The B. F. Goodrich Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Aug 27, 1937

3 N.L.R.B. 420 (N.L.R.B. 1937)

In the Matter of THE B. F. GOODRICH COMPANY 1 and UNITED
RUBBER WORKERS=OF AMERICA, LOCAL No. 43
Case No. R-227
Rubber Products Industrp Investigation of Representatives: coiitro rersy con-
cerning representation of employees: rival organizations; substantial doubt as
to,majority status; refusal by employer to recognize either of rival organiza-
tions as exclusive representative; threat of strike-Unit Appropriate for Col-
lective Bargaining: production and maintenance employees ; eligibility for mem-
bership in both' rival organizations ; laboratory and factory office employees
included in; nature of duties-Election Ordered-Certification of Representa-
tives.
Mr. David Sokol for the Board.
Andrews, Blanche & Kline, by Mr. Eugene H. Blanche and Mr.
J. L. McKnight, of Los Angeles, Cal., for The B. F. Goodrich
Company.
Mr. George B. Roberts, for United Rubber Workers of America,
Local No. 43.
Fogel, Beman & Jones, by Mr. Moe M. Fogel and Mr. Marshall
Hickson, of Los Angeles, Cal., for Independent Rubber Workers
Union, Local No. 2.
Mr. Millard L. Midonick, of counsel to the Board.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
August 27, 1937
The National Labor Relations Board, having found upon an
examination of the record in the above matter that a question affect-
ing commerce has arisen concerning the representation of the em-
ployees of The B. F. Goodrich Company in its Los Angeles, Cali-
fornia, plant, except supervisory employees and salesmen, and that
all of the employees of the Company at its Los Angeles, California,
plant, except supervisory, clerical, and salaried employees, and sales-
men, but including factory office employees and laboratory workers,
constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargain-
ing within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the National Labor
Relations Act, 49 Stat. 449, and acting pursuant to the power vested
I The B. F Goodrich Company was erroneously designated in the petition and amended
petition for investigation and certification of representatives as "B. F. Goodrich
Company."
420
DECISIONS AND ORDERS 421
in it by Section 9 (c) of said Act, and pursuant to Article III, Sec-
tion 8 of National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations-
Series 1, as amended, hereby
DIRECTS that , as part of its investigation to ascertain representa-
tives for the purposes of collective bargaining with The B. F. Good-
rich Company at its Los Angeles , California , plant, an election by
secret ballot shall be conducted within a period of ten (10) days
after. the date of this Direction of Election , under the direction and
supervision of the Regional Director for the Twenty-first Region,
acting in this matter as the agent of the National Labor Relations
Board and subject to Article III, Section 9 of said Rules and Regu-
lations-Series 1, as amended , among the employees of The B. F.
Goodrich Company in its Los Angeles, California, plant, except
supervisory , clerical and salaried employees , but including factory
office employees and laboratory workers, on its pay roll as of June 4,
1937, and excluding all who have since quit or been discharged for
cause, to determine whether they desire to be represented by United
Rubber Workers of America, Local No. 43, or Independent Rubber
Workers Union, Local No. 2 , for the purposes of collective bargain-
ing with The B. F. Goodrich Company.
MR. EDWIN S . SMITH took no part in the consideration of the
above Direction of Election.
[SAME TITLE]
DECISION
AND
CERTIFICATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
October 8, 1937
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
On June 4, 1937, United Rubber Workers of America, Local No.
43, herein called the United, filed with the Regional Director for the
Twenty-first Region (Los Angeles, California), a petition alleging
that a question affecting commerce had arisen concerning the repre=
sentation of the employees in the Los Angeles, California, plant of
The B. F. Goodrich Company, herein called the Company, and re-
questing an investigation and certification of representatives pur-
suant to Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act, 49 Stat.
