Tri-State Plastic Molding Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jun 13, 1958

120 N.L.R.B. 1450 (N.L.R.B. 1958)

1450 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Unit #4: All firemen, oilers, and maintenance employees at the
National Dairy Products Corporation's Sealtest Sheffield Farms
plants located at 1055 Webster Avenue, Bronx, New York, 1380
Fulton Street, Brooklyn, New York, 131-01 Atlantic Avenue,
Queens, New York.
Unit #5: All firemen, oilers, and maintenance employees in the
National Dairy Products Corporation's Muller Dairies, Inc., plant
located at 536 West 126th St., Harlem, New York.
[Text of Direction of Elections omitted from publication.]
Tri-State Plastic Molding Company ' and International Chemical
Workers Union , AFL-CIO, Petitioner. Case No. 35-RC-1530.
June 13, 1958
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before a hearing
officer of the National Labor Relations Board. The hearing officer's
rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are
hereby affirmed.
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3 (b) of the National Labor
Relations Act, the Board has delegated its powers in connection with
this case to a three-member panel [Members Rodgers, Jenkins, and
Fanning].
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the National Labor Relations Act.
2. The labor organization involved claims to represent employees
of the Employer.
3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the representa-
tion of the Employer within the meaning of Section 9 (c) (1) and
Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
4. The Petitioner seeks a unit of all employees at the Employer's
plants at Henderson, Kentucky. The Employer contends that the
unit sought is inappropriate and that only a unit composed of em-
ployees at all its Henderson plants and Owensboro, Kentucky, plants
is appropriate. The Employer is engaged in the manufacture and
sale of extruded molded and die cast products. It has 3 plants in
Henderson employing some 150 employees in the unit : the main plant,
which includes the general offices, the plastic molding section, and
the die casting, toolroom, maintenance and engineering departments;
'The name of the Employer appears as amended at the hearing.
120 NLRB No. 186.
TRI-STATE PLASTIC MOLDING .COMPANY 1451
the Blue Grass plant which contains the plastic molding section and
the warehouse; and the paint and assembly, plant. • The Employer
also has a plant in Owensboro,' Kentucky, located 29 miles from
Henderson, which has only a plastic molding-section employing 17
employees in the unit. All plants are under management of a single
plant manager. Foremen are in charge of separate departments. All
plastic molding department sections at all locations are supervised by
a single foreman, located in the main plant, who is assisted by three
assistant foremen in charge of each section.. All production, opera-
tional, and payroll records, as well as personnel files, are kept in the
general office.' Plastic molding operations in each section use the same
type of equipment, produce the same or similar plastic items with the
employees in the same job classifications. Some of the plastic molding
products• manufactured in Owensboro are warehoused at the Blue
Grass plant's warehouse in Henderson, which is also used for ware-
housing and storage of raw materials and shipping supplies used by
plants at all locations. The plant and equipment maintenance, and
repair of all tools and dies at all locations is handled by the mainte-
nance and engineering employees of the main plant in Henderson.
There has been no other interchange of employees between the Owens-
boro plant and other plants, although the Employer has no objection
to the same. The wage rates, shifts, fringe benefits, and other con-
ditions of employment are the same in plastic molding sections at all
locations. Hiring is done by foremen or by assistant foremen pur-
suant to specific and direct instructions from foremen. Seniority is
applied by plant, department, or job classifications.
On the above facts, and particularly in the absence of history of
collective bargaining at the Employer's plants, centralized control of
management functions, similar conditions of employment, skills, and
functions of employees at all locations and the integration of opera-
tions, we find that a unit limited to the plants in Henderson is not
appropriate, and that only a unit embracing employees both at the
Henderson plants and ,the Owensboro plant is appropriate. Sidney
Blumenthal d Company, Inc., 112 NLRB 579; Albert Lea Cooperative
Creamery Association, 119 NLRB 317; Orchard Industries, Incor-
porated, 118 NLRB 798.
Although the unit found appropriate is broader than the unit
sought by the Petitioner, we shall nevertheless direct an election, since
the Petitioner's showing of interest in the more comprehensive unit
is sufficient. However, the Regional Director is authorized to permit
the Petitioner to withdraw its petition without prejudice upon timely
request. Buckeye Oil Company, Chemical Pulp Division, 101
NLRB 30.
1452 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
At the hearing the parties agreed as to the exclusion from the unit
of engineering employees 2 and assistant foremen. They were unable
to agree as to unit placement of leadmen and janitor-night watchmen.
Leadmen: There are 12 leadmen in various plants as to whom a
determination is requested. All of them are actually engaged in pro-
duction and maintenance work under foremen or assistant foremen
alongside the men they are leading. They make setups, relieve other
employees for periodic breaks and lunch, and assist in the training
of new employees. They are only slightly more skilled than the
other employees and are carried on the same seniority and layoff
lists as other employees. Some of them punch cards, while the others
do not. None of them has power to hire, discharge, or effectively to
recommend a change in the employee's status. On this record we
find they are not supervisors within the meaning of Section 2 (11) of
the Act, and we shall therefore include them in the unit. Kolcast
Industries, Inc., 117 NLRB 418; Minute Maid Corporation, 117
NLRB 68.
Janitor-night watchmen: There are 2 janitor-night watchmen at
1 of the plants. They work from 10 to 12 hours, alternating days.
They clean up the plant and offices and in the course of their janitorial
duties see that all doors, entrances, and exits are locked.and the lights
turned off. While they are under duty to report the theft of the
Employer's property, so are the production employees who work on
the night shift. They do not wear uniforms, carry clocks or gun,
and they do not make special rounds. The Employer's insurance does
not provide for any guarding requirements. On this record we find
that the janitor-night watchmen are not guards within the meaning
of the Act, and shall include them in the unit.
Accordingly, we find that the following employees of the Employer
at its plants in Henderson, Kentucky, and at its plant in Owensboro,
Kentucky, constitute a unit appropriate for collective bargaining
within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act :
All production and maintenance employees at the Employer's Hen-
derson and Owensboro, Kentucky, plants, including shipping and
receiving clerks, warehousemen, truckdrivers, leadmen, janitor-night
watchmen, inspectors, and toolmakers, but excluding office clerical
employees, engineering employees, guards, assistant foremen, foremen,
and supervisors as defined in the Act.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.]
3 The Employer in his brief indicated a desire to include the engineering employees
However, as the Petitioner wishes to exclude them and as the records show that they
are technical employees , we will exclude them in accord with established policy. Humble
Oil and Refining Company, 115 NLRB 1485.