Ludlow Manufacturing and Sales Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Apr 29, 1946

67 N.L.R.B. 954 (N.L.R.B. 1946)

In the Matter of LUDLOW MANUFACTURING AND SALES COMPANY and
TEXTILE WORKERS UNION OF AMERICA, C. I. O.
Case No. 4-R-1995.-Decided April 29,1946
Mr. Lewis H. Van Dusen, Jr., of Philadelphia, Pa., for the Com-
pany.
Mr. George Nejmeh, of Allentown, Pa., for the Union.
Mr. Lewis H. Ulman, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon a petition duly filed by Textile Workers Union of America,
C. I. 0., herein called the Union, alleging that a question affecting
commerce had arisen concerning the representation of employees of
Ludlow Manufacturing and Sales Company, Allentown, Pennsyl-
vania, herein called the Company, the National Labor Relations Board
provided for an appropriate hearing upon due notice before Helen F.
Humphrey, Trial Examiner. The hearing was held at Allentown,
Pennsylvania, on March 29, 1946. The Company and the Union ap-
peared and participated.' All parties were afforded full opportunity
to be heard, to examine and cross-examine witnesses, and to intro-
duce evidence bearing on the issues. The Trial Examiner's rulings
made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby
affirmed. 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
I. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
Ludlow Manufacturing and Sales Company 2 is a Massachusetts
corporation, having plants in various parts of the United States, en-
2 The United Textile Workers of America , A. F. of L., herein called the United , was also
served with notice but did not appear or participate
2 At the hearing the parties amended the Company's name to read as herein set forth.
67 N. L. R. B, No. 117.
954
LUDLOW MANUFACTURING AND SALES COMPANY 955
gaged in the manufacture of jute products. We are here concerned
solely with its plant in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
During the year 1945 all of the raw materials used by the Company
at its Allentown plant were shipped from points outside the Common-
wealth of Pennsylvania. During the same period the Company manu-
factured finished products at its Allentown plant amounting in value
to more than $1,000,000, approximately 50 percent of which was
shipped to points outside the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
The Company admits that it is engaged in commerce within the
meaning of the National Labor Relations Act.
II. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED
Textile Workers Union of America is a labor organization, affiliated
with the Congress of Industrial Organizations, admitting to member-
ship employees of the Company.
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
The Company has refused to grant recognition to the Union as
the exclusive bargaining representative of its employees until the
Union has been certified by the Board in an appropriate unit.
A statement of a Board agent, introduced into evidence at the hear-
ing. indicates that the Union represents a substantial number of
employees in the unit hereinafter found appropriate.3
We find that a question affecting commerce has arisen coinerning
the representation of employees of the Company, within the meaning
of Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
Ii'. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT
The Union urges that all production and maintenance employees at
the Company's Allentown, Pennsylvania, plant, excluding clerical
employees, foremen, section hands, and all other supervisory em-
ployees, constitute an appropriate unit. The Company contends that
maintenance employees, gate watchmen, and watchmen-firemen should
also be excluded from the bargaining unit.
From October 8, 1941, until December 31, 1942, the United and the
Company operated under a contract which included maintenance em-
ployee-, in a single unit with production employees of the Company's
Allentown plant. It further included watchmen-firemen, but it ex-
cluded gate watchmen. With this bargaining history in mind, we
turn to a more detailed discussion of the disputed categories.
3 The Field Examiner reported that the Union submitted 96 authorization cards, bearing
the names of 90 employees listed on the Company's pay roll of February 23, 1946, and that
the cards are dated 61 in January , 1946, and 29 in February, 1946 There are approxi-
mately 286 employees in the appropriate unit.
956 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Maintenance employees : The work of the maintenance employees
at the Allentown plant varies from simple maintenance jobs to the
construction and repair of machinery and is performed under the ulti-
mate supervision of the master mechanic. Iii view of the close rela-
tionship and necessary integration between the work of the main-
tenance employees and that of the production employees, and in view
of the history of collective bargaining at the Allentown plant, we
shall include the maintenance employees together with the production
employees in the same bargaining unit.4
Gate watchmen: The Company employs three gate watchmen who
are uniformed but not armed nor deputized. Among other things,
the Company points to the fact that they were not embraced by the
United's contract. As a controversy exists concerning the identity
of their interests with those of the production and maintenance work-
ers, and as they were excluded from the contract with the United, we
shall exclude gate watchmen from the bargaining unit.'
Watchmen-firemen: The Company has four employees classified
as watchmen-firemen. They maintain the fires in the boilers, patrol
the premises, check on the plant sprinkler system, report violations
of smoking rules , and do lumber salvage and add jobs under the direc-
tion of the General Foreman of the maintenance department. They
are not uniformed, armed, nor deputized. It is apparent that these
workers are not monitorial plant protection employees in the strict
sense of the term. Since they were encompassed within the terms of
the contract with the United, we shall include them in the bargaining
unit."
We find that all production and maintenance employees of the Com-
pany's Allentown, Pennsylvania, plant, including watchmen- firemen,
but excluding gate watchmen, clerical employees, foremen, section
hands, and all other supervisory employees with authority to hire,
promote, discharge, discipline, or otherwise effect changes in the status
of employees, or effectively recommend such action, constitute a unit
appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the mean-
ing of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
V. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
We shall direct that the question concerning representation which
has arisen be resolved by an election by secret ballot among employees
in the appropriate unit who were employed during the pay-roll period
4 See Matter of The Connecttcut Malleable Casting Company, 66 N L. R. B. 506 ; Matter
of Scrtpto Manufacturing Company, 65 N L. R. B. 45; Matter of Fogel Refrigerator Com-
pany, 61 N. L. R. B 695, and cases cited therein.
5 See Matter of West Virginia Coat and Coke Corporation , 64 N. L. R. B. 767.
6 See Matter of Coleman Enterprise Corporation, 62 N. L. R. B. 549.
LUDLOW MANUFACTURING AND SALES COMPANY 957
immediately preceding the date of the Direction of Election herein,
subject to the limitations and additions set forth in the Direction.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
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 Ludlow Manu-
facturing and Sales Company, Allentown, Pennsylvania, an election
by secret ballot shall be conducted as early as possible, but not later
than thirty (30) days from the date of this Direction, under the direc-
tion and supervision of the Regional Director for the Fourth 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 employees in the unit found appropriate in Sec-
tion IV, above, who were employed during the pay-roll period im-
mediately preceding the date of this 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 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, to determine whether or not they desire to be
represented by Textile `Yorkers Union of America, C. I. 0., for the
purposes of collective bargaining.