449, herein called • the Act. On June 24, 1937, the National Labor
Relations Board, herein called the Board, acting pursuant to Article
III, Section 3 of National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regula-
tions-Series 1, as amended, authorized the -Regional Director to
49446-38-vol iii-28
422 NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
conduct an investigation and to provide for an appropriate hearing
in connection therewith. On July 8, 1937, the Regional Director
issued a notice of hearing to be held at Los Angeles, California, on
July 19, 1937. On July 16, 1937, the United filed an amended
petition naming Independent Rubber Workers Union, Local No. 2,
herein called the Independent, as a labor organization also claim-
ing to represent some of the production and maintenance employees
at the Los Angeles, California, plant of the Company. On July 16,
1937, the Regional Director issued an amended notice of hearing to
be held at Los Angeles, California, on July 26, 1937, and on July 22,
1937, a second amended notice postponing the hearing until August 2,
1937, was issued. On July 22, 1937, the Independent petitioned for
leave to intervene in this proceeding.
Pursuant to notice, a hearing was held in Los Angeles, California,
on August 2, 1937, before Carey McWilliams, the Trial Examiner
duly designated by the Board. The Board, the Company, the
United, and the Independent were represented by counsel and par-
ticipated in the hearing. Full opportunity to be heard, to examine
and cross-examine witnesses, and to introduce evidence bearing on the
issues was afforded all the parties. During the course of the hear-
ing, the Trial Examiner made numerous rulings on motions and on
objections to the admission of evidence. We have reviewed all of
the Trial Examiner's rulings and find that no prejudicial errors
were committed. His rulings are hereby affirmed.
Pursuant to leave granted by the Trial Examiner, counsel for the
Company submitted a brief on the question of the unit appropriate
for purposes of collective bargaining.
On August 27, 1937, after examining the record in the case, the
Board concluded that a question affecting commerce had arisen con-
cerning the representation of the employees of the Company, and
on the basis of such conclusion, and acting pursuant to Article
III, Section 8 of National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regu-
lations-Series 1, as amended, it issued a Direction of Election
designating the Regional Director as its agent to conduct an election
among all of the employees of the Company at its Los Angeles,
California, plant, except supervisory, clerical, and salaried em-
ployees, and salesmen, but including factory office employees and
laboratory workers, which the Board found to be the unit appropri-
ate for the purposes of collective bargaining, within the meaning
of Section 9 (b) of the Act. For the purpose of expediting the elec-
tion and thus insuring to the employees of the Company the full
benefit of their right to collective bargaining as early as possible, the
Board directed the election without at the same time issuing a de-
cision embodying complete findings of fact and conclusions of law.
DECISIONS AND ORDERS . 423
Pursuant to the Board's Direction of Election, an election by
secret ballot was conducted on September 8, 1937, by the Regional
Director for the Twenty-first Region among all of the employees of
the Company constituting the bargaining unit found appropriate by
the Board. On September 11, 1937, the Regional Director issued
and duly served upon the parties to the proceeding his Intermediate
Report upon the secret ballot.
As to the results of the secret ballot, the Regional Director re-
ported the following :
Total number eligible------------------------------------------- 704
Total ballots cast---------------------------------------------- 562
Total number of blank ballots---------------------------------- 5
Total number of void ballots----------------------------------- 0
Total number of ballots cast for United Rubber Workers of
America, Local No. 43---------------------------------------- 406
Total number of ballots cast for Independent Rubber Workers
Union, Local No. 2------------------------------------------- 144
Total number of challenged ballots-- -------------------------- 7
No objection was filed which, in the opinion of the Regional Di-
rector, raised a substantial and material issue with respect to the
conduct of the ballot, and the Regional Director forwarded the Inter-
mediate Report to the Board in Washington, D. C.
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following :
FINDINGS OF FACT
1. THE COMPANY AND ITS BUSINESS
The Company is a corporation organized and existing since 1912
under the laws of the State of New York, and its principal executive
offices are located in the City of New York. It succeeded to the
business of an Ohio corporation with the same name , incorporated in
1870 by Dr. Benjamin F. Goodrich. The Company owns and con-
trols widely scattered subsidiaries with which we are not concerned
in this proceeding. The main plants of the Company are located at
Akron, Ohio, where its general business offices are also situated.
