The Delta Oxygen Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Apr 26, 1949

83 N.L.R.B. 177 (N.L.R.B. 1949)

In the Matter of TIIE DELTA OXYGEN COMPANY , EMPLOYER and TRUCK
DRIVERS AND HELPERS LOCAL UNION No. 355, I. B. T. C. W. & H. A.,
AFL, PETITIONER -
Case No. 5-RC-249.-Decided April 26,1919
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before Harold G.
Biermann , hearing 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.
Pursuant 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 [Reynolds, Murdock, and Gray].
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The business of the Employer :
The Delta Oxygen Company, a Maryland corporation, is engaged
in the manufacture and sale of oxygen gas and the purchase and re-
sale of acetylene gas. The operations of the Employer are carried
on at a plant at Sparrows Point, Maryland, and at warehouses at
Sparrows Point, Maryland, and Baltimore, Maryland.
. During the last 6 months of 1948, the Employer's purchases
amounted to approximately $11,500 of which goods having a value of
approximately $5,000 were received from points outside the State
of Maryland. During the same period, the Employer sold finished
products valued in excess of $80,000, all of which were sold to custom-
ers within the State of Maryland. Of this amount, over $50,000 was
realized from the sale of oxygen gas to Bethlehem Steel Corporation,
for delivery at Sparrows Point, Maryland, where it is used in the
process of reducing steel scrap for later shipment across State lines
and reconversion into material for the building of ships.
The remaining sales were made within the State of Maryland to
various customers including two instrumentalities of the U. S. Govern-
ment namely the U. S. Army Chemical Corp., Aberdeen, Maryland,
and the U. S. Veterans Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland. In addition
thereto sales were made to a number of local dealers who admittedly
83 N. L. R. B., No . 20. 177
178 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
are engaged in interstate commerce, and who - purchased the Em-
ployer's products with the object of reselling such products.
Because it appears that the Employer's principal customer, the
Bethlehem Steel Corporation, is directly and extensively engaged in
interstate commerce 1 and that a labor dispute interfering with the
Employer's manufacture and delivery of oxygen gas would necessarily
curtail and disrupt the interstate movement of its scrap metal2 to-
gether with the fact that the Employer supplies necessary materials
to other customers engaged in interstate commerce 3 including several
instrumentalities of the U. S. Government,, we find, contrary to Em-
ployer's contentions, that it is engaged in operations affecting commerce
within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act. We further
find that it will effectuate the policies of the Act to assert jurisdiction
in this proceeding.
2. The Petitioner is a labor organization claiming to represent em-
ployees of the Employer.
3. A question of representation exists concerning the representation
of employees of the Employer, within the meaning of Section 9 (c) (I)
andSection 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
4. We find, in substantial accord with the positions of the parties,
that all truck drivers 5 and helpers at the Employer's plant and ware-
houses at Baltimore and Sparrows Point, Maryland, excluding all
other production and maintenance employees, guards, professional
employees, and supervisors as defined by the Act, constitute a unit ap-
propriate for the purposes of collective bargaining, within the meaning
of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the
purposes of collective bargaining with the Employer, an election by
secret ballot shall be conducted as early As possible, but not later than
30 days from the date of this Direction, under the direction and super-
vision of the Regional Director for the Region in which this case was
heard, and subject to Sections 203.61 and 203.62 of National Labor
Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 5, ,as amended, among
the employees in the unit -found appropriate in paragraph 4, above,
who were employed during the pay-roll period immediately preceding
the, date of this Direction, including employees who did not work
1 Matter of Bethlehem-Sparrows Point 'Shipyard, Inc., 65 N. L. R. B. 284.
2 Matter of Vogue-Wright Studsos, Inc., 76 N. L. R. B. 773, 785.
8 Matter of McKamie Gas Cleaning Co., 80 N L R B 1447.
* Roane-Anderson Company, 77 N. L . R' B. 953.
Included in the unit is the employee who regularly spends 50 percent of his time as a
truck driver and is on call 24 hours a day to perform trucking duties.
THE DELTA OXYGEN COMPANY 179
during said pay-roll period because they were ill or on vacation or
temporarily laid off , but excluding those employees who have since
quit or been discharged for cause and have not been rehired or rein-
stated prior to the date of the election , and also excluding employees
on strike who are not entitled to reinstatement, to determine whether or
not they desire to be represented , for purposes of collective bargaining,
by Truck Drivers and Helpers Local Union No. 355, I. B. T. C. W. &
H. A., AFL.