Teletype Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Sep 28, 1948

79 N.L.R.B. 1044 (N.L.R.B. 1948)

In the Matter of TELETYPE CORPORATION, EMPLOYER and DIE AND TOOL
MAKERS LODGE No. 113, INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS,
AND DISTRICT No. 8, INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS,
PETITIONER
Case Nos. 13 RC-1006 and 13-RC-114.-Decided September 98, 1948
DECISION
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
AND
ORDER
Upon petitions duly filed, a consolidated hearing was held before a
hearing officer of the National Labor Relations Board. 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 National Labor
Relations Act, the Board has delegated its powers in connection with
this case to a panel consisting of Board Members Houston, Reynolds 2
and Gray.
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 organizations named below claim to represent
employees of the Employer.
3 (a) No question affecting commerce exists concerning the repre-
sentation of employees of the Employer in Case No. 13-RC-106, within
the meaning of Section 9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the
Act,3 for the following reasons :
I The Employer moved to dismiss the petitions on the ground that the Petitioners failed to
prove compliance . Teletype Employees Industrial Union, herein called the Intervenor,
moved to dismiss the petitions on the ground that the Petitioners did not make an adequate
showing of interest Inasmuch as we are administratively advised that the Petitioners are
in complete compliance , and the showing of interest is an administrative matter, we find no
merit in these motions. Matter of Stokeley Foods, Inc., 78 N. L. It. B. 842; Matter of
Alabama Electric Cooperative , Inc., 78 N. L. R. B. 634.
2 Board Member Reynolds did not participate in this case.
2 We find no merit in the contention of the Employer and the Intervenor that their
current contract is a bar to these proceedings.
On December 1, 1946, the Employer and the Intervenor executed a contract covering
the Employer 's production and maintenance employees , to terminate March 31 , 1948, which
provided that the contract might be reopened once during its life for the purpose of
negotiating job classifications , rate ranges , and/or wage increases . On May 23, 1947, the
79 N. L. R. B., No. 133.
1044
TELETYPE -CORPORATION 1045
Lodge No. 113 seeks a unit of all employees in the Employer's tool-
room, including tool and gage inspectors and machine repair section,
but excluding office and clerical employees, guards, professional em-
ployees, and supervisors. The Employer and the Intervenor contend
that only the existing plant-wide unit is appropriate. The Employer
asserts that the similarity in work and skill between the employees in
the proposed unit and employees in various production departments
makes the unit requested by Lodge No. 113 inappropriate.
The employees sought by Lodge No. 113 include all those employees
physically located within the Employer's toolroom, which is separated
from the remainder of the plant by partitions. The tool making de-
partment in the toolroom is engaged in the manufacture and repair
of tools, dies, jigs, and fixtures.' The 7 machinists and 2 junior
mechanics in the machine repair department of the toolroom make
and install new parts to replace worn or broken parts, repair various
machines in the plant, and make and maintain tools for toolroom
employees and other departments. The tool and gage inspection
department in the toolroom consists of 15 tool and gage inspectors,
who are responsible for the correct operation of all tools. They inspect
all new tools made by the Employer, and all those made by outside
contractors.5 They also make inspection of tools in the various machine
sections of the plant, including those in the production departments.
At all times, however, they remain under the supervision of the f ore-
man of their section. The majority of the employees whom Lodge
No. 113 seeks to represent are skilled employees.
We customarily find inappropriate for severance a craft or other
group of employees (otherwise proper as a bargaining unit), from
which are arbitrarily' excluded employees in other departments who
parties entered into an agreement setting up new piece -work rates , new day-rate ranges
and increases , and which extended the expiration date of the original contract to March
31, 1949 . On January 30, 1948, Die and Tool Lodge Number 113 , International Associa-
tion of Machinists , herein called Lodge No 113 , filed its petition , and on February 3, 1948,
District No 8, International Association of Machinists , herein called District No. 8, filed
its petition
The petitions , having been filed timely as to the December 1946 contract , are not barred
by the May 1947 contract , which was a premature extension of the 1946 contract , having
been executed during the term of that contract . Matter of U. S. Pipe and Manufacturing
Company, 78 N L. R. B. 15; Matter of Robertshaw -Fulton Controls Company ( American
Thermometer Company ), 77 N. L. R B 316 ; Matter of Beattie Manufacturing Company,
77 N. L. R. B. 361 ; Matter of Continental Can Company , 78 N. L It. B. 819.
4 There are approximately 75 employees in the tool making department classified as
detail makers , tool makers, grinding machine operators , lathe operators , milling machine
operators , jig bore operators , and lapping machine operators.
