Mock, Judson, Voehringer Co. of North Carolina, Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Oct 20, 1954

110 N.L.R.B. 437 (N.L.R.B. 1954)

MOCK, JUDSON, VOEHRINGER COMPANY 437
lint room, and meal room foremen,3 guards,4 and supervisors as de-
fined in the Act.
5. The Employer's processing plant operates on a seasonal basis.
Both parties request that any election directed be held at the peak of
the season. It is the Board's policy in seasonal industries to direct
an election at or about the peak of the season. Accordingly, we di-
rect that an election be held at or about the peak of the season on a
date to be determined by the Regional Director among the employees
in the appropriate unit who are employed during the payroll period
immediately preceding the date of the notice of election.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.]
8 John Howard, Jim Adger, R. N. Powell, Walter Carter, and Emmett Player.
A Including Sandy Edwards and Robert Gilyard.
MOCK, JUDSON, VOEHRINGER COMPANY OF NORTH CAROLINA, INC. and
AMERICAN FEDERATION OF HOSIERY WORKERS, AFL, PETITIONER.
Case No. 11-RC-614. October 20,1954
Decision and Direction of Election
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National
Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before Gerald B. Sindler,
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.
2. The labor organization involved claims 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 seeks to represent a unit of full-fashioned hosiery
knitters and helper-trainees. It contends that the knitters constitute
a distinct and homogeneous skilled craft group which is entitled to
separate representation. The Employer opposes the petition. It
challenges the Petitioner's claim that the knitters are a skilled crafts-
man group and assert that they are neither a true craft nor a func-
tionally distinct and separate departmental unit of the type to which
the Board in the past has granted separate representation. In any
event, the Employer contends that the Petitioner may not represent
the knitters as a separate unit because the Petitioner is an industrial
union which has traditionally represented all hosiery mill workers
110 NLRB No. 59.
438 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
and has not traditionally represented the separate interests of the
knitters. The Employer also takes the position, contrary to that
of the Petitioner, that fixers are not supervisors and should he in-
cluded in any unit found appropriate.
The Employer is a North Carolina corporation with its principal
office in Greensboro, North Carolina. It maintains a yarn processing
and knitting plant at Greensboro, North Carolina, a knitting plant
at Decatur, Alabama, and a dye and finishing plant at Long Island
City, New York. At the Greensboro plant, the only plant herein
involved, it is engaged in the manufacture of full-fashioned hosiery.
The Employer commenced operations there in 1927. Except for a
period of approximately 1 year, when the Petitioner, after certifica-
tion by the Board in 1945, bargained collectively for a unit of pro-
auction and maintenance employees, there has been no history of
collective bargaining at the Greensboro plant for the employees herein
involved.
We note that the question of the full-fashioned hosiery knitters'
right to separate representation was previously considered by the
Board in the case of Angelica Hosiery Mills, Inc.' Much of the
testimony here presented relating to the duties, responsibilities, and
interests of the knitters, as contrasted with those of other employees,
is, in large measure, reflected in the record of the earlier Angelica
proceeding. Thus, the present record discloses, as did the record
of the earlier case, that when the Petitioner was established in 1914,
it admitted to membership only knitters and their helpers; and that
although, since 1928, the Union has represented the employees in the
full-fashioned hosiery industry on an industrial basis, it has continued
to require that persons admitted to membership as genuine knitters
must serve a 4-year apprenticeship and a 2-month probationary
period in the actual operation of a knitting machine. It also appears
that no comparable requirements exist in the case of the auxiliary em-
pl oyees in the industry.
The Employer's Greensboro plant is approximately 105 by 648 feet
in dimension. The Employer, who processes substantially all of the
nylon yarn used in its knitting operations, employs a total of 785 pro-
duction and maintenance employees. Of these, 307 are full-fashioned
knitters who operate the Employer's knitting machines on a regular
basis. Three employees are classified as spare knitters.2 The yarn
processing, or "throwing," as the term is known in the industry, is con-
ducted on the first floor of the plant. It consists essentially of throw-
ing the raw yarn onto bobbins, and of twisting, steaming, sizing, and
transferring it onto cones. At this stage, the processed yarn is stored
195 NLRB 1284.
2 Spare knitters are employees who have completed their training and have qualified
as knitters but who have not been permanently assigned to a knitting machine Essentially
they are part-time knitters.
MOCK, JUDSON, VOEHRINGER COMPANY 439
preparatory to its use in the knitting process. The yarn is subsequent-
ly knitted into flat stocking blanks. These blanks are examined, pre-
set by a steaming process, and then taken to the seaming area where
they are sewn by seaming operators into stockings. Thereafter the
stockings are examined for defects. Those which are without defect
are carried to dye nets which are in turn carried to the greige storage
rooms and assembled by style and size preparatory to transfer to the
shipping area for packing and shipping upon receipt of orders. De-
fective stockings are either used for corrective purposes or taken to the
mending area where they are repaired by menders. Thereafter, they
are reexamined and processed for shipping in the same manner as the
nondefective stockings.
