Kimble Glass Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Feb 3, 1953

102 N.L.R.B. 933 (N.L.R.B. 1953)

KIMBLE GLASS COMPANY 933
of transfer between physical and clerical employee classifications, and
the community of interest existing between both groups of employees,
we find that the Petitioner's proposed unit, limited to the physical
employees in the distribution department, is inappropriate 5 As the
Petitioner has evinced no desire to proceed to an election in the larger
unit, we shall dismiss his petition.
Order
IT Is HEREBY ORDERED that the petition involved herein be, and it
hereby is, dismissed.
5 East Ohio Gas Company, 94 NLRB 61.
KIMBLE GLASS COMPANY 1 and DISTRICT LODGE No. 1, INTERNATIONAL
ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS , AFL, PETITIONER. Cases Nos.. -RC-
1692 through 4-RC-1703. February 3,1953
Decision, Order, and Direction of Elections
Upon separate petitions duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the
National Labor Relations Act, a hearing in the above-consolidated
cases 2 was held before Joseph A. Weston, hearing officer. The hear-
ing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial
error and are hereby affirmed.3
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 [Members Houston, Murdock, and Styles].
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 organizations involved claim to represent certain em-
ployees of the Employer.4
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.
i The Employer 's name appears as amended at the hearing.
2 On August 25, 1952, the Regional Director , pursuant to Section 102.64 (b) of the
Board's Rules and Regulations , Series 0 , consolidated the proceedings in these cases.
8 The hearing officer referred to the Board the Employer 's motion to dismiss the petitions
filed in this proceeding . For the reasons stated herein , we deny the motion with respect
to Cases Nos . 4-RC-1692, 4-RC-1697, 4-RC-1698, and 4-RC-1703, and grant the motion
with respect to the remaining petitions.
4 The hearing officer granted the motion to intervene at the hearing by American Flint
Glass Workers' Union of North America, AFL, hereinafter called the Intervenor , acting
on the behalf of itself and its Locals Nos. 44 , 132, 145, and 701 , on the basis of a current
contractual interest.
102 NLRB No. 85.
2509S3-vol. 102-53-60
934 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
4. The appropriate unit :
The -Petitioner seeks to sever 12 alleged craft groups from the
existing production and maintenance unit, now represented by the
Intervenor, at the Employer's Vineland, New Jersey, plant. In the
alternative the Petitioner requests the establishment of a single, multi-
craft maintenance unit and the establishment of a separate unit of
blacksmiths. The Employer and the Intervenor, however, contend
that the only appropriate unit is the existing plantwide unit.
The Employer's plant herein involved manufactures glass tubing
and, from that, a great variety of medical and technical glassware.
The tubing is produced on several production lines which operate
continuously, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. In the batch house
soda ash, sand, lime, and other ingredients are carefully weighed
and mixed into batches. These batches are, at regular intervals,
introduced into a series of three furnaces operating at temperatures
of 2500° to 3000° Farenheit. There they are converted, in the melt-
ing and refining furnaces, into molten glass. The molten glass passes
into the reheating furnace and is drawn over a clay sleeve and through
the tube alley, from 100 to 250 feet in length, by the tube-drawing
machine. Through proper control of the speed of drawing and the
pressure of air blown through the clay sleeve nose, the glass is formed
into tubing of the desired diameter and wall thickness. At the end
of the tube alley the hardened glass tubing is nicked and broken into
uniform lengths. Operations on these production lines are entirely
mechanized.
Cases Nos. 4-RC-1693, 4-RC-1694, 4-RC-1695, 4-RC-1696,
4-RC-1699, 4-RC-1700, 4-RC-1701, and 4-RC-1702
In the above cases the Petitioner requests the establishment of
separate craft units of pipefitters, sheet-metal workers, carpenters,
welders and ironworkers, painters, general mechanics,5 garage me-
chanics, and electricians, their helpers and apprentices.
Maintenance on production lines and other plant facilities is per-
formed by maintenance employees in the three maintenance shops in
the engineering department. They are the general maintenance shop,
the systems shop, and the machine shop, all of which are located in a
separate maintenance building. These shops are supervised by the
plant engineer and supervisors and foremen in each shop. The em-
ployees whom the Petitioner seeks to represent in separate units are
those employed in the general maintenance shop, and the electricians
and systems maintenance men employed in the systems shop.
There is no evidence in the record to indicate that the Employer has any employees
that may be so classified.
