Texas Foundries, Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

May 18, 1949

83 N.L.R.B. 679 (N.L.R.B. 1949)

In the Matter of TEXAS FOUNDRIES , INC., EMPLOYER and INTER-
NATIONAL MOLDERS AND FOUNDRY WORKERS ' UNION OF NORTH
AMERICA, AFL, PETITIONER
Case No. 16-RC-°247 .Decided May 18,1949
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before Evert P.
Rhea, hearing officer of the National Labor Relations Board. At the
hearing the Employer filed a motion to dismiss the petition on various
grounds. For reasons hereinafter stated the Employer's motion is
denied. 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 three-member panel [Members Reynolds, Murdock, 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 Petitioner is a labor organization claiming to represent em-
ployees of the Employer.
3. A 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.
4. The appropriate unit :
The Petitioner seeks a unit composed of all molders, core makers,
and apprentices.-
The Employer opposes the unit because : (1) the functions per-
formed by the employees sought in the instant petition are so inte-
grated with the duties of the other employees in the plant that they
I Within this category are : 1 mechanized molding leaderman ; 11 molders second class ;
23 molders third class ; 8 molders apprentices ; 1 aluminum molder first class ; 2 aluminum
molders second class; core maker bench first class ; 1 core maker apprentice ; 3 core blowing
machine operators ; and 3 core pasters.
83 N. L. R. B., No. 104.
679
680 , DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
do not constitute an identifiable homogenous group; and (2) it alleges
.that these employees are not highly skilled craftsmen.
The Employer operates a modern mechanized job foundry and is.
engaged in the mass production and sale of malleable iron castings
at its sole plant in Lufkin, Texas. In its entire operations it maintains
16 departments divided among several buildings on the premises.
The principal building in which its production process is carried on
houses the foundry and includes the molding and core departments,
as well as the melting, cleaning and trimming, annealing, grinding,
finishing, inspection, shipping, and flask departments. In this build-
ing approximately 317 employees are stationed of whom 135 work
in the molding department, 25 work in the core department, and the
remainder in the other 8 departments located therein.
The Employer contends that its operations are such that a craft
unit should not be established. It cites our decision in the Matter of
National Tube Company,2 in support of its contention. .Contrary
to the view of the Employer we find that the record in this case does
not disclose the factors on which we relied in National Tube. The
Employer herein is not engaged in the production of basic steel, the
industry has no similar history of bargaining, and the skills of the
employees sought by the Petitioner are not peculiar ones but the
ordinary skills of this craft for which we have often granted a unit.
The Employer's motion to dismiss the petition on this ground is hereby
denied.
The Petitioner seeks 48 of the 135 employees in the molding depart-
ment; 11 of the 25 employees in the core department; and 1 of the
16 employees in the pattern department. The Petitioner does not seek
to represent the remaining employees in the molding and core depart-
ments because they are unskilled. The Petitioner contends that the
employees in the pattern department whom it does not seek to repre-
sent perform tasks unrelated to those of the other employees in the
unit and not part of the craft. We agree with these contentions.
The sole remaining question for determination is whether or not
the molders and core makers involved herein are craft employees of
the type to whom the Board has customarily accorded separate
representation.3
The record discloses that, while the employees claimed by the Peti-
tioner as an appropriate unit do not, in the course of their employment,
exercise the whole gamut of skills within the molders' and core makers'
s 76 N L. R. B. 1199.
• Matter of Detroit Michigan Stove Co., 55 N L. R. B 1514 ; Matter of Bethlehem Steer
Co., 61 N. L. R. B. 1410 ; Matter of Federal Steel Products Corp ., 64 N. L R . B. 908 ; Matter
of Charles Binn,, 77 N. L . R. B. 380 ; Matter of Link-Belt Company, 76 N. L . R. B. 427;
Matter o f Benjamin Eastwood Company, 77 N. L. R. B. 1383.
TEXAS FOUNDRIES, INC. 681
craft, they nevertheless perform the usual functions of molders and
core makers engaged in the making of molds and cores in a foundry
of this type. Moreover, it is clear that, notwithstanding the fact that
the employees herein use equipment and machines which to a great
degree have supplanted the physical labor formerly associated with
the craft, these molders and core makers are required to use certain
knowledge and training peculiar to the molders' and core makers'
craft. Furthermore a substantial number of the employees in the unit
sought are engaged in conventional molding operations which was
not the case in Hatter of Sacks-Barlow Fowndries, Inc.4 We find no
merit in the contentions that close over-all supervision by highly
skilled foremen, and the instructions issued on the production release
cards, have "de-skilled," these employees, and prevent them from
exercising the customary skills and knowledge in the craft of molding
and core making. We do not believe that the,periodic supervisory
checks, or the instructions on the production release cards, supplant
skills, judgment, or training in the mass production of molds and
cores. The Employer's motion to dismiss-the petition on the grounds
that these employees are not craftsmen is hereby denied.
Accordingly, we find that all molders, core makers, and appren-
tices,,' excluding all other employees, watchmen, clerical and profes-
sional employees, and supervisors as defined in the Act, constitute
a unit appropriate for 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 pur-
poses 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
4 Matter of Sacks-Barlow Foundries , Inc., 79 N . L. R. B. 327. Where we denied a craft
severance on the grounds that the unit sought by the Petitioner did not constitute an
appropriate craft grouping.
6 Included in this category are : the mechanized molding leaderman ; molders second class ;
molders third class ; molders apprentices ; aluminum molders first class ; aluminum molders
second class ; core maker bench first class ; core makers apprentices ; core blowing machine
operators ; and the core pasters. Although the Petitioner takes no position as to the
inclusion or exclusion of mechanized molding helpers , as it appears that the three mechanized
molding helpers perform substantially the same duties and work that molders third clasp
perform we shall include them in the unit. '
682 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
who did not work during said pay-roll period because they were ill,
or on vacation or temporarily laid off, but excluding those employee&
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 de-,
termine whether or not they desire to be represented, for purposes
of collective bargaining, by International Molders and Foundry
Workers' Union of North America, AFL.