Seeger Refrigerator Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Nov 22, 1948

80 N.L.R.B. 586 (N.L.R.B. 1948)

In the Matter Of SEEGER REFRIGERATOR COMPANY, EMPLOYER and
INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS, LOCAL
B-110, AFL, PETITIONER and REFRIGERATOR WORKERS UNION, LOCAL
20459, AFL, INTERVENOR
In the Matter Of SEEGER REFRIGERATOR COMPANY, EMPLOYER and
TWIN CITY CARPENTERS DISTRICT COUNCIL AND ITS AFFILIATES OF
THE A. F. OF L., PETITIONER and REFRIGERATOR WORKERS UNION7
LOCAL 20459, AFL, INTERVENOR
Cases Nos. 18-RC-102 and 18-RC-131, respectively.Decided No-
vember 22, 1948
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
Upon separate petitions duly filed, a consolidated hearing was held
before a hearing officer of the National Labor Relations Board. At
the hearing the Employer and the Intervenor moved to dismiss both
petitions on the ground that the respective units sought by the peti-
tioning Unions were inappropriate.' For reasons hereinafter dis-
cussed, the motions are denied. 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-man panel consisting of the undersigned Board
Members.*
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. International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local B-110,
AFL, herein called the IBEW, Twin City Carpenters District Council
1 The Employer further objected to the holding of the hearing at Minneapolis , Minnesota,
rather than St. Paul, Minnesota , on the ground that the latter city was closer to its plant
and more convenient for the transportation of witnesses . The hearing extended over 2
days and on the second day it was, in fact, held at St . Paul. We find that the above pro-
cedure resulted in no material prejudice to the Employer 's interests and that its objections,
on this ground , are insufficient to warrant a dismissal of the petitions. Accordingly, this
motion of the Employer is denied.
*Houston , Reynolds , and Murdock.
80 N. L . R. B., No. 100.
586
SEEGER REFRIGERATOR COMPANY 587
and its Affiliates of the A. F. of L., herein called the Carpenters, and
Refrigerator Workers Union, Local 20459, AFL, herein called the
Intervenor, are labor organizations claiming to represent 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.
4. The petitioning Unions request the severance from the established
production and maintenance unit of two craft units of employees
employed in the maintenance department of the Employer's plant.
The IBEW seeks a unit of all journeymen maintenance electricians,
including working foremen and helpers, but excluding supervisors
and all other employees of the Employer. The Carpenters seeks
a unit comprising all maintenance mechanics,2 including maintenance
mechanics who perform emergency welding, helpers, and the car-
penter, but excluding the full-time maintenance welder, electricians,
steam fitters, tinners, plumbers, boiler-room employees, supervisors
and all other employees of the Employer. The Employer and the
Intervenor take the position that neither group is appropriate as a
separate unit. They contend that the work of the maintenance elec-
tricians and maintenance mechanics is integrated with that of the
production employees, that the maintenance mechanics are not a true
craft group, and, moreover, that the history of collective bargaining
on a plant-wide basis since 1937 points to the inappropriateness of
separate units. The Employer argues further that, if any group of
employees are to be severed, it should be the whole rather than sections
of the maintenance department.
The Employer is engaged in the business of manufacturing electrical
refrigerators. Its plant is located in 3 main buildings. The manu-
facturing process is carried on partially by the use of individual
machine units and partially by a conveyor-belt system of assembly.
Approximately 2,000 employees are employed in the plant. Of these,
about 10 are in the unit requested by the IBEW and 22 in the unit
sought by the Carpenters.
The maintenance electricians, whom the IBEW seeks as a separate
unit, are engaged exclusively in duties normally performed by mem-
bers of their craft. They work throughout the plant, repairing elec-
trical equipment and machinery, replacing broken cords, changing
fuses, repairing switches, meters, electrical motors, and performing
similar duties of a maintenance electrical nature. Fully qualified
maintenance electricians are required to have city and State licenses.
7 Referred to interchangeably in the record as millwrights.
588 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
They are directly supervised by a master electrician foreman, who
comes under the supervisory hierarchy of the maintenance department.
Several of the maintenance electricians have been licensed journeymen
electricians for more than 20 years. Although the Employer does not
have an apprenticeship program, the maintenance electrician helpers
receive on-the-job training and, when qualified, may be promoted to a
more highly skilled classification. Present plant seniority and pro-
motion rules permit transfers of production employees to classifica-
tions within the maintenance department, including those of mainte-
nance electrician and maintenance mechanic. However, employees
so transferred either must have had previous experience or must ex-
hibit an aptitude for the particular skill required.
The maintenance mechanics requested as a craft unit by the Car-
penters are under the separate supervision of two foremen in the
maintenance department. Their work consists of repairing, moving,
tearing down, and rebuilding various machine units throughout the
plant. Testimony at the hearing indicates that the maintenance
mechanics generally have served a 3- to 4-year period of apprentice-
ship. Their helpers receive on-the-job training and are promoted on
the basis of individual merit.
