Mesta Machine Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jun 30, 1958

120 N.L.R.B. 1791 (N.L.R.B. 1958)

MESTA MACHINE COMPANY 1791
effective date of the contract does not operate to invalidate the agree-
ment for contract-bar purposes.'°
In view of the above , we find that the contract serves as a bar to
the present petition , and shall dismiss the petition filed herein.
[The Board dismissed the petition.]
MEMBERS RODGERS and JENIKINS took no part in the consideration
of the above Decision and Order.
10 Whyte Manufacturing Company, Inc., 109 NLRB 1125 , at 1127 ; A. Sandler Co., 110
NLRB 738; Milwaukee Gas Light Company, 111 NLRB 837; C. G. Willis, Inc., 119 NLRB
1677. See also Steel Products Engineering Company, etc., 116 NLRB 811 at 814. See
also Supreme Sunrise Food Exchange , Inc., 105 NLRB 918, wherein the Board enunciated
rules for the construction contracts , including the rule that contracts will be construed,
if possible , so that their provisions are valid rather than invalid.
Mesta Machine Company and International Molders and Foun-
dry Workers Union of North America, AFL-CIO, Petitioner
Mesta Machine Company and International Brotherhood of Elec-
trical Workers, AFL-CIO, Petitioner. Cases Nos. 6-RC-9068
and 6-RC-2075. June 30,1958
DECISION, DIRECTION OF ELECTION, AND ORDER
Upon separate petitions duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the Na-
tional Labor Relations Act, a consolidated hearing was held before
W. G. Stuart Sherman, hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings
made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby
affirmed.
Pursuant to the provisions in Section 3 (b) of the Act, the Board
had delegated its power in connection with these cases to a three-
member panel [Members Rodgers, Bean, and Fanning].
Upon the entire record in these cases, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the Act.
2. The labor organizations involved claim to represent certain em-
ployees of the Employer.
3. A 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.
4. The Petitioner in Case No. 6-RC-2068, International Molders
and Foundry Workers Union of North America, AFL-CIO, herein
called the Molders, seeks to represent a unit composed of all foundry
employees. The Petitioner in Case No. 6-RC-2075, International
Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, AFL-CIO, herein called the
120 NLRB No. 217.
1792 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
IBEW, seeks to represent a unit of all the employees in the power,
light, and heat department . Intervenor International Association
of Machinists , AFL-CIO, herein called the IAM, desires to be placed
on the ballot in any election directed by the Board in Case No.
6-RC-2075. Intervenor United Steelworkers of America , AFL-CIO,
herein called the Steelworkers , and the Employer contend that only a
plantwide unit is appropriate . The Steelworkers , however, desires
to be placed on the ballot in any election directed by the Board.
The Employer is engaged in the manufacture of mill machinery and
related products in two plants located in Pennsylvania , one at West
Homestead and the. other at New Castle ; only the West Homestead
plant is involved in these proceedings . This plant employs about
2,900 production and maintenance employees and occupies several
buildings spread over 20 acres.
The plant is organized in a number of departments, each depart-
ment having its own superintendent . Among the departments are
foundry, iron melting, open hearth , iron and steel chipping, and pat-
tern shop and storage. The superintendents of these departments re-
port to Superintendent of Foundry Operations Hacker. Hacker, in
turn , reports to Assistant General Superintendent Harry Dowie.
Another department is the power , light, and heat department. The
superintendent of this department reports directly to Dowie.
There is no history of collective bargaining for any employees of
the plant except patternmakers , who have been represented by the
Patternmakers League of North America , AFL-CIO, since 1951,
when that union won a Board-directed election .' Unsuccessful elec-
tions have also been conducted by the Board for units of production
and maintenance employees,' bricklayers ,' and foundry employees.'
