Kaiser Industries

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

May 29, 1945

61 N.L.R.B. 1571 (N.L.R.B. 1945)

In the Matter of KAISER INDUSTRIES and INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD
OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS LOCAL UNION No. 111
In the Matter of KAISER INDUSTRIES and UNITED STEELWORKERS OF
AMERICA, CIO
In the Matter of KAISER INDUSTRIES and INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD
OF BLACKSMITHS, DROP FORGERS AND HELPERS, A. F. OF L.
III the Matter of K.IISER INDUSTRIES and INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION
OF MACIUNIS'rs, A. F. OF L.
In the Matter of KAISER INDUSTRIES and UNITED ASSOCIATION OF
JOURNEYMEN, PLUMBERS AND STEAM FITTERS OF THE UNITED STATES
AND CANADA, PIPE FITTERS LOCAL No. 208, A. F. of L.
Cases Nos. 17-R-1037, 17-R-1043,17-R-10-51, 17-R 1056, and 17-R-
1073, respectively.Decided May 29, 1945
Mr. Thomas T. Inch, of Oakland, Calif., for the Company.
Messrs. A. L. Smith and Wesley B. Jordan, of Denver, Colo., for the
Machinists.
Messrs. J. J. Harrington and W. A. Rice, of Denver, Colo., for the
Blacksmiths.
Messrs. E. B. Fitzgerald and Fred G. Donner, of Denver, Colo., for
the Plumbers.
Messrs. John C. Monarch and James P. Steele, of Denver, Colo., for
the C. I. O.
Mr: A. Sunnier Lawrence, of counsel to the Board
DECISION
DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
AND
ORDER
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon petitions duly filed by International Brotherhood of Electrical
Workers, Local Union No. 111, herein called the Electricians; by
United Steelworkers of America, CIO, herein called the CIO; by
61 N. L . R. B., No. 242.
1571
1572 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
International Brotherhood of Blacksmiths, Drop Forgers and Helpers,
AFL, herein called the Blacksmiths; by International Association of
Machinists, AFL, herein called the Machinists; and by United Asso-
ciation of Journeymen, Plumbers & Steam Fitters, of the United States
and Canada, Pipe Fitters, Local 208, AFL, herein called the Plumbers,
alleging that questions affecting commerce had arisen concerning the
representation of employees of Kaiser Industries, herein called the
Company, the National Labor Relations Board provided for an appro-
priate consolidated hearing upon due notice before Robert S. Fousek,
Trial Examiner. Said hearing was held at Denver, Colorado, on
February 20 and 21, 1945. The Company and all petitioning unions
appeared and participated. All parties were afforded full opportunity
to be heard, to examine and cross-examine witnesses, and to introduce
evidence bearing on the issues. For reasons hereinafter stated, the
Company's motion to dismiss is denied, except with respect to the
petition filed by the Blacksmiths. The Trial Examiner's rulings made
at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
Subsequent to the hearing, the Trial Examiner reported that in view
of certain errors in the official transcript, a stipulation providing for
the substitution of the unofficial transcript for the official transcript
of testimony taken at the hearing had been partly executed by the
'parties to the proceedings. In view of the incomplete execution of
the stipulation aforesaid, the proposed substitution cannot be approved
or effected.' All parties were afforded opportunity to file briefs with
the Board.
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following :
FINDINGS OF FACT
1. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
Kaiser Industries, a California corporation and wholly owned sub-
sidiary of Henry J. Kaiser Corporation, has its principal office in
Oakland, California, and is engaged in the business of constructing
and operating plants for the production of ordnance items for the
Ordnance Department of the United States Army. Of the several
plants operated by the Company, the only plant involved in the pres-
ent proceeding is that located at Denver, Colorado, where the Com-
pany is engaged in the complete manufacture of artillery shells and
the finishing of rough artillery shells manufactured at another plant
'While the stipulation will not be considered effective for the purpose of making the
substitution provided for therein , the failure of the parties to accomplish the substitution
in question is immaterial , since it appears upon examination of both the official and
unofficial transcripts that, had the unofficial transcript been substituted for the official
transcript , the corrections thus effected would not be sufficiently material to have compelled
a different decision
KAISER INDUSTRIES 1573
of the Company. All raw materials utilized in the manufacturing
process at Denver, Colorado, and valued in excess of $1,000,000, are
received from another plant of the company at Fontana, California.
