Kaiser Steel Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Dec 15, 1949

87 N.L.R.B. 643 (N.L.R.B. 1949)

In the Matter of KAISER STEEL CORPORATION, EMPLOYER and
BROTHERHOOD OF RAILROAD TRAINMEN, PETITIONER
Case No. 21-RC-889.-Decided December 15, 1949
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before Ben Grodsky,
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 National Labor
Relations Act, the Board has delegated its powers in connection with
this case, to a three-member panel [Chairman Herzog and Members
Houston and Gray].
Upon the entire record in this case, the 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 certain em-
ployees 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 Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, herein called the Peti-
tioner, seeks to sever a unit of all railroad engineers, firemen,
conductors, and brakemen employed by the Employer at its Eagle
Mountain Mine in Riverside County, California. The Employer and
Building Trades Council of San Bernardino and Riverside Counties,
herein called the Intervenor, contend that because of the integrated
operations at the mine, the community of interest between the railroad
employees andall other employees at the mine, and the past history of
collective bargaining, only a unit of all employees at the mine, includ-
ing the railroad employees, is appropriate.'
1 The hearing officer referred to the Board . the Employer ' s motion to dismiss the petition
on the grounds that the requested unit is inappropriate and that no question concerning
representation exists. For the reasons stated herein , this motion is hereby denied.
2 At the hearing the Employer also took the position that the Eagle Mountain Mine
operation is so closely integrated with its Fontana steel plant , that it is in fact part of the
basic steel industry . The record does not support the Employer' s position . Moreover, the
steel plant is treated as a separate bargaining unit by the Employer . We find no merit
in this contention.
87 NLRB No. 9G.
877359-50-vol. 8742 643
644 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
The Employer operates a steel plant at Fontana, California, ap-
proximately 163 miles from the Eagle Mountain Mine. The Employer
owns and operates mines in California and Utah to supply raw ma-
terials necessary for the operation of the steel plant .-3 Only the op-
erations at the Eagle Mountain Mine are involved in this proceeding.4
The nearest towns are approximately 60 miles distant from the
mine, which is located in an isolated desert area. There are about
135 to 140 employees working at the mine, all of whom, except 2 or 3,
live in a company-operated camp at the mine site.5
The mine is an open pit type of mining operation. After the ore
is drilled and blasted, it is loaded by power shovels into heavy pit
trucks and hauled to the crusher which reduces it to the necessary size
for blast furnace operations. It is then lifted on a conveyor belt to
the stock pile, which will hold approximately 100,000 tons of ore. The
ore. is loaded from the stock pile by means of a conveyer belt directly
into railroad cars for shipment to Fontana. Railroad crews move two
trains a day to take the ore from the mine to the Southern Pacific
Railroad junction at Ferrum, approximately 51 miles from the mine.
The superintendent of the mine has charge of all activities at the
mine, including the railroad operations. The railroad employees,
however, work under the immediate supervision of a railroad general
foreman. In addition to the operating train crews, the section crews
for the maintenance of way and the maintenance of bridges and
trestles report directly to the railroad general foreman.b
There are two train crews, each consisting of one locomotive en-
gineer, one locomotive fireman, two brakemen, and one conductor.
One crew works on the day shift, and the other works on the night
shift. These employees operate Diesel electric trains which haul the
ore-loaded cars over a company-owned standard gauge railroad to
the Southern Pacific junction at Ferrum.' There, the loaded cars are
a Except for a small amount of blending ore received from a mine in Utah, the Employer
obtains all of its iron ore from the hdsgle Mountain Mine. The mine in Utah is not owned
or operated by the Employer.
4 The Eagle Mountain Aline was opened in May 1948, but the railroad operations did not
start until October 1948. The railroad employees who had been hired in July 1948, were
used for other work at the mine until the railroad operations were begun.
5 The camp has houses and dormitories, a dining room and mess hall , a first aid station,
a laundry , shower and wash rooms , and recreational facilities for the mine employees.
Part of the section crew on the maintenance of way, whose work is away from the mine,
do not use the housing facilities at the mine.
6 There are from 12 to 16 men in the section crews.
Fcrrum is just a connecting point for the interchange of empty and loaded cars.
