Sir James, Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Feb 6, 1952

97 N.L.R.B. 1572 (N.L.R.B. 1952)

1572 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
usually accompanies the normal operation of a plant, because com-
mercial production has not yet begun. The maintenance employ-
ees are now mainly occupied with rehabilitation of the plant, the re-
pair and setting up of machinery and equipment, the removal of sur-
pluses, and the receipt of incoming materials. The Employer expects
to make use of a reduced maintenance group when the plant attains
normal production. The tasks and classifications of the permanent,
group have not yet been determined.
The general pool of employees includes both skilled and unskilled
employees. The Employer expects to draw from this pool most of its
supervisory personnel. While there are in this group several tool and
die makers as well as other craftsmen, and although some of them do
make dies and jigs for experimental and training purposes, the tool
and die makers do not work as a craft group and are not identifiable
as such a group. The skilled and experienced employees are mainly
occupied in doing experimental work and in training the unskilled
employees. As yet, the Employer is unable definitely to predict in
what capacity any of these employees will eventually work.
In view of the fact that most of the anticipated employee comple-
ment has not yet been employed, and as the record indicates that the
composition of the unit or units sought by the Petitioner has not yet
become fixed, and the employees at present engaged in rehabilitation,
training, and experimental work are not definitely representative of
the anticipated work force, we believe that the present petition is pre-
mature.4 We shall therefore dismiss the petition without prejudice to
its refiling at an appropriate later date.
Order
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the petition filed herein be, and it hereby
is, dismissed.
4 Westinghouse Electric Corporation , 85 NLRB 1519 ; Coast Pacific Lumber Company, 78
NLRB 1245. Cf, Ford Motor Company, Aircraft Engineer Division, 96 NLRB 1075;
Bell Aircraft Corporation, 96 NLRB 1211.
SIR JAMES, INC. and GUTTERS' LOCAL #84, INTERNATIONAL LADIES' GAR-
MENT WORKERS' UNION, A. F. OF L., PETITIONER. Case No. °L1-RC-
2686. February 6, 10,52
Decision and Direction of Election
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, a hearing was held before George H. O'Brien, hearing
officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free froln
prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
97 NLRB No. 246.
SIR JAMES, INC. 1573
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the
Act.
2. The labor organization involved claims to represent certain em-
ployees 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 Employer manufactures ladies' blouses at its plant in Los
Angeles, California. The Petitioner seeks a unit of all cutters, in-
cluding choppers, graders, and markers at this plant. The Employer
contends that a plant-wide unit is the only appropriate unit."
The employees sought by the Petitioner are designated by the Em-
ployer as cutters. Their duties are to mark, grade, and cut the mate-
rials used for the finished blouses 2 Approximately half their time is
spent in cutting, the other half being spent in marking and grading.
The Employer's cutters work only in the cutting area,3 except on those
infrequent occasions when they are sent to contractors' plants to work
on the Employer's goods there. There is no interchange of employees
between the cutting department and the other departments in the
Employer's plant. The pay of the cutters is substantially higher than
that of the production employees. The cutters work under the direc-
tion of the head cutter.
The Veterans Administration and the California Division of Ap-
prenticeship Standards have established a 2-year apprenticeship pro-
gram for cutters. The president of the Employer testified that it
would take a year or two to train a cutter, whereas a representative of
the Petitioner stated that it would take approximately 5 years for a
cutter to become a journeyman.
Upon the entire record, we find that the Employer's cutters consti-
tute a homogeneous group of highly skilled employees, with interests
separate and apart from those of the Employer's other employees.
Accordingly, we conclude that the cutters constitute a unit appropri-
ate for the purposes of collective bargaining.
There remains for consideration the unit placement of the head
cutter and the patternrnaker.
The head cutter.-The Petitioner seeks to include the head( cutter,
but the Employer contends that he is a supervisor and should be ex-
cluded from the unit. The record shows that the head cutter has the
There is no bargaining history in the Employer 's plant
' Ordinarily each of the Employer ' s cutters has the ability to perform all three jobs :
marking, grading , and cutting . However, at the present time one of the cutters does not
work as a grader.
8 The cutting area is not separated physically from the other production departments, but
only cutting is done in the cutting area.
1574 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
duty of laying out and assigning work to the cutters, is the only person
in charge of hiring cutters, and has the power to.discharge cutters.4
Although the head cutter may occasionally mark or grade materials,
he does no cutting: The majority of his time is spent in`instructing,
directing, and assigning work to the other cutters. He is paid a weekly
salary whereas the cutters are hourly paid. Upon the entire record,
we find that the head cutter is a supervisor within the meaning of the
Act, and we shall exclude him from the unit hereinafter found
appropriate.
The patternmaker.-The Employer would include the patternmaker
in the unit as an employee of the cutting department. The Petitioner
would exclude her, but it stated that it is willing to accept her as part
of the proposed unit if the Board finds that she should be included.
The patternmaker is designated by the Employer as an assistant to the
designer. She works with and receives her orders from the designer,
but does no designing or sketching. Although her principal occupa-
tion is making patterns, she works in the cutting department when she
has no pattern-making to do. She can grade, mark, and cut materials,
but she cannot use all the cutter's tools. She is hourly paid, as are the
cutters, and receives approximately the same compensation. We find
that she has a close community of employment interest with the cutters,
and we shall therefore include the patternmaker in the unit.
We find that all cutters at the Employer's Los Angeles, California,
plant, including choppers, graders, markers, and the patternmaker, but
excluding all other employees and supervisors, constitute a unit ap-
propriate for the purposes of collective bargaining, within the mean-
ing of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this
volume.]
MEMBER HouSTON took no part in the consideration of the above
Decision and Direction of Election.
4 The present head cutter had occupied that position for only 4 months at the time of
the hearing , and had not during that period had any occasion to exercise the power to
discharge employees . His predecessor , however, had exercised the power to discharge
employees.
CHARLES R. KRIMM LUMBER COMPANY AND NORTHERN PINE CORPORA-
TION and UNITED BROTHERHOOD OF CARPENTERS AND JOINERS OF
AMERICA, AFL. Case No. 2-CA-1531. February 8, 1952
Decision and Order
On June 28, 1951, Trial Examiner Lloyd Buchanan issued his In-
termediate Report in the above-entitled proceeding, finding that the
97 NLRB No. 242.