The Firestone Tire & Rubber Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Dec 29, 1965

156 N.L.R.B. 454 (N.L.R.B. 1965)

454 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
We therefore find that the following employees constitute a unit,
appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the
meaning of Section 9 ( b) of the Act :
All production and maintenance employees , loading and shipping
employees , automotive ( garage ) employees , advertising employ-
ees, and cooler service employees at Employer 's plant located
at 2525 Kirk Avenue and 1200 West Hamburg Street , Baltimore,
Maryland , but excluding all employees in sales department, office
clerical employees , guards, professional employees, and super-
visors as defined in the Act.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.]
MEMBERS BROWN AND ZAGORIA took no part in the consideration of
the above Decision and Direction of Election.
The Firestone Tire & Rubber Company and International Broth-
erhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs , Warehousemen , and Helpers
of America , Local 384, Petitioner . Case No. 4-RC-6512. De-
cember 29,1965
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
Joseph C. Kelly. The Hearing Officer's rulings made at the hearing
are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed. The
Employer, the Petitioner, and the Intervenor each have filed briefs
which have been considered by the National Labor Relations Board
in making its decision in this case.
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 labor organizations 1 involved claim to represent certain
employees of the Employer.
'United Rubber, Cork, Linoleum and Plastic Workers of America, AFL-CIO, and its
Local No. 336, were permitted to intervene at the hearing on the basis of their con-
tractual and representative interest
156 NLRB No. 49.
THE FIRESTONE TIRE & RUBBER COMPANY 455
3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the representa-
tion of certain employees of the Employer within the meaning of
Section9(c) (1) andSection2(6) and (7) of the Act.
4. The Employer, an Ohio corporation engaged in the manufacture
of tires, plastic products, and other items, operates about 26 plants
throughout the United States. The Intervenor represents the produc-
tion and maintenance employees in 10 of these plants.- Following
separate Board certifications of production and maintenance units at
each of the 10 plants beginning in 1952, the Employer and Intervenor
have executed master agreements, but each plant and the local affiliate
of the Intervenor at that plant execute supplemental agreements
covering certain local employment conditions. In each of the 10 plants
there is a laboratory and development section, including the technician
categories sought herein, which has not been represented by the Inter-
venor or any other labor organization;3 these employees are, in fact,
expressly excluded from the contractual unit.
The Petitioner seeks to represent a unit of the 112 technicians at
the Pottstown, Pennsylvania, plant. The Intervenor agrees that this
unit is appropriate,4 but the Employer contends that only a unit
coextensive with the existing multiplant unit is appropriate. The
Employer also contends that the employees in the proposed unit lack
sufficient homogeneity to constitute a separate appropriate unit. For
the reasons set forth below, we find no merit in these contentions of
the Employer.
All the employees at the Pottstown plant are divided into three
production divisions designated as tire, chemical, and plastics, which
are located in three separate but adjacent buildings. Each division
has a laboratory and development section, part of which is designated
as the technician subdivision, which is subdivided again into depart-
ments, the tire division into the statistical quality control, technical
service, and tire laboratory departments; the chemical division into the
process control, technical service, pilot plant, research and develop-
ment, and process engineering departments; and the plastics division
into the development and analytical laboratory departments.
2 The 10 plants are located In Akron, Ohio ; Decatur, Illinois ; Des Moines , Iowa ; Fall
River, Massachusetts ; Los Angeles, California ; Memphis, Tennessee ; New Castle , Indiana ;
Noblesville , Indiana; Pottstown , Pennsylvania ; and Salinas, California.
S The Intervenor , in Case No . 4-RC-4836, sought to represent a unit of 17 statistical
quality control employees , one of the categories covered in the unit now sought, as a
separate unit or as part of the existing production and maintenance unit. After a
hearing held on January 23, 1962, the proceedings of which were Incorporated into the
record of the instant case, the Regional Director dismissed the petition on the ground
that these employees were but a segment of a larger unit with a separate community
of interest.
* The Intervenor asserted at the hearing that, if it Is designated as the representative
of such unit, it will charter a separate local to represent these employees.
456 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
The employees sought herein are technicians and inspectors 5 who
work in the laboratory and development sections. Like the employees
in the production and maintenance unit, they are located in all three
buildings. They are engaged in examining the various products or
materials to check adherence to quality standards. They work under
separate supervision. They are salaried, and all have the same salary
scale, whereas the production and maintenance employees are paid on
a piece-work basis. Moreover, these technicians receive other employ-
ment benefits not available to the production and maintenance employ-
ees, including a contributory pension plan, and they do not punch the
timeclock.
Although there are employees in the same classifications as those
here involved at the Employer's other plants, there is no interchange
or transfer of employees between the Pottstown and other plants.
Management of the Pottstown plant does the hiring and discharg-
ing for that plant and determines its personnel policies.
Accordingly, in the absence of any bargaining history for the
laboratory and development employees at any of the plants, and in
view of the geographical separation of the plants and of the fact that
no labor organization seeks to represent such employees on a broader
basis, we find that a unit of the laboratory and development employees
confined to the Pottstown plant is appropriate .6 Moreover, on the
basis of the foregoing facts and of the entire record, we find that the
employees in the proposed unit share a mutuality of employment
interests which differ from those of the production and maintenance
employees, and that they are a homogeneous group which constitutes
a separate appropriate unit.
In view of the foregoing, we find that the following employees
constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining
within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act :
All technicians, quality control inspectors, technician quality control,
senior laboratory technicians, laboratory technicians and junior
laboratory technicians at the Employer's Pottstown, Pennsylvania,
plant, excluding all production and maintenance employees, office
clericals, chemists, professional employees, guards, watchmen, and
supervisors within the meaning of the Act.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.]
5 The parties stipulated that none of these employees are professional employees within
the meaning of the Act. None of the parties challenge the technical status of these
employees as that term is defined by the Board.
e Piggly Wiggly California Company, 144 NLRB 708, 710; Joseph E. Seagram & Sons,
Inc., 101 NLRB 101. See also The Wm. H. Block Company, 151 NLRB 318 , 320, in
which the Board reaffirmed its established policy that "the Act does not compel labor
organizations to seek representation in the most comprehensive grouping .. . unless
such grouping constitutes the only appropriate unit."