W. A., sufficiently indicated their desire to
have that organization act as their representative for the purposes
of collective bargaining and thereby selected it for that purpose.2
We find that the U. A. W. A. has been designated and selected
by a majority of the employees in the appropriate unit as their
representative for the purposes of collective bargaining, and we
shall so certify.
Upon the basis of the above findings of fact and upon the entire
record in the case, the Board makes the following:
CONCLUSIONS OF LAW
1. A question affecting commerce has arisen concerning the repre-
sentation of employees of Hood Rubber Company, Inc. (Arrow
Battery Products Division), Niagara Falls, New York, within the
meaning of Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the National
Labor Relations Act.
2. The production and maintenance employees of the Company at
Niagara Falls, New York, excluding clerical and supervisory em-
ployees, constitute a unit, appropriate for the purposes of collective
bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the National
Labor Relations Act.
3. International Union, United Automobile Workers of America,
Local No. 571, is the exclusive representative of all the employees in
such unit for the purposes of collective bargaining, within the mean-
ing of Section 9 (a) of the National Labor Relations Act.
2 Matter of Elbe File and Binder Company, Inc., and Bookbinders Manifold and Pam-
phlet Di4nston, Local Union No. 119, International Brotherhood of Bookbinders, 2 N. L.
R. B. 906; Matter of Clifford, M. DeKay, doing business under the trade name and style
of D & H. MotorFreight Company and International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauf-
feurs, Stablemen and Helpers of America, Local Union No. 649, 2 N. L. R. B. 231.
DECISIONS AND ORDERS
CERTIFICATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
169
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 8, of National Labor
Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 1, as amended,
IT IS HEREBY CERTIFIED that International Union, United Automo-
bile Workers of -America, Local No. 571, has been designated and
selected by a majority of the production and maintenance employees
of Hood Rubber Company, Inc. (Arrow Battery Products Division),
Niagara Falls, New York, excluding clerical and supervisory em-
ployees, as their representative for the purposes of collective bar-
gaining and that, pursuant to the provisions of Section 9 (a) of the
Act, International Union, United Automobile Workers of America,
Local No. 571, is the exclusive representative of all such employees
for the purposes of collective bargaining in respect to rates of pay,
wages , hours of employment, and other conditions of employment.