Sperti, Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

May 16, 1950

89 N.L.R.B. 1349 (N.L.R.B. 1950)

In the Matter of ROOKWOOD POTTERY, DIVISION OF SPERTI, INC.,
EMPLOYER and INTERNATIONAL UNION, UNITED AUTOMOBILE
WORKERS OF AMERICA, AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR, PETI-
TIONER
Case No. 9-RC-711.-Decided May 16,1950
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before William
Naimark, hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the
hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed. The
hearing officer reserved to the Board for ruling the Employer 's motion
to dismiss the petition. For reasons stated hereafter in Section 4, the
motion is hereby denied.
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 [Members Houston, Reynolds, and
Murdock].
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 involved 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.2
4. The appropriate unit :
The Employer is a holding company of various operating divisions
and subsidiary corporations. One of these is the Rookwood Pottery
'International Union, United Automobile Workers of America, American Federation of
Labor, herein called the Petitioner.
' Under Advance Pattern Company, 79 NLRB 209, supplemental decision 80 NLRB 29,
it is sufficient that the Employer refused at the hearing to recognize the Petitioner as bar-
gaining representative of the Employer ' s employees.
89 NLRB No. 151.
1349
1350 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Division. Others are the Drug Division, the Cosmetic Division, and
the Sperti Faraday Electrical Corporation, herein called Faraday.
The Rookwood Pottery Division is located in its entirety at the
Employer's 21/2-story Rookwood Building in Cincinnati, Ohio. At
the same building there are also located the Drug Division, Cosmetic
Division, some of the manufacturing personnel of Faraday, and the
general offices of the holding company. Other employees of Faraday
at the time of the hearing were located in Norwood, Ohio, although
it was planned to move these employees to the Rookwood Building.
Still another part of, Faraday operations are conducted at Adrian,
Michigan, where the business headquarters of Faraday are main-
tained and where its payroll and tax returns are handled.
It is only the employees of the Rookwood Pottery Division that the
Petitioner seeks to represent. The Employer contends that these
employees do not comprise an appropriate unit because the only appro-
priate unit should contain all production workers located in the
Rookwood Building, including those of the Rookwood Pottery Divi-
sion , the Drug Division, and Faraday.3
The Employees of the Rookwood Pottery Division, who are classi-
fied as casters, glazers , and finishers, produce pottery and other ce-
rarnic articles by a process of pouring liquid clay into molds and
glazing and finishing the hardened objects. Except for the employee
who mixes clay in the basement, and the two molders who design molds
on the second floor,4 all the employees of the Rookwood Pottery Divi-
sion perform their work in several rooms on the ground floor, in which
rooms no processes except pottery manufacturing are conducted.
These employees also have separate immediate supervision from other
divisions of the Employer.5
The Drug Division, which is engaged in the manufacture, packag-
ing, and processing of certain drug items, is located in the basement.
Faraday, which, according to the testimony of an executive of an
Employer , was the only division allied to the Rookwood Pottery Divi-
sion at the time of the hearing, has two groups of employees in the
Rookwood Building. These are the electronic group, located in the
basement, a highly skilled group who process and make glass tubing
and burners, and do various types of research work involving the test-
ing of heat; and the electrical employees located on the ground .floor,
an unskilled and semiskilled group who do assembly work in the
S The Employer does not contend that the employees of the Cosmetic Division should he
included in the appropriate unit as these employees are in the process of moving to Chicago,
Illinois.
4 One of the molders is a master potter and the other receives training as a veteran to be
a master potter.
5 There is one production manager for all operations conducted in the Roolewood Building.
ROOKWOOD POTTERY, DIVISION OF SPERTI, INC. 1351
manufacture of lamps, clocks, chimes, and various kinds of electrical
equipments The Employer's plans for the future envisage the exten-
sive use of Rookwood Pottery products, such as bases for lamps and
ceramic containers for chimes, as part of the appliances" produced by
Faraday. However, except for evidence that about 50 percent of the
Rookwood Pottery Division's output is sold at retail in the Rookwood
Building (presumably as ceramic objects, not as electrical appliances)
the record is silent as to the extent of the anticipated mutual depend-
ency of Faraday and the Rookwood Division. An executive of the
Employer states that there will be a thoroughgoing integration among
all production employees of all divisions located in the Rookwood
Building. According to that testimony the Rookwood Pottery Divi-
sion may possibly cease to exist and only the Rookwood trade name
will be used. According to the further statement of this witness, the
holding company expects to achieve a complete commingling and
interchangeability of all production employees in the Rookwood
Building so that the efforts of the entire working force can be diverted,
from time to. time, to the production of whatever item is most in
demand.
The record shows that some employees in the past have gone from
one division to another but such instances appear to have been in the
nature of permanent transfer rather than regular interchange. More-
