The National Cash Register Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Feb 11, 1970

181 N.L.R.B. 107 (N.L.R.B. 1970)

THE NATIONAL CASH REGISTER COMPANY 107
The National Cash Register Company and NCR
Employees ' Independent Union , Petitioner. Case
9-UC-36
February 11, 1970
DECISION AND ORDER CLARIFYING
UNIT
BY MEMBERS FANNING, BROWN, AND JENKINS
Upon a petition for clarification of unit duly filed
by NCR Employees' Independent Union on June
12, 1969, a hearing was held on September 12, 1969,
before Hearing Officer Joseph T. Perry of the
National Labor Relations Board. On October 2,
1969, the Regional Director for Region 9 issued an
order transferring the case to the Board. Thereafter,
briefs were timely filed by the Employer and the
Petitioner.
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the
National Labor Relations Act, as amended, the
National Labor Relations Board has delegated its
powers in connection with this case to a
three-member panel
The Board has reviewed the Hearing Officer's
rulings made at the hearing and finds that they are
free from prejudicial error. They 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, and it will effectuate the
purposes of the Act to assert jurisdiction herein.
2. The Union involved herein is a labor
organization within the meaning of the Act, and
claims to represent certain employees of the
Employer.
3. The Petitioner seeks clarification of the unit
placement of compounders who, it contends,
properly belong in an office and technical unit at the
Employer's Dayton, Ohio, plant, which it currently
represents. The Employer contends that the
compounders properly belong in a production and
maintenance unit at the Dayton plant, which the
Petitioner also represents.
The Employer is a Maryland corporation
primarily engaged in the manufacture of cash
registers, adding machines, accounting machines,
data processing equipment, and other related
business equipment in Dayton, Ohio. It is also
engaged in the manufacture of chemical products in
its Manufacturing Lab Department, which is the
Dayton production facility for the Employer's
Special Products Division of its Research and
Development Division. The Manufacturing Lab
Department houses the compounders, who are
engaged in the manufacture and preparation of a
variety of chemical products, including porous
rubber, mixing inks and polishes, and varnishes.
Since 1939, the Petitioner has represented a
production and maintenance unit of 15,000
predominantly hourly rated employees at the
Dayton plant, pursuant to successive Board
certifications, the latest of which issued in
September 1968.' Since 1964, the Petitioner has also
represented an office and technical unit of 2,000
predominantly salaried employees, including the
disputed employees herein, who until October 1968,
were classified as manufacturing chemists.'
In October 1968, just before the commencement
of negotiations on the current contract covering the
production and maintenance unit, effective
December 17, 1968, the Employer reclassified the
employees from their former title of manufacturing
chemists to their present designations of
compounders, field service, and compounders,
encapsulated processes; changed their ratings from
salaried to hourly, and sought to place them in the
production and maintenance unit. Thus Appendix 1
of the contract lists compounders as hourly paid
employees, and a supplement agreement, permitting
the parties to review alleged errors in the rating of
hourly jobs, lists compounders as hourly paid, in an
exhibit attached thereto. According to the
Employer, these hourly ratings and unit changes
were pursuant to the agreement of the parties; the
Petitioner, however, contends that these changes
were not meant to be a final disposition of the unit
placement of compounders, a matter which was in
fact left open for further discussion. The record
leaves this question unresolved.
Compounders, field production, are engaged in
compounding porous rubber, inks, adhesives,
cleaners, varnishes, lubricants, and other solutions
and compounds for manufacturing and other uses.
Compounders, encapsulated processes, compound
encapsulated materials such as emulsions,
pharmaceutical supplies, and other solutions and
compounds for direct sale to customers and other
uses. Both classifications, working pursuant to
operation cards, specifications, and oral instructions,
weigh materials, mix prescribed chemicals or raw
materials in accord with established procedures,
operate and check valves and gauges to insure
proper timing and mixture of contents , maintain
necessary records of materials processed, move
materials into, within, or between departments, and
spend 5 to 10 percent of their time packaging,
labeling, and placing products in storage. In
'The National Cash Register Company, 168 NLRB No 130 Although
in that case the Board made several unit determinations as to the
placement of office, technical , and nontechnical classifications in the
production and maintenance unit, the Employer concedes that through an
oversight it did not in that case place in issue the unit status of the
employees here in issue
'The Employer states that in 1964 it initially consented to the inclusion
of the compounders , as manufacturing chemists , in the office and technical
unit because the chemicals which they now produce were developed by the
Research and Development Division, which , except for large numbers of
professional employees , consists of primarily clerical and technical
employees
181 NLRB No. 22
108 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
addition, the compounders, encapsulated processes,
watch for variations in chemical reaction,
temperature, or machine operation, and make
changes in procedure according to established
processes. The compounders follow detailed
instructions in all of their work, do not regularly
perform research or development work, and spend
the majority of their time in production work.3
College training or its equivalent is not required for
their work, although some of them have college-level
training in chemistry or physics. They are recruited
from the production and maintenance unit, but do
not progress to higher office and technical
classifications.
The compounders perform the same duties now as
in 1964, when as manufacturing chemists they were
first assigned to the office and technical unit. They
work on hazardous products substantially different
in character from those prepared by the production
and maintenance employees. Their work areas are
separated from those of the production and
maintenance employees and the office and technical
employees.° They are under separate exclusive
immediate and intermediate supervision, which in
turn is responsible to the director of the Special
Products Division. For some 4 years they have
enjoyed the same salaried ratings as the office and
clerical employees and benefits which differ
somewhat from those of the production and
maintenance employees.5
In the above circumstances, and absent a cogent
reason for disturbing the apparently satisfactory
bargaining history of 4 years' duration, we find
insufficient grounds for removing the compounders
from the office and technical unit .6 We shall,
therefore, clarify the unit accordingly.
ORDER
It is hereby ordered that Petitioner's request for
clarification be granted, and the unit of office and
technical employees represented by NCR
Employees' Independent Union is hereby clarified
by specifically including therein the categories of
compounder, field service, and compounder,
encapsulated processes.
'Only occasionally do they routinely assist chemists engaged in
experimental work in other areas
'Twelve of the compounders are the only occupants of two plant
buildings , the other 12 compounders work on the second and third floor of
another plant building
'These differences include paid sick leave, excused absences, and a
different level of insurance benefits
'See Pacific Northwest Bell Telephone Company. 178 NLRB No 118