The entire output of the Company's Denver plant is shipped to local-
ities outside the State of Colorado, for ultimate military use.
The Company admits that it is engaged in commerce within the
meaning of the National Labor Relations Act.
II. THE ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local Union No.
111; International Brotherhood of Blacksmiths, Drop Forgers and
Helpers; International Association of Machinists; and United
Association of Journeymen Plumbers and Steam Fitters of the United
States and Canada, Pipe Fitters Local 208, affiliated with the American
Federation of Labor, are labor organizations admitting to member-
ship employees of the Company.
United Steelworkers of America, affiliated with the Congress of
Industrial Organizations, is a labor organization admitting to mem-
bership employees of the Company.
III. TILE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
The Company has declined, upon request, to recognize any of the
petitioning labor organizations as the bargaining representative of its
employees unless and until certified by the Board.
A report of a Field Examiner for the Board, introduced in evidence
at the hearing, indicates that the Electricians, Steelworkers, Ma-
chinists, and Plumbers, each represents a substantial number of em-
ployees of the Company within the unit claimed by each to be
appropriate.'
We find that questions affecting commerce have 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.
2 The Field Examiner reported that the CIO had submitted 814 cards , including 804
cards dated between October 1944 and January 1945, of which 650 were found on the
January 15 , 1944, pay roll containing the names of 1,850 employees in the remaining unit
claimed appropriate by the CIO ; that the Electricians had submitted 15 cards , of which
7 were found on the said pay roll containing the names of 17 employees in the unit claimed
appropriate by the Electricians , and that the Machinists had submitted 38 cards, of which
11 were found on the said pay roll containing the names of 76 employees in the unit claimed
appropriate by the Machinists
The Blacksmiths submitted no evidence of representation to the Field Examiner, but at
the hearing submitted 9 authorization cards dated between December 1944 and February
1945 , of which 8 bore the names of employees found in the classification of shell makers,
on the Company 's said pay roll containing the names of 37 employees in this classification,
included by the Blacksmiths in its claimed appropriate unit , which claimed appropriate
unit consists of 7 classifications containing a total of 179 names of employees found on
the said pay roll.
1574 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
1V. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT; THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
A. The contentions 0/ the parties
The Electricians, the Plumbers, and the Machinists seek bargain-
ing units of craft maintenance employees,3 engaged in occupations
bringing them within the jurisdiction of the respective petitioners.
The Blacksmiths seeks a unit of all employees working on the Com-
pany's production while in a heated state.' The CIO denies the appro-
priateness of the units proposed by the AFL unions and contends
that the appropriate unit should be plant-wide without regard to
craft distinctions. The Company is in general agreement with the
inclusions and exclusions sought by the CIO,-' except with respect
to the classification of timekeepers, plant clerical employees, and
gardeners,6 all of whom the Company would exclude from the produc-
tion and maintenance unit.
The contention of the Company and the CIO that craft units are
inappropriate is based primarily upon the fact that aside from the
plant-wide organization of the Company's employees by the CIO, the
Company's activities are highly integrated in the interest of pro-
ducing by a single line production process, mass quantities of ordnance
materials required by the United States Army for the successful com-
pletion of the national war effort. On the other hand, the record
reveals that while the craft maintenance groups herein concerned
work throughout the plant area, such groups are under the super-
vision of craft foremen and perform skilled work of a type clearly
distinguishable from that of other employees with whom they are
at times associated in the course of their duties. In the absence of
any history of collective bargaining, we are of the opinion that the
3 In addition to the craft maintenance employees included within the proposed unit of
the Machinists , the latter would also include in its unit experimental machine employees
in the production machine shop , but would exclude therefrom all machine workers engaged
in general production activities
The employees included by the Blacksmiths in its proposed unit are all production
employees who perform various operations scattered throughout the production process
including in addition to the forge work usually performed by Blacksmith , the observation
of heat control instruments and the operation of automatic machines similar to those
handled by members of the machinist craft while the Blacksmiths attempted to clarify
its unit by a limitation of its claim to employees who handle the Company ' s products in
a heated state, the evidence discloses that many of such employees are not distinguishable
from similar employees who work on cold products , due to the fact that the employees
in production are transferred as needed from one operation to another , and may have
occasion to work on both cold and heated products during a single day of the Company's
operations.
