Penberthy Injector Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jun 17, 1941

32 N.L.R.B. 705 (N.L.R.B. 1941)

In the Matter of PENBERTHY INJECTOR COMPANY and STEEL WORKERS
ORGANIZING COMMITTEE, LOCAL 2395, AFFILIATED WITH CONGRESS OF
INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATION S
Case No. R-P611. Decided June 17, 1941
Jurisdiction : plumbing specialty manufacturing industry.
Investigation and Certification of Representatives : existence of question: re-
fusal to accord union recognition until it is certified by the Board; election
necessary.
Unit Appropriate for Collective Bargaining : hourly paid production and main-
tenance employees, including watchmen, but excluding all salaried employees,
executives, salaried supervisory employees, clerical employees, who consist
of engineering and drafting employees, plant clerks, and office clerks.
Lucking, Van Auken cfi Sprague, by Mr. Waldo K. Greiner, of
Detroit, Mich., for the Company.
Mr. John Wilson, of Detroit, Mich., for the Union.
Miss Edna Loeb, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
On April 23 and May 6, 1941, Steel Workers Organizing Committee,
Local 2395, affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations,
herein called the Union, filed with the Regional Director for the Sev-
enth Region (Detroit, Michigan) a petition and an amended petition
alleging that a question affecting commerce had arisen concerning
the representation of employees of Penberthy Injector Company,
Detroit, Michigan,. herein called the Company, and requesting an
investigation and certification of representatives pursuant to Section
9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act, 49 Stat. 449, herein called
the Act. On May 15,1941, the National Labor Relations Board, herein
called the Board, acting pursuant to Section 9 (c) of the Act and
Article III, Section 3, of National Labor Relations Board Rules and
Regulations-Series 2, as amended, ordered an investigation and au-
thorized the Regional Director to conduct it and to provide for an
appropriate hearing upon due notice.
32 N. L. R. B., No. 128.
705
706 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
On May 22, 1941, the Regional Director issued a notice of hearing.
copies of which were duly served upon the Company and the Union.
Pursuant to notice, a hearing was held on May 29, 1941, at Detroit,
Michigan, before Earl R. Cross, the Trial Examiner duly designated
by the Chief Trial Examiner. The Company was represented by
counsel , the Union by a representative, and both participated in the
hearing. Full opportunity to be heard, to examine and cross-examine
witnesses, and to introduce evidence bearing on the issues was afforded
all parties. No motions or objections to the admission of evidence
*ere made at the hearing.
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following:.
FINDINGS OF FACT
I. THE BUSINESS OF TAE COMPANY
Penberthy Injector Company is a Delaware corporation licensed
to do business in Michigan. It is engaged in the manufacture and
sale of steam and plumbing specialties at a plant in Detroit, Michigan,
where it employs approximately 110 production and maintenance
employees . The principal raw materials used by the Company in
the fabrication of its products are copper, tin, lead, zinc, malleable
iron, and steel . The Company's total purchases of raw materials for
the year 1940 amounted to approximately $303,000, of which approxi-
mately 75 per cent was purchased from outside Michigan. For the
same year the approximate value of the Company's finished products
was $850,000, of which 90 per cent was shipped to customers outside
Michigan. For the purposes of this proceeding the Company admits
that it is within the jurisdiction of the Board.
II. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED
Steel Workers Organizing Committee, Local 2395, is a labor organ-
ization affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations. It
admits to membership employees of the Company.
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
On April 17, 1941, the Union met with the Company, claimed to
represent a majority of the Company's employees, and submitted to
the Company a proposed contract. On April 22, 1941, the Company
sent the Union a letter stating that the Company would not take any
action regarding negotiations with the Union until the Union was
certified by the Board as representative of a majority of the employees.
PENBERTHY INJECTOR COMPANY 707
From the Regional Director's report, introduced into evidence, it
appears that the Union represents a substantial number of the Com-
pany's employees.'
We find.that a question has arisen concerning the representation of
employees of the Company.
IV. THE EFFECT OF THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION UPON
COMMERCE
We find that the question concerning representation which has arisen,
occurring in connection with the operations of the Company described
in Section I, above, has a close, intimate, and substantial relation to
trade, traffic, and commerce among the several States and tends to
lead to labor disputes burdening and obstructing commerce and the free
flow of commerce.
V. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT
The Union petitions for a unit consisting of "all hourly paid produc-
tion and maintenance employees, excluding all salaried employees,
executives, salaried supervisory employees, clerical employees, who
consist of engineering and drafting employees, plant clerks, and office
clerks." The only controversy between the parties as to the appro-
priateness of the requested unit concerns the Company's three regular
watchmen, whom the Union would include in the unit and the Company
would exclude therefrom.2 Like the Company's production and main-
tenance employees, the watchmen are hourly paid workers. They
are employed in a dual capacity and in addition to their duties as
watchmen, they serve as the Company's only firemen and boiler oper-
ators, spending from 25 to 75 per cent of their time at the latter work.
All three of them are licensed boiler operators. These employees are
eligible to join the Union and one or more of them has been admitted
to the Union's membership. We shall include watchmen in the unit.-3
We find that all hourly paid production and maintenance employees
of the Company, including watchmen, but excluding all salaried em-
ployees, executives, salaried supervisory employees, clerical employees,
1 The Regional Director reported that the Union submitted membership 'application
cards almost all of which bore what appeared to be genuine original signatures, and
that these signatures constituted a substantial number of the names of persons appearing
on the Company's pay roll of May 1 to 15, 1941.
'Both parties agree that the Company' s substitute watchman, who is regularly-em-
ployed as an elevator operator , should be included in the unit.
' Matter of Goodrich Electric Co ., Inc. and United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers
of America,, 30 N L. R. B. 979; Matter of Continental Mills and Textile Workers Union
of America (C I. 0.), 30 N L. R B, No 13; Matter of Trojan Powder Company and
International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter 1Voikers, C 1 0, 29 N L R. 13 229
448692-42-vol. 32--46
708 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
who consist of engineering and drafting employees, plant clerks, and
office clerks, constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective
bargaining and that said unit will insure to employees of the Com-
pany the full benefit of their right to self-organization and to collective
bargaining and otherwise effectuate the policies of the Act.
VI. TIIE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
We find that the question concerning representation which has
arisen can best be resolved by an election by secret ballot. The parties
have advanced no reasons for deviating from our usual practice of
determining eligibility of employees to vote in the election by a cur-
rent pay roll. We shall therefore direct that eligibility be determined
by the pay roll for the period immediately preceding our Direction
of Election herein, subject to such limitations and additions as are set
forth in the Direction.
Upon the basis of the above findings of fact and upon the entire
record in the case, the Board makes the following :
CONCLUSIONS OF LAW
1. A question affecting commerce has arisen concerning the repre-
sentation of employees of Penberthy Injector Company, Detroit, Mich-
igan, within the meaning of Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7)
of the National Labor Relations Act.
2. All hourly paid production and maintenance employees of the
Company, including watchmen, but excluding all salaried employees,
executives, salaried supervisory employees, clerical employees, who
consist of engineering and drafting employees, plant clerks, and office
clerks, constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective
bargaining, within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the National Labor
Relations Act.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
By virtue of and pursuant to the power vested in the National Labor
Relations Board by Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations
Act, and pursuant to Article III, Section 8, of National Labor Rela-
tions Board Rules and Regulations-Series 2, as amended, it is hereby
DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation authorized by the Board
to ascertain representatives for the purposes of collective bargaining
with Penberthy Injector Company, Detroit, Michigan, an election
by secret ballot shall be conducted as early as possible, but not later
than thirty (30) days from the date of this Direction of Election,
under the direction and supervision of the Regional Director for the
Seventh Region, acting in this matter as agent for the National Labor
PENBERTHY INJECTOR COMPANY 709
Relations Board, and subject to Article III, Section 9, of said Rules
and Regulations, among all hourly paid production and maintenance
employees of the Company, whose names appear on the pay roll of
the Company for the pay-roll period next preceding the date of this
Direction of Election, including watchmen and employees 'who did-
not work during said pay-roll period because they were ill, on vaca-
tion, in the active military service or training of the United States, or
temporarily laid off, but excluding all salaried employees, executives,
salaried supervisory employees; clerical employees, who consist of
engineering and drafting employees, plant clerks, and office, clerks,
and excluding employees who have since quit or been discharged, for
cause, to determine whether or not they desire to be represented for
the purposes of collective bargaining by Steel Workers Organizing
Committee, Local 2395, affiliated with the Congress of Industrial
Organizations. '