Tunnel Mill Mining Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jul 7, 1950

90 N.L.R.B. 787 (N.L.R.B. 1950)

In the Matter of TUNNEL MILL MINING COMPANY, EMPLOYER and SAM
MCCONNEL, INDIVIDUAL and UNITED MINE WORKERS OF AMERICA,
LOCAL 8548, UNION
Case No. 8-RD-37.-Decided July 7, 1950
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition for decertification duly filed , a hearing was held
before Carroll L. Martin , hearing officer . 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 Act , the Board
has delegated its powers in connection with this case to the under-
signed Board members [Members Houston , Murdock, and Styles].
1. The Employer , John Ridzon, an individual , is the owner and
operator of the Tunnel Mill Mining Company, under which name
Ridzon does business . The mine is located near Bergholz, Ohio, and
produces approximately 23,365 tons of coal annually , valued at ap-
proximately $92,000, all of which is sold at the mine and trucked away
by purchasers . Currently , the mine's production is about 110 tons
per day.
Prior to June 30, 1949, the Employer sold more than 50 percent
of its output to industrial users such as the McLain Fire Brick Coin-
pany at Wellsville, Ohio.' For the 10 -month period beginning June
30, 1949, no coal had been sold to McLain Fire Brick, but approxi-
mately 10 percent 2 of the Employer's output had been sold to one
Ferguson of Liverpool , Ohio, presumably a dealer, who in turn sold
it to the Homer Laughlin China Co., of Newell, West Virginia.3
Currently 21 percent 4 of the Employer 's output was being sold to the
? The record in Hackathorn & Myers, 90 NLRB No. 785, issued this day, which involves
another small coal mining operation in this same area, discloses that the McLain Fire
Brick Company is engaged in interstate commerce.
The parties stipulated that this was a 2,000 ton total for the 10-month, period. We
estimate this to be 10 percent , based on an annual production of 24, 000 tons.
9 The record in Hackathorn & Myers, above, shows that this company, too, produces a
large volume of goods sold in interstate commerce.
4 The parties stipulated that this consumer was taking 24 tons a day , which we esti-
mate as roughly 21 percent of the current 110 ton a day production.
90 NLRB No. 134.
787
788 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
]haul Clay Co., of Toronto, Ohio, presumably for industrial purposes.
The parties stipulated that a substantial part of current production
goes to domestic users in nearby communities.
The Employer annually purchases equipment and supplies valued
at $18,000, of which machine parts purchased outside the State of
Ohio would not exceed $3,600 annually.
The United Mine Workers of America and its Local No. 8548 repre-
sented the Employer's production and maintenance employees under
a contract which expired June 30, 1949.-' This Union contends that
the Employer is not engaged in commerce within the meaning of the
Act; the Petitioner takes no position in this regard; the Employer
neither denies nor admits that it is engaged in commerce.
Considering the substantial amount of this Employer's output of
coal which is used for industrial purposes 6 we find the Employer is
engaged in . commerce within the meaning of the National Labor
Relations Act, and that it will effectuate the policies of the Act to
assert jurisdiction in this case.
2. The labor organization named below claims to represent em-
ployees of the Employer.
3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the representa-
tion of employees of the Employer, within the meaning of Section
9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
4. We And that the following employees of the Employer constitute
a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within
the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act: All production and main-
tenance, employees of the Employer at its mine located near Bergholz,
Ohio, excluding guards and supervisors as defined in the Act.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
. As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the
purposes of collective bargaining with the Employer, an election by
secret ballot shall be conducted as early as possible, but not later than
30 days from the date of this Direction, under the direction and
supervision of the Regional Director for the Region in which this
case was heard, and subject to Sections 203.61 and 203.62 of National
Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations, among the employees
in the unit found appropriate in paragraph numbered 4, above, who
were employed during the payroll period immediately preceding the
date of this Direction of Election, including employees who did not
5 This contract was a counterpart of the National Bituminous Coal Wage Agreement
effective July 1; 1948, executed by the Employer on December 24, 1948.
'We consider analagous the Board 's assumption of jurisdiction over local bus com-
panies engaged in transporting workers in "national enterprises ." El Paso-Ysleta Bus
.Company, Inc ., 79 NLRB 1068 , and cases there cited.
TUNNEL MILL MINING COMPANY 78
work during said payroll period because they were ill or on vacation
or temporarily laid off, but excluding those employees who have since
quit or been discharged for cause and have not been rehired or rein-
stated prior to the date of the election, and also excluding employees
on strike who are not entitled to reinstatement, to determine whether
or not they desire to be represented, for purposes of collective bar-
gaining, by United Mine Workers of America, Local 8548.
MEMBER MURDOCK, dissenting :
I would dismiss the petition in this case because I am of the opinion
that this Employer's mining operation, the product of which is
largely devoted to domestic use, is predominantly local in character.
The Board seems committed to the proposition that the jobbing of
coal for domestic use is "essentially local"; 7 and it has also declined
to assert jurisdiction over a small coal mine whose output was con-
sumed locally by both domestic and industrial users.8
In this case the apparent basis for the majority's decision is that
some of the ultimate consumers of this Employer's coal are industrial
concerns which, presumably, use the coal in the production of goods
for commerce. But the resulting effect of the operation of the Em-
ployer',s mine upon interstate commerce seems to me neither direct
enough nor substantial enough to warrant our asserting jurisdiction
as a matter of policy.
7 Penn Coal Company, Inc., 80 NLRB 251 ; Backart Coal Co., 86 NLRB 537.
8 Mason d Son Coal Co ., 72 NLRB 195 . In that case the employing company mined ap-
proximately $44,000 worth of coal per annum, all of which was sold to individual contractors
who, in turn , sold it locally "for use in private homes , apartment dwellings , breweries, 'and
the like.' " [Emphasis supplied.]