The Employer and the Steelworkers contend that only a production
and maintenance unit is appropriate because of the integration of
the plant's operations , centralized control of management functions
and personnel relations , and the community of interest among all
plant employees . We find no merit in this contention . The Board
has previously held that the National Tube doctrine 6 will not be
applied to this plant because it is not part of the "basic steel " indus-
try, and has found craft units of patternmakers s and bricklayers 7
appropriate . The Board has also conducted an election in a unit
of foundry employees in accordance with a stipulation for the hold-
Mesta Machine Company, 94 NLRB 1624.
$ Dlesta Machinery Company. 55 NLRB 59.
8 Mesta Machine Company, 106 NLRB 112.
• Pursuant to a consent agreement, an election was held in 1957 in a unit substantially
the same as that which the Molders, seek in the instant petition. The Molders lost. Case
No. 6-RC-1906 ( unpublished).
s National Tube Company , 76 NLRB 1199.
.Mesta Machine Company, 94 NLRB 1624.
1 Mesta Machine Company, 106 NLRB 112.
MESTA MACIIINE COMPANY 1-93
ing of a consent election.' Accordingly, we reject the contention of
the Steelworkers and the Employer that only a plantwide unit is
appropriate and find that less inclusive units meeting Board
standards may also be appropriate.
- IBEW petition (Case No. 6-RC-2075) : As set forth above, the
IBEW seeks a separate unit of employees in the power, light, and
heat department. There are approximately 480 employees in this
department, including boilerhouse workers, bricklayers, carpenters,
cranemen, electricians, millwrights, painters, pipefitters, riggers, and
laborers. It is obvious that the proposed unit is multicraft in scope.
Such a unit may be appropriate only as a maintenance department
unit in the absence of bargaining history.9 However, the power,
light, and heat department is not entirely a maintenance department.
Some of the department's employees do maintenance work; others
are engaged in the production process. For example, cranemen, who
are stationed throughout the plant, are part of the production setup.
Painters are primarily engaged in production work ; electricians,
carpenters, riggers, and pipefitters also spend part of their time in
production. And there are 44 laborers, almost 10 percent of the
department's work force, who perform all kinds of unskilled labor
throughout the plant. Finally, there are other employees, such as
janitors, not part of the power, light, and heat department, who
perform maintenance work. We find that the proposed unit of
power, light, and heat department employees is inappropriate either
as a craft unit or as a departmental unit. Accordingly, we shall
dismiss the petition in Case No. 6-RC-2075.
Molders' petition (Case No. 6-RC-2068) : The Molders seeks a unit
composed of all the employees in the foundry, chipping, melting, and
open hearth departments, and the pattern storage employees. The
pattern storage employees transfer patterns from the pattern shop
and the pattern storage areas to the foundry. The melting depart-
ment melts and prepares iron and brass, while the open hearth depart-
ment performs the same operation with respect to steel. The foundry
department makes the necessary molds and castings, which are then
cleaned and chipped by the chipping department. The above opera-
tions are performed in a building which houses the entire foundry
operation, except for part of the chipping department operation which
is performed in forge shop No. 3, due to a lack of space in the foundry
building. All the employees in the above departments work under the
same overall supervision. These employees comprise the type of
8 Case No 6-RC-1906 (unpublished).
' Union Carbide Chemicals Company, etc. 118 NLRB 954; E I Du Pont de Nemour8
and Company, 117 NLRB 1048.
1794 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
foundry unit which the Board has repeatedly found is appropriate for
collective-bargaining purposes.'°
The Molders and the Employer seek to include charging machine
operators, cranemen , certain employees in the metallurgical, heat
treatment and annealing department, and roll shop No. 2 and brick-
layers, in the foundry unit. The Molders seeks to exclude an inspector.
The Employer takes no position as to this employee, while the Inter-
venor takes no position as to any of the above.
There are three charging machine operators, all of whom, under the
Employer's departmental system, are attached to the power, light, and
heat department. However, their work is confined to charging the
open hearth furnaces, and they work exclusively in the foundry area.
We find that these employees are engaged in a normal foundry opera-
tion and include them in the unit sought by the Molders.