The Company's plant, located at Los Angeles, California, which it
calls its Pacific Goodrich plant, is the subject of the petition in this
case. This plant has a floor space of approximately 401,000 square
feet, and in it are employed about 1,000 persons.
The Company, taking all of its plants and subsidiaries together,
manufactures complete lines of solid and pneumatic tires, sold prin-
e,ipally under the brand names "Goodrich", "Goodrich Silvertown",
"Miller", "Diamond", "Brunswick", and "Hood", and airplane tires,
tubes, accessories, drug sundries, hose, belting, packing, tubing,
424 NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
mechanical goods, hard rubber products, rubber and canvas foot-
wear, cutlass bearings-altogether more than 32,000 kinds of articles
of rubber.
The Company's products are distributed and sold in the United
States by subsidiary selling companies maintaining 501 branches,
warehouses and retail stores, and in 100 foreign countries, through
210 wholesale distributors.
The principal materials entering into the production of articles
at the Company's Los Angeles plant are pigments, fabric, reclaimed,
rubber, crude rubber, tube carton pieces, valve hardware, head wire,
and tire wrapping. All such commodities are transported to the
plant by rail, truck, or boat, none of which are either owned or
controlled by the Company. Of all raw materials used, 91.35 per
cent by weight (97.22 per cent by value)' are transported to the plant
from sources outside the State of California.,.
The Los Angeles plant manufactures the following articles in
amounts compiled from the records of January 1, 1936 to June 30,
1937:
Tires----------------------------------------- 1,942,035 units
Tubes ---------------------------------------- 1, 871, 319 units
Rubber cement--------------------------------- 1, 066,641 pounds
Camel-back ----------------------------------- 672, 500 pounds
Only the movement of tires, apparently typical of tubes and the
other finished products,2 can be clearly traced from the record.
Slightly more than 50 per cent of the tires produced by the Los
Angeles plant are shipped to customers within the State of Califor-
nia. Slightly fewer than 50 per cent are shipped to purchasers or
branches in areas of the United States outside of California and west
1 For the period from January 1 , 1936 to June 30, 1937 , the following chart of raw
material sources has been prepared by the Company from its records, and it was read
in evidence , with the consent of counsel for the Board and for the Company, as the
testimony of the General Manager of the Company 's Los Angeles plant :
Sources Pounds Percentageof pounds Value
Percentage
of value
Within the State of California ______________ 5,298 , 607 8 65 $265 , 169 31 2 78
Without the State of California-Delivery F. O. B
Los Angeles_______________________________________ 28,175,994 46 02 $3,352, 706 00 35 10
Without the State of California-F. O. B shipping
point _____________________________________________ 3,642,457 5 95 $376 , 772 37 3 94
Shipments by Akron plant of the Company from
points outside the State of California to the Los
Angeles plant-F. 0 B shipping point ----------- 24, 106 , 553 39 38 $5 , 558,672 71 ' 58.18
More detailed statistics are to be found in Board Exhibit No. 6.
2 Of. Board Exhibit No. 7 (tabulation of types of commodities , and their weights and
destinations , shipped from the Company's Los Angeles plant during the month of July
1937; it was testified by a competent witness that the month of July was comparable
to the other months of 1937) ; Board Exhibit No. 6.
DECISIONS AND ORDERS 425
of the Rocky Mountains , Missouri , Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma,
Hawaiian Islands. and Philippine Islands.3
II. THE ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED
United Rubber Workers of America, Local No. 43, is a labor or-
ganization affiliated with the Committee for Industrial Organization.
It admits to membership all employees in or around the Company's
Los Angeles plant, including factory office and laboratory workers,
except supervisory employees having the power to hire or discharge,
watchmen, and clerical workers in the general business office.
Independent Rubber Workers Union, Local No. 2, is an incor-
porated labor organization. It admits to membership all employees
in the Company's Los Angeles plant except "those connected with the
management."
III. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT
The Independent did not dispute, except in a few particulars, the
contention of the United, as set forth in its petition and at the
hearing, that the production and maintenance employees, exclusive of
foremen, supervisory, and managerial employees, constitute an ap-
propriate unit. The disagreement with the United arose from the
desire of the Independent to exclude from the appropriate unit a
group of approximately 12 laboratory employees and a group of ap-
proximately 25 factory office employees, both of which groups the
United considered properly parts of the production and maintenance
unit.
The Company contended that the laboratory and factory office em-
ployees represent the management in the checking and control of pro-
duction departments. It urges that the differences between the pro-
duction and maintenance employees and the laboratory and factory
office employees in respect to hours of labor, basis of compensation,4
and type of work were sufficient to indicate that no community of
interest exists between the latter and the former, groups. Other
considerations, however, persuade us to the view, as urged by the
United, that the laboratory and factory office employees should be
The following table, prepared and introduced in evidence in the manner of the
chart set forth in note 1 above, covers the period from January 1, 1936 to June 30,
1937:
Tires sold in California and shipped to California customers --------- ------- - 1, 019; 242
Tires sold in California and shipped to points outside the State of California
but within the boundaries of the United States------------------------- 398,903
Tires transferred to Goodrich branches outside the State of California-------- 577, 194
Tires sold in California and shipped to the Hawaiian Islands ----------- 24, 638
Tires shipped to Company branch in Manila, Philippine Islands ------------ 18, 452
4 There is nothing in the record to indicate that there is a marked difference in the
0
rate of compensation, as distinguished from the manner or basis of computing it.
426 NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
included with the larger production and maintenance group as one
unit for the purposes of collective bargaining.
At the outset, it appears that both groups of employees in dispute
are eligible for membership in each of the two labor organizations.
Neither organization, therefore, would find it difficult to represent the
laboratory and the factory office employees as part of the production
and maintenance unit, and both organizations have thus in effect
admitted that all of the employees under discussion are appropriately
grouped in one unit.; Moreover, at least five of the laboratory em-
ployees have expressed a desire to be represented by the United and
to participate with production and maintenance employees in elections,
and it was not contradicted that several laboratory and factory office
employees were numbered among the membership of the United at
the time of hearing e The Independent, a relatively new organization
formed shortly after April 12, 1937, had apparently taken no steps
to organize these employees prior to the time of the hearing. The
United is an organization considerably older than the Independent.
The argument advanced by the Company, that separate bargaining
units along the lines now desired by it were employed by an employee's
representation plan, which appears to have been dominated by the
Company until its disestablishment on April 12, 1937, is entitled to
little, if any, weight.
The function of the laboratory is to provide quality control during
the manufacturing process. The laboratory workers inspect, analyze,
and check raw material entering the plant, and, if found satisfactory,
release it for production. As the raw material is carried through the
processes of production, it is further tested and inspected at various
stages by the laboratory employees, some of whom are permanently
stationed in the production department while some intermittently re-
turn to the main laboratory situated in the connecting maintenance
or mechanical building. The most explicit description of the work of
the laboratory employees relates to the inspection of the finished cord,
fabric, and rubber which form part of the tire. Samples of cord are
unraveled and the number of strands counted, and its stretch and
tensile strength are tested. All the rolls of fabric are run over an
electric light which reveals defects to the eye of laboratory employees.
Samples of rubber are tested for hardness and stretched to the break-
ing point. Finished tires are subjected to vigorous wear simulating
road conditions, and they are then cut to pieces and the effects observed.
This description reveals that the great bulk of the duties of labora-
5 Cf. Matter of Huth d James Shoe Mfg. Company and United Shoe Workers of
America, Case No R-174, decided August 3, 1937 , (supra, p 220) ; Matter of Acklin Stamp-
ing Company and International Union, United Automobile Workers of America, Local No
12, Case No . R-142, decided May 28, 1937, 2 N . L. R. B. 872.
6 Cf. Matter of Mergenthaler Linotype Company and United Electrical and Radio
Workers of America, Case No. R-186, decided September 1, 1937 , (supra, p. 131).
