Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Mar 9, 1949

81 N.L.R.B. 1323 (N.L.R.B. 1949)

In the Matter Of MINNESOTA MINING AND MANUFACTURING COMPANY,
EMPLOYER and UNITED GAS, COKE AND CHEMICAL WORKERS OF
AMERICA, C. I. 0., PETITIONER
In the Matter Of MINNESOTA MINING AND MANUFACTURING COMPANY,
EMPLOYER and LOCAL UNION 110, INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF
ELECTRICAL WORKERS, A. F. L., PETITIONER
Cases Nos . 18-RC--057 and 18-RC-283, respectively .Decided March
9,1949
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
Upon separate petitions duly filed, a consolidated hearing was held
before a hearing officer of the National Labor Relations Board. The
hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from preju-
dicial 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-man panel consisting of the undersigned Board
Members.*
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 in Case No. 18-RC-257, hereinafter called the
Chemical Workers, and the Petitioner in Case No. 18-RC-283, here-
inafter called the Electrical Workers, are labor organizations claim-
ing to represent employees of the Employer.
3. Questions affecting commerce exist concerning the representation
of employees of the Employer within the meaning of Section 9 (c) (1)
and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
4. The Chemical Workers seeks to represent a unit consisting of all
hourly paid production and maintenance employees in the Employer's
Hastings, Minnesota, plant and warehouse, including maintenance
electricians, machine shop employees, and receiving employees, but
* Chairman Herzog and Members Reynolds and Gray.
81 N. L. R. B., No. 210.
1323
1324 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
excluding boiler room employees,' clerical employees other than stock
clerks in the machine shop, office employees, watchmen, guards, lead-
men, assistant foremen, foremen, and all other supervisory employees.
The Electrical Workers seeks to represent a unit of maintenance elec-
tricians, including the electrician leadman. The Employer agrees
with the unit contention of the Chemical Workers.
The record reveals that the plant's three maintenance electricians
maintain lights, repair light fixtures and switches, and remove, clean,
repair and reinstall electric motors. They are also called upon to do
whatever is necessary to restore normal operations whenever a shut-
down has resulted from an electrical failure. As these employees, two
of whom are State-licensed journeymen electricians, exercise the skills
characteristic of maintenance electricians generally, we conclude that
they may either comprise a separate unit or be included in a plant-
wide unit, depending upon their desires as expressed in the elections
hereinafter directed.2 We shall, however, exclude the leadman from
the electricians' voting group because he is a supervisor within the
Act's definition as he directs the work of the other electricians and has
the power effectively to recommend their hiring and discharge.
We shall direct that separate elections by secret ballot be held in
the following voting groups : 3
Voting group 1
All maintenance electricians at the Employer's Hastings, Minnesota,
plant, excluding the electrician leadman and all other supervisors as
defined in the Act.
Voting group 2
All hourly paid production and maintenance employees in the
Employer's Hastings, Minnesota, plant and warehouse, including ma-
chine shop employees and receiving employees, but excluding boiler
room employees, maintenance electricians, clerical employees other
than stock clerks in the machine shop, office employees, watchmen,
guards, leadmen, assistant foremen, foremen, and all other super-
visors as defined in the Act.
Pending the outcome of these elections we shall make no final
unit determination.
I Local 36, International Union of Operating Engineers , AFL, was selected as bargaining
representative for the boiler room employees in a consent election conducted by the Board
on August 20, 1948 ( Case No. 18-RC-172).
2 See Matter of Mergenthaler Linotype Company, 80 N. L R B . 132, and the cases
cited therein.
2 Member Gray is of the opinion that the record in this case in inadequate to warrant
a finding that the electricians exercise the skills of the electricians' craft Accordingly,
he would dismiss the petition in Case No 18-RC-283 and include the electricians in voting
group 2.
MINNESOTA MINING AND MANUFACTUING COMPANY 1325
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the pur-
poses of collective bargaining with the Employer, separate elections 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 super-
vision of the Regional Director for the Eighteenth Region, and sub-
ject to Sections 203.61 and 203.62 of National Labor Relations Board
Rules and Regulations-Series 5, as amended, among the employees in
the two voting groups described in paragraph numbered 4, 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, 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 :
(1) Whether the employees in voting group 1 desire to be repre-
sented, for the purposes of collective bargaining, by Local Union 110,
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, A. F. L., or by
United Gas, Coke and Chemical Workers of America, C. I. 0., or by
neither.
(2) Whether or not the employees in voting group 2 desire to be
represented, for the purposes of collective bargaining, by United Gas,
Coke and Chemical Workers of America, C. I. O.