Reynolds Metals Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Nov 20, 1950

92 N.L.R.B. 156 (N.L.R.B. 1950)

In the Matter Of REYNOLDS METALS COMPANY ( HURRICANE CREEK
'PLANT, EMPLOYER and LODGE 1775, INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION
OF MACHINISTS, PETITIONER
Case No. 32-RC-265.-Decided November 20,1950
DECISION AND ORDER
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before Anthony J.
Sabella, hearing officer.' The hearing officer's rulings made at the
hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.2
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3 (b) of the National Labor
Relations Act, the Board has delegated its powers in connection with
this case to a three-member panel [Members Houston, Reynolds, and
.Styles].
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the National Labor Relations Act.
2. The labor organization involved claims to represent employees
of the Employer.
3. No question affecting commerce exists concerning the represen-
tation of employees of the Employer within the. meaning of Section
9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6,) and (7) of the Act, for the following rea-
sons:
The Petitioner seeks to sever a craft unit of machinists from an es-
tablished unit of production and maintenance employees at the Em-
ployer's Hurricane Creek alumina separation plant at Bauxite,
Arkansas. United Steelworkers of America, CIO, herein called the
Intervenor, opposing the severance, contends that the Hurricane Creek
plant is a highly integrated component of the Employer's basic alu-
minimum operations and that the existing unit of employees is the only
appropriate unit at this plant.3 The Employer takes no position on
the unit issue.
I The petition and other formal papers were amended at the hearing to show the correct
name of the Employer.
2 On November 14, 1950, the Intervenor filed it motion, requesting oral argument and
permission to file a reply brief. Because the position of the parties is clearly set forth
at the hearing and in the briefs filed, the motion is denied.
3 Following separate consent elections among employees at the Employer's Hurricane
Creek and Jones Mills plants, respectively, the Employer bargained with the Intervenor
for these employees . The most recent contract embraces employees at both plants.
D2 NLRB No. 35..
156
REYNOLDS,METALS COMPANY 1-57•
The Employer, a Delaware corporation, with main offices at Rich-•
inond, ,Virginia, is engaged in the.production of aluminum metal
and aluminum products at. its numerous. plants in several States of
the United States. Its basic aluminum operations include the separa-
tion of alumina from. bauxite at its Hurricane Creek separation plant,
which alone is involved in this proceeding, and the reduction, of alu-
mina so produced into aluminum metal at its four aluminum reduction
plants at Jones..Mills, Arkansas;. Listerhill, Alabama; Longview,
Washington; and Troutdale, Oregon, respectively.. Aluminum metal.
produced at these plants is shipped to rolling mills, extrusion and
fabrication plants, and printing establishments operated by the Em-
ployer throughout the United States for the manufacture-of aluminum
products. .
The Employer's basic aluminum operations at its Hurricane Creek
separation plant and at its four aluminum ,reduction plants are con-
tinuous in nature-that is,. the processes employed for separation and
reduction involve the application to aluminum-bearing material of
streams of chemical liquids which must be kept in continuous flow
at each plant in order to function efficiently. To operate successfully
on a 24-hourpa-day basis, these basic plants require uninterrupted sup-
plies of material for processing. For this reason, the Employer pre-
pares, at its Richmond office, coordinated production schedules for its
basic plants, assuring a steady flow of alumina to its four reduction
plants from its Hurricane Creek plant, their sole supplier of that
product. The above-described separation and reduction operations
are analogous to similar operations in the basic steel industry, known
as beneficiation, whereby low-grade steel is converted into high-grade
steel through the application of continuous chemical processes.
The Hurricane Creek plant has approximately 950 employees..
Alumina constitutes 97 percent of its production; of the remainder, 1
percent consists of aluminum fluoride and sodium fluoride,. which is
shipped to the reduction plants for use in connection with their reduc-
tion operations, and 2 percent consists of aluminum trihydrate, used
in the chemical and ceramics industries, and the only product of this
plant which is sold to outside customers. Plant operations are or-.
ganized on the basis of 3 main divisions : (1) operations ; (2) steam
power, water, and air; and (3) maintenance and construction. Pro-
duction operations, carried on in the operations division, involve the
use of the Bayer-Sinter process for the separation of alumina, or
aluminum oxide from bauxite or aluminum ore. This complex process
involves applications of heat and mechanical and chemical processes,
all of which are integrated into one continuous operation. An inter-
ruption at any stage of the process causes an immediate and direct
158 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
impairment of production throughout the plant and may result in a.
delay of 7 to 15 days before normal operations can be resumed. The
operations division is directly dependent upon the steam power, water,
and air division for its supplies of the electricity and pneumatic power,
requisite to the operation of the Bayer-Sinter process, and upon the
maintenance and construction division for the regular assembly and
repair of machines used in this process.
