Julien P. Friez & Sons

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jan 27, 1943

47 N.L.R.B. 43 (N.L.R.B. 1943)

In the Matter of JuLIEN P. FRIEZ & SONS, DIVISION BENDIX AVIATION
CORP. and AIRCRAFT RADIO ASSOCIATION
Case No. R-41702.-Decided January 27, 1943
Jurisdiction : aircraft instruments manufacturing industry.
Investigation and Certification of Representatives : existence of question: stipu-
lation as to ; election necessary.
Unit Appropriate for Collective Bargaining : single or separate units held de-
pendent upon elections to be conducted among (1) all production, employees,
with specified inclusions and exclusions, of four Baltimore plants of Company,
and (2) all production employees, with specified inclusions and exclusions,
at the Towson'plant.
Messrs. Lucien L. Friez, Franklin Davis, W. J. Buckley, E. P. Lop-
packer, and Hugh Renet, all of Towson, Md., for the Company.
Mr. J. Wardlaw Ewell, of Baltimore,,Md., for the A. R. A.
Mr. Jack Myers, of Baltimore, Md., for the C. 1.0.
Mr. Arthur Leff, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon petition duly filed by Aircraft Radio Association, herein
called the A. R. A., alleging that a question affecting commerce had
arisen concerning the representation of employees of Julien P. Friez
& Sons, Division Bendix Aviation Corp., Towson, Maryland, herein
called the Company, the National Labor Relations Board provided
for an appropriate hearing upon due notice before Albert P. Wheat-
ley, Trial Examiner. Said hearing was held in Baltimore, Maryland,
on December 28 and 29, 1942. The Company, the A. R. A., and
United' Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America, C. I. 0.,
herein called the C. I. 0., appeared, participated, and were afforded
full opportunity to be heard, to examine and cross-examine witnesses,
and to introduce evidence bearing on the issues. The Trial Ex-
aminer's rulings made at the bearing are free from prejudicial error
and are hereby affirmed. The Company and the C. I. O. filed briefs
which have been considered by the Board.
47 N L R. B., No. 8.
43
44 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following: .
FINDINGS OF FACT
I. THE BUSINESS OF THJ COMPANY
Julien P. Friez & Sons is a Division of the Bendix Aviation Corp.,
and is engaged in manufacturing weather and aircraft instruments
and apparatus. It operates five plants, of which four are in Balti-
more and one in Towson, Maryland. It receives annually from points,
outside of Maryland raw materials and supplies of the approximate
value of $600,000. It ships to points outside the State of Maryland
annually products having a value in excess of $4,000,000. We find
that the Company is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the National Labor Relations Act.
H. TH7q ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED
Aircraft Radio Association is an unaffiliated, labor organization
admitting'to membership employees of the Company.
United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers. of America, is a
labor organization affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organ-
izations, admitting to membership employees of the Company.
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
It was stipulated that the Company, although requested to do so,
had declined to recognize the A. R. A. as the exclusive bargaining
agent for its production and maintenance employees until the A. R. A.
was certified by the Board.
A statement of the Field Examiner, introduced into evidence at
the hearing, indicates that the A. R. A. represents a substantial num-
ber of employees in the unit claimed by it to be appropriate.,
We find that a question affecting commerce has arisen concerning
the representation of employees of the Company, within the meaning
of Section 9 (c) 'and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
The 'statement shows that the A. R A. submitted a total of 700 membership cards,
all undated : Of these , 629 bore apparently genuine signatures of employees appearing
on the Company 's November 30, 1942, pay roll,- which listed about 1,312 employees in
all plants, the unit sought ,by the A. R. A . The pay roll showed 728 employees in the
Towson plant , which is the unit sought by the C. I 0 ; 360 A. 11 A. cards bore the appar-
ently genuine signatures of employees in that plant. The C. I. 0 submitted 45 cards
bearing apparently genuine signatures of employees on said pay roll in the Towson plant.
JULIEN P. FRIEZ & SONS 45
IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT; THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
The principal unit issue in this proceeding arises from conflict
among the parties concerning the separability from an appropriate
bargaining unit of one of the Company's five plants. The A. R. A.
contends that all of the Company's plants should be 'included in a
single unit. The C. I. 0., seeking certification only with respect to
the Company's Towson plant, contends that the Towson plant should
be found to be a separate unit. The Company agrees with the
A.R.A.
