Hudson Motor Car Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Dec 7, 1949

87 N.L.R.B. 452 (N.L.R.B. 1949)

In the Matter Of HUDSON MOTOR CAR COMPANY, EMPLOYER and INTER-
NATIONAL UNION, UNITED AUTOMOBILE , AIRCRAFT & AGRICULTURAL
IMPLEMENT WORKERS OF AMERICA , CIO, LOCAL 1015,1 PETITIONER
Case No. 7-UA-.138.Decided December 7, 1949
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing in this case was held at De-
troit, Michigan, before Harold L. Hudson, a 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 af-
firmed.
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. As the Petitioner is the representative of the employees de-
scribed below, within the meaning of Section 9 (a), and as the Em-
ployer currently recognizes the Petitioner as such representative, we
find that no question affecting commerce exists concerning the repre-
sentation of employees of the Employer in the unit sought by the Pe-
titioner.
3. The Petitioner has shown that 30 percent or more of said em-
ployees, within the meaning of Section 9 (e) (1) of the Act, desire
to authorize Petitioner to make an agreement with the Employer
making membership in Petitioner a condition of employment.
4. The parties agree, and we find, that the following unit is appro-
priate for the purposes of Section 9 (a) and (e) (1) of the Act:
All office and clerical employees of Hudson Motor Car Company,
Detroit, Michigan, in the Jefferson, Charlevoix, and Gratiot plants,
3 The name of the Petitioner appears as amended at the hearing.
87 NLRB No. 76.
452
HUDSON MOTOR CAR COMPANY 453
-including comptoineter operators, labor auditors, buyers' secretaries,
:stenographers and typists (Master Mechanics Division), and tele-
phone and telegraph operators , but excluding cost estimators and cor-
porate tax clerks ( Accounting Division ), time-study engineers, salary
_pay-roll clerks , general audit employees (Accounting Division), as-
sistant supervisors ( Planning Division ), buyers, all employees in the
`Cost Estimating and Personnel Divisions , supervisors' secretaries,
leaders, and all other supervisors as defined in the Act.
5. The parties disagree as to the voting eligibility of probationary
and laid-off employees, the Petitioner contending that they should
.not be allowed to vote and the Employer contending that they should.
As to the probationary employees, the Board. has uniformly held
that they have sufficient interests in common with regular employees
.of the same classifications to warrant their participation in an election
among such employees.2 We shall, accordingly, permit the proba-
tionary employees to vote in the election hereinafter directed.
As to the laid-off employees, the Board has held that the criterion
for determining their eligibility to vote is whether or not, at the
time of the election , they have reasonable expectancy of further em-
ployment with the Employer in the near future.' We are of the
opinion that these laid-off employees do not have such a reasonable
expectancy. Although the contract between the Employer and the
Petitioner provides that laid-off employees retain their seniority
automatically for 6 months, and thereafter for 11/2 years by periodic
notification to the Employer, the Employer is permitted to hire new
,employees without recalling laid-off ones or notifying the Petitioner.
Furthermore , the Employer gives primary consideration to ability
and fitness , rather than seniority , in filling vacancies , and there is
no general practice of recalling laid-off employees . Under these cir-
cumstances, although the possibility exists that a laid-off employee
might be rehired the probability is too remote to justify permitting
him to vote at this time.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Pursuant to Section 9 (e) (1) of the National Labor Relations
Act, 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 Di-
rector for the Region in which this case was heard, and subject to
Sections 203.61 and 203.62 of National Labor Relations Board Rules
z Beattie Manufacturing Company, 77 NLRB 361.
s Bethlehem Steel Company , Shipbuilding Division, 86 NLRB 577.
454 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
and Regulations, among the employees of Hudson Motor Car Com-
pany, in the unit found appropriate in Section 4 above, who were
employed during the pay-roll period immediately preceding 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, 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 or not they
desire to authorize International Union, United Automobile, Aircraft
R Agricultural Implement Workers of America, CIO, Local 1015, to
make an agreement with Hudson Motor Car Company requiring
membership in the aforesaid labor organization as a condition of
employment in such unit.