The Formica Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Aug 23, 1954

109 N.L.R.B. 964 (N.L.R.B. 1954)

964 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
THE FORMICA COMPANY and INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF FIRE-
MEN & OILERS, LOCAL #49, AFL, PETITIONER. Case No. 9-RC-2211.
August 03,1954
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 Rosemary S. Macke,
hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are
free from prejudicial 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 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.
4. The Employer operates two plants in Hamilton County, Ohio,
known as the Spring Grove Avenue plant and the Evendale plant.
The, production and maintenance employees at both plants, including
the employees here involved, have been represented under a single
contract between the Employer and the Intervenor 2
The Petitioner seeks to sever a unit of firemen and firemen helpers
or, in the alternative, a unit of all the boiler department employees.
The Employer contends that neither unit may appropriately be sev-
ered under the rules laid down in the recent American Potash case.3
The Intervenor contends that the existing plantwide unit is alone
appropriate.
Each of the Employer's plants has a separate boilerroom. Each
boilerroom is part of a boiler department, which has responsibility
for servicing, in addition to the boilerroom equipment, equipment dis-
persed throughout the plant, such as treating machines, steam gauges,
and recording instruments. The boiler department of each plant is
under a separate supervisor, who reports to a foreman in charge of
both boiler departments, who in turn reports to the chief engineer
for both plants. The total personnel of both boiler departments con-
sists of approximately 12 firemen and helpers, 10 repairmen, 2 trash
burners, and 1 instrument repairman. Of these categories, the Even-
I International Union of Electrical , Radio & Machine Workers, Local 757, CIO, was per-
mitted to intervene at the hearing on the basis of its contract with the Employer.
2 From 1941 to 1950 the employees at the Spring Grove plant were represented by
another union In 1950 the Intervenor was certified as the representative for the produc-
tion and maintenance employees at that plant and since that time has had contracts with
the Employer The Evendale operation began in February 1951, and has been covered in
the 1952 and 1953 agreements.
3 Ain en wan Pote8h cC Chemical Corporation, 107 NLRB 1418.
109 NLRB No. 143.
THE FORMICA COMPANY 965
dale plant employs only firemen and repairmen since it has only oil-
fired boilers while Spring Grove is coal-fired.
The firemen are licensed,4 high pressure boiler operators, who oper-
ate boilers, stokers, boiler feed pumps, and refrigerator compressors.
The helpers unload coal cars, operate coal elevators and conveyors to
fill the hoppers of the boiler, remove ashes, clean air ducts and com-
bustion chambers and other equipment, sweep the floor, keep pumps
and engines clean, oil elevators and conveyors, and grease motors.
The helpers work under the guidance of the firemen, principally on
the equipment in the boilerroom, but are not undergoing any training
that would qualify them for a license. The repairmen-10 in num-
ber-repair the boilers, hydraulic systems, accumulators, air com-
pressors, pumps, water lines and valves, traps, gauges, and automatic
controls for air and steam lines, and make minor repairs on air-con-
ditioning and ash blower systems. They also do general maintenance
work in the boilerroom. In the course of their duties the repairmen
work throughout the plant but spend at least a substantial part of their
time in the boilerroom.5 The instrument repairman repairs and ad-
justs all recorders, controllers, and instruments on the equipment
serviced by the repairmen throughout the plant. He is occasionally
assigned to regular boilerroom repair work but his duties are per-
formed principally in the various production departments. The trash
burners perform all their duties in the boilerroom, primarily burning
trash in the back of the boilers and keeping the rear of the boiler
ashpits clean.
All the employees assigned to the boiler department generally have
the same conditions of employment as those of other employees in the
plant. While maintenance department employees occasionally per-
form work in the boilerroom, there is no interchange of duties between
these employees. Some transfers have been made into the boiler de-
partment pursuant to the contractual requirement that job openings
be filled on the basis of plantwide seniority.
We agree with the Employer that the Petitioner has not sustained
the burden of establishing that the firemen and helpers constitute a
true craft group. Accordingly, we find inappropriate the primary
unit sought by the Petitioner.
As to the Petitioner's alternative request for a boiler department
unit, the Employer contends that such a unit is inappropriate in view
of the integrated nature of the plant operations, including the use of
steam from the boilerroom in the production process, the lack of
special common interests among the boiler department employees, the
4 Such license is required by the State of Ohio for high pressure boiler operators.
6 The only evidence as to the proportion of their time spent in the boilerroom is con-
tained in the statement of a witness at the hearing that the repairmen spent from "100
percent to probably 20 percent" of their time in the boilerroom
966 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
fact that some of the employees in the proposed unit spend consider-
able time working in production areas, the fact that severance would
invite jurisdictional strife, and the fact that the Petitioner has not
established that it traditionally represents employees herein involved.
