Jos. Schlitz Brewing Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Aug 9, 1971

192 N.L.R.B. 553 (N.L.R.B. 1971)

JOS. SCHUTZ BREWING CO.
Jos. Schlitz Brewing Co., Container Division," and
United Steelworkers of America, AFL-CIO,2
Petitioner.-Case 30-RC-1470
August 9, 1971
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF
ELECTION
BY MEMBERS FANNING, BROWN, AND
KENNEDY
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9(c) of the
National Labor Relations Act, as amended, a hearing
was held before Hearing Officer Cecil Sutphen.
Following the hearing, this case was transferred to the
National Labor Relations Board in Washington,
D.C., pursuant to Section 102.67 of the National
Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations and
Statements of Procedure, Series 8, as amended.
Thereafter, the Petitioner and Employer filed briefs.
Pursuant,to 'the provisions of Section 3(b) of the
National Labor Relations Act, as amended, the
National Labor Relations Board has delegated its
powers in connection with this case to a three-member
panel.
The Board has reviewed the Hearing Officer's
rulings made at the hearing and finds that they are
free fromprejudicial error. They are hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in this case, including the
briefs filed herein, the Board finds:
1. The parties stipulated that Jos. Schlitz Brewing
Co., Container Division, a Wisconsin Corporation, is
engaged in the manufacture of cans at its Oak Creek,
Wisconsin, facility. During the past year the Employ-
er purchased and received goods valued in excess of
$50,000 from suppliers located directly outside the
State of Wisconsin. Accordingly, we find that the
Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning
of the Act, and that it will effectuate the purposes of
the Act to assert jurisdiction herein.
2. The labor organizations involved claim to
represent , certain, employees of the Employer.
3. A question affecting commerce exists concern-
ing the representation of certain employees of the
Employer within the meaning of Sections 9(c)(1) and
2(6) and (7) of the Act.
This case involves the plant of a new employer, Jos.
Schlitz Brewing Company, Container Division, a
subsidiary corporation of Joseph Schlitz Brewing
Company. The Petitioner seeks to represent a unit of
all production and maintenance employees at the
plant, excluding office clerical, technical, and profes-
sional employees, guards, and supervisors as defined
in the Act. The Employer agrees as to the appropriate-
1 The name of the Employer was amended at the heanng
2 The name of the Petitioner was amended at the heanng.
553
ness of this- unit. Local 494, International Brother-
hood ,of Electrical Workers, AFL-CIO, has inter-
vened and asserts that its contract with the Milwaukee
brewery covers the Container Division employees
and, alternately, that a separate unit of electronic
repairmen and electricians is appropriate. The Car-
penters District Council of Milwaukee County and
Vicinity, affiliated with the United Brotherhood of
Carpenters & Joiners of America, AFL-CIO, inter-
vened and seeks a separate -unit of millwrights
employed at the Container Division. Union Local No.
601 of the United Association of Journeymen and
Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipefitting Industry
of the United States and Canada also intervened on
the ground that its contract with the Milwaukee
brewery covers any steamfitters employed at the
Container Division.3
The Container Division plant commenced opera-
tions on or about April 1, 1971, and is entirely devoted
to the manufacturing of beer cans for use at Schlitz
breweries across the country. The production process
is fully automated and is capable of producing 1,200
aluminum cans per minute. It is expected that the
plant will be able to produce 250 million beer cans per
year when production is at its peak. As of the date of
the hearing, the Employer had approximately 50
production and maintenance employees working, at
the plant and expects to have 70 employees when the
plant becomes fully operative. 1 The existing produc-
tion job- classifications and the number of 'employ-
ees in each as of the date of the-hearing are as follows:
adjusters, 15; can technicians, 3;, chemical process
operators, 2; maintainers, 12; inspectors, 1; and
operators, 5. The existing maintenance. department
classifications and the number of employees in each
are: driver-janitor, 1; electrician, 1; electronic repair-
men, 3; machinists, 2; millwrights, 2; and tool-and-
die makers, 2.
The Container Division is located 12 miles from the
Milwaukee brewery in Oak Creek, .Wisconsin. All of
the employees working at the new plant are new
Schlitz hires-none were transferred from the Mil-
waukee brewery-and the remaining 20 positions will
be filled with new Schlitz employees as well. The
Employer stated that there will not be any temporary
or permanent transfers between the Container Divi-
sion and Milwaukee brewery. All of the frontline
supervisors are also new hires and most of the top
management personnel were not previously employed
by Schlitz. In terms of overall company organization,
the plant manager of, the Container Division reports
to a different Schlitz vice president than the vice
president overseeing the brewery operations. The
engineering, purchasing, production, quality control,
3 At present no steamfitters are employed at the Container Division.
192 NLRB No. 79
554 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
and labor-'relations functions are also handled on a
separate ` basis . Furthermore, different policies are
applicable to the brewery employees than those of
Container Division employees with respect to holi-
days, vacations, insurance, and shift schedules.
The plant involved herein utilizes a two-piece
production process which produces a seamless can
with an integral bottom and an aluminum top. An
intricate trackwork system moves the product from
the uncoiler; the first piece of equipment, to the
automatic palletizer, the last piece of equipment on
the production line. All components on the line are
interconnected and' are dependent on each other for
overall production. The automated equipment is
actuated by electronic sensing devices so that, other
than for inspection and-maintenance, the cans are not
touched by human hands from fabricating through
packaging.
