Robertshaw-Fulton Controls Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Mar 28, 1950

88 N.L.R.B. 1508 (N.L.R.B. 1950)

In the Matter of ROBERTSHAW-FULTON CONTROLS COMPANY (FuLTON
SYLPHON DIVISION), EMPLOYER and INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF
MACHINISTS, LODGE 555, PETITIONER
Cases Nos. 10-RC-770, 10-RC-771, and 10-RC-772.-Decided March
28, 1950
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
Upon separate petitions duly filed, a consolidated hearing was held
before Clarence D. Musser, hearing officer. The hearing officer's rul-
ings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby
affirmed.
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 [Chairman Herzog and Members
Houston and Reynolds].
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 certain em-
ployees of the Employer.
3. Questions affecting commerce exist concerning the representation
of employees of the Employer within the meaning of Section 9 (c)
(1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
4. The Petitioner seeks to represent separate units of (a) mainte-
nance electricians and electrician lubricators, (b) maintenance carpen-
ters and painters, and (c) maintenance plumbers and welders. The
Intervenor, Federal Labor Union No. 21754, A. F. of L., contends that
the proposed units do not constitute craft groups and that, for this
reason as well as a collective bargaining history on a broader basis, the
units sought are inappropriate. The Employer is neutral.
The Employer manufactures temperature and pressure controls.
In addition to a number of production departments, it also has a
maintenance department. All the employees whom the Petitioner
88 NLRB,No. 260.
1508
ROBERTSHAW-FULTON CONTROLS COMPANY 1509
seeks to include in one or another of its three proposed units work in
this maintenance department.
(a) Maintenance electricians and electrician lubricators
The Employer has 10 electricians and 2 electrician lubricators.
According to the job description, the electrician "keeps electrical
equipment such as motors, generators, telephones, switches, and so
forth in a good state of repair and makes minor electrical installa-
tions." The lubricator oils electrical equipment on a preventive
maintenance basis.
(b) Maintenance carpenters and painter
There are six carpenters and one painter. The carpenters are
responsible for the maintenance of all woodwork. They also build
racks, shelves, tables, and cabinets needed in the plant and do nec-
essary glazing work. The painter is carried under the carpenter job
classification, receiving the pay of that job, but spends most of his
time at painting and glazing.
(c) Maintenance plumbers and welder
The plumber "uses a drill press, pipe threading machine, hand
dies, pipe cutter and other common hand tools to fit pipe for water
lines, steam lines, vacuum lines, compressed air lines, or for anything
about the plant requiring pipes and valves." There are 10 of these
plumbers. There is also 1 welder who repairs stainless steel annealing
baskets and works with the plumbers in welding pipe and in making
other plumbing repairs.
As previously stated, the maintenance electricians, carpenters,
plumbers, lubricators, painters, and welders are all part of the mainte-
nance department, and are all engaged in maintenance work. They
do not interchange with production employees nor, except in emer-
gencies, with one another.' Although the Employer has no ap-
prenticeship system, it requires that electricians, carpenters, plumbers,
painters, and welders have the skill of their trade.
The Board has held many times that maintenance electricians,
maintenance carpenters, and maintenance plumbers, with skills com-
parable to those of the employees involved herein, may constitute
separate units, despite a history of collective bargaining on a plant-
' On the second shift, however, when the work load is heavy the plumbers may be given
the assistance of an electrician or an electrician lubricator. If assigned to plumber' s work,
the latter receive plumber's pay.
1510 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
wide basis 2 We perceive no reason for departing from these decisions
in this case.
We shall join the electrician lubricators with the electricians be-
cause, although the former have considerably less skill than the lat-
ter, their interests are more closely allied with the electricians than
with any other classification of employees within the department.
We shall also include the painter with the carpenters and the welder
with the plumbers. We are precluded from establishing separate
painter and welder units because there is only one employee in each of
these classifications. In lieu of such separate units, we believe that,
on the basis of employee associations and interests at this plant, the
painter can appropriately bargain with the carpenters and the welder
with the plumbers.
Although as set forth above, electricians, carpenters, and plumbers
may constitute separate units, they may also, as they have in the'past,
be included in a plant-wide unit. In these circumstances, we shall be
guided in part by the desires of the employees involved. We shall
make no final unit determination until we have first ascertained the
wishes of the employees as expressed in the elections directed herein-
after. If a majority of employees in any voting group vote for the
Petitioner, the employees in that group will be taken to have indicated
their desire to constitute a separate appropriate unit.
We shall direct elections among the employees in each of the follow-
ing voting groups in the Employer's plant at Knoxville, Tennessee,
excluding from each group all supervisors as defined in the Act :
(a) All maintenance electricians and electrician lubricators.
(b) All maintenance carpenters and painter.
(c) All maintenance plumbers and welder.
DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the pur-
poses of collective bargaining with the Employer, elections by secret
ballot shall be conducted as early as possible, but not later than 30 days
from the date of this Direction, under the direction and supervision
of the Regional Director for the Region in which this case was heard,
and subject to Sections 203.61 and 203.62 of National Labor Relations
Board Rules and Regulations, among the employees in the voting
groups described in paragraph numbered 4, above, who were employed
during the payroll period immediately preceding the date of this
2 CodCsolidated Vultee Aircraft Corp., 88 NLRB 49 (electricians ) ; John F. Jelke Com-
pany, 83 NLRB 442 (electricians ) ; Standard Oil Company of California, 79 NLRB
1466 (carpenters; plumbers) ; The Procter & Gamble Manufacturing Company, 78 NLRB
1054 ( electricians ; pipe fitters ) ; United States Potash Company, 77 NLRB 947 ( carpenters ;
pipe fitters).
BOBERTSHAW-FULTON CONTROLS COMPANY 1511
Direction of Elections, including employees who did not work during
said payroll period because they were ill or on vacation or temporarily
laid off, 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 elections, and also excluding employees on strike who
are not entitled to reinstatement, to determine in each voting group
whether they desire to be represented, for purposes of collective bar-
gaining, by International Association of Machinists, Lodge 555, or by
Federal Labor Union No. 21754, A. F. of L., or by neither.