Pine Moutain Granite Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Sep 15, 1938

8 N.L.R.B. 1125 (N.L.R.B. 1938)

In the Matter Of PINE MOUNTAIN GRANITE COMPANY and QUARRY
WORKERS' INTERNATIONAL UNION OF NORTH AMERICA, BRANCH No.20
Case No. R-952.-Decided September 15,1938
Quarrying and Stone Processing Industry-Investcgation of Representatives:
controversy concerning representation of employees : employer ' s refusal to recog-
nize union as bargaining representative of its employees-Strike: after refusal
by employer to cooperate in consent election as agreed-Unit Appropriate for Col-
lective Bargaining : production and maintenance employees classified as blasters,
channelers , cranemen , pneumatic drillers , head ledge man, firemen , lumpers and
beaders, bead setters, water boys, derrick men, blasters ' helpers, channelers'
helpers, cranemen 's helpers , drill operators , boiler helpers , truck drivers, and
common laborers , excluding stone cutters , paving stone cutters, monumental work-
ers, and supervisory and clerical employees ; stipulation as to-Representatives:
proof of choice : stipulation by all parties that union has a majority within unit
found appropriate-Certiliication of Representatives : upon basis of stipulation.
Mr. Maurice J. Nicoson, for the Board.
Mr. Scott Candler and Mr. Walter G. Cooper, Jr., of Atlanta,
Ga., for the Company.
Mr. Joseph Jacobs, of Atlanta, Ga., for the Quarry Workers.
Mr. Bond Almand and Mr. Dic/e Hudson, of Atlanta, Ga., for the
Granite Workers.
Mr. Richard H. illeigs, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
CERTIFICATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
On May 12, 1938, Quarry Workers' International Union of North
America, Branch No. 20, herein called the Quarry Workers, filed with
the Regional Director for the Tenth Region (Atlanta, Georgia) a
petition alleging that a question affecting commerce had arisen con-
cerning the representation of employees of Pine Mountain Granite
Company, Lithonia, Georgia, herein called the Company, and request-
ing 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 July 5, 1938, the National Labor Relations
Board, herein called the Board, acting pursuant to Section 9 (c) of
S N. L It B., No. 138.
1125
1126 NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
the Act and Article III, Section 3, of National Labor Relations Board
Rules and Regulations-Series 1, as amended, ordered an investigation
and authorized the Regional Director to conduct it and to provide for
an appropriate hearing upon due notice.
On July 8, 1938, the Regional Director issued a notice of hearing,
copies of which were duly served upon the Company, and upon the
Quarry Workers. On July 18, 1938, American Federation of Labor,
Granite Workers' Union No. 21628, herein called the Granite Workers,
a labor organization claiming to represent the employees directly af-
fected by the investigation, filed with the Regional Director a motion
to intervene. The motion was allowed.
Pursuant to notice, a hearing was held on July 18 and 19, 1938, at
Atlanta, Georgia, before Albert L. Lohm, the Trial Examiner duly
designated by the Board. The Board, the Company, the Quarry
Workers, and the Granite Workers were represented by counsel and
participated in the hearing. At the beginning of the hearing the
Company filed an answer to the Quarry Workers' petition, denying
therein that it had refused to recognize the Quarry Workers as the
bargaining agent for its employees and expressing its willingness to
proceed with a consent election under certain specified conditions.
Full opportunity to be heard, to examine and cross-examine witnesses,
and to introduce evidence bearing on the issues was afforded all
parties. During the course of the hearing the Trial Examiner made
several rulings on motions and on objections to the admission of evi-
dence. The Board has reviewed the rulings of the Trial Examiner
and finds that no prejudicial errors were committed. The rulings are
hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following :
FINDINGS OF FACT
1. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
Pine Mountain Granite Company, a Georgia corporation, is engaged
in the business of quarrying and finishing granite stone at its Lithonia,
Georgia, plant. It also maintains an office in Atlanta, Georgia.
