Southern Paperboard Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Dec 23, 1948

80 N.L.R.B. 1456 (N.L.R.B. 1948)

In the Matter of SOUTHERN PAPERBOARD CORPORATION , EMPLOYER and
INTERNATIONAL UNION OF OPERATING ENGINEERS , LOCAL 474,
A. F. OF L., PETITIONER
In the Matter of SOUTHERN PAPERBOARD CORPORATION , EMPLOYER and
INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF PAPERMAKERS , A. F. L.; INTERNA-
TIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF PULP, SULPHITE AND PAPER MILL WORKERS
OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA ; INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD
OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS , A. F. L.; INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF
MACHINISTS , DISTRICT LODGE No. 96, PETITIONERS
In the Matter of SOUTHERN PAPERBOARD CORPORATION, EMPLOYER and
UNITED ASSOCIATION OF JOURNEYMEN AND APPRENTICES OF THE
PLUMBING AND PIPE FITTING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES AND
CANADA, LOCAL 188, PETITIONER
In the Matter of SOUTHERN PAPERBOARD CORPORATION, EMPLOYER and
INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF BOILERMAKERS , IRON SHIP BUILD-
ERS AND HELPERS OF AMERICA , LOCAL No. 26, PETITIONER
In the Matter of SOUTHERN PAPERBOARD CORPORATION , EMPLOYER and
INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF BOILERMAKERS , IRON SHIP BUILD-
ERS AND HELPERS OF AMERICA, LOCAL No. 26, PETITIONER
Cases Nos. 10-RC-247, 10-RC-256, 10-RC-269, 10-RC-2792, and 10-
RC-276, respectively.-Decided December 13, 1948
DECISION
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
AND
ORDER
Upon separate petitions duly filed, a consolidated hearing was held
before a 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 aff'irmed.'
1 During the course of the hearing , United Paperworkers of America , C. I. O , herein
called the Intervenor, made a motion by telegram to intervene and to be placed on the
ballot. The hearing officer granted the motion to intervene and reserved the request to
appear on the ballot to the Board . The record discloses that, before the hearing , the In-
tervenor had submitted a showing of interest to the Regional Director , but, through over-
sight, a notice of hearing was not mailed to it. Its motion to intervene was properly
granted. We shall place its name on the ballot in the election hereinafter directed.
80 N. L . It. B., No. 226.
1456
SOUTHERN PAPERBOARD CORPORATION 1457
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. The Petitioner in Case No. 10-RC-247, herein called the Oper-
ating Engineers ; the Petitioner in Case No. 10-RC-269, herein called
the Pipe Fitters; the Petitioner in Cases Nos. 10-RC-272 and 10-RC-
276, herein called the Boilermakers; the four Petitioners in Case No.
10-RC-256, herein called the Joint Petitioners; and the Intervenor,
are labor organizations, claiming to represent employees of the Em-
ployer.
3. Questions affecting commerce exist 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.
4. The Operating Engineers and the Pipe Fitters seek, respectively,
to represent units of crane operators and pipe fitters; the Boilermakers
seeks to represent employees in two units, one composed of certain
classifications engaged in boilermaking work, the other composed
of power department employees; the Joint Petitioners seek to rep-
resent a unit comprising all the production and maintenance employ-
ees.z The Employer requests that the petitions of the Operating En-
gineers, the Pipe Fitters, and the Boilermakers be dismissed for the
reason , among others, that the units sought do not constitute true
craft groups. As to the single production and maintenance unit
sought by the Joint Petitioners, the Employer asserts that such a unit
is contrary to historical bargaining patterns in the paper industry.
It contends that two units are appropriate, one comprising the pulp
and power operations, the other the papermaking operations.
The Employer manufactures paperboard at its Port Wentworth,
Georgia, plant.3 At the time of the hearing, there were approxi-
* Chairman Herzog and Members Reynolds and Gray.
2 In its brief , the Employer argues that the joint petition of four unions in Case No.
10-RC-256 should be dismissed or, in the alternative , that the Board should refer the
case to the Region with instructions to each of the Joint Petitioners to seek certification
separately for the unit that it desires to represent . It asserts that certification of the
Joint Petitioners will result in jurisdictional strife and a general collapse of the bar-
gaining process . We find no basis for assuming that such will be the result. The Board
customarily has permitted unions to act jointly as a single bargaining representative.
Matter of Calcasteu Paper Company , 73 N. L. R B. 344 ; Matter of General Motors
Corporation, 67 N. L. R B. 233, and cases cited therein.
The Employer began operations at this plant about June 1, 1948. It was contemplated
that the construction of the plant and the installation of machinery would be completed
by December 1, 1948.
1458 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
mately 500 production and maintenance employees at the plant.
This number was expected to be reduced to 400 by December 1, 1948.
The record indicates that the plant is highly mechanized, using a con-
tinuous series of pipes, conveyor belts, storage bins, and vats which
produce paper 24 hours a day. There is no history of collective bar-
gaining.
The Operating Engineers seeks a unit of crane operators and helpers.
There are three crane operators who operate cranes used to unload wood
from trucks and railroad cars in the wood yard. The helpers main-
tain the cranes and generally assist the crane operators in their work.
We have on several occasions found that such employees do not form
a sufficiently skilled group to constitute a segregated craft unit.4
The record made in this case does not establish that the crane operators
and their helpers are such a skilled or homogeneous group as to
warrant establishing them in a separate unit. We shall, therefore,
dismiss the petition of the Operating Engineers.
