Stremel Bros. Manufacturing Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

May 17, 1950

89 N.L.R.B. 1404 (N.L.R.B. 1950)

In the Matter of STREMEL BROS. MANUFACTURING COMPANY, EMPLOYER,
and INTERNATIONAL UNION of ELECTRICAL, RADIO AND MACHINE
WORKERS OF AMERICA, CIO, PETITIONER
Case No. 18-RC-589.-Decided May 17, 1950
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National
Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before Clarence A. Meter,
hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are
free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed .1
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 [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 Act.
2. The labor organizations involved claim to represent certain em-
ployees of the Employer.2
3. Local 1139 of the Intervenor has been the contractual repre-
sentative of the employees in the unit sought herein since approxi-
mately 1942. The latest contract between the Intervenor and the Em-
ployer was made effective July 19, 1949, and was for a term of 1 year
with provision for automatic renewal in the absence of 60 days' prior
notice of intent to terminate. The Petitioner filed its petition on.
I The Intervenor moved to dismiss the petition on grounds the petitioning union and the
agent of the Petitioner who signed the petition , were not in compliance with the filing re-
quirements of Section 9 (f), (g), and ( h) of the Act . This motion was referred to the Board
by the hearing officer and is hereby denied as being a matter of administrative determination
not subject to collateral attack at the hearing . See Morgenthaler Linotype Com,Pammy, SO
NLRB 132 and cases cited therein.
2 United Electrical , Radio and Machine Workers of America, Independent , herein termed
the Intervenor, was allowed to intervene at the hearing by the hearing officer without objec-
tion on the basis of a contract presently in force between the Employer and Local 1139 of
the Intervenor . In the absence of any objection , we will grant the request of the Intervenor
to appear on the ballot alone.
89 NLRB No. 186.
1404
STREMEL BROS. MANUFACTURING COMPANY 1405
February 10, 1950.3 Inasmuch as the petition. was filed well in advance
of the automatic renewal date of the existing contract, We find no
merit in the Intervenor's contention that the contract constitutes a bar
to these proceedings.4
We find that a question affecting commerce exists 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 Petitioner requests that we find a unit consisting of all
production and maintenance employees excluding clerical, supervisory,
and outside installation employees, appropriate for purposes of col-
lective bargaining at this plant. At the hearing the parties agreed
that shipping and receiving department employees should be included
in the unit and that draftsmen and watchmen should be excluded.
The Intervenor, however, contends that certain employees classified as
leadmen should be excluded from the unit as supervisory employees,
while the Petitioner would include the leadmen. The Employer
takes no position on this issue.
The Employer's plant consists of 6 production departments located
in 3 buildings. There are 45 employees in the requested unit. Super-
vision at the plant is vested primarily in a vice president, shop superin-
tendent, and assistant superintendent,, all of whom report to the presi-
dent of the Employer. Each individual department includes a lead-
man and a crew ranging from 2 to 15 employees. The leadmen spend
approximately 50 percent to 90 percent of their time in production
work and are, in each case, the oldest employee in the department from
the standpoint of seniority. They receive, on the average, 17 cents
an hour more than other employees. The leadman's general duties
are to explain the work and the necessary steps to accomplish it, and
consist mainly of routine direction. None of the leadmen have au-
thority to hire or discharge employees nor do they appear to have power
effectively to recommend such action, although they may effect tem-
porary transfers of men to speed up production in any one department.
The leadmen have been included in the .bargaining unit covered by the
Intervenor's contracts. On the basis of the entire record, we are per-
suaded that any authority vested in these employees is of a routine
and limited nature. We find therefore that the leadmen are not
supervisors within the meaning of the amended Act, and we shall
include them in the unit.5
3The Intervenor also moved to dismiss the petition on the ground that a claim to represent
these employees was not tendered the Employer by the Petitioner in advance of the filing
of the petition. The motion to dismiss is denied for reasons stated in Advance Pattern Com-
pany, 80 1^'L11B 29.
4 See Bond Brothers, Incorporated, 86 NLRB 514, and cases cited therein.
5 See Sampsel Time Control, Inc ., 80 NLRB 1250.
1406 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
We find that all production and maintenance employees at the
Employer's fireproof door and sheet metal plant at Minneapolis,
Minnesota, including shipping and receiving department employees,
and leadmen, but excluding office and clerical employees, outside in-
stallation employees, draftsmen, watchmen, and all supervisors within
the meaning of the amended Act, constitute a unit appropriate for
the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section
9 (b) of the Act.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION 6
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 super-
vision 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, 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 of Election, 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 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. Union of Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of
America, CIO, or by United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers
of America, Independent,' or by neither.
6 Any participant in the election directed herein may, upon its prompt request to, and
approval thereof by, the Regional Director, have its name removed from the ballot.
In the absence of any objection, the request of the Intervenor to appear on the ballot
as "VE" is granted.