The Board has frequently found, under similar circumstances, that
maintenance electricians and their helpers of the type employed by
the Employer may, if they so desire, constitute separate appropriate
units.3 Likewise, maintenance mechanics and their helpers have been
severed from existing production and maintenance units 4 In apply-
ing the principles of craft severance, the Board has held that bargain-
ing history on a more inclusive basis is not, in itself, a controlling
factor. However, it has generally denied craft severance in cases
where the unit sought represented merely a segment of a craft,5 or
where the record revealed a peculiarly high degree of integration
among particular employees in a particular industry.6 The facts in
this case do not persuade us that the manufacture of electrical refrig-
erators in the Employer's plant is a process so highly integrated that
recognized craft groups must be denied an opportunity for separate
representation. The units requested, moreover, comprise the whole
3 Matter of General Tire and Rubber Company, 79 N. L. R B. 580, and cases cited
therein.
4 Matter of Victor Electric Products , Inc ,, 79 N. L. R B. 373; Matter of Certain-Teed
Products Corporation , 78 N L. R B 910 , Matter of A. 0. Smith Corporation (Kankakee
Works ), 78 N L R B 1050 , Matter of United States Potash Company , 77 N. L. It . B. 947.
6 Matter of Northwest Paper Company , 79 N. L. It. B. 1130, Matter of Coeur d'Alene
Mines Corporation , 77 N L. It. B. 570.
6 Matter of National Tube Company , 76 N. L. It. B 1199; Matter of Ford Motor Company
(Maywood Plant), 78 N L. R B. 887 ; Matter of General Motors Corporation, Fisher Body
Division -Van Nuys Plant , 79 N. L . It. B. 341.
SEEGER REFRIGERATOR COMPANY 589
and not merely a segment of the craft employees sought by the peti-
tioning Unions.
Accordingly, we find that the maintenance electricians and their
helpers may form a separate unit appropriate for the purposes of
collective bargaining.? We further find that the maintenance me-
chanics and their helpers are a homogeneous craft group within the
maintenance department and may also constitute a separate ap-
propriate unit.8
However, we shall make no final unit determinations at this time,
but shall direct elections among the following groups of employees
employed at the Employer's St. Paul, Minnesota, plant :
(a) All maintenance electricians and their helpers employed in the
maintenance department, excluding the master electrician foreman,
all supervisors and all other employees of the Employer.
(b) All maintenance mechanics and their helpers, including main-
tenance mechanics who perform emergency welding and maintenance
mechanics who specialize in repairing portable motors and filing saws,
but excluding the carpenter, the full-time maintenance welder, elec-
tricians, steam fitters, tinners, plumbers, boiler-room employees, f ore-
men, supervisors, and all other employees of the Employer.
If the majority of employees in voting group (a) select the IBEW,
they will be taken to have indicated their desire to constitute a separate
appropriate unit. Likewise, if the majority of employees in voting
group (b) select the Carpenters, they will be taken to have indicated
their desire to constitute a separate appropriate unit.
DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the
purposes of collective bargaining with the Employer, separate elec-
tions by secret ballot shall be conducted as early as possible, but not
later than 30 days from the date of this Direction, under the direc-
' The IBEW requested the inclusion of working foremen in the proposed unit of mainte-
nance electricians . It is clear from the record that the master electrician foreman is a
supervisor within the meaning of the amended Act. We shall therefore exclude him
8 One of the maintenance mechanics , Duncan , is engaged exclusively in repairing port-
able motors and another, Hotter, is assigned to filing saws . Although specialists in their
respective duties, such duties , according to the testimony of the Employer 's personnel di-
rector, are properly performed by maintenance mechanics . We shall therefore include
Duncan and Rutter in the unit requested by the Carpenters . The record indicates that
the employee listed as a "carpenter " is actually a utility man and that his duties do not
extend beyond putting up storm windows and screens , and performing general handy work.
We believe that this employee is not sufficiently identified with the maintenance mechanics
in duties and interests to warrant his inclusion in that unit . We shall therefore exclude
him.
9 Any participant in either election directed herein may, upon its prompt request to,
and approval thereof by , the Regional Director , have its name removed from the ballot.
590 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
tion 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 Na-
tional Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 5, as
amended, among the employees in the voting groups described in
paragraph numbered 4, above, who were employed during the pay-roll
period immediately preceding the date of this Direction of Elections,
including employees who did not work during said pay-roll period
because they were ill or on vacation or temporarily laid off, but ex-
cluding 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 :
(1) Whether the employees in voting group 4 (a) desire to be
represented, for purposes of collective bargaining, by International
Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local B-110, AFL, or by Re-
frigerator Workers Union, Local 20459, AFL, or by neither;
(2) Whether the employees in voting group 4 (b) desire to be
represented, for purposes of collective bargaining, by Twin City Car-
penters District Council and its Affiliates of the A. F. of L., or by
Refrigerator Workers Union, Local 20459, AFL, or by neither.