Four of the plants operated by the Company are located within
the business district of the City of Baltimore. The fifth, located at
Towson, outside of the city limits of Baltimore, is removed from the,
other plants by from 8 to 10 miles. Because the Towson plant is over
2 miles distant from the nearest public transportation facilities, it is
necessary to make special arrangements for automobile transportation
of employees to and from that plant.
The Towson plant is essentially a machining plant where parts
are 'fabricated. All of the other plants are essentially assembling
and finishing plants, even though some machining and tooling inci-
dental to the assembling and finishing processes are also performed
there. Raw materials are received at the Towson plant, are there
fabricated into parts, and are then sent to one or more of the other
plants for assembling and finishing. Among the assembly plants in
Baltimore city there is, however, a frequent shifting of the products
from plant to plant during the various stages of manufacturing and
processing. On occasions, personnel have been transferred from
plant to plant, but the extent to which the Towson plant has been
involved in such interchanges has been relatively slight.2
The Company maintains a central general office, clerical system and
production control. There is a general supervisor in charge of all
plants, but each 'plant has its own superintendent who is authorized
to' make decisions affecting employees within his own plant. There
is a central personnel office located at Towson, but the Company also
maintains a personnel interviewer's office at one of its Baltimore city
plants, where applicants are received, interviewed and hired. The
several plant superintendents also hire men at their respective plants.
All employment is cleared through the central personnel office. Ex-
cept for janitors who are regularly stationed at the several plants,
the maintenance employees have no regular station and are assigned
to duty in the various plants from their headquarters which are located
at the Towson office of the Company:
The record shows that during the 6-month ' period ending December 1942, 22 em-
ployees were shifted from Towson to other plants, and 23 employees from other plants to
Towson.
46 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
The A. R. A. has separate chapters representing respectively the
employees in the Towson plant and the employees in the Baltimore
city plants. Each chapter is organized along autonomous lines.
Although provision is made in the A. R. A. constitution for an over-
all executive, committee, the two chapters have not yet been unified
by the designation of such a committee. The evidence shows that
each .chapter of the A. R. A. made its own separate request upon
the Company for bargaining conferences.
In support of their contention, for a single over-all unit, the Com-
pany and the A. R. A. emphasize principally the functional inter-
dependence of all the plants. The Company also claims that separa-
tion may require reorganization of its personnel administration. The
C. I. 0., on the other hand, contending that the Towson plant be set
apart as a separate unit, points to the physical separation of Towson
from its other plants, the special transportation problem relating
to the Towson plant, the separate chapter organization and requests
to bargain of the A. R. A., and the fact that the several plants have
separate superintendents with power to hire and discharge employees.
The C. I. 0. stresses, above all, the distinction between the machin-
ing and fabrication work conducted- at the Towson plant and the
assembling and finishing work performed at the other plants.
We find no great preponderance of evidence in this record in favor
of one contention over the other, and the record does not disclose any
history of collective bargaining on behalf of the employees which
might aid us in arriving at a determination. Under all the circum-
stances we are of the opinion that the inclusion of the 'Towson plant
in a unit with the Company's other plants should depend in part
on the express desires of the employees. Consequently, we shall
direct separate elections, one to be conducted among the employees
in the Towson plant, of the Company, and the other among the em-,
ployees of the Baltimore city plants of the Company. The election
at the Towson plant shall be conducted to determine whether the
employees of that plant desire to be represented for purposes of col-
lective bargaining by the A. R. A., the C. I. 0., or by neither. In the
election at the Baltimore city plants, the employees' will express their
wishes as to whether they desire to be represented by the A. R. A.
or by no union. If the A. R. A. receives a majority of the votes
cast by the employees in each election, the five plants will constitute
it single appropriate unit. If the C. I. 0. receives a majority of
votes cast by the employees at the Towson election, the Towson plant
will constitute a separate appropriate unit.
All of the Company's maintenance employees who are regularly,
stationed at one or more of its Baltimore city plants, shall vote in the
election to be conducted among the employees of such plants, and that
all maintenance employees of the Company who are regularly sta-
JULIEN P. FRIEZ & SONS 47
tioned at the Towson plant or who are not regularly stationed at any
particular plant, but whose headquarters are at the Towson plant or
who receive their work assignments from an office located at that
plant, shall vote in the election to be conducted among the employees
of.that . plant.
