Simpson Logging Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Dec 5, 1949

87 N.L.R.B. 375 (N.L.R.B. 1949)

In the Matter of SIMPsoN LOGGING COMPANY, EMPLOYER and INTER-
NATIONAL UNION OF OPERATING ENGINEERS , LOCAL 302, AFL,
PETITIONER
Case No. 19-RC-353.-Decided December 5, 1949
DECISION
AND
ORDER
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before Howard A.
McIntyre, hearing officer. 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
Reynolds 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 em-
ployees of the Employer.
3. For the reasons noted below, no question affecting commerce exists
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.
The Petitioner seeks a unit of all shovel operators, bulldozer oper-
ators, grader operators, and pitmen in the Employer's construction
crew. However, the Petitioner would exclude employees in that crew
who operate the trucks, the speed track, and the compressors and jack-
hammers, as well as the powder men and laborers. The Petitioner
would also exclude from its proposed unit the shovel operators and
bulldozer operators who work in the logging crew. The Employer and
the Intervenor, Local 3-38 International Woodworkers of America,
CIO, both contend, and we agree, that the unit sought is inappropriate.
The Petitioner, in effect, is seeking to carve out from a bargaining
unit which has operated effectively for more than 10 years, certain
machine operators and their assistants who are engaged in the con-
struction of logging roads and logging railway lines. In justification
of its proposed unit, the Petitioner urges that it has represented units
87 NLRB No. 59. 375
376 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
of similar employees engaged in highway construction. However,
assuming that such a unit would be appropriate in the construction of
highways, the record in this proceeding clearly demonstrates that
highway construction is not analogous to building logging roads and
logging railroad lines. According to uncontradicted testimony, the
work of the Employer's logging crew and its construction crew, both
of which come under the general supervision of the Employer's logging
manager, is highly integrated and must remain so for successful
logging operations. Thus, the construction crew must be able to fell,
buck, and handle trees in its right of way in such a manner that they
may be removed to the mills and used for lumber just as are those
trees which are felled by. the logging crew. For their mutual safety,
the members of each crew must be constantly familiar with and aware
of the operations of the other in order to avoid dangerous accidents;
during the fire season all of the men who work on both crews must be
able to operate as a team whenever fires break out. Moreover, the
record establishes that the skills of the machine operators in both the
logging and construction crews are substantially the same and that
there is considerable interchange of employees between the two groups.
In view of the foregoing, and because the Petitioner has advanced
no persuasive evidence to warrant a departure from our customary
practice of denying severance to similar groups in the logging industry,
we find that the unit sought by the Petitioner is inappropriate for the
purposes of collective bargaining.'
Accordingly, the Employer's and the Intervenor's motions to dis-
miss, on which ruling was reserved at the hearing, are hereby granted,
and we shall dismiss the petition.2
ORDER
, Upon the basis of the foregoing findings of fact and upon the entire
record in this case, the National Labor Relations Board hereby orders
that the petition for investigation and certification of representatives
of employees of Simpson Logging Company, filed herein by Local 302,
International Union of Operating Engineers, AFL, be, and it hereby
is, dismissed.
1 Winton Lumber Company, 79 NLRB 334, and cases cited therein.
2 We find no merit in the Employer 's contention that its 1947 contract with the Inter-
venor , as extended in 1949 , constitutes a bar to this proceeding . The Employer concedes
that it received the Petitioner ' s demand for recognition on May 31, 1949 , and that the
1949 extension to its agreement with the Intervenor was not signed by both parties before
June 28, 1949. Although it appears from the record that a complete agreement between
the Employer and the intervenor was reached on May 27 , 1949 . it cannot bar this proceed-
Ing because it was not reduced to writing and signed by the parties before the Petitioner
made its demand for recognition . See Utica Structural Steel, Inc ., 86 NLRB 1261,
and cases cited therein.