Pittsburgh Steel Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Feb 24, 1936

1 N.L.R.B. 256 (N.L.R.B. 1936)

In the Matter of PITTSBURGH STEEL COMPANY and AMALGAMATED
ASSOCIATION OF IRON, STEEL AND TIN WORKERS OF NORTH AMERICA;
ALL NATIONS LODGE No. 164, MONESSEN , PENNSYLVANIA AND
ALLENPORT LODGE No. 160, ALLENPORT, PENNSYLVANIA
Case No. R-15.-Decided February .4, 1936
Iron and Steel Industry-Employee Representation Plan: form and operation ;
effect of participation in election of representatives under-Unit Appropriate for
Collective Bargaining: production and maintenance employees ; employees on
hourly, tonnage or piece work basis-Election Ordered: question affecting com-
merce : confusion and unrest among employees-controversy concerning repre-
sentation of employees : request by substantial number in appropriate unit ;
rival organizations.
Mr. Robert H. Kleeb for the Board.
Reed, Smith, Shaw c McClay, by Mr. John J. Heard, of Pitts-
burgh, Pa., for the Company.
Reed, Smith, Shaw cfi McClay, by Mr. John C. Bane, Jr., of Pitts-
burgh, Pa., for Employee Representation Plan.
Mr. Charlton Ogburn and Mr. Arthur E. Reyman, of Washington,
D. C., for Lodges Nos. 160 and 164.
Mary Lemon Schleifer, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
STATEMENT OF CASE p
Petitions for investigations and certifications of representatives,
pursuant to Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act, ap-
proved July 5, 1935, and Article III, Section 1 of National Labor
Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 1, were filed with
the Regional Director for the Sixth Region by All Nations Lodge
No. 164 (hereinafter referred to as Lodge No. 164), and Allenport
Lodge No. 160 (hereinafter referred to as Lodge No. 160), Amalga-
mated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers of North America,
on November 6, 1935, alleging that a question affecting commerce
had arisen concerning the representation of employees in the
Monessen and Allenport plants, respectively, of the Pittsburgh Steel
Company, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (hereinafter referred to as the
Company). The National Labor Relations Board, acting pursuant
to Article III, Section 3 of National Labor Relations Board Rules
256
0
DECISIONS AND ORDERS 257
and Regulations-Series 1, authorized the Regional Director to con-
duct investigations. In connection therewith, the Regional Director,
on December 13, 1935, issued a joint notice of hearing, copies of
which were served on the Company and on Joseph Ditta and Karl H.
Klein, Secretaries of the Employees Representation Plans in the two
plants. On December 31, 1935, copies of an amended notice of
hearing were served on the above-mentioned parties.
Pursuant to the amended notice of hearing, a joint hearing on both
petitions was held on January 7, 8, 10 and 11, 1936, in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, before M. W. Acheson, Jr., duly designated by the
National Labor Relations Board to act as Trial Examiner. The
Company, the Employees Representation Plans, and the petitioners
were represented by counsel and participated in the hearing. Much
testimony and several exhibits were received in evidence over the
objection of counsel for the Company. The Board has reviewed the,
ruling of the Trial Examiner and holds that no error was committed.
Upon the evidence adduced at the hearing and from the entire
record before it, including the transcript of the hearing, exhibits
introduced, pleadings filed and brief submitted, the National Labor
Relations Board promulgates the following :
FINDINGS OF FACT
1. The Pittsburgh Steel Company is a corporation organized under
and existing by virtue of the laws of the State of Pennsylvania,
having its principal office in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and engaged
in the manufacture of iron, steel, and finished and unfinished steel
products. It has an authorized capital stock of $50,000,000, of which
$35,850,000 has been issued and is outstanding. The Company has
a registered trademark and states in its application for registration,
"that said trademark is used by said corporation in commerce among
the several states of the United States." The Company advertises,
in industrial magazines having national and international
distribution.
2. The principal plant of the Company is at Monessen, Pennsyl-
vania. The Monessen plant has an annual capacity of 480,000 tons
of iron and 720,000 tons of steel. About 400,000 tons of raw ma-
terials are shipped into this plant in a normal year. On January 8,
1936, 3,173 persons were employed in this plant, which was then
operating at about 40 percent of capacity.
