The Globe Brick Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jan 17, 1946

65 N.L.R.B. 527 (N.L.R.B. 1946)

In the Matter of TILE GLOBE BRICK COMPANY and UNITED CONSTRUC-
TION WORKERS, AFFILIATED WITH UNITED MINE WORKERS OF
AMERICA
Case No. 6-R-1..140.-Decided January 17, 1946
Thorp, Bostwick, Reed ch Armstrong, by Mr. Kenneth G. Jackson,
of Pittsburgh, Pa., for the Company.
Mr. Joseph DiStefano, of Bellaire, Ohio, and Mr. A. B. Sparks,
of Columbus, Ohio, for the Union.
Miss Katharine Loomis, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon a petition duly filed by United Construction Workers, affiliated
with the United Mine Workers of America, herein called the Union,
alleging that a question affecting commerce has arisen concerning
the representation of einployees of The Globe Brick Company, Newell,
West Virginia, herein called the Company, the National Labor Rela-
tions Board provided for an appropriate hearing upon due notice
before W. G. Stuart Sherman, Trial Examiner. The hearing was
held at Chester, West Virginia, on October 10, 1945. The Company
and the Union appeared and participated. All parties were afforded
full opportunity to be heard, to examine and cross-examine witnesses,
and to introduce evidence bearing on the issues. The Trial Examiner's
rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are
hereby affirmed. All parties were afforded opportunity to file briefs
with the Board.
At the hearing and in its brief the Company moved to dismiss the
petition on the ground that the unit proposed by the Union is not
appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining. For the rea-
sons set forth in Section IV, infra, the motion is hereby denied.
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following :
1
' United Brick & Clay Workers of America , A F of L , herein called the A F of L.
was served with notice of hearing but did not appear
65 N. L. R . B., No. 87.
527
679100-46-vol 65-35
528 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
FINDINGS OF FACT
I. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
The Globe Brick Company, a Nest Virginia corporation, operates
a clay mine and a plant for the manufacture of fire clay ladle brick
at Kenilworth, near Newell, West Virginia. During the past year
the Company's purchases of raw materials were in excess of $100,000,
of which approximately 30 percent was purchased outside West Vir-
ginia. During the same period the Company sold finished products
valued at more than $100,000, of which approximately 94 percent was
shipped to points outside West Virginia.
The Company admits that it is engaged in commerce within the
meaning of the National Labor Relations Act.
II. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED
United Construction Workers is a labor organization affiliated with
the United Mine Workers of America, admitting to membership em-
ployees of the Company.
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
The Company has refused to grant recognition to the Union as the
exclusive bargaining representative of the Company's employees work-
ing in its clay mine until the Union has been certified by the Board in
an appropriate unit.
A statement of a Board agent, introduced into evidence at the hear-
ing, indicates that the Union represents a substantial number of em-
ployees in the unit hereinafter found appropriate.2
We find that a question affecting commerce has arisen concerning
the representation of employees of the Company, within the meaning
of Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT
D
The Union requests a unit of employees working in the Company's
clay mine, including drillers, tampers, motormen, clay loaders, laborers,
trackmen, timbermen, trip-riders, blacksmith, and pumper, but ex-
cluding office and clerical employees and the mine superintendent.
The Company, agrees that the categories of employees sought by the
Union should be included, but contends that the unit should encompass
plant as well as mine employees.
2 The Field Examiner reported that the Union submitted 19 application cards and that
the cards are dated during June and July 1945, and 1 card is dated January 1945. There
are approximately 41 employees in the appropriate unit
THE GLOBE BRICK COMPANY 529
In a prior proceeding concerning the Company's employees,3 the
A. F. of L. sought the identical unit now petitioned for by the Union,
and the Company took ' the same position it presently advances.
Nevertheless, in its Decision and Direction of Election in that case,
the Board said :
The mine is located on a hill approximately 1,500 feet from the
brick plant. Clay from the mine is carried by chute to a crusher
and thence by conveyor belt to the plant for manufacture into
brick. Operation of the plant depends upon the receipt of clay
from the mine, and operation of the mine depends upon a demand
for clay from the plant. Obviously the entire operation of min-
ing and manufacturing is complementary and well integrated.
However, the plant may operate by using clay trucked to the
plant from another mine and the plant was so supplied for a
short period recently. Conversely the clay from the mine may be
sold and transported for use in another plant. In this aspect
the mine and the plant are functional units not necessarily depend-
ent one upon the other. The employees at the mine are under
separate supervision from those at the plant and in recognition of
the hazards attending their work receive higher wages. There
is no practice of transferring employees between the plant and
mine and the skills of the employees in the mine are dissimilar
to those possessed by employees in the plant. The A. F. of L. does
not assert that under other circumstances the plant and mine unit
would be inappropriate and agrees that in the industry the em-
ployees in plant and mine are frequently represented in one bar-
gaining unit.
The Company asserts that the employees of its several com-
petitors are organized in each case as one unit and that to permit
separate organization here would subject the Company to dis-
advantages not suffered by others in the industry. No evidence
was offered in support of this assertion and the statement itself
is not probative. .. .
.. . We shall not require the employees in the mine presently
to forego the benefits of collective bargaining until the employees
in both plant and mine are organized, when, ag'here, there is no
immediate prospect of such over-all organization. Accordingly,
we shall find that a unit, coinciding with the extent of effective
organization, confined to the employees working in the mine is
appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining.
