Oregon Portland Cement Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

May 18, 1949

83 N.L.R.B. 675 (N.L.R.B. 1949)

In the Matter Of OREGON; PORTLAND CEMENT, COMPANY, EMPLOYER,
and UNITED CEMENT, LIME, AND GYPSUM WORKERS INTERNATIONAL
UNION, AFL, PETITIONER
Case No. 36-RC'-209.-Decided May 18, 1949
DECISION'
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before Robert J.
Weiner, hearing officer of the National Labor Relations Board. The
hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudi-
cial 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
Houston and Murdock].
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 Petitioner is a labor organization claiming to represent
employees of the Employer.
International Woodworkers of America, CIO, herein called the
Woodworkers, is a labor organization claiming to represent employees
of the Employer.
Construction & General Laborers Union, Locals 1468, 441, and 320,
Columbia River District Council of Public Employees, Construction
and General Laborers of International Hod Carriers, Building and
Common Laborers of America, AFL, herein separately called the Hod
Carriers; Local 48, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers,
AFL, herein separately called the IBEW; and Lodge 63, Interna-
tional Association of Machinists, herein separately called the IAM;
collectively referred to as the Joint Intervenor, are labor organizations
claiming to represent employees of the Employer.
.83 N. L. It. B., No. 103.
675
676 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
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 a unit of All production and maintenance
employees, including laboratory workers, but excluding superintend-
ents, assistant superintendents, quarry superintendents, general plant
foremen, chemists, and office and clerical employees, at the Employer's
facilities at Lime, Oswego, and Dallas, Oregon. The Joint Inter-
venor agrees with the Petitioner's appropriate unit description. The
Employer agrees that the unit should cover all its operating facili-
ties, but suggests that there be excluded from the unit all executive,
administrative, office, and clerical employees, professional employees,
guards,2 supervisors, and independent contractors.' The Woodwork-
ers contends that a unit of production and maintenance employees
confined to the Employer's Oswego plant is appropriate, but desires
to appear on the ballot if the Board should find the broader unit
appropriate.
The central offices of the Employer are at Portland, Oregon. The
Oswego plant is about 8 miles from Portland, Dallas 60 miles from
Oswego, and Lime 390 miles from Oswego. The Employer has ce-
ment plants at Lime and Oswego, where it manufactures Portland
cement and other limestone products. The Employer operates two
quarries at Lime which supply quartzite and limestone to the cement
plant there; the Oswego plant receives all its raw material from the
quarries at Lime and Dallas. Centralized management of all opera-
tions is maintained from the Portland office, where basic records are
kept, pay-roll checks are issued, major purchases of equipment and
supplies are made, and labor policies are formulated. The Employ-
er's vice president and general superintendent directs all three opera-
tions from his Portland office, making frequent visits to Lime, Dallas,
and Oswego. The plant superintendent at Lime directs both the
cement plant and the quarries; the plant superintendent at Oswego
1 Joint Intervenor urges that its contract with the Employer is a bar to this proceeding.
The most recent contract, dated August 21, 1947, contained a termination date of November
30, 1948, with provision for automatic renewal in the absence of written notice 60 days
prior thereto. In September 1948, the Joint Intervenor wrote to the Employer requesting
negotiations with regard to a new contract. Before a new contract was negotiated, the
Employer received a demand for recognition from the Woodworkers. Since November 30,
1948, the Employer has formally declined to recognize the Joint Intervenor until disposal
of proceedings pending before the Board. We find that the contract of August 21, 1947,
was not automatically renewed on November 30, 1948, and consequently is no bar to this
proceeding.
2 The Employer does not normally employ guards. Several years earlier, when a plant
was shut down, it employed a few regular employees as.guards.
3 Some of the Employer's maintenance work is done by outside contractors. Also, certain
truckers deliver the Employer's products in rural areas. These persons are not employees
of the Employer, and no one seeks to include them in the unit.
OREGON PORTLAND,CEMENT COMPANY 677
also directs the Dallas quarry. Under these plant superintendents,
there are quarry superintendents at Dallas and Lime.
Job classifications and rates of pay are identical at both cement
plants and at the quarries. Skilled maintenance employees, such as
machinists, bricklayers, or electricians, are sent from one plant to
another and to the quarries to assist in repair work. Production
employees are not ordinarily interchanged, though the nature of their
work is similar, and, during the depression, a crew from Oswego was
sent to Lime to operate the plant there for short periods of time.
For several years prior to 1944, the Employer negotiated annual
contracts with the Hod Carriers and the IBEW covering its Oswego
plant, and similar but separate agreements with the same unions
covering its Lime plant and its Dallas quarry. In 1944, and con-
tinuously since then, the Employer and the Joint Intervenor have
entered into single annual contracts covering all production and main-
tenance employees at Lime, Oswego, and Dallas.
In view of the centralized control of all the plants, the interdepend-
ence of plants and quarries, and the history of collective bargaining
on a multi-plant basis, we are of the opinion that harmonious and
stable industrial relations will be best promoted by retention of the
multi-plant bargaining relationship.4
Accordingly, we find that all production and maintenance em-
ployees of the Employer at its facilities at Lime, Oswego, and Dallas,
Oregon, excluding office and clerical employees, chemists, guards, and
supervisors,-9 constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of col-
lective bargaining 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
4 Matter of Shell Chemical Corporation, 79 N. L. R B. 697; Matter of Lsbbey-Owens-Ford
Glass Company, 78 N L. R. B. 1170 ; Matter of American Viscose Corporation, 70
N. L. R B. 958
5 At the hearing, evidence was presented which indicated that certain working foremen,
who have heretofore been covered by the bargaining agreements, have supervisory authority.
They are classified by the Employer as shop foremen , chief electricians , crusher foremen,
packing house foremen, assistant general plant foremen , an assistant quarry superintendent,
and a section foreman. These men direct crews of two or more employees , and, although
they all do some production work, several of them spend less than half their time in such
work. They generally receive higher rates of pay than the employees they direct. The
Employer 's general superintendent stated that all these individuals can recommend promo-
tions, transfers , and discharges , and that their recommendations with regard to discharges,
and their requests for transfers of employees , are generally followed.
Neither the Employer nor the unions contended that such individuals should be excluded.
However, as it appears that these persons are supervisors within the meaning of Section
2 (11) of the Act, we shall exclude them from the unit.
844340-50-vol . 83 --44
678 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS, BOARD
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, as amended, 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
employees on strike who are not entitled to reinstatement, to determine
whether they desire to be represented, for purposes of collective bar-
gaining, by United Cement, Lime and Gypsum Workers International
Union, AFL; or by International Woodworkers of America, CIO; or
jointly by Construction & General Laborers Union, Locals 1468, 441,
and 320, Columbia River District Council of Public Employees, Con-
struction and General Laborers of International Hod Carriers,
Building and Common Laborers of America, AFL, and Local 48,
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, AFL, and Lodge
63, International Association of Machinists, or by none of them.