Except for some 13 machines on which the welt of the stocking must
be turned by hand, the Employer's 103 knitting machines are of the
modern automatic type. All of the machines except two 3 are 51 and
60 gauge machines. A knitting machine is valued at approximately
$35,000. It is a complicated affair, about 50 to 55 feet in length, with
thousands of parts.' A knitting machine is composed of 30 to 32 sec-
tions, each section of which can, in the space of 35 minutes, simultane-
ously knit a complete stocking blank. Although the machines are es-
sentially automatic, the nature of the knitting process is such that each
knitter must perform a variety of operations in the course of a single
knitting cycle. Some of these operations require such exactness that
the slightest deviation in adjustment could cause damage of one kind or
another. Because of this possibility, a knitter must be schooled to rec-
ognize a variety of inherent defects in the fabric due to mechanical
failure or otherwise, and must be ready to make instant repairs if of a
minor nature.5 So far as satisfactory operation of the machine is con-
cerned, it is recognized that the quality of the product depends large-
ly on the knitter's exercise of his acknowledged skill. Indeed, the knit-
ter is charged with all defective work unless it is shown to be attributa-
ble to some mechanical failure on the part of the machine.
As in the Angelica case, considerable conflicting testimony was
presented by both parties concerning the length of time required be-'
fore a trainee can qualify as a competent knitter. The Employer,
however, does not dispute the fact that the work of a competent knit-
ter cannot be performed without special training.6 However, the
3 The record shows that the Employer recently converted , on an experimental basis,
two of the 51 gauge machines to 66 gauge.
4 The Employer 's witness estimated that a machine may contain as many as 100,000
parts One such machine is said to have approximately 20,000 knitting needles alone.
5 The knitter is equipped with some simple tools such as a carrier threader , thread
pickup, carrier bender, butt puller, paintbrush , scissors , screwdriver , pliers , wrench, and
a dental type mirror. Some of these tools are furnished by the Employer.
6 Thus, in the instant case , it is clear that, in the training of a knitter , the Employer
lays considerable stress on the knitter 's ability to straighten and align the knitting needles
in the machine , perhaps the one most important function performed by the knitter. On the
440 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Employer 's representatives maintain that knitters can be, and have
been , trained in periods anywhere from 3 to 6 months. Be that as it
may, the record does not show that any seamer , mender , or examiner
(known as auxiliary employees ), must undergo any training com-
parable in thoroughness to that of the knitters . Nor does the record
make manifest that the duties and responsibilities of the auxiliary
employees make such training essential'
The relative importance of the knitter 's skill in the knitting process
is further reflected in the fact that , except for the fixers , he is the
highest paid production employee , and the further fact that his rate
of pay exceeds even that of the skilled maintenance machinists.'
Because of the differences in the gauge and the extent to which a ma-
chine may operate automatically , a knitter's earnings can be affected
by the type of machine to which he is assigned as well as by the style
of hosiery being knitted. Consequently, knitters , unlike auxiliary
employees , have a special interest in establishing equitable rules gov-
erning transfers between machines . Likewise, under present practice,
apparently only a knitter is entitled to receive his average hourly
earnings if his machine breaks down for periods in excess of 20
minutes, whereas in the case of an auxiliary employee , such as a
seamer, the employee can be readily transferred to another machine
without any effect on hourly earnings . In addition , the knitters are
separately supervised and, as previously indicated , located apart from
the auxiliary employees . Moreover, knitters , unlike the auxiliary
employees , work on continuous shifts of 8 hours each, and the record
shows that their timecards are kept in racks apart from those of other
employees.
From the foregoing , it would appear that the knitters would bring
problems to the bargaining table which would differ materially from
those of other employees . In the Angelica case the Board found, in
comparable circumstances, that whether or not full-fashioned knitters
highest gauge knitting machines , tolerances are as close as one-thousandth of an inch.
Before a trainee can qualify as a spare knitter, he has to demonstrate his ability to
straighten and align on at least 30 separate occasions , a given number of needles within
a limited period of time. The record establishes that among the employees , all of whom
are skilled knitters with many years of knitting experience , their training periods varied
from a minimum of 6 months for an individual with unusual aptitude and perseverance to
4 years or more for others.
7 The most numerous classification apart from the knitters is that of seamers of whom
there are some 167 Seaming is simply the task of sewing together the edges of the flat
stocking . The machine used is essentially a type of sewing machine Its cost is $450,
as against a cost of $35 ,000 for a knitting machine.
8 The average hourly earning for a knitter amounts to $2 2019 with some knitters
earning in excess of $2 50 an hour . On the other hand, the machinists' rates vary from
$2 to $2.25 an hour and the electricians earn from $1.25 to $1 60 an hour. Employees
in the throwing classifications earn from $0.95 to $1.45 per hour. Although specific rates
for the seamer , the next , highest paid classification , were not given , it was stated that
some of the highest paid seamers earn more than the lowest paid knitters . According
to one exhibit , however, it is clear that on the average a knitter earns considerably more
than a seamer.