KIMBLE GLASS COMPANY 935
General maintenance employees: The general maintenance shop is
supervised by a supervisor and two foremen. General maintenance
shop employees are called upon to perform throughout the plant a
great variety of tasks which include pipefitting, painting, sheet-
metal and iron work, carpentry, welding, car loading, unloading and
bracing, excavation, and electrical work.6 The Employer has en-
couraged and emphasized the development of multicraft skills through
on-the-job experience and does not require general maintenance work-
ers to possess journeymen skills in a particular craft. While they
may be more skilled in performing, and more frequently work at,
certain types of work, most of the general maintenance men are
proficient in and frequently perform several types of work. In this
way the Employer has gained a flexible maintenance force which
permits the shifting of maintenance employees to different types of
work as the maintenance workload varies and has developed main-
tenance employees who can apply a number of skills to rapidly and
efficiently complete critical repair jobs.
General maintenance shop employees are classified and paid by the
Employer on the basis of general experience and the diversity of
skills exercised rather than on the possession of particular craft skills.
They are classified as general, standard, and regular workers,? de-
pending upon whether they are skilled in several trades, skilled iii
only one trade and experienced in other, or only experienced in one
or more trades, respectively. The general workers are the highest
paid, followed by the standard and then the regular workers; pay
l ates are, therefore, not related to the particular craft function
performed.
Electrical department employees: The electrical department, a part
of the systems shop, is organized and operates in much the same man-
ner as the general maintenance shop. Electricians are classified as
general, standard, and regular workers, although, working princi-
pally in one trade, their work is not as diversified as that of the general
maintenance employees. Most of their time is spent in production
areas doing on-the-spot work on motors, switches, and starters.
They also paint and clean the boiler and engine rooms, maintain and
repair mechanical and electrical weighing scales, and build and bal-
ance pedestal fans. There is no apprenticeship or formal training for
electricians; helpers in the department work into maintenance rat-
ings through work experience on simple electrical jobs. Electricians
are transferred into and out of the department as the electrical
maintenance load varies. Not all electrical work is confined to the
e In the general maintenance shop are a garage mechanic and helper who maintain
automotive equipment and perform other duties.
* Also a part of the general maintenance shop are helpers who assist wherever needed
and assigned . They are not assigned permanently to work in only one trade.
936 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
electricians in the electrical department, nor does any electrician per-
form electrical work entirely.
Systems maintenance men: Systems maintenance men in the sys-
tems shop maintain pipelines, sewers, sewer and deep-well pumps,
and coal conveyers. Several are licensed as engineers or firemen and
occasionally act as substitutes in the engine and boiler rooms. It ap-
pears that there is no apprenticeship or formal training program in
pipefitting available to these employees, that the pipefitting is also
done by the general maintenance employees, that the Employer does
not classify or consider these employees as journeymen pipefitters,
and that no employee is engaged in pipefitting exclusively.
The record shows, then, that the alleged craft employees for whom
the Petitioner requests the establishment of separate bargaining units
in the above cases are jacks-of-all-trades who frequently exercise
skills associated with a number of traditional crafts. Much of the
work performed by these employees does not demand craft skills.
They are not organized, supervised, or paid along craft lines and have
not received apprentice training in any craft. The record fails to
show that these employees comprise identifiable and homogeneous
craft groups having the journeyman skills and duties the Board re-
quires in order to grant severance on a craft basis."
Case No. 4-RC-1697
The Petitioner in this case requests the severance of all blacksmiths,
their helpers, and apprentices .9 There are in the mold shop, a pro-
duction department, one blacksmith and a helper, both engaged pri-
marily in the fabrication and repair of tools and machinery parts.
The record clearly shows that they perform the traditional work and
possess the requisite skills of their craft. We find that the black-
smith and his helper exercise the functions similar to those exercised
by other employees who, the Board has held, may constitute separate
appropriate units io
Cases Nos. 4-RC-1698 and 4-RC-1703
The Petitioner requests the establishment of two separate units for
powerhouse employees, one consisting of the engineers, their helpers
and apprentices, the other of firemen, their helpers and apprentices.
At the Vineland plant, the boiler and engine rooms are supervised
by a powerhouse foreman. The powerhouse unit, a part of the sys-
tems shop, supplies the steam used to produce high and low pressure
s Columbia Southern Chemical Corporation, 97 NLRB 1555 ; 0. B. Andrews Company,
96 NLRB 150 ; National Container Corporation of Wisconsin , 97 NLRB 1009, 1015.
There are employed at the Vineland plant no blacksmiths ' apprentices
10 Merck & Co., 88 NLRB 975.
KIMBLE GLASS COMPANY 937
compressed air used in the production of glass tubing and other glass
products. In the engineroom 3 engineers work on a 3-shift, round-
the-clock schedule; a fourth engineer rotates as a substitute for the
other 3 on their days off. Working in the boilerroom on a similar
schedule are 4 firemen. The firemen tend the boilers under the
direction of the engineers, maintain and repair their own equipment,
and act as helpers for the engineers.
