Oregon Portland Cement Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Dec 13, 1950

92 N.L.R.B. 695 (N.L.R.B. 1950)

In the Matter of OREGON PORTLAND CEMENT COMPANY , EMPLOYER
and INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS , WILLAMETTE
LODGE #63, INDEPENDENT AND INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF
ELECTRICAL WORKERS, LOCAL UNION No. 49, AFL, PETITIONERS
Cases Nos. 36-RC-483 and 36-RC-/4.89.Decided December 13, 1950
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
Upon petitions duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, a hearing in these consolidated cases was held before
Robert J. Wiener, 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 Herzog and Members Murdock and Styles].
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 Machinists, Willamette Lodge #63,
Independent, herein called the IAM; International Brotherhood of
Electrical Workers, Local Union No. 49, AFL, herein called the
IBEW ; and United Cement, Lime, and Gypsum Workers, Inter-
national Union, AFL, Local Unions 172 and 290, herein called the
Intervenor, claim to represent certain employees of the Employer.
3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning representation
of employees of the Employer within the meaning of Section 9 (c) (1)
and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
4. The IAM and the IBEW seek to sever on a multiplant basis all
shop employees and electricians, respectively, from an established
multiplant production and maintenance unit. The Employer and
the Intervenor oppose such severance, contending that only the in-
dustrial unit is appropriate..
The Employer is engaged in the manufacture of Portland cement,
operating 2 manufacturing plants at Oswego and Lime, Oregon;
2 quarries at Lime, which supply materials to both the Lime and
Oswego plants, and a quarry at Dallas, Oregon, which also supplies
the Oswego plant.' The quarries are alike, and the 2 plants are very
' See Oregon Portland Cement Company , 83 NLRB 675, for additional facts regarding
the Employer ' s business and the relation between the Employer ' s several establishments.
92 NLRB No. 94.
695
.696 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
similar to each other in organization and operation. The production
of cement, a continuous operation on a 24-hour, 3-shift basis, includes
the mining of rock, grinding, processing in heated kilns, .regrinding,
and packing for shipment. Approximately 250 employees, including
the employees sought by the TAM and by. the IBEW, are employed in
the existing multiplant production and maintenance unit. A vice
president and general superintendent directs the operation of the
Employer's plants and quarries. The Oswego plant and Dallas quarry,
and the Lime plant and quarries are respectively supervised by a plant
superintendent and his assistant, who, in turn, are directly in charge
of departmental foremen.
Bargaining History
From 1944 to 1949, the Employer bargained on a company-wide
basis,2 in an industrial unit, with three unions : A local of the General
Laborers' Union, herein called the Laborers, the petitioning TAM, and
the predecessor of the petitioning IBEW.3 The last contract with
these three unions was executed in 1947 and expired November 30,
1948. Thereafter, in proceedings instituted by the Intervenor in this
case, the Board found appropriate a, unit of all production and main-
tenance employees at the three locations of the Employer .4 The Inter-
venor was certified in that case, and from July 1, 1949, to June 30,
1950, a union-shop contract between the Employer and the Intervenor
was in effect. The record indicates that during the period of joint
representation by the Laborers, the TAM, and the IBEW, the em-
ployees in the electrical department, and some employees in the shop
department, were members of the IBEW and the TAM, respectively,
and that they have retained their membership in those organizations
since becoming members of the Intervenor, the present representative.
Moreover, representation of employees in an industrial unit has been
the general bargaining practice in the Portland cement industry in the
Northwestern States.
The.Shop Department
The TAM seeks a unit composed of all shop employees at the Oswego
and Lime plants, and the Dallas quarry. These include three ma-
chinists, three welders, two repairmen, and several helpers at Oswego;
one machinist, three welders, one repairman, and four helpers at Lime;
and one repairman and one helper at Dallas.
2 Before 1944 , the Employer executed separate contracts covering each of its three
establishments.
3In 1947 , Local 48 of the IBEW , party to the contracts mentioned above, split into
Locals 48 and 49 , the latter of which is one of the petitioners herein.
4 Oregon Portland Cement Company , supra.
OREGON PORTLAND CEMENT COMPANY 697
Machinists operate shop equipment, such as lathes, drill presses, pipe
threading machines, the planer, grinding wheels, and power hack
saws; repair and replace machine parts; and install equipment. They
are almost invariably hired from the outside, and the Employer at-
tenlpts to procure men of journeyman skill. They, with the exception
of the chief electricians, who earn the same rate, are the highest paid
employees in the Employer's establishments.5 The welders fabricate
steel, weld 'machinery, and resurface and build up badly worn parts.
They are required to have sufficient experience to work without close
supervision, and are frequently hired from outside the plants, although
a few have been upgraded from within. Repairmen, who are gen-
erally upgraded from the class of helper, replace broken or worn parts,
and disassemble and reassemble machinery to be repaired. Helpers,
who normally transfer from one of the production departments, assist
the other shop employees. Both repairmen and helpers receive on-
the-job training.