MOCK, JUDSON, VOEHRINGER COMPANY 441
constituted a true craft, they did constitute a functionally distinct and
homogeneous group of highly skilled employees with interests sepa-
rate and apart from those of other employees and, therefore, may be
separately represented.' We are satisfied that, on the basis of the
present record, we must reach a similar conclusion. Contrary to the
Employer's belief, the right of the knitters to separate representation
is not contrary to the principles which we established in the American
Potash case 10 The principles there discussed including the tradi-
tional union test apply only to situations where a petitioner seeks to
sever a craft group or traditional departmental group from a plant-
wide unit in the face of a substantial history of collective bargaining
on a broader basis." In the instant case, there is no such controlling
bargaining history. Furthermore, we find no merit in the Employer's
argument that integration is a factor which precludes finding a unit
of knitters appropriate. A similar contention was rejected by- the
Board in the earlier Angelica case. We shall, therefore, find a unit
of knitters appropriate for the purposes of collective bargainingl2
There remains, however, the question as to the exclusion of the
fixers from the unit of knitters. The Employer employs 20 fixers in
its knitting operations. They work on all 3 shifts as do the knitters;
furthermore, each fixer is assigned to some 26 or 28 knitting machines.
The fixers are skilled mechanics engaged principally in repairing and
keeping the knitting machines in proper operating condition. Fixers
have the duty of making the necessary adjustments on knitting ma-
chines when style and size changes occur. In addition to these duties,
two of the fixers are specifically assigned to the job of evaluating and
correlating statistical information, upon the basis of which the fixers
make certain adjustments in the knitting machines in order toeim-
prove the quality of the product. In the event of damage to, or faulty
operation of, a machine, the fixer has the initial duty and responsi-
bility for determining the cause and the knitter's responsibility there-
for. The fixer also has the authority to shut down a faulty operating
machine and to direct the knitter, in the event of needle and other
smashes, to make needed repairs. In addition to the foregoing, the
fixer has the initial responsibility for determining the length of time
6 The Board has, since the Angelica case, recognized that a less than plantwide group
may constitute an appropriate unit on other than a craft basis. See Foreman & Clark,
Inc., 97 NLRB 1080 , 105 NLRB 333 , in which the Board relied upon the analogy of the
Angelhca case The Board 's unit finding therein was recently affirmed in Foi emcm. & Clark,
Inc. v N. L R B., 215 F 2d 396 (C A. 9).
10 American Potash & Chemical Corporation, 107 NLRB 1418.
Campbell Soup Company , 109 NLRB 518.
LiCoiitiary to the Employer' s contention , we do not regard our decision in Mills
Industries, Incorporated, 108 NLRB 282 , as applicable to the instant case. There the
Board was dealing with a situation where a labor organization , unsuccessful in its efforts
to reestablish itself as the overall unit bargaining representative , sought to regain such
status by severing certain craft groups from the broad unit which had been in existence
for over 10 years.
442 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
needed for repairs, and thus is authorized to grant or withhold "down-
time" for the knitter.13
The Board has frequently found fixers to be supervisors within the
meaning of the Act 14 In the present instance, the evidence establishes
that the fixer has the authority responsibly to direct the work of the
knitters, at least insofar as it relates to the proper functioning, main-
tenance, and repair of the knitting machines. Upon the basis of the
foregoing and in conformity with the general practice in the indus-
try, we find that fixers are supervisors within the meaning of the Act.
Accordingly, we shall exclude them from such unit.
On the basis of the record in this case, and entirely apart from any
consideration as to the extent to which the Employer's knitters may
have been separately organized'15 we find that all full-fashioned ho-
siery knitters and helper-trainees, excluding office clericals, watchmen,
guards, professional employees, all other employees, fixers, and all
other supervisors as defined in the Act, constitute a unit appropriate
for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Sec-
tion 9 (b) of the Act.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.]
MEMBERS MURDOCK and BEESON took no part in the consideration
of the above Decision and Direction of Election.
18 where a knitting machine remains idle for more than 20 minutes because of damage
or faulty operation , a knitter is entitled to receive his average hourly rate for the period
of time it takes to restore the machine to operation.
14 Nebel Knitting Company, 106 NLRB 114; Cole-Gann Hosiery Mills, Inc., 108 NLRB
1144. Cf. Mock-Judson-Voehringer Company of North Carolina, Incorporated, 63 NLRB
96, 98.
15 See Angelica Hosiery Mills, Inc., supra, at page 1289.
PUBLIOIDAD ASTRA ET AL. and GREMIO DE PRENSA , RADIO, TEATRO Y
TELEVISION DE PUERTO Rico, LOCAL 24929, AFL , PETITIONER. Cade
No. 24-RC-602. October 21,1954
Decision , Order, and Direction of Election
On March 5, 1954, the Board in effect severed this case from
a consolidated proceeding' involving the representation of radio
talent in Puerto Rico and remanded it to the Regional Director for
the taking of additional testimony "concerning the arrangement for
and production of radio programs for clients of the Astra Advertis-
ing agency, including Colgate and Gillette, as well as others whom
the Petitioner may wish to join, and for Colgate as a client of Radio
Station WKAQ." In that decision the Board found that certain
1107 NLRB 1492.
110 NLRB No. 55.