North American Aviation, Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

May 27, 1958

120 N.L.R.B. 1155 (N.L.R.B. 1958)

NORTH AMERICAN AVIATION, INC. 1155
North American Aviation , Inc. and National Union , United Weld-
ers of America, Independent ,' Petitioner
North American Aviation , Inc. and Local Union 11 , International
Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, AFL-CIO,2 Petitioner
North American Aviation , Inc. and International Union , United
Automobile, Aircraft & Agricultural Implement Workers of
America, AFL-CI0,3 Petitioner. Cases Nos. 21-RC-5072, 21-RC-
5081, and 21-RC-5095. May 27, 1958
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
Upon petitions duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, a consolidated hearing was held before William G.
Wilkerson, 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 Act, the Board
has delegated its powers in connection with this case to a three-member
panel [Chairman Leedom and Members Rodgers and Jenkins].
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 organizations involved claim to represent certain em-
ployees of the Employer.4
3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the represen-
tation of certain employees of the Employer within the meaning of
Section 9 (c) (1) and'Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
The UAW seeks to represent the production and maintenance em-
ployees at the Employer's Santa Susana facility in California. The
Carpenters, Painters, Operating Engineers, and IBEW Local 11 each
contend that its current contract with the Employer covers employees
in the proposed unit, and that such contract bars the UAW's petition
to the extent that it would include those employees in the unit.
We find no merit in these contentions for, apart from such consid-
erations as appear below, the UAW's petition was timely filed with
respect to the Mill B' date of each contract asserted as a bar.'
' Herein called Welders.
Herein called IBEW Local 11.
Herein called UAW.
Miscellaneous Woodworkers Union Local 530, United Brotherhood of Carpenters &
Joiners of America, AFL-CIO, herein called Carpenters ; District Council of Painters,
No. 36, Brotherhood of Painters , Decorators and Paperhangers of America , herein called
Painters ; and Local 501, International Union of Operating Engineers , herein called
Operating Engineers , intervened in Case No . 21-RC-5095 on the basis of an alleged
contractual interest . Local Union 1710, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
of. America , AFL-CIO, herein called IBEW Local 1710 , 'intervened in the same case on
the basis of a showing of interest.
s The petition was filed on January 6 , 1958. The Mill B dates of the contracts are as
follows : Carpenters, March 8, 1958 ; Painters , February 22, 1958; Operating Engineers,
March 16, 1958; and IBEW Local '11, February 20, 1958.
120 NLRB No. 153.
1156 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
4. The appropriate units :
The Carpenters, Painters, Operating Engineers, and IBEW Local
11 each claims that it has been certified for employees whom the UAW
would include in its requested unit and that it has collective-bargaining
contracts covering such employees and other employees of the Em-
ployer in the Los Angeles area in a single unit. These unions accord-
ingly contend that the unit requested by the UAW is inappropriate to
the extent that it would include the employees in question. The
Employer and the UAW contend that the Santa Susana employees
have been unrepresented since the plant commenced operation&
in 1947.
To the extent pertinent herein, the Employer's bargaining history
is as follows : In 1939, the Welders was certified as bargaining repre-
sentative of welders at the Employer's Inglewood, California, fa-
cilities.' In 1941 UAW was certified as the bargaining representa-
tive of production and maintenance employees, excluding welders
and engineering department employees, at the Inglewood operation."
By 1954 the Employer had voluntarily recognized the UAW as the
representative of the aforementioned production and maintenance
employees in all its plants and facilities in the Los Angeles area,
except for the Santa Susana facility e
In 1954 IBEW Local 11 won a severance election and was certified
to represent all maintenance electricians at the Employer's facilities
in the Los Angeles area. In 1955 the Carpenters, Painters, and Op-
erating Engineers also won severance elections and were respectively
certified to represent maintenance cabinetmakers and maintenance
carpenters, painters, and stationary engineers at the Employer's
plants and facilities in the Los Angeles area. The Board decisions
directing these severance elections made it plain that the craft em-
ployees involved were to be severed from the existing production and
maintenance unit represented by the UAW in the Los Angeles area,
which did not include any of Santa Susana's employees.'
In 1955 the Employer underwent a reorganization and established
a plant at Canoga Park, California, as the headquarters for its newly
established Rocketdyne and Atomics International divisions. Santa
Susana then became a facility of Rocketdyne and Atomics Interna-
tional divisions. While the Employer and the Unions extended their
existing contracts to cover the employees at Canoga Park, no such
arrangement was made with respect to the employees at the Santa.
Susana plant.
6 13 NLRB 1134.
7 29 NLRB 148.
s UAW also represents the Employer 's production and maintenance employees at its
facilities in Palmdale , California , and Columbus , Ohio . These operations have never
been included within the Los Angeles area bargaining unit.
