Southern Alkali Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jun 10, 1949

84 N.L.R.B. 120 (N.L.R.B. 1949)

In the Matter Of SOUTHERN ALKALI CORPORATION,. EMPLOYER and
OFFICE EMPLOYEES INTERNATIONAL UNION, A. F. L., LOCAL 87,
PETITIONER
Case No. 15-RC-18g3.Decided June 10, 1949
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before Charles A.
Kyle, 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 Reynolds].
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 organization named below claims to represent certain
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 Employer operates a chemical manufacturing plant at Lake
Charles, Louisiana. Hourly paid production and maintenance em-
ployees at the plant, excluding inter alia, clerical office workers, are
presently represented by International Association of Machinists,
herein called the I. A. M.2
I After the close of the hearing , the Employer moved to reopen the record to clarify the
job description of Stoner Moss, an accountant whose employment status was in dispute at
the hearing . For reasons set forth below, the motion is denied.
2 The Employer 's recognition of the I . A. M. as exclusive bargaining representative of
these employees followed a Certification of Representatives , Issued by the Regional Director
on September 20, 1948, upon a consent election held in Case No. 15-RC-65.
84 N. L. R. B., No. 20.
120
,SOUTHERN ALKALI CORPORATION 121
The Petitioner herein seeks a ,unit of office clerical employees-at the
Employer's Lake Charles plant, all of whom are salaried employees
and excluded from the unit of hourly paid employees represented by
the I. A. M. Office clerical employees, for the most part, work in the
Employer's administrative office building, apart from its production
and maintenance departments. As salaried employees, these workers
fall under the vacation, insurance, and welfare plans instituted by the
Employer for salaried, as distinct from hourly paid workers.
The Employer and Petitioner generally agree that employees of the
Employer in the following classifications may properly be included
in the office clerical unit: warehouse clerks, traffic clerks, clerk typists,
stenographers, steno-clerks, accounting clerks, accountants, pay-roll
clerks, receiving clerks, statistical clerks, engineering clerks, record
clerks, and telephone operators. They further agree that workers in,
the following classifications-should be excluded from the unit; chem-
ists, analysts, draftsmen, engineers, industrial designers, test engi-
neers, nurses, safety inspectors, personnel assistants, guards, confiden-
tial employees, the training and methods clerk, chief traffic clerk,
storekeeper, foremen, shift supervisors, and supervisors.
They disagree with respect to the unit placement of the tool and
supply clerk, janitors, mail boys, the blueprint machine operator, and
buyers. Although they agree that confidential employees and super-
visors are, as such, properly excluded from the unit, they disagree with
respect to the placement of certain individuals in those categories.
The tool and supply clerk works in the machine shop in the manu-
facturing plant, approximately 500 yards distant from the office
departments. The tool and supply clerk issues parts, tools, equipment,
and materials to hourly paid workers for use in the manufacturing
plant and he maintains an inventory of these stores. He works under
the supervision of the machine shop supervisor. As a salaried em-
ployee, he does not fall within the unit description of hourly paid
workers represented by the I. A. M.
The Petitioner would include, and the Employer exclude, the tool
and supply clerk from the office clerical unit. We agree with the'
Employer that the mode of payment of the tool and supply clerk is
not controlling on unit placement and that the general work interests
of the tool and supply clerk lie with production and maintenance em-
ployees in the plant departments where he works, rather. than with
the- office clerical employees in the administrative departments who
comprise the proposed unit. For this reason, we shall exclude the tool
and supply clerk from the office clerical unit.3
$ Matter of Goodall On., 80 N. L. It. B. 562 ; Matter of General EZectrie Company, 80
N. L. It. B. 174.
122 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Janitors, mail boys, and the blueprint maehiner operator: The
janitors in dispute are under office, as distinct from plant, supervision.
They sweep and clean the office departments, but they are not limited
to janitorial work. They serve as inter-office messengers, handling
requisitions, purchase orders, and receiving slips, which they carry
from one office to another and from the purchasing office to the ware-
house. The office janitors do not work in the plant production depart-
ments. Mail boys are primarily inter-office messengers. They collect
and sort the mail and distribute it to the various office departments.
Mail boys bring the mail into town, purchase stamps, and make bank
deposits. They pay small bills and, at times, may drive visitors
between the town and the Employer's premises.
For its office use the Employer prepares office forms for which sten-
cils are cut by stenographers and clerk typists in its office departments.
These stencils are run off in an office department by an employee classi-
fied as a blueprint machine operator. He operates photostat and
oxalid and ditto machines and his work flows to and-from the several
offices. The same employee cleans, repairs, and moves office type-
writers from one office to another. He occasionally does some typing
work. He works exclusively in the office departments.
Janitors, mail boys, and the blueprint machine operator are office
service employees. They have been excluded with other general office
employees from the production and maintenance unit represented by
the I. A. M.
