The Brush Beryllium Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Nov 8, 1951

96 N.L.R.B. 1383 (N.L.R.B. 1951)

THE BRUSH BERYLLIUM COMPANY 1383
third of its expected full complement of 150 employees. According
to the testimony of its witnesses, the Employer expected to be fully
staffed before any election could be conducted .8 Under these circum-
stances, we reject the LSU's contention that an election now is
ppemature.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this
volume.]
In its brief received by the Board on October 2, 1951, the Employer states that 110
employees were employed at the time of the writing of the brief.
THE BRUSH BERYLLIUM COMPANY and INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD
OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS, LOCAL UNION No. 1076, AFL, PETITIONER.
Case No. 8-RC-1272. November 8, 1951
Decision and Direction of Election
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, a hearing was held before Charles A. Fleming, hearing
officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free
from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
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-mem-
ber panel [Chairman Herzog and Members Houston and Murdock].
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the
Act.
2. The labor organization involved claims to represent certain em-
ployees of the Employer.
3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the representa-
tion 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 represent a unit composed of all main-
tenance electricians and their helpers employed at the Employer's
Luckey, Ohio, plant. The Employer contends that the proposed unit
is inappropriate, asserting that its maintenance electricians are not
true craftsmen. The record does not reveal any history of collective
bargaining at the Luckey plant.
The Employer is engaged exclusively in the production and fabri-
cation of beryllium metal and oxide for the Atomic Energy Commis-
sion. It operates two plants, one located at Cleveland, Ohio, and the
other at Luckey, Ohio, which is involved in this proceeding. The
maintenance electricians sought herein are a part of the maintenance
department of the Luckey plant. This department is under the gen-
96 NLRB No. 207.
1384 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
eral supervision of the maintenance superintendent, who is assisted
by a general foreman. Several maintenance foremen, including the
chief electrician, are responsible to the maintenance superintendent.
The four maintenance electricians 1 are quartered in the electrical
shop. They work throughout the plant under the direct supervisilon
of the chief electrician, performing maintenance and repair work on
electrical motors and equipment. Although night shift mechanics,
in the absence of electricians, perform some minor electrical mainte-
nance work such as replacing fuses, only electricians are permitted to
make electrical repairs on plant equipment. At least 90 percent of
their time is spent on work that is traditionally performed by journey-
men electricians. The remainder consists of time spent on duties per-
formed during emergencies and not directly related to their trade, such
as assisting in the repair of heavy machinery. As the electricians con-
stitute an identifiable, skilled, homogeneous, craft group, we shall
establish them as a separate unit 2 The fact that they may work
alongside of, or in close association with, other employees does not
preclude their separate representation because, with the exception of
the emergency work noted above, they perform skilled work within
the confines of their own craft .3
We therefore find that all maintenance electricians and helpers
employed at the Employer's Luckey, Ohio, plant, excluding office and
clerical employees, guards, professional employees, and supervisors as
defined in the Act, constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of
collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
5. The Employer contends that an election should not be directed
at this time because its employee complement is now declining. From
a total of about 315 employees, 6 months before the hearing, the num-
ber had been reduced to about 262 on August 30, 1951, the date of the
hearing. The record also reveals that the number seems certain to be
greatly reduced during the next 8 or 10 months. As the Employer is
presently operating its enterprise with a substantial working force
that includes maintenance electricians, and will continue to do so for
some time, we believe that the Act will best be effectuated by the
direction of an immediate election.4
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this
volume.]
'At the time of the hearing, there were no employees in the maintenance electrician
helper classification.
2 See Kennecott Copper Corporation-Utah Copper Division , 94 NLRB 572 ; Cadillac
Motor Car Division, Cleveland Tank Plant, General Motors Corporation, 94 NLRB 217;
Glass Fibers , Inc., 93 NLRB 1289.
3 Glass Fibers, Inc, supra.
6 The Girdler Corporation (Dana Project ), 96 NLRB 894