Solar Aircraft Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jul 12, 1954

109 N.L.R.B. 161 (N.L.R.B. 1954)

SOLAR AIRCRAFT COMPANY 161
indicated their desire to remain a part of the existing plantwide
unit and the Regional Director is instructed to issue a certification
of results of election to that effect.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.]
[The Board dismissed the petition in Case No. 4-RC-2250.]
SOLAR AIRCRAFT COMPANY and INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF
MACHINISTS , DISTRICT LODGE No. 50 , PETITIONER . Case No.-21-RC-
3493. July 12,1954
Decision and Order
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National
Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before Irving Helbling,
hearing officer.' The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing
are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.2
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 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 a unit limited to all of the Employer's quality
control analysts at its San Diego, California, plant. The Petitioner
asserts that this group of employees constitutes a residual unit which
has a strong community of interest with the employees it already
represents. The Employer contends that the requested unit is in-
appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining because it con-
stitutes only a portion of the employees who do the same or related
type of technical work.
The Petitioner has been the certified bargaining agent for the Em-
ployer's production and maintenance employees since 1943. In
August 1953, the Petitioner was certified as bargaining representative
for the Employer's tool planners, on the basis of a stipulated unit.
The tool planners were subsequently covered by the contract between
1 At the hearing the petition was amended to show the correct name of the Employer.
The hearing officer referred to the Board the Employer's motion to dismiss the petition.
For the reasons stated infra, this motion is hereby granted.
109 NLRB No. 23.
162 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
the Employer and the Petitioner, and are presently part of the
overall bargaining unit.3
The Employer's plant is set up, for administrative purposes, in
many different divisions. The project planners, who work under
the supervision of the production engineer, supervise the manufacture
of certain articles, which are designated as projects. The first respon-
sibility of the project planner is to establish a quotation for bidding
on a new contract. If the Employer receives the contract, the project
planner has the responsibility of seeing that the product is made
within the quotation stipulations. In order to establish the estimated
cost of a product, and to aid him in preparing a basic plan by which
the article is manufactured, he works with various engineers, analysts,
planners, and control personnel in different divisions.4 They work
as one functional group in gathering and compiling data in connection
with the project to accomplish the overall purpose that the project
planner coordinates, without regard to departmental organization .5
The quality control analysts contribute information on gaging, best
methods for inspection, and the points at which inspection can be most
efficiently incorporated. They provide analysis of the capabilities of
machines and processes where required, and work with the project
planner in establishing check charts, sampling plans, control charts,
and such other quality control devices as are applicable to the plant.
There are eight quality control analysts who work in the quality
methods section of the quality control division. There are also 2
record clerks, 1 clerk-stenographer, and 1 statistician working in this
department. All work under the separate supervision of the super-
visor of the quality methods section, who is responsible to the man-
ager of the quality control division. The quality methods section was
formed as a new department in 1950 .1 All but one of the present
quality control analysts were promoted to these jobs from the in-
spectors classification.
The purpose of the quality control analysts is to analyze quality
requirements of products, and establish appropriate means for their
control. They prepare and maintain inspection check charts, and
develop and administer procedures for statistical sampling inspection 7
3 The Petitioner represents 1,785 of the 2,684 employees working at the Employer's San
Diego plant
4 These groups are all technical and professional advisory personnel . They include
methods analysts , production engineers , tool engineers , weld technicians, quality control
analysts , metallurgists , laboratory technicians , scheduling supervisors , tool schedulers, tool
designers , spare parts analysts , the project engineer , design engineers , procedures analysts,
quotation analysts , and process engineers.
5 All of these groups do not necessarily work with each other on every project.
6 The purpose of this section is to establish a set of inspection criteria, instructions,
and directives to assure that the project , as set up by the project planner, is carried out
in compliance with the contract requirements.
7 The check charts and sampling plans, which are inspection orders, are used by the
inspectors to guide them in their work
SOLAR AIRCRAFT COMPANY 163
In order to determine whether a check chart or sampling plan type
of inspection is to be used for a particular part or project, the quality
control analyst must have a thorough knowledge of statistical and
sampling methods.
The check chart tells the inspector what parts he is to inspect, the
sequence in which the items are to be inspected, the methods by which
the inspection is to be made, the allowable tolerances, and the inspec-
tion classification, which may be critical, major, or minor. The
quality control analyst has almost complete discretion in the deter-
mination of most of these items. He determines at what point during
the manufacturing operations the product will be inspected, and the
degree of inspection that will be performed on each characteristic.
