Hunter Packing Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Aug 27, 1948

79 N.L.R.B. 197 (N.L.R.B. 1948)

In the Matter of HUNTER P_1CKING COMPANY, EMPLOYER' and LOCAL
B-309, INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS, AFL,
PETITIONER
Case No . 14-RC-176.-Decided August 27, 1948
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before 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
affirmed.
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-man panel consisting of the undersigned Board
Members.*
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. The Petitioner and Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher
Workmen of North America, Local 530, affiliated with the American
Federation of Labor, hereinafter called the Intervenor, are labor
organizations which claim to represent employees of the Employer.
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: The appropriate unit :
The Petitioner seeks a unit of all electricians and their helpers, ex-
cluding all other employees and supervisors as defined in the Act.
The Employer and the Intervenor urge that an 11-year history of
plant-wide collective bargaining, integration. of operations in the
plant, and the history of over-all bargaining on a non-craft basis in
the meat packing industry make the appropriate unit one which would
include all of the production and maintenance employees.
•Chairman Herzog and Members Houston and Reynolds.
79 N. L. R. B., No. 25.
197
809095-49-vol 79-14
198 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
The Employer is engaged in the packing of meat and meat pro-
ducts. It asserts that it conducts an integrated packing-house opera-
tion. A considerable amount, although not all, of its production work
is performed on an assembly-line basis. Carcasses and other materials
move on conveyor belts and when these conveyor belts stop, the pro-
duction process is stalled until the maintenance men eliminate the
cause of the stoppage. Cooperation and interdependence among'.pro-
duction and maintenance workers is, therefore, required.
The Employer has 62 maintenance employees in the plant represent-
ing 14 different craft classifications. There are 2 maintenance electri-
cians and 2 helpers. The electricians were originally hired as journey-
men and presumably had a considerable amount of prior training.
The record reveals that they are highly skilled employees engaged
exclusively in work relating to electrical repair and maintenance. The
Employer states that if the amount of their work should decrease, they
might be called upon to do other types of work for which they were
-qualified. However, this situation has never occurred. Their wages
are, next to the machinists, the highest in the plant. The electricians
are supervised directly by the chief engineer, whereas all of the other
maintenance employees report to one of his assistants. The reason
for this is that neither of these assistants has sufficient knowledge of
electrical work. However, maintenance employees, including the elec-
tricians, are often requested by the various production foremen to do
maintenance work in their departments and they perform such work
without reporting in advance to their own supervisors. The electri-
cians have a shop of their own to which they report each day. It is
primarily a storeroom for electrical equipment and supplies ; they do
not spend more than 5 percent of their time in the shop. The remain-
der of their time they are engaged in performing their duties through-
out the plant. Although their helpers were transferred from the
production department and a considerable number of the other, main;
tenance employees came originally from that department, there has
been no interchange of personnel between the electricians and other
employees of the Employer. The helpers of the electricians work only
with them. - - , _ -
We have held. that where the employees sought in a proposed unit
do.not constitute a true craft group and there is past collective bar-
gaining histor_y.on a.plant-wide basis as well as highly integrated oper-
ations in the plant, there is no justification for severing such a group
from an existing production and maintenance unit.' However, the
i Matter of Pacific Car and Foundry , Company, 76 N: L. R. B .'31; Matter, of-Marine.7ron
and Ship Building Company; 78 N. L R. B 309; Matter of Kimberly-Clark _Corporatrn,
78 N. L. R. B. 478.
HUNTER PACKING COMPANY 199
electricians involved herein comprise a distinct craft group which we
have often found might appropriately be represented in either a craft
unit or a production and maintenance unit, depending upon their
desires as expressed in a self-determination election.2 They are not
,confined to regular and repetitious performance of such indispensable
assembly-line operations as to constitute an integral part of the pro-
duction process, but,-are responsible for all of the electrical mainte-
nance work of the entire-plant 3
- The Employer and the Intervenor contend that the meat-packing
industry is organized on a non-craft basis. While the Board in deny-
ing craft severance has considered, among other factors, the existence
of an industry-wide pattern, of over-all bargaining, we do not believe
that the absence of evidence of craft units in the industry concerned is
sufficient to be determinative under present circumstances, where rep-_
resentation is sought for a recognized craft group and the employees
involved are not fully integrated in the production process .4
We find that the electricians and their helpers are an identifiable,
skilled; and homogeneous craft group and may constitute an appro-
priate unit, if they so desire, notwithstanding their previous inclusion
in a broader unit. However, the Board will not make any unit deter-
mination until it has first ascertained the desires of the employees
involved.
We shall direct that an election be held among all electricians and
their helpers employed by the Employer at its East St. Louis, Illinois,
plant, excluding all other employees and supervisors as defined in the
Act. If, in this election, the employees select the Petitioner, they will
be taken to have indicated their desire to constitute a separate bargain-
ing unit.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION 5
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the pur-
poses of collective bargaining with the Employer, an election by secret
ballot shall be conducted _ as. early as possible, but not later than 30
days from the date of this Direction, under the direction and super-
2 Matter of Turbine Engineering Company, 73 N. L R. B 163 ; Matter of B. F. Goodrich
Chemical Company (Geon , Plant ), 75 N. L. R. B. 1142 ; Matter of Lockheed Aircraft Corpora-
tion, 77 N. L. R B 507; Matter of Hughes Tool Company, 77 N. L It. B. 1193; Matter
of Tin Processing Corporation, 78 N L . It. B. 96.
3 Cf Matter of Ford Motor Company (Maywood Plant), 78 N. L R B 887
d Cf. Matter of National Tube Company , 76 N. L. It. B. 1199, where the Board denied
severence to a proposed unit of bricklayers because, among other factors, there was a history
of industry-wide bargaining on a non -craft basis . In that case , however, unlike the present
one, the Board also predicated its decision upon the high degree of integration between the
bricklayers and the production process and the character of the industry
5 Any participant in the election directed herein may , upon its prompt request to, and
approval thereof by, the Regional Director, have its name removed, from the ballot.
200 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
vision of the Regional Director for the Fourteenth Region, and sub-
ject to Sections 203.61 and 203.62 of National Labor Relations Board
Rules and Regulations-Series 5, among -the.employees in the voting
group described 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 exclud-
ing employees on strike who are not entitled to reinstatement, to deter-
mine whether they desire to be represented, for purposes of collective
bargaining, by Local B-309, International Brotherhood of Electrical
Workers, AFL, or by Amalgamated Meat Cutters -and Butcher Work-
men of North America, Local 530, affiliated with the American Feder-
ation of Labor, or by neither.