McCulloch Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Mar 18, 1971

189 N.L.R.B. 76 (N.L.R.B. 1971)

76 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
McCulloch Corporation and Tool and Die Craftsmen,
National Federation of Independent Unions, Peti-
tioner . Case 31-RC-1507
March 18, 1971
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF
ELECTION
By CHAIRMAN MILLER AND MEMBERS
FANNING AND BROWN
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9(c) of the
National Labor Relations Act, as amended, a hearing
was held before Hearing Officer Marvin E. Roth-
bloom of the National Labor Relations Board.
Following the hearing and pursuant to Section 102 67
of the National Labor Relations Board Rules and
Regulations, Series 8, as amended, and by direction of
the Regional Director for Region 31, this case was
transferred to the Board for decision. The Employer
and the Petitioner filed briefs which have been duly
considered.
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the
National Labor Relations Act, as amended, 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 The rulings are hereby
affirmed.
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board
finds. i
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within
the meaning of the Act and it will effectuate the
purposes of the Act to assertjurisdiction herein.
2. The Employer declined to stipulate that the
Petitioner was a labor organization within the
meaning of the Act. The record shows that the
Petitioner has 24 to 30 collective-bargaining agree-
ments, including master agreements with the Tool and
Die Shop Division and the Tool and Die Manufactur-
er's Division of the California Metal Trade Associa-
tion covering 1,200 to 1,400 employees in 70 plants in
the State of California. We find that the Petitioner is a
labor organization within the meaning of Section 2(5)
of the Act.2
3. A question affecting commerce exists concern-
ing the representation of certain employees of the
Employer within the meaning of Sections 9(c)(1) and
2(6) and (7) of the Act
4. The Employer is engaged in the manufacture of
I Respondent's request for oral argument is denied as the record
adequately presents the issues and the positions of the parties
2 See Friden Calculating Machine Co, 110 NLRB 1618
' in 1958, as the result of a Board-conducted election, the United
power chain saws and related accessories. The
Petitioner seeks a craft unit of tool-and-die makers,
apprentices, and allied craftsmen working in the
Toolroom, Engineering Machine Shop, and Ad-
vanced Development Division Machine Shop. The
Petitioner states it would proceed to an election in a
traditional departmental toolroom unit, but that it is
not willing to represent an overall production and
maintenance unit which the Employer contends is
solely appropriate. There is no relevant history of
collective bargaining in the plant.;
For the reasons enumerated below, we find that the
unit primarily requested by the Petitioner is not
appropriate, but that a traditional departmental unit
of toolroom employees is an appropriate unit.
The Petitioner seeks to represent 67 of the Employ-
er's 500 employees. Of the 67 employees, 46 are
toolroom employees, 10 are engineering machine
shop fabrication technicians, and II are advance
development division (ADD) fabrication technicians.
The toolroom employees are assigned to the
Manufacturing Engineering Department under the
direction of Mr. Rocks. The toolroom is made up of
the Die-Cast Mold Section with Mr. Denny as
foreman, and the Tool-and-Die Section with Mr.