DECISIONS AND ORDERS 427
tory employees consist in simple and repeated applications of the same
chemical or mechanical tests. Their duties thus require little, if any,
more expert training than that required of numerous other forms of
skilled labor. There is no indication in the record that any of the
laboratory workers are expert chemists with college or highly tech-
nical training, such as we have found to be on a separate plane of
skill from ordinary production employees and for that reason without
community of interest with them.7 The laboratory workers exercise
no discretionary or supervisory powers.
Similar considerations apply to the factory office employees. This
group is to be distinguished from general, or front, office employees,
a group of purely clerical and managerial employees whom neither
the United nor the Independent desires to represent. The functions
of the factory office are divided into two departments, technical and
control.
The factory technical department receives tire designs and speci-
fications, presumably from the main plants of the Company at Akron,
Ohio. It is the duty of the employees of the technical department to
determine and report whether the production departments follow those
designs and specifications in the manufacture of tires. Again no
indication is to be found that the duties of the technical department
employees are to be considered different from other skilled workers.
They exercise few, if any, discretionary and managerial powers.
The factory control department is further subdivided into the
time-study division, the tire and tube scheduling division, and the
material scheduling division. The time-study division employees
carry pad, pencil, and stop-watch for the purpose of observing and
recording the average time that the average production worker re-
quires to perform various recurrent operations. The records of the
time-study employees are then sent to the managerial officers of the
Company for the determination of piece-work wage rates under the
Bedeaux system.8 The record does not indicate that the duties of
the time-study employees are other than routine in character.9 They
exercise neither discretionary nor supervisory powers over the manual
workers.1o
7Matter of Pennsylvania Salt Manufacturing Company and Local Union No. 12055
of Division No. 50, United Mine Workers of America, Case No R-262, decided September 24,
1937 (infra, p 741 ) ; cf. Matter of Consolidated Aircraft Corporation and International
Association of Machinists, Aircraft Lodge No. 1125, Case No. R-127, decided June 30, 1937,
2 N. L. R. B 772 (college trained engineers , draftsmen , and tool designers)
8 For a description of the Bedeaux system, see Matter of The Boss Manufacturing
Company and International G love Workers ' Union of America, Local No. 85, Cases Nos.
C-115 and R-40, note 6, decided August 27, 1937 ( supra, p 400).
9 Cf. Matter of Mergenthaler Linotype Company and United Electrical and Radio
Workers of America , Linotype Local No. 1222, Case No. R-186, decided September 1,
1937, supra, p 131 (time checkers).
10 Cf. Matter of Bendier Products Corporation and International Union, United Automo-
bile Workers of America , Bendim Local No. 9, Case No. R-220, decided September 16,
1937, infra, p. 682 ( time checkers)
428
NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
The tire and tube scheduling division employees receive monthly
orders for each ensuing month for various amounts of the several
types of tires and other commodities. The orders come from the
management or general office of the Los Angeles plant. The sched-
uling employees thereupon determine the time necessary to produce
the required amount of each article, and they fix the days during
which the production department shall run or produce each article.
The material scheduling division employees will thereupon take the
tire run or schedule fixed by the scheduling division, and they will
plan to have the necessary materials ready for the production de-
partment on the days scheduled for producing the specified articles.
The record does not indicate that the duties of the employees of
either the tire and tube scheduling or the material scheduling divi-
sion are other than routine in character.'1 Despite the fact that
the employees in the laboratory and factory office observe and check,
and in a limited sense direct, the work of the production depart-
ment, it is clear that their duties cannot be said to be supervisory in
the usual sense of having the power to hire, discharge, promote,
demote, or take part in the determination of matters of general
policy.
The eligibility of laboratory and factory office employees to mem-
bership in either organization, the actual membership of several
of each group in the United, and the nature of their duties, all com-
pel us to take the view that the laboratory and factory office em-
ployees should be included with production and maintenance workers
in the bargaining unit.
In order to insure the Company's employees the full benefit of
their right to self-organization and to collective bargaining, and
otherwise to effectuate the policies of the Act, we find that all of the
employees of the Company at its Los Angeles, California, plant,
except supervisory, clerical, and salaried employees, and salesmen,
but including factory office employees and laboratory workers, con-
stitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining.
