Rockford Drop Forge Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Nov 8, 1949

86 N.L.R.B. 1311 (N.L.R.B. 1949)

In the Matter Of ROCKFORD DROP FORGE COMPANY, EMPLOYER and
INTERNATIONAL DIE SINKERS CONFERENCE, PETITIONER
Case 11%o. 13-RC-766.Decided November 8, 1949
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before William J.
Scott, hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hear-
ing 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 Gray].
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 organizations involved claim to represent certain
employees of the Employer.
3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the representa-
tion 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
reasons:
4. The Petitioner, herein called the Die Sinkers, seeks to sever from
an existing production and maintenance unit presently represented
by International Association of Machinists, herein called the Ma-
chinists, a unit of all "employees working on dies or parts of dies
used in the manufacture and completion of forgings" at the Em-
ployer's Rockford, Illinois, plant, excluding office and clerical em-
ployees, other employees, and supervisors. The Machinists opposes
the severance of these die department employees from its larger unit.
The Employer favors the larger unit for bargaining purposes.
a. The past bargaining history
The Employer is engaged in the manufacture of drop forgings at
its Rockford, Illinois, plant. Since 1941, International Brotherhood
of Blacksmiths, Drop Forgers, and Helpers, herein called the Black-
86 N. L. R. B., No. 132. 1311
1312 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
smiths, has represented employees in the following departments at
the Employer's plant : forge repair, shear, heat treat, and trimming
departments, inspection and shipping departments.' Also, since 1941,
the Machinists, as a result of a consent election held in Case No.
13-R-873, has represented other production and maintenance em-
ployees at the plant, including the die department employees.
In 1946, a local union chartered by the Die Sinkers filed a petition in
Case No. 13-R-3873, seeking to represent the employees then repre-
sented by the Machinists, or, in the alternative, a portion of the em-
ployees within that group identified as "all employees working on dies
and parts of dies." In its decision,2 the Board found that employees
then represented by the Machinists constituted an appropriate bar-
gaining unit, rejecting as inappropriate the alternative request for
a unit of all employees working on dies or parts of dies. It found
that "the evidence clearly showed that employees who work on dies or
parts of dies are but part of the group in the machine, tool, and die
shoji and cannot be properly-segregated from that shop for bargaining
purposes." The Machinists won the election among employees in the
unit found appropriate, and was certified by the Board on May 8, 1947,
as their exclusive bargaining representative. In the instant proceed-
ing the Die Sinkers, the Petitioner herein, seeks to establish, upon the
instant record, the appropriateness of the narrower unit rejected in
the earlier proceeding.
b. Employees in the die department
The Employer's die department consists of 2 rooms, known as Die
Room #1 and Die Room #2, located in adjacent buildings separated
by a street. Both rooms are enclosed on 3 sides by walls; on the fourth
side they respectively adjoin the trimming room and the saw and
shear room, which are production rooms. The space between Die
Room #1 and the trimming room contains an elevator shaft and die
racks. In a separate enclosure adjoining Die Room #1 is an unspe-
cified number of welders, who spend a majority of their time repair-
ine dies. The space between Die Room #2 and the saw room is
entirely free from obstructions. In a corner of Die Room #2 are
10 maintenance employees, separated from the die workers by 2 truck-
ing aisles, who- do machine repair and construction work for the
entire plant.
Dies in the course of fabrication move from Die Room #2 to Die
Rooni #1. Although access from one room to the other is frequently
1 Matter of Rockford Drop Forge Company, 31 N. L. R. B. 155. The unit found appro-
priate in this proceeding was later expanded by a consent election held in Case No. 13-R-872.
2 Matter of Rockford Drop Forge Company, 73 N . L. R. B. 26, 30.
ROCKFORD DROP FORGE COMPANY 1313
via the saw and shear room, no die processing is performed in that
room.
Each die room has separate immediate supervisors, responsible to
the general foreman of the die department, who in turn also acts'as
assistant plant superintendent and head of the engineering depart-
ment. On occasion, when there is too much die work for the die de-
partment to handle, the Employer purchases dies from outside sources.