This junction consists of five tracks, four of which are spur tracks for the storage of empty
and loaded cars, a Y track for turning locomotives, and a freight office. The office is un-
occupied, but has a telephone so that the conductor of the ore train may communicate
with the Southern Pacific dispatcher to advise him that an ore train has been left at
Ferrum.
KAISER STEEL CORPORATION 645
picked up by the Southern Pacific Railroad, and hauled to. Fontana..
The railroad crews also bring empty cars back from Ferrum to the
mine.8
All railroad employees are given an oral examination before being
hired by the Employer .9 The Employer has set up operating rules for
the operation of the railroad which are similar to those used by other
railroads for mountain operations. Except for their hours of employ-
ment the working conditions of the railroad employees are the same
as those of other employees at the mine 10 There have been tem-
porary transfers of other employees to railroad work in cases of
emergency, when a vacancy occurred without sufficient advance notice
to obtain a regular railroad man "
In July 1948, the Intervenor won a consent election conducted by a
representative of the California'State Employment Service. The con-
tract now in effect between the Employer and the Intervenor covers
all employees at the mine, including the railroad men.12
The Employer contends that because the stock-piling facilities at
the mine and at the Fontana steel plant are limited, any interruption
of the railroad operations would cause a shut-down of all mining
activities in the pit area. It alleges that the mine operation is a highly
integrated enterprise which would be disrupted if severance of the
railroad employees is permitted. The Petitioner argues that the em-
ployees involved herein .are qualified trainmen, and that 'the qualifica-
tion requirements and operations of the Eagle Mountain railroad are
identical with those of train service employees on other railroads.
The railroad employees whom the Petitioner seeks to represent per-
form work which is distinguishable from that of the other mine em-
•ployees. The temporary emergency transfers revealed in the record
do not destroy the identity of these employees as a distinct and homo-
geneous group. The Board has found that such railroad employees
are a craft group which may constitute a separate appropriate unit,
even where there has been a histgry of collective bargaining on a
broader basis.13 In the present case, there is nothing in the record to
9 The only incoming freight that is hauled to the mine in the railroad cars is heavy ma-
chinery and equipment . All consumable supplies are delivered to the mine by trucks.
0 The Employer ' s labor relations director testified that the passing of the oral examina-
tion is not necessarily a condition of employment ; that the Employer tries to hire men
who can be transferred to other work in the event of a curtailment of operations.
10 Because of the difference in their working hours, the railroad employees are not able
to use all the facilities maintained at the mine camp by the Employer.
11 The Employer does not maintain an "extra board " of railroad employees at the mine.
It has a policy to transfer qualified men to railroad work from other parts of the mine
operations.
li This contract is not urged as a bar to the present proceedings.
13 Southland Paper Hills, Inc., 81 NLRB 330 (although Board Member Gray dissented
in this case , he feels bound by the decision of the majority) ; Eagle-Picher Mining & Smelt-
ing Company , 71 NLRB 1337 ; General Motors Corporation, 64 NLRB 688 ; E. I. du Pont
do Nemours & Company , 54 NLRB 1543.
646 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
indicate that the employees sought herein differ substantially from the
usual group of trainmen to whom the Board has customarily accorded..
the opportunity of separate representation. The duties of the railroad
employees are not so integrated with those of other mine employees as
to preclude their severance from the larger unit.
We find that the employees requested by the Petitioner may, if .they
so desire, constitute a separate appropriate unit. However, we shall
not make any unit determination at this time, but shall first ascertain
the desires of these employees as expressed in the election which we
shall direct be conducted among all railroad engineers, firemen, con-
ductors, and brakemen employed at the Employer's Eagle Mountain
Mine, excluding all other employees and supervisors. If a majority
vote for the Petitioner, they will be taken to have indicated their
desire to constitute a separate appropriate unit. If they vote for the
Intervenor, they will be taken to have indicated their desire to remain
part of the larger unit represented by the Intervenor.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION 14
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the pur-
poses 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 supervision
of the Regional Director for the Region in which this case was heard,
and subject to Sections 203.61 and 203.62 of National Labor Relations
Board Rules 'and Regulations, among the employees in the voting
group described in paragraph numbered 4, 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 temporarily
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 Brotherhood
of Railroad Trainmen, or by Building Trades Council of San Ber-
nardino and Riverside Counties, or by neither.
"Either participant in the election herein directed may, upon its prompt request to, ands
approval thereof by , the Regional Director , have its name removed from the ballot.