The Electric Auto-Lite Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Nov 18, 1949

87 N.L.R.B. 129 (N.L.R.B. 1949)

In the Matter of THE ELECTRIC AUTO-LITE COMPANY, EMPLOYEI, and
LAMP WORKERS COLLECTIVE BARGAINING ASSOCIATION, PETITIONER
Case No. 9-RCD83. Decided November 18, 1949
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before Harold V.
Carey, hearing officer. 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 National Labor
Relations Act, the Board has delegated its powers in connection with
this case to a three member panel [Chairman Herzog and Members
Houston and Gray].
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 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.2
4. The appropriate unit; the determination of representatives:
The Employer is engaged in manufacturing automobile lamps, auto-
mobile fuel pumps, and refrigerator liquid containers at its Lockland,
Ohio, plant, the only one of its several plants that is involved in this
1 Metal Polishers , Buffers , Platers and Helpers International Union , AFL, hereinafter
referred to as the Metal Polishers ; the International Association of Machinists , hereinafter
referred to as the IAM ; the Metal Trades Department, A. F. or L., hereinafter referred to
as Metal Trades ; and International Union, United Automobile, Aircraft and Agricultural
Implement Workers of America, CIO, hereinafter referred to as the UAW-CIO, were per-
mitted to intervene at the hearing.
2 Metal Polishers intervened solely for the purpose of opposing the inclusion in the unit
of polishers , buffers , platers, their apprentices and helpers . The Metal Polishers contends
that its contracts with the Employer covering the above -named employees bar a determina-
tion of representatives for them at this time, thereby compelling the exclusion of these
employees from any unit the Board may herein find appropriate. As we shall exclude the
polishers , buffers , platers , their apprentices and helpers for other reasons, hereinafter
set forth, we find it unnecessary to pass upon the validity of the Metal Polishers' contracts
with the Employer at this time.
87 NLRB No. 29. 129
130 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
proceeding. In August 1948, the Employer discontinued operations
at its Spring Grove Avenue (Cincinnati, Ohio) and Kings Mills
(Ohio) plants, transferring the entire operations of those two plants,
including employees, to the Lockland plant. The Employer presently
employs approximately 3,000 production and maintenance employees
at its new plant.
The Petitioner seeks a unit composed of certain production and
maintenance employees. It would exclude from the unit those pro-
duction employees (polishers, buffers, platers, and their apprentices
and helpers) currently represented by the Metal Polishers, and those
maintenance employees for whom the TAM was certified by the Board
in June 1949. The Petitioner would also exclude certain fringe
groups hereinafter named, and all professional, office, and clerical
employees, guards, and supervisors within the meaning of the
Act. The TAM and the Metal Trades agree with the Petitioner
on the proposed unit. The Metal Polishers takes no position upon the
proposed unit other than to oppose the inclusion of the employees
represented by it. The UAW-CIO, however, contends that the unit
sought is inappropriate and that the only appropriate unit is one
embracing all production and maintenance employees at the Em-
ployer's Lockland plant, excluding professional, office, and clerical
employees, guards and supervisors. The Employer takes a neutral
position .3
The UAW-CIO contends that the only appropriate unit is one which
would also include the approximately 500 employees currently bar-
gained for by the Metal Polishers and the approximately 500 em-
ployees for whom the TAM was certified in June 1949. It also con-
tends that the shop clerks (checkers and time-study employees) and
all employees in the water distribution department and waste water
treatment department should be included in the unit. We find that
the appropriateness of a plant-wide unit is not properly before us at
this time, as the UAI17-CIO has not made an adequate showing of
representation among such employees. It is necessary for an inter-
vening labor organization which seeks a unit appreciably larger than
that sought by the Petitioner to file a separate petition covering its
proposed unit, or to make an administrative showing of interest to the
Board which would justify the processing of the petition for the larger
proposed unit 4 The UAW-CIO has not made such a showing. We
do not, therefore, have before us a valid request for a plant-wide unit.
Accordingly, we find it necessary to determine only whether the unit
3 All parties agreed that the employees in the engineering department , lunchroom, and
hospital should be excluded from the unit.
' T. C, King Pipe Company, et al., 74 NLRB 468; Boeing Airplane Co., et al ., 86 NLRB
368.
THE ELECTRIC AUTO-LITE COMPANY 131
proposed by the Petitioner, with its several exclusions, is appropriate
for purposes of collective bargaining..