The Petitioner would exclude, and the Employer would include these
employees in the office unit. Their interests clearly appear to lie with
the office clerical employees. For this reason, and in the absence of any
cogent reason for their exclusion, we will include the employees in these
three categories in the office clerical unit .4
Buyers work in the purchasing department, which is under the
supervision of the purchasing agent. There are eight or nine em-
ployees in the department, including a stenographer, clerk-typists,
steno-clerks, and two buyers.
As requisitions for material to be purchased are received from de-
partment heads, buyers solicit and investigate bids made by vendors of
such goods, and make purchases of materials for the Employer. They
exercise judgment and discretion in their work, spend the majority of
their time in contact with vendors, and do no regular clerical work.
They may personally check with clerical employees certain invoices
upon goods ordered, or they may delegate all this work to clerical em-
4 Matter of Automatic Electric Company , 78 N. L . R B 1057; Matter of Chrysler Cor.
oration, 76 N. L. R.'B.-55; and ' Matter 'of Wilson '& Co., Inc., 81 N . L:,R. B. 504. -
.SOUTHERN ALKALI CORPORATION 123,
ployees in the purchasing department, who write their letters 'and re-
ports. Buyers recommend the clerical employees in their, departlnt
to the merit rating committee for merit increases and their recom-
mendatioiis are followed.
One of the two buyers was promoted to the position of buyer from
that of storekeeper or warehouse manager, a supervisory category
whom the parties agree to exclude from the clerical unit. Office clerical
employees do not normally advance to buyers' positions.
The Petitioner would include buyers in the unit of office clerical
workers in the Employer's plant. The Employer would exclude them,
urging that, if they are not supervisors of clerical employees in the pur-
chasing office department, buyers, in any event, have interests substan-
tially different from those of the various clerks who principally com-
prise the proposed office clerical unit. In view of the differences in-
herent in their primary work, we shall exclude buyers from the unit of
clerical employees.5
The accounting department is, in part, concerned with the prepara-
tion of pay rolls and cost matters. A. J. Talbot, head of the depart-
ment, is designated the chief accountant, and E. B. Cloutman, an
accountant, is his assistant. Working under them are two other
accountants, and accounting and other clerks. The parties agree that
Talbot and Cloutman are supervisors, and are to be`excluded from the
office clerical unit. The Employer and the Petitioner agree that
accountants, accounting clerks, and pay-roll clerks generally are cleri-
cal employees who are properly included in a clerical bargaining unit.
The Employer, however, contends that the two other persons whom it
presently classifies as accountants, namely Stoner Moss and Willard
E. Meek, and one person presently classified as an accounting clerk,
namely, Elaine Vincent, should be excluded from the unit. The Peti-
tioner disagrees.
Moss, according to the Employer's contention, directs and supervises
the work of three clerks in the department, and is expected as part of
his duties to make recommendations concerning their work and
advancement. This contention is supported by two documents per-
sonally prepared and signed by Moss. In December 1948 Moss sub-
mitted a recommendation for merit increases for the pay-roll clerks
whose work he reviews, commending their efficiency. In a job descrip-
tion prepared also in December by himself, Moss described himself as
"supervising" the pay-roll clerks in the department. Moss testified
that he accurately described his duties in December, but that he was
s Matter of Wise, Sauth & Company, Inc. (I-RC-897), 83 N L. R B. 1019, and cases
cited therein.
124' DECISIONS- OF NATIONAL LABOR' RELATIONS BOARD
reclassified in November or December from accountant, to senior-
acc(iunting clerk. The Employer lists him as accountant. The rec.
ord reveals no differences in the two categories mentioned. It does,
however, reveal that the pay-roll clerks were less experienced in the
f all of 1948 and that Moss was told by his superiors to give them
all assistance possible. The record otherwise reveals no clear or spe-
cific change in Moss' duties during the past months. Moss is the,
immediate person in a higher ranking category who regularly checks
and reviews the work of the three clerks and is in the best position to
judge their accuracy and efficiency. We believe that Moss is a super-
visor within the meaning of the Act, and shall exclude him as such
from the clerical unit.6
- Meek, also classified as an accountant by the Employer, is in charge
of the Employer's analysis journal.' He keeps records of work prog-
ress- at the plant and material and labor costs. He makes cost and
accounting studies for the Employer respecting hourly paid produc-
tion and maintenance workers at the plant and supplies such studies
for the Employer's use in labor-management meetings. He correlates
these studies with similar ones made by affiliated companies of the
Employer in reference to their respective plants. These and other.
comparable cost studies form the basis of the Employer's action in
dealing with the bargaining representatives of its hourly paid.
employees. If the Petitioner is certified as bargaining representative
of the office clerical employees, Meek will make similar-cost studies as
to them. Meek, however, neither participates in, nor even attends
bargaining conferences. He does not determine nor effectuate labor'
policies.