The Petitioner requests separate units of powerhouse engineers and
firemen. However, the evident mutuality of their employment inter-
ests and close working contacts requires that we find that together the
firemen and engineers constitute a powerhouse unit such as the Board
has frequently found to be an appropriate bargaining unit."
Case No. 4-RC-1692
The Petitioner seeks, in this petition, a unit of all machinists, tool
and die makers,'' their helpers and apprentices, employed in the Em-
ployer's Vineland plant. Most of the approximately 60 machinists
employed by the Employer are assigned to the machine shop located
on the second and third floors of the maintenance building. They
are supervised by a machine shop supervisor and one foreman. How-
ever, in order to minimize interruptions in the production of glass
tubing, machinists spend most of their time in maintenance of pro-
duction machinery under the work supervision of production fore-
men. They repair and maintain batch house equipment, furnaces,
tube alley equipment, and equipment used in the fabrication of the
finished glassware produced by the Employer. Machinists also build
new production machinery not elsewhere available and set up and
keep in adjustment complicated production machines, work also done
by some production employees.
There is in effect in the machine shop an apprentice program pro-
viding for 4 years' training. While these machinists are not classified
as A, B, and C machinists or first-, second-, and third-class machinists,
they are paid on the basis of a wage rate varying with the degree of
skill and experience attained as a machinist. Also employed in the
Vineland plant are a small number of machinists in the production
development department and the mold shop. They perform much the
same type of work as the maintenance machinists in the machine shop
and are interchangeable with them. Although they are hired, super-
vised, and located separately from the maintenance machinists, they
use the machine shop toolroom and receive their machine equipment
"Liggett d Myers Tobacco Company, 98 NLRB 210; cf. Packard Motor Company, 94
NLRB 1550,
1' As the record indicates that there are currently employed no employees in this classifi-
cation, we will not consider them at this time.
938 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
from the machine shop. The Employer concedes that all its ma-
chinists are skilled craftsmen.
In view of the foregoing, we find that the machinists and machinists'
apprentices in the machine shop, the mold shop, and the production
development department comprise an identifiable, homogeneous craft
group L3 exercising the usual skills of their trade.14
Conclusions
The Employer and Intervenor contend that the integrated nature
of the Employer's basic operation, glass tube production, precludes
the establishment of separate craft and department bargaining units;
the Employer especially relies upon the Board's decisions in National
Tube Company, 76 NLRB 1199, and Ford Motor Company (Maywood
Plant), 78 NLRB 887. We do not find such a degree of integration
here as existed in the cases relied upon by the Employer. The Em-
ployer's maintenance employees are not engaged in repetitious, rou-
tine, or prescheduled work at fixed stations along a production line
nor are their maintenance functions otherwise so closely identified with
production functions as to be indistinct 15 Furthermore, the Em-
ployer has failed to show the presence of the prerequisites for the ap-
plication of the principle in these cases, viz, a history of bargaining in
the industry on an industrial basis and a similar pattern of integration
throughout the industry. We find, as did the Board recently in a
similar decision involving this industry,16 the integration of operations
at this plant insufficient to offset the special community of interests
among employees in otherwise appropriate department and craft
groups.
The Employer and Intervenor further contend that the long and
satisfactory history of collective bargaining at this plant precludes
the severance of the units requested by the Petitioner. There exists
for this plant a substantial history of collective bargaining on a plant-
wide basis. The Employer has recognized and dealt with the In-
tervenor as the bargaining representative for all its production and
maintenance employees since 1937.17 Therefore, the employees in-
13 The Employer contends that because the maintenance machinists perform some duties
as mechanics , setting up and adjusting production machinery, and because this work is also
done by production employees , the machinists are especially integrated with and indistin-
guishable from the production force . However, we believe that work does not detract from
the distinctiveness of the machinists as a craft group. Armstrong Cork Company, 97
NLRB 1057.
14 The Rauland Corporation, 9T NLRB 1333.
15 Knox G lass Bottle Company , 101 NLRB 36 ; Ravenna Arsenal, Inc, 98 NLRB 1.
1U Knox Glass Bottle Company, supra.
17 The last collective-bargaining agreement between the Employer and the Intervenor,
not herein urged as a bar, continued in effect until October 15, 1952 , and so long thereafter
as negotiations for a upw agreement continue. About 60 days before October 15y 1952, the
KIMBLE GLASS COMPANY 939
volved in these cases may, if they so desire, continue to be represented
by the Intervenor as part of the more inclusive plantwide unit. How-
ever, a history of collective bargaining does not preclude the direction
of self-determination elections among craft and departmental groups
otherwise found to be appropriate bargaining units."'
