Mathieson Chemical Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Mar 21, 1949

82 N.L.R.B. 250 (N.L.R.B. 1949)

In the Matter Of MATHIESON CHEMICAL CORPORATION,' EMPLOYER and
INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF FIREMEN AND OILERS , A. F. OF L,
PETITIONER
In the Matter of MATHIESON CHEMICAL CORPORATION , EMPLOYER and
INTERNATIONAL CHEMICAL WORKERS UNION, A. F. L., PETITIONER
Cases Nos . 5-RC-2720 and o-R-2331, respectively.-
Decided March 01, 1949
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
Upon separate petitions duly filed, a hearing in these consolidated
cases 2 was held in Marion, Virginia, on January 27 and 28, 1949,
before Harold G. Biermann, 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-man panel consisting of the undersigned Board
Members.*
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 Petitioners and the Intervenor, Saltville Mathieson Em-
ployees Association, are labor organizations claiming to represent
employees of the Employer.
3. A question of representation 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 appropriate unit; the determination of representatives:
The Firemen seek a unit consisting of all employees in the Steam
and Power Department, excluding supervisors as defined in the Act.
' The Employer' s name appears as amended at the hearing.
2 Cases Nos . 5-RC-220 and 5-RC-231 were consolidated by order of the Regional Director
on December 21, 1948.
* Reynolds , Murdock, and Gray.
82 N. L . R. B., No. 29.
250
MATHIE SON CHEMICAL CORPORATION 251
The Chemical Workers asks for a unit consisting of all production
and maintenance employees, excluding employees in the Steam and
Power Department, clerical employees, guards, and supervisors as
defined in the Act.' The Intervenor and the Employer contend that
the plant-wide unit found appropriate by the Board in a prior repre-
sentation proceeding,4 which is the unit presently covered by their
contract, is appropriate in this case.
The principal function of the Steam and Power Department is the
production of steam, and most of the 56 employees in the department 5
are so engaged. A few employees in the department operate the
water supply equipment that is used to pump water, primarily for
cooling purposes, throughout the plant. Steam is used at the Salt-
ville plant for two primary purposes-to generate power, and supply
heat and steam as such as required in the various productive processes.
Ninety percent of all the steam produced is used in processing opera-
tions from which finished products result. Some of this steam is
first used for motive power, such as is needed in the production of
electricity. The other 10 percent of the steam is used for heating
purposes. Although Steam and Power employees work in a number
of different areas throughout the plant, they have relatively little
contact with the rest of the production and maintenance employees.
Steam and Power employees are designated as a separate department
by the Employer and are separately supervised. The Employer ad-
heres very closely to a strict departmental seniority system, and there
is relatively little interchange of employees between departments.
The Steam and Power employees do no work other than that required
in the performance of their duties in the Steam and Power
Department.
We believe that the Steam and Power Department employees in-
volved herein do not differ substantially from the powerhouse em-
ployees whom the Board has repeatedly found to constitute a readily
identifiable and functionally coherent group appropriate for purposes
8 Exclusive of the Steam and Power employees , the production and maintenance unit
requested by the Chemical Workers differs somewhat from the unit claimed to be ap-
propriate by the Employer and the Intervenor . As indicated below, the latter unit has
previously been found appropriate by the Board and has served as the basis of contractual
relations between the Employer and the Intervenor.
4 Matter of the Methieson Alkali Works , 55 N. L. R B 1100 . The appropriate unit was
there found to be all production employees and employees engaged in the maintenance of
production properties and equipment at the Employer 's Saltville operations , including labor
test employees , water tenders , caustic finishers , and quarry watchmen , but excluding com-
munity service employees , all other watchmen , guards, patrolmen, general office and salaried
plant clerks , all other laboratory employees , and supervisory employees with authority to
hire, promote , discharge , discipline , or otherwise effect changes in the status of employees,
or effectively recommend such action
5 There are approximately 1,400 employees at the Saltville plant of the Employer, which
is the only one involved in this case.
252 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
of collective bargaining." Accordingly, we find that the Steam and
Power Department employees may appropriately constitute a sep-
arate unit or be included in a larger unit of production and mainte-
nance employees. We shall not, however, make any unit determina-
tion at this time, but shall be guided in part by the desires of the
employees as expressed in the elections hereinafter directed. We shall
direct that the questions concerning representation shall be resolved by
separate elections by secret ballot among employees at the Saltville
plant of the Employer within the voting groups described below :
1. All employees in the Steam and Power Department excluding
supervisors as defined in the Act.
2. All remaining production and maintenance employees,? includ-
ing laboratory test employees and caustic finishers, but excluding com-
munity service employees, watchmen," guards, patrolmen, general
office and salaried plant clerks, all other laboratory employees, and
supervisors as defined in the Act.
DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the
purposes of collective bargaining with the Employer, elections 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 super-
vision 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-Series 5, as amended, among
the employees in the voting groups described in paragraph numbered
4, above, who were employed during the pay-roll period immediately
preceding the date of this Direction of Elections, 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 elections, and also ex-
cluding employees on strike who are not entitled to reinstatement, to
determine :
8 Matter of Wilson & Company , Inc., 80 N. L. R. B. 1463 ; Matter of Crocker, Burbank
J Company, Ass'n, 80 N. L. R. B. 774; Matter of Worthy Paper Company Association,
80 N. L. R. B. 19 ; Matter of B. W. Bliss Company 76 N. L . R. B. 475.
7 Since there was no evidence introduced at the hearing which would lead us to make
any change in the residual production and maintenance group, we establish a voting group
of production and maintenance employees, excluding the Steam and Power employees,
substantially the same as the unit previously found appropriate by the Board.
s Although quarry watchmen were included in the prior production and maintenance
unit found appropriate by the Board, they are here excluded as guards under the pro-
visions of Section 8 (b) (3) of the Act. See Matter of C. V. Hill & Co, Inc., 76
N. L. R. B. 158.
MATHIESON CHEMICAL CORPORATION 253
(1) Whether the employees in Voting Group 1 desire to be repre-
sented, for the purposes of collective bargaining, by International
Brotherhood of Firemen and Oilers, A. F. of L., or by Saltville Mathie-
son Employees Association, or by neither;
(2) Whether the employees in Voting Group 2 desire to be repre-
sented for the purposes of collective bargaining by International
Chemical Workers Union, A. F. of L., or by Saltville Mathieson
Employees Association, or by neither.