Ingersoll Milling Machine Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jul 27, 1948

78 N.L.R.B. 535 (N.L.R.B. 1948)

In the Matter Of INGERSOLL MILLING MACHINE COMPANY, EMPLOYER
and UNITED AUTOMOBILE, AIRCRAFT & AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENT
WORKERSj„OF AMERICA (UAW-CIO) , PETITIONER
Case No. 13-RC-87.-Decided July 27, 1948
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before a hearing offi-
cer of the National Labor Relations Board. The hearing officer's rul-
ings 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 labor organizations named in the Direction of Election
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 parties agree that a unit of production and maintenance em-
ployees is appropriate. They disagree, however, with respect to the
inclusion or exclusion of four categories of employees : hourly paid
engineering department employees, nurses, routing clerks, and service-
men. The petitioner would exclude all four from the unit; the Em-
ployer would include all four in the unit. The International Associa-
tion of Machinists and the United Automobile Workers of America,.
AFL, would exclude the nurses, routing clerks, and hourly paid en-
gineering department employees from the unit, but would include,
servicemen therein.
*Chairman Herzog and Members Murdock and Gray
78 N. L R. B., No. 68.
535
536 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Hourly paid engineering departmen t employees : These employees
are essentially draftsmen ; their work consists of preparing detailed
working drawings for use in the shop as blueprints of the machinery
to be manufactured , and checking the work of mechanical engineers.
They are supervised by a chief engineer , who supervises no produc-
tion employees . All parties would exclude from the unit the salaried
engineering department employees , who do substantially the same
work as do the hourly paid engineering department employees, but
who may be slightly more skilled. The hourly paid employees are
often promoted to salaried positions within the engineering depart-
ment . We do not believe that the interests of these employees lie
with those of the production and maintenance employees . We shall,
therefore , exclude them from the unit.'
Nurses: All the Employer 's nurses are graduate , registered nurses.
There is no physician on duty in the plant , and the nurses have the
entire responsibility for the care of injured employees until relieved
by a physician , when necessary . They are clearly professional em-
ployees, their interests are not with the production employees, and
we shall , therefore , exclude them from the unit 2
Routing clerks : These employees receive blueprints from the en-
gineering department , and determine the sequence of operations for
each part and the time which should be required on each operation
within the plant . This is done in order to gauge the time normally
necessary to produce a certain machine, rather than to standardize
the wages of employees . The routing clerks are supervised by the
plant superintendent , who also supervises the production and main-
tenance employees . On these facts , we believe that the routing clerks
are similar to time-study employees . We shall , therefore , exclude
them from the production and maintenance unit .3
Servicemen : These employees supervise the erection of machines
on customers ' premises, instruct the man who is to operate the ma-
chine, and determine that the various performance guarantees have
been fulfilled . They spend more than half of their time away from
the plant, during which time they are supervised by the field superin-
tendent. Because of this, we shall exclude them from the unit.
We find, accordingly , that all production and maintenance em-
ployees of the Employer, excluding clerical employees , professional
employees , watchmen, stationary engineers , salaried and hourly paid
engineering department employees , draftsmen , nurses, routing clerks,
servicemen , office employees , shop-office typists, salesmen , cafeteria
Matter of Kidder Press Co, Inc, 74 N . L. R. B 503
z Matter of The Harrison Steel Casttings Company, 74 N L. R B 363.
Cf Matter of lVestunghovse Electric Corp , 74 N L R B 94, 97.
INGERSOLL MILLING MACHINE COMPANY 537
employees, and all supervisors, constitute a unit appropriate for the
purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b)
of the Act.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION 4
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the pur-
poses of collective bargaining with Ingersoll Milling Machine Com-
pany, Rockford, Illinois, an election by secret ballot shall be con-
ducted 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 Thirteenth Region, and subject to Sections
203.61 and 203.62, of National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regu-
lations-Series 5, among the employees 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 excluding
employees on strike who are not entitled to reinstatement, to deter-
mine whether they desire to be represented by United Automobile,
Aircraft & Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW-
CIO), or by United Automobile Workers of America, AFL, or by Dis-
trict 101, International Association of Machinists, for the purposes
of collective bargaining, or by none.
4 Any participant in the election herein may , upon its prompt request to , and approval
thereof by , the Regional Director , have its name removed from the ballot.