Mueller Brass Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Aug 18, 1948

78 N.L.R.B. 1092 (N.L.R.B. 1948)

In the Matter Of MUELLER BRASS COMPANY, EMPLOYER and INTERNA-
TIONAL DIE SINKERS CONFERENCE, LODGE No. 40,' PETITIONER and
INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS, LOCAL No. 218,
INTERVENOR
Case No. 7-RC-50.-Decided August 18, 1948
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed, a 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 prejudicial error and are
hereby affirmed.
On June 24, 1948, opportunity was afforded all parties for presenta-
tion of oral argument before the Board at Washington, D. C. The
Employer, the Petitioner, and International Association of Machinists,
Local No. 218, herein called the Intervenor, appeared and presented
argument.'
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 labor organizations named below claim to represent 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 contends that journeymen die sinkers and their
apprentices at the Employer's plant constitute an appropriate separate
unit. The Employer and the Intervenor contend (a) that the pro-
posed unit, limited to the Employer's journeymen die sinkers and
their apprentices, is not an appropriate craft unit, as it excludes other
employees who work full time and part time on dies and parts of dies;
and (b) that no craft unit should be severed from the existing service
1 Mr. Reynolds , who was not present at the argument , has read the transcript of the
proceedings.
78 N. L. R. B., No. 155.
1092
MUELLER BRASS COMPANY 1093
department unit, as these employees have bargained on a departmental
basis over a period of.y_eg,rs.
The Employer's plant: The Employer is engaged in the manufac-
ture of brass and copper fittings, tubing, valves, pipes, and miscel-
laneous brass and copper products. Its office and plant are located
at Port Huron, Michigan, where it employs over 3,000 employees.
These employees are divided into 2 general groups : Group (1), ap-
proximately 2,630 production and maintenance employees; and Group
(2), approximately 370 machine shop and toolroom employees who
comprise the service department.' In an earlier proceeding involving
the Employer's plant employees,3 the Board found that production
and maintenance employees in Group (1) constituted an appropriate
unit apart from machine shop and toolroom employees in Group (2),'
who were then, and are now, represented by the Intervenor herein.
The die sinkers: Employees in the service department work princi-
pally in the machine shop and toolroom. In the toolroom are 149
employees engaged exclusively in the manufacture and repair of tools
used by the production departments. Among the toolroom employees
are 14 journeymen die sinkers and 2 apprentice die sinkers, who are
the subject of the instant petition. While all toolroom employees are
skilled to a certain extent, the approximately 93 employees engaged in
making dies for forging possess the greater skill, and, of this latter
group, die sinkers and their apprentices, who sink the impressions in
the dies, are the most highly skilled precision workers. The journey-
man die sinker must serve an apprenticeship of 7 years before being
admitted to the craft; he is the highest paid employee in the toolroom;
and he does work that no other employee is capable of doing. Die
sinker apprentices are qualified tool and die makers.
Press dies are designed by die designers in the main office building.
When the designers' drawings reach the toolroom, the necessary blocks
of steel are obtained and given to the lathe man, who performs several
operations on them. Then a die sinker apprentice performs certain
operations. The die set-up man then contributes his part to the work
before the die goes to the die sinker, who makes the impression. The
die then goes to the inspector for his approval; then to the heat treat
department; then back to the die set-up man, who performs certain
grinding operations; then to the die ring grinder, who fits the die to
the ring; thence to the die set-up man, who fits the parts together and
2 Some employees in the service department repair machines on production floors.
8 Matter of Mueller Brass Company, 39 N L. R. B. 167.
4 Employees in Group ( 2) have been represented by the Intervenor since 1937.
798767-49-vol. 78-70
1094 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
presses the die into the ring, when it is then ready for the production
department .5
As noted above, it is the function of the die sinkers in the above
process to sink the impression in the metal. The lathe operators
can and do sink impressions, by means of lathes, where the impressions
are perfectly round and cylindrical in shape. All impressions other
than round or cylindrical, however, are sunk by the die sinkers only.
No other employees do the work of the die sinkers and, while the
latter are capable of doing other types of toolroom work, they have
not done so in the past 10 years. In addition to the 14 journeymen
die sinkers and 2 apprentice die sinkers in the toolroom, there are
several other classifications (involving 7 employees) that spend 100
percent of their time on forging dies alone. There are also 70 other
toolroom employees who spend one-third of their time on such dies
and the remainder of their time making tools, jigs, equipment, and
other dies.
