Rayonier, Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Mar 22, 1955

111 N.L.R.B. 1090 (N.L.R.B. 1955)

1090 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Helpers of America, AFL, as the exclusive representative of all employees in
the bargaining unit described below with respect to grievances , labor disputes,
rates of pay, wages , hours of employment, and other conditions of employment.
The bargaining unit is:
All our drivers, including loaders, employed at our Amarillo terminal ex-
clusive of office and clerical , garage, and professional employees , guards,
watchmen , and supervisory employees.
WE WILL NOT in any like or related manner interfere with, restrain , or coerce
our employees in the exercise of their right to self-organization , to form or join
labor organizations , to bargain collectively through representatives of their
own choosing , and to engage in concerted activities for the purpose of collec-
tive bargaining or other mutual aid or protection as guaranteed in Section 7
of the Act or to refrain from any or all of such activities except to the extent
that such right may be affected by an agreement requiring membership in a
labor organization as a condition of employment as authorized in Section 8 (a)
(3) of the Act.
WE WILL upon request bargain collectively with the above-named Union as
the exclusive representative of all employees in the bargaining unit above de-
scribed and if an understanding is reached embody it in a signed agreement.
FERGUSON-STEERE MOTOR COMPANY,
Employer.
Dated---------------- By----------------------------------------------
(Representative ) ( Title)
This notice must remain posted for 60 days from the date hereof, and must not be
altered , defaced, or covered by any other material.
RAYONIER , INC. and INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF PULP, SULPHITE
AND PAPER MILL WORKERS , AFL AND INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION
OF MACHINISTS , AFL AND UNITED ASSOCIATION OF JOURNEYMEN
AND APPRENTICES OF THE PLUMBING AND PIPE FITTING INDUSTRY OF
THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA, LOCAL 177, AFL, PETITIONERS.
Cases Nos. 10-RC-2781, 10-RC-2793, 10-RC-2794, 10-RC-2795,
and 10-RC-2797. March 22, 19515
Supplemental Decision and Order
On December 6, 1954, the Board issued a Decision and Direction
of Election (110 NLRB 1191) in the above-entitled proceeding finding
that certain groups of employees may constitute appropriate units for
the purposes of collective bargaining. Although the Board ordered
an election among a group of welders, it reserved decision as to the
appropriateness of a separate unit of such welders and ordered that
their ballots be impounded pending further consideration. The
International Association of Machinists, AFL and Local Union 177,
United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing
and Pipe Fitting Industry of the United States and Canada, AFL,
seek, individually, to represent the welders as a separate appropriate
unit; the International Brotherhood of Pulp, Sulphite and Paper
Mill Workers, AFL, hereinafter referred to as Pulp, Sulphite Workers,
seeks to represent them as part of an overall production and main-
111 NLRB No. 178.
RAYONIER, INC. 1091
tenance unit. The elections in the case were held on December 22
and 23, 1954. The welders' ballots were not sufficient to affect the
results of the election in the production and maintenance unit and, on
January 6, 1955, the Pulp, Sulphite Workers was certified as the col-
lective-bargaining representative of the employees in that unit.
The Board has recently reexamined the status of welders as a craft
group 1 and has determined that welders are not a separate and distinct
craft within the meaning of the definition in the American Potash,
case.2 The welders in the instant case operate out of a central pool
and are not regularly assigned to work with any particular craft.
For the reasons stated in the Clayton and Lambert decision, denying
craft severance to welders as a separate unit, we find that the welders
in the instant case may not constitute a separate unit for the purposes
of collective bargaining but rather are properly included in the overall
production and maintenance unit. Accordingly, we shall order that
the impounded ballots of the welders, which, as indicated above, were
not sufficient to affect the results of the election in that unit, be de-
stroyed and that the welders be included in the unit represented by
the Pulp, Sulphite Workers.
[The Board ordered that the Regional Director for the Tenth
Region destroy the ballots cast by the welders and that the welders,
their helpers, and leadmen be included within the production and
maintenance unit and be represented for the purposes of collective,
bargaining by International Brotherhood of Pulp, Sulphite and Paper
Mill Workers, AFL, the certified bargaining representative for that
unit.]
