United Biscuit Co. of America

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

May 27, 1954

108 N.L.R.B. 1124 (N.L.R.B. 1954)

1124 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
SAWYER BISCUIT COMPANY, DIVISION OF UNITED BISCUIT
COMPANY OF AMERICA and LODGE NO. 126 , INTER-
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS, Petitioner. Case
No. 13 -RC-3728. May 27, 1954
DECISION AND ORDER
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National
Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before Raymond A.
Jacobson , hearing officer . The hearing officer ' s rulings made
at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby
affirmed.
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds:
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the mean-
ing of the Act.
2. The labor organizations involved claim to represent cer-
tain employees of the Employer.
3. No question affecting commerce exists concerning the
representation of employees of the Employer within the mean-
ing of Section 9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act for
the following reasons:'
The Employer is engaged in the manufacture of cookies,
crackers, and related products at its plants in various cities
throughout the United States including the Melrose Park, Illinois,
plant, involved herein. The Petitioner is seeking to represent
as part of the machinists' unit which it currently represents,
or alternatively as a separate unit, all machine setup men at.
Melrose Park, Illinois, plant. The Employer and Intervenor
oppose the severance of the machine setup men from the pro-
duction unit currently represented by the Intervenor.
The Melrose Park plant began operation on July 1, 1953, with
entirely new and modern machinery and equipment. This opera-
tion was previously carried on in a comparatively obsolete
plant in Chicago, Illinois. The Intervenor first entered into a
bargaining relationship with the Employer in 1941, for a pro-
duction unit excluding, among others, the maintenance em-
ployees.2 In 1946 the maintenance employees who had remained
unrepresented, were added to the contract unit.
When the Employer moved to the new plant at Melrose Park
it made a reevaluation of employee classifications and duties
to accommodate its new mode of operation. In so doing, the
Employer, through the Petitioner, hired skilled machinists to
operate a new and fully equipped machine shop and to perform
IThe Intervenor, Factory Bakers Union 100 of Bakery & Confectionery Workers Union of
America, AFL, urges its current contract covering a production unit as a bar to this pro-
ceeding. We find no merit to this contention as the Petitioner's demand upon the Employer
was made on December 2, 1953, and its petition herein was filed on December 11, 1953, the
same date the Intervenor's contract was executed.
2 The maintenance department at that time consisted of maintenance men, class A, B, and
C, and helper, carpenter, painter, oven fireman, oiler, elevator man, porter, sweeper, and
electrician. It appears that the maintenance department as such was eliminated.
108 NLRB No. 147.
SAWYER BISCUIT COMPANY 1125
machine maintenance work, and executed a collective -bargain-
ing agreement effective from May 1, 1953, with the Petitioner
as representative of a machinist unit. The Intervenor's then
current contract with the Employer was effective until October
22, 1953. However, to .ccommodate the shift in plant operations
and changes in classifications, they executed a new agreement
effective for the period from April 15, 1953,to October 23, 1953.
The classification of machine setup man first appeared in this
contract but the rate for this classification remained blank un-
til sometime later when the contents and evaluation of the job
were determined and the parties established a rate which was
then penciled in. The most comparable job function in the old
plant to the newly established machine setup man classification
was maintenance man class A, B, and C, a classification since
eliminated.',
Machine setup men are assigned to various areas of the plant
and handle up to five assembly-line machines. Their responsi-
bility is to see that all parts of the machinery are running
properly. In so doing, they control, adjust, and clean the machin-
ery. In addition, they perform the minor repairs for the
machines--those which one man can perform alone--change
guide walls, cutting blades, and conveyor belts and remove worn
or broken parts and replace them. For major repairs or those
requiring more than one man, machinists from the machine
shop are called in. If the repair is made at the machine,
machine setup men may work with the machinists. Similarly,
on Saturdays when production is shut down, machine setup men
work with machinists on maintenance repairs. Occasionally
machine setup men use equipment in the machine shop to braze,
tap, make a small bracket, or otherwise work over a part for
a machine, but this, as well as all major work in the machine
shop, is performed primarily by machinists. Machine setup men
are under the supervision of the production foremen as to the
type and size of product to be run through the machines so they
may make the appropriate adjustments, and production foremen
determine the hours, while the maintenance superintendent
determines the manner in which maintenance, adjustment, and
repair duties are performed.
Although prior to being hired machine setup men are inter-
viewed by the maintenance superintendent as to their mechani-
cal background, and although it appears that the present
group have from 4 to 14 years' experience as machine-shop or
maintenance machinists, the primary duties of machine setup
men do not require the full-time exercise of the varied basic
skills of the machinists craftsman." Furthermore, the record
3 The Board, in 92 NLRB 1447, 1449, determined that maintenance men class A, B, and C
were not sufficiently skilled to qualify as craftsmen and denied them a separate craft unit.
4 The fact that machine setup men may perform some craft work on Saturday is insufficient
to establish their craft status as a severable group where it appears that they spend a major-
ity of their working time performing duties which are not connected with basic craft skills.
See Utter-McKinley Mortuaries, et al. 98 NLRB 450. See also F. L. Jacobs Company, Dan-
ville Division, 108 NLRB 544.
1126 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
does not establish that machine setup men normally progress
to craft-machinist classifications. In these circumstances, we
find that the machine setup men are not entitled to sever from
the production unit, either as a separate unit or as an addition
to the existing craft-machinist unit.5 We shall therefore dis-
miss the petition.
The Board dismissed the petition.]
5See American Potash & Chemical Corporation, 107 NLRB 1418. Also see Chicago Report
and Fire Brick Division of Laclede- Christy Company 99NLRB 335, 336; Sunbeam Corporation,
89 NLRB 132-134.
CROWN DRUG COMPANY and RETAIL CLERKS INTERNA-
TIONAL ASSOCIATION, LOCAL UNION NO. 782, AFL,
Petitioner. Case No. 17-RC-1748. May 27, 1954
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National
Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before William J.
Cassidy, hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made
at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby
affirmed.
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds:.
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning
of the Act.
2. The labor organization involved claims to represent
employees of the Employer.
3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the
representation of employees of the Employer within the meaning
of Section 9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
4. The Employer operates 69 retail drugstores in Kansas,
Missouri, and Oklahoma. Thirty-one of these stores are
located within the greater Kansas City metropolitan area.
Included within this area are the cities of Kansas City, Missouri;
Kansas City, Kansas; Independence, Missouri; North Kansas
City, Missouri; Mission, Kansas; Fairway, Kansas; and Over-
land Park, Kansas. The Petitioner seeks to represent employees
of all the stores located in the greater Kansas City metropolitan
area as defined above plus employees in the Employer's Rx
prescription center located in Kansas City, Missouri. The
Employer contends that the only appropriate unit is one including
employees of all its stores.
The Employer's operations are centralized to an extremely
high degree. The central office in Kansas City, Missouri, sets
the policy for all stores as to store operating hours, number of
employees each store may have working at any given time,
wages and salaries of all personnel, hiring and discharge of
108 NLRB No. 142.