Saco-Lowell Shops

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

May 4, 1945

61 N.L.R.B. 898 (N.L.R.B. 1945)

In the Matter of S ACO-LOWELL SHOPS and TEXTILE WORKERS UNION
OF AMERICA, C. 1. O.
Case No. 1-R-22,983.-Decided May 4, 1945
Mr. Edwin M. Chamberlin, of Boston, Mass., for the Company.
Mr. Alphonse E. Renou f, of Biddeford, Me., for the Union.
Mr. Benj. E. Cook, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon an amended petition duly filed by Textile Workers Union of
America, C. I. 0., herein called the Union, alleging that a question
affecting commerce had arisen concerning the representation of em-
ployees of Saco-Lowell Shops, Biddeford, Maine, herein called the
Company, the National Labor Relations Board provided for an ap-
propriate hearing upon due notice before Leo J. Halloran, Trial Ex-
aminer. Said hearing was held at Biddeford, Maine, on March 16,
1945. The Company and the Union appeared and participated. All
parties were afforded full opportunity to be heard, to examine and
cross-examine witnesses, and to introduce evidence bearing on the is-
sues. The Trial Examiner's rulings made at the hearing are free from
prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed. All parties were afforded an
opportunity to file briefs with the Board.
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following:
FINDINGS OF FACT
I. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
Saco-Lowell Shops is a Maine corporation. It owns and operates
a plant with.oflices at Biddeford, Maine. It also owns the Pawtucket
Spinning Ring Company, Pawtucket, Rhode Island. The Company
maintains offices in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. The
Biddeford plant, the only plant involved in this proceeding 1 is en-
gaged in the manufacture of fire control mechanism, universal carrier
I The cities of Biddeford and Saco, Maine, are separated by a river. The Company
maintains its office in Biddeford , but conducts operations in both places
61 N. L. R. B,No.148.
898
SACO-LOWELL SHOPS 899
and airplane magneto parts. During the year 1944, the Company's
purchases of raw materials from outside the State of Maine exceeded
$7,000,000 in value. During the same period of time, the Company
sold and shipped to points outside the State of Maine, finished prod-
ucts valued in excess of $20,000,000.
The Company admits that it is engaged in commerce within the
meaning of the National Labor Relations Act.
II. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED
Textile Workers Union of America, affiliated with the Congress of
Industrial Organizations, is a labor organization admitting to mem-,
bership employees of the Company.
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
The Company has refused to grant recognition to the Union as the
exclusive bargaining representative of its employees until the Union
has been certified by the Board in an appropriate unit.
A statement of a Board agent, introduced into evidence at the
hearing, indicates that the Union represents a substantial number of
employees in the unit hereinafter found appropriate 2
We find that a question affecting commerce has arisen concerning
the representation of employees of the Company, within the meaning
of Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT
The Union, currently the representative of the Company's produc-
tion and maintenance employees, seeks a unit composed of all checkers
and time-study employees, excluding departmental foremen and assist-
ant foremen. The Company, however, contends that the time-study
employees should be excluded for the reason that their duties are
supervisory and confidential.
Time-study emmployees: There are 17 senior and 3 junior time-study
employees. Their average wage is 94 cents per hour. They decide
the rate of time within which a given operation should be completed
and their determination is final. While they do not set the monetary
rate to be paid for a given operation, the time set by the time-study
employees is determinative of the amount of a worker' s earnings.
Time-study employees appear in grievance conferences whenever the
correctness of a time standard forms the basis of a dispute between
management and the production worker and they also direct the work
' The Field Examiner reported that the Union submitted 53 cards : 53 of which bore
apparently genuine original signatures ; that the names of 44 persons appearing on the
cards were listed on the Company 's pay roll of February 19, 1945, which contained the
names of 63 employees in the alleged appropriate unit, and that the cards were dated
December 1944, and January 1945.
900 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
of the checkers. We are of the opinion that the time-study employees
perform managerial functions; 3 accordingly, we shall exclude them
from the unit herein found appropriate.
We find that all checkers at the Company's plant at Saco and
Biddeford, Maine, excluding time-study employees, foremen, assistant
foremen, and all other supervisory employees with authority to hire,
promote, discharge, discipline, or otherwise effect changes in the status
of employees, or effectively recommend such action, constitute a unit
appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the mean-
ing of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
V. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
We shall direct that the question concerning representation which
has arisen be resolved by an election by secret ballot among the em-
ployees in the appropriate unit who were employed during the pay-roll
period immediately preceding the date of the Direction of Election
herein, subject to the limitations and additions set forth in the
Direction.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
By virtue of and pursuant to the power vested in the National Labor
Relations Board by Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act,
and pursuant to Article III, Section 9, of National Labor Relations
Board Rules and Regulations-Series 3, as amended, it is hereby
DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation to ascertain representa-
tives for the purposes of collective bargaining with Saco-Lowell Shops,
Biddeford, Maine, an election by secret ballot shall be conducted as
early as possible, but not later than thirty (30) days from the date
of this Direction, under the direction and supervision of the Regional
Director for the First Region, acting in this matter as agent for the
National Labor Relations Board, and subject to Article III, Sections
10 and 11, of said Rules and Regulations, among the employees in the
unit found appropriate in Section IV, above, who were employed
during the pay-roll period immediately preceding the date of this
Direction, including employees who did not work during said pay-roll
period because they were ill or on vacation or temporarily laid off,
and including employees in the armed forces of the United States who
present themselves in person at the polls, but excluding any who have
since quit or been discharged for cause and have not been rehired or
reinstated prior to the date of the election, to determine whether or
not they desire to be represented by Textile Workers Union of Amer-
ica, C. 1. 0., for the purposes of collective bargaining.
3 See Matter of Hillsdale Steel Products Division of Spicer Manufacturing Corporation,
58 N. L . R. B. 1408; Matter of Inland Steel Container Company, 56 N. L. R. B. 138;
Matter of The Yale i Towne Manufacturing Company, 60 N. L. R. B. 626.