3. The Allenport, Pennsylvania, plant of the Company is a
finishing plant, manufacturing only seamless steel tubing. It has
an annual capacity of 240,000 tons of tubing. On January 8, 1936,
1,196 persons were employed at this plant, which was then operating
from 50 to 60 per cent of its capacity.
258 NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
4. Many types of materials are brought into the plants, including
ore, coal, coke, scrap iron and other ingredients used in the actual
manufacture of steel, and in addition, large quantities of materials
used for equipment and maintenance of the plant. The ore used
is practically all secured from ore mines located in Minnesota and
Michigan in which the Company has a substantial interest. The
entire coal requirements are supplied by the Monessen Coal and
Coke Company, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company, from
mines located in Monessen and Gray's Landing, Pennsylvania. The
other materials are secured from sources throughout the United
States.
5. Incoming and outgoing materials from the two plants are
carried in the main by means of railroads. They are also carried
by barges operating on the Monongahela River, a navigable stream
which borders both 'plants.
The Monessen plant is served by the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie and
the Pittsburgh & West Virginia Railroads. The tracks of the
Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad divide the Monessen plant. Cars
brought into this plant by the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie are dropped
at one of the five or six interchange points of the Pittsburgh &
Lake Erie and the Monessen & Southwestern Railroad, a wholly-
owned subsidiary of the Company, the latter then distributing cars
to the various points within the plant where they are to be used. The
terminal of the Pittsburgh & West Virginia Railroad is about three
to three and a half miles from the Monessen plant at Monessen
Junction. Cars consigned to the Company are deposited by the
Pittsburgh & West Virginia at this terminal and are then picked
up by the Monessen & Southwestern Railroad, conveyed to the
plant, and distributed to desired points within the plant.
The Allenport plant is served by the Pennsylvania Railroad, which
puts cars consigned to the Company on sidings where they are picked
,up by switching engines owned by the Company and distributed
throughout the plant.
Outgoing shipments by railroads in both plants consist of the
reverse operations of incoming ones.
Much of the material used in the Allenport plant consists of
billets and ingots manufactured at the Monessen plant. These ma-
terials are loaded into barges at the Monessen plant and conveyed
five to six miles up and across the Monongahela River to the Allen-
port plant. These barges are owned and operated by the Monessen
Coal & Coke Company.
The balance of the incoming and outgoing materials shipped by
boat are carried by contract carriers on the Monongahela and
Mississippi River System from and to points at least as far south
as Memphis, Tennessee, and as far west as St. Louis, Missouri.
DECISIONS AND ORDERS 2,59
6. Records submitted by the freight agents of the respective
railroads show :
Percentage of Percentage of
incoming ship- Percentage of the entire busi
ments con - outgoing ship- ness of the
Period cov - signed to the ments from
railroads at
Name of Railroad ered Pittsburgh
the Pittsburgh the respective
Steel Com- Steel Company, termini fur-
pany, which which were nished by the
were inter - interstate Pittsburgh
state Steel Company
Pittsburgh & Lake Erie ---------------- Feb 1-28,1935 44 7 81 3 41.8
Pittsburgh & west Virginia ------------ Oct. 1-31,1935 70 100 99 1
Pennsylvania Railroad----------------- Oct. 1-31,1935 52 2 92 90-100
7. Each operation in both of the plants is dependent upon the
operation preceding it.
Ore and other raw materials taken into the Monessen plant are
unloaded by cranes owned and operated by the Company and
placed in piles. Cranes similarly owned and operated carry the
materials to the blast furnace. The molten mass produced in the
blast furnace is carried by ladles, pulled by an electric locomotive
a distance of 200 yards to the open hearth. Ladles, locomotives and
tracks used in this operation are the property of the Company.
At the blast furnace other ingredients are added to the mass and
ingots are produced. The ingots are then subject to one of two
dispositions. A portion of them is sent to the Allenport plant by
barge, as described in paragraph 5 of the Findings of Fact. The
Dalance is retained in the Monessen plant for further processing,
being then taken to the blooming mill where billets are produced.
Billets are subject to three dispositions. A portion is sold to other
manufacturers for further processing; another portion is sent to
the Allenport plant for finishing as tubing; and the balance is re-
tained by the Monessen plant to be sent to the rolling mill, and
from there into the various finishing departments to produce wire,
nails, fencing and other finished products produced in the Monessen
plant. Finished products are then loaded into cars by cranes for
shipment or stored in warehouses for future sale and delivery.