Shop employees have the common duty of maintaining and re-
pairing machinery and equipment in production areas throughout the
Employer's establishments. At Oswego and Lime, these employees
have their headquarters in the machine shop and are separately super-
vised by the foreman of each shop. At Dallas, apparently, the repair-
man and the helper are part of the regular quarry crew. All these
employees work on the day shift but are on call on the other shifts in
case of need for a major repair. Although shop employees may, on
occasion, perform common labor 6 and are assisted at times by pro-
duction employees in work not requiring skill,7 their primary and
exclusive function is the performance of work requiring their particu-
lar skills and specialized experience.
The Electricians
The TBEW seeks a unit of all the Employer's electricians, consisting
of a chief electrician and 4 shift electricians at Oswego, and a chief
electrician and 3 shift electricians at Lime. These employees, who
work a continuous 24-hour, 7-day shift, are charged with the inspec-
5 Pay rates range from $1.831/2 to $1.361/2 per hour, with the three highest rates being
$1.83%, $1.74, and $1.64. Machinists and the chief electricians earn $1.831, ; shift elec-
tricians, the assistant general foreman, carpenters, and a shovel operator earn $1.74 ;
and welders, departmental foremen, and a shovel operator earn $1.64. Further down the
scale are repairmen and helpers, who earn $1.54 and $1.44 per hour respectively.
e According to the record, a shop repairman spent 6 hours in a period of 2 years
shoveling clinkers, and the machine shop employees spent one-half hour a day during
the 4-month rainy season shoveling muck from correction basins and removing clay from
elevator buckets in the crusher.
The shop employees appear to be frequently assisted by yardmen, who are unskilled
,,laborers, and•by the employees of the particular department where, they, may - be',making
.repairs, for example, the crusher, packing house, and raw grind departments. There is no
evidence, however, that these employees are or can be substituted on major repair jobs
for shop employees who are highly skilled.
929979-51-vol. 92-46
698 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
tion and maintenance of all the electrical equipment throughout the
plant. They make periodic inspections of the many electric motors
used throughout the plant, to" see that they are running properly and
are. adequately oiled; start 13 large motors, and instruct production
employees in starting other motors ; and take meter and temperature
readings and test for grounds by set schedules.8 In connection with
the performance of their duties, they spend a major portion of their
time in production areas, but have separate headquarters in the sub-
station building at each plant, and are separately supervised by the
chief electrician. The record indicates that the electricians are gen-
erally. hired from the outside, and as a prerequisite to hiring, are re-
quired to have a journeyman's license based on 4 years' training.
Conclusions
The shop employees are a functionally distinct departmental group
which has a substantial nucleus of skilled workers. The electricians
are a skilled craft group. Each of these groups is, therefore, a type
which the Board usually regards as appropriate for separate represen-
tation, notwithstanding a history of bargaining on an industrial-unit
basis.9 In arguing against the severance of both the shop employees
a.nd the electricians in this case, the Employer and the Intervenor cite
National Tube Company and similar decisions,10 relying upon the pre-
vailing practice of industrial-unit bargaining in the Portland cement
industry in the Northwestern States, and the assertedly close integra-
tion between the shop employees and electricians, respectively, and the
production workers. However, the record in this case does not dis-
close that either the shop employees or the electricians are engaged in
repetitive, routine, or prescheduled work at fixed stations along a line
of production, or that their maintenance functions are otherwise so
closely identified with production functions as to be indistinct. The
precedents relied upon by the Employer and the Intervenor are, there-
fore, inapposite. Moreover, the Board in several cases involving this
industry has found that a craft unit may be appropriate."- We find
that the : employees in the shop. department and the electricians, re-
spectively, may appropriately constitute separate units for the purposes
of collective bargaining.
8 In addition to this electrical work, they take care of the pumps supplying the plant
with water and take the necessary readings . They do some electrical installation work,
but the Employer contracts major repair or installation jobs to outside concerns.
e International Harvester Company, ( Indianapolis Works), 82 NLRB 740; Lone Star
Cement Corporation, 88 NLRB 408; Lone Star Cement Corporation, 88 NLRB 412.
1076 NLRB 1199; and other cases including Ford Motor Company (Maywood Plant)
78. NLRB 887 ; Weyerhaeuser Timber Company (Springfield Lumber Division ), 87 NLRB
1076 ; and The Permanente Metals Corporation , 89 NLRB 804.
.13 Lone Star Cement Corporation ; 88 NLRB 412 ; Lone Star Cement Corporation, 88
NLI > 408; and Halliburton Portland Cement Company, 91 NLRB 717.
OREGON PORTLAND CEMENT COMPANY 699
However, we shall make no final unit determination with respect to
the shop employees or the electricians at this time, but shall be guided
in part by the desires of these employees as expressed in elections here-
inafter directed. If a majority in'either group votes for the respective
Petitioner, they will be taken to have indicated their desire to consti-
tute a separate unit.
In accordance with the foregoing, we shall direct that elections be
held among the following employees :
1. All employees in the shop department of the Employer at its
facilities at Lime, Oswego, and Dallas, Oregon, including machinists,
welders,. repairmen, and helpers, but excluding all other employees,
office and clerical: employees, guards, professional employees, and
supervisors as defined in the Act;
2. All electricians employed by the Employer at its facilities at
Lime and Oswego , Oregon, excluding all other employees , office and
clerical employees , guards , professional employees , and all supervisors
as defined in the Act.
[Text of Direction of Elections omitted from publication in this
volume.]