There remains to be considered the question as to whether certain
specific groups of employees shall be included within the unit or units.
In its petition the A . R. A. requested that there be-included within
the appropriate unit, all production and maintenance employees, ex-
clusive of clerical and supervisory employees . At the hearing all
parties agreed that the term "supervisory , employees" was to be de-
fined as including executives , foremen, subforemen , and all employees
having the power'to hire or discharge or the power , to recommend hir-
ing or discharge , but that group leaders -were to be excepted , from such
exclusion. All parties further agreed-that shipping clerks should be
included in the appropriate unit, and Ahat mechanical engineers
should be excluded . The Company, however, would -exclude, whereas
the A. R. A. would include , timekeepers and expediters . The C. I. 0.
has taken no position as to the inclusion or exclusion of timekeepers
and expediters. -
The timekeepers are charged with the duty of keeping time records
relating to the work done in the plants by production employees, and
preparing and ; submitting reports to the management. They travel
throughout the plant to which they are attached . The record does
not indicate the extent, if any, of their supervisory duties. They,
alone among the employees in the suggested units, are paid on a salary
basis . Their work is essentially clerical.
The expediters, who have their headquarters at the Towson plant,
are charged with the duty of expediting the completion of orders and
assuring adherence to production time schedules. They follow the
work in all plants from its start, through its various intermediate
stages, until final completion and shipment. If stoppage occurs they
take up the matter with the foreman of the department then handling
the work.
Under the circumstances disclosed we agree with the contention ' of
the, Company that its timekeepers are clerical and its expediters are
closely related to the management, and therefore find-that employees
within these disputed categories should be excluded from the appro-
priate , unit or units.
We find that the questions concerning representation which have
arisen can best be resolved by means of election by secret ballot among
the employees in the groups described below who were employed dur-
ing the pay-roll period immediately preceding the date of the Direc-
tion of Election ' herein, subject to, the limitations and additions set
forth in the Direction.
48 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RE'LATIONS BOARD
DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS' - `
.By virtue of and pursuant to the power vested in the National
-Labor Relations-Board by Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Rela-
tions Act, and pursuant to Article III, Section 9, of National Labor
Relations Board 'Rules 'and .Regulations-Series .2, as amended, it is
hereby - ' . ' • ' I
Dnwo D that, as part of the investigation to 'ascertain; representa-
tives for the purposes .of collective bargaining with Julien P. Friez
& Sons,,Division Bendix Ayiation Corp., separate elections by secret
-ballot shall be conducted as, early, as possible, but not later than thirty
•(30)''dayslfrom the date of this Direction, under the direction and
supervision of the Regional Director for the Fifth Region, acting
.in this matter as agent for the National Labor Relations Board, and
subject to Article :111,: Section .10, 'of said Rules and,Regulations,
among the following groups of employees who were employed during
,the pay-roll period immediately preceding the date of this Direction,
including any such employees who did not work during said pay-
; roll period because they were ill, or on vacation or temporarily laid
off, and including employees in the armed forces of the United States
who present themselves in person at the polls, but excluding"any
who have since quit or been discharged for cause :
(a) All production. employees (including, group: 'leaders and
shipping clerks) at the Baltimore plants of the Company, and all
maintenance employees regularly stationed at one or more'.of said
plants'; but excluding all executives,, foremen, subforemen, and all
other supervisory employees having the power to hire or discharge
or the power to recommend hiring or discharge, and all mechanical
engineers, timekeepers, expediters, and clerical employees, other than
shipping clerks ; to determine whether or not they desire to be repre-
sented for the purposes of collective bargaining by Aircraft Radio
Association.
(b) All production employees (including group leaders and
shipping clerks), at the Towson plant and all maintenance employees
wjio are regularly stationed at that plant, or' who are not regularly
stationed at any particular plant of the Company but whose head-
quarters are at the Towson plant or who receive their work assign-
ments from an office at that' plant; but excluding all executive's,
foremen, subforemen, and all other supervisory employees having
the power to hire or discharge or the power'to recommend hiring or
discharge, and all mechanical engineers; timekeepers, expeditors; and
clerical employees, other than shipping clerks;-to 'determine whether
-they desire to be' represented by Aircraft Radio Association, by
United Electrical,' Radio & Machine' Workers of America, C. I. 0.,
for the purposes of collective bargaining, or by neither.