McCann Steel Co., Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Nov 18, 1969

179 N.L.R.B. 635 (N.L.R.B. 1969)

MCCANN STEEL COMPANY, INC. 635
McCann Steel Company, Inc. and Shopmen 's Local
Union No . 733, International Association of
Bridge , Structural and Ornamental Iron Workers,
AFL-CIO, Petitioner and Iron Workers Local
Union 492, International Association of Bridge,
Structural and Ornamental Iron Workers,
AFL-CIO, Petitioner . Cases 26-RC-3543 and
26-RC-3545
November 18, 1969
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF
ELECTIONS
BY CHAIRMAN MCCULLOCH AND MEMBERS
BROWN AND ZAGORIA
Upon petitions duly filed under Section 9(c) of the
National Labor Relations Act, as amended, a
consolidated hearing was held before Hutton S
Brandon, Hearing Officer. The Employer alone has
filed a brief
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the
Act, the National Labor Relations 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 that they are
free from prejudicial error. They are hereby
affirmed
Upon the entire record in this case, 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. Questions affecting commerce exist concerning
the representation of employees of the Employer
within the meaning of Section 9(c)(1) and Section
2(6) and (7) of the Act.
4. The Employer operates two steel fabrication
plants located on opposite sides of Second Street in
Nashville, Tennessee. The steel, after processing at
the plants, is trucked to construction sites for
installation by the Employer's field erection crew, or
it is sent f.o.b. jobsite to be installed by other
parties. Petitioner Local 733 is seeking a unit of all
production and maintenance employees and
truckdrivers, excluding field erection, office clerical,
drafting and engineering employees, watchmen,
guards, and supervisors as defined in the Act
Petitioner Local 492 is seeking a unit of all field
erection employees. The Employer contends that the
units sought are too restrictive in scope and are
based solely upon the extent of organization which,
as a controlling factor in the Board's determination,
is prohibited by the Act.
The field erection crew consists of three
ironworkers, three welders and four helpers
Although there are welders among the Employer's
56 production and maintenance employees, there are
no ironworkers regularly assigned to either of the
shops on Second Street. The erection process
consists of climbing, bolting and welding above
ground and utilizes the special skills of the
ironworker. The fabrication shop personnel, on the
other hand, are employed in the layout of steel on
the floor with the use of a blueprint. Welders are
paid the same base pay in the plants and in the
field, and ironworkers' pay is comparable to the
wages of the highest paid shop employees, the
layout men. Both field and plant employees enjoy
the same fringe benefits However, because erection
work, as compared to fabrication, involves a higher
risk of physical injury, the Employer pays premium
rates to erection employees for particularly
hazardous assignments.
The erection crew is under separate immediate
supervision, except on those occasions when field
employees are assigned to work in the plant side by
side with production and maintenance employees, or
plant employees are sent to assist in the field. The
Employer states that plant personnel are assigned to
the field when some "little insignificant job will
come up," and when the field employees have an
extraordinarily heavy workload. Correspondingly,
during periods of inclement weather, the erection
crew is absorbed, without maintaining crew identity,
by the two fabrication shops. Ironworkers, when
assigned to the shops, do welding or unskilled
cleanup work. Approximately 80 percent of the
erection crew's time annually, is spent in field work
and 20 percent is spent in the plants.
Regular erection crew employees punch in with
plant workers and return from the field to punch
out However, about 50 percent of the time, they are
required to work over 40 miles from the plant, and
on those occasions field employees stay overnight
and their timecards are marked and returned by the
field supervisor to indicate hours worked. The
Employer supplies transportation to the field, and
on overnight assignments , reimburses employees for
room and board expenses.
Field construction and installation employees have
been found by the Board to be properly excluded
from a broader in-plant unit where the inside and
outside workers perform essentially different types
of work under separate immediate supervision and
interchange is limited' Such cases have applied the
long established principles that the appropriate unit
for self-organization among employees of a given
employer is generally based upon a community of
interest in their occupation as manifested, inter alia,
by their common experiences, duties, organization,
supervision, and conditions of employment.'
Conversely, where the separation of the community
of interest is less distinct, separate appropriateness
'Ingersoll Milling Machine Company , 78 NLRB 535, York
Corporation , 87 NLRB 613, McCann Steel Company . 94 NLRB No 65,
Case 10-RC-1262 (not published in NLRB volumes)
'Sears , Roebuck and Co. 160 NLRB 1435, 1436, Famous-Barr
179 NLRBNo. 105
636 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
has not been found Where there is no difference in
skills between plant personnel and outside erection
employees,' or where the only identifiable difference
between outside and inside men is in the situs of
employment ,' or where there is extensive
interchange ,' the Board has found proposed units of
production and maintenance employees that
excluded construction and installation crews, to be
Inappropriate.
The Employer contends that the petitions herein
should be dismissed because, under the above
principles, it must be concluded that the shop and
field employees have such a community of interest
as to compel their inclusion in a single overall unit.
In support of this contention , the Employer argues
that there is substantial interchange between its shop
and field employees
In a prior proceeding involving the same
Employer and Petitioner Local 733, the Board
rejected the Employer ' s arguments , substantially
identical to those now presented against separate
units, and found that a unit of production and
maintenance employees excluding the field erection
crew was appropriate .' The record does not contain
any evidence that materially distinguishes the facts
in the earlier case from those in the case now before
us, and the Board is not, persuaded that a different
finding is warranted at this time.
On the basis of the entire record, we are
Company . 168 NLRB No 63
'San Antonio Machine and Supply Company , 85 NLRB 143
'Peerless Products Company , 114 NLRB 1586
'Hunt Tool Company. 82 NLRB 399
'McCann Steel Company, supra
convinced that the erection employees possess a
unique community of interest based upon their
separate supervision , their separate work stations
that frequently demand overnight lodging away from
home, their special skills , the hazardous nature of
their work , and the premium rates paid them for it.
Moreover , no union seeks to represent both the field
erection crew and the shop employees in a single
unit. Accordingly , we find that the following
employees of the Employer constitute separate units
appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining
within the meaning of Section 9(b) of the Act:
A All production and maintenance employees,
and truckdrivers ; excluding office clerical , drafting
and engineering employees , watchmen , guards,
and supervisors as defined in the Act , and field
erection employees.
B. All field erection employees excluding all
other employees , and supervisors as defined in the
Act.
[Direction of Elections ' omitted from publication ]
'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 elections should have access to lists of voters and their
addresses which may be used to communicate with them Excelsior
Underwear, Inc. 156 NLRB 1236, NLRB v Wyman-Gordon
Company. 394 U S 759 Accordingly, it is hereby directed that election
eligibility lists containing the names and addresses of all the eligible voters,
must be filed by the Employer with the Regional Director for Region 26
within 7 days of the date of this Decision and Direction of Elections The
Regional Director shall make the lists-available to all parties to the
elections No extension of time to file these lists shall be granted by-the
Regional Director except in extraordinary circumstances Failure to
comply with this requirement shall be grounds for setting aside the
elections whenever proper objections are filed