United Screw & Bolt Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

May 2, 1950

89 N.L.R.B. 953 (N.L.R.B. 1950)

In the Matter Of UNITED SCREw & BOLT CORPORATION, EMPLOYER and
INTERNATIONAL UNION, UNITED AUTOMOBILE, AIRCRAFT & AGRICUL-
TURAL IMPLEMENT WORKERS OF AMERICA, CIO , PETITIONER
Case. No. 13-RC-1,048.-Decided May 2, 19.50
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before Irwin M.
Lieberman , 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 National Labor
Relations Act, the Board has delegated its powers in connection with
this case to a three-member panel [Chairman Herzog and Members
Houston and Styles].
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 certain 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. The Employer , an Ohio corporation , operates two plants, one in
Cleveland, Ohio, and another in Chicago, Illinois. The Chicago plant
is the only plant involved in this proceeding . The parties are in gen-
eral agreement concerning the appropriateness of a unit of production
and maintenance employees , excluding office employees , outside truck
drivers, guards , and supervisors as defined in the Act. The Employer,
however, would exclude, and the Petitioner include, certain classifica-
tions discussed hereinafter . There is no history of collective bargain-
ing at this plant.
Clerical Employees: The Employer would exclude department
clerks, clerks in the shipping room, toolroom schedule clerks, and
weigh clerks , on the ground that their interests are more closely allied
89 NLRB No. 132.
953
954 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
with the office employees than with the production and maintenance
employees. It would also exclude.weigh clerks on the further ground
that, as their duties affect the incentive pay of certain production em-
ployees, they may not appropriately be included in the same unit with
such production employees. In the alternative, the Employer requests
that these clerical employees be granted a separate election, to deter-
mine whether they wish to be included in the production and mainte-
nance unit.
The department clerks work in the production departments under
the supervision of the respective departmental foremen. Although
they do no production work, they keep production records on depart-
ment orders and time records, make out routing tickets, and perform
other related paper work. They consult, in the course of their duties,
with both office employees and employees in the production depart-
ments. There does not appear to be any substantial interchange be-
tween department clerks and either the production employees or the
office clericals, although department clerks may be considered for
vacancies in the office force.
The clerks in the shipping room are under the supervision of the
shipping room foreman.' They make out bills of lading and per-
form other paper work pertaining to the shipment of orders. In other
respects, their duties and conditions of employment are similar to the
department clerks.
The toolroom schedule clerks are under the supervision of the tool-
room foreman.z They perform all the necessary clerical work for the
toolroom, such as keeping the schedule board of tools requisitioned
for replacement, keeping progress records on orders started, and requi-
sitioning raw materials. They are also responsible for the drawings
and sketches pertaining to toolroom orders, and on occasion deliver
needed materials to the tool makers. Their duties likewise require
them to consult with office employees.
The weigh clerks are under the supervision of the receiving room
foreman.3 They weigh the material produced in the production de-
partments, and record the weights on machine time cards. This infor-
mation is used for purposes of inventory, production control, and calcu-
lation of incentive pay. They exercise no independent judgment in
the performance of their duties. They also distribute materials to
the various production departments.
i Other employees under the supervision of the shipping room foreman are included in
the unit.
2 Other employees under the supervision of the toolroom foreman are included in the
unit.
3 Other employees under the supervision of the receiving room foreman are included
in the unit.
UNITED SCREW & BOLT CORPORATION 955
On the basis of the foregoing, we find that the department clerks,
the clerks in the shipping room, the toolroom schedule clerks, and
the weigh clerks are plant clericals, such as the Board has customarily
included in production and maintenance units' The fact that these
employees may, in the course of their duties, consult with employees
who have been excluded from the unit, or that their duties may in some
respects be similar to the duties of such excluded employees, does not,
in our opinion, constitute a sufficient basis for departing in this case
from the customary Board practice. This is particularly true when,
as here, these employees are under the same immediate supervision as
other employees who are included within the units Nor does the fact
that the weigh clerks' computations are used in calculating incentive
pay require their exclusion from the unit .6
We find no merit in the Employer's request that these employees.
be granted a separate election. Although the Board has granted
self-determination elections to plant clerical employees when they
have previously been excluded from an existing production and