Finally, the Employer and the Intervenor contend that the em-
ployees in the units sought by the Petitioner lack the necessary craft
characteristics and functions for severance from the existing unit.
We have already found that the blacksmiths, the machinists, and the
powerhouse employees make up either craft or departmental groups
which may constitute appropriate bargaining units. We shall, there-
fore, direct self-determination elections among these employees. We
have also found, as contended by the Employer and the Intervenor,
that the remaining maintenance employees in the general maintenance
shop and the systems shop lack the necessary craft qualities for sever-
ance. The Petitioner proposed as an alternate unit, one including all
maintenance department employees in a single, multicraft unit. The
Board has, in the absence of a prior history of collective bargaining,
permitted the formation of similar bargaining units of maintenace
employees.19 However, the Board has consistently refused to estab-
hsh such multicraft units in the face of a substantial history of col-
lective bargaining on a plantwide basis.20 We therefore find that in
the instant case, in which there is a bargaining history extended back
to 1937, the maintenance department unit requested in the alternative
by the Petitioner is inappropriate and shall dismiss the petitions re-
lating to the remaining maintenance employees.
In accordance with the foregoing, we shall direct separate elections
by secret ballot among employees of the Employer at its Vineland,
New Jersey, plant, in the voting groups set forth below, excluding
plant executives, office employees, technical staff, laboratory, engineer-
ing, and mechanical department employees, office janitors, plant
guards, factory, shipping, and receiving clerks, guards, and all super-
visors 21 as defined in the Act, and all other production employees rep-
resented by the American Flint and Glass Workers' Union of North
America, AFL :
Intervenor opened negotiations with the Employer for a new agreement , which negotiations
were in progress at the time of the hearing.
18 Campbell Soup Company, 98 NLRB 741.
19 Hallsburton Portland Cement Company , 91 NLRB 717.
20 General Mills, Inc., 91 NLRB 984; Crossett Paper Mills, Division of Crossett Lumber
Company, 98 NLRB 542,
21 The parties stipulated that Elwood Larrabee, Purnell Bowker , Hernell MacFadden,
Charles Houck, and Joseph Polinak , supervisors and foremen in the systems and machine
shops, are supervisors within the meaning of the Act.
940 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR, RELATIONS BOARD
(1) All machinists and machinists' apprentices in the machine shop,
production development department, and mold shop 22
(2) All blacksmiths and blacksmiths' helpers in the mold shop.
(3) All powerhouse employees working in the engine and boiler
rooms.23
If a majority of the employees in any of the voting groups indicate,
by voting for the Petitioner, their desire to be represented in a sepa-
rate unit, the Board finds such unit to be appropriate and the Regional
Director conducting the elections directed herein is instructed, in
that event, to issue a certification of representatives to the Petitioner
for such unit. If a majority of the employees in any of the voting
groups vote for 'the Intervenor, the Board finds, in such event, that
these employees are appropriately represented in the presently existing
production and maintenance unit, and instructs the Regional Director
to issue a certification of results of elections to that effect.
Order
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the petitions in Cases Nos. 4-RC-1693,
4-RC-1694, 4-RC-1695, 4-RC-1696, 4-RC-1699, 4-RC-1700, 4-RC-
1701, and 4-RC-1702 be, and they are hereby, dismissed.
[Text of Direction of Elections omitted from publication in this
volume.]
12 The Petitioner has requested the inclusion of machinists' helpers in the unit. However,
it appears that there are no helpers regularly or permanently assigned to the machinists
and we shall omit them from the unit description.
There is employed in the machine shop a general utility man who performs general
cleanup and maintenance duties around the shop. In keeping with the Board 's recent
decision in Westinghouse Electric Corporation, 101 NLRB 441, we shall not include
in this craft group an unskilled employee. He is therefore excluded from the machinist
unit.
as There are several maintenance men in the systems department , some of whom have
fireman or engineer licenses . It is not clear from the record , however, whether these em-
ployees are a part of the powerhouse unit or not. Therefore we shall include in the unit
of powerhouse employees such systems maintenance employees , if any, who (1 ) are per-
manently assigned to the powerhouse unit, ( 2) work under the supervision of the power-
house foreman , and (3), work principally in the boiler and engine room or on steam, air,
and other system lines related to the powehouse. Micam.old Radio Corp., 94 NLRB 1193.
DEWEY AND ALMY CHEMICAL COMPANY and LODGE No. 831, INTER-
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS, AFL, PETITIONER. Case
No. 18-RC-1731. February 3, 1953
Decision and Direction of Election
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, a hearing was held before Max Rotenberg, hearing
102 NLRB No. 91.