5 The Employer is required to obtain some of its manufactured tools from sources other
than its own toolroom . For the 5-month period ending February 1948, approximately 5
percent of the work was subcontracted.
809095-49-vol. 79-67
1046 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
possess similar skills and perform like work in the same' or comparable
operations.,'
The record shows that there are employees engaged in production
who possess comparable skills and operate machines similar to those
operated by employees in the toolroom. Thus, for example, detail
makers are found both in and out of the proposed unit. Detail mak-
ers in other departments are regularly assigned to do work similar
to that of the tool makers and detail makers in the toolroom. These
detail makers, depending on the work load, make complete parts that
go into tools and teletype machines. The training and job content of
tool makers and detail makers of the same grade level are in many
respects identical. At the time of the hearing, there were 4 detail
makers in the tool making department, 11 in the experimental de-
partment, and 22 in the jobbing department. The detail makers in
the latter 2 departments are more skilled than those in the tool making
department.
Upon the entire record we conclude that the scope of the requested
unit is arbitrary, that the requested unit is 'therefore not an appro-
priate craft unit, as it does not include all the employees in the plant,
who possess similar craft skills, perform comparable work, and, there-
fore, have interests in common. Accordingly, we shall dismiss the
petition in Case No. 13-RC-106.
(b) A question affecting commerce exists concerning the repre-
sentation of employees of the Employer in Case No. 13-RC-114
within the meaning of Section 9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7)
of the Act.
4. District No. 8 requests a unit of all production and maintenance
employees including shop clerical, cafeteria and warehouse employees,
but excluding the employees in the confines of the toolroom, tool and
gage inspectors, machine repair employees, and other toolroom em-
ployees, office, clerical and professional employees, guards and
supervisors.
District No. 8 concedes that a unit of production and maintenance
employees including toolroom employees, which is the unit covered
by the current contract between the Employer and the Intervenor, is
an appropriate unit. If the Board, however, finds that the toolroom
employees constitute an appropriate craft unit and can be severed.
from the production and maintenance unit, District No. 8 would con-
E Matter of North American Aviation, Inc, 78 N L. R B. 142; Matter of Caterpillar
Tractor Co., 77 N. L. R. B. 457 ; Matter of Combustion Engineering Company, 77 N. L. R. B.
72, Matter of Gulf Oil Corporation, 77 N. L. R. B. 308; Matter of Monsanto Chemical
Company, 78 N L. R. B. 1249.
TELETYPE CORPORATION 1047
cede jurisdiction over the toolroom employees to Lodge No. 113, which
limits its membership to craft employees.
Inasmuch as we have found that the toolroom employees do not
constitute a separate appropriate unit, we find these employees are
properly a part of the production and maintenance unit.
We find that all production and maintenance employees at the Em-
ployer's Chicago, Illinois, plant, including toolroom, shop clerical,
warehouse, and cafeteria employees, but excluding office and clerical
employees, guards, professional employees, and supervisors, consti-
tute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining,
within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION 7
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-Series 5, as amended, among
the employees in the unit found appropriate in paragraph numbered
4, above, who were employed during the pay-roll period immediately
preceding the date of this Direction of Election, including employees
who did not work during said pay-roll 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 reinstated prior to the date of the election, and also exclud-
ing employees on strike who are not entitled to reinstatement, to deter-
mine whether they desire to be represented, for purposes of collective
bargaining, by District No. 8, International Association of Machinists,
or by Teletype Employees Industrial Union, or by neither.
ORDER
Upon the basis of the foregoing findings of fact and upon the
entire record in these proceedings, the National Labor Relations Board
hereby orders that the petition for investigation and certification of
representatives of employees of Teletype Corporation, Chicago, Illi=
nois, filed in Case No. 13-RC-106 by Die and Tool Makers Lodge No
113, International Association of Machinists, be, and it hereby is, dis-
missed.
I 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.