The employees represented by the Metal Polishers: The Metal
Polishers bargained for the polishers, buffers, platers,'and their ap-
prentices and helpers, when employed at the Spring Grove Avenue
.and Kings Mills plants. As heretofore noted, upon the discontinuance
of the latter plants all employees, including those represented by the
Metal Polishers, were transferred to the present plant. The Metal
Polishers has continued to represent the same unit of employees at
the Lockland plant that it bargained for at the Spring Grove Avenue
and Kings Mills plants. There are approximately 500 employees in
the Metal Polishers bargaining unit. The employees represented by
the Metal Polishers constitute a recognized bargaining unit of craft
employees in the industry.5 Although we would normally establish a
separate -voting unit for these employees, permitting them to indicate
whether they desired to be bargained for in a separate unit or as a part
of a larger unit, we shall not do so in this case because the Petitioner
does not seek to include them in its proposed unit.
The employees covered by the IAM's certification: On June 16,
1949, following three consent elections won by the IAM, the Board
certified the IAM as the bargaining representative for all boilerhouse'
and power plant employees, excluding operating engineers, profes-
sional employees, guards, and supervisors; 6 all tool, die, jig, and
fixture makers, machinists and all machinists' apprentices and helpers,
excluding professional employees, guards, and supervisors; ° and all
maintenance employees in the construction and maintenance depart-
ment, equipment maintenance department, shop power vehicle depart-
ment, and auto-truck department, excluding operating engineers,
professional employees, guards, and supervisors.8 There are approxi-
mately 500 employees covered by the foregoing certifications. As the
IAM's certification of the above-listed employees is less than 4 months
old, we shall exclude them from the unit herein found appropriate.
The fringe groups: The Petitioner, the IAM, and the Metal Trades
would exclude, and the UAW-CIO would include, shop clericals and
employees in the water distribution and waste water treatment
departments.
(1) Shop clericals. There are between 40 and 50 shop clericals,
composed of checkers and time-study employees. Sixty percent of the
checkers work in the office with other clerical employees and perform
clerical work only. We shall exclude these checkers inasmuch as they
5The Electric Anto-Lite Company, 76 NLRB 1189, and cases therein c ited.
6 Case No, 9-RC-485.
7 Case No. 9-RC-487.
8 Case No , 9-RC-486.
877359-50-vol. 87-10
132 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
are properly a part of the office clerical employees . The remaining 40
percent work in the several production departments, physically check-
ing the finished products. The 16 or more checkers, working in the
production departments physically counting the finished pieces, are
factory clerical employees whom we customarily include in a produc-
tion and maintenance unit when requested by a party to the proceeding.
Accordingly, we shall include them in this case.
The record does not disclose the number of time-study employees or
the nature of their duties . We are unable, upon the record before us,
to determine the appropriate unit placement for these employees. We
shall, therefore , permit them to vote subject to challenge at the
election.9
(2) Water distribution department . There are six employees in
this department . It is the function of the water distribution depart-
ment to purify and chemically treat the more than 4,000,000 gallons
of water which the Employer daily uses in its plant operations. The
purification and treating of the water is an automatic operation,
requiring two employees on each of three shifts to adjust and main-
tain various pressure controls . The Employer classifies these em-
ployees as semi-technical employees . We perceive no reason for ex-
cluding these employees from the unit which the Petitioner is seeking
inasmuch as their interests are closely allied with those of other
maintenance employees whom the Petitioner does seek to include.
We shall therefore include the water distribution department em-
ployees in the unit.
. (3) Waste water treatment department . There are three employees
in this department. It is the function of the department to. treat the
waste water in a manner somewhat similar to that involved in the water
distribution department . The duties performed by these three em-
ployees, one on each shift , are similar to those performed by the
employees in the water distribution department. For the reasons
indicated above, we shall likewise include the waste water treatment
department employees in the unit.
We find that all production and maintenance employees at the
Employer's Lockland , Ohio, plant , including factory clerical em-
ployees, but excluding office clerical employees, tool, die, jig, and
-fixture makers, machinists , and their apprentices and helpers, all
maintenance employees in the construction and maintenance, shop
power vehicle, and auto-truck departments , boilerhouse and power
plant employees , operating engineers, metal polishers , buffers, platers,
and their apprentices and helpers , and all professional employees,
guards, and 'supervisors as defined in the Act, constitute a unit ap-
R. H. Macy tf Co ., Inc., 81 NLRB 186.
THE ELECTRIC AUTO-LITE COMPANY 133
propriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the mean-
ing of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION io
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
supervision 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, among the employees
in the unit found appropriate in paragraph numbered 4, above, who
were employed during the pay-roll period immediately preceding the
date of this Direction of Election, including employees who did not
work 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
they desire to be represented, for purposes of collective bargaining,
by Lamp Workers Collective Bargaining Association, Metal Trades
Department, AFL, International Association of Machinists, or Inter-
national Union, United Automobile, Aircraft and Agricultural Im-
plement Workers of America, CIO, or none.
10 Any participant in the election directed herein may , upon its prompt request to, and
approval thereof by , the Regional Director , have its name removed from the ballot.