The F. C. Russell Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Sep 9, 1955

114 N.L.R.B. 38 (N.L.R.B. 1955)

38 DECISIONS OF -NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS -BOARD
Products of Seattle, Inc., or of any other employer to engage in, a strike or a
concerted refusal in the course of their employment to use, manufacture, process,
transport, or otherwise handle or work on any goods, articles, materials, or
commodities, or to perform any services, where an object thereof is to force
or require Cadman Gravel Company, Western Sand and Gravel Company, and
Layrite Concrete Products of Seattle, Inc., or any other employer or other
person to cease doing business with Cisco Construction Company.
SEATTLE DISTRICT COUNCIL OF CARPENTERS, AFFILIATED
WITH UNITED BROTHERHOOD OF CARPENTERS AND
JOINERS OF AMERICA, AFL,
Labor Organization.
Dated---------------- By----------------------------------------------
(Representative) (Title)
TEAMSTERS, CHAUFFEURS AND HELPERS, LOCAL UNION No.
174, INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS, CHAUF-
FEURS, WAREHOUSEMEN AND HELPERS OF AMERICA, AFL,
Labor Organization.
Dated---------------- By------------------------------------------
(Representative) (Title)
INTERNATIONAL UNION OF OPERATING ENGINEERS, LOCAL
302, AFL,
Labor Organization.
Dated---------------- By----------------------------------------------
(Representative) (Title)
LOCAL 440, INTERNATIONAL HOD CARRIERS, BUILDING AND
COMMON LABORERS' UNION OF AMERICA, AFL,
Labor Organization.
Dated---------------- -By-----------------------------------------------
(Representative) (Title)
This notice must remain posted for 60 days from the date hereof, and must not be
altered, defaced, or covered by any other material.
,The F. C. Russell Company ? -and International Union, United
Automobile Workers of America, AFL, Local 192, Petitioner?
Case No. 8-RC-2469. September 9, 1955
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upona petition duly filed under Section 9-(c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, a hearing was held before John Vincek, hearing officer.
The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from preju-
dicial error and are hereby affirmed.
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. The Petitioner, which, pursuant to a 1952 consent election, has
represented under contract a unit of production, and maintenance em-
ployees at the Employer's Pandora, Ohio, plant, seeks in this proceed-
The name of the Employer appears as corrected at the hearing.
2 The name of the Petitioner was amended at the hearing to include Local 192.
114 NLRB No. 15.
S
THE F. C. RUSSELL COMPANY 39-
ing to add to this•unit a.group of inspectors who have previously been-
excluded from the established unit. The Employer argues that the
right to represent the inspectors was "traded away" by the Petitioner
in the process of collective bargaining during the current contract ne-
gotiations between the parties.' Although, by agreement of the
parties, the inspectors were excluded from the previous collective-bar-
gaining contract, the record discloses no evidence, based on either
the original contract; or the current bargaining sessions, of a promise,
express or implied, on the part of the Petitioner, to refrain from seek-
ing to represent these employees as required for an application of the
Briggs Indiana doctrine 4 Accordingly, we find no merit to the Em-
ployer's contention.
We ^ find that 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 Employer, an Ohio corporation engaged in the manufacture
of aluminum and steel fabricated products, operates plants in Colum-
biana, Pandora, Cambridge, and Conneaut, Ohio, and Bristol, Pennsyl-
vania. In support of its contention that the inspectors at the Pandora
plant cannot properly be added to the established production and
maintenance unit, the Employer asserts that : (1) Inspectors are a
separate and functionally distinct group with interests and skills apart
from the production and maintenance employees; and (2) inspectors
have always been excluded from production and maintenance units
at this plant and at the Employer's other Ohio and Pennsylvania
plants.
The record discloses that the nine inspectors employed at the Pan-
dora plant are responsible for the quality of the finished product and
are engaged primarily in making visual inspection of incoming ma-
terials and various operations during the production process. Al-
though these employees do not interchange with production employees,
5 of the 9 were recruited from among the production employees, they
have retained their seniority rights, and, in the event of a layoff, would
be transferred back to production. The inspectors, who constitute a
separate department under separate supervision, are paid a slightly
higher hourly wage than the production employees.
The record further discloses that inspectors have authority to shut
down a faulty operation and to reject poor work, but have no authority
to discipline, reprimand, hire, fire, or to effectively recommend such
action. They punch time clocks, work the same hours and in the same
production area as the production and maintenance employees, share
3 The parties have been in the process of negotiating a new agreement since January
1955.
' Briggs Indiana Corporation , 63 NLRB 1270 See also, Chase Brass & Copper Co.,
Incorporated, 102 NLRB 62 ; Wilford Auto Sales, Inc, 106 NLRB 1396; Standard Oil Conm-
pam.y, 107 NLRB 1524
40 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
the same plant facilities, and enjoy the same vacation plans and other
employee benefits. Accordingly, as it appears from the record that
a community of interest in the conditions of employment exists be-
tween the inspectors and the production and maintenance employees,
we believe that the inspectors may, if they so desire, appropriately be
added to the existing bargaining unit.' The fact that inspectors can,
by rejecting defective work, affect to some extent incentive earnings
of production workers is insufficient to constitute supervisory or man-
agerial authority, and thus, does not, in itself, alter our conclusion
that they may appropriately be included in the production and main-
tenance unit.' Nor does the quality control supervision of inspectors
require their exclusion as employees allied with management? We
further find without merit the Employer's argument that prior bar-
gaining history of exclusion at the instant plant and at the other Em-
ployer's plants precludes their being added to the established unit .8
We shall direct an election among employees in the following voting
group : All inspectors employed by the Employer at its Pandora,
,Ohio, plant, excluding all other employees, office clerical employees,
professional employees, guards, and supervisors as defined in the
Act.9
If a majority of the employees in the voting group vote for the Peti-
tioner, they will be taken to have indicated their desire to be included
in the existing production and maintenance unit at the Employer's
Pandora plant currently represented by the Petitioner, and the
Regional Director conducting the election is instructed to issue a certi-
fication of the results of election to that effect.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.]
G American Can Company, 108 NLRB 1209 ; Gerber Plastic Company, 113 NLRB 462.
We hereby deny the Employer 's motion made at the hearing to dismiss the petition. The
American Can case, relied upon by the Employer in its brief , does not support the Em-
ployer's position, but instead, supports that of the Petitioner.
e See Luminous Processes, Inc., 71 NLRB 405, p. 40T; Palmer Manufacturing Company,
103 NLRB 336 , p. 338; Bachmann Uxbridge Worsted Corporation , 109 NLRB 868, p. 870.
7 See The Firestone Tire and Rubber Company-Firestone Textiles Division, 112 NLRB
571 (quality control clerk)
8 American Can Company , supra.
e The parties are in agreement that the chief inspector is a supervisor and should be
excluded from the voting group.
The Danspur Company, Inc., and Robertson -Henry Company
and International Union of Operating Engineers , Local 181,
AFL. Case No. 9-CA-849. September 12,1955
DECISION AND ORDER
On June 8, 1955, Trial Examiner David London issued his Inter-
mediate Report in the above-entitled proceeding, finding , that „the
114 NLRB No. 16.