The Billings and Spencer Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

May 12, 1953

104 N.L.R.B. 928 (N.L.R.B. 1953)

928 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Since 1937, the Intervenor has represented, in one unit, all
of the employees of the Employer's operations department, in-
cluding the powerplants, maintenance and distribution workers.
In 1950, this group was joined with the clerical employees to
form a single, systemwide, overall unit embracing all of the
Employer's employees.
The Board has long held that the optimum unit in a public
utility is a systemwide industrial unit.' Where, as in the
instant case, such a unit has been established for a considerable
period of time we are most reluctant to disrupt it. For this
reason, and in the light of the high degree of integration of the
Employer's operations and the community of interest that
exists between all groups of employees, we find that the unit
sought by the Petitioner is inappropriate and we shall, there-
fore, dismiss the petition filed herein.4
ORDER
Upon the basis of the entire record in this case, the National
Labor Relations Board hereby orders that the petition filed in
this case be, and the same hereby is, dismissed.
3Lynn Gas and Electric Company, 78 NLRB 3.
4 East Ohio Gas Company, 94 NLRB 61; Public Service Company of Indiana, 91 NLRB 1151.
THE BILLINGS AND SPENCER COMPANY and INTER-
NATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF BLACKSMITHS, DROP
FORGERS & HELPERS, A. F. L., Petitioner. Case No.
1-RC-3152. May 12, 1953
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before Joseph
Lepie, hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at
the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby
affirmed.
Putsuant 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
Houston, Murdock, and Styles].
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 involved claim to represent
certain employees of the Employer.
3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the
representation of employees of the Employer within the meaning
of Section 9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
4. The Petitioner seeks to sever from the existing production
and maintenance unit all the Employer's forge shop, steel rack,
forge maintenance, and hot inspection employees, the forge
104 NLRB No 118.
THE BILLINGS AND SPENCER COMPANY 929
shop tool crib attendant, and the die vault attendant. Local 289,
International Union of Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers,
CIO, herein called the Intervenor, contends that the unit sought
is inappropriate. The Employer takes a neutral position.
The Employer is engaged in the manufacture and sale of
wrenches, nuts and bolts, and aircraft and commercial forgings
and presses. Forgings for all its products are made in the
Employer's forge shop. About 40 percent of the forgings are
shipped out as such; the remainder is further processed in the
Employer's plant into finished tools and parts.
Since 1941, a unit of production and maintenance employees
has been represented by the Intervenor; and since 1945, a craft
unit of diesinkers has been represented separately. About 250
employees have thus been represented in collective bargaining.
No contract bar is asserted.
The Employer's manufacturing operations are located on
three floors of the plant building. Substantially all the employees
sought by the Petitioner are physically employed immediately in
and around the forge shop situated on the first floor. Overall
supervision of the entire plant is divided between 2 assistant
superintendents, 1 of whom is in charge of operations, among
others, performed by the employees in question.
In the forge shop there are about 80 employees who function
under separate supervision. They include first- and second-
class forgers, or hammermen, first- and second-class header
operators, forging and header helpers, blacksmiths, floormen,
counters, sweepers, and a gas-powered lift-truck operator. The
record shows that the forgers, the header operators, and the
blacksmiths, at least, are engaged in skilled functions on a
variety of 1,000 or more different forgings, many of which
require work at close tolerances. In November 1952, the
Employer instituted a formal apprenticeship program for the
forgers fixing a minimum period of training of 4,000 hours,
after eligibility is established through previous experience in
the forge shop. Before November 1952, the training of forgers,
following no formal pattern, was accomplished in less than
4,000 hours, but nevertheless involved an indefinite training
period of reasonable length.
There are about 20 steel rack employees under separate
supervision. These are essentially unskilled employees whose
functions include the shearing, storing, unloading, and trans-
porting of metals used in the forge shop. The forge shop
receives 95 percent of the metals cut and stored by the steel
rack employees, who are physically located immediately
adjacent to the forge shop.
There are four hot inspection employees who work under
supervision emanating from the forge shop. They perform
work in the forge shop, although they are separately head-
quartered outside the shop. Their function is to prevent, check,
and correct defects in forgings in the formative stages. They
are regarded as more highly skilled than the rough inspectors,
not sought by the Petitioner, who inspect the cold finished
forgings before shipment by the Employer. The hot and rough
930 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
inspectors are not interchangeable; each group is separately
located and supervised. Hot inspectors occasionally perform
overtime work in the rough inspection department, during
which time they are supervised by the foreman in that depart-