The Employer employs 168 cranemen, all attached to the power,
light and heat department. Of these, 76 are permanently assigned
to the foundry, where they perform the usual foundry operation of
moving castings and molten metal. We find that their interests are
closely allied with those of the other foundry employees and include
these 76 cranemen in the foundry unit."
One inspector leader, a member of the inspection department, works
exclusively in the foundry inspecting castings . We find that his
interests are closely associated with the foundry employees. Accord-
ingly, we include him in the unit.
Certain members of the metallurgical, heat treatment, and anneal-
ing department work within the foundry area; this department also
operates in other locations in the plant. These employees heat treat
castings, forgings, and anything else requiring such treatment. They
are separately supervised, are interchanged occasionally with em-
ployees in the same department working elsewhere in the plant, and
perform a nonfoundry operation. Nine members of roll shop No. 2, a
division of the machine shop, work in the foundry building removing
sinkheads from castings. This is a machine shop function performed
in the foundry only because of the dirt involved in this operation.
These employees are supervised by the machine shop superintendent.
The bricklayers are members of the power, light, and heat department,
and work throughout the plant. Although they spend a large part of
their time in the foundry because many of the furnaces on which
they work are located there, there is no indication that the same
bricklayers work exclusively within the confines of the foundry. Their
work is essentially maintenance in character, and they are supervised
by the superintendent of the power, light, and heat department. In
io The Schaible Company, 108 NLRB 2; York Corporation, 116 NLRB 191.
n See Bethlehem Pacefe Coast Steel Corporation , 114 NLRB 1197. Cf. The Killings
and Spencer Company, 104 NLRB 928.
SYLVANIA ELECTRIC PRODUCTS, INC. 1795
view of the foregoing, we find that the above employees are not en-
gaged in performing normal foundry operations and that their in-
terests are most closely associated with the members of their own
department. Accordingly, we shall exclude them from the unit sought
by the Molders.
Accordingly, we find that all * foundry employees employed at the
Employer's West Homestead, Pennsylvania, plant, including em-
ployees in the foundry, iron, and steel chipping,12 iron melting, and
open hearth departments, pattern storage employees, charging ma-
chine operators, cranemen within the foundry, and the foundry in-
spector, but excluding all other employees, patternmakers and their
apprentices, machine shop employees, electric steel melting employees,
heat treatment and annealing employees, employees attached to forge
shops Nos. 1, 2, and 3, bricklayers, office and plant clerical employees,
watchmen and guards, laboratory employees, professional employees,
and supervisors as defined in the Act 13 constitute a unit appropriate
for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of See-
tion9 (b) of the Act.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.]
[The Board dismissed the petition in Case No. 6-RC-2075.]
12 We include those members of the iron and steel chipping department , who, because
of lack of space in the foundry building, are located in forge shop No. 3.
13 The parties have stipulated , and we find , that the following employees are not super-
visors within the meaning of the Act' stoker boss, open hearth , stoker boss, iron melting ;
shakeout leader , foundry , night leader , iron melting , gateman leader , roll foundry ;
melter, iron melting, and gang leader, pattein shop.
Sylvania Electric Products, Inc. and International Union of
Electrical Radio and Machine Workers, AF-L-CIO , Petitioner.
Case No. 6-RC-1852. June 30,1958
SECOND SUPPLEMENTAL DECISION AND
CERTIFICATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
Pursuant to a Decision and Direction of Election,' and a Supple-
mental Decision, Order, and Direction of Second Election,2 issued on
March 22 and December 13, 1957, respectively, elections were con-
ducted on April 12, 1957, and January 7, 1958, among the employees
of the Mill Hall, Pennsylvania, plant, of the Employer. Thereafter,
a runoff election was conducted at this plant on January 23, 1958.
The tally of ballots of the runoff election shows that of approxi-
mately 458 eligible voters, 431 cast ballots. Of these, 219 were cast
1 Not published
9 Sylvania Electric Products, Inc., 119 NLRB 824.
120 NLRB No. 220.