Southwest Pump Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Oct 3, 1945

63 N.L.R.B. 1375 (N.L.R.B. 1945)

In the Matter Of SOUTHWEST PUMP COMPANY and INTERNATIONAL
UNION, UNITED AUTOMOBILE, AIRCRAFT AND AGRICULTURAL IMPLE-
MENT WORKERS OF AMERICA (UAW-CIO)
Case No. 16-R-1344.-Decided October 3, 1915 '
Samuels, Brown, Herman and Scott, by Mr. Sidney L. Samuels, of
Fort Worth, Tex., and Mr. R. Eugene Risser, of Bonham, Tex., for
the Company.
Mr. Hey Richard Gray, of Dallas, Tex., for the Union.
Mr. Bernard Goldberg, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon a petition duly filed by International Union, United Auto-
mobile, Aircraft and Agricultural Implement Workers of America
(UAW-CIO), herein called the Union , alleging that a question af-
fecting commerce had arisen concerning the representation of em-
ployees of Southwest Pump Company, Bonham, Texas, herein called
the Company , the National Labor Relations Board provided for an
appropriate hearing upon due notice before John A. Garver, Trial
Examiner. The hearing was held at Fort Worth, Texas, on June
27, 1945. The Company and the Union appeared and participated.
All parties were afforded full opportunity to be heard , to examine
and cross -examine witnesses , and to introduce evidence bearing on
the issues. The Trial Examiner's rulings made at the hearing are
free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed. All parties were
afforded an opportunity to file briefs with the Board.
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following :
FINDINGS OF FACT
I. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
Southwest Pump Company is a Texas corporation normally en-
gaged in the manufacture and distribution of service station equip-
63 N. L. R. B., No. 211.
1375
1376 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
ment, air compressors, gasoline meters, gasoline hose, gasoline pumps,
and airport fueling pits at its plant in Bonham, Texas. At the time
of the hearing, however,, the Company was engaged in manufactur-
ing and processing ordnance material for the United States Navy.
During the 1944 calendar year, the Company purchased material
and equipment valued at about $275,000 for use in its operations; of
this amount SO percent was shipped to the plant from points out-'
side the, State of Texas. During the same period, the Company
sold manufactured products valued at approximately $595,000, of
which more than 90 percent was shipped out of the State.
The Company admits that it is engaged in commerce within the
meaning of the National Labor Relations Act.
II. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED
International Union, United Automobile, Aircraft and Agricultural
Implement Workers of America, affiliated with the Congress of In-
dustrial Organizations,°is a labor organization admitting to member-
ship employees of the Company.
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
The Company has refused to recognize the Union as the collective
bargaining representative of any of its employees unless and until
the Union has been certified by the Board in an appropriate unit.
A statement of a Board agent, introduced into evidence at the hear-
ing, indicates that the Union represents a substantial number of em-
ployees in the unit hereinafter found appropriate.'
We find that a question affecting commerce has arisen concerning
the representation of employees of the Company, within the meaning
of Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT
The Union seeks a unit of production and maintenance employees
including shipping and receiving employees, clean-up employees and
shop inspectors, but excluding office and clerical employees, guards,
supervisors, foremen, head inspector, general superintendent, and as-
sistant superintendent. The Company agrees generally with the com-
position of the aforesaid unit; it disagrees only with respect to the
exclusion of supervisors and guards, whom it desires to include in
the unit.
'The Field Examiner reported that the Union submitted 54 application -for-membership
cards ; that the names on 48 of the cards also were listed on the Company 's pay roll of
May 2, 1945 , which contained the names of 138 employees in the appropriate unit ; and
that, of these 48 cards, 25 were dated between January and April 1945, and 23 were
undated.
SOUTHWEST PUMP COMPANY 1377
The Company has given the title of "supervisor" to a chief assembler,
to the head shipping clerk, to the principal painter, and to a number of
set-up men who instruct new employees and set up machines for less
experienced personnel to operate. All these "supervisors" perform
manual work along with the less experienced personnel whose work
they direct in part. The testimony is uncontradicted that they do not
have the power to effect a change in the status of any of their fellow
employees or effectively to recommend such action. We find that these
"supervisors" are not supervisory personnel within the Board's cus-
tomary definition of that term; we shall include them in the unit.
At the time of the hearing the Company employed three full-time
guards and one part-time guard to protect its premises, check em-
ployees and visitors entering and leaving the plant, and perform other
customary guard duties. The guards were armed and uniformed but
neither militarized nor deputized. They were also without monitorial
duties in relation to other employees.2 Under these circumstances, we
shall include them in the unit 3
We find that all production and maintenance employees 4 including
shipping and receiving employees, clean-up employees, shop inspectors
and guards, but excluding office and clerical employees, foremen, head
inspector, general superintendent, assistant superintendent, and all
other supervisory employees with authority to hire, promote, dis-
charge, discipline, or otherwise effect changes in the status of em-
ployees, or effectively recommend such action, constitute a unit appro-
priate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of
Section 9 (b) of the Act.
V. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
We shall direct that the question concerning representation which
has arisen be resolved by an election by secret ballot among the em-
ployees in the appropriate unit who were employed during the pay-
roll period immediately preceding the date of the Direction of Elec-
tion herein, subject to the limitations and additions set forth in the
Direction.5
2 The hearing was held prior to the date of the Japanese surrender . It is problematical
whether guards are employed by the Company at the present time in view of the statement
of company counsel that the Company would not continue to employ guards after it com-
pleted its Navy contracts and resumed its normal business operations . The Company ex-
pected to return three of the guards to production activities , work which they performed
before they became guards.
$ Matter of E. I. duPont de Nemours & Company, Inc ., 62 N. L. R B 146.
' This includes the so -called "supervisors."
The Union 's request that its name appear on the ballot as (UAW-CIO ) is hereby
referred to the Regional Director for disposition.
1378 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
By virtue of and pursuant to the power vested in the National Labor
Relations Board by Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act,
and pursuant to Article III, Section 9, of National Labor Relations
Board Rules and Regulations-Series 3, as amended, it is hereby
DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation to ascertain representa-
tives for the purposes of collective bargaining with Southwest Pump
Company, Bonham, Texas, an election by secret ballot shall be con-
ducted 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 Sixteenth Region, acting in this matter as
agent for the National Labor Relations Board, and subject to Article
III,.Sections 10 and 11, of said Rules and Regulations, among the
employees in the unit found appropriate in Section IV, above, whc,
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 tempo-
rarily laid off, and including employees in the armed forces of the
United States who present themselves in person at the polls, but
excluding any who have since quit or been discharged for cause and
have not been rehired or reinstated prior to the date of the election, to
determine whether or not they desire to be represented by Interna-
tional Union, United Automobile, Aircraft and Agricultural Imple-
ment Workers of America (UAW-CIO), for the purposes of collective
bargaining.
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