Hughes Tool Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Sep 20, 1945

63 N.L.R.B. 1053 (N.L.R.B. 1945)

In the Matter of HUGHES TOOL COMPANY, ALSO KNOWN AS HUGHES
AIRCRAFT CO. and ENGINEERS & ARCHITECTS ASSOCIATION OF
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, CULVER CITY CHAPTER
Case No. 21-R-2661.-Decided September 20, 1945
Mr. Irvin. Stalmaster, of Los Angeles, Calif., for the Company.
Katz, Gallagher c Margolis, by Messrs. Ben Margolis and Leo
Gallagher, of Los Angeles, Calif., for the Engineers.
Mr, Nick Cordil, of Los Angeles, Calif., and Mr. John Murray,
of Santa Monica, Calif., for the Carpenters.
Mr. Herbert C. Kane, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon a petition duly filed by Engineers & Architects Association
of Southern California, Culver City Chapter, herein called the Engi-
neers, alleging that a question affecting commerce had arisen concern-
ing the representation of employees of Hughes Tool Company, also
known as Hughes Aircraft Co., of Culver City, California, herein
called the Company, the National Labor Relations Board provided
for an appropriate hearing upon due notice before George H. O'Brien,
Trial Examiner. Said hearing was held at Los Angeles, California,
on April 4, 6, 9, 10, and 11, 1945. On July 16, 1945, pursuant to an
order of the Board, a further hearing upon due notice, was held at
Los Angeles, California, before the same Trial Examiner. The Com-
pany, the Engineers, and Aircraft Workers Local No. 1553, United
Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, AFL, herein
,called the Carpenters,' appeared and participated in both hearings?
All parties were afforded full opportunity to be heard, to examine and
cross-examine witnesses, and to introduce evidence bearing on the
issues. The Trial Examiner's rulings made at the hearings are free
' At the hearing the Trial Examiner granted the motion of the Carpenters to intervene.
= The Engineers waived the unfair labor practice charges which it had filed against the
Company in Cases Nos . 21-C-2479 and 21-C-2561 insofar as they might constitute a basis
for objecting to the instant proceedings.
63 N. L. R. B, No. 162.
1053
1054 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
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
I. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
Hughes Tool Company, a Delaware corporation licensed to do busi-
ness in the State of California, conducts its aircraft activities within
the State of California under the name of Hughes Aircraft Co. One
of the divisions of Hughes Aircraft Co. is the Culver City Division,
the only plant here involved, located at Culver City, California, where
the Company is engaged in the manufacture of airplanes for the
United States Government. During 1944 raw materials and supplies
valued at over $500,000 were purchased, of which not less than 90
percent was purchased from sources outside the State of California.
The Company admits that it is engaged in commerce within the
meaning of the National Labor Relations Act.
II. THE ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED
Engineers & Architects Association of Southern California, Culver
City Chapter, unaffiliated, is a labor organization admitting to mem-
bership employees of the Company.
Aircraft Workers Local No. 1553, United Brotherhood of Carpen-
ters and Joiners of America, affiliated with the American Federation
of Labor, 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 Engineers as
the exclusive bargaining representative of its professional and techni-
cal employees until the Engineers has been certified by the Board in an
appropriate unit.
A statement of a Board attorney, introduced into evidence at the
hearing, indicates that the Engineers represents a substantial number
of employees in the unit which-it seeks.3
3 The Board attorney reported that the Engineers submitted 143 cards, that the names
.of 127 persons appearing on the cards were listed on the Company ' s pay roll of April 4,
1945 , which contained the names of 356 employees in the appropriate unit, and that the
cards were all dated between December 1944 and April 1945, except for 1, which was
undated.
'The Carpenters submitted 79 cards. The names of 68 persons appearing on the cards
were contained in the aforesaid pay roll, 48 appearing in the unit claimed by the Engineers
to be appropriate . The cards were dated between February 1944 and April 1945, except
for 1 which was undated. J
HUGHES TOOL COMPANY 1055
We find that a question affecting commerce has arisen concerning
the 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 DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
The Engineers requests a unit of all technical and professional em-
ployees of the Company at its Culver City plant, excluding loftsmen 4
The Carpenters contends that the unit petitioned for is inappropriate
because the Engineers seeks the inclusion of some employees in cate-
gories presently represented by the Carpenters 5 and the inclusion of
others which, because of their managerial, confidential or supervisory
status, should not be included in any unit found appropriate by the
Board. These disputed categories are hereinafter discussed. The
Company takes no position beyond expressing a desire for a single
unit covering all technical and professional employees.