Within the plant all departments are served by railroad tracks
and equipment which are owned and operated by the Monessen &
Southwestern Railroad, with the exception of the tracks and equip-
ment connecting the blast furnace with the open hearth. All load-
ing and unloading of cars is performed by employees of the Cam;-
pany. Barges on the river, however, are loaded and unloaded by
the Monessen Coal and Coke Company employees.
Materials 'received in the Allenport plant from the Monessen plant
are unloaded by locomotive cranes at the docks and placed in cars
which are distributed by engines owned and operated by the Com-
260 NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
pany to various points within the Allenport plant. Here they go
either through a process producing hot finished tubing or cold drawn
tubing, which is then shipped out from the plant. All departments
in the Allenport plant are served by the tracks and equipment owned
and operated by the Company. Materials received by rail in the
Allenport plant are picked up from the Pennsylvania Railroad sid-
ing, which adjoins the plant, by the Company's engines which then
distribute cars throughout the plant. All loading and unloading
of cars is done by Company employees. Practically all tubing man-
ufactured in the Allenport plant is made to order.
8. The products of the Company are sold throughout the United
States and Canada and are also sold for export. The Company has
branch sales offices in most of the principal cities of the United
States including Chicago, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Memphis,
New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis, San Francisco, Syracuse and
Tulsa.
9. All of the aforesaid operations, as described in paragraphs 1
to 8 inclusive above, constitute a continuous flow of trade, traffic
and commerce among the several states.
10. Lodges No. 164 and No. 160 are labor organizations which
-were organized in the Monessen and Allenport plants, respectively,
during the summer of 1933. Both are locals of the Amalgamated
Association of Iron, Steel and T'in Workers of North America, which
is affiliated with the American Federation of Labor.
11. It was testified to by the Presidents of the respective Lodges
that approximately 2,000 employees of the Monessen plant are mem-
bers of Lodge No. 164 and 1,100 employees of the Allenport plant
.are members of Lodge No. 160. These figures would include a sub-
stantial number of employees of the Monessen and Allenport plants,
respectively.
12. The Employees Representation Plan, a plan for the selection
,of representatives by employees, was introduced by the Company
into the Monessen and Allenport plants in June, 1933. No vote
was ever taken to determine whether or not the employees desired
the plan to be put into effect. Representatives nominated and elected
by secret ballot in each subsequent year have settled certain indi-
vidual grievances and have perhaps been instrumental in obtaining
improved working conditions. However, the evidence does not con-
vince us that there has been collective bargaining in the normal
sense.
Voting by employees for representatives under the Plan cannot
be regarded as an adoption of the Plan as a mode of representation.
The constitution of the Employees Representation Plan at the
Allenport plant provides :
DECISIONS AND ORDERS 261
"II. 3. A Representative shall be deemed to have vacated
office upon severance of his relations with the Company.
"III. 1. Any person shall be considered qualified for the
nomination and selection as a Representative.
"VII. 5. For time necessarily lost, through actual attendance
at regular or special meetings or conference jointly approved,
Representatives shall receive from the Company payment com-
mensurate with their average earnings.
"X. It is understood and agreed that each Representative
shall be free to discharge his duties in an independent man-
ner, without fear that his individual relations with the Com-
pany may be affected in the least degree by any action taken
by him in good faith in his representative capacity."
The constitution of the Employees Representation Plan in effect at
the Monessen plant is substantially the same as far as the above
quoted provisions are concerned. These provisions contemplate that
only a natural person employed by the Company is eligible for elec-
tion as a representative under the Plan.
Individual members of Lodges No. 164 and No. 160, if elected
representatives, are compelled to act only in conformity with the
Employees Representation Plan and not as agents of Lodges No. 164
and No. 160, respectively.
13. Lodges No. 164 and No. 160 attempted to secure recognition
from the Company as collective bargaining agents in'July, 1934, and
in April, 1935. At both times the Company refused to recognize
them as such on the basis that the Company had no knowledge as to
how many persons desired the Lodges to represent them. After the
refusal by the Company in 1934, a petition was addressed to the
National Steel Labor Relations Board by Lodges No. 164 and No.
