Johns-Manville Products Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Nov 22, 1948

80 N.L.R.B. 602 (N.L.R.B. 1948)

In the Matter Of JOHNS-MANVILLE PRODUCTS CORPORATION,1 EMPLOYER
and UNITED CEMENT, LIME AND GYPSUM WORKERS, INTERNATIONAL
UNION, AFL, PETITIONER
In the Matter Of JOHNS-MANVILLE PRODUCTS CORPORATION, EMPLOYER
and UNITED BROTHERHOOD OF CARPENTERS AND JOINERS OF AMERICA,
AFL, PETITIONER
Cases Nos. 15-RC-115 and 15-RC-141, respectively.Decided
November 22, 1948
DECISION
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
AND
ORDER
Upon separate petitions duly filed, a consolidated 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 the case, the National Labor Relations
Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the National Labor Relations Act.
2. The labor organizations involved 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.
1 The name of the Employer was corrected at the hearing.
• Houston , Reynolds , and Murdock.
80 N. L . R. B., No. 103.
602
JOHNS-MANVILLE PRODUCTS CORPORATION 603
4. The appropriate unit :
In Case No. 15-RC-141, the Carpenters 2 has petitioned for a unit
composed of the following maintenance employees of the Employer :
carpenters, millwrights, machinists, pipe fitters, welders, burners, and
electricians. It would also include in its proposed unit certain ma-
chine operators in the production departments who perform some
maintenance work. In Case No. 15-RC-115, the Gypsum Workers $
has petitioned for a unit composed of all the Employer's mainte-
nance and production employees, excluding office and clerical
employees, guards, watchmen, and supervisory employees as defined
in the Act. The Woodworkers,' who appeared as an Intervenor in
this consolidated proceeding, agrees with the Gypsum Workers that
the appropriate unit for the Employer's employees should be plant-
wide in scope and include both the production and the maintenance
workers. The Employer takes a neutral position with respect to the
appropriateness of the unit.
The Employer is engaged in the business of processing and manu-
facturing wood pulp products for use in the building industry. There
are at the present a total of approximately 475 employees in the
Employer's plant, practically all of whom are production and main-
tenance workers. The Employer's maintenance workers are assigned
to the erection and repair department while the balance of its
employees work in approximately 8 other departments.5 A plant
manager is in charge of the entire plant. Each department, with the
exception of the erection and repair department, is under the separate
charge of a superintendent. Under each superintendent are a number
of foremen who supervise the work of the employees. The erection
and repair department is under the plant engineer. Although inter-
change between the personnel of the production and maintenance
departments occurs infrequently, transfers are possible. The working
conditions are the same for all the Employer's employees.
Most of the employees requested by the Carpenters are assigned to
the erection and repair department. This department employs a total
of approximately 100 workers whom the Employer divides into the
following 3 classifications : laborers, electricians, and mechanical
employees.
The mechanical employees and the electricians all perform general
plant maintenance work. Although both groups are under the same
2 United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, AFL.
$ United Cement , Lime and Gypsum Workers , International Union, AFL.
4 International Woodworkers of America, CIO.
`These eight departments are known as the woodyard, pulp , board manufacturing , finish,
quality control , cost, and the warehouse and shipping departments.
604 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
general charge of the plant engineer, their immediate supervision is
by a chief electrician and a master mechanic. The mechanical em-
ployees include carpenters, millwrights, machinists, pipe fitters,
welders, and burners. These six categories of mechanical employees
together with the electricians constitute the majority of the employees
whom the Carpenters would represent in a separate unit. However,
it also desires to include in its proposed unit those machine operators
in production work who act as helpers to the repairmen and to exclude
the laborers who are assigned to the erection and repair department.
The Carpenters contend that the requested employees are distinguish-
able from the other employees in the plant because they are not
directly engaged in the production of the Employer's finished
products.
Evidence in the record of the present case does not establish that
the proposed unit would be made up of true craft employees. Most of
the employees hired by the Employer have little previous experience.
Only a very small number appear to have undergone any formal train-
ing. The Carpenters ordinarily requires a 4-year apprenticeship
before a person may qualify as a carpenter. Practically all of the
skilled and semi-skilled employees in the Employer's plant have been
trained by the Employer, with the training period running from 6
months to 1 year. Among the employees so trained are the employees
sought by the Carpenters. They are trained only to achieve that de-
gree of skill required to perform the particular work to which they are
assigned. No formal apprentice training program has been estab-
lished by the Employer. The record is clear that most of the em-
ployees desired by the Carpenters do not possess the complete range
of skills ordinarily required for members of such crafts. The record
further discloses that vacancies in the maintenance department may
be filled by production employees who have aptitude, even though they
may lack experience and training with respect to the positions to be
filled. It is also possible for maintenance workers to transfer into pro-
duction work. Every 2 weeks the plant closes down for "cleanup"
and repair of machinery. At this time both machine operators
and maintenance workers work together to perform the necessary
repairs. Apparently, therefore, there is some similarity in the skills
of the production and maintenance workers. These loose requisites
for qualification refute the Carpenters' contention that the proposed
unit is a true craft group.
It is clear that the proposed unit goes outside any single department
and would include those employees engaged in production effort, but
who are secondarily concerned with maintenance. Further, a sub-
stantial number of the maintenance employees whom the Carpenters
JOHNS-MANVILLE PRODUCTS CORPORATION 605
would exclude work under the same supervision as most of those
included.';
It is clear that the employees sought by the Carpenters do not
constitute a severable departmental uilit,T nor do they constitute a
separate true craft group. In fact, the proposed unit embraces es-
sentially a multi-craft grouping of employees with varying skills."
We find nothing in the record to indicate that the employees desired
by the Carpenters have any special community of interest apart from
other employees of the Employer.
In view of these circumstances, and the entire record in the case,
we find the unit proposed by the Carpenters in Case No. 15-RC-141 is
inappropriate for collective bargaining purposes.9 We shall therefore
dismiss the petition in this case. On the other hand, the plant-wide
production and maintenance unit sought by the Gypsum Workers in
Case No. 15-RC-115 is, in our opinion, an appropriate bargaining
unit.
Accordingly, we find that all production and maintenance employees
employed at the Employer's Natchez, Mississippi, plant, excluding
guards, watchmen, professional employees, clerical employees, and
supervisors as defined in the Act, constitute a unit appropriate for the
purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9
(b) of the Act.
ORDER
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the petition for investigation and certifi-
cation of representatives of certain employees of Johns-Manville
Products Corporation, Natchez, Mississippi, filed in Case No. 15-RC-
141 by the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America,
AFL, be, and it hereby is, dismissed.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION 10
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the
purposes 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-
vision of the Regional Director for the Region in which this case
s See Matter of Raybestos -Manhattan Company, Inc, 74 N . L. R. B. 1321.
Matter of Shampaine Company, 77 N L. R. B 457.
Matter of Pepsi Cola Company, 78 N. L. R B. 790.
° Matter of Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corporation, 79 N. L R. B. 594.
30 Any participant in the election directed herein may , upon prompt request to , and ap-
proval thereof by, the Regional Director , have its name removed from the ballot
606 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
was heard, and subject to Sections 203.61 and 203.62 of National Labor
Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 5, as amended, among
the employees in the voting group described above, who were employed
during the pay-roll period immediately preceding the date of this
Direction of Election, including employees who did not work during
said pay-roll period because they were ill or on vacation or tempo-
rarily 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 they
desire to be represented, for purposes of collective bargaining, by
United Cement, Lime and Gypsum Workers, International Union,
AFL, or by United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of Amer-
ica, AFL, or by International Woodworkers of America, CIO, or
by none.