We have generally held that the preparation of data such as Meek
prepares does not render an employee a confidential employee in the
sense in which we use that term.7 We shall, therefore, include Meek,
as an accountant, in the bargaining unit.
Vincent, classified as an accounting clerk, handles the monthly and
semi-monthly salary pay rolls for office employees. She makes insur-
ance records under the Employer's insurance plan, makes reports for
the State and Federal Governments in connection with the office pay
roll, and supplies, on request, pay-roll data on salaried employees for
possible merit increases. She makes studies on salaried workers, sim-
ilar to those prepared by Meek on hourly paid workers. The reports
which she furnishes will form, in part, the basis for the determination
of company labor policy in dealing with a bargaining representative'
9 Matter of American Window Glass Company, 77 N. L. R. B. 1030.
7 Matter of American Window Glass Company , supra and Matter of Automatic Electric'
Company, supra.
SOUTHERN ALKALI CORPORATION 125
of office clerical employees. We find that Vincent, like Meek, is not
a confidential employee, and will include her in the unit with other
accounting clerks.
The Employer's warehouse is a facility under the over-all charge of
the purchasing agents and under the immediate supervision of the
storekeeper or warehouse manager. The warehouse is physically seg-
regated from other departments of the plant. Under the storekeeper,
are two individuals, classified as warehouse clerks, whose status is in
dispute.
Bailey, classified as a warehouse clerk, is responsible for, the ware-
house books and records. The warehouse contains 75,000 different
storage items. Bailey works upon the records and directs the work of
a clerk-typist, a receiving clerk, and a warehouse clerk. Bailey and
.the clerks whose work he directs are salary paid employees. Bailey's
,wages ,are comparable to that of an accountant and are considerably
more than the wages of the clerks under him. It is estimated that he
.spends about 1 day per week in supervisory work. He regularly takes
the place of the storekeeper as manager of the warehouse when the
latter is away. He makes recommendations with respect to advance-
ment for clerical employees in the warehouse, and these recommenda-
tions carry weight.
Wade, also classified as a warehouse clerk, supervises the four or five
hourly paid laborers who do the physical work in the warehouse, mov-
ing material from one place in the warehouse to another, storing mate-
rial, and delivering material as needed to job locations in the plant.
Wade occasionally checks material to be stored, but he does very little
clerical work. The laborers, whose work he directs, are hourly paid
employees represented under the contract with the I. A. M. Four or
five laborers usually work in the warehouse under Wade, but more are
borrowed, as needed, from plant departments.
The Petitioner would include Bailey and Wade as warehouse clerks
in the office clerical unit. The Employer agrees that warehouse
clerks, as such, may properly be included in the office clerical unit,
.but contends that Bailey and Wade are supervisors, and, therefore,
must be excluded from the unit. Although Bailey apparently does
considerable clerical work himself, he is clearly responsible for the
work of the clerks in the warehouse who work under his imme-
diate direction and his recommendations concerning them carry
weight. We shall, therefore, exclude Bailey from the unit as a super-
visor within the meaning of the Act. Wade is clearly not primarily
a clerical employee, nor is he associated in his work with clerical
employees. We shall, therefore, exclude Wade from the clerical unit.
126 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
The chief telephone operator: The Employer has one full-time tele-
phone operator designated as the chief telephone operator. She begins
work at 8 o'clock in the morning and works steadily throughout the
day on the switchboard except for a lunch period and 10 or 15 minute
relief periods during the morning and afternoon, when the stationery
room clerk or a pay-roll clerk takes the switchboard. In addition to
her switchboard duties, the chief telephone operator operates a tele-
type machine. She is further entrusted with the keeping of keys for
company automobiles, which she releases to duly authorized persons.
She relays to the mail boy or messenger, when he brings mail to the
stationery room, messages which she may receive for- him over-the
telephone.
The chief telephone operator is directly responsible to the chief
accountant, who likewise, has supervision over the accounting depart-
ment and the stationery room. The Petitioner would include, and the
Employer exclude, the chief telephone operator. The Employer con-
tends that she is a supervisor. The record does not disclose that she
has or exercises any of the duties which are descriptive of a supervisor
under Section 2 (11) of the Act. The Employer further contends
that the chief telephone operator is a confidential employee, in-that
she may, from time to time as directed, send to companies affiliated
with the Employer teletype messages which may relate to labor rela-
tions matters. The dispatch of selected messages does not alone con-
stitute the chief telephone operator a confidential employee within our
definition of that term." We shall, therefore, include the chief tele-
phone operator in the bargaining unit for office clerical employees.
