The Armstrong Rubber Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Dec 16, 1969

180 N.L.R.B. 410 (N.L.R.B. 1969)

410 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
The Armstrong Rubber Company and Local No. 164,
United Rubber, Cork, Linoleum and Plastic
Workers of America, AFL-CIO, CLC, Petitioner.
Case 18-UC-20
December 16, 1969
DECISION AND ORDER
BY MEMBERS FANNING, JENKINS, AND ZAGORIA
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9(b) of
the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, a
hearing was held before Hearing Officer Donald A.
Romano. All parties appeared at the hearing, and
were given full opportunity to participate therein.
On September 10, 1969, the Regional Director for
Region 18 issued an order transferring the case to
the National Labor Relations Board. Thereafter,
briefs were timely filed by the Petitioner and
Employer.
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the
National Labor Relations Act, as amended, the
Board has delegated its powers in connection with
this case to a three-member panel.
The Board has reviewed the Hearing Officer's
rulings made at the hearing and finds that they are
free from prejudicial error. They are hereby
affirmed.
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board
finds:
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within
the meaning of the Act and it will effectuate the
purposes of the Act to assert jurisdiction herein.
2. The Employer, a Connecticut corporation, is
engaged in the manufacture and sale of rubber tires
at its Midwest Division plant in Des Moines, Iowa.
Since 1943, the Employer has recognized the
Petitioner as the bargaining representative of the
production and maintenance employees at its Des
Moines plant.'
On November 30, 1967, January 16, 1969, and
April 15, 1969, the Board, pursuant to Stipulation
for Certification upon Consent Elections, certified
the Petitioner in three separate bargaining units at
the Des Moines plant-Finished Tire Inspectors (Case
I8-RC-7323), Tire Laboratory Technicians (Case
18-RC-7720), and Scheduling Department
Employees (Case 18-RC-7791).' In 1967, the
Employer and Petitioner by mutual agreement,
added the finished tire inspectors to the production
and maintenance unit by amending their
supplemental agreement to include the finished tire
'Since 1959 , the Employer and the International Union of United
Rubber , Cork, Linoleum and Plastic Workers of America have executed
master agreements covering for the most part units of production and
maintenance employees at the various Armstrong plants . However,
bargaining has continued on a local level despite such master agreements
through the execution of local supplemental agreements between the
Employer and the local union at each plant The current supplemental
agreement between the Employer and Petitioner covering the production
and maintenance unit at the Des Moines plant expires July I, 1970.
inspector classification. It appears that the parties
have not as yet executed a labor agreement for
either the tire laboratory technicians or scheduling
department employees.
In filing the instant unit clarification petition, the
Petitioner seeks to combine into one bargaining unit
the two separately certified units of tire laboratory
technicians and scheduling department employees
with the uncertified production and maintenance
unit. The Petitioner seeks this consolidation either
with or without an expression of the wishes of the
employees in the two certified units.
The Employer contends that the petition should
be dismissed on the ground, inter alia, that the unit
which would result from the requested consolidation
would be inappropriate; but in any event, that such
a consolidation should not be granted without first
determining the desires of the employees in the two
certified units.
There are approximately 1385 employees
employed at the Des Moines plant, 1,270 of whom
are represented by the Petitioner, including 1,250 in
the production and maintenance unit, I1 in the
scheduling department unit, and 9 in the tire
laboratory technicians unit. Of the approximately
115 unrepresented employees, there are 50 to 70
office clericals, 25 quality control technicians, 6
diemakers, 3 draftsmen, and 12 factory clerks.'
The tire laboratory technicians and scheduling
department employees have historically been among
job classifications which the Employer designates as
administrative . As administrative employees, they
are salaried and receive many employee benefits
which have not been extended to the hourly-paid
production and maintenance employees, such as
profit sharing, sick leave, major medical coverage,
and additional life insurance.
The job classifications comprising the tire
laboratory technicians unit are: test wheel
technician, fabric tester, Mooney scorch tester,
rebound tester, laboratory chemist, experimental
mixer, and experimental tire builders. These
employees are responsible for testing tire
components that are scheduled for production to
insure minimum standards and also test materials
that are in an experimental stage. They are
physically separated from the production and
maintenance workers and they have different
supervision. Some tire laboratory technicians spend
their entire time in their office, while others
generally average from 1 to 3 hours a day in contact
with the production and maintenance employees.
Unlike the production and maintenance employees,
they work the day shift only and are required to
have a high school education.
'The parties had stipulated to the appropriateness of each of these units
'Between August 1967 and June 1969, pursuant to Stipulations for
Certification upon Consent Election executed by the parties, three elections
were held : two in a unit of quality control technicians and one in a unit of
diemakers . The Petitioner was unsuccessful in all three elections.
180 NLRB No. 98
ARMSTRONG RUBBER COMPANY 411
The sole job classification in the scheduling
department is production scheduler. Production
schedulers determine and order the tire components
necessary for the day's manufacturing. In so doing,
they spend 50 percent of their time in their office
computing the amount of materials required and the
remainder of their time in the production area
checking inventory. Although they work on a three
shift basis, as do the production and maintenance
employees, they have different starting times. As is
the case for all administrative employee S,4 the
Employer requires that the schedulers have as a
minimum a high school education.
Both the fire laboratory technicians and the
schedulers work in close daily contact with other
administrative employees. The tire laboratory
technicians work in the same office and are in the
same department as the diemakers; the scheduling
department employees share their office with the
quality control technicians. It also appears from the
record that the quality control technicians possess
the same basic skills and perform substantially the
same type of work as do the tire laboratory
technicians, the difference being that the former
group of employees insures that minimum standards
are reached by performing physical tests on the end
product, whereas the latter group checks the
materials that are scheduled for production. The
record evidence further establishes that in addition
to the production schedulers, the Employer employs
factory clerks who also spend a substantial amount
of their time in the production area and who
perform such record-keeping functions as checking
timecards and attendance records. Moreover, the
factory clerks, production schedulers and production
and maintenance employees are all generally
supervised by the production manufacturing
manager.
The foregoing demonstrates that the tire
laboratory technicians and scheduling department
employees have a close community of interest with
other administrative employees who are not sought
but perform similar functions. Accordingly, as the
Petitioner has not sought to include such employees,
we shall grant the Employer's request that the
petition for clarification be dismissed without
reaching the additional questions presented.5
'The remaining administrative employees include the following
classifications diemakers, quality control technicians, draftsmen , factory
clerks, and office clericals
'The Benda Corporation . Kansas City Division , 150 NLRB 718.