Hughes Gun Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Dec 29, 1951

97 N.L.R.B. 913 (N.L.R.B. 1951)

HUGHES GUN COMPANY 913
HUGHES GUN COMPANY and PIPEFITTERS LOCAL No. 211, UNITED
ASSOCIATION OF JOURNEYMEN & APPRENTICES OF THE PLUMBING AND
PIPEFIr. ING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA, AFL,
PETITIONER
HUGHES GUN COMPANY and INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF
MACHINISTS , AFL, PETITIONER
HUGHES GUN COMPANY and INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF ELEC-
TRICAL WORKERS, LOCAL UNION No. 716, AFL, PETITIONER. Cases
Nos. 39-RC-360, 39-RC-367, and 39-RC-368. December ^L9, 1951
Decision , Order, and Direction of Elections
Upon petitions duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the l&ational'Labor
Relations Act, a consolidated hearing 1 was held before Charles Y.
Latimer and Clifford W. Potter, hearing officers. The hearing officers'
rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are
hereby affirmed.
Pursuant io the provisions of Section 3 (b) of the Act, the Board
has delegated its powers in connection with these cases to a three-
member panel [Members Houston, Murdock, and Styles].
Upon the entire record in these cases, 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. 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. In Case No. 39-RC-360, Pipefitters Local No. 211, United Asso-
ciation of Journeymen & Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipefitting
Industry of the United States and Canada, AFL, hereinafter referred
to as the Pipefitters, requests that the Board find appropriate a unit of
i On September 24, 1951, the Regional Director for the Sixteenth Region issued an order
consolidating Cases Nos. 39-RC-360 and 39-RC-367. Thereafter, on September 25, 1951,
the Regional Director for the Sixteenth Region issued an order consolidating Case No.
39-RC-368 with Cases Nos. 39-RC-360 and 39-RC-367.
' At the hearing, Independent Metal Workers Union, Locals 1 and 2, hereinafter termed
the Metal workers, requested intervention on the basis of authoricatlon cards bearing the
names of employees of the Employer and submitted to the Board as proof of interest in
these proceedings. Subsequently, United Steelworkers of America, CIO, hereinafter termed
the Steelworkers, requested intervention on the basis of a similar showing of interest.
The International Association of Machinists, AFL, moved that the intervention of these
parties be denied because the showing of interest in each case was less than 10 percent of
the employees in the proposed production and maintenance unit. This motion was referred
to the Board by the hearing officer and is hereby denied. It is well settled that the showing
of interest of a labor oiganization is an administrative matter not litigable by the parties.
See Safeway Stores, Inc., 88 NLRB 1335, and cases cited therein. The Board is adminis-
tratively satisfied that both the Metal Workers and the Steelworkers have made a sufficient
showing of interest
97 NLRB No. 112.
914 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
all combination electric and gas journeymen welders and all craft
welders, or, in the alternative, a unit of the afore-mentioned welders,
welders electric lugs and bails, and welders exploratory. In Case No.
29-RC-367, the International Association of Machinists, AFL, herein-
after termed the IAM, requests that the Board find appropriate a unit
of all production and maintenance employees with certain named ex-
clusions. In Case No. 39-RC-368, the International Brotherhood of
Electrical Workers, Local Union No. 716, AFL, hereinafter referred to
as the IBEW, requests that the Board find appropriate a unit of all mo-
tor generator dispatchers, recorder gauge repairmen, and refrigeration
and air-conditioning electricians. The Employer did not take any posi-
tion at the hearing as to the appropriateness of the craft units requested
by the Pipefitters and the IBEW, but agreed generally as to the pro-
duction and maintenance unit proposed by the IAM. The Metal
Workers and the Steelworkers oppose the requested craft units and
request inclusion of these employees in a broad production and
maintenance bargaining group.
The Employer's plant involved in this proceeding is located in Hous-
ton, Texas, and is engaged in the manufacture of gun tubes for the
United States Army. Since the plant's recent reactivation, a bargain-
ing unit of all journeymen electricians and apprentices represented by
the IBEW, and a bargaining unit of all journeymen pipefittels and
apprentices represented by the Pipefitters, have been established .3
The remaining employees including the bulk of the production and.
maintenance personnel are, at present, unrepresented.