The Carpenters maintains that the following employees enjoy a
managerial, supervisory, or confidential status such as warrants their
exclusion from any unit found appropriate by the Board :
Industrial Engineer and Methods Analyst: These employees anafyze
and determine methods and procedures. In consultation with manu-
facturing engineers and the head of the industrial relations depart-
ment, they also formulate incentive and bonus plans.
Research and Design Engineer: As part of his duties, this employee
negotiates on behalf of the Company with employees for patentable
ideas.
We find that the foregoing employees possess managerial duties and!
functions warranting their exclusion from the technical and profes-
sional unit requested by the Engineers; we shall exclude them.
Aerodynamicists: These employees are college trained engineers and
perform standard analyses on new and modified airplane design.
Aerodynamics Analysts: This position requires a college degree in
aeronautical engineering and involves duties of a highly technical
nature.
Power Plant Test Engineers: It is the duty of these employees to
design and work out the instrumentation of all power plant installa-
tion equipment. They are not required to have college training, but
the analysis of data and reduction thereof to practical use, as well as;
4 The Engineers would also include those employees who may be employed in categories:
which may hereafter come into existence. We shall, however , in conformance with our
usual policy , make no provision for the inclusion or exclusion of those technical or profes-
sional categories in which the Company presently has no one employed.
5 The Carpenters currently represents , pursuant to either formal certification by the
Board or designation following consent elections , loftsmen A, B, and C ( including lofts-
leadmen and loftsmen beginners ), factory clerical employees , and production and mainte-
nance employees ( excluding, inter elia, technical employees).
1056 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
the recommendations which they are required to make are clearly
technical in nature.
Process Analyst: The duties of the employee in this category are to
investigate and suggest changes in shop practice and to inquire into
potentially patentable ideas of employees. In the latter connection,
he reports on the ideas and in accordance with the instructions of the
Company, draws up contracts and prepares other material for the
purpose of obtaining the desired patent.
Research Laboratory Analysts: It is the duty of these analysts to
perform scientific tests and research.
Stress Analysts: These employees prepare stress analysis reports
and when necessary coordinate physical tests therewith.
Weight Analysts: These employees ascertain, calculate, estimate,
and record weight and balance, and prepare other technical data.
They also direct the weight control and the weighing of airplanes.
We find that the employees in the above-mentioned categories are
technical or professional employees who possess no managerial or
confidential duties; nor do they exercise supervisory authority within
our definition thereof. We shall include them in the technical and
professional voting group.
A dispute exists concerning the technical status of the following
employee categories :
Engineering Planners: The chief function of these employees is
to correlate costs and time. We are of the opinion that the duties
performed by them are clerical rather than technical and that they,
therefore, should be excluded from a unit of technical employees; we
shall, therefore, exclude them from the technical and professional
voting group.
Production Planners: The employees in this category have duties
similar to those of other shop clerical employees. We shall, therefore,
exclude them.
Shop Weights Men: The duties of employees in this category in-
clude the weighing of the parts in the shop, checking of weights
against blueprints, and the maintenance of related records. It is our
opinion that they are not technical employees ; we shall, therefore,
exclude them.
The tool design group, department 22, includes tool designers, tool
planners, tool proofers and tool liaison men. The general function
of this department is to design, and determine the'functionability of
tools, jigs, fixtures, and machines. They are located in a separate
department under the ultimate supervision of the chief engineer.
Their work is technical and highly skilled. In view of the fact that
the interests and duties of these employees differ substantially from
those of the other technical and professional employees of the Com-
HUGHES TOOL.COMPANY 1057
pany, we are of the opinion and find that they might properly func-
tion as a separate bargaining unit or as part of a larger and more
inclusive technical and professional unit. We shall, accordingly, per-
mit the scope of the bargaining unit or units to be determined in part,
by the results of separate elections which we shall hereinafter direct.