160 requesting that an election be held. An election order, issued in
January, 1935, was delayed by the Company's appeal to the Circuit
Court of Appeals. Before a decision had been rendered by that
Court, the Supreme Court's decision holding the National Industrial
Recovery Act unconstitutional terminated all further proceedings.
14. A question concerning the representation of employees has
arisen in the Monessen and Allenport plants of the Company. The
question of whether a majority of the employees wish to be repre-
sented by Lodges No. 164 and No. 160, respectively, or by the repre-
sentatives selected under the Employees Representation Plans, can
best be determined by the holding of elections by secret ballot.
15. The question concerning representation which has arisen in the
plants of the Company has created confusion and unrest, and tends
to lead to labor disputes burdening and obstructing commerce and
the free flow of commerce.
262 NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
16. In each of the plants of the Company, those employees en-
gaged in production, maintenance, service and transportation paid
on an hourly, tonnage, or piece basis, except those engaged in a cler-
ical capacity, policemen, watchmen, hospital employees and all of-
ficials and others in a supervisory capacity, constitute a unit appro-
priate for the purposes of collective bargaining.
CONCLUSIONS OF LAW
1. In each of the plants of the Company, those employees engaged
in production, maintenance, service and transportation who are paid
on an hourly, tonnage or piece basis, except those engaged in a cler-
ical capacity, policemen, watchmen, hospital employees and all of-
ficials and others in a supervisory capacity, constitute a unit appro-
priate for the purposes of collective bargaining, within the mean-
ing of Section 9 (b) of the National Labor Relations Act.
2. A question affecting commerce has arisen concerning the repre-
sentation of employees in the Monessen and Allenport plants of the
Company, within the meaning of Section 9 (c) and Section 2, sub-
divisions (6) and (7) of the National Labor Relations Act.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION (MONESSEN PLANT)
By virtue of and pursuant to the power vested in the National
Labor Relation Board by Section 9 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, and pursuant to Article III, Section 8 of National
Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 1, it is
DrxECrJ D that, as part of the investigation authorized by the
National Labor Relations Board in this case to ascertain repre-
sentatives for collective bargaining between the employees in the
Monessen plant of the Pittsburgh Steel Company and the Pitts-
burgh. Steel Company, an election by secret ballot shall be con-
ducted within a period of ten days from the date of this direction
of election under the direction and supervision of Clinton S. Golden,
Regional Director for the Sixth Region, acting in this matter as
agent of the National Labor Relations Board and subject to Article
III, Section 9 of its Rules and Regulations-Series 1, among all pro-
duction, maintenance, service and transportation employees paid on
an hourly, tonnage or piece basis in the Monessen plant of the
Pittsburgh Steel Company on the payroll on the date of the pay-
ment of wages immediately preceding the date of this direction,
except, those employees engaged in a clerical capacity, policemen,
watchmen, hospital employees and all officials and others in a super-
visory capacity, to determine whether they desire to be represented
by the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers
of North America, All Nations Lodge No. 164, or by the Employees
Representation Plan.
DECISIONS AND ORDERS 263
DIRECTION OF ELECTION (ALLENPORT PLANT)
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 Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 1, it is
DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation authorized by the
National Labor Relations Board in this case to ascertain repre-
sentatives for collective bargaining between the employees in the
Allenport plant of the Pittsburgh Steel Company and the Pitts-
burgh Steel Company, an election by secret ballot shall be con-
ducted within a period of ten days from the date of this direction
of election under the direction and supervision of Clinton S. Golden,
Regional Director for the Sixth Region, acting in this matter as
agent of the National Labor Relations Board and subject to Article
III, Section 9 of its Rules and Regulations-Series 1, among all pro-
duction, maintenance, service and transportation employees paid on
an hourly, tonnage or piece basis in the Allenport plant of the
Pittsburgh Steel Company on the payroll on the date of the pay-
ment of wages immediately preceding the date of this direction,
except those employees engaged in a clerical capacity, policemen,
watchmen, hospital employees and all officials and others in a. super-
visory capacity, to determine whether they desire to be represented
by the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers of
North America, Allenport Lodge No. 160, or by the Employees
Representation Plan.
97571-36-vol. 1-18