The Pipefitters now requests the establishment of a further craft
unit of all combination electric and gas journeymen welders and craft
welders either including or excluding the welders electric lugs and
bails, and welders exploratory. There are 10 combination welders
who are assigned to the toolroom in the manufacturing division of the
plant and are under the supervision of the welder foreman and the
toolroom superintendent. These welders are highly skilled employees
able to use both electric and gas type torches and to do acetylene,
hydroelectric, and other types of welding. They work throughout
the plant but, in the majority of cases, are stationed at the special
welding section in the casting shop where the heavy equipment neces-
sary for their work is set up. Approximately 4 years of experience
are necessary for competence in this classification.
The Employer also has three welders lugs and bails and three em-
ployees in the classification of 'welder exploratory. Neither of these
classifications works alongside nor with the combination welders and
they have, in general, substantially different types of duties, skills,
and job requirements. The primary duty of the welder lugs and
' See Hughes Gun Company , 39-RC-307 , 39-RC-319 ( consolidated ) July 16, 1951, not
reported In printed volumes of Board decisions
HUGHES GUN COMPANY 915
bails is to make a temporary hook on the end of the gun tube being
manufactured so that it may be lowered into the heat treating
furnaces. The welder exploratory uses a welding torch to investigate
the depth of cracks and. imperfections in the gun tubes. Only a com-
paratively simple training is necessary for either of the classifications-
In view of the disparate skills, duties, and working interests of the
welders lugs and bails and welders exploratory, we do not believe
they would appropriately be included with the combination welders
in a craft unit.' However, on the entire record, the board finds that
the combination electric and gas journeymen welders constitute a
skilled craft group who may, if they so desire, constitute a separate
bargaining unit.
The IBEW requests that the Board find appropriate a separate unit
of all motor generator dispatchers, recorder gauge repairmen, and the
refrigeration and air-conditioning electrician. There are three em-
ployees in each of the first two classifications and one refrigeration and
air-conditioning electrician. These employees were hired by the Em-
ployer as journeymen electricians and were subsequently transferred
to their present positions. They are under the supervision of the
chief electrical foreman and have duties concerned with the production:
of electrical energy, the repair of electrical instruments, or the mainte-
nance of refrigeration and air-conditioning equipment. These em-
ployees are clearly journeymen electricians with a high level of skill
The record contains no basis for distinguishing between the employees
sought in the instant petition and the journeymen electricians who
comprise the unit now represented by the IBEW.5 Accordingly, as
these three classifications consist of only a portion of the employees,
exercising the skills and duties of electricians in the plant, they cannot,
alone, constitute a separate bargaining unit. On the other hand, on
the entire record, the Board finds that the motor generator dispatchers,
recorder gauge repairmen, and the refrigeration and air-conditioning
electrician are journeymen electricians who are, and have been, a
constituent part of the unit of journeymen electricians already estab-
lished at the plant.6 We shall therefore dismiss the petition filed by
the IBEW.
The IAM, the Metal Workers, the Steelworkers, and the Employer
are in agreement as to the composition of the broad production and
maintenance unit requested by those three labor organizations. They
also, with the exception of the Employer who takes no position on the
Cf. Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corporation , 84 NLRB 298 See also International Paper
Company ( Southern Kraft Division ), 96 NLRB 295.
5The duties and job descriptions of the Employer's electricians ( journeymen) first-class
were introduced into evidence by way of stipulation of the parties filed after conclusion of
hearing in this case . The record indicates that the IBEW and the Employer were in
disagreement as to whether the employees sought in the instant petition were included in
the certification of the IBEW as representative of all journeymen electricians at the Slant.
See Continental Oil Company , 88 NLRB 19.
