The Procter & Gamble Manufacturing Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Sep 4, 1946

70 N.L.R.B. 1121 (N.L.R.B. 1946)

In the Matter of THE PROCTER & GAMBLE MANUFACTURING Co., EM-
PLOYER and INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS,
LOCAL UNION B-11, A. F. L., PETITIONER
Case No. 21-R-3124.-Decided September 4,1946
Mr. George W. McLaughlin, of New York City,•for the Employer.
Mr. C. DeMontreville, of Los Angeles, Calif., for the Petitioner.
Katz, Gallagher d Margolis, by Mr. Leo Gallagher, of Los Angeles,
Calif., for the Intervenor.
Mr. Melvin J. Welles, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
ORDER
Upon a petition duly filed, hearing in this case was held at Los
Angeles, California, on May 23 and 24, June 17, 18, 19, 20, and 21,
1946, before George H. O'Brien, Trial Examiner. At the hearing, the
Employer and the Intervenor moved to dismiss the petition on the
ground that the unit petitioned for is inappropriate. For reasons
stated in Section III, infra, the motion to dismiss is hereby granted.
The Trial Examiner's rulings made at the hearing are free from
prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in the case, the National Labor Relations
Board makes the following :
FINDINGS OF FACT
1. THE BUSINESS OF THE EMPLOYER
The Procter & Gamble Manufacturing Co., an Ohio corporation,
which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Procter and Gamble Company,
has its principal office and place of business in Cincinnati, Ohio. The
Employer operates several plants throughout the United States, in-
cluding one at Long Beach, California, with which this proceeding is
concerned. At its Long Beach plant the Employer is engaged in the
manufacture of soap, edible fats, and glycerine. The volume of busi-
ness at this plant exceeds $100,000 per year, of which 20 percent is re-
ceived into and shipped out- of the State of California.
70 N L. R. B., No 93.
1121
1122 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
The Employer admits and we find that it is engaged in commerce
within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act.
II. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED 0
The Petitioner is a labor organization affiliated with the American
Federation of Labor, claiming to represent employees of the Employer.
Procter & Gamble Employees Association, herein called Intervenor, is
a labor organization claiming to represent employees of the Employer.
III. THE ALLEGED APPROPRIATE UNIT
The Petitioner requests a unit of all maintenance electricians of the
Long Beach plant, excluding supervisory employees. The Employer
and the Intervenor, on the other hand, contend that the unit sought by
the Petitioner is inappropriate, pointing to the long history of collec-
tive bargaining predicated on a plant-wide unit, and a determination
by the Board in a previous case 1 that a grouping of maintenance elec-
tricians is not appropriate.
The record in this case is substantially the same as that of the previ-
ous case, to which, among others, the Petitioner, the Intervenor and
the Employer were parties. In our decision in that case, issued in
1943, we held :
In support of its petition for a separate unit, the I. B. E. W.
contends that the electricians have belonged to the I. B. E. W.
since construction began on the plant in 1930; that they have
never signified that they wanted the Association to represent
.them; and-that they have handled their own grievances for the
past 11/2 years. At first, perhaps, these contentions appear to have
some merit. However, an examination of the record discloses the
following weaknesses in the contentions; although the electricians
have always belonged to the I. B. E. W., they failed, prior to the
initiation of the present proceedings, to ask the Company for
separate bargaining rights; although there is no evidence that the
- electricians expressly signified that they wanted the Association
to represent them, they still have participated in the benefits of
Association representation, and by their apparent passivity over a
long period of time have indirectly approved of representation by
the Association; and finally, no specific instances of the handling
of grievances by the I. B. E. W. in the past 11/2 years were disclosed
at the hearing, whereas there is evidence that the Association has
handled at least one grievance in that time and has procured a
raise for all employees including electricians.
' Matter of The Procter & Gamble Manufacturing Co., 52 N. L. R. B 661
THE PROCTER & GAMBLE MANUFACTURING CO. 1123
It thus appears that a plaiit -wide unit of employees was estab-
lished with the acquiescence of . . . the electricians . In view of
this, and the prolonged period of collective bargaining upon a
plant-wide basis between the Company and the Association, we
believe that the [unit] urged by . . . I. B . E. W. [is] inappro-
priate. . . . i
We consider ourselves bound by the earlier decision, regardless of
how we might view the facts if this were a matter of first impression.
The evidence adduced at the instant hearing relative to the period
subsequent to our previous determination reveals that the Intervenor
has continued to represent the electricians , has obtained benefits for all
employees , including the electricians , and has, on at least one occasion,
represented the electricians on grievances . The Petitioner adverts to
the fact that the electricians have continued to belong to the Petitioner
and have not joined the Intervenor. This, however, was the situation
at the time of our previous determination . Thus, there is nothing in
the record sufficiently persuasive to impel us to change our prior deter-
mination at this time so as to find appropriate a separate unit of main-
tenance electricians. Accordingly, we find that the unit proposed by
the Petitioner is not appropriate for the purposes of collective bargain-
ing, and we shall dismiss the petition filed herein.
IV. THE ALLEGED QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
Since the bargaining unit sought to be established by the petition
is inappropriate , as stated in Section III, supra, we find that no ques-
tion concerning the representation of employees of the Employer
within an appropriate unit has arisen within the meaning of Section
9 (c) of the Act.
ORDER
Upon the basis of the foregoing findings of fact, and the entire
record in this proceeding , the National Labor Relations Board hereby
orders that the petition for investigation and certification of repre-
sentatives of employees of The Procter & Gamble Manufacturing Co.,
Long Beach, California , filed by International Brotherhood of Elec-
trical Workers , Local Union B-11, A. F. L., be, and it hereby is,
dismissed.
MR. JAMES J. REYNOLDS , JR., took no part in the consideration of the
above Decision and Order.
712344-47-vol. 70-72