ment. Under the Employer's contract with the Intervenor, the
hot inspectors are included in the rough inspection department
for seniority purposes.
There are three forge maintenance employees classified as
"hammer repair men," who work under supervision emanating
from the forge shop. They are headquartered in an enclosed
area in the machine shop but perform work in the forge shop.
These employees have specialized experience and ability in
maintaining, repairing, and adjusting the heavy machines in
the forge shop, e.g., the hammers and the headers. They are
distinct from the Employer's other maintenance and repair
employees who work on machines outside the forge shop. For
seniority purposes under the Intervenor's contract, they are
grouped with the machine shop employees.
The forge shop tool crib attendant stores and supplies tools
and parts exclusively for use in the forge shop and is under the
supervision of the forge shop foreman.
It thus appears from the record that the skilled employees in
the forge shop, described above, whose skills are not duplicated
elsewhere in the plant, constitute a craft nucleus such as would
support the severance of a unit on a departmental basis.' While
the steel rack employees are, for administrative reasons,
physically located outside but adjacent to the forge shop proper,
and operate under their own immediate supervision, it is clear
that they are functionally an adjunct of the forge shop, and
constitute an essential part of the Employer's forging opera-
tions. Such employees have in other cases been included in a
unit of forge shop employees.2 The hot inspection and forge
maintenance employees, and the tool crib attendant, we
believe, are virtually a part of the forge shop, particularly in
view of their actual work location and their supervision.3
The die vault attendant is sought by the Petitioner because
his duties include the transporting of dies from the die storage
area into the forge shop. This employee is supervised in the die
room. It appears, and we find, that the die vault attendant is
too remotely related in function to the forge shop to be included
in the unit.
The forge shop and the steel rack section each employ a
gas-powered lift-truck operator ,4 sought by the Petitioner.
Their trucking functions are essentially confined to the forge
shop area. Another employee, not sought by the Petitioner, who
operates the same equipment, is employed by the Employer for
general trucking duties around the entire plant. These truckers,
under the Intervenor's contract, are included with general
'See International Harvester Company, (Louisville Works), 100 NLRB 1349; Green Bay
Drop Forge Company, 95 NLRB 1122.
2See International Harvester Company, ( Louisville Works ), ibid.
$See The Plomb Tool Company, 87 NLRB 134, where such forge shop maintenance em-
ployees were included as part of the forge shop unit.
4Gabriel and Pennington, respectively.
IDEAL ROLLER & MANUFACTURING COMPANY 931
maintenance employees for seniority purposes . However, as
the Board has held in previous cases , the fact that there are
other employees in the plant performing work comparable to
that of the less skilled employees in a departmental unit, does
not preclude the finding that such a unit may be appropriate. $
Nor is the unit sought precluded by the fact that a few of the
employees in question are administratively grouped with other
plant employees outside the unit for seniority purposes, par-
ticularly in view of the evidence that under the Intervenor's
contract a substantial quantum of discretion is reserved by the
Employer in selecting employees for layoff and recall on the
basis of ability and classification.
Accordingly , we find that the following employees may
constitute an appropriate unit for the purposes of collective
bargaining within-the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act: All
forge shop , steel rack , hot inspection , and forge maintenance
employees , and the forge shop tool crib attendant in the
Employer's Hartford, Connecticut , plant , but excluding the
die vault attendant , all other employees , and supervisors as
defined in the Act.
We shall direct an election to determine the desires of these
employees . If a majority vote for the Petitioner , they will be
taken to have indicated their desire to constitute a separate
appropriate unit , and the Regional Director conducting the
election is instructed to issue a certification of representatives
to the Petitioner for the unit described above, which the Board,
under such circumstances , finds to be appropriate for purposes
of collective bargaining . In the event a majority vote for the
Intervenor , the Board finds the existing unit to be appropriate
and the Regional Director will issue a certification of results of
election to such effect.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication. I
SE, g., The Plomb Tool Company, supra.
IDEAL ROLLER & MANUFACTURING COMPANY and UNITED
SERVICE EMPLOYEES UNION, LOCAL 329, AFL, Peti-
tioner. Case No. 13 -RC-2538. May 12, 1953
DECISION AND CERTIFICATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
Pursuant to a stipulation for certification upon consent elec-
tion, an election was conducted among the employees in the
stipulated unit on April 15, 1952. The tally of ballots showed
that of approximately 164 eligible voters , 130 cast valid ballots
which were counted , and 24 cast challenged ballots. Of the 130
valid votes counted, 74 were for the Petitioner , and 56 against.
As the challenged ballots were sufficient in number to affect
the results of the election , the Regional Director conducted an
investigation and, on July 21, 1952, issued his report on
challenges wherein he recommended that the Board order a
104 NLRB No. 116.