The loft and template section of the engineering department, for-
merly the loft and template department, includes, in addition to the
factory clerical employees, and loftsmen A, B, and C, loftsbeginners
and loftsleadmen, now represented by the Carpenters, the following
technical employees : draftsmen, lay-out draftsmen, engineering
draftsmen, checkers, mathematicians, and template makers. The loft-
ing operation has traditionally maintained its identity in the aircraft
industry and the technical employees in the loft are part of a closely-
integrated operation. They form a well-defined and homogeneous
group which may function as a separate unit appropriate for the
purposes of collective bargaining. On the other hand, the Company
intends to use the technical employees in the loft and template section,
with the exception of the loftsmen, in all sections of the engineering
department as a reservoir or pool. They might properly belong,
therefore, in the more comprehensive unit of technical and profes-
sional employees sought by the Engineers. We shall, accordingly,
permit the scope of the bargaining unit or units to be determined, in
part, by the results of separate elections which we shall hereinafter
direct.
We shall direct that separate elections by secret ballot be held among
the employees in each of the voting groups set forth below who were
employed during the pay-roll period immediately preceding the date
of the Direction of Elections herein, subject to the limitations and
additions set forth in the Direction :
(1) All tool designers, tool liaison men, tool planners, tool proofers,
and other technical employees engaged in the Company's tool design
department, department 22, excluding all supervisory employees with
authority to hire, promote, discharge,-discipline, or otherwise effect
changes in the status of employees, or effectively recommend such
action, and all other employees of the Company;
(2) All draftsmen, engineering draftsmen, checkers, lay-out drafts-
men,/ template makers, and all other technical employees in the loft
and template section of the engineering department, excluding lofts-
men A, B, and C, loftsleadmen and loftsmen beginners, and all
supervisory employees with authority to hire, promote, discharge,
effectively recommended such action, and all other employees of the
effectively recommend such action, and all other employees of the
Company ;
1058 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
(3) All remaining technical and professional employees of the
Company,' including aerodynamicists, aerodynamics analysts, power
plant test engineers, process analyst, research laboratory analysts,
stress analysts, weight analysts, but excluding all those included in
groups (1) and (92), above, the industrial engineer, the wage and salary
analyst, the methods analyst, research and design engineer, photogra-
pher, photographic lab men, template reproduction technicians, pro-
duction planner, shop weights men, engineering planner, and all or
any other supervisory employees with authority to hire, promote,
discharge, discipline, or otherwise effect changes in the status of
employees, or effectively recommend such action.7
DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
By virtue of and pursuant to the power vested in the National Labor
Relations Board by Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations
Act, and pursuant to Article III, Section 9, of National Labor Rela-
tions Board Rules and Regulations-Series 3, as amended, it is hereby
DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation to ascertain representa-
tives for the purposes of collective bargaining with Hughes Tool Com-
pany, also known as Hughes Aircraft Co., Culver City, California,
elections 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
Twenty-first 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 groups of employees of the
Company, described in Section IV, above, who were employed during
the pay-roll period immediately preceding the date of this Direction,
including employees who did not work, during the said pay-roll period
because they were ill or on vacation or temporarily laid off, and includ-
ing 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 elections, to determine whether
they desire to be represented by Engineers and Architects Association
of Southern California, Culver City, Chapter, or by Aircraft Workers
" Included are the following employees not employed in the loft and template 'section :
checkers, draftsmen, engineering draftsmen, engineering drawings checker, engineering
technician, lay-out draftsmen, material analyst, mathematician, production illustrator,
technical computer, technical illustrator.
7 Among the listed exclusions the parties specifically agreed to exclude the wage and
salary analyst, photographers, photographic lab men, and the template reproduction techni-
cians , the other exclusions have already been discussed above.
HUGHES TOOL COMPANY 1059
Local No. 1553, United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of
America, affiliated with the American Federation of Labor," for the
purposes of collective bargaining, or by neither.
CHAIRMAN HERZOG took no part in the consideration of the above
Decision and Direction of Elections.
8 The Carpenters indicated at the hearing that it did not desire to participate in any
election in an over -all unit of professional and technical employees if the scope of such
unit did not conform to its request. We shall, nevertheless , accord the Carpenters a place
on the ballot in the election directed in the residual voting group , with permission to
withdraw therefrom by notifying the Regional Director within ten ( 10) days after the
issuance of this Decision and Direction of Elections.
662514-46--vol. 63-68