Mazzone as foreman. Both Denny and Mazzone
report to Rocks. The toolroom is located in an
enclosed corner of building 14, which building is also
occupied by shipping, stores, the production machine
shop, and the die-cast operation. For the purpose of
discussion, the operations in the Tool-and-Die Sec-
tion of the toolroom can be described generally as tool
and cutter grinding, jig boring, general machine, and
tool-and-die work
The tool and cutter grinders are classified as
Grinder Operator Toolroom, Grinder Tool and
Cutter A, and Grinder Precision Tooling, Labor
Grades 13 to 16. They are responsible for grinding
tools and cutters used in production Thejig borers
are classified as Machinist Jig Borers, Labor Grade
20. They operate jig boring machines which bore
precision holes for the toolroom and model shop. The
general machinists are classified as Machinists Tool-
room A and B, Labor Grades 15 and 18. They operate
the lathes in the toolroom. The tool-and-die employ-
ees are classified as Tool-and-Die Maker A and B,
Labor Grades 16 and 20. These employees operate
lathes, milling machines, and drill presses, and their
main function is to build new tools and dies, fixtures,
and special machinery. There are six employees in the
section considered by the Employer to be journeymen
tool-and-die makers
Automobile Workers was certified as the collective-bargaining agent for all
of the Employer's production and maintenance employees Bargaining
sessions took place for a year but no contract was reached
189 NLRB No 16
McCULLOCH CORPORATION 77
There is a Welder Tooling, Labor Grade 18, in the
toolroom, who operates various types of welding
equipment to weld mold cavities, mold inserts, blades,
jigs, and fixtures. He also from time to time welds
broken machine parts in the maintenance depart-
ment. The Inspector Tool and Die, Labor Grade 20, is
responsible for inspection of tools that are built by the
toolroom employees, tooling purchased from outside
vendors, and tooling brought in from the production
floor for maintenance by the toolroom employees.
Finally, there is one janitor in Labor Grade 3, under
the supervision of Mazzone, who performs the general
housekeeping duties in the toolroom proper.
The employees of the Die-Cast Mold Section of the
toolroom are classified as Moldmaker Die-Cast
Senior, Moldmaker Die-Cast A, Die Repairman, and
Die Repair Helper, Labor Grades 12 to 24. They are
engaged in the repair and maintenance of the die-cast
molds utilized in the die-cast machines and the
building of new molds. They operate mold machinery
equipment which is found only in this section of the
toolroom. The Employer considers two of these
employees to be journeymen moldmakers.
The toolroom contains machinery such as mills, a
Bridgeport miller, a Texas milling machine, a rotary
head drill, grinders, shapers, lathes, a jig bore, and
tracing machines. These machines are not found in
any of the production areas. The toolroom employees
work to a tolerance of as close as a ten-thousandth of
an inch. They are required to be able to work from
blueprints and sketches and to use such instruments
as calipers, micrometers, indicators, and height
gauges. They are also required to be knowledgeable in
certain fields of mathematics.
The Employer does not have a formal apprentice-
ship program, but the minimal background for a
newly hired toolroom employee is a high school
education, some trade school education, and an "all
around machinist background." Toolroom employees
in lower labor grades receive on-the-job training from
the foreman, group leaders, and journeymen.
Approximately one-half of the capacity of the
toolroom is devoted to manufacturing and trying out
new tools, dies, and molds, and the other half to
maintaining and repairing tools, dies, and molds used
in production.
The toolroom employees spend 85 to 90 percent of
their time in the toolroom. Some 10 to 15 percent of
their time is spent setting up new equipment and
troubleshooting on the production machine shop
floor and training setup men and machine operators
in the use of new equipment as well as building and
repairing special fixtures utilized by the Plating
Department employees. When the toolroom employ-
ees are engaged in these activities outside the
toolroom, they are still under the supervision of their
own toolroom supervisors.
As the facts clearly indicate that toolroom employ-
ees are required to build and maintain molds, tools,
dies, jigs, and special equipment, to work at close
tolerances, to use precision measurement instruments,
and to work from blueprints and sketches, we find
that the toolroom comprises a functionally distinct
and homogeneous traditional department with a
nucleus of skilled employees who constitute a unit
appropriate for collective bargaining.4
Contrary to the Employer's contention the lack of
any apprenticeship program does not militate against
the appropriateness of a departmental unit of tool-
room employees with typical toolroom functions,
particularly where, as here, the Employer concedes
that a substantial number are journeymen craftsmen,
and all have a machinist's background and receive on-
the-job training in the toolroom. Twenty-five of the
forty-six toolroom employees were previously em-
ployed elsewhere in the plant. However, there is no
orderly and mechanical line of progression from
production to the toolroom and only 25 employees
have made this change since 1951. Although also
located in building 14, the production machine shop
and the die-cast operation are in the Production
Department, which is supervised separately from the
toolroom. Most of these other employees are in lower
grades than those in the toolroom, and operate
machines in the production and fabrication of parts
for the Employer's products. While the work of these
employees is somewhat similar to that of the toolroom
employees, they are not required to work at the same
close tolerances nor do they exercise the same degree
of skill required in the building and maintaining of
tools and dies, jigs, and fixtures. The work performed
by the employees of the production machine shop and
die-casting operations is production work of a more
repetitive nature. A toolroom employee who has
seniority in the production machine shop or the die-
cast operation may bump back into one of those
sections in case of a layoff, but little bumping has
been done.
