Superior Metal Products Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jan 18, 1946

65 N.L.R.B. 552 (N.L.R.B. 1946)

In the Matter of SUPERIOR METAL PRODUCTS COMPANY and UNITED
STEELWORKERS OF AMERICA, C. I. O.
Case No. 18-R-1399.-Decided Ja7uary 18, 1946
Mr. Albert L. Wolfe, of New York City, and Mr. J. N. Welscher, of
St. Paul, Minn., for the Company.
Messrs. Fullerton Fulton, and Joseph Kretche, of St. Paul, Minn.,
for the Steelworkers. Q
Messrs. James Ashe, and Fred Lutz, of St. Paul, Minn., for the
I. A. M.
Messrs. Timothy E. Halloran and William Gydesen, of St. Paul,
Minn., for the Federal Union. -
Mr. A. Sumner Lawrence, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon a petition duly filed by United Steelworkers of America,
C. I. 0., herein called the Steelworkers, alleging that a question affect-
ing commerce had arisen concerning the representation of employees
of Superior Metal Products Company, St. Paul, Minnesota, herein
called the Company, the National Labor Relations Board provided
for an appropriate hearing upon due notice before Clarence A. Meter,
Trial Examiner. The hearing was held at St. Paul, Minnesota, on
October 25, 1945. The Company, the Steelworkers, International
Association of Machinists, District 77, herein called the I. A. M., and
Federal Labor Union No. 21727, AFL, herein called the Federal
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 opportunity to file briefs
with the Board.
65 N. L. R. B, No. 91.
552
SUPERIOR METAL PRODUCTS COMPANY 553
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following :
FINDINGS OF FACT
I. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
Superior Metal Products Company, a Delaware corporation, has
its principal office and place of business in St. Paul, Minnesota, where
it is engaged in the manufacture of milk cans, milk bottle crates, and
dairy metalware. During the year 1944, the Company purchased for
use at its St. Paul plant, raw materials valued in excess of $300,000,
of which approximately 70 percent was shipped to it from points
outside the State of Minnesota. During the same period, the Com-
pany manufactured finished products, valued in excess of $500,000,
of which approximately 85 percent was shipped from the Company's
plant to points outside the State of Minnesota.
The Company admits that it is engaged in commerce within the
meaning of the National Labor Relations Act.
It. THE ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED
United Steelworkers of America is a labor organization, affiliated
with the Congress of Industrial Organizations, admitting to mem-
bership employees of the Company.
International Association of Machinists, District Lodge No. 77,
is a labor organization admitting to membership employees of the
Company.
Federal Labor Union No. 21727 is a labor organization, affiliated
with the American Federation of Labor, admitting to membership
employees of the Company.
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
The Company has refused to grant recognition to the Steelworkers
as the exclusive bargaining representative of its employees until
the Steelworkers 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 Steelworkers represents a substantial number
of employees in the unit hereinafter found appropriate.'
The Field Examiner reported that the Steelworkers had submitted 100 cards, bear-
ing the names of 94 employees listed on the Company 's pay roll of production employees,
dated September 22, 1945, containing 184 employees in the claimed unit of production
employees
At the time of the hearing, the Company employed 155 production employees and 16
machinists and maintenance employees.
The I . A. M. and the Federal Union evidenced their Interests by virtue of a contract
with the Company.
554 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
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 APPRORIATE UNIT
In its petition as originally filed, the Steelworkers claimed an
appropriate unit consisting of all production employees, excluding
supervisory employees, office employees, machinists and maintenance
men. At the hearing, the Steelworkers amended its petition by
including in its proposed unit machinists and maintenance men,'
employees presently represented by the I. A. M. as the result of a
series of collective bargaining agreements with the Company.3 The
Steelworkers, whose position is shared by the Company, contends
that its present claim of a plant-wide unit, including machinists and
maintenance employees, is supported by the practice of the Federal
Union and the I. A. M. of negotiating jointly with the Company upon
a plant-wide basis. The I. A. M. and the Federal Union oppose the
unit sought by the Steelworkers only insofar as they maintain that ma-
chinists and maintenance employees should not be included together
with the production efnployees.4
With respect to the contention of the Steelworkers that the history
of collective bargaining establishes the appropriateness of a plant-
wide unit, the record reveals that, while the Federal Union and the
I. A. M. have, for purposes of convenience, customarily executed joint
bargaining contracts covering both production employees and the
group of machinists and maintenance employees, these contracts have
been composite agreements, executed by individual representatives of
the I. A. M. and the Federal Union. In the negotiation and admin-
istration of these agreements, the separate interests of the group of
craft machinists and maintenance employees have been carefully pre-
served, not only in the separate recognition by the Company of the
I. A. M. as the exclusive bargaining representative of such employees,
but also in the separate handling of grievances for employees in this
group by a representative of the I. A. M. Under the circumstances,
we are of the opinion that the history of collective bargaining does
not establish the appropriateness of a plant-wide unit, but on the
contrary indicates the appropriateness of preserving the separate
identity of the production group on the one hand and the group of
The Steelworkers stated at the hearing, however, that in the event the Board should
find a plant-wide unit inappropriate, it desired to urge as an alternative position that the
unit as originally claimed was appropriate.
The I A âi has been the recognized bargaining representative since October 12, 1938,
of a multiple-craft unit consisting of tool and die makers, machinists, die setters, and
millwrights
4 All parties also agree to the exclusion of clerical employees, technical employees, sales-
men, superintendents and their assistants, and foremen
SUPERIOR METAL PRODUCTS COMPANY 555
machinists and maintenance employees on the other . Accordingly, in
view of the history of collective bargaining , we shall exclude the
machinists and maintenance employees from the unit of production
employees hereinafter found appropriate.'
We find that all production employees of the Company , excluding
clerical , office and technical employees , machinists and maintenance
employees ,6 salesmen , superintendents and their assistants , foremen,
and all other supervisory employees with authority to hire, promote,
discharge , 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 employees
in the appropriate unit who were employeed during the pay-roll period
immediately preceding the date of the Direction of Election herein,
subject to the limitations and additions set forth in the Direction.'
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 Rela-
tions 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 Superior Metal
Products Company, St. Paul, Minnesota, an election by secret ballot
shall be conducted as early as possible, buthot later than thirty (30)
days from the date of this Direction, under the-direction and super-
vision of the Regional Director for the Eighteenth 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 Regula-
tions, among employees in the unit found appropriate in Section IV,
5 The record indicates that the Steelworkers has confined its organizational campaign to
employees of the production group and has submitted no specific evidence of representation
among the machinists and maintenance employees . Moreover , the I A Df , which cur-
rently represents these employees , is not requesting an election among them , conse-
quently, we shall not at this time make a determination of representatives for this group
Cf. Matter of Tobacco By-Products if Chemical Corporation, 64 N. L R. B 252.
Included under this classification are all the craft , employees presently represented
by the I A M.
Since the employees claimed by the I A. M have been excluded from the appropriate
unit, and this organization apparently asserts no interest in the production employees who
form the appropriate unit , we shall omit its name from the ballot in the election herein-
after directed.
556 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
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
vacation or temporarily laid off, and including employees in the
armed forces of the United States who present themselves in person
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 they desire to be
represented by United Steelworkers of America, C. I. 0., or by Fed-
eral Labor Union No. 21727, AFL, for the purposes of collective bar-
gaining, or by neither.
Jl
i.