5 The CIO would include in its proposed plant -wide unit , tnnekeepers , warehousemen,
warehouse tool clerks , truck drivers , plant clerical employees and gardeners , but would
exclude therefrom executive , administrative employees , technical and professional em-
ployees, confidential employees , plant-protection employees (guards and firemen ) first aid
safety employees , persons employed as chauffeurs driving company vehicles engaged in
transporting company executives and guests , foremen and all supervisory employees with
authority to hire, promote , discharge , discipline , or otherwise effect changes in the status
of employees , or effectively recommend such action.
G The Company employs no gardeners at the present time.
KAISER INDUSTRIES 1575
craft maintenance employees sought by the Electricians, the Plumbers,
and the Machinists, may properly constitute separate bargaining units
or may be merged in a single unit of shell plant employees. In this
situation, we shall permit the scope of the bargaining unit or units
to be determined, in part, by the results of separate elections among
the groups represented by the three unions aforesaid.? However, with
respect to the unit sought by the Blacksmiths, it appears from the lack
of functional coherence and the inclusion of employees who are not
readily distinguishable from those in other craft groups, that the
proposed unit constitutes a heterogeneous group, incapable of precise
definition and without distinct departmental or craft characteristics.
Accordingly, we find that such unit is inappropriate and shall dismiss
the petition filed by the Blacksmiths."
V. THE VOTING UNITS
There remains for consideration the specific composition of the
voting units.
As previously indicated, the Electricians, the Plumbers and the
Machinists seek craft units of maintenance employees. However, the
Machinists would include within its maintenance group, from which
machinists engaged in production are expressly excluded, certain
machine employees in the production machine shop. While the ma-
chine employees in the production machine shop do not actually work
on production material, they are partly engaged in experimental work
in connection with production and are under the supervision of a
production foreman. Under the circumstances, we find that the pro-
duction shop machinists have interests more closely allied to those
of the machinists engaged in production than to the maintenance
craftsmen comprising the unit sought by the Machinists .9 We shall,
therefore, limit the proposed unit of the Machinists to maintenance
classifications and exclude therefrom the machine employees in the
production machine shop.'°
With respect to the residual group of production and maintenance
employees, the only dispute in regard to the classifications to be in-
cluded or excluded relates primarily to timekeepers and plant clerical
employees.1'
7 See Matter of Kaiser Industries, 61 N. L. R- B. 682 , where, under circumstances
similar to those in the present case , craft employees at another shell plant of the Company
were permitted through self -determinative elections to a press their desires with respect
to a choice of bargaining representatives
See Matter of Kaiser Industries, 61 N. L . R B 682, and cases cited therein.
See Matter of Pass and Seymour, Inc , 51 N. L . R B. 1135, and cases cited , wherein
experimental employees have been included in the same unit with similar production
employees.
10 See Matter of Kaiser Industries , 61 N. L R B. 682.
11 In addition to timekeepers and plant clerical employees , the CIO would , as indicated
above, include gardeners within the residual group. However , in view of the fact that
the Company does not employ gardeners at the present time , and in the absence of evi-
1576 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Insofar as timekeepers are concerned, the evidence discloses that
timekeepers are in a department by themselves under a head timekeeper
who reports to the paymaster and thence indirectly to the chief ac-
countant; that timekeepers have the responsibility of preparing absen-
tee lists ; that they collect information for the proper allocation of,
labor costs to the cost accountant, and also see that employees are not
paid for time during which they do not work, together with other
duties normally performed by timekeepers. Since it appears that the
timekeepers herein concerned have no interests or duties paralleling
those of.the production and maintenance employees, we shall, in ac-
cordance with our usual practice, exclude timekeepers from the voting
group of production and maintenance employees.12
With respect to the question of including or excluding plant clerical
employees, while it appears that the Company does not maintain a
classification known as plant clerical employees, the Company has
various clerical employees who spend the greater part of their time
in contact with the production and maintenance group and whose
duties are performed in the plant as distinguished from the office or
administrative area. It is our usual practice to include in a produc-
tion and maintenance unit clerical employees who work in the plant
under departmental supervision,13 or who, lacking plant supervision,
nevertheless normally perform their work in close connection with
the production process.14 Accordingly, we shall include such plant
clericals in the unit.
