Minneapolis-Moline Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Aug 8, 1949

85 N.L.R.B. 597 (N.L.R.B. 1949)

In the Matter Of MINNEAPOLIS-MOLINE COMPANY, EMPLOYER Gptd
UNITED AUTOMOBILE, AIRCRAFT & AGRICULTURAL) IMPLEMENT WORK-
ERS OF AMERICA, C. I. 0., PETITIONER
Case No. 13-RC-615.-Decided August 8, 1949
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before Philip Licari,
hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are
free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3 (b) of the National Labor
Relations Act, the Board has delegated its powers in connection with
this case to a three-member panel [Chairman Herzog, and Members
Reynolds and Gray].
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the National Labor Relations Act.
2. The Petitioner is a labor organization claiming to represent cer-
tain employees 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 appropriate unit :
The Petitioner requests a single unit composed of shop clerical
and office clerical employees at the Employer's plant at Moline, Illi-
nois, excluding employees in the factory personnel department, jani-
tors, truck drivers, nurses, the secretary to the general plant manager,
department heads, and other supervisors. Although the Petitioner
urges that shop and office clerical employees together constitute a
single appropriate unit, it would in the alternative represent them in
separate units. The Employer agrees only to the Petitioner's alterna-
tive request for separate units. It also agrees with the specific exclu-
sions suggested by the Petitioner, but would in addition, exclude cer-
tain other categories and individual employees.
85 N. L. R. B., No. 109.
597
598 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Scope of the Units
The Employer manufactures farm implements at its plant in Moline,
Illinois, with which we are here concerned. The United Electrical,
Radio, and Machine Workers of America, C. I. 0., Local 814, is the
certified bargaining representative at this plant for a production and
maintenance unit which does not include any of the clerical employees
petitioned for here. The shop clericals whom the Petitioner seeks to
include in the unit are checkers, timekeepers, the, time-study depart-
ment employees, and the production control department employees.
Checkers are supervised by the foremen of the shops in which they
work. The timekeepers and the time-study department employees
are separately supervised by their own department heads who report
to the factory superintendent. The production control department
employees are under a supervisor who reports to the general plant
manager. These shop clerical employees work throughout the factory
in office space which is completely separated from the Employer's
general offices.
In the general offices are the accounting, pay-roll., repairs, shipping
and order, mailing, purchasing, billing, and cost departments. The
employees in the general office are mainly clerks, typists, stenographers,
and office machine operators. There is no interchange of employees
between the shop and office clerical staffs. Shop clerical employees
are separately hired, their hours of work are different and they are
paid from a separate pay roll. Employee benefits such as vacations,
pensions, and insurance are the same for both groups.
We have held that shop clerical employees have a closer community
of interest with production and maintenance employees than with
office clericals, and have declined to establish single units composed
of the two clerical groups.' The present bargaining representative
for the production and maintenance unit, however, has not intervened
in this proceeding, and may not, therefore, appear on the ballot as one
of the choices for bargaining representative of the shop clerical em-
ployees. As these employees would otherwise be unrepresented, we
shall under these circumstances, establish a separate unit for them.
We shall direct separate elections in a shop clerical unit and an office
clerical unit to determine whether the employees therein wish to be
represented by the Petitioner.
The Employer would exclude from any unit the time-study men,
certain stenographers, an insurance clerk, and the telephone operators.
3 Matter of General Petroleum Corporation , 83 N. L. R. B., No. 83 ; Matter of Chrysler
Corporation, 76 N. L . R. B. 55 ; Matter of Smith Paper, Incorporated, 76 N. L . It. B. 1222.
MINNEAPOLIS-MOLINE COMPANY 599
. Time-study men. There are five time-study men and a chief time-
study engineer employed at the Moline plant. Their principal func-
tion is to time jobs and set piecework rates on them. A time-study
man observes a factory operation, making certain that the conditions
surrounding it are proper, that the operator is qualified and is putting
forth a normal effort. He must himself be familiar with the opera-
tion of the machine, and must take into account the effect that con-
tinued production has on the machine's output. After accumulating
the necessary data, he must be able to make an analysis of the facts
arrived at, applying the employee's hourly rate to the operation, and
calculating the piecework price. If the operator whose job is timed is
dissatisfied with the price set by the time-study man, he may go to his
foreman who will discuss the problem with the chief time-study engi-
neer and the man who timed the job. If they are unable to agree on
the price to be set for the job, the controversy is thereafter treated as a
grievance. The grievance provisions of the contract do not. provide
for the participation of time-study men as management representa-
tives in negotiating the settlement of grievances arising out of the
study, although it appears that they may be called in to help develop
the facts of the grievance.
We cannot agree with the Employer's contention, as a general propo-
sition, that the time-study men should be excluded from any unit
because they are managerial or confidential employees. Their princi-
pal function is to provide the data necessary for operation of the
Employer's incentive wage plan; although they may exercise consider-
able judgment in performing this function, they do not thereby formu-
late or effectuate management policies. Accordingly, we do not con-
sider them to be executive or managerial employees such as we would
customarily exclude from a clerical unit.' Nor are they confidential
employees within the Board's definition of that term, as they neither
handle labor relations negotiations nor deal with confidential data
pertaining to labor relations.' We believe, however, that the lack of
any substantial community of interest between the time-study men
and either the office clerical 4 or the shop clerical ,5 units precludes their
inclusion in either of the units requested here.
8 Matter of Ford Motor Company (Chicago Branch), 66 N. L. R. B. 1317.
s Matter of Brown & Sharpe Mfg. Co., 70 N. L. R. B. 709 ; Matter of Wagner Electric
Corporation, 67 N. L. R. B. 1104.
