Johnson Welding & Mfg. Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Oct 26, 1950

91 N.L.R.B. 1325 (N.L.R.B. 1950)

In the Matter of JOHNSON WELDING & MFG. Co., EMPLOYER and
GENERAL DRIVERS AND HELPERS UNION, LOCAL No. 662, A. F. OF L.,
PETITIONER
Case No. 18-RC-850.Decided October 26, 1950
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
Upon a petition duly filed under.Section 9 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, a hearing was held before Erwin A. Peterson, 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 this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the Act.
2. The labor organization involved claims to represent certain
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 Petitioner seeks in substance a unit of all production and
maintenance employees in the Employer's truck body and retinning
departments including truck drivers, working foremen, and the em-
ployees in the shipping departments, but excluding clerical employees
and supervisors as defined in the Act. The Employer, however, con-
tends that the employees in the truck body department and in the
retinning department,' respectively, constitute separate appropriate
units. The Employer would exclude from each unit executive and
administrative employees, clerical and office employees, salesmen, and
supervisors as defined in the Act 2 There is no history of collective
bargaining for any of the employees herein involved.
' The Employer raises no objections to the inclusion of the truck drivers and shipping
employees in a unit of retinning department employees . Their duties are associated
entirely with the operations of the retinning department of which the shipping department
is a part.
2 The Employer had also sought to exclude technical and research or development
employees . However, during the course of the hearing it agreed to the inclusion of
Helmer Schmidt and Rollie Stokes , regarded by the Employer as technical employees, and
indicated further that it had no employees at present employed in research or development.
91 NLRB No. 198.
1325
1326 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
The Employer is engaged in the fabrication of truck -bodies and in
the retinning of milk cans. Each operation is departmentalized and is
carried on in a separate building. The operations in the two depart-
ments are totally dissimilar and unrelated. They are conducted as
separate' enterprises and each maintains separate payrolls, records,
and accounting systems. Physical conditions of employment in the
retinning department are markedly disagreeable because of the char-
acter of the work. Although there is some general and over-all super-
vision exercised by the Employer's president, each department is
separately supervised.3 The employees in the retinning department
are essentially unskilled or semiskilled. Except during short periods
of slack, there is no interchange' of employees between the depart-
ments. The employees in the two departments make use of separate
time clocks, lunchrooms, and dressing rooms. We believe that because
of the functional dissimilarity in plant operations and the other cir-
cumstances hereinabove mentioned, employees in the truck body de-
partment and in the retinning department, respectively, constitute
separate appropriate bargaining units.5
We find, therefore, that the following employees of the Employer
constitute separate units appropriate for purposes of collective bar-
gaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act:
a. All employees in the truck body department of the Employer's
Rice Lake, Wisconsin, plant, including the truck mechanic, but
excluding executive and administrative employees, clerical and office
employees,e salesmen, supervisors 7 as defined in the Act, and all other
employees.
b. All employees in the retinning department of the Employer's
Rice Lake, Wisconsin, plant, including the truck drivers and shipping
department employees, but excluding specifically H. S. Johnson," ex-
8 The record shows that for a period of some months, the foreman in the truck body
department assisted, in an advisory capacity, the more or less inexperienced foreman in the
retinning department. But whatever 'authority he had previously exercised over the
employees of the retinning department has since been terminated.
Some of the retinning employees during slack periods are assigned to maintenance and
repair, whereas others are transferred to the truck body department where they perform
such ordinary duties as unloading and piling lumber. Efforts to transfer truck body
department employees to the retinning department have met with little success because
of the disagreeable character of the work in that department.
5 See Booth Fisheries Corporation, 91 NLRB 363; Rockwood Pottery, Division of
Spero, Inc., 89 NLRB 1349. See also G. E. Tyner and A. Pet rue d/b/a Tyner-Petrus Co.,
81 NLRB 380; cf. George Block d/b/a Block Brothers, 80 NLRB 257.
6 The parties agreed to the exclusion of Harold Rude who works out of the Employer's
office, although some of his duties are related to the operations of the truck body
department.
4 The status of working foremen is not determined inasmuch as the record indicates
that there are no working foremen now employed and does not clearly establish the duties
of such working foremen.
8 H. S. Johnson, in charge of the shipping department, is a brother of the president
and vice president of the Employer. He is excluded from the unit in accordance with the
agreement' of the parties.
JOI3NSON WELDING & MFG. CO. 1327
ecutive and administrative employees, clerical and office employees,
salesmen, supervisors 9 as defined in the Act, and all other employees.
[Text of Direction of Elections omitted from publication in this
volume.]
Supra, footnote 7.