All employees in the toolroom work on one floor, are subject to the
same working hours, conditions and mode of payment, and are afforded
the same plant facilities. Employees of each classification are grouped
together with their machines in assigned areas, but there are no walls
or separating partitions between groups. The die sinkers, with their
machines, are assigned an area at the west end of the room. However,
the die sinkers utilize some of the machines in other parts of the room,
and other toolroom employees utilize some of the die sinkers' machines,
when needed.
The record shows that the process of making a die is a technical
one involving a series of integrated operations by various highly skilled
workmen. The sinking of the impressions, for which the die sinkers
alone possess the requisite skill, is the most difficult step and constitutes
the distinguishing feature of this craft. Indeed, all parties to this
proceeding conceded the highly developed craftsmanship of these jour-
neymen die sinkers. Although the proposed unit in this case differs
from the unit traditionally sought by International Die Sinkers Con-
ference, as our dissenting colleagues indicate, and despite the history in
this industry of including these die sinkers within a more inclusive
unit," we conclude, nevertheless, in view of their afore-mentioned dis-
6 Hammer dies go through a less elaborate procedure , but involve planing operations and
grinding by employees other than the die sinkers.
6 Matter of The Atwater Manufacturing Company, 76 N. L R. B 542; Matter of Trimont
Manufacturing Company, 74 N. L. R B. 959 ; Matter of Peck, Stow t Wilcox Company,
73 N L R B . 1256 ; Matter of Duro Metal Products Company, 73 N. L. It. B 368 ; Matter
of Phoenix Manufacturing Company, 64 N. L It. B. 472; Matter of Crane Company, 62
N. L. R. B . 1089 ; Matter of Revere Copper and Brass, Inc ., 61 N. L. It . B 392 ; Matter of
Snap-On Tools Corporation , 55 N. L It . B. 813 ; Matter of Aluminum Company of America,
54 N. L. It. B. 782, Matter of Duff-Norton Manufacturing Company, 48 N. L It. B 1148.
MUELLER BRASS COMPANY 1095
tinguishing skills, that journeymen die sinkers and their apprentices
at the Employer's plant, excluding, supervisors,, may constitute an ap-
propriate unit for the purposes of collective bargaining within the
meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
However, we shall make no final unit determination at this time,
but shall be guided in part by the desires of these employees as ex-
pressed in the election hereinafter directed. If a majority vote for
the Petitioner, they will be taken to have indicated their desire to
constitute a separate appropriate unit.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the
purposes of collective bargaining with the Employer, an election 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 Region in which this case was
heard, and subject to Sections 203.61 and 203.62 of National Labor
Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 5, among the em-
ployees described in paragraph numbered 4, above, who were em-
ployed during the pay-roll period immediately preceding the date of
this Direction of Election, 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 rein-
stated prior to the date of the election, and also excluding employees
on strike who are not entitled to reinstatement, to determine whether
they desire to be represented, for purposes of collective bargaining
by International Conference of Die Sinkers, Lodge No. 40, or by
International Association of Machinists, Local No. 218, or by neither.
MEMBER REYNOLDS took no part in the consideration of the above
Decision and Direction of Election.
CHAIRMAN HERZOG and MEMBER GRAY, dissenting :
The process of making a die in the Employer's toolroom is a tech-
nical one, requiring a series of integrated operations by highly skilled
employees. Although it is true that the sinking of the impression in
the die block is the most difficult step, requiring the highest skill of
all, it is only one in a series of intricate steps in the evolution of the
finished die. In granting the unit sought by the Petitioner, the ma-
jority is severing 16 employees who work on dies and parts of dies
from a long-existent departmental unit of skilled workers, while leav-
ing in that unit 77 other men who also work, full or part time, upon
the Same• products.
1096 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Traditionally, all employees working on dies or parts of dies used
to complete forgings have been held to constitute a single skilled
and functionally cohesive group, appropriate for bargaining pur-
poses. Such a unit has always been the objective of the Petitioner, the
International Die Sinkers Conference.7 Not only has that organiza-
tion invariably sought a unit composed of all such employees in the
past, but its representative candidly asserted at oral argument before
the Board that it will continue to do so in the future. Yet in this one
case, which seems to us to present no compelling special consideration,
the Petitioner requests a unit contrary to that which it has traditionally
urged as appropriate, contrary to that which it plans to seek in future
cases, and contrary to the practice of the industry. We are unable to
find sufficient justification in this record for departing from the unit
the Petitioner itself has always sought and secured through this
Board. We would therefore dismiss the petition.
7 See the cases cited in footnote 6, above.