MEMBER RODGERS, dissenting :
I do not agree with the conclusion of my colleagues that the welders
in this case may not constitute a separate appropriate unit,
Like the Employer's machinists, millwrights, and carpenters whom
the Board has decided might appropriately be represented in sepa-
rate units,3 the welders work under the millwright and machine shop
foreman. They are assigned to a pool, and perform all the welding
that is required in connection with maintenance and repair work in the
plant. They "do a great variety of work," including pipe welding.
At least 2 years' experience is required before the welders are consid-
ered skilled. Their skill includes a knowledge of metals. The Em-
ployer pays the welder leadmen, the 3 grades of welders and the 3
grades of welder helpers the identical hourly rates that are paid cor-
responding grades of millwrights, pipefitters, carpenters, and elec-
1 Clayton and Lambert Manufacturing Company, 111 NLRB 540
2 Amertican Potash & Chemical Corporation, 107 NLRB 1418
3 Rayonier, Inc, 110 NLRB 1191.
344056-55-voI 111-70
1092 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
tricians. These latter employees were termed by the Board to be
craftsmen, capable of constituting separate appropriate craft units.4
In my concurring opinion in the Clayton and Lambert case,' I ex-
pressly rejected any inference that welding is not a recognized craft,
or that a qualified welder does not possess craft skills. I adhere to
this view, and, on this record and the facts summarized above, I would
find that the welders herein are craftsmen who may appropriately be
represented separately, if they so desire.
My colleagues do not advert either to the skill, or to the lack of skill,
possessed by the welders involved in this case. Instead, they rest their
decision solely on the generality of the Board's decision in the Clayton
and Lambert case. This, I believe, is a completely unwarranted ex-
tension of a decision which was concerned with a clearly distinguish-
able matter. For the issue in Clayton and Lambert was whether weld-
ers could, under the American Potash doctrine,' be severed from an
existing production and maintenance unit. That is not the case here.
Here there is no problem of severance, the real issue being whether
welders may in the first instance be established as a separate unit.
The problem of Clayton and Lambert, as a close reading of the opinion
of Chairman Farmer and Member Peterson will show, stemmed from
the fact that there is no one union that has traditionally represented
welders, and from the further fact that the Board announced in
American Potash that it would deny severance to a union that was not
the traditional representative of the craft employees it was seeking to
represent. The decision of Clayton and Lambert to deny separate
severance to welders, but to include them, for severance purposes, in
a unit with other craftsmen with whom they are regularly assigned,
represents an attempt to reconcile the inflexibility of the rule with the
reality of the fact' Here no such reconciliation is necessary. As I
see it, there is no factor present in this case that calls for a departure
from the long-established Board practice of granting welders the
choice of separate representation where there is no history of their
representation on a broader basis.'
4 Ibid
5 Clayton and Lambert Manufacturing Company, supra.
6 American Potash & Chemical Corporation , supra.
7 The failure of the American Federation of Labor to establish a separate welders' union
appears to have been more the result of an internal dispute over jurisdiction , rather than
a reflection of a considered judgment that the welders' skills do not warrant the estab-
lishment of a separate union See AFL, Railway Employees Department, Proceedings,
1914, p. 22, ibid, 1916, pp 66-70, 172-175; ibid, 1918, pp. 25-32, 275-276; ibid, 1920,
pp. 74-78, AFL, Proceedings, 1916, pp 139-140, 278-279; rabid, 1919, p 461 ; ibid., 1920,
p 434, ibid, 1929, pp 148-149, 385-386 ; ibid , 1934, p. 715 ; ibid , 1936, pp 582-583 ,
ibid , 1940, pp 473-476 , rabid , 1941, pp 523-526 , Boilermakers, International Lodge
Constitution and Subordinate Lodge Constitution, 1953 , IAM, Constitution, 1953, pp
IV-VII, 57
8 See, for example, California Research & Development Company, 100 -NLRB 1385,
Mathieson Chemical Corporation, 100 NLRB 1028; Owens-Cornting Fibreglass Corpora-
tion, 84 NLRB 298, The Consolidated Pipe Company, 72 NLRB 1236, Dahlstrom Company,
58 NLRB 293, Platzer Boat Works, 59 NLRB 292