Chief record clerk: The chief record clerk is the responsible head of
the record division of the process engineering department. The
duties of the position provide that he spend the majority of his time
analyzing the utility flow sheets, field records, and inventory of prod-
ucts, making entries incidental to this work. This material is ob-
tained from plant operating records. Two clerks work under his im-
mediate supervision, one of whom, a record clerk, uses a comptometer.
The chief record clerk usually makes certain entries himself and he
directs that other entries be made by his assistant clerks according to
his specifications.
At the time of the hearing, the individual serving as chief record
clerk was a recently hired employee who had not assumed all the duties
of the position. He was temporarily performing substantially the
same type of work as the clerks who work under his supervision.
Upon this showing, the Petitioner would include the chief record clerk
8 Matter of Chrysler Corporation, 80 N L R B 334 and cases cited therein , and Mattes
of Smith Paper, Incorporated , 76 N. L R. B. 1222.
SOUTHERN ALKALI CORPORATION 127
in the unit. The Employer would exclude him on the job classifica-
tion as supervisor. It appears from the record that the position of
chief-record clerk is supervisory. As such we will exclude the cate-
gory from the unit description.
Stenographers to department heads: The, parties agree that stenog-
raphers who serve as secretaries to department heads appointed to
contract negotiating committees have access to advance information
respecting bargaining negotiations, drafts of proposed labor agree-
ments, and other labor relations matters, and should be excluded from
the clerical bargaining unit as confidential employees. The Employer
would also exclude the stenographer to the purchasing agent and the
stenographer to the traffic agent. The Petitioner disagrees.
The purchasing agent, as noted above, is the head of the Employer's
purchasing department. He serves on the merit rating committee,
composed of company representatives, who pass upon ingrade salary
raises for specially deserving employees. At the time of the hearing
the purchasing agent was not a member of any negotiating committee
in which any recognized bargaining representative was involved. Ac-
cording to the Employer, the purchasing agent will be placed on a
negotiating committee to negotiate with the Petitioner, if the latter
is certified as exclusive bargaining representative of its clerical
employees. -
The traffic agent, also a department head, is charged with schedul-
ing delivery commitments made by the Employer's sales organization.
He has four clerical employees in his department, among whom is the
stenographer who handles all the important work pertaining to his
office. The traffic agent is not a member of the merit rating com-
mittee, nor does it appear that he will be placed on the negotiating
committee to be formed if the Petitioner be certified as bargaining
representative of clerical employees. The traffic agent, as a super-
visor, is merely involved in grievances pertaining to employees in his
own department, and he makes recommendations with respect to their
wages.
As the selection of the Petitioner as bargaining representative of
the clerical employees herein concerned will place the stenographer
of the purchasing agent in the same relative position as stenographers
to the members of the union negotiating committees whom the parties
agree are confidential employees, we shall exclude the stenographer
to the purchasing agent from the clerical unit as a confidential em-
ployee. Because the stenographer of the traffic agent is not in a com-
parable position, and no other cause appears for her exclusion, we will
include her in the unit.9
o Matter of Inter-Mountain Telephone Co., 79 N. L R. B. 715.
128 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
We find that all office clerical employees employed at the Employer's
Lake Charles, Louisiana, -chemical manufacturing plant, including
.warehouse clerks, traffic clerks, clerk-typists, stenographers,'.' steno-
clerks, accounting clerks," accountants'12 pay-roll clerks, receiving
clerks, statistical clerks, engineering clerks, record clerks, telephone
operators, the chief telephone operator, office janitors, mail boys,'and
the blueprint machine operator, but excluding chemists, analysts,
draftsmen, engineers, industrial designers, test engineers, nurses,
buyers, safety inspector, personnel assistants, confidential employees, 11;
'guards, training and methods clerk, traffic agent, chief traffic clerk,
chief record clerk, tool and supply clerk, storekeeper, foremen, shift
supervisors, and other supervisors, constitute a unit appropriate for
the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9
(b) of the Act.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the
purposes of collective bargaining with the Employer, an election by
secret ballot shall be conducted as early as possible, but not later than
thirty (30) days from the date of this Direction, under the direction
and supervision of the Regional Director for the Fifth Region, and
subject to Sections 203.61 and 203.62 of National Labor Relations
Board Rules and Regulations-Series 5, as amended, among the em-
ployees in the unit found appropriate in paragraph numbered 4, above,
who were employed during the pay-roll period immediately preceding
the date of this Direction, including employees who did not work
during said pay-roll period because they were ill or on vacation or
temporarily laid off, but excluding those employees who have since
quit or been discharged for cause and have not been rehired or rein-
stated prior to the date of the election, and also excluding employees
.on strike who are not entitled to reinstatement, to determine whether
or not they desire to be represented by Office Employees International
Union, A. F. L., Local 87, for the purposes of collective bargaining.
10 Including the stenographer to the traffic agent.
11 Including Vincent.
" Including Meek.
18 Including the stenographer to the purchasing agent.