The Boeing Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Mar 18, 1966

157 N.L.R.B. 848 (N.L.R.B. 1966)

848 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
I further recommend the dismissal of the consolidated complaint insofar as it
alleges Respondent violated the Act by discharging Howard Gene Kimbrough and
Lloyd Heupel, and by refusing to bargain collectively with the Union after March 12.
APPENDIX
NOTICE TO ALL EMPLOYEES
Pursuant to the Recommended Order of a Trial Examiner of the National Labor
Relations Board, and in order to effectuate the policies of the National Labor Rela-
tions Act, as amended, we hereby notify our employees that:
WE WILL, upon request, bargain with United Glass and Ceramic Workers of
North America, AFL-CIO, CLC, as the exclusive representative of all the
employees in the bargaining unit described below with respect to wages, rates
of pay, hours of employment, and other conditions of employment, and, if an
understanding is reached, embody such understanding in a signed agreement.
The bargaining unit is:
All production and maintenance employees of Respondent at its Shef-
field, Alabama, plant, excluding all office clerical employees, professional
employees, guards, and supervisors as defined in the Act.
WE WILL make whole Rickard, Boyd, Butler, Heupel, McCollum, and Davis
for any loss of pay they may have suffered as a result of the discrimination
against them.
WE WILL NOT discourage membership in the above-named Union, or any
other labor organization, by laying off or otherwise discriminating against our
employees in regard to their hire or tenure of employment, or any term or
condition of employment.
WE WILL NOT interrogate our employees about their union membership, activ-
ities, or sympathies, in a manner constituting interference, restraint, or coercion
within the meaning of Section 8 (a) (1) of the Act.
WE WILL NOT threaten our employees that the plant would be moved or shut
down if the Union came in, with loss of their jobs or discharge because of their
union activities, with hiring enough new employees by the time of the election
to beat the Union, with surveillance of their union activities, or other reprisals
for engaging in union activities.
WE WILL NOT in any other manner interfere with, restrain, or coerce our,
employees in the exercise of the rights guaranteed to them in Section 7 of
the Act.
All our employees are free to become or remain, or to refrain from becoming or-
remaining, members of the above-named Union or any other union.
MUSCLE SHOALS RUBBER COMPANY,
Employer.
Dated------------------- By--------------------------------------------
(Representative) (Title)
This notice must remain posted for 60 consecutive days from the date of posting,
and must not be altered, defaced, or covered by any other material.
If employees have any question concerning this notice or compliance with its pro-
visions, they may communicate directly with the Board's -Regional Office, 528
Peachtree-Seventh Building, 50 Seventh Street NE., Atlanta, Georgia, Telephone No..
526-5741.
The Boeing Company, Seattle & Renton Area I and International'
Union, United Weldors of America , Independent , Petitioner.
Cabe No. 19-UC-3. March 18, 1966
DECISION AND ORDER
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (b) of the National Labor
Relations Act, as amended-, a hearing was held before a Hearing
1 The names of the Employer and Petitioner appear in the caption as amended at the•
hearing.
157 NLRB No. 81.
THE BOEING COMPANY, SEATTLE & RENTON AREA 849
Officer of the National Labor Relations Board. The Hearing
Officer's rulings made at the hearing are, free from prejudicial error
and are hereby affirmed. Thereafter, briefs were filed by the Petitioner
and the Intervenor, Aeronautical and Industrial District Lodge 751,
International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers,
AFL-CIO.
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the Act, the Board
has delegated its powers in connection with this case to a three-member
panel [Chairman McCulloch and Members Brown and Zagoria].
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 jurisdic-
tion herein.
2. The Petitioner and the Intervenor are labor organizations claim-
ing to represent certain employees of the Employer.
3. This proceeding involves the Seattle and Renton, Washington,
operations of the Employer, where it is engaged in the manufacture
of aircraft and aircraft parts. Since February 20, 1959, the Petitioner
has been the certified bargaining representative of the following craft
unit :
All welders, including research, high strength, production, burner
gas and are, maintenance A and B welders, welder leadmen, burn-
ers apprentices, and helpers, employed by the Employer at its
aircraft and missile plants and operations located in Seattle, Ren-
ton, and Moses Lake, Washington, excluding office clerical
employees, professional employees, guards, all other employees,
and supervisors as defined in the Act .2
Petitioner requests that the above unit be clarified by inserting a
comma between the words "burners apprentices," thereby including
"burners" in the unit. The Intervenor, the bargaining representative
of the Employer's production and maintenance employees, contends
burners should not be included in the welders unit. The Employer
takes no position with regard to the request.
In, Case No. 19-RC-2194, the only evidence adduced as to burning
related to burning operations performed by welders, which was inci-
dental to the skilled welding function; the record herein indicates
that the Employer has never employed employees classified as either
"burners" or "burners apprentices."