916 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
issue, desire that the combination gas and electric journeymen welders
be included in this broad unit. Upon the entire record, the Board
finds that the production and maintenance unit agreed upon by these
parties may be appropriate for purposes of collective bargaining
within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act, with or without the
inclusion of the combination welders. We direct that the questions
concerning representation which have arisen be resolved by separate
elections by secret ballot among the employees in the following voting
groups :
1. All combination electric and gas journeymen welders at the Em-
ployer's Houston, Texas, gun plant, excluding welders lugs and bails,
welders exploratory, all supervisors as defined in the amended Act,
and all other employees.
2. All remaining production and maintenance employees of the Em-
ployer at its Houston, Texas, gun plant, including machinists, machine
operators, helpers and laborers in the laboratory, inspectors, senior
material checkers, junior material checkers, welders lugs and bails,
and welders exploratory, but excluding journeymen pipefitters and
apprentices, journeymen electricians and apprentices, senior ware-
housemen, junior warehousemen, junior typists, junior clerks, inter-
mediate clerks, and all other clerical employees whether located in the
shop area or not, laboratory employees not included above, technical
employees, personnel employees, accounting employees, timekeepers,
executive employees, professional employees, guards, watchmen, and
all supervisors as defined in the amended Act.
If the employees in group 1 select a bargaining representative-differ-
ent from that selected by the employees in group 2, the Board finds
that they constitute a separate appropriate unit; and if, in these
circumstances, the employees in group 2 also select a bargaining agent,
the Board finds that the employees in group 2 constitute an appropriate
unit. If the employees in the two groups select the same bargaining
agent, the Board finds that together they constitute an appropriate
unit? The Regional Director conducting the elections directed herein
is instructed to issue a certification of representatives to the union or
unions in the unit or units which may result from the elections. If
either group selects no bargaining agent, the Regional Director shall
issue a certificate of results of election to such effect.
' The IAM , at the hearing , indicated that it did not wish to appear on the ballot for
representation of the welders as a separate bargaining unit but did desire that such
employees be included within the broad production and maintenanee unit. Accordingly, we
shall not place the IAM on the ballot for voting group 1. If, however , the IAM wishes to
participate in the election in this voting group, it may do so by giving 10 days ' notice of
such desire to the Regional Director.
WESTERN KENTUCKY GAS COMPANY 917
Order
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the petition filed in Case No. 39-RC-368
by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local Union
No. 716, AFL, be, and it hereby is, dismissed.
[Text of Direction of Elections omitted from publication in this
volume.] _
WESTERN KENTUCKY GAS COMPANY and CONSTRUCTION AND GENERAL
LABORERS ' LOCAL No. 1392 , INTERNATIONAL HOD CARRIERS ', BUILDING
AND COMMON LABORERS ' UNION OF AMERICA , AFL, PETITIONER
WESTERN KENTUCKY GAS COMPANY and LOCAL No. 633, UNITED ASSOCI-
ATION OF JOURNEYMEN AND APPRENTICES OF THE PLUMBING AND THE
PIPE FITTING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA, AFL,
PETITIONER . Cases Nos. 9-RC 1198 and 9-RC-1t99. December 29,
1951
Decision , Order, and Direction of Election
Upon petitions duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, a consolidated hearing was held before Robert Cohn,
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 Act, the Board
has delegated its powers in connection with this case to a three-member
panel [Chairman Herzog and Members Reynolds and Murdock].
Upon the entire record in these cases, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is a Delaware corporation engaged in the sale
and distribution of natural gas to domestic, commercial, and indus-
trial consumers in western Kentucky. It purchases practically all
its gas from two suppliers, Texas Gas Transmission Corporation and
Tennessee Gas Transmission Corporation, amounting in excess of one
million dollars annually. Both suppliers operate pipeline systems in
interstate commerce, obtaining their gas outside the State of Kentucky
and commingling such gas with small amounts obtained from gas
wells in Kentucky. The sales for the Owensboro Division,. which
alone is involved in this proceeding, amounted to some $856,700 for
the year ending June 1951. We find on the basis of the evidence, and
contrary to the contentions of the Employer, that it is engaged -in
commerce within the meaning of the Act.'
I Western Kentucky Gas Company, Inc, 74 NLRB 1388
97 NLRB No. 130.
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