Tower Tool and Die Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jul 11, 1949

85 N.L.R.B. 127 (N.L.R.B. 1949)

In the Matter of TOWER TOOL AND DIE COMPANY, EMPLOYER and LOCAL
157, INTERNATIONAL UNION, UNITED AUTOMOBILE, AIRCRAFT AND
AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENT WORKERS OF AMERICA, UAW-CIO,
PETITIONER
Case No. 7-RC-455--Decided July 11, 1949
DECISION
AND
ORDER
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing in this case was held at Detroit,
Michigan, on April 20, 1949, before Jerome H. Brooks, hearing officer.
The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from preju-
dicial error and are. hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
The business of the Employer
The Employer, a limited partnership with its principal place of busi-
ness at Detroit, Michigan, is engaged in the manufacture of metal tools
and dies. For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1948, the Employer pur-
chased raw materials amounting to approximately $14,500 in value,
all such purchases beingo made from suppliers- located at Detroit,
Michigan. Over 95 percent of said materials was warehoused in
Detroit for an indeterminate period of time before being delivered to
the Employer's place of business, but over 75 percent of these materials
was originally shipped from outside the State of Michigan to the sup-
pliers' warehouses in Detroit. During the same period, the Employer
sold tools and dies valued at approximately $56,000, of which approxi-
mately 95 percent represented sales to Pryde Tool and Die Company,
located in Detroit. Pryde Tool and Die Company in turn shipped all
materials purchased from the Employer to concerns located outside the
State of Michigan.
The Employer contends that it is not engaged in commerce within
the meaning of the Act. Without resolving that issue, we do not
believe that it would effectuate the policies of the Act to assert jurisdic-
tion in this case, because we think that the effect of the Employer' s busi-
85 N. L. R. B., No. 19.
127
128 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
ness on interstate commerce is too remote. Accordingly, we shall dis-
miss the petition.'
ORDER
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the petition be, and it hereby is, dismissed.
CHAIRMAN HERZOG and MEMBER REYNOLDS, dissenting :
We would exercise the Board's discretion by asserting jurisdiction
here. This is a manufacturing operation as large as half of those in
the United States,2 not a local service enterprise. The Company's
product does not come to rest in Michigan. Almost all the tools and
dies it manufactures are sold to the Pryde Company, which then ships
everything purchased, valued at over $50,000 a year, to points outside
the State. This seems to us too closely related to the direct flow of
commerce for this Board to withhold its assistance from those who
would invoke it.
1 Matter of C. A. Braukman and Lucille A. Braukman, a Partnership, d/b/a Screw
Machine Products Company, 79 N. L. R. B. 980; Matter of Stacy M. Nickerson and Carl
Wert hen, d/b/a National Tool Company, 78 N. L. R. B. 625.
2 U. S. Bureau of the Census. Manufactures : 1939, Vol. I, 1942, p. 182.
0