The Pullman-Standard Car Manufacturing Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Oct 4, 1945

63 N.L.R.B. 1451 (N.L.R.B. 1945)

In the Matter of THE PULLMAN-STANDARD CAR MANUFACTURING COM-
PANY and INTERNATIONAL UNION, UNITED AUTOMOBILE, AIRCRAFT
AND AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENT WORKERS OF AMERICA, C. I. O.
Case No. 13-R-310d.Decided October 4,1945
Winston, Strawn d Shaw, by Mr. George B. Christensen, of Chi-
cago, Ill., and Mr. A. A. Logmann, of Michigan City, Ind., for the
Company.
Messrs. Russell J. Merrill and Charles Coughlin, of South Bend,
Ind.,. and Mr. James R. Poland, of Michigan City, Ind., for the CIO.
Daniel D. Carmell, by Mr. Leo Segall, of Chicago, Ill., and Mr. G. L.
O'Brien, of Hazel Crest, Ill., for the AFL.
Mr. Bernard Goldberg, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon a petition duly filed by International Union, United Auto-
mobile, Aircraft and Agricultural Implement Workers of America,
C. I. 0., herein called the CIO, alleging that a question affecting com-
merce had arisen concerning the representation of employees of The
Pullman-Standard Car Manufacturing Company, Michigan City,
Indiana, herein called the Company, the National Labor Relations
Board provided for an appropriate hearing upon due notice before
Leon A. Rosell, Trial Examiner. The hearing was held at Michigan
City, Indiana, on July 27, 1945. The Company, the CIO, and Broth-
erhood of Railway Carmen of America, Local Lodge 290, A. F. of L.,
herein called the AFL, 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 an oppor-
tunity to file briefs with the Board.
63N L,R B, No. 221.
1451
1452 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following :
FINDINGS OF FACT
1. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
The Pullman-Standard Car Manufacturing Company, a Delaware
corporation having its principal office and place of business in Chi-
cago, Illinois, is engaged in the business of designing, manufacturing,
selling, and distributing passenger and freight railroad cars, loco-
motive equipment, accessories and other products. The Company
operates a number of factories in different States of the United States
including the factory at Michigan City, Indiana, with which this
proceeding is concerned. During the calendar year 1944, the Com-
pany purchased raw materials valued in excess of $1,000,000 for use
in the operations of the Michigan City plant, of which approximately
50 percent was shipped to the plant from points outside the State of
Indiana. During the same period, the Company sold products from
this plant valued at more than $1,0005000, of which in excess of 50
percent was shipped out of the State.
The Company admits that it is engaged in commerce within the
meaning of the National Labor Relations Act.
11. THE ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED
International Union, United Automobile, Aircraft and Agricultural
Implement Workers of America, affiliated with the Congress of Indus-
trial Organizations, and Brotherhood of Railway Carmen of America,
'Local Lodge 290, affiliated with the American Federation of Labor,
are labor organizations admitting to membership employees of the
Company.
III. TIIE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
The Company has refused to recognize the CIO as the collective
bargaining representative of its employees unless and until the CIO
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 CIO represents a substantial number of em-
ployees in the unit hereinafter found appropriate.'
I The Field Examiner reported that the CIO submitted 496 authorization cards, all of
which bore the names of persons appearing on the Company's June 13, 1945 , pay roll which
contained the names of 1,232 employees in the appropriate unit ; and that, with the excep-
tion of 37 cards which were undated , all the cards were dated in May and June 1945. At
the hearing the CIO submitted 39 additional authorization cards, of which 14 were dated
in June and July 1945 and 25 were undated , these 39 cards were not checked against any
current pay roll . To establish its interest , the AFL relies on its contract with the Com-
pany executed on June 29, 1944, for a 1-3ear term. Neither the Ai'L nor the Company
contends that this contract is a bar
THE PULLMAN-STANDARD CAR MANUFACTURING COMPANY 1453
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
The CIO seeks a unit of all production and maintenance employees,
including leaders, inspectors, hourly paid clerks, watchmen, shop engi-
neering employees on the hourly pay roll, and powerhouse employees,
but excluding general office employees, foremen, assistant foremen,
nurses, the chief of police, the safety director, the assistant safety
director, shop engineering employees on the monthly pay roll, shop
clerks on the monthly pay roll, time checkers on the monthly pay roll,
the general office janitor, the sprinkler and. supervisory personnel.
This is the same unit previously found appropriate by the Board in a
proceeding involving the Company and the AFL 2 The AFL agrees
that the aforesaid unit is appropriate. The Company, while conced-
ing the general appropriateness of the unit sought by the CIO, con-
tends that powerhouse employees and non-working leaders should be
excluded from the unit.
