Merck & Co., Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Mar 16, 1955

111 N.L.R.B. 960 (N.L.R.B. 1955)

960 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
practices and recommending that it cease and desist therefrom and
take certain affirmative action, as set forth in the Intermediate Report.
Thereafter, the Respondent filed exceptions to the Intermediate Re-
port and a supporting brief.
The Board has considered herein only the question of whether the
Respondent's operations meet the requirements of its newly adopted
jurisdictional standards.
The record l discloses that the Respondent, a New York corporation
with its office and place of business in New York City, is engaged in
the manufacture, sale, and distribution of leather cutting dies and re-
lated products. During the year ending August 31, 1952, the Re-
spondent purchased materials valued at in excess of $5,000, of which
approximately 5 percent was shipped in interstate commerce to its
plant from outside the State of New York. During the same period
the Respondent sold goods valued at $52,245, of which $12,551 was
shipped to points outside the State. The record further discloses that
during the year ending June 30, 1954, the Respondent purchased ma-
terials valued at $10,455, of which $7,343 was purchased from firms
outside the State. During the same year, the Respondent sold goods
valued at $85,197, of which $19,708 was shipped to points outside the
State.
As it appears from the above that the Respondent's operations do
not meet the jurisdictional requirements set forth in Jonesboro Grain
Drying Cooperative,2 we find that it will not effectuate the purposes of
the Act to assert jurisdiction in this case, and we shall therefore dis-
miss the complaint.
[The Board dismissed the complaint.]
Inasmuch as none of the parties has responded to the Board 's notice to show cause
why certain stipulations entered into by the General Counsel and Respondent subsequent
to the hearing herein should not be made a part of the record , such stipulations are, ac-
cordingly , made a part of the record.
9 110 -NLRB 481.
MERCK & CO., INC. and INTERNATIONAL UNION OF OPERATING ENGI-
NEERS, LOCAL 68, AFL, PETITIONER. Case No. 2-RC-7179. March
16,1955
Decision and Order
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, a hearing was held before Arthur Younger, hearing
officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from
prejudicial error and 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.
111 NLRB No. 160.
MERCK & Co., INC. 961
2. The labor organizations involved claim to represent certain em-
ployees of the Employer.
3. No question affecting commerce 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, for the following reasons:
The Petitioner seeks to sever from an established bargaining unit
of production and maintenance employees, a unit consisting of all
senior refrigeration operators, refrigeration operators, and refrigera-
tion mechanics. The Employer contends that the unit sought by the
Petitioner is rendered inappropriate by the inclusion of the refrigera-
tion mechanics, but takes no position as to the appropriateness of a
unit confined to refrigeration operators. The Intervenor, United Gas,
Coke and Chemical Workers of America, CIO, Local 575, argues that
as the unit sought is neither a craft group nor a homogeneous group
with allied interests, as the lines of supervision over the employees
sought to be combined are separate and distinct, and, in view of an
uninterrupted bargaining history of inclusion with the production and
maintenance employees for 17 years, the unit sought by the Petitioner
is inappropriate.
The Employer, a New Jersey corporation, has its principal office
and plant at Rahway, New Jersey, where it is engaged in the manu-
facture of medicinal and fine chemicals. Since 1937, the employees
sought herein by the Petitioner have been represented as part of the
production and maintenance unit. The Intervenor was certified as
the bargaining representative for this unit in 1953. In 1950, the In-
ternational Association of Machinists was certified as the representa-
tive for employees classified as carpenters, electricians, pipefitters, tin-
smiths, and welders, but in 1951-52, the tinsmiths elected to become a
part of the production and maintenance unit and the remaining classi-
fications voted for no union. Later, in 1953, the Intervenor was certi-
fied to represent all five of these classifications. The Petitioner was
certified in 1950 as the bargaining representative for the powerhouse
employees.
The Employer has two groups of refrigeration operators : in build-
ing 121, the packaging and shipping division, subject to the supervi-
sion of the process supervisor who also supervises production em-
ployees, there are 4 senior refrigerator operators; in the plant engi-
neering division, subject to the direct supervision of the refrigeration
department foreman, and ultimately, the plant engineer, there are 4
refrigeration operators.
The latter operators operate compressors which distribute anhy-
drous ammonia to various coolers in the several departments of the
plant. The operators in building 121, in addition to operating am-
962 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
monia type refrigeration equipment located in building 121, also op-
erate air compressors and vacuum pumps. Their job, primarily, is to
adjust certain valves in order to produce certain humidities and tem-
peratures. Although they are located in the engineroom on the bot-
tom floor of building 121, which is their principal work area, they
take care of the air-conditioning and refrigeration equipment in vari-
ous rooms of building 121; and as there are no brine workers in this
building, they perform tests on the brine.
The operators in the refrigeration department are located at the
north end of the plant premises, and apparently work all over the
plant, except in building 121. Under the jurisdiction of the produc-
tion department, there are chemical operators who operate and main-
tain the brine which is located in the refrigeration department and
they come in daily contact with the refrigeration operators.
Also, under the jurisdiction of the engineering division and the di-
rect supervision of the refrigeration foreman are three refrigeration
mechanics who are engaged in maintaining all refrigeration and air-
conditioning equipment throughout the plant, including building 121.
This maintenance includes preventive maintenance as well as repair
of machine breakdowns. They work only on the day shift. Numer-
ous other classifications of mechanics are in the plant engineering divi-
sion, several of whom work side by side with the refrigeration mechan-
ics in maintenance duties. The plant engineer testified that there was
no formal apprenticeship training for the mechanics, but they usually
were trained through the classification of mechanic helper, and the
refrigeration mechanic was "jack-of-all trades." He also stated that
the refrigeration mechanics performed electrical work on low voltage
circuits as did the electrical mechanics. Although it is not a require-
ment of the job, all refrigeration mechanics have a "Blue Seal"
license. Of the present refrigeration mechanics, 2 were hired as ex-
perienced mechanics and 1 had been an electrician.
The Board has in previous years had before it the similar question
of whether refrigeration employees were entitled to severance from a
production and maintenance unit. It concluded that such a group did
not possess the skills of a true craft group, nor were such employees
entitled to severance on the basis of the craft-like nature of their work
and their departmental organization.'
Accordingly, we find the unit sought by the Petitioner inappro-
priate and shall dismiss the petition filed herein.
[The Board dismissed the petition.]
1 See Abbotts Datiraes, Inc., 97 NLRB 1064; United States Rubber Company, 96 NLRB
564. Cf American Stores Company, 105 NLRB 915.