The machine shop, sought by the Petitioner, is a part of the main-
tenance and construction division at the Hurricane Creek plant and
occupies one-fourth of a single floor building, known as the crafts
building, which also houses the pattern shop, the electrical shop, the
sheet metal shop, and a number of welders. There is no physical
barrier between the machine shop and the other groups in the building,
and all groups are served by the same overhead crane. Seventeen
journeyman machinists, two machinist assistants, a toolroom at-
tendant, and the overhead crane operator are listed as machine shop
employees. Machinists and their assistants construct and maintain
plant equipment, in the course of which they perform assembly,
fitting, dismantling, and repairing operations. Although regularly
employed in the machine shop area, they are frequently sent. to other
plant areas, where they work in collaboration with electricians, main-
tenance mechanics, and welders in the repair of production and power
machinery too large for removal to the machine shop, or the removal
of which would cause an interruption in the separation process. The
journeyman machinists appear to exercise the usual tools and skills
of their craft and are paid wages comparable to those paid the mem-
bers of other skilled crafts;- on the other hand, their work overlaps
that of maintenance mechanics, and their assistants are not required
to have machinists' skills 4 Furthermore, jobs in the machine shop
are available on a. plant-wide seniority basis, in the event that there
are no applicants with * previous experience in the machine shop.
There is no formal apprenticeship program at the plant for ma-
chinists.
Since its certification in June 1.946, the Intervenor has been the
bargaining representative for units of employees at the Employer's
Hurricane Creek and Jones Mills plants on a plant-wide basis.-' Its
latest contract, which covered employees in both units, expired on
October 1, 1950. Since its certification by this Board in 1948, Fed-
erated Aluminum Council, an association of unions affiliated with the
American Federation of Labor, has represented employees at the Em-
' The present machinists assistants lack machinist skills and are not in line for promo-
tion to machinist jobs.
'.Cases Nos. 15-R-1658 and 15-R-1665.
REYNOLDS METALS COMPANY 159
ployer's Longview, Washington, reduction plant.6 In Reynolds
Metals Company,' decided July 8, 1949, the Board permitted the
severance of several craft units from a plant-wide unit at the Em-
ployer's Troutdale, Oregon, reduction plant, and thereafter certified
craft unions affiliated with the American Federation of Labor as their
respective bargaining representatives; in its later decision in The
Permanente Metals Corporation," decided April 27, 1950, however, the
Board, finding inappropriate the severance of craft groups in basic
aluminum reduction plants similar to those of the Employer, ex-
pressly overruled the earlier Reynolds Metals decision 9
The Hurricane Creek plant, an integral link in the Employer's basic
aluminum operations, is in itself a highly integrated operation 'in
which machinists and other maintenance employees, spending a con-
siderable portion of their time in production areas, are regularly en-
gaged in work on the instrumentalities of production. Upon their
work, the essential continuity of the production processes at the plant
in large measure depends. In these respects, the Hurricane Creek
plant is integrated in the same manner and to the same extent as are
those basic plants in the steel and aluminum industries where we have
found that the interests of the employees are best served by the estab-
lishment therein of plant-tivide •units.10 Under these circumstances,
we see no reason to disturb the existing larger unit by severing there-
from the machine shop unit sought by the Petitioner.
Upon the basis of the above facts, and the entire record herein,
we find that the unit sought by the Petitioner is inappropriate and
shall dismiss the petition.
ORDER
IT Is 1IEREBY ORDERED that the petition filed in the instant case be,
and the same hereby is dismissed.
, Case No. 19-RC-93.
4 85 NLRB 110.
8 89 NLRB 804.
s As a result of certifications issued on march 19, 1947, following consent elections
separate unions currently represent craft groups at the Employer ' s Listerhill, Alabama,
reduction plant . Case No. 10-R-2515 ( unpublished).
The Permanente Metals Corporation, supra ; National Tube Company; 76 NLRB 1199.
929979-51-vol. 92--12