6 North American Aviation, Inc., 108 NLRB 863, and 113 NLRB 1049.
NORTH AMERICAN AVIATION, INC . 1157
Early in 1956 the Employer and the Unions executed their current
contracts. None of these contracts mentions the Santa Susana op-
,eration.10 Nor has the Employer ever recognized, or negotiated or
bargained with, any union as representative of any of the Santa
.Susana employees.
The foregoing recitation of facts makes it abundantly plain, and
we find, that no union has ever been certified for, or has otherwise
become the bargaining representative of, any employees at the Santa
Susana plant." It accordingly follows that none of the Santa Susana
'employees are now part of any existing bargaining unit comprising
the other employees of the Employer in the Los Angeles area, and the
contentions to the contrary are hereby rejected.12
As indicated, above, the UAW'seeks to represent the production
and maintenance employees, including welders and electricians, at
Santa Susana. The Welders seeks to represent the welders, and
IBEW Local 11 seeks to represent the electricians, at the same plant.
Each of the Petitioners is willing to represent the employees it seeks
either in a separate unit or as part of its existing unit in the Los
Angeles area. IBEW Local 1710, an Intervenor herein, seeks to rep-
resent the production and maintenance employees at Santa Susana
in a separate unit.
The Employer contends that separate units at Santa Susana are
inappropriate in view of the multiplant bargaining history for its
Los Angeles area operations. It claims that the employees at Santa
Susana can only be added to the existing units in the Los Angeles
area which encompass their counterparts. In this connection, it pro-
poses "accretion" elections by which the employees at Santa Susana
would be permitted to vote only on whether or not they desired to
be represented as part of the existing unit representing their counter-
parts.
The Employer is engaged in the research, development, and manu-
facture of airframes, rocket engines, nuclear reactors, and component
parts at its various plants and facilities throughout the United States.
Its operations are divided into six operating divisions: Autonetics,
Atomics International, Los Angeles, Missile Development, Rocket-
dyne, and Columbus. Each of these divisions, except Columbus, has
plants and facilities in the Los Angeles area.
The Santa Susana facility is a part of the Rocketdyne and Atomics
International divisions, housing various departments of these two
divisions. It is located approximately 8 miles from the Canoga Park
w It appears that the contracts apply to all the other plants and facilities of the
Employer in the Los Angeles area.
n In view of our determination , the motions to amend existing certifications to include
-Santa Susana employees are denied . See General Electric Company, 119 NLRB 1233
v See Red Dot Foods, Inc., 114 NLRB 145; Westinghouse Electric Corporation, 87
-NLRB 463.
1158 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
plant, which, as indicated above, is the headquarters for the Rocket-
dyne and Atomics International divisions. The Santa Susana facility
has no plant manager, and all its department heads are located either
at Canoga Park or at one of the other Los Angeles area facilities of
Rocketdyne and Atomics International. As a result, certain of the
departments at Santa Susana are without any supervision, while other
departments have minor supervisors in charge of them. All per-
sonnel and payroll records for Santa Susana are maintained at either
Canoga Park or at another facility of Rocketdyne and Atomics Inter-
national in the Los Angeles area. All the work performed at Santa
Susana is performed pursuant to the same contracts as the work at
Canoga Park. In the past, employees have been transferred between
Santa Susana and other Los Angeles area facilities of the Employer.
Employees at Santa Susana not only work as part of the same
departments and under the same overall supervision as employees
at Canoga Park and other facilities of Rocketdyne and Atomics Inter-
national in the Los Angeles area, but they also exercise the same
skills, perform similar functions, receive the same rates of pay, wages,
and fringe benefits, work the same hours, have similar working condi-
tions, and carry the same classifications as do their represented coun-
terparts at Canoga Park and other Los Angeles area facilities of the
Employer.
Upon the entire record, we find that the Santa Susana plant is an
integral part of facilities for which, together with the other Los
Angeles area operations of the Employer, a multiplant bargaining
history, excluding the Santa Susana plant, exists. As it thus appears
that Santa Susana's production and maintenance employees are the
only unrepresented employees in the Employer's operations of which
they are an integral part, we find that they may, in the manner
detailed below, constitute an appropriate residual unit, or may appro-
priately be added to the existing production and maintenance unit.is
It also appears that the electricians sought by IBEW Local 11
perform duties and exercise skills similar to those of the electricians
at other plants of the Employer in the Los Angeles area who, as
noted above, have heretofore been permitted severance as a craft group
and are currently represented by IBEW Local 11.14 It likewise
appears that the welders sought by the Welders perform duties and
exercise skills similar to those of the Employer's welders in the Los
Angeles area who, as also noted above, are separately represented by
v See Eastern Sugar Associates 119 NLRB 492; Pennsalt Chemicals Corporation, 119
NLRB 128; Sealtest, Ohio Division of the National Dairy Products Corporation, 117
NLRB 1628 ; The Yale h Towne Manufacturing Company , 112 NLRB 1268 . The Em-
ployer's motion to dismiss the petition is accordingly denied.
