Mason & Hanger-Silas Mason Co., Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Dec 16, 1969

180 N.L.R.B. 467 (N.L.R.B. 1969)

MASON & HANGER -SILAS MASON CO., INC.
Mason & Hanger-Silas Mason Co., Inc. and
International Association of Tool Craftsmen and
its Local No. 18, N.F.I.U ., Petitioner. Case
38-RC-709
December 16, 1969
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF
ELECTION
BY CHAIRMAN MCCULLOCH AND MEMBERS
JENKINS AND ZAGORIA
On June 30, 1969, International Association of
Tool Craftsmen, and its Local No. 18, N.F.I.U.,
herein called the Petitioner, filed with Sub-Region
38 of the National Labor Relations Board a Petition
for Certification of Representative pursuant to
Section 9(c) of the National Labor Relations Act, as
amended. Subsequently, a hearing was held before
Hearing Officer, William G. Stack, for the purpose
of taking testimony with respect to the issues raised
by the petition. Following the hearing and pursuant
to Section 102.67 of the National Labor Relations
Board Rules and Regulations and Statements of
Procedure, Series 8, as amended, this case was
transferred to the Board in Washington, D. C., for
decision. A brief has been timely filed by the
Petitioner.
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.
The Board has reviewed the Hearing Officer's
rulings made at the hearing and finds they are free
from prejudicial error. The rulings are hereby
affirmed.
Upon the entire record in this case , including the
brief, the Board finds:
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within
the meaning of the Act and it will effectuate the
purposes of the Act to assert jurisdiction herein.
2. The labor organizations involved claim to
represent certain employees of the Employer.
3. A question affecting commerce exists
concerning the representation of certain employees
of the Employer within the meaning of Section
9(c)(1) and Section 2(6) and (7) of the Act for the
following reasons:
This case arose at the Army and AEC plant
operated by the Employer at Burlington , Iowa. At
the plant are about 6,000 employees. The Petitioner
seeks a severance election among a group consisting
of tool and die makers and machinists, their
apprentices and helpers, including the machine shop
welder if the Board should decide his inclusion to be
appropriate. The requested employees are currently
represented by the Intervenor and had been covered
by its labor agreement, effective from May 28, 1966,
until September 8, 1969. This contract also covers
other classifications , including production and
maintenance employees, as described , infra. The
467
remaining employees of the Employer, except for
office and plant clerical and technical employees,
are represented in separate units by 10 other unions
not involved in this proceeding.'
The Intervenor urged at the hearing that the
Board's decision in Mallinckrodt Chemical Works,
Uranium Division, 162 NLRB 387, dictates the
dismissal of this petition. Although the Employer
agreed with the Intervenor, its labor relations
manager testified at the hearing that since the
Employer dealt with 11 unions, it would not be
unstabilized to be required to deal with the
Petitioner, should it win an election. For the reasons
discussed below, we agree with the Petitioner that
the group sought constitutes a traditional
departmental group appropriate for severance under
the criteria established in Mallinckrodt.
The employees in job categories sought by the
Petitioner, including the machine shop welder, are
all the employees in the Employer's tool and gauge
department, in the mechanical division, and are all
commonly supervised by E. J. Critchfield, the
department superintendent. There are no tool and
die men or machinists in any other department. The
44 employees sought by the Petitioner include 13
journeymen machinists, 2 apprentices, I helper, and
I machine shop welder in one of the machine shops;
2 machinists and 2 helpers in the other machine
shop; and 18 journeymen tool and die men, 3
apprentices, and 2 helpers in the tool and die shop.
The work of their department is devoted primarily
to the building of new experimental or standard
machines and tools, as distinguished from
maintenance and repairs of production, machinery
and tools, which is performed primarily by
millwrights and other employees.
All journeymen machinists and tool and die men
work at the highest tolerances, except for two
machinists in the smaller of the two machine shops
who perform work of a somewhat less skilled
nature. There is no interchange between tool and die
makers and machinists, and other classifications.
This is the only trade in the plant which has an
apprenticeship program. The program is of 4 years'
duration and involves acquiring the skills necessary
to use all the tools of the trade.
'Local Union 218, General Drivers, Warehousemen, and Helpers,
International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs and Warehousemen
and Helpers of America (a unit including laborers, storage operators, truck
drivers, janitors, service-type personnel ); Eastern Iowa District Council of
Carpenters and Joiners of America , AFL-CIO (carpenters); Local Union
212, United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing
and Pipefitting Industry of the United States and Canada , AFL-CIO
(pipefitters), Local Union No. 735, International Brotherhood of Electrical
Workers, AFL-CIO (electricians ), Local Union No. 537, International
Union of Operating Engineers , AFL-CIO (equipment operators,
powerhouse engineers and stationary firemen), Local Union 577, Bridge,
Ornamental and Structural Iron Workers , AFL-CIO (iron workers ), Local
Union No 83 , International Union of Boilermakers, Iron Shipbuilders and
Helpers of America , AFL-CIO (boilermakers ), Local Union No. 22,
International Guards Union of America (guards ), Local Union No. 744,
Brotherhood of Painters , Decorators and Paperhangers of America,
AFL-CIO (painters ); and Local Union No. 91, Sheet Metal Workers
International Association , AFL-CIO (sheet metal workers)
180 NLRB No. 63
468 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
The tool and die makers are the highest paid
occupation in the plant. The machinists, who are in
the line of progression to tool and die maker, are
higher paid than most of the production and
maintenance workers, their pay being roughly
equivalent to that of other crafts in the plant
represented by craft unions.