Recommendations as to the number of inspectors to be used on any
particular project are made to the manager of quality control and
the project manager. Depending upon the inspection method used,
the quality control analyst is able to determine, on the basis of his
statistical background, what the probabilities of rejections are.
Before a quality control analyst prepares a check chart, he must
review all engineering specifications and design drawings and di-
rectives pertinent to the particular contract involved. He must com-
pare this data with the manufacturing instructions and travelers de-
veloped by the project engineer. In order to determine the inspection
method to be used, he must have a knowledge of the sequence of manu-
facturing systems. He also must have a thorough knowledge of in-
spection tools, gages and fixtures, production tools and jigs, and must
be able to understand drawings that pertain to the design of the tools.
The quality control analyst must ascertain whether the Employer has
the necessary tools, and also the adequacy of the tools to perform the
particular functions which he has determined have to be performed,
in the most economical means possible. He therefore must be able
to understand the capabilities and limitations of all forms of inspec-
tion tools. If it develops that the necessary tools are not available,
the quality control analyst requests that they be ordered, outlining the
requirements in detail.
In connection with the quality control analyst's work in the prepa-
ration of check charts and sampling plans, it is necessary for him
to be able to understand, analyze, and interpret the documents with
which he must work, such as engineering drawings, prints, and engi-
neering change orders, and Government and customer specifications.
He must understand technical language as it applies to these docu-
ments, and must be able to adapt the information contained in these
documents for his purposes. In order to perform his work properly,
the quality control analyst must be able to understand and apply
techniques of statistical analysis and statistical quality control to the
334811-55-vol. 109-12
164 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Employer's processes a He must be able to install and operate control
systems with the necessary control charts. He must know the pur-
pose and jobs of many other sections in the plant, including the engi-
neering sections, and must have a knowledge of the construction, op-
eration, and performance of plant equipment. The quality control
analyst must be able to determine the variations of machine capacity,
and determine if a machine is capable of producing the product with-
in the limitation of a particular specification. The quality control
analysts apply control charts, such as average, range, and distribu-
tion charts, to the manufacturing processes, and determine from these
charts whether the processes are under control. Where corrective
action of repetitive types of discrepancies is required, it sometimes is
necessary to take a statistical test of the repetitive discrepancy to de-
termine what corrective action can be taken from the standpoint of
statistical quality control. This work is done by the quality control
analysts. They also initiate preventative measures to preclude the
recurrence of poor quality, by the use of statistical control methods.
In connection with their work, the quality control analysts make
weekly or monthly reports, depending upon the particular circum-
stances, on product quality in the various production departments,
both in the form of graphs and written reports.
Two of the quality control analysts make studies to determine the
time consumption in each inspection operation. They determine how
many men it should take in a production line to inspect the product
through its various stages of manufacture. The study considers any
possible duplication of effort, in order to minimize the amount of in-
spection cost that goes into the product. Such time studies of each
operation are necessary in order for the Employer to establish its re-
quired manpower needs . They also make studies to determine proper
inspection methods and techniques, in order to assure quality com-
pliance of the product. Time studies of each operation are also made
by these employees in order to work out production problems that
develop in the production and inspection process. When bottlenecks
develop, they make a study to determine if procedures are being ade-
quately followed. These two quality control analysts work closely
with the procedures analyst to coordinate quality control procedures
from the corporate staff level to the divisional quality control level.
They write administrative procedures for the quality control manual
that is used b„v the other quality control analysts and by quality con-
trol inspection supervisors. If the Employer has a problem from the
standpoint of the cost factor, one of these two quality control ana-
8 The Employer uses the statistical quality control method because it permits the draw-
ing of a conclusion as to the acceptance or rejection of a large lot of the Employer's prod-
uct by evaluating only a smaller portion of the lot. It is an economical means by which
the Employer can assure the quality level it considers satisfactory for the product.
SOLAR AIRCRAFT COMPANY 165
lysts go into the department involved to determine where the dupli-
cation of inspection operations is being performed.