The Pipe Fitters seeks a unit of plumbers, steamfitters, pipe fitters,
welders, and their apprentices. The record discloses that there is no
apprentice training program at the Employer's plant. It does not
appear that these employees have ever served an apprenticeship or
that they have had other pipe fitting experience before being em-
ployed by the Employer. There is no evidence as to the precise nature
of the work of those employees. In the absence of evidence that the
employees in question possess the requisite skill for craft classification,
or that they constitute on any other basis a separate appropriate
unit, we shall order that the petition of the Pipe Fitters be dismissed .5
In Case No. 10-RC-272, the Boilermakers requests a unit of main-
tenance mechanics, welders, oilers, blacksmiths and their helpers who
spend 25 percent of their time maintaining and repairing boilers,
tanks and other pressure equipment. The mechanics and their
helpers, one welder, and the oilers are under the supervision of the
power superintendent, and the blacksmith and his helper and one
welder are under the supervision of the maintenance superintendent.
The record does not indicate what proportion of their time in excess
of 25 percent these employees spend maintaining and repairing
equipment. We are not convinced that these employees constitute
a homogeneous group simply because they spend 25 percent of their
time in a common pursuit e The record as made does not disclose
4 Matter of Sound Lumber Go, 79 N L. R. B. 207 ; Matter of West Vsrginia Pulp and
Paper Co, 68 N. L. R. B 374; Matter of Simpson Steel Company, 60 N. L. R. B 182;
Matter of Bethlehem -Hingham Shipyard , Inc, 54 N . L. It. B. 631 , 634, and cases cited
therein.
° See Matter of International Paper Co , Southern Craft Division , 79 N. L. It. B. 747.
° The record indicates that millwrights also perform the same repair and maintenance
work.
SOUTHERN PAPERBOARD CORPORATION 1459
whether or not the employees involved are skilled. The employees
sought to be represented by the Boilermakers are not shown to con-
stitute an appropriate unit, and we shall dismiss the Boilermakers'
petition in Case No. 10-RC-272.
In Case No. 10-RC-276, the Boilermakers seeks to represent a unit
consisting of certain employees in the power department, and eight
oilers in the maintenance department. The power department con-
sists of the usual boiler room operation and, in addition thereto,
the recovery room. Chemicals are manufactured in the recovery room
which are used in producing paper. The Boilermakers does not seek
to include all the recovery room employees in the proposed unit. How-
ever, as noted above, the Boilermakers has sought to include eight
maintenance oilers. Upon the entire record in this case, we are of
the opinion that the employees sought to be represented by the Boiler-
makers in this case are not sufficiently homogeneous, nor do they ap-
pear to be sufficiently skilled, to constitute a separate unit. We shall,
therefore, dismiss the Boilermakers' petition in Case No. 10-RC-276.
There remains to be considered the unit sought by the four Joint
Petitioners in Case No. 10-RC-256. They seek a single unit of all pro-
duction and maintenance employees in the pulp and paper mills ex-
cluding clerical and professional employees, landscape laborers, execu-
tives, watchmen, guards, superintendents and foremen, and all other
supervisors as defined in the Act.' The parties are in general agree-
ment as to the composition of the unit, but the Joint Petitioners would
include and the Employer exclude 35 employees who handle wood in
the wood yard. The status of these employees is temporary, pending
the erection of a mechanical conveyor system which will displace them.
The record discloses that the Employer expected to install this con-
veyor system on or before December 1, 1948, and that these employees
would then be dismissed. The temporary employees do not share in
the Employer's various employee benefit plans and have special tem-
porary gate passes. We shall exclude them from the unit."
We find that all production and maintenance employees of the
Southern Paperboard Corporation at its Port Wentworth plant, ex-
cluding clerical employees," professional employees,10 landscape la-
borers, temporary woodhandlers, executives, watchmen, guards, su-
' As the operations of the Employer 's pulp and paper mills appear to be merely suc-
cessive steps in the process of paper making , and all the Employer ' s operations are highly
integrated , we find no merit in the Employer 's contention that two separate units con-
sisting of ( a) pulp mill employees and (b) paper mill employees should be established.
'Matter of Milliron's , 72 N. L R. B. 69; Matter of American Cyanamid & Chemical
Corp , 62 N. L R B 925.
0 Excluded as clericals are the steam clerk , clerk-typist under the instrument and general
labor foreman , chief chemist 's clerk , storekeeper and storekeeper's clerk.
10 The parties agree to exclude the draftsman as a professional employee.
817319-49-vol 80-93
1460 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
perintendents and foremen,"' and all 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
30 days from the date of this Direction, under the direction and
supervision of the Regional Director for the Tenth Region, and sub-
ject to Sections 203.61 and 203.62 of National Labor Relations Board
Rules and Regulations-Series 5, as amended, among the employees 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 of Election, 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
they desire to be represented, for purposes of collective bargaining,
by International Brotherhood of Papermakers, International Broth-
erhood of Pulp, Sulphite and Paper Mill Workers of the United
States and Canada, International Brotherhood of Electrical Work-
ers, and International Association of Machinists, District Lodge No.
96, jointly, or by United Paperworkers of America, C. I. 0., or by
neither.
ORDER
IT IS IIEIZEBY ORDERED that the petitions for investigation and certifi-
cation of representatives of employees of Southern Paperboard Cor-
poration , Port Wentworth, Georgia, filed in Cases Nos. 10-RC-247,
10-RC-269, 10-RC-272 , and 10-RC-276 be, and they hereby are,
dismissed.
" Excluded in these latter categories are the superintendents and assistant superin-
tendents in the paper and pulp mill and the power and maintenance departments, the
shift foremen, the shipping foreman, the landscape foreman, the wood yard and wood
room foreman, the head scaler, the maintenance foreman in the maintenance department,
the pipe fitter and machine shop foremen, the chief electrician, the instrument and general
labor foremen, and the chief chemist and the shift chemists.