The tool and gauge department employees spend
practically all their time in the two machine shops
and the tool and die room. Two machinists have
frequent contact with other crafts, particularly
millwrights who, although they have their own
separate shop, bring to the smaller machine shop
production machinery and tools, including tools
made by tool and gauge department employees, for
minor repairs. In addition, a few of the journeymen
machinists and tool and die makers work with
millwrights who occasionally bring production
equipment into the larger shops for dismantling,
machining and tooling, and reassembly.
The history of bargaining in the plant has been on
the basis of separate representation of skilled
employees as well as the separate representation of
employees in two production and maintenance units.
On January 20, 1949, the Employer recognized
International Association of Machinists as the
representative of tool and die makers and their
helpers. Since then this unit has been referred to as
the "tool and die unit," although the following
classifications were subsequently added: In 1950,
machinists and their helpers were included in the
"unit." In 1952 the parties added to the "unit"
set-up machinists, tool inspector, and apprentice tool
and die men. Sometime around 1950 template
repairmen, and auto mechanics and their helpers
were added; in 1952 business machine repairmen; in
1953, millwrights; in 1954, automotive inspectors;
between 1954 and 1962, machine shop welder; and
in 1964 locksmiths were added to this "unit." There
are at present some 225 employees in the "tool and
die unit."
The Intervenor has apparently for many years
also represented a separate unit of about 3,500
production and maintenance employees, and a
15-employee firefighters' unit. On May 28, 1966, the
most recent collective bargaining agreement between
the Intervenor and the Employer was entered into,
apparently the first single contract to cover all
employees represented by the Intervenor. The
contract speaks of separate "units," the "tool and
die unit," a "firefighter unit," and a "production
and maintenance unit." This contract is signed
separately by representatives of each of the three
units and contains provisions applicable in part only
to each of the units. The contract provides for
occupational group seniority, with separate seniority
for machinists (machine shop), for tool and die men,
for their helpers and their apprentices, and for the
machine shop welder.
In 1964 the Intervenor failed to grant a request by
the tool and die makers and machinists for a
separate local in that Union; and in 1966 they were
required for the first time, despite their protests, to
vote on ratification of the new contract with the
other two units covered, rather than, as previously,
voting separately.'
In view of the foregoing, we conclude that the
Petitioner's requested unit constitutes a
homogeneous, identifiable, traditional, departmental
group with a nucleus of craft tool and die makers
and machinists who are engaged in the skills of their
trade, who perform under common, separate
supervision similar functions that are different from
and not significantly integrated with the functions of
other production and and maintenance employees,
and who have retained their identity as a distinct
group during their inclusion in the broader unit. We
further conclude that the pattern of separate
representation by 9 different unions of skilled
employees, as well as two production and
maintenance units, tends to show, as the Employer's
labor relations manager concedes, that the
establishment of a separate unit of tool and gauge
department employees would not disrupt the
stability of labor relations in this plant. In view,
therefore, of the separate community of interest of
the employees in the tool and gauge department in
the Employer's Burlington, Iowa, plant, and as the
Petitioner is a labor organization which has
traditionally represented units of such employees, we
find that they may constitute a separate unit
appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining
within the meaning of Section 9(c) of the Act, if
they so desire, and that an election among the
employees in this voting group should be held to
determine their wishes.'
Accordingly, we shall make no final unit finding,
at this time, but, as provided below, shall direct an
election among those in the following voting group:
All tool and die makers, machinists, their
apprentices and helpers, and the machine shop
welder employed by the Employer in the tool and
gauge department of its Burlington, Iowa, Army
Ammunition and AEC plant, excluding all other
employees and supervisors as defined in the Act.
'Although the Petitioner made an offer of proof, which the Hearing
Officer rejected, that the tool and die men are now on strike and
production has not been affected , we find it unnecessary to consider such
proffered evidence
3Jay Kay Metal Specialty Corp, 163 NLRB 719 In accord with
established Board precedent , we shall include in the departmental
group the helpers whom the Petitioner requests, and the welder whom
it is willing to represent . Schick Incorporated 130 NLRB 1501, 1502,
(modified in other respects, 131 NLRB 100, 105), General Motors
Corporation, Fisher Body Division, Marion Indiana Plant, 117 NLRB 947,
949 In accord with the request of the Petitioner, we shall exclude a tool
inspector who is located in the large machine shop, but who works primarily
out in the plant on production, is not in the tool and gauge department, and
is under separate supervision , as his interests are more closely identified
with the production and maintenance employees General Electric Company,
125 NLRB 718, 720, fn 14 We shall permit the two mechanical foremen'
in the large machine shop and tool and die shop to vote subject to challenge,
as the record herein is insufficient to determine whether they are supervisors
or employees who should be included
MASON & HANGER-SILAS MASON CO., INC.
If a majority in the voting group vote in favor of
International Association of Tool Craftsmen and its
Local No. 18, N.F.I.U., they will constitute an
appropriate unit and appropriate certification will
issue . If they vote in favor of Lodge 1010,
International Association of Machinists &
Aerospace Workers, AFL-CIO, they will remain
part of the existing unit and a Certification of
Results to that effect will issue.
[Direction of Election4 omitted from publication.]
469
'In order to assure that all eligible voters may have the opportunity to
be informed of the issues in the exercise of their statutory right to vote, all
parties to the election should have access to a list of voters and their
addresses which may be used to communicate with them Excelsior
Underwear Inc, 156 NLRB 1236; N L R B v. Wyman-Gordon Company.
394 U S 759. Accordingly, it is hereby directed that an election eligibility
list, containing the names and addresses of all the eligible voters, must be
filed by the Employer with the Regional Director for Region 13 within 7
days of the date of this Decision and Direction of Election . The Regional
Director shall make the list available to all parties to the election. No
extension of time to file this list shall be granted by the Regional Director
except in extraordinary circumstances Failure to comply with this
requirement shall be grounds for setting aside the election whenever proper
objections are filed