The Apex Electrical Manufacturing Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jan 10, 1946

65 N.L.R.B. 382 (N.L.R.B. 1946)

In the Matter of THE APEx ELECTRICAL MANUFACTURING ; COMPANY
and OFFICE EMPLOYEES INTERNATIONAL UNION, LOCAL NO. 17
(AFL)
Case No. 8-R-1932.-Decided January 10 , 1.9416
Messrs. McAfee, Grossman , Manning, cC Newcomer , b v Mr. James
R. Tritschler; and Messrs . TV. J . MacIntyre and Ralph G. Moore, all
of Cleveland , Ohio, for the Company.
Mrs. Pearl A. Hanna, of Cleveland, Ohio , and Mr. Stafford Ash-
worth, of Willoughby , Ohio, for the Union.
Mr. Stanley B. Koren gold, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
STATEIIP:NT OF TIIE CASE
Upon a petition duly filed by Office Employees International
Union, Local No. 17 (AFL), herein called the Union, alleging that a
question affecting commerce had arisen concerning the representa-
tion of employees of The Apex Electric Manufacturing Company,
Cleveland, Ohio, herein called the Company, the National Labor
Relations Board provided for an appropriate hearing upon due
notice before Thomas E. Shroyer, Trial Examiner . The hearing was
held at Cleveland, Ohio, on September 6, 1945. The Company and
the 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 an opportunity to file
briefs with the Board.
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following:
FINDINGS OF FACT
I. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
The Apex Electrical Manufacturing Company is an Ohio corpora-
tion with its principal office in Cleveland, Ohio. During the war the
65 N L. R B, No 69
382
THE APEX ELECTRICAL MANUFACTURING COMPANY 383
Company was engaged in the business of fabricating war products
and will be reconverting to its peacetime business of manufacturing
household appliances. During the last few years its annual volume
of business has exceeded $5,000,000 in value, a substantial portion of
its products and its raw materials having passed in interstate
commerce.
We find that the Company is engaged in commerce within the mean-
ing of the National Labor Relations Act.
H. TIIE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED '
Office Employees International Union, Local No. 17, affiliated with
the American Federation of Labor, is a labor organization admitting
to membership employees of the Company.
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
The Company has refused to grant recognition to the Union as the
exclusive bargaining representative of certain of the Company's em-
ployees until the Union has been certified by the Board in an appropri-
ate unit.
A statement of a Board agent, introduced into evidence at the hear-
ing, indicates that the Union represents a substantial number of em-
ployees in the unit hereinafter found appropriate.,
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 APPROPRIATE UNIT
The Union seeks a bargaining unit comprising all clerical employ-
ees, including typists, stenographers, bookkeepers, billing and tabulat-
ing machine operators, switchboard operators, and timekeepers, but
excluding confidential secretaries, office pay-roll employees, employees
in the personnel department, factory employees who have been tem-
porarily assigned to work in the office,- salesmen and division sales
managers, executive, administrative, and professional employees, and
all supervisory employees within the Board's customary definition.
The Company agrees to the foregoing unit except for the cost and pay-
roll department employees whom it would exclude as confidential
employees.
1 The Field Examiner reported that the Union submitted 62 application -for-membership
cards , 55 of which bore the names of persons appearing on the Company' s pay roll of
August 4, 1945 ; that 49 of these cards were dated July 1945 and 13 were undated ; and
that there were 126 employees in the unit alleged to be appropriate.
The parties agree that the factory employees now working in the Company ' s office who
hold seniority in the Company 's factory and will retain it upon their return should be
excluded from the unit.
679100-46-vol 65-26
384 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Cost and pay-roll depa tment
This department is separated into three divisions-cost division,
pay-roll division, and tabulating division. The employees in the cost
division are engaged in the computation of manufacturing costs, the
preparation of cost estimates, and the auditing of labor work tickets;
the employees in the pay-roll division are responsible for computing
the earnings of the factory employees from each employee's work
ticket; the tabulating division employees prepare the final statistical
studies comparing the Company's actual costs with its estimated costs.
The record indicates that these employees do not have access to the
Company's personnel records nor do they possess confidential infor-
mation directly concerning the Company's labor relations. We have
frequently stated that mere knowledge of the Company's financial
affairs is insufficient to establish a confidential relationship to man-
agement.3 Accordingly, we shall include the cost and pay-roll depart-
ment employees in the unit .4
We find that all clerical employees, including typists, stenographers,
bookkeepers, billing and tabulating machine operators, switchboard
operators, cost and pay-roll department employees, and timekeepers,
but excluding confidential secretaries,5 office pay-roll employees, em-
ployees in the personnel department, factory employees who have been
temporarily assigned to work in the office, salesmen and division sales
managers , executive, administrative, and professional employees, and
all 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.
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 the
employees in the appropriate unit who were employed 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.
' See Matter of The Murray Ohio Manufacturing Company, 61 N. L. R. B. 47 ; Matter
of General Motors Corporation , Chevrolet Motor Die,is,on, 53 N. L. R . B. 1096
4 The Company would exclude Eppich , a cost clerk in the cost and pay -roll department,
on the further ground that his work is substantially professional in nature ; the record,
however , does not indicate any substantial difference between his work and that of the
other cost clerks in the department we shall, therefore , include him in the unit.
5 But including June Cedilnik , a stenographic clerk in the billing department whom the
Company contends should he excluded from the unit ; the record does not indicate that
her duties involve the handling of confidential matters relating to the Company 's labor
relations.
THE APEX ELECTRICAL MANUFACTURING COMPANY 385
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 Relations 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 The Apex Elec-
trical Manufacturing Company, Cleveland, Ohio, an election by secret
ballot shall be conducted as early as possible, but not later than thirty
(30) days from the date of this Direction, under the direction and
supervision of the Regional Director for the Eighth 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 the employees in the unit sound 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 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 or not they desire to be represented
by O rice Employees International Union, Local No. 17 (AFL), for
the purposes of collective bargaining.
MR. GERARD D. REILLY took no part in the consideration of the above
Decision and Direction of Election.