Pittsburgh Equitable Meter Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

May 3, 1945

61 N.L.R.B. 880 (N.L.R.B. 1945)

In the Matter Of PITTSBURGH EQUITABLE METER COMPANY and
. PITTSBURGH FEDERATION OF METER WORKERS
Case No. 6-R-1101.-Decided May 3, 1945
Reed, Smith, Shaw & McClay, by Mr. Seward H. French; and Mr.
George McAllister and Miss Eleanor Emerson, of Pittsburgh, Pa., for
the Company.
Mr. Harry A. Sherman, of -Pittsburgh, Pa., for the Federation.
Mr. David Scribner, of New York City, and Messrs. Sylvan Libson
and Allan McNeil, of Pittsburgh, Pa., for the C. 1. 0.
Mrs. Augusta Spalding, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon a petition duly filed by Pittsburgh Federation of Meter Work-
ers, herein called the Federation, alleging that a question affecting
commerce had arisen concerning the representation of employees of
Pittsburgh Equitable Meter Company, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,
herein called the Company, the National Labor Relations Board pro-
vided for an appropriate hearing upon due notice before W. G. Sher-
man, Trial Examiner. Said hearing was held at Pittsburgh, Pennsyl-
vania, on March 8, 1945. The Company, the Federation, and United
Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America, affiliated with
the Congress of Industrial Organizations, herein called the C. I. 0.,
appeared, participated, and were afforded full opportunity to be heard,
to examine and cross-examine witnesses, and to introduce evidence
bearing on the issues. The Trial Examiner's rulings made at the
hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed. All
parties were afforded an opportunity to file briefs with the Board.
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following :
FINDINGS OF FACT
I. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
Pittsburgh Equitable Meter Company is engaged in the manufac-
ture, sale, and distribution of gas and liquid materials, valves, gas
61 N. L. R. B, No. 144.
880
PITTSBURGH EQUITABLE METER COMPANY 881
regulating equipment, aircraft instruments, and aircraft parts at
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. During 1944, the raw materials purchased
for use at the Pittsburgh plant exceed $225,000 in value, of which
approximately 15 percent represented materials brought to the plant
from points outside Pennsylvania. During the same period, products
shipped from the Pittsburgh plant were valued in excess of $7,000,000,
of which approximately 85 percent represented products sold and
shipped to points outside Pennsylvania.
The Company admits that it is engaged in commerce within the
meaning of the National Labor Relations Act.
II. THE ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED
Pittsburgh Federation of Meter Workers is an unaffiliated labor
organization, admitting to membership employees of the Company.
United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America is a
labor organization affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organiza-
tions, admitting to membership employees of the Company.
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
In 1940 the Company recognized Local 615, a labor union chartered
by the C. I. 0., as the exclusive bargaining representative of its em-
ployees and entered into written contracts with Local 615 on their
behalf covering the period from May 1940 to July 1943. From Sep-
tember 1943 to December 1944, negotiations were carried on between
Local 615 and the Company for the formation of a new contract. The
Company continued to operate under the expired contract with certain
agreed changes, but no new written contract was ever concluded. In
December 1944, employees of the Company in a regular union meeting
voted to withdraw from Local 615 and, in January 1945, they formed
the Federation, the petitioner in this proceeding. In January 1945,
also, the C. I. O. revoked the charter of Local 615. The Federation
requested recognition as bargaining representative of the Company's
employees, which the Company declined to grant. We find that there
is no contract presently existing between the Company and its em-
ployees which would serve as a bar to a determination of representa-
tives at this time.
A statement prepared by a Board agent and introduced into evidence
at the hearing indicates that the Federation represents a substantial
number of employees in the unit hereinafter found appropriate
'The Federation submitted 955 cards, 924 of which bore apparently genuine original
signatures of employees appearing on the pay roll of February 4, 1945. Of the cards, 27
were undated, and the remaining were dated in January 1945. There are approximately
1,000 employees in the appropriate unit. %
The C. I. O. filed no cards, but relies for its interest on its status as parent body of the
former representative of the Company's employees.
882 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
We find that a question affecting commerce has arisen concerning the
representation of employees of the Company, within the meaning of
Section 9 ( c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT ; TIIE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
The parties agree, and we find, that all production and maintenance
workers, production clerks, and inspectors at the Company's Pitts-
burgh plant, the unit described in prior contracts between the Com-
pany and Local 615, should be included in a bargaining unit. Office
employees, foremen, and all supervisory employees within the Board's
definition of the term were excluded from coverage under the contracts,
and we shall, in accordance with our custom, exclude these employees
from the production and maintenance unit. The parties disagree with
respect to the inclusion of so-called "supervisors" and guards in the
production and maintenance unit.
"Supervisors": The Company employs about 40 men, called "super-
visors" in its employment categories, but more accurately described
as group leaders . These employees instruct and assign material to
men who work under them in groups from 1 to 40. Supervisors do not
assign work . They have no authority to hire or discharge or make
recommendations with respect to the status of employees under them.