The coils of aluminum used in the production
process are unloaded from railroad cars, placed on an
upender, then picked up by Z hoist and conveyed by
an overhead crane to an uncoiler which feeds the
aluminum into a cupping press. This press stamps out
circular pieces of aluminum into cups approximately
4'inc'hes in diameter'and 1 inch high, which are then
redrawn and wall-ironed into plain aluminum can
bodies. After being trimmed to the correct-height, the
,cans are conveyed to a washer for a complete wash
and then to the printer where three colors are printed
by the dry offset method and an overcoat of varnish is
applied. A thin coat of varnish-is also applied to the
bottom of the can to enhance mobility of the can
throughout the plant and the brewery. Next the cans
are conveyed to the decorating oven where' the ink
and varnish are dried. A protective coating is then
sprayed on'the inside of the can and dried in another
oven. The cans are conveyed past the inspection table
to the necker flinger where the can is flared out into a
flange which makes the can ready to accept the pop
top unit.'The cans are then tested and conveyed to an
automatic palletizer where the cans are stacked up
and prepared for either warehousing or shipping to
the brewery.
The plant is organized under a concept wherein all
employees, whether' production or maintenance, work
together to'maintain the continuous operation of the
production' line. For this reason, maintenance is done
both by the maintenance workers and by production
workers. Both groups of employees use the work-
benches located throughout the plant. The mainte-
nance employees, therefore, spend most of their time
in production areas in order to promote uninterrupted
production. Because of the interchange of employees
in performing the various functions at the plant
maintainers ands adjusters do 80 to 85 percent of, the
work which millwrights perform. The, electrician and
electronic repairmen work with production employees
85 to 90 percent of the time. Although the mainte-
nance employees have assigned work areas off the
production floor (where tools and some equipment
are kept), they spend the vast majority of their time
working right alongside production employees. The
record disclosed numerous functions which are
performed by both production and maintenance
employees although major repair work will be
contracted out Furthermore, a number of functions
are performed on the basis of whoever is available in
the area of the plant where such work isneeded.: -
While there are maintenance supervisors and
production supervisors, when maintenance employ-
ees are in production areas (85 to 99-percent of the
time) they will be supervised by production supervi-
sors . Thus, production supervisors can reassign
maintenance employees to- perform,'various tasks. All
employees will be directly supervised by production
supervisors in the second shift which was -to have
begun ,June 1. As the first and. second shifts will be
rotated each month, all maintenance employees will
eventually work on the second shift and will be
directed by production supervisors. '
With regard to the working conditions at the plant,
both production and maintenance employees receive
the same training, work, on the same shift schedule,
are on the same. payroll, serve-the same' probationary
period, have the same fringe benefits; and use the
same repair manuals.,Neither production nor mainte-
nance employees are required -to possess any special
educational or experience qualifications in order to be
hired by the Employer. Furthermore, 4 here are no
badges or insignia of any type to distinguish one
employee from another.
On'the, basis of the foregoing, we find that all of the
production and maintenance 'employees involved
herein constitute a unit"appropriate for the purposes
of collective bargaining, particularly in light of the
automation in the plant, the overlap of job duties, the
common supervision, the common location of the
production lines and the shared responsibility for and
participation in the operation of the equipment.
Accordingly, we find that the electrical workers,
carpenters, and steamfitters do not have a sufficient
community of interest to warrant their establishment
as separate bargaining units., With regard to the
contract-bar assertions of the, Electrical Workers and
the Steamfitters, in order to decide whether their
contracts with the brewery,, cover employees at the
Container Division, a prior determination must be
made that the Container Division constitutes an
JOS. SCHLITZ BREWING CO.
accretion to the brewery unit.4 As- there has been no
interchange of brewery and Container Division
employees, as' management and administrative con-
trol is separate , and because of the difference in
working conditions and skills, we do not view the
production and maintenance workers as an accretion
to- the .unit . Accordingly, we find, that the electrical
workers and the steamfitters do not by themselves
constitute, separate units appropriate for purposes of
collective bargaining.
4. Beacon Photo Service, Inc., 163 NLRB 706.
5 In order to assure that all eligible voters may have the opportunity to
be informed of the issues in the exercise of their statutory right to vote, all
parties to the election should have access to a list of voters and their
addresses which may be - used to communicate ' with them . Excelsior
Underwear Inc., 156 NLRB 1236 ; N.LR.B. v. Wyman-Gordon Co., 394 U.S.
759. Accordingly , it is hereby directed that an election eligibility list,
containing the names and addresses of all the eligible voters, must be filed
555
4. We find that the following employees' constitute
a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective
bargaining within the meaning of Section 9(b).of -the
Act: all production and maintenance employees at
the Employer's Oak Creek, Wisconsin, plant, exclud-
ing office clerical employees, technical, employees,
professional employees, guards and supervisors as
defined in the Act.
[Direction of Elections omitted from publication.]
by the Employer with the Regional Director for Region 30, within 7 days'
of the date of this Decision and Direction of Election . The Regional
Director shall make the list available to all parties to the election. No
extension of time to file this list shall be granted by the Regional Director
except in extraordinary circumstances . Failure to comply , with ; this
requirement shall be grounds for setting aside the election whenever proper
objections are filed.