14 Whereas the electricians permitted severance were classified as maintenance electri-
cians A, B, and C, these classifications have been changed and the Employer 's electricians
are now classified as appears below.
NORTH AMERICAN AVIATION, INC. 1159
the Welders. The record shows that the welders involved are engaged
in the same industry as the welders found to be craftsmen in Hughes
Aircraft Company (Tucson Operations) '15 and exercise duties and
skills similar to those of the welders in that case.16 Upon all the fore-
going, we find that the welders and electricians at Santa Susana are
craft employees 17 who, in the circumstances of this case, may, if they
so desire, be added to the existing units of their counterparts repre-
sented by the Welders and IBEW Local 11, respectively.
However, we will make no final unit determinations at this time,
but shall direct that separate elections be held in the following voting
groups of employees at the Employer's Santa Susana, California,
plant : 18
A. All welders and burners, their leadmen and apprentices, includ-
ing welders in the engineering department.
B. All maintenance and/or construction electricians, including
industrial electricians senior, industrial electricians, electrical fixture
cleaners, and leadmen.
C. All production, inspection, timekeeping, production control,
storekeeping, and maintenance employees, including group and work-
ing leadmen but excluding the employees in voting group A and B
employees of the engineering department, office clerical employees,
technical employees, professional employees, statisticians, material
investigators, guards, firemen, and supervisors as defined in the Act.
If a majority of the employees in voting group A select the Welders,
they will be taken to have indicated their desire to be added to the
existing Welders unit, and the Regional Director conducting the
election is instructed to issue a certification of results of election to
such union. If a majority of the employees in voting group B select
IBEW Local 11, they will be taken to have indicated their desire to
be added to the existing unit represented by IBEW Local 11, and the
Regional Director conducting the election is instructed to issue a
certification of results of election to that union. In the event that a
majority of the employees in either voting group A or B do not vote
for the union seeking to represent them as craft employees, such group
or groups will be appropriately included in the same unit with the
employees of voting group C and their votes will be pooled with those
of the employees in voting group C.ls
1e 117 NLRB 98.
le See also Northrop Aircraft, Inc., 117 NLRB 1717; Royal Jet incorporated , 118 NLRB
1558
17 No party questions the skilled statue of the electricians and welders.
1B As the Carpenters , Painters , and Operating Engineers neither seek to participate in
the elections hereinafter directed nor have any showing of interest herein, we shall not
place their names on any ballot.
11 Pooled votes shall be tallied as follows • Votes for Welders or IBEW Local 11 shall
be counted as valid votes , but neither for nor against UAW or IBEW Local 1710. All
other votes are to be accorded their face value, whether for representation by UAW or
by IBEW Local 1710, or for no union.
1160 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
If a majority of the employees in voting group C vote for the UAW,
they will be taken to have indicated their desire to be added to the
existing unit represented by the UAW , and the Regional Director
conducting the election is instructed to issue a certification of results
of election to the UAW. If a majority of the employees in voting
group C vote for IBEW Local 1710, they will have indicated their
desire to constitute a separate appropriate unit, which the Board in
such circumstances finds to be appropriate for purposes of collective
bargaining, and the Regional Director conducting the election is in-
structed to issue a certification of representatives to IBEW Local 1710
for a unit of such employees . If, on the other hand, a majority of the
employees in voting group C vote for neither UAW nor IBEW Local
1710, they will be taken to have expressed their desire to remain
unrepresented.
[Text of Direction of Elections omitted from publication.]
Quaker City Chocolate and Confectionery Company, Inc., Peti-
tioner and Local 6, American Bakery & Confectionery Workers
International Union , AFL-CIO 1 and Local 6, Bakery and Con-
fectionery Workers International Union of America, and
Bakery and Confectionery Workers International Union of
America.' Case No. 4-ISM-275. May 27, 1958
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 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.
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 Leedom and Members
Rodgers and Jenkins].
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 certain
employees of the Employer.'
1 Herein called Local 6-AB.
S Herein called Local 6-BW , and BW, respectively.
8 We find that Local 6-BW , which has a contract with the Employer and, as found
,below, is not defunct, is entitled to intervene . BW, which as Local 6-BW's parent is
•currently administering its affairs through a trustee, is also entitled to intervene In
the absence of stipulations , we find that Locals 6-BW and 6-AB are labor organizations.
120 NLRB No. 157.