IV. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
During the period after July 1934, two labor organizations existed
in the Company's Los Angeles plant, the United and Company
Union Co-operative Plan. The latter organization was discontinued
on or immediately after April 12, 1937, the date of the Supreme
Court decisions upholding the constitutionality of the Act. Very
soon thereafter, the Independent was formed, and it has since
competed with the United for members in the Company's plant.
11 See supra note 9.
DECISIONS AND ORDERS 429
Bitter rivalry and open hostility have attended the membership
drives and the organizational activities of these unions.
The Company admitted at the hearing that it did not know whether
the United or the Independent represents a majority of employees
within the appropriate unit. It did not assert, however , that neither
organization represented a majority. Early in June 1937, the
Company rejected the demand of the United for recognition as the
exclusive bargaining representative of all the employees in the
unit described above. The United claimed at that time , and has
continued to claim, that it represents a majority in that unit. This
claim is disputed by the Independent , which, however, did not know
at the time of the hearing whether it represented a majority of
employees. The Company does not now recognize either the United
or the Independent as exclusive bargaining representative for all
of the employees in the unit.
Although the Company did not seem desirous of resolving the
question concerning representation , both the United and the Inde-
pendent indicated that an election by secret ballot would properly
ease the friction and unrest resulting from the present unsettled
state of affairs.
We find, therefore , that a question has arisen concerning the
representation of the employees of the Company.
We further find that an election by secret ballot is necessary to
resolve this question.
V. THE EFFECT OF THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION ON
COMMERCE
The record is replete with credible testimony revealing dissen-
sion, unrest, and bitter feeling among the members of the rival
organizations in the plant . The question of representation has
caused excessive rivalry which has several times brought the United
to the verge of a strike . On July 18, 1937 , a strike vote was actually
taken by the United because of the denial of exclusive bargaining
rights and also because of dissatisfaction with wages , hours, and
other conditions of employment , a dissatisfaction aggravated by
the absence of an orderly method of collective bargaining.
We find that the question concerning representation which has
arisen, occurring in connection with the operations of the Com-
pany described in Section I above, has a close , intimate, and sub-
stantial relation to trade, traffic , and commerce among the several
States, and tends to lead to labor disputes burdening and obstruct-
ing commerce and the free flow of commerce.
430 NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
CONCLUSIONS OF LAW
Upon the basis of the above findings of fact, the Board makes the
following conclusions of law :
1. A question affecting commerce has arisen concerning the repre-
sentation of employees of the Los Angeles, California, plant of The
B. F. Goodrich Rubber Company, within the meaning of Section
9 (c) and Section 2, subdivisions (6) and (7) of the National Labor
Relations Act.
2. All of the employees of The B. F. Goodrich Company at its
Los Angeles, California, plant, except supervisory, clerical, and
salaried employees, and salesmen, but including factory office em-
ployees and laboratory workers, constitute a unit appropriate for
purposes of collective bargaining, within the meaning of Sect ion
9 (b) of the National Labor Relations Act.
3. United Rubber Workers of America, Local No. 43, having
been selected by the majority of the employees in the aforesaid
unit, is, by virtue of Section 9 (a) of the National Labor Relations
Act, the exclusive representative of all the employees in such unit
for the purposes of collective bargaining in respect to rates of pay,
wages, hours of employment, and other conditions of employment.
CERTIFICATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
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, 49 Stat. 449, and pursuant to Article III, Section 8
of National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series
1, as amended,
IT IS HEREBY CERTIFIED that United Rubber Workers of America,
Local No. 43, has been designated and selected by a majority of
all of the employees of The B. F. Goodrich Company at its Los
Angeles, California, plant, except supervisory, clerical, and salaried
employees, and salesmen, but including factory office employees and
laboratory workers, as their representative for the purposes of col-
lective bargaining, and that, pursuant to the provisions of Section
9 (a) of the Act, United Rubber Workers of America, Local No. 43,
is the exclusive representative of all such employees for the pur-
poses of collective bargaining in respect to rates of pay, wages,
hours of employment, and other conditions -of employment.