over, notwithstanding the Employer's future plans, we are persuaded
that at the present the employees of the Rookwood Pottery Division
comprise a distinct, separate, manufacturing group within the total
working force of this highly varigated enterprise. The integration of
all production workers, which the Employer urges asa reason for not
establishing a unit of pottery workers, appears speculative. The
Rookwood Pottery Division is still a separate administrative subdivi-
sion of the Employer. Rookwood pottery, as such, is still one of the
Employer's end products. We do not believe that the contemplated
consolidation of all production workers in the Rookwood Building
is a sufficient basis for denying the employees of the Rookwood Pot-
tery Division collective bargaining representation at this time. The
unit advocated by the Employer would include employees who belong
to different administrative divisions of the Employer, and employees
who are engaged in manufacturing entirely different end products by
the use of different raw materials, and the application of different
production techniques. Such a unit would also include only a seg-
0 The electronics group, although it is a part of Faraday, is referred to by the Employer
as "the Electronics Division," and the electrical employees are called "the Electrical
Corporation."
1352 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
ment of Faraday inasmuch as a majority of the Faraday employees
are located in Adrian, Michigan. In similar instances the Board has
approved a unit resembling the divisional unit which the Petitioner is
seeking here.?
Accordingly, we find that all employees of the Rookwood Pottery
Division at the Employer's Cincinnati, Ohio, plant, including glazers,
casters, finishers, the clay mixing worker in the basement, molders,"
and instructors," but excluding all office and clerical employees, sales
persons, watchmen and guards, the maid,10 porters and maintenance
employees," and all professional employees, including artists and •the
ceramist,12 foremen, and all supervisors as defined in the Act, con-
stitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining
within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
5. The determination of representatives :
The parties are in dispute as to the eligibility of certain laid-off
employees to vote in the election. Thee Petitioner urges that these
employees were temporarily laid off and, therefore, should be per-
mitted to vote. The Employer contends that a consolidation of its
divisions for economic reasons has necessitated the permanent sever-
ance of these employees and that they are therefore ineligible to vote.
As the question of the status of those laid-off employees is pending
before the Board in Case No. 9-CA-252,15 we shall at this time make
no determination with respect to the eligibility issue raised by the
parties but shall permit these employees laid off on and after December
30, 1949, to vote subject to challenge. In the event that the counting
of the challenged ballots would affect the results of the election, ques-
tions as to which of them shall be opened and counted must await a
further determination in Case No. 9-CA-252.
7 Worman Logging Corporation, 48 NLRB 1048; The Airparts Company, 59 NLRB 1341;
Lanett Bleachery and 'Dye Works, 71 NLRB 317; Consolidated Electrical Products, 71
NLRB 360 ; •Manchester Knitt-ing^Fashions;•Inc;, .73 NLRB 471.
8 The Petitioner seeks to include and the Employer to exclude the molders . We find that
these employees should properly be included as.they are not specialists or artists as the
Employer contends but are highly skilled potters.
8 There is no evidence that any of the instructors perform work of a supervisory nature,
nor is there any contention by the parties regarding the status of these employees except
with respect to the employee named Virginia Scalf . The Petitioner would include and the
Employer would exclude her. Inasmuch as she is purely an instructor and not a supervisor,
we shall include her in the appropriate unit.
io The parties agree that the maid should be excluded.
11 The Petitioner asks for the inclusion of the porters and maintenance employees who
are engaged in work connected with the Rookwood Pottery Division. As the maintenance
group and the two porters, who are classified separately from the maintenance group,
appear to work throughout the plant we shall not include them in the appropriate unit.
12 The parties agree that the artists and the ceramist should be excluded.
13 The Petitioner filed charges in Case No. 9-CA-252 wherein it alleged that 22 employees
were discharged discriminatorily in violation of Section 8 (a) (1) and (3) of the Act. A
waiver has been filed in this case.
ROOKWOOD POTTERY, DIVISION OF SPERTI, INC. 1353
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the
purposes of collective bargaining with Rookwood Pottery Division
of Sperti, Inc., Cincinnati, Ohio, 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 Region in which this case was heard, and
subject to Sections 203.61 and 203.62 of National Labor Relations
Board Rules and Regulations, and subject to our determination in
paragraph numbered 5, supra, among the employees in the unit found
appropriate in paragraph numbered 4, above, who were employed
during the payroll period immediately preceding the date of this
Direction, including employees who did not work during said payroll
period because they were ill or on vacation or temporarily laid off,
but excluding those employees who have since quit or been dis-
charged for cause and have not been rehired or reinstated 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, for the purposes of collective bargaining, by
International Union, United Automobile Workers of America,
American Federation of Labor.