In the course of their work, the quality control analysts find it
necessary to discuss problems with the Employer's technical and pro-
fessional employees in other departments, including project planners,
production methods analysts, process engineers, tool engineers, proj-
ect engineers, weld technicians, procedures analysts, and spare parts
analysts .9 They have very little contact with production and main-
tenance personnel, other than production supervisors, and to some
extent inspectors. Their associations are almost completely with the
personnel who develop manufacturing sequences and procedures to
produce the products. If the production sequence which has been
outlined by the project planners does not conform to good inspection
standards, the quality control analyst recommends changes in it to
the project engineer. The quality control analysts work with the
project planner in connection with a particular project or part to
which he has been assigned, from the beginning of the job at the
sales order or estimating stage, until the production is completed.
In connection with purchase orders, any form of process specifica-
tions or metallurgical control specifications are discussed with project
planners or process engineers, to be sure that the Employer's facili-
ties are adequate to give the quality insurance they need.
The Employer has a policy of upgrading employees into technical
classifications before hiring from the outside. It has a job evaluation
plan for office and technical employees, which is different from that
used in the evaluation of factory jobs. Quality control analysts are
evaluated under this plan. The requirements for the job of quality
control analyst are education or training equivalent to 2 years of
college, a good knowledge of product and tooling inspection, quality
control, methods and time-study work, and ability to plan and follow
up quality requirements. All but one of the quality control analysts
have taken courses in statistical quality control, mathematics, basic
blueprint reading, and in other subjects related to their work. The
Employer provides statistical courses which are available to all
employees.
On the basis of the above facts and the entire record, we find that
the quality control analysts are clearly technical employees.10 We
do not believe that the interests of the quality control analysts, whom
the Petitioner seeks to represent, are so distinguishable from those of
the Employer's other technical employees to warrant establishing
0 Not all of the quality control analysts have contacts with all of these technical and
professional employees. All of them, however, do come into contact with at least the
project planner, tool engineers, and processing engineers.
10 Cf. Curtiss -Wright Corporation, Metal Processing Division, 103 NLRB 458; Western
Electric Company, Incorporated, 100 NLRB 420.
166 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
them in a separate unit for the purposes of collective bargaining."
We therefore find that the requested unit, limited to a segment of
the Employer's technical employees, is inappropriate for the pur-
poses of collective bargaining.32 Accordingly, we shall dismiss the
petition.
[The Board dismissed the petition.]
11 There are approximately 347 analysts , planners , and control personnel `working at the
plant who are not represented by any labor organization.
12 E. I . DuPont de Nemours and Company , Inc., Construction Div'sion, Savannah River
Plant, 107 NLRB 734; Palmer Manufacturing Corporation , 105 NLRB 812 ; Ladish Co., 100
NLRB 159.
SPARTAN CAFETERIA CORPORATION and HOTEL AND RESTAURANT EM-
PLOYEES AND BARTENDERS INTERNATIONAL UNION, LOCAL 135, PE-
TITIONER . Case No. 16-RC-1468. July 13,1954
Decision and Order
Upon a petition ' duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, a hearing was held before Marvin L. Smith , Jr., hear-
ing officer . The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are
free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.'
Upon the entire record in this case , the Board finds :
The Employer is engaged at Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the retail sale of
food in its cafeteria to the general public. During the last year, it.
made purchases of $187,281 , of which approximately $18,703 was from
out-of-State ; while its total sales of $377 ,000 were all made within the
State. The Employer was operated as a unit of Spartan Aircraft
Company, herein called Spartan , from. 1941 until April 29,1954, when
it was separately incorporated as a wholly owned subsidiary. The
Employer contends that the Board should not assert jurisdiction
herein because its operations are wholly local in nature and have al-
ways been separate from those of Spartan . On the other hand, the
Petitioner argues that the Employer is an integral part of Spartan
over which the Board concededly has jurisdiction.2
The Employer 's cafeteria is located directly across from the munic-
ipal airport and within a short distance of Spartan 's aviation school
and a mile from its plant . It was constructed in 1941 primarily be-
cause, under Spartan's military contracts with the United States Gov-
ernment, Spartan was required to feed students attending its aviation
1 The name of the Employer as it appears in the petition was amended to the above form-
2 Spartan Aircraft Company manufactures and sells house trailers . During the past
year it,shipped out and` received •from out-of-,State, iweach instance, goods valued in excess
of $960 ,000. The Employer concedes, and%wefind, that Spartan. is engaged!in commerce
within the meaning of the Act.
109 NLRB No. 30.