Of a total of 365 production and maintenance employees in the
Employer's plant, approximately 45 are employed in the die depart-
ment, under the following classifications: die sinkers A, B, and C;
forge die finishers A, B, and C; machine operators A, and B, and
trimmer and coin die makers A, B, and C. The Employer has no
specific apprentice training program in the die department. Ad-
vancement depends on training and experience. Some employees are
hired with experience on die work; others progress into die work from
the plant. Die sinkers lay out and sink dies used in the manufacture
of tools for the Employer's production processes. They perform no
production work.' To qualify as average operators, die sinkers A are
required to have 7 years of previous experience on forge dies; die
sinkers B, 4 years; and die sinkers C, 3 years.
Die sinkers A are the highest paid employees at the plant and have
the longest training period requirement. They do not interchange
with other employees, in the die room or elsewhere, and spend all of
their time working on dies. Ten die department employees are classi-
fied as die sinkers, of whom five are classified as die sinkers A.
Forge die finishers, otherwise called die polishers, perform milling
operations, polish forge dies, and repair worn dies. To qualify as
average operators, forge die finishers A are required to have 3 years of
previous experience; forge die finishers B, 2 years; and forge die
finishers C, 1 year. The 11 forge die finishers at the die department
spend all of their time working on dies.
Machine operators operate boring mills, planers, duplicating ma-
chines, lathes, shapers, grinders, and drill presses and perform close
tolerance work on forging dies, trimmers, fixtures, repairs, and main-
tenance parts. The machines which they operate are highly special-
ized and are not employed elsewhere in the plant. To qualify as
average operators, machine operators A are required to have 4 years
of previous experience and machine operators B, 21/2 years. There are
5 machine operators A and 11 machine operators B in the die depart-
ment.3
8 Machine operators A include boring mill, Warner & Swasey, and Keller machine
operators, and planers ; machine operators B include lathe and radial drill operators,
shapers, and millers.
1314 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Trimmer and coin die makers lay out and make drop forging trim-
iriers, dies, and gauges and assemble, disassemble, and repair trimmers
and dies. To qualify as average operators, trimmer and coin die
makers A are required to have 4 years of experience on trimmers and
coin dies; trimmer and coin die makers B, 3 years; and trimmer and
coin die makers C, 2 years. Whenever machine operators and trimmer
and coin die makers have no die work to perform, they spend their time
making repair parts for machines throughout the plant. They per-
form this repair work in the die rooms and only .infrequently visit
other departments in order to measure machines for repair parts.
Machine operators spend approximately half of their time, and trim-
mer and coin die operators, 75 percent of their time, in the fabrication
of machine repair parts. As noted above, all welders in the space
adjoining Die Room #1 spend a majority of their time repairing dies
under die room supervision.
The evidence shows that the Employer's die department employees
center in a nucleus of die sinkers with journeyman skills. Other em-
ployees in the proposed unit are skilled machine operators and welders
who perform the usual functions traditionally associated with the die
sinker's craft. The evidence further shows that the die department
employees form a homogeneous and clearly identifiable group, with
similar interests and conditions of employment. We therefore find,
on the basis of the instant record, notwithstanding the broader bar-
gaining history at the Employer's plant or our earlier finding that these
employees may constitute a separate unit, if they so desire.4
We find that all employees who work on dies and parts of dies in
the die department at the Employer's Rockford, Illinois, plant, includ-
ing all welders in the space adjoining Die Room #1 who spend a ma-
jority of their time repairing dies under die room supervision, but
excluding all other employees and supervisors, may constitute a unit
appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the
meaning of Section 9 (c) of the Act. However, we shall make no final
unit determination at this time, but shall first ascertain the desires of
these employees as expressed in the election hereinafter directed. If
a majority vote for the Petitioner, they will be taken to have indicated
their desire to constitute a separate appropriate unit.
4Matter of General Electric Company (Lynn River Works), 81 N. L. R. B. 1010; Matter
of Schultz Die Casting Company, 85 N. L. R. B. 1019, and cases cited; 66 N. L. It. A.,
as amended, Section 9 (b) (2).
ROCKFORD DROP FORGE COMPANY
DIRECTION OF ELECTION ,5
1315
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the
purposes of collective bargaining with the Employer, an election 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 super-
vision 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
unit found appropriate in paragraph numbered 4, above, who were em-
ployed during the pay-roll period ending September 3, 1949, including
employees who did not work during said pay-roll 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 election, and also
excluding employees on strike who are not entitled to reinstatement,
to determine whether they desire to be represented, for purposes of
collective bargaining, by International Die Sinkers Conference, or by
International Association of Machinists, or by neither.
5 Any participant in the election directed herein may , upon its prompt request to, and
approval thereof by, the Regional Director , have its name removed from the ballot.