4 Matter of Adams & Westlake Company, 72 N. L. R. B. 726.
6 We consider it inappropriate for time-study men to be included in a unit whose interests
are as closely identified with a production and maintenance unit as are those of the shop
clerical employees in this proceeding. As to the desirability of excluding time-study men
from a production and maintenance unit, see Matter of Chicago Pneumatic Tool Company,
81 N. L. R. B. 584 and cases cited therein.
600 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
The stenographers. The Employer also seeks to exclude certain
stenographers from any appropriate bargaining unit as confidential
employees. The chief time-study engineer and the plant superintend-
ent jointly use the services of a single stenographer. She takes dicta-
tion from the plant superintendent regarding collective bargaining
negotiations, and has access to his files relating to such matters. The
plant superintendent is in charge of all production work at the Moline
plant and is one of the Employer's representatives directly engaged
in labor relations negotiations. Although the amount of time spent
by the stenographer in handling labor relations matters appears to be
relatively small, we find that she does act in a confidential capacity
to the plant superintendent in the exercise of his managerial func-
tions in labor relations. We shall therefore exclude her, as a confi-
dential employee, from the shop clerical unit.6
One of the two stenographers in the production control department,
it is contended, is a confidential employee. The production control
department does production planning, keeps stock records, expedites
and follows up on all correspondence relating to job evaluations.
These consist of an outline of the duties of the job, the qualities neces-
sary to fill it satisfactorily, and recommendations as to the grade and
rate to be paid. We shall include this stenographer in the shop clerical
unit because her supervisor, the head of the production control depart-
ment, exercises no managerial functions in determining the Employer's
labor relations policies.?
The parties agree that the personal secretary to the general plant
manager is to be excluded as a confidential employee, but they dis-
agree with respect to the other two secretaries in his office. One of
these secretaries takes dictation from several unspecified people in
his office, while the other works in the purchasing department and
does all of the dictation work required there. Apparently, these sec-
retaries may take dictation with respect to labor relations at the de-
partmental level, immediately below the general plant manager.
However, as only the general plant manager and the plant superin-
tendent actually negotiate collective bargaining agreements, we are
satisfied that whatever labor relations work others may do is not
managerial in character, but is mainly to develop facts or proposals
for the benefit of the management negotiators. We therefore find
that only the personal secretary, of,the three secretaries in.the general
plant manager's office, is aconfidential employee.
6Matter of Art Metal Construction Company, 75 N. L. R. B. 80.
' Matter of Automatic Electric Company, 78 N. L. R. B . 1057; Matter of Inter-Mountain
Telephone Company, 79 N. L. It. B. 715.
MINNEAPOLIS-MOLINE COMPANY 601
The insurance clerk. The Employer is a self-insurer under the
Illinois workmen's compensation statute. It has one clerk who handles
all employee claims for workmen's compensation and for accident and
health insurance benefits. The Employer contends that he is a con-
fidential employee because he has access to all personnel files and may
be called on in connection with grievances arising out of insurance
matters. Access to personnel files is not in itself sufficient justification
for exclusion from a bargaining unit as a confidential employee .8
Nor is the additional factor that he may participate in the grievance
procedure sufficient to establish that he is either acting in a confi-
dential capacity or is actually participating in the formulation of labor
relations policy.9 We shall include the insurance clerk in the office
clerical unit.
The telephone operators. The Employer has one regular and two
relief telephone operators, all of whom it contends are confidential
employees because they are in a position to overhear confidential labor
relations matters being discussed by the Employer's officials. The
record does not disclose whether the telephone operators are required
to monitor such conversations or whether they acquire the information
'adventitiously in the course of making the proper phone connections.
We believe that the latter is more probably the case, in view of the
fact that both the general plant manager and the plant superintendent
have personal secretaries whose duties as confidential employees would
reasonably include any monitoring of important phone conversations.
We shall therefore include the three telephone operators in the office
clerical unit.10
We find, in accordance with the foregoing, that the following groups
.,of employees at the Employer's plant at Moline, Illinois, excluding
janitors, truck drivers, nurses, time-study men, all department heads,
and other supervisors as defined in the Act, constitute separate units
appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the
meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act:
1. All shop clerical employees, including checkers, timekeepers,
the variations man, the clerks in the time-study department, and all
employees in the production control department, but excluding the
secretary to the plant superintendent and the factory personnel de-
partment employees.
8 Matter of Ford Motor Company (Chicago Branch), supra.
°Matter of Worthinglon Pump and Machinery Corporation, 75 N. L. R. B. 678.
10 Matter of Smith Paper , Incorporated, supra ; Matter of Denver Dry Goods Company,
74 N. L. R. B. 1167.
602 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
2. All office clerical employees , including the insurance clerk, tele-
phone operators, and the secretaries in the general plant manager's
office, but excluding the personal secretary to the general plant
-manager.
DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the
purposes of collective bargaining with the Employer, separate elec-
tions by secret ballot shall be conducted as early as possible but not
later than 30 days from the date of this Direction, under the direction
and supervision of the Regional Director for the Thirteenth Region,
and subject to Sections 203.61 and 203.62 of National Labor Relations
Board Rules and Regulations, among the employees in the units found
appropriate in paragraph numbered .4, above, who were employed
during the pay-roll period immediately preceding the date of this
Direction of Elections, including employees who did not work during
said pay-roll period because they were il.1 or on vacation or temporarily
laid off, 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 elections , and also excluding employees on strike who
.are not entitled to reinstatement, to determine whether or not they
desire to be represented , for purposes of collective bargaining, by
United Automobile, Aircraft R Agricultural Implement Workers
of America , C. I. O.