The Company's yearly consumption of raw materials, in addition
to the granite it procures from its quarry, is as follows :
1,200 tons of coal, all of which is obtained from sources outside
the State of Georgia ;
4,000 pounds of dynamite, all of which is obtained from the
warehouse of the Atlas Powder Company, in Atlanta, Georgia,
and all of which is manufactured and produced outside the State
of Georgia ;
Electrical current valued at $1,800, all of which is obtained
within the State of Georgia.
DECISIONS AND ORDERS 1127
The Company manufactures the following granite products : paving
blocks, granite curbing, crushed stone, monumental stone, building
stone, rip-rap, jetty granite, rubble , granite dust , granite sand , and all
other granite materials . The Company yearly produces approxi-
mately 24,000 tons of granite in the aforesaid forms, amounting in
value to approximately $55,000. Approximately 20 per cent of the
physical amount or 25 per cent of the dollar value of these products is
shipped outside the State of Georgia.
H. THE ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED
Quarry Workers' International Union of North America, Branch
No. 20, is a labor organization affiliated with the Committee for Indus-
trial Organization , admitting to its membership blasters , channelers,
cranemen , pneumatic drillers, drill operators , head ledge man , firemen,
Jumpers and beaders, bead setters, water boys, derrick men, blasters'
helpers, channelers ' helpers, boiler helpers, and common laborers em-
ployed by the Company.
American Federation of Labor, Granite Workers' Union No. 21628,
is a labor organization admitting to its membership only stone cutters
employed by the Company.
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
On May 11, 1938, the Quarry Workers advised the Company that it
represented a majority of its employees in an appropriate unit, sub-
initted a proposed agreement pertaining to hours, wages , and other
conditions of employment , and requested an opportunity to discuss
the terms of the contract with representatives of the Company. These
and subsequent bargaining efforts were unsuccessful , the Company
refusing to negotiate with the Quarry Workers.
On June 18 an agreement for a consent election was entered into by
the Company and the Quarry Workers, providing for an election by
secret ballot, the results of which, if favorable to the Quarry Workers,
were to form the basis of the certification by the Board and the recogni-
tion by the Company of the Quarry Workers as the exclusive bargain-
ing representative for the employees involved. On or about June 21,
1938, the proposed election was abandoned when the Company refused
to cooperate in the conduct of an election in accordance with its
agreement.
On June 22 , 1938, following a strike vote , the employees who would
have been eligible to have voted in the aforesaid election went on
strike, and were still on strike at the time of the hearing in this pro-
ceeding in protest against the Company's refusal to cooperate in the
conduct of the election.
1128 NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
We find that a question has arisen concerning 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
At the hearing it was stipulated by all parties that the unit requested
by the Quarry Workers, consisting of the production and maintenance
employees of the Company , classified as blasters , channelers , crane-
men, pneumatic drillers , head ledge man, firemen , lumpers and beaders,
bead setters, water boys, derrick men, blasters ' helpers, channelers'
helpers, cranemen 's helpers , drill operators , boiler helpers , truck driv-
ers, and common laborers, excluding stone cutters , paving stone cutters,
monumental workers, and supervisory and clerical employees, is a
unit appropriate for the purpose of collective bargaining within the
meaning of the Act.
In addition to the Quarry Workers, two other labor organizations
having agreements with the Company covering their members, are
active among the Company's employees . One, the Granite Workers,
admits to membership and has bargained for stone cutters exclusively;
the other , Paving Cutters Union of North America, a labor organiza-
tion which was not represented at the hearing, admits only paving
stone cutters to membership and has bargained only for such em-
ployees. It appears that the unit requested by the Quarry Workers
does not infringe on the jurisdictions of these two unions.
It was further stipulated by all parties that the Company now em-
ploys the following types of employees which come within the classi-
fications described in the stipulated appropriate unit and as such are
eligible for membership in the Quarry Workers: blacksmiths, strikers
for blacksmiths , tool boys, shed men, maintenance men, machinists,
firemen, firemen 's helpers, water boys , quarrymen , crushermen, car-
penters, crane operators , rubble loaders , and truck drivers.
