Standard-Coosa-Thatcher Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Apr 2, 1947

73 N.L.R.B. 123 (N.L.R.B. 1947)

In the Matter of STANDARD-COOSA-THATCHER CoDIPANY, EMPLOYER
and TEXTILE WORKERS UNION or AMERICA, CIO, PETITIONER
Case No. 10-R-2246.-Decided April 2, 1947
Messrs. Frank A. Cons tangy and Legare Davis, both of Atlanta,
Ga., for the Employer.
Mr. Join J. Brownlee, of Atlanta, Ga., and Mr. Paul R. Cristopher,
of Knoxville, Tenn., for the Petitioner.
Mr. Emil C. Farkas, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed, hearing in this case was held at Chatta-
nooga, Tennessee, on October 22, 1946, before Paul S. Kuelthau,
hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are
free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in the case, the National Labor Relations
Board makes the following :
FINDINGS OF FACT
I. THE BUSINESS OF THE EMPLOYER
Standard-Coosa-Thatcher, a Tennessee corporation, is engaged in
the manufacture of mercerized yarn and thread at its plants located
at Plechnont, Alabama, Gadsden, Alabama, Rossville, Georgia, and
Ridgedale, Tennessee, a suburb of Chattanooga, Tennessee. We are
concerned with its operations at Ridgedale, hereinafter referred to as
the Ridgedale plant. The Employer purchases annually for use at this
plant raw materials valued in excess of $3,500,000 a year, approxi-
mately 95 percent of which is obtained from sources outside the State
of Tennessee. Finished products manufactured by the Employer at
this plant are valued in excess of $5,000,000 a year, approximately 75
percent of which is shipped outside the State.
The Employer admits and we find that it is engaged ,in commerce
within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act.
73 N L R. B., No 19
123
124 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
It. TFIE ORGA NIZATION INAOLVED
The Petitioner is a labor organization affiliated with the Congress
of Industrial Organizations , claiming to represent employees of the
Employer.
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
The Employer refuses to recognize the Petitioner as the exclusive
bargaining representative of certain employees of the Employer until
the Petitioner has been certified by the Board in -an appropriate unit.
We find that a question affecting commerce has arisen concerning
the representation of employees of the Employer , within the meaning
of Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT
The Petitioner seeks a unit composed of all production and main-
tenance employees at the Thatcher building of the Employer's Ridge-
dale plant including section men, but excluding office, clerical, tech-
nical and cafeteria employees , superintendents , foremen, secondhands,
and all other supervisory personnel . The Employer contends that, in
view of its ifttegr"ated operations , the only appropriate unit is a plant-
wide unit embracing all production and maintenance employees at its
Thatcher, Standard and Maintenance buildings, which together make
up its Ridgedale plant. It contends further that section men are su-
pervisory employees and should be excluded from any unit found to
be appropriate.
The Employer 's Ridgedale plant consists of approximately 18 or
19 buildings of various types. The three main buildings are the
Standard, the Thatcher and the Maintenance building, all of which
are located within an area of 4 blocks. In the course of its operations
the Employer employs approximately 1,400 persons , about 900 of
whom work at the Thatcher building, 425 at the Standard building
and 90 at the Maintenance building ; 10 or 12 of these latter employees
are classified as cafeteria employees . The Standard building and the
Thatcher building, where the Employer 's manufacturing operations
are carried on, are located side by side and are separated by a narrow
street which runs the length of the buildings. The warehouse for
raw materials is situated in the Thatcher building, while the shipping
and packing room, the storage house and the central heating plant are
all located in the Standard building.
The general supervision of the Employer 's Ridgedale plant is under
the direction of the vice president who also controls and determines
the labor policy for the plant . Uniform personnel policies and work-
STANDARD-COOSA-THATCHER COMPANY 125
ing conditions prevail throughout the plant and facilities such as the
cafeteria, athletic field and housing, and benefits such as first-aid and
hospitalization, a credit union and a system of group insurance are
extended in like manner to all employees. Rates of pay are by depart-
ment and wage increases, whenever made, are applicable to all em-
ployees. Salary- disbursements are made through a single pay-roll
department, but the Standard, Thatcher, and Maintenance buildings
and the cafeteria each has a separate pay roll for its employees. Al-
though one set of corporate books is kept for the Ridgedale plant, oper-
ating costs are figured separately and operating expenses are charge-
able to the respective buildings. Hours of employment at the various
buildings are the same but there exists no interchange of employees
between the Standard and Thatcher buildings, and each building has
its own superintendent and supervisory staff. Maintenance employees
in general have no specific working stations although a number of such
workers are assigned full time to each of the several buildings.