The Petitioner requests inclusion in the welders unit of all employees
who are required to devote a "substantial majority" of their time to
skilled' burning oh material going into production or tooling.
2 Boeing Airplane Company, Seattle Division, Case No. 19-RC-2194, Decision and Di-
rection of Election.
850 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Although the Petitioner declined to state specifically the classifica-
tions sought,3 the record shows that the following five classifications,
not presently included in the welders unit, do substantial amounts of
burning : multiple flamecutter operator, plasma are cutter operator,
material storeman-and-cutter, lathe operator engineer B,4 and store-
keeper A. These employees are in the production and maintenance
unit represented by the Intervenor.
Since its certification in 1959, Petitioner has represented welders
in pay grades 3 and 4. Sometime thereafter, but prior to 1964, the
Employer installed multiple flame cutter and plasma are machines
to cut metals by burning, an operation theretofore performed by
employees in the welders unit and employees not in that unit. Some
operators of the new machines were taken from welder, and others
from nonwelder, classifications; all were given lower paid grade 5
job classifications, and included in the production and maintenance
unit.
Multiple flamecutter and plasma are cutter machines use various
gases. The operators are not required to read complicated diagrams
and drawings. They cut metals within required tolerances, which are
not closer than 1/16 inch, by presetting the machines or by calculating
from a hand rule. Operators preset the machines with the use of
charts supplied by the manufacturer and the Employer, which indicate
proper settings for maximum and minimum ranges within which
metals of various types and thicknesses are to be cut. As operators
become more experienced in the use of the machines, they rely less
on the charts. The machines operate and shut down automatically,
but the operators remain present during operation to check the cutting
and sometimes adjust settings. Although operators perform limited
machine maintenance, most of that work is done by the Employer's
maintenance employees or the manufacturer.
No welding or special burning skill is required of these machine
operators, and the Employer provides no formal training program
for them. The record is not clear as to the time required for new
operators with no previously acquired welding or burning skills to
become competent in the operation of these machines; but estimates
range from 8 hours to 1 year. Operators perform no welding opera-
3 In Boeing Airplane Company, Seattle Division , 124 NLRB 689, a subsequent unit
clarification proceeding , the Board excluded from the certified welders unit automatic
fusion welding machine operators and sheet metal workers and welder maintenance C
employees who perform burning operations . At the hearing herein , the Petitioner indicated
that it Is not seeking to include these employees, or employees referred to as "scrap
burners" who perform unskilled burning operations . The Petitioner also referred to au-
tomotive mechanics ( or machinists ) and hammer operators as employees whose Job de-
scriptions include the performance of burning operations, but there is no further evidence
as to these employees in the record.
Also referred to in the record as lathe operator engine B.
CARLSON FURNITURE INDUSTRIES, INC. 851
tions and are supervised by material stores supervisors. The machines
are located in material supply areas where there are neither welders
nor welding equipment. These employees are not in the direct line
.of progression into the welding craft.
The material storemen-and-cutters are also located in store, or
supply, areas of the Employer's operations. Employees in this classi-
fication are engaged in storing and dispensing various metals, spend-
ing from 1 to 10 percent of their time burning and the rest sawing,
storing, selecting, and loading metals. Storekeepers A and lathe
operators engineer B spend a total of 3 hours daily in store areas
burning metals with hand torches. As with plasma are and multiple
flamecutter operators, these three classifications do no skilled burning
to close tolerances, or welding; they are supervised by material stores
supervisors; and they are not in a direct line of progression into the
welding craft.
In view of the foregoing, and upon the entire record, including the
fact that the plasma are operators, multiple flamecutter operators,
material storemen-and-cutters, storekeepers A, and lathe operators
engineer B neither possess nor exercise the complex of skills utilized
by the welding craft, are not in the line of progression for such craft,
and are separately located and do not work with the welders, we find
that they are not properly included in the welders unit and we shall,
therefore, deny the Petitioner's request for unit clarification.5
[The Board denied the request for unit clarification.]
5Boeiyng Airplane Company, Seattle Division , supra ; Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, 121
NLRB 1541.
Carlson Furniture Industries , Inc. and Local 1010 , United Furni-
ture Workers of America , AFL-CIO, Petitioner. Case No. 21-
RC-9050. March 18, 1966
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, as amended, a hearing was held before Hearing Officer
Orville S. Johnson. The Hearing Officer's rulings made at the hear-
ing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the Act, the National
Labor Relations Board has delegated its powers in connection with
this case to a three-member panel [Chairman McCulloch and Members
Brown and Zagoria].
157 NLRB No. 72.
221-374-6,6-vol . 157-55