The so-called supervisors or group leaders were deemed production
workers and included in the former contracts between the Company
and the C. I. O. They are hourly paid employees, and they share gen-
erally in the benefits and privileges enjoyed by other production and
maintenance employees. They are paid 10 to 15 cents less than the
foremen under whose direction they work. The Company and the
C. I. O. agree that supervisors should be included in the bargaining
unit. The position of the Federation is not entirely clear. The Fed-
eration apparently agrees that "supervisors" as a group should be
included in the unit, but questions the Company 's classification of cer-
tain individuals as "supervisors ," and urges that the rightful classifi-
cation of employees is properly a matter of bargaining between the
Company and their recognized representative . We shall include so-
called supervisors as an employment category within the bargaining
unit, and we shall exclude from the bargaining unit all employees
having supervisory authority within our definition of that term.2
Guards: The Company employs at its Pittsburgh plant 14 guards.
During the pendency of the contracts between the Company and Local
615 these employees were armed and subject to military regulations.
They were not covered by the contracts between the Company and
Local 615 and, so far as the record discloses , they were without repre-
2 Matter of Edgewater Steel Company, 56 N L. R B 1778 ; Matter of Charlottsville
Woolen Mills, 59 N . L. R B 1160
PITTSBURGH EQUITABLE METER COMPANY 883
sentation. Approximately 8 months prior to the hearing in this pro-
ceeding, the Company's guards were honorably discharged from mili-
tary service and they are now wholly under the jurisdiction and
control of the Company. The Company contends that its guards are
now allied with management , that they are confidential employees,
and hence that they should be excluded from the bargaining unit. For
reasons which we have set forth in prior decisions , we find no merit in
the Company 's contention .3 The Company 's guards are essentially
plant watchmen , whose duties relate to the preservation of its property
against fire and other hazards. They exercise no supervisory powers
and they ci re not "monitorial" in their relation to other employees.
They wear uniforms and some of them carry arms. They are paid on
an hourly basis with overtime , and enjoy the same general terms and
conditions of employment as production and maintenance employees,
and there appears to be no reason to deny them the rights of collective
bargaining if they choose to exercise such rights . Since guards were
not included in the unit established under the prior contracts, we shall
conduct a separate election among these employees to determine their
desires with respect to the matter. We shall also conduct'an election
among other production and maintenance employees in categories
previously covered by the contracts between the Company and the
C. 1. 0. We shall make no finding with respect to the appropriate unit
or units for employees of the Company, pending the outcome of the
elections.
We shall accordingly direct that separate elections be conducted
among employees in the separate voting groups described below, who
were employed during the pay-roll period immediately preceding the
date of the Direction of Elections herein, subject to the limitations and
additions set forth in the Direction :
1. All production and maintenance workers, production clerks, and
inspectors at the Company's Pittsburgh plant, including so-called
supervisors , but excluding office employees , guards , foremen , and all
other supervisory employees with authority to hire, promote, dis-
charge, discipline, or otherwise effect changes in the status of em-
ployees, or effectively recommend such action; and
2. All guards , excluding supervisory employees with authority to
hire, promote , discharge , discipline , or otherwise effect changes in the
status of employees or effectively recommend such action.
DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
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,
3 Matter of Ford Motor Company, 48 N L R. B . 413, and cases cited therein.
884 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
and pursuant to Article III, Section 9, of National Labor Relations
Board Rules and Regulations-Series 3, as amended, it is hereby
DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation to ascertain representa-
tives for the purposes " of collective bargaining with Pittsburgh
Equitable Meter Company, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, separate elec-
tions by secret ballot shall be conducted as early as possible, but not
later than thirty (30) days from the date of this Direction, under the
direction and supervision of the Regional Director for the Sixth
Region, acting in this matter as agent for the National Labor Rela-
tions Board, and subject to Article III, Sections 10 and 11, of said
Rules and Regulations, among the employees in the groups described
below, who were employed during the pay-roll period immediately
preceding the date of this Direction, including employees who did not
work during said pay-roll period because they were ill or on vacation
or temporarily laid off, and including employees in the armed forces
of the United States who present themselves in person at the polls, 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, to determine whether they desire to be represented by Pitts-
burgh Federation of Meter Workers, or by United Electrical, Radio,
and Machine Workers of America, C. I. 0., for the purposes of collec-
tive bargaining, or by neither.
1. All production and maintenance workers, production clerks, and
inspectors at the Company's Pittsburgh plant, including so-called
supervisors, but excluding office employees, guards, foremen, and all
other supervisory employees with authority to hire, promote, dis-
charge, discipline, or otherwise effect changes in the status of em-
ployees, or effectively recommend such action; and
2. All guards, excluding supervisory employees with authority to
hire, promote, discharge, discipline, or otherwise effect changes in the
status of employees, or effectively recommend such action.