Schlumberger Well Surveying Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

May 5, 1940

83 N.L.R.B. 375 (N.L.R.B. 1940)

In the Matter of SCHLUMBEROER WELL SURVEYING CORPORATION,
EMPLOYER and LOCAL UNION 716, INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF
ELECTRICAL WORKERS, PETITIONER
Case No. 39-IBC-26.Decided May 6,19.4;0
DECISION
AND
ORDER
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before James R.
Webster, hearing officer of the National Labor Relations Board. The
hearing officer's rulings 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 Murdock].
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 Petitioner is a labor organization claiming 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
reasons:
The Petitioner seeks to represent a unit of all electrical workers in
the Electric Shop at 2720 LeeLand Avenue, and the electricians in the
Cable Shop at 6030 Long Drive, at the Employer's Houston, Texas,
plant, excluding guards, clerical employees, supervisors, and all other
employees. The Electric and Cable Shops and several other shops
comprise the Employer's Material Department. The Employer con-
tends that the unit sought by the Petitioner is inappropriate, and
moves that the petition should therefore be dismissed or, in the alterna-
tive, that a more comprehensive Material Department unit, including
the electrical workers, should be found appropriate.2.
'Matter of Sohlumberger Well Surveying Corporation, 79 N. L. R. B. 59.
' The unit sought by the Petitioner includes about 82 employees , whereas the unit claimed
by the Employer to be appropriate includes about 268 employees.
83 N. L . R. B., No. 51.
375
376 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
The Employer is a consulting engineering firm engaged in render-
ing certain specialized services to the drilling departments of various
oil producing companies. As wells are being drilled, the Employer,
by the use of electric cables attached to elaborately equipped instru-
ment trucks, obtains such information, as the depth of the well at a
given stage of the drilling, the thickness, content, and radioactivity of
a specific formation, the angle and direction of the dip of the forma-
tion, the deviation of the well from the vertical, and other subsurface
data.
_
This proceeding involves employees at the Employer's Houston,
Texas, plant, who are engaged in the. construction, assembly, and major
overhauling of the Employer's instrument trucks and equipment. The
Employer purchases specially built truck chassis, which are introduced
into its production line through the Truck Shop, where air brakes,
transmissions , drive mechanisms, and other mechanical features are
installed. The truck is then moved to the Electric Shop for wiring
and the installation of some electrical equipment. Simultaneously,
a large metal body, called a "cab," which houses the operator and the
special equipment , is constructed in -the Truck Shop, and is trans-
ferred to the Electric Shop for installation of lights, switches, and
other electric wiring. The truck and the cab are returned to the
Truck Shop where the cab is affixed to the truck, and certain large
mechanical equipment i's added., It is then returned to the Electric
Shop for electric wiring involving both the truck and the cab. While
it is in the Electric Shop,, the ,recorder, the control panels; and other
specialized equipment, which have been constructed and assembled in
the Electrical Production Shop, are installed by employees from_that
shop, The Cable Shop, which, is under the direction of the superin-
tendent of the Electric Shop, prepares the cable by attaching it to,
drums, splicing it, marking it, and making necessary electrical con-
nections. . ,
The work of the Electric Shop is-primarily confined to the wiring
of motors, trucks , and cabs, but includes some mechanical and other
nonelectrical work. The Electrical Production Shop, which the Peti-
tioner does not include in its proposed unit ; includes the Galvano-
meter , Shop , and its function is to construct specialized , electrical.
equipment , primarily the control panels for, the gamma ray log, the,
dipmeter and photoclinometer, the induction log, the radio active
marker, other electrical measuring and marking devices, and the equip-
ment by which information is photographically recorded. Some of,
the electrical sending and measuring devices, which are lowered into-
the well at the end,of the?cables, are wired in the. Electric Shop,. 2nd11
others are wired elsewhere;nas,^.foi ear%iple, the Mechanical, Sample
Taker, which is produced and wired in the MechanicgFAssembly.,Shop.
SCHLUMBERGER WELL SURVEYING CORPORATION '377
The Employer does not hire skilled electricians for its Electric Shop,
but trains its own men for the special tasks required. Although the
duties of that shop require some technical electrical skills, they do not
run the gamut of skills required of a journeyman electrician. Much
of the work of the Electrical Production Shop is electronic in nature,
but a substantial portion of it is indistinguishable from that of the
Electric Shop. In addition, some electric wiring is done in various
other shops. Interchange of personnel is infrequent, though em-
ployees are occasionally transferred on a permanent basis. The Em-
ployer's maintenance electrical work is done by outside contractors.
All employees have the same wage scales, vacations, and profit-
sharing plan. The Employer's entire Material Department, which is
composed of the Truck Shop, Electric Shop, Electrical Production
Shop, Mechanical Assembly Shop, and Machine Shop, is engaged in
the production of the Employer's completed equipment truck. This
requires that the work of each shop be scheduled in relation to the
work of every other shop, in one interdependent operation.
The Board has frequently permitted maintenance electricians, whose
work is not a regular and indispensable segment of the production-line
operation, to be separately represented.3 However, where, as in the
present case, the electrical work is inextricably integrated with the
production process,4 where some electrical work is performed outside
the unit sought,5 and where the employees sought serve no apprentice-
ship and their skills do not encompass the breadth of skills exercised
by a journeyman electrician," the Board customarily refuses to estab-
lish them in a separate unit. On the basis of the entire record herein,
we find that the unit sought by the Petitioner is inappropriate for
collective bargaining purposes, and we shall therefore grant the Em-
ployer's motion to dismiss the petition.
ORDER
Upon the entire record in this case, the National Labor Relations
Board hereby orders that the petition herein be, and it hereby is,
dismissed.
8 Matter of Seeger Refrigeration Company, 80 N. L. R B. 586; Matter of George S. Mep-
ham Corporation, 78 N. L R. B . 1081 ; Matter of Goodyear Synthetic Rubber Corporation,
78 N. L R B 1264 ; Matter of Hunter Packing Company, 79 N. L . R. B. 197 ; Matter of
Mergenthaler Linotype Company, 80 N. L. R. B. 132.
Matter of Dodge San Leandro Plant, 80 N. L. R. B. 1031 ; Matter of Ford Motor Company
( Maywood Plant ), 78 N. L. R. B. 887; Matter of Baldwin Locomotive Works, 76 N. L. R. B.
922; and see Matter of International Harvester Company ( Fort Wayne, Indiana, Plant),
80 N. L. R. B. 1451.
6 Matter of Corn Products Refining Company, 80 N. L. R. B. 362; Matter of Northwest
Paper Company , 79 N. L . R. B. 1070; Matter of General Mills, Inc . (Mechanical Division),
77 N. L R. B. 474.
e Matter of Allis - Chalmers Manufacturing Company, 77 N. L . R. B. 719 . Cf. Matter of
Todd Shipyards, 80 N. L . R. B. 382.