Mallinckrodt Chemical Works

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Aug 29, 1946

70 N.L.R.B. 905 (N.L.R.B. 1946)

In the Matter Of MALLINCKRODT CHEMICAL WORKS and INTERNATIONAL
UNION OF OPERATING, ENGINEERS, LOCAL No. 2, A. F. OF L.
Case No. 14-R-1V1
SUPPLEMENTAL DECISION
AND
SECOND DIRECTION OF ELECTION
August 29,'1946
On May 6, 1946, the Board issued a Decision and Direction of Elec-
tion in the above-entitled proceeding (67 N. L. B. ' B. 1147), and
thereafter on June 5, 1946, an Order Amending Direction of - Elec-
tion extending indefinitely the time in which to conduct an election.
On June 6, 1946, the Board received a joint motion of the Company
and Local No. 2 to reopen the record for the purpose of receiving evi-
dence of new matter arising in the interim between the first hearing
on July 19, 1945, and the issuance of the Decision and Direction of
Election. On June 19, 1946, the motion was granted, 'and an Order
Reopening Record was issued. Pursuant to this order, a hearing
was held at St. Louis, Missouri, on July 22, 1946, before Elmer R.
Hunt, Trial Examiner. Independent Union of Chemical Plant
Workers, the intervenor at the first hearing, was present, but did not
formally appear and participate. The Trial Examiner's rulings made
at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in the case, including all prior proceedings,
the National Labor Relations Board makes the following:
SUPPLEMENTAL FINDINGS OF FACT
Following the first hearing on July 19, 1945, the United States
Government constructed a number of buildings, known collectively
as Plant No. 6, on the property of the Company, and furnished the
equipment installed in the plant. The Government provides the
material required in the operation of the plant, and receives for its
own use the finished products produced. Pursuant to a contract with
the Corps of Engineers, United States Army, on behalf of the Man-
hattan District, the Company operates Plant No. 6, and produces, in
70 N L R. B, No 71.
905,
906 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
accordance with three-month schedules, the regulation, suspension,.and
termination of which are in the control 'of the Government, various
chemicals used in atomic energy projects.
As a part of Plant No. 6, the Company operates a gas-fueled power
plant which produces steam solely for use therein. This power plant
is located about 21/2 city blocks from the Plant No. 1 power unit, the
subject of the earlier proceeding. The two have no physical or func-
tional connection. The Plant No. 1 power unit is normally coal-
fueled and produces electricity as well as steam. Electricity for Plant
No. 6 is provided by a municipal public utility. The Company em-
ploys three operating engineers at the Plant No. 6 power unit, and the
single question open for consideration at the present time is the pro-
priety of including these employees in the unit of Plant No. 1 operat-
ing engineers previously found appropriate. Local No. 2 desires a
single unit. The Company prefers the creation of a separate unit,
basing its contention on purported differences in responsibility, char-
acter of work, and relationship to the employer of the operating engi-
neers at the two power plants. The Company does not, however,
abandon its earlier contention of the inappropriateness of super-
visory units.
It was stipulated between the parties that the work of the operating
engineers at the two plants is alike. Each is capable of the perform-
ance of the other's duties, and in an emergency the employees would
be transferable from one plant to the other. Of the three operating
engineers employed at Plant No. 6,• at the time of the hearing, one
was transferred from the power unit at Plant No. 1 and two newly hired
employees. The Plant No. 6 engineers are carried on the company
-pay roll and paid from company funds. The wage rates of both
groups of employees are governed by the same schedule. The Com-
pany's pension system and insurance plan is equally applicable to
both groups. In the event of termination of activities at Plant No. 6,
the operating engineers employed there would on a seniority basis
be entitled to employment at Plant No. 1. Over-all operations super-
vision at Plant No. 6, including the power plant, is vested in a project
manager, but technical control of the power plant for all practical
purposes is vested in R. H. Ruppel, assistant to the chief engineer,
who is also in charge of the power unit at Plant No. 1. Ruppel dis-
cusses problems of operation with the operating engineers who gen-
erally follow his suggestions. The project manager and he both
receive copies of the- operating engineers' daily and weekly reports.
Hiring of all operating engineers, including those at Plant No. 6, is
effected by Ruppel through the personnel office after perfunctory
consultation with the chief engineer, Ruppel's superior.
MALLINCKRODT CHEMICAL WORKS 907
Both power plants are in close physical proximity, and the same
labor relations policy is applicable to the operating engineers at each
plant. They have the same problems and interests in virtually every
phase of their activity. The contractual relations between the Com-
pany and the United States Government are irrelevant to the em-
ployer-employee relations between the Company and the operating
engineers who look not to the Government, but to the Company as
their employer. We shall enlarge our earlier unit finding to include
the engineers at Plant No. 6, and we shall direct an election based on
the pay roll immediately preceding the date of this Direction.
We find that the licensed stationary engineers employed by the
Company in the boiler room and power house of its St. Louis Plant
No. 1 and in the power plant at its St. Louis Plant No. 6 constitute a
unit appropriate for the purposes, of collective bargaining within the
meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
As part of the investigation to. ascertain representatives for the
purposes of collective bargaining with Mallinckrodt Chemical Works,
St. Louis, Missouri, 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 direction and supervision of the Regional
Director for the Fourteenth Region, acting in this matter as agent
for the National Labor Relations Board, and subject to Article III,
Sections 10 and 11, of National Labor Relations Board Rules and Reg-
ulations-Series 3, as amended, among the employees in the unit found
appropriate in the supplemental findings of fact, above, who were
employed during the pay-roll period immediately 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 Inter-
national Union of Operating Engineers, Local No. 2, A. F. of L.,
for the purposes of collective bargaining.
MR. JAMES J. REYNOLDS, JR., took no part in the consideration of
the above Supplemental Decision and Second Direction of Election.