There are two groups of fabrication technicians
sought by the Petitioner. One group works in the
Engineering Test Lab Machine Shop located in
building 13. They are supervised by Mr. Swiggart, the
general supervisor of the Engineering Test Lab.
Swiggart also supervises the development engineers
and the engineering technicians who also are in the
Engineering Test Lab, but whom the Petitioner does
' Accord: Jar Kay Metal Specialities Corp. 163 NLRB 719; Genera l involved are not currently represented as part of a broader unit, various
Dynamics Telecommunication s, a Division of General Dynamics, 140 NLRB other factors delineated in Mallinckrodt Chemical Works , 162 NLRB 387,
1286; Union Steam Pump Company, 118 NLRB 689 . As the employees here as determinative in severance cases, are not relevant.
78 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
not wish to represent. Swiggart is ultimately responsi-
ble to a vice president of the Engineering Division.
The Engineering Test Lab is engaged in developing,
testing, and analyzing chain saws and related accesso-
ries under production
The other group of fabrication technicians request-
ed works in the ADD Experimental Machine Shop in
building 8. These employees are supervised by Mr.
Hutchinson, the Experimental Machine Shop supervi-
sor, who is ultimately responsible to the vice president
of ADD. They work on products which may or may
not be placed into production, and may or may not be
related to the current line of products sold and
marketed by the Company.
All fabrication technicians operate lathes, mills,
grinders, drills, sheetmetal equipment, welding equip-
ment, pattern shop equipment, and woodworking
equipment. They spend 10 to 15 percent of their time
building "quick and dirty tooling," and the rest of
their time machining parts and putting them together
into assemblies or subassemblies. They are also called
upon to do some modelmaking with clay, plastic, and
wood. Although fabrication technicians are classified
as Labor Grade 20 and have general machinist
backgrounds, they do not exercise the same degree of
skill as the toolroom employees for they build only the
aforementioned "quick and dirty tooling" which does
not require the same precision or durability as the
tooling built in the toolroom. As indicated, they spend
the great majority of their time assembling parts as
opposed to the toolroom employees who spend the
majority of their time building and maintaining
tooling. There are no skilled journeymen craftsmen in
either of these machine shops.
The facts establish that the fabrication technicians
are separately supervised and are assigned to different
departments than the toolroom employees. Further-
more, they are not directly involved in the Employer's
tool-and-die operation. We therefore find that they
may not appropriately be included in the department
unit, nor do they constitute an appropriate unit or
units on any other basis. We will therefore dismiss the
petition as to the fabrication technicians.5
As the toolroom janitor is assigned to the toolroom,
we find, contrary to the Petitioner, that his interests
are closely allied with those of the other toolroom
employees and shall include him in the unit.6
Accordingly, we find that the following employees
of the Employer constitute a unit appropriate for
purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning
of Section 9(b) of the Act.
All toolroom department employees, including the
toolroom janitor, but excluding all other employees,
guards, and supervisors as defined in the Act.
[Direction of Election7 omitted from
publication.]
5 See Burroughs Corporation, 116 NLRB 11 18
6 No one requests the inclusion of the toolcrib attendant , who is not in
the toolroom department and is separately supervised by Mr Vance and
who supplies the entire production force , as well as the toolroom with
tooling We shall therefore exclude him from the unit
r 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 Wvman-Gordon Co, 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 31 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