St. Regis Paper Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Oct 7, 1957

118 N.L.R.B. 1560 (N.L.R.B. 1957)

1560 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
(b) All production and maintenance employees including inspec-
tors, shipping and receiving clerks, stock handlers, and truckdrivers,
but excluding office clerical employees, professional employees, em-
ployees included in group (a) above, guards, and supervisors as
defined in the Act.
If a majority of the employees in voting group (a) select the
Welders Union, that group will be taken to have indicated their desire
to constitute a separate bargaining unit, which the Board, under
those circumstances, finds to be appropriate for purposes of collective
bargaining, and the Regional Director conducting the elections is
hereby instructed to issue a certification of representatives to such
union for such unit. In that event, if a majority of employees in
voting group (b) select the Aircraft Workers or the Intervenor,
then the Regional Director is instructed to issue a certification of
representatives to the winning union for a unit of such employees,
which the Board under the circumstances finds to be appropriate for
purposes of collective bargaining.
However, if a majority of the employees in voting group (a) do
not vote for the Welders Union, such group will be appropriately
included in the same unit with the employees in voting group (b) and
their votes will be pooled with those in that voting group.' If a
majority of employees in the pooled group select either the Aircraft
Workers or the Intervenor, the Regional Director is instructed to
issue a certification of representatives to the winning union for such
unit, which under such circumstances the Board finds to be appropriate
for purposes of collective bargaining.
[Text of Direction of Elections omitted from publication.]
sought to include specifically apprentices and trainees . The record shows , however, that
the Employer employs no such employees . As for the spot welders , the record shows
that they work on fully automatic equipment which they cannot regulate , that their
work is not skilled, and that they are not certified.
a If the votes are pooled , they are to be tallied in the following manner : The votes
for the welders Union shall be counted as valid votes , but neither for nor against a
union seeking the production and maintenance employees ; all other votes are to be
accorded their face value, whether for representation by a union or for no union.
St. Regis Paper Company and Stationary Engineers Local #86,
International Union of Operating Engineers , AFL-CIO, Peti-
tioner. Case No. 1-RC-49418. October 7, 195'
SUPPLEMENTAL DECISION AND CERTIFICATION
OF REPRESENTATIVES
Pursuant to a Decision and Direction of Election issued by the
Board on July 29, 1957,1 an election by secret ballot was conducted
1 Not reported in printed volumes of Board Decisions and Orders.
...t8 NLRB No.. 21-6.
ST. REGIS PAPER COMPANY 1561
on August 13, 1957, under the direction and supervision of the Re
gional Director for the First Region of the National Labor Relations
Board among the employees in the unit found appropriate by the
Board. At the close of the election the parties were furnished with
a tally of ballots which shows that, of approximately 19 eligible
voters, 9 cast ballots for the Petitioner, 8 cast ballots for Local
Union No. 534, United Papermakers and Paperworkers,2 AFL-CIO,
and 1 ballot was challenged.
The challenged ballot being determinative of the results of the
election, the Regional Director, pursuant to Section 102.61 of the
Rules and Regulations of the Board, caused an investigation to be
made and on August 23, 1957, issued and served on the parties his
report on challenged ballot, in which he recommended that the chal-
lenge to the ballot be sustained and that Petitioner be certified as the
exclusive bargaining agent of the employees in the unit found by
the Board to be appropriate. Thereafter, the Papermakers filed
timely exceptions to the Regional Director's report, and Petitioner
filed a memorandum in support of the report.
Pursuant to Section 3 (b) of the Act, the Board has delegated its
powers in connection with this case to a three-member panel [Chair-
man Leedom and Members Murdock and Rodgers].
The Regional Director found that Lawrence was employed by the
Employer on July 9, 1953, as a first-class electrician, a position outside
the unit found herein to be appropriate; that on January 4, 1957,
Lawrence was awarded the position of powerhouse operator with
seniority in that position from June 20, 1956, the approximate date
of his application for that position, but that, at the time of the elec-
tion on August 13,, 1957, Lawrence was still. working as an electrician
because the Employer had not as yet obtained a replacement for him
in the electrician's job.
The Regional Director concluded therefrom that Lawrence was
ineligible to vote because he was not actually working in the appro-
priate unit during the payroll eligibility period and was not absent
for one of the reasons set out in the Direction of Election. The
Papermakers does not dispute the facts as found by the Regional
Director, but takes issue with his conclusions.
As Lawrence was not actually working in the appropriate category
in the unit during the payroll eligibility period and on the date of
the election, we find him ineligible to vote. The fact that he was
awarded the job in the appropriate category and was accruing senior-
ity therein on the critical dates is insufficient reason to depart from
a Herein referred to as " the Papermakers."
1562 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
the Board's established voting eligibility rules.' Accordingly, like
the Regional Director, we sustain the challenge to Lawrence's ballot.
As the Petitioner has received a majority of the valid ballots cast
in the election, we shall certify the Petitioner as the collective-
bargaining representative of the employees in the appropriate unit.
[The Board certified Stationary Engineers Local #86, Interna-
tional Union of Operating Engineers, AFL-CIO, as the designated
collective-bargaining representative of the employees in the appro-
priate unit.]
3 Cf. Food Machinery and Chemical Corporation , 116 NLRB 552 , 553, wherein the
Board interpreted a unit finding excluding temporary employees as making ineligible an
employee who was working as a temporary during the payroll eligibility period, although
he had already been promised a permanent job which was to take effect and did take effect
before the election date.
Pet Dairy Products Company and D. H. Edwards, Petitioner
and Milk and Ice Cream Drivers and Dairy Employees, Local
Union No. 23, International Brotherhood of Teamsters , Chauf-
feurs, Warehousemen & Helpers of America , AFL-CIO. Case
No. 11-RD-68. October 8, 1957
DECISION AND ORDER
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, a hearing was held before John M. Dyer, hearing
officer. 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 Act, the Board
has delegated its powers in-connection with this case to a three-member
panel [Chairman Leedom and Members Murdock and Rodgers].
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 Petitioner, an employee of the Employer, asserts that the
Union is no longer the bargaining representative, as defined in Section
9 (a) of the Act, of certain employees of the Employer.
3. No 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, for the following
reasons:
The petition sought a decertification election in a unit of employees
at the Employer's Greenville, South Carolina, plant.2 The Union
1 The Union 's motion to dismiss the petition , which was referred by the hearing officer
to the Board, is granted-for the reasons stated infra.
2 The petition described a unit of "office, clerical, wholesale milk delivery, retail milk
delivery , ice cream delivery , shipping , ice cream production , milk processing and storage,
118 NLRB No. 213.