Nu-Way Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Dec 5, 1949

87 N.L.R.B. 377 (N.L.R.B. 1949)

In the Matter of NU-WAY CORPORATION, EMPLOYER and UNITED FARM
EQUIPMENT AND METAL WORKERS OF AMERICA, CIO , PETITIONER
Case No. 13-RC--885.-Decided December 5, 1949
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before Richard C.
Swander, 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 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 appropriate unit :
The Petitioner seeks to represent a unit of all production and main-
tenance 1 employees, including the janitor, but excluding outside
servicemen, probationary employees, leadmen, watchmen, guards,
and supervisors. The Employer is in substantial agreement with the
Petitioner, but would include the outside service men and the proba-
tionary employees.
The Employer is a manufacturer of oil heating equipment which
it also installs in the homes of its local customers. It employs four
outside servicemen to do the necessary local installation and service
work. These men spend from 15 to 80 percent of their time in instal-
lation and repair work outside the plant, and the remainder of their
' The Employer has no regular maintenance employees , except a janitor . All other
maintenance work, both plant and machine, is done by outside contractors , except for
auinor jobs which are handled by production employees.
87 NLRB No. 54. 377
378 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
time in production or repair work within the plant. The record is
clear that the outside servicemen work in close association with the
production workers in the plant, and under the same terms and con-
ditions of employment. Accordingly, we shall include them in the
unit.
The Petitioner would exclude a group of employees classified as
probationary, upon the ground that they are actually only temporary
employees. The record shows that these are production employees
who have been hired as the result of a recent expansion of the
Employer's operations. If they are satisfactory workers, they will
become regular employees at the end of a 60- or 90-day period of em-
ployment. It is clear that these probationary employees are not tem-
porary employees within the meaning of the Board's definition. Ac-
cordingly we shall include them in the unit.2
We find that all production and maintenance employees in the Em-
ployer's plant at Rock Island, Illinois, including the janitor, outside
servicemen and probationary employees, but excluding office and cleri-
cal employees, guards, leadmen, and other supervisors as defined in the
Act, constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bar-
gaining, within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
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
60 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, among the employees in the
unit found appropriate in paragraph numbered 4, above, who were
employed 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
reinstated prior to the date of the election, and also excluding em-
ployees on strike who are not entitled to reinstatement, to determine
whether or not they desire to be represented, for purposes of collec-
tive bargaining, by United Farm Equipment and Metal Workers of
America, CIO.
2 Matter of Milliron's, 72 NLRB 69.