The Employer's manufactured products are sold under a single
trade name known as Durene. In the Employer's operations, the
Thatcher building is considered a spinning mill where the raw cotton
is passed through a number of carding and spinning processes, and the
Standard building a processing mill where bleaching, mercerizing,
and other finishing processes are carried on. The raw cotton stored
in the warehouse, at one end of the Thatcher building, is opened by a
balebreaker and is then passed by means of suction pipes to the picker
room where the actual manufacturing process begins. There follows
a series of operations such as carding, lapping, combing, drawing, and
slubbing, "intermediate machines, speeders and jacks," after which
the product is ready to enter the spinning department. In the, spin-
ning department the first step is that of spinning; at the end of this
operation the yarn passes through one of several steps known as a
single-doubling, spooling, and single and splash winding. The yarn
then goes through a twisting operation followed by either ply-wind-
ing, reeling or single end gassing. The final operation in the Thatcher
building is that of warping, upon the completion of which the product
is ready for the mercerizing operations.
Approximately 50 percent of the yarn from the Thatcher spinning
mill goes to the Standard building while the remainder goes to the
Employer's finishing plant at Rossville, Georgia. The materials are
taken from the. Thatcher building. to the Standard building by
Thatcher employees by means of small hand trucks. In the Standard
building two different operations are performed. Part of the yarn
is warp-mercerized or bleached, following which it passes through
quilling and winding. The other portion of the yarn goes directly
from the reeling department of the Thatcher building to the skein-
126 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
mercerizing department in the Standard building and passes through
back winding and winding operations. The finished products are
then prepared for packing, inspection and shipping by employees of
the Standard building.
As previously noted, the employees whom the Petitioner seeks in
its unit are all located in the Thatcher building of the Ridgedale plant.
The record discloses that in a prehearing election held on June 13,
1946, approximately 10 months ago, among all production and main-
tenance employees at the Employer's Ridgedale plant, the Petitioner
lost the election by a vote of 734 to 494. It reveals further that during
the past year the Petitioner has renewed its organizational efforts
among the production and maintenance employees throughout the
Employer's plant; it has met with success only in the Thatcher build-
ing, where the employees have evinced an active interest in organiz-
ing beyond that exhibited before the June 1946 election.
We are not unmindful, as urged by the Employer, that the nature of
the operations and the uniform personnel policies and working con-
ditions throughout the Employer's plant indicate that its production
and maintenance employees could function for the purposes of col-
lective bargaining on a plant-wide basis. However, it is significant
that the Thatcher building alone functions as a spinning mill, that it
is physically separated from the Standard building and the Main-
tenance building, that it does not interchange its employees with those
in the other two buildings, that separate pay rolls are kept for each
building and that, essentially, different types of machinery and skills
are utilized in each building. We also note that there is no labor
organization presently seeking to represent the Employer's employees
in a plant-wide unit and that there is absent any collective bargaining
history on a more comprehensive basis. Under all these circumstances
we are of the opinion that the unit sought by the Petitioner may at
this time constitute an appropriate unit for the purposes of collective
bargaining 1 This finding does not however, preclude future recon-
sideration of the appropriateness of a huger unit should organization
of the Employer's employees be extended to other buildings of its
Ridgedale plant.
There remains for consideration the disposition of the section men,
whorl the Petitioner would include and the Employer would exclude
from tine unit found appropriate. The record indicates that these em-
ployees work directly under the secondhands. Their duties consist of
adjusting and making minor repairs to machines, assisting the second-
hand in placing help, assisting in training new workers, and inspecting
the quantity and quality of work in their respective sections. In many
I Matter of May, McEiven, Kaiser Company , May Full-Fashion Division . 66 N L. R B_
1341 , Matter of Richmond Hosiery Mills, 62 N L R B 1481 , Matter of Charles II Bacon
Company, 54 N L R B. 703.
STANDARD-COOSA-THATCHER COMPANY 127
instances section men are paid less than men working under them.
Although the Employer contended at the hearing that section men
have authority effectively to recommend changes in the status of em-
ployees working under them, we are satisfied from all the evidence that
their recommendations when made, result in an independent investiga-
tion by the Employer and that such investigations form the only basis
for action by the Employer. Under the circumstances, we are of the
opinion that section men are not supervisory employees within the
meaning of our customary definition of that term, and we shall include
them in the unit.2
Accordingly, we find that all production and ncalntenance employ-
ees at the Thatcher building of the Employer's Riclgeclale plant, in-
cluding section men, but excluding office, clerical, technical and cafe-
teria employees, superintendents, foremen, secondhands, and all other
supervisory employees with authority to hire, promote, discharge,
discipline, or otherwise effect changes in the status of employees, or
effectively recommend such action, 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 Standard-Coosa-Thatcher
Company, Chattanooga, Tennessee, an election by secret ballot shall be
conducted as early as possible, but not later than thirty (30) clays
from the date of this Direction, ender the direction and supervision of
the Regional Director for the Tenth Region, acting in this matter as
agent for the National Labor Relations Board, and subject to Sections
203.55 and 203.56, of National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regu-
lations-Series 4, among the employees in the unit found appropriate
in Section IV, 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 aeation or temporarily laid off, and including employees in
the armed forces of the United States who present themselves in per-
son at the polls, but excluding those employees 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 Textile Workers Union of America, CIO,
for the purposes of collective bargaining.
MR. JAMES J. REYNOLDS; JR., took no part in the consideration of
the above Decision and Direction of Election.
2 Matter of Thomaston Cot too Mills, Griffin Di vision, 66 N. L R B 731.
739926-47-vol 73-10