Omaha Steel Works

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Aug 9, 1950

90 N.L.R.B. 1811 (N.L.R.B. 1950)

In the Matter of OMAHA STEEL WORKS, EMPLOYER, and INTERNA-
TIONAL ASSOCIATION OP BRIDGE, STRUCTURAL & ORNAMENTAL IRON
WORKERS, SHOPMEN'S LOCAL No. 553, AFL, PETITIONER
In the Matter of OMAHA STEEL WORKS, EMPLOYER AND PETITIONER,
and INTERNATIONAL MOLDERS AND FOUNDRY WORKERS UNION OF
NORTH AMERICA, LOCAL No. 190, AFL, AND INTERNATIONAL ASSO-
CIATION OF BRIDGE, STRUCTURAL & ORNAMENTAL IRON WORKERS,
SHOPMEN's LOCAL No. 553, AFL, UNIONS
Cases Nos. 17-RC-766 and 17-RM-41.-Deeided August 9,1950
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 William J. Scott, 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 '[Members Houston, Reynolds, and Murdock].
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the Act.
2. International Association of Bridge, Structural.& Qrnamental
Iron Workers, Shopmen's Local No. 553, AFL, herein called the Iron
Workers, and International Molders and Foundry Workers Union of
North America, Local No. 190, AFL, herein called the Molders, are
labor organizations claiming to represent certain. employees 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 Iron Workers seeks a unit of all production and maintenance
employees in the Employer's foundry and heat treat departments.'
' The Iron Workers amended its petition at the hearing specifically to include the heat
treat employees in, its unit request.
90 NLRB No. 231.
1811
1812 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
The Molders objects to the inclusion of the heat treat employees, urg-
ing as appropriate the existing unit confined to the employees in the
foundry department. The Employer's position, made clear at the
hearing, is one of strict neutrality, notwithstanding the fact that the
unit described in its petition included the heat treat employees.
Thus, the sole issue is whether to include the heat treat employees in
a unit with the foundry employees.2
Since 1940, when it was designated as bargaining agent by the Board
following a consent election, the Molders has represented a unit
of foundry department employees. Although the heat treat depart-
ment came into existence later, and operated between 1941 and 1945,
and since 1948, only the original foundry department unit was covered
by the contracts between the Employer and the Molders, and at no
time did these parties attempt to bargain on behalf of the heat treat
employees. From 1941 to 1945,. when the heat treating process was
used by the Employer in the war production of shell casings, the heat
treat employees were represented by the "CIO." The Iron Workers
has represented, apart from the heat treat and foundry employees
involved herein and certain machinists, substantially all the remain-
ing production and maintenance employees in the plant. Currently,
the heat treat employees are without representation.
As revealed in the record, there is little relation between the opera-
tions in the heat treat department and those in the foundry. The
foundry is engaged in the customary functions of melting down scrap,
metal and ore, pouring the molten metal into molds of sand packed
around prepared patterns, cooling, cleaning, and clearing the castings
from the molds. Heat treating, a process to strengthen the metal,
entails essentially the placing of such castings or other materials in
ovens, treating them with chemicals, heating them to a certain tem-
perature, and then cooling them in a prescribed manner.
Of the castings made in the foundry only. 20 percent is processed
in the heat treat department. Conversely, only 35 percent of the
work load in the heat treat department consists of the foundry cast-
ings, while the remaining 65 percent includes work received from the
Employer's structural iron and ornamental iron departments, its
machine shop, its blacksmith shop, and from outside contractors.
There is no interchange between the heat treat and foundry employees.
The heat treat department has separate supervision apart from that of
the foundry, has its own time clocks, and is located in a separate
building about 100 feet from the nearest point of the foundry.
, There are 5 heat treat employees , about 120 foundry employees , and a total of about
:520 employees in the plant.
OMAHA STEEL WORKS 1813
It appears that the foundry department employees herein comprise
the traditional occupational group such as we have frequently held
may constitute a separate appropriate unit.3 Indeed, they have been
represented on such a unit basis for the past 10 years. However, as is
manifest from the facts recited above, the heat treat employees, sought
to be included in the unit, are substantially unrelated to the foundry
employees, inter alia, in respect to skill, supervision, physical location,
and function in the production process. Consequently, in view of all
of the foregoing factors, we shall exclude the heat treat employees .4
Accordingly, we find that all production and maintenance employees
in the foundry department at the Employer's Omaha, Nebraska, plant,
excluding the employees in the heat treat department, office and cler-.
ical employees, professional employees, guards, and supervisors, con-
stitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining
within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act .5
DIRECTION OF ELECTION e
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, among the employees in the
unit found appropriate in paragraph numbered 4, above, who were
employed during the payroll period immediately preceding the date
of this Direction of Election, including employees who did not work
during said payroll 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 Association of Bridge, Structural & Ornamental Iron
Workers, Shopmen's Local No. 553, AFL, or by International Molders
and Foundry Workers Union of North America, Local No. 190, AFL,
or by neither.
3 See, e. g ., National Farm Machinery Cooperative, Inc., 88 NLRB 125; United States
Pipe & Foundry Company, 87 NLRB 115.
' The fact that the heat treat employees are currently without representation is not
persuasive to include them in the unit. No union herein seeks to represent them separately,
nor as part of any existing unit at the plant except that of the foundry department.
5 Cf. Dirilyte Company of America, Inc ., 82 NLRB 1258.
Either participant in the election directed herein may , upon prompt request to, and
approval thereof by , the Regional Director , have its name removed from the ballot. -