A review of the duties performed by the aforesaid employees dis-
closes that their work is a part of the continuous process of quarrying
and manufacturing stone and that they can, therefore, be properly
considered to constitute a single appropriate unit. We shall , therefore,
adopt the agreed unit.
DECISIONS AND ORDERS 1129
We find that the production and maintenance employees of the
Company, classified as blasters , channelers , cranemen, pneumatic drill-
ers, head ledge man, firemen , lumpers and bead 'ers, bead setters, water
boys, derrick men, blasters ' helpers , channelers ' helpers, cranemen's
helpers, drill operators, boiler helpers, truck drivers, and common
laborers, excluding stone cutters , paving stone cutters , monumental
workers, supervisory and clerical employees, constitute a unit appro-
priate for the purposes of collective bargaining , and that said unit will
insure to employees of the Company the full benefit of their right to
self-organization and to collective bargaining and otherwise effectuate
the policies of the Act.
VI. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
At the hearing the Company introduced in evidence its pay roll
for the period ending May 11, 1938 , containing the names of 62 persons
employed by it in the appropriate unit as of that date . The Quarry
Workers introduced in evidence 50 signed membership cards. All
parties stipulated that the signatures appearing on the said member-
ship cards were genuine and, in addition , stipulated that the Quarry
Workers represents a majority of the employees in the unit which we
have found appropriate.
We find that the Quarry Workers has been designated and selected
by a majority of the employees in the appropriate unit as their repre-
sentative for the purposes of collective bargaining . It is, therefore,
the exclusive representative of all the employees in such unit for the
purposes of collective bargaining , and we will so certify.
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 Pine Mountain Granite Company, Lithonia,
Georgia, within the meaning of Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and
(7) of the National Labor Relations Act.
2. The production and maintenance employees of the Company,
classified as blasters, channelers , cranemen , pneumatic drillers, -head
ledge man, firemen , lumpers and headers , bead setters , water boys,
derrick men , blasters ' helpers, channelers' helpers, cranemen 's helpers,
drill operators , boiler helpers , truck drivers , and common laborers,
excluding stone cutters , paving stone cutters, monumental workers, and
supervisory and clerical employees , constitute a unit appropriate for
the purposes of collective bargaining , within the meaning of Section
9 (b) of the National Labor Relations Act.
1130 NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
3. Quarry Workers' International Union of North America, Branch
No. 20, is the exclusive representative of all the employees in such
unit for the purposes of collective bargaining , within the meaning of
Section 9 ( a) of the National Labor Relations Act.
CERTIFICATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
By virtue of and pursuant to the power vested in the National
Labor Relations Board by Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Rela-
tions Act , and pursuant to Article III, Section 8, of National Labor
Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 1, as amended,
IT IS HEREBY CERTIFIED that Quarry Workers' International Union of
North America, Branch No. 20, has been designated and selected by a
majority of the production and maintenance employees of Pine Moun-
tain Granite Company, Lithonia, Georgia , classified as blasters, chan-
nelers, cranemen, pneumatic drillers , head ledge man, firemen , lumpers
and beaders , bead setters , water boys , derrick men, blasters' helpers,
channelers ' helpers, cranemen 's helpers, drill operators , boiler helpers,
truck drivers , and common laborers, excluding stone cutters , paving
stone cutters , monumental workers, and supervisory and clerical em-
ployees, as their representative for the purposes of collective bargain-
ing and that, pursuant to the provisions of Section 9 (a) of the Act,
Quarry Workers' International Union of North America, Branch No.
20, is the exclusive representative of all such employees for the pur-
poses of collective bargaining in respect to rates of pay, wages, hours
of employment , and other conditions of employment.
Mr. EDWIN S . SMITH took no part in the consideration of the above
Decision and Certification of Representatives.