Minneapolis Honeywell Regulator Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Mar 20, 1946

66 N.L.R.B. 987 (N.L.R.B. 1946)

In the Matter of MINNEAPOLIS HONEYWELL REGULATOR COMPANY and
UNITED ELECTRICAL , RADIO AND MACHINE WORKERS OF AMERICA,
LOCAL 1145, CIO
Case No. 18-R-1393.-Decided March 20, 1946
Messrs. S. M. Sitz and Louis Maier, both of Minneapolis, Minn.,
for the Company.
Messrs. Douglas Hall and Robert Wishart, both of Minneapolis,
Minn., for the Union.
Mr. Jerome J. Dick, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon a petition duly filed by United Electrical, Radio and Ma-
chine Workers of America, Local 1145, CIO, herein called the Union,
alleging that a question affecting commerce had arisen concerning
the representation of employees of Minneapolis Honeywell Regulator
Company, Minneapolis, Minnesota, herein called the Company, the
National Labor Relations Board provided for an appropriate hear-
ing upon due notice before Stephen M. Reynolds, Trial Examiner.
The hearing was held at Minneapolis, Minnesota, on December 1S
and 21, 1945. The Company and the Union appeared and partici-
pated. All parties were afforded full opportunity to be heard, to
examine and cross-examine witnesses, and to introduce evidence bear-
ing on the issues. The Trial Examiner's rulings made at the hearing
are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed. All parties
were afforded opportunity to file briefs with the Board.
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board stakes the following:
FINDINGS OF FACT
1. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
Minneapolis Honeywell Regulator Company is a Delaware cor-
poration operating two manufacturing plants in Minneapolis, Alin-
66 N. L . R. B., No. 121,
987
988 i)ECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
nesota. It manufactures automatic control devices, such as thermo-
stats and other regulating devices for oil burners, automatic stokers,
air conditioning, and similar cooling and heating apparatus, re-
frigeration plants, and other products. In these operations, the Com-
pany annually utilizes various types of metals and plastics and other
raw materials, which amount in value to more than $3,000,000. Ap-
proximately 75 percent of the raw materials used originates outside
the State of Minnesota. The annual value of the Company's sales
of products exceeds $10,000,000, of which 75 percent represents ship-
ments to points outside the State of Minnesota.
The Company admits that it is engaged in commerce within the
meaning of the National Labor Relations Act.
II. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED
United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America, Local
1145, is a labor organization affiliated with the Congress of Industrial
Organizations, admitting to membership employees of the Company.
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
The Company has refused to grant recognition to the Union as the
exclusive bargaining representative of its desk girls and schedule
clerks until the Union has been certified by the Board in an appro-
priate unit.
A statement of a Board agent, introduced into evidence at the hear-
ing, indicates that the Union represents a substantial number of desk
girls and schedule clerks.'
We find that a question affecting commerce has arisen concerning
the representation of employees of the Company, within the meaning
of Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT; THE DETERMINATION OF
REPRESENTATIVES
The Company has a written agreement with the Union covering
all production and maintenance employees in the two plants in-
volved. The Union now seeks to enlarge the scope of its present
bargaining unit by adding thereto all desk girls, schedule clerks, and
other clericals doing similar work, who are assigned to the production
departments of the two Minneapolis plants, and who are responsible
I The Field Examiner reported that the Union submitted 47 cards and that the cards
are dated in May, August, and September 1945. There are approximately 80 desk girls
and schedule clerks in the Company's employ.
MINNEAPOLIS HONEYWELL REGULATOR COMPANY 989
to the different supervisors in charge of production workers.2 In
the alternative , the Union seeks to have this group set up as a separate
bargaining unit. The Company opposes the expanded unit because
of alleged dissimilarity of interests of the two groups. The Com-
pany also disputes the propriety of a separate unit on the ground that
the group involved is indistinguishable from other clericals outside
the production departments.
