Precision Castings Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Sep 14, 1955

114 N.L.R.B. 63 (N.L.R.B. 1955)

PRECISION CASTINGS CORPORATION 63
Precision Castings Corporation and International Brotherhood
of Electrical Workers, AFL, Petitioner
Precision Castings Corporation and International Union , United
Automobile, Aircraft and Agricultural Implement Workers
of America, CIO, Petitioner . Cases Nos. 13-RC-4440 and 13-RC-
4460. September 14, 1955
DECISION, ORDER, AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon petitions duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, a consolidated hearing was held before Jewel G. Maher,
hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are-
free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the Act.
2. The labor organizations involved claim to represent certain em-
ployees of the Employer.
3. For reasons stated hereinafter, no question affecting commerce
exists concerning the representation of employees of the Employer in
Case No. 13-RC-4440 within the meaning of Section 9 (c) (1) and
Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act. We do, however, find that a ques-
tion affecting commerce exists concerning the representation of em-
ployees of the Employer in Case No. 13-RC-4460, within the meaning
of Section 9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
4. In Case No. 13-RC-4440, the Petitioner, hereafter called the
IBEW, seeks to represent a unit of the Employer's maintenance elec-
tricians, excluding electricians' helpers. In Case No. 13-RC-4460,
the Petitioner, hereafter called the UAW, seeks to represent a unit of
the Employer's production and maintenance employees, including the
electricians. The Employer contends that its maintenance electricians
do not constitute an appropriate craft unit. It agrees that the pro-
duction and maintenance unit, requested by the UAW, is appropriate.
The plant involved in this proceeding has been in operation since
April 1952. There has been no history of collective bargaining for
any of these employees.
The Employer is engaged in the manufacture of zinc and aluminum
pressure diecastings. It uses 22 electrically operated diecasting
machines in the manufacturing process. At the time of the hearing
there were 4 electricians, and 1 electricians' helper working at the
plant.' They work under the supervision of the maintenance fore-
man, who also supervises 2 millwrights, the millwright helper, 5 ma-
chine repairmen, 1 painter and oiler, 3 general maintenance employees,
I One electrician was on leave of absence at the time of the hearing. The record indi-
cates that he will not return to work for the Employer.
114 NLRB No. 19.
64 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
and I building and grounds maintenance employees. Although the
electricians do some of their work in a fenced-in area in one corner
of the maintenance department, they also work throughout the plant,
as do the other maintenance employees.
The electricians do general electrical-maintenance work in the plant.
They wire setups for dies that are set in the casting machines,,main-
tain electrical safeties in the plant, and repair such electrical equip-
ment as temperature controllers, timers, magnetic valves, relays, and
pyrometers. They are not qualified to do any repair work on the
transformer.. Such work is done by the outside contractor who in-
stalled the transformer. Electrical timers are sent out of the plant to
be repaired and electrical motors are also sent out to be rewound.
Only one of the electricians is qualified to lay out the circuits that are
required on the diecasting machines.
There is nothing in the record to indicate that the employees sought
by the'IBEW are journeymen electricians. None of them are licensed
electricians. The Employer does not have an apprenticeship system,
and the record does not show that there is any clearly defined system
of progression for electricians. They work the same hours and have
the same employee benefits as do .the other maintenance employees.
On this record we are unable to find that the employees sought by
the IBEW are craftsmen who possess and exercise the gamut of skills
characteristic to their craft, or that their interests differ from those
of other employees in the plant. We therefore find that the unit
sought by the IBEW does not constitute a separate appropriate unit
on a craft or any other basis .2
In view of our determination that a craft unit of electricians is not
warranted under the circumstances set forth above, and as a plantwide
unit is a normal unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bar-
gaining, we find that the following employees of the Employer con-
stitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining
within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.'
All production and maintenance employees employed at the Em-
ployer's Chicago, Illinois, plant, including all maintenance electri-
cians, but excluding office-clerical employees, professional employees,
guards, and supervisors as defined in the Act.
[The Board dismissed the petition.]
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.]
9 Cf. A. 0 . Smith Corporation, Granite City Frame Plant , 111 NLRB 200; Chicago Pneu-
matic Tool Company, 108 NLRB 174 , 175; Reynolds Metals Company , 108 NLRB 821, 822.
a At the hearing , the Employer contended that the electricians should be excluded from
any unit because it intends , at some future date, to subcontract its electrical work. As
there are electricians now working at the plant , we find no merit in the Employer's con-
tention, and shall include the electricians in the unit.