Upon the entire record in the case and in accordance with the fore-
going findings of fact, we shall order elections among the employees
of the Company within the groups described below, excluding there-
from all supervisory employees with authority to hire, promote,
discharge, discipline, or otherwise effect changes in the status of
employees or effectively recommend such action :
1. All electricians, instrument repair men and maintenance helpers
who regularly assist electricians, employed by the Company with
respect to its shell plant operations at Denver, Colorado;
2. All pipe fitters and maintenance helpers who regularly assist
pipe fitters, employed by the Company with respect to its shell plant
operations at Denver, Colorado;
3. All machinist mechanics, machine hands, and maintenance
helpers employed in the maul machine shop of the Company's shell
plant at Denver, ColoradQ, all welders, machinist mechanics, machine
hands, and maintenance, helpers regularly assisting machinist me-
dence that the duties of such employees are substantially related to those of employees
in the production and maintenance group , we shall , at this time, exclude gardeners from
the residual group'heremabove mentioned
L See Matter of Douglas Aircraft Co^npany, Inc., 60 N. L R B 876 , Matter of Kaiser
Industries , 61 N. L. R. B 682.
18 See Matter of Goodman Manufacturing Company, 58 N L R. B 531.
14 See Matter of Kearney and Trecker Corporation, 60 N. L R . B. 148.
KAISER INDUSTRIES 1577
chanics, who are regularly engaged in the maintenance of production
machinery in the production areas in the Company's shell plant at
Denver, Colorado, but excluding all employees in the production ma-
chine shop, centering lathe operators, correction lathe operators, and
all other employees regularly engaged in production;
4. All remaining production and maintenance employees of the
Company at its shell plant operations, Denver, Colorado, including
truck drivers, warehousemen, warehouse tool clerks, and plant clerical
employees, but excluding all other clerical employees, timekeepers,
executive and administrative empoyees, foremen, technical, profes-
sional, and confidential employees, plant-protection employees, first-
aid and safety employees, chauffeurs, and gardeners.
As stated above, there will be no final determination of the appro-
priate unit or units pending the results of the elections. This de-
termination will, in part, depend upon the choice made by the
employees eligible to participate in such elections.
We shall direct that the employees of the Company eligible to vote
in the elections shall be those who were employed during the pay-roll
period immediately preceding the date of the Direction of Elections
subject to such limitations and additions as set forth in the Direction.
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 Relations
Act, and pursuant to Article III, Section 9, of National Labor Rela-
tions Board Rules and Regulations-Series 3, as amended, it is hereby
DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation to ascertain representa-
tives for the purposes of collective bargaining with Kaiser Industries,
Denver, Colorado, separate elections by secret ballot shall be conducted
as early as possible, but not later than thirty (30) days from the date
of the Direction, under the direction and supervision of the Regional
Director for the Seventeenth Region, acting in this matter as agent
for the National Labor Relations Board, and subject to Article III,
Sections 10 and 11, of said Rules and Regulations, among these em-
ployees who fall within the groups indicated below and who were
employed during the pay-roll period immediately preceding the date
of the Direction, including 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 and have not been
rehired or reinstated prior to the date of the elections :
1. The employees in the first voting group described in Section IV,
above, to determine whether they desire to be represented by Interna-
tional Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local Union No. 111, or
1578 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
by United Steelworkers of America , CIO, for the purposes of collec-
tive bargaining, or by neither;
2. The employees in the second voting group described in Section
IV, above, to determine whether they desire to be represented by
United Association of Journeymen , Plumbers and Steam Fitters of
the United States and Canada, Pipe Fitters Local 208, AFL, or by
United Steelworkers of America , CIO, for the purposes of collective
bargaining , or by neither;
3. The employees in the third voting group described in Section IV,
above, to determine whether they desire to be represented by Inter-
national Association of Machinists , AFL, or by United Steelworkers
of America, CIO, for the purposes of collective bargaining, or by
neither ; ,
4. The employees in the fourth voting group described in Section
IV, above, to determine whether or not they desire to be represented
by United Steelworkers of America , CIO, for the purposes of collective
bargaining.
ORDER
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the petition for investigation and cer-
tification of representatives of employees of Kaiser Industries, Denver,
Colorado , filed herein by International Brotherhood of Blacksmiths,
Drop Forgers and Helpers, AFL, be, and it hereby is, dismissed.
MR. JOHN M. HousTON took no part in the consideration of the'
above Decision , Direction of Elections , and Order.