Powerhouse employees : The Company contends that the Board
erred in its previous decision by including powerhouse employees
with production and maintenance employees. It asserts, as it did in
the previous proceeding, that the powerhouse not only generates
power for plant operations but is an indispensable part of the plant's
fire fighting equipment and a supplementary source of fire protection
to Michigan City. The Company argues that the powerhouse em-
ployees should not be included in the same unit with production and
maintenance employees because in the event of a strike by the latter,
the powerhouse employees would be called upon to join and would
leave the plant unprotected against fire and the city without a source
of reserve power for an emergency. The Board has frequently in-
eluded powerhouse employees in production and maintenance units in
this and other cases because such groups of employees have a com-
munity of interest.3
The history of the Company's relations with the AFL since 1941
when the two parties entered into their first collective bargaining con-
tract covering the unit found appropriate by the Board, including the
powerhouse employees, does not bear out the fears expressed by the
Company. Since the execution of the initial contract there have been
about a dozen work stoppages by production and maintenance em-
ployees, but in every instance the powerhouse employees have re-
mained at their posts. As to the reserve fire protection for Michigan
2 Matter of Pullman -Standard Car Manufacturing Company , 29 N. L. R B 600.
a Matter of Pacific Mills, 60 N. L. R . B. 467, and cases cited therein.
1454 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
City, a company witness admitted that in the last 25 years the city
has never required the use of the Company's power facilities. We
do not believe that the reason advanced by the Company is a justifica-
tion for refusing to join the two groups of employees in a single unit
in this case.
Leaders: In the previous proceeding, the Company and the AFL
agreed, and the Board found, that leaders properly belonged in the
production and maintenance unit. Following the winning of the
election by the AFL and its certification by the Board, the Company,
apparently without protest, entered into successive collective bargain-
ing contracts with the AFL covering the employees in the unit found
appropriate by the Board, including the leaders. There has been no
change in the kind of leaders or in their duties and authority since
the Board's previous determination. The Company now avers, how-
ever, that in entering into the agreement to include leaders, it over-
looked the fact that it employs 2 types of leader having dissimilar
duties and authority : the working leader who works along with,
and directs the'activities of, small groups of 4 to 6 subordinates but
has no supervisory powers, and the non-working leader who custom-
arily does no manual work and is responsible for groups of approxi-
mately 25 subordinates with respect to whom lie exercises the author-
ity of a supervisor as that term has been defined by the Board. The
Company concedes that the working leader belongs in the unit, but
contends that the non-working leader should be excluded as a
supervisor.
Neither of the two groups of leaders is subordinate to the other ;
both are responsible to assistant foremen and foremen. Neither
group attends foremen meetings; the Company does have separate
meetings for leaders, working and non-working, at which only safety
problems are discussed. The testimony indicates that, in at least
some departments, there is no rigid line between working and non-
working leaders; that the same individual may be a non-working
leader on some occasions and a working leader on others, depending
on the volume of work at hand; that, particularly during the past
few years when labor has been in short supply, non-working leaders
do a substantial amount of manual work; and that, while the non-
working leaders report unsatisfactory work or rule infractions by
subordinates to foremen or assistant foremen, they do not and are
not expected to accompany their reports with recommendations for
action to be taken by their superiors. On all the facts, we are of the
opinion that the authority of the non-working leader is not suffi-
ciently distinguishable from that of the working leader and that
neither is a supervisor within the Board's customary definition. We
shall include all leaders in the unit.
THE PULLMAN-STANpARD CAR MANUFACTURING COMPANY 1455
We find, in accord with our previous determination, that all produc-
tion and maintenance employees at the Company's Michigan City,
Indiana, plant, including leaders, inspectors, hourly paid clerks, watch-
men, shop engineering employees on the hourly pay roll, and power-
house employees, but excluding general office employees, foremen, as-
sistant foremen, nurses, the chief of police, the safety director, the
assistant safety director, shop engineering employees on the monthly
pay roll, shop clerks on the monthly pay roll, time checkers on the
monthly pay roll, the general office janitor, the sprinkler, and all other
supervisory employees with authority to hire, promote, discharge, dis-
cipline, or otherwise effect changes in the status of employees, or effec-
tively recommend such action, constitute a unit appropriate for the
purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b)
of the Act.
V. TILE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
We shall direct that the question concerning representation which
has arisen be resolved by an election by secret ballot among the employ-
ees 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 Rela-
tions 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 Pullman-
Standard Car Manufacturing Company, Michigan City, Indiana, 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 Thirteenth
Region, acting in this matter as agent for the National Labor Rela-
tions 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 the 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
1456 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
at the polls, but excluding any 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 they desire to be represented by
International Union, United Automobile, Aircraft and Agricultural
Implement Workers of America, C. I. 0., or by Brotherhood of Rail-
way Carmen of America, Local Lodge 290, A. F. of L., for the purposes
of collective bargaining, or by neither.