We find no merit in these objections. The fact that steam produced
in the boilerroom is used in the production process does not preclude
severance of the boiler department employees.6 Community of inter-
est among these employees is adequately established by the fact that
their tasks are all related to the operation of equipment associated
with the boilerroom and these tasks are performed under separate
immediate supervision. We find, therefore, that the employees herein
involved form a distinct, homogeneous, and functionally coherent
powerhouse group such as the Board has traditionally held may con-
stitute a separate appropriate unit, despite a history of plantwide
bargaining.'
We find also that the Petitioner is affiliated with an international
union which through its locals has traditionally represented power-
house employees."
Under these circumstances, we find that all boiler department em-
ployees, including firemen, firemen helpers, repairmen, instrument re-
pairmen, and trash burners, at the Employer's Hamilton County,
Ohio, plants, excluding all other employees, and all supervisors as de-
fined in the Act, may constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of
collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (a) of the Act,
if they so desire.
However, we shall make no final unit determination at this time,
but shall first ascertain the desires of these employees as expressed in
the election hereinafter directed. If a majority vote for the Peti-
tioner, they will be taken to have indicated that they desire to con-
stitute a separate appropriate unit, and the Regional Director con-
ducting the election directed herein is instructed to issue a certification
of representatives to the Petitioner for the unit described above, which
the Board, under such circumstances, finds to be appropriate for pur-
poses of collective bargaining. In the event that a majority vote for
the Intervenor, they may continue to be represented by it as a part of
the existing production and maintenance unit and the Regional Di-
rector will issue a certification of results of election to such effect.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.]
eAmerican Potash & Chemical Corporation, supra, at footnote 9. For reasons there
stated, we also reject the Employer's contention that integration of its operations gener-
ally, and the possibility of jurisdictional strife, militate against severance in the instant
case
4 C. K. Williams & Co, 106 NLRB 219; Cf New England Confectionery Company, 108
NLRB 728.
8 See New England Confectionery Company, supra, at footnote 3.
McDONNELL AIRCRAFT CORPORATION 967
CHAIRMAN FARMER, dissenting :
I do not agree with the decision of the majority in this case because
I believe that it conflicts squarely with our recent decision in American
Potash.9
As the majority notes, the Employer, in its table of organization,
placed its boilerroom employees in a division of its plant labelled gen-
erally "boiler department." Relying upon American Potash, the ma-
jority includes repairmen and instrument repairmen in the boiler de-
partment unit. The record shows, however, that the repairmen are
not a functional part of the boilerroom operation but rather work
there only as needed, just as do other of the Company's maintenance
employees, such as electricians, welders, and pipefitters. Therefore,
by including the repairmen in the severed unit, the majority has given
controlling effect to the Employer's organizational designation "boiler
department" and has completely ignored the "functionally distinct
and separate" requirements of American Potash.,
The majority thus perpetuates the error initially committed in two
recent cases.10 In those cases, my colleagues also resolved a severance
request solely on the basis of the employers' tables of organization.
I believe that the severance principles enunciated in American Pot-
ash should be strictly adhered to and be given consistent application.
I would, therefore, exclude the repairmen and instrument repairmen
from the boilerroom unit to be severed.
MEMBER PETERSON took no part in the consideration of the above
Decision and Direction of Election.
9 American Potash & Chemical Corporation, supra.
^O American Can Company, 108 NLRB 1657; Richmtone Engineering Company, Inc.,
108 NLRB 1659.
MCDONNELL AIRCRAFT CORPORATION and NATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF
GUARDS AND WATCHMEN , LOCAL No. 1, PETITIONER
MCDONNELL AIRCRAFT CORPORATION and INTERNATIONAL UNION,
UNITED PLANT GUARD WORKERS OF AMERICA, AND ITS AMALGAMATED
PLANT GUARD LOCAL 250, PETITIONER. Cases Nos. 14-RC-2522
and 14-RC-25./0. August 23, 1954
Decision and Direction of Election
Upon separate petitions duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the Na-
tional Labor Relations Act, a consolidated hearing was held before
Walter A. Werner, hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made
at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
109 NLRB No. 147.