The desk girls work in the offices of the various supervisors in the
production departments, and are under the sole direction of these
supervisory employees. They perform many ministerial duties, such
as the preparation of supervisor's reports on absenteeism, disability
reports, notices of change in rate job classification, and tardiness
warning slips. They also make out time cards, file prints, layouts,
and memoranda, answer the telephone, type a shall amount of cor-
respondence, and answer routine employee questions concerning pay
checks, insurance, and rate step-ups from a reference book prepared
by the Company. In addition, the desk girls maintain departmental
personnel records which are open to inspection by group leaders
insofar as the employees in their groups are concerned.3 They work
the same hours as the production workers in their particular depart-
ments, and punch the same time clocks. They are paid semi-monthly
instead of hourly and their vacation schedules are different from those
of the production employees.
The Company states in its brief that desk girls may inadvertently
overhear grievance discussions because of their location, and conse-
quently should be excluded. The consideration of labor grievances
is not included in the desk girls' duties. The possibility of their
overhearing a grievance discussion does not place them within the
meaning of the Board's definition of a confidential employee.
The schedule clerks, like the desk girls, work in the offices of the
various supervisors in the production departments and are under
the sole direction of these supervisory employees. They obtain pro-
duction schedules from their particular production department office
and determine the number of component parts necessary to make the
finished items. They then prepare a schedule showing the necessary
number of component parts and forward it to the group leader of
the particular machine group concerned. In addition, they keep in
contact with the group leaders to determine whether production is
on schedule and make daily production reports. Sometimes, they
deliver parts to the assembly line. The schedule clerks, like the desk
2 The terms "desk girls" and "schedule clerks " are not formal company classifications,
but are descriptive terms used at the plants The Company designates these employees
under the broad classification of senior or junior clerk, which also includes office clericals.
2 Group leaders are not supervisory employees , and are in the production and mainte-
nance unit now represented by the Union.
990 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
girls, are paid semi-monthly, have different vacation plans from pro-
duction employees, but work the same hours and punch the same
time clock.
The desk girls and schedule clerks are plant clericals under the
direct supervision of production supervisors. It is clear that their
interests are closely allied with those of the production and main-
tenance employees,4 and that they may be represented as part of a
production and maintenance unit. We shall, therefore, direct an
election among the desk girls and schedule girls, so that they may
indicate their desire as to whether or not they should be added to
the established bargaining unit represented by the Union. Our de-
termination as to how they shall be bargained for will depend, in
part, upon the results of this election.
We shall direct that the question concerning representation which
has arisen be resolved by an election by secret ballot among all desk
girls, schedule girls, and other clericals doing similar work who are
assigned to the production departments of the Company's two Min-
neapolis plants, and who are responsible to the different supervisors
in charge of production workers, excluding all supervisory employees
with authority to hire, promote, discharge, discipline, or otherwise
effect changes in the status of employees, or effectively recommend
such action, who were employed during the pay-roll period imme-
diately preceding the date of the Direction of Election herein, subject
to the limitations and additions set forth in this Direction.
If the employees in this group vote for the ITnion, they will be
taken to have indicated a desire to be bargained for as part of the
production and maintenance unit now represented by the Union.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
By virtue of and pursuant to the power vested in the National
Labor Relations Board by Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Rela-
tions Act, and pursuant to Article ITT, Section 9, of National Labor
Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 3, as amended, it is
hereby
DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation to ascertain representa-
tives for the purposes of collective bargaining with Minneapolis
Honeywell Regulator Company, an election by secret ballot shall be
conducted as early as possible, but not later than thirty (30) days
from the date of this Direction, under the direction and supervision
of the Regional Director for the Eighteenth Region, acting in this
matter as agent for the National Labor Relations Board, and subject
to Article III, Sections 10 and 11, of said Rules and Regulations.
A See Matter of Goodman Manufacturing Company, 58 N. L. R. B. 531.
MINNEAPOLIS HONEYWELL REGULATOR COMPANY 991
among the employees in the voting group described in Section IV,
above, who were employed during the pay-roll period immediately
preceding the date of this Direction, including employees who did
not work during said pay-roll period because they were ill or on
vacation or temporarily laid-off, and including employees in the
armed forces of the United States who present themselves in person
at the polls, 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 election, to determine whether or not they
desire to be represented by United Electrical, Radio and Machine
Workers of America, Local 1145, ('IO, for the purposes of collective
bargaining.