The Company asserts that the record in this case reveals facts in
support of its position not brought to the Board's attention in the
3 51 N . L R. B 1096.
530 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
prior proceeding. The Company's president testified that brick-mak-
ing operations are entirely dependent on the supply of clay from the
mine and that substantially all the clay so mined is used in these
operations 4 The treasurer- of the Company testified that water and
electricity are supplied to the mine from facilities at the plant. Al-
though these facts are pertinent in that they stress the integration of
mine and plant operations, we have held in previous cases, as we did
in our prior decision concerning the Company's employees, that, under
certain circumstances, mine and plant employees may be separately
represented despite integration between the two types of operations.5
Our decision in the prior proceeding indicates that the A. F. of L.
was unsuccessful in organizing the plant employees. Moreover, we
note that that organization lost the election in the unit limited to
mine employees which we there found appropriate and that the Union
has limited its organizational efforts to these employees. Under these
circumstances we are persuaded that the unit sought by the Union is-Z71
appropriate.e
We find that all employees of the Company working in the clay
mine at Kenilworth, near Newell, West Virginia,' including drillers,
tampers, motormen, clay loaders, laborers, trackmen, timbermen,
4 This witness testified that, shortly before the hearing in the prior case, the Company
had obtained some clay from another mine However , this clay was found to be unsat-
isfactory for the Company 's purposes and it has since depended solely on clay from its
own mine.
5 See Matter of The Cambria Clay Products Company, 42 N L It. B 980, and 45 N. L.
R B 1069 , Matter of Kentucky Fluorspar Company , 52 N L It. B. 227
Other evidence not introduced at the prior proceeding included testimony of company
witnesses that , under the west Virginia Workmen ' s Compensation Law, the employees
of the plant and mine are grouped together for purposes of fixing rates of compensation
and participation in the workmen ' s Compensation Fund , and that the safety inspector
if the west Virginia Department of lines inspects both the mine and the plant. The
criteiia of these State agencies are necessarily different from those of this Board, which
operates under a specific statute.
8 The Company argues that the fact that the A F of L lost the election in the unit
limited to mine employees indicates the preference of these employees for a larger unit.
It cites Matter of Pacific Greyhound Lines , 9 N L R B 557 , as supporting this contention.
There, the Board, in commenting on the results of a self -determination election pursuant
to a prior Board finding that either of two units might be appropriate for that company's
bus drivers ( 4 N L R B 520 ), stated that "The votes disclosed that only a minority
of the bus drivers in the election favored a unit limited to drivers , a fact which was taken
by the Board as showing that a majority favored a larger unit " Since in the prior pro-
ceeding concerning the Company ' s employees they were not asked in effect to express
their desires in regard to the unit , the results of that election can in no way indicate
their preference for a larger unit On the contrary , the A. F. of L .'s lack of success in
organizing the plant employees and its loss of the election among employees of the mine
are, as indicated above , circumstances we have taken into consideration in our finding
that a unit limited to mine employees is appropriate Cf. Matter of Kentucky Fluorspar
Company, supra ; Matter of Standard Overall Company , 53 N. L. It. B 960 ; Matter of
Mine Safety Appliance Go , 55 N . L R B 1190 ; Matter of Ladish Drop Forge Company,
57 N L R B 1468 ; and Matter of Frank Kent Manufacturing Company,-61 N. L. R B.
572
T The parties , after some discussion as to whether Frank Juaszcak , Lawrence Kidder,
and Paul Draa possessed supervisory status , agreed that these employees be included in
the unit It is clear that they are not supervisory within the meaning of the Board's
customary definition , and are included as non-supervisory employees.
THE GLOBE BRICK COMPANY 531
trip-riders, blacksmith and pumper, but excluding office and clerical
employees, plant employees, the mine superintendent, and all other
supervisory employees with authority to hire, promote, discharge,
discipline, or otherwise effect changes in the status of employees, or
effectively recommend such action, constitute a unit appropriate for
the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section
9 (b) of the Act.
V. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
We shall direct that the question concerning representation which
has arisen be resolved by an election by secret ballot among employees
in the appropriate unit who were employed during the pay-roll period
immediately preceding the date of the Direction of 'Election herein,
subject to the limitations and additions set forth in the Direction.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
By virtue of and pursuant to the power vested in the National Labor
Relations Board by Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act,
and pursuant to Article III, Section 9, of National Labor Relations
Board Rules and Regulations-Series 3, as amended, it is hereby
DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation to ascertain representa-
tives for the purposes of collective bargaining with The Globe Brick
Company, Newell, West Virginia, an election by secret ballot shall be
conducted as early as possible, but not later than thirty (30) days from
the date of this Direction, under the direction and supervision of the
Regional Director for the Sixth Region, acting in this platter as agent
for the National Labor Relations Board, and subject to Article III,
Sections 10 and 11, of said Rules and Regulations, among the employees
in the unit found appropriate in Section IV, above, who were employed
during the pay-roll period immediately preceding the date of this
Direction, including employees who did not work during said pay-roll
period because they were ill or on vacation or temporarily laid off,
and including employees in the armed forces of the United States who
present themselves in person at the polls, but excluding those employees
who have since quit or been discharged for cause and have not been
rehired or reinstated prior to the date of the election, to determine
whether or not they desire to be represented by United Construction
Workers, affiliated with United Mine Workers of America, for the
purposes of collective bargaining.