maintenance unit ,7 such is not the situation here. Nor does any labor
organization seek to represent these employees in a separate unit.
Accordingly, as their interests are closely related to the interests
of other employees in the unit, we shall include the department clerks,
the clerks in the shipping room, the toolroom schedule clerks, and
the weigh clerks in the unit.
Guards: The Employer contends that one employee, classified as
a millwright helper, should be excluded from the unit as a guard.
As the record discloses that this employee spends more than 50 per-
cent of his time performing duties pertaining to the protection of
the Employer's property, we find that he is a guard within the
meaning of the Act; 8 accordingly, we shall exclude him from the unit.
Supervisors: The Employer would exclude as supervisors the
assistant foreman in the blanking press department and an em-
ployee (Selvino Barone) classified as "tool room engine lathe-
operate and instruct"; it would leave for the determination of the
Board the supervisory status of John Vogrich, classified as a clutch
head tool maker, and would exclude the head storekeeper as a clerical
and managerial employee.
4 See, for example, Riverside Mills, 85 NLRB 969; Biggs Antique Company, 85 NLRB
554; Northwest Engineering Company, 73 NLRB 40.
F Ibid.
O Farrell-Check Steel Company, 88 NLRB 303; Ilotpotnt, Inc., 85 NLRB 485; Art Metal
Construction Company, 75 NLRB 80; Northwest Engineering Company, supra.
' See, for example, Trascon Steel Company, 88 NLRB 331 ; General Petroleum Cor-
poration , 83 NLRB 514; Chicago Pneumatic Tool Company, 81 NLRB 584, 586.
8 Penick & Ford, Ltd., Inc., 86 NLRB 659; cf. Radio Corporation of America, 76
NLRB 826.
956 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
The foreman of the blanking press department is 75 years old; the
assistant foreman is assigned to assist him, for the purpose of making
the work of the foreman lighter, and for the purpose of training the
assistant foreman to succeed to, the position of foreman, upon the
retirement of the present foreman.9 The assistant foreman is not
regularly assigned to a machine, as are the other eight employees in
the department. His duties are to assist the foreman generally, in
directing the work of the employees, to help the employees in the
operation of their machines, and to inspect the products which they
produce. He may make recommendations to the foreman regarding
disciplining or changes in the status of employees; the foreman, in
making his recommendations to his superiors," may rely on the rec-
ommendations of the assistant foreman. In the absence of the fore-
man, the assistant foreman is responsible for assigning work to the
employees in the department, and has authority to discipline them.
His duties and authorities, which require the exercise of discretion,
are substantially the same as those of the assistant foreman in the
shipping room, whom the parties have agreed to exclude from the
unit as a supervisor. Accordingly, on the basis of the foregoing,
we find that the assistant foreman in the blanking press department
possesses authority responsibly to direct the employees in the de-
partment, and that he is therefore a supervisor as defined in the Act.
We shall, therefore, exclude him from the unit.
The toolroom foreman supervises approximately 40 employees.
Among those under his supervision is a group. of 7 or 8 'employees
who operate bench lathes, making tools for the various plant depart-
ments. Barone's duties are to receive instructions and the schedule
of work from the foreman, and to allocate the work to the bench lathe
operators in accordance with the schedule. He also instructs the
operators in the operation of their lathes, checks their work to deter-
mine that it is being performed satisfactorily in accordance with the
specifications, criticizes and reprimands them, when necessary, for
improper work performance, and reports to the foreman any failure
to follow instructions." He spends approximately 90 percent of his
time at these duties, and the remainder performing lathe operations
which are too difficult for the regular lathe operators.
Also under the supervision of the toolydom foreman is a group of
three or four employees who make clutch head tools, a repetitive opera-
tion. Vogiich's duties and authorities with respect to this group of
O No date has been set for the retirement of the present foreman.
1° Although the foremen may make effective recommendations concerning changes in
the status of employees, they may not themselves effectuate such changes.
11 He has no authority to discipline these employees , or effectuate changes in their
employment status. Nor is there evidence that he can make effective recommendations
concerning such matters.
UNITED SCREW & BOLT CORPORATION 957
employees are the same as Barone 's duties and authorities with respect
to the bench lathe operators. Vogrich, however, spends only 50 per-
cent of his time allocating work and instructing, and the remainder
in actual production. As Barone and Vogrich have neither the
authority responsibly to direct, the work of other employees, nor the
authority to make effective recommendations concerning their dis-
cipline or changes in their employment status, we find that they are
not supervisors as defined in the Act; 12 we find, rather, that their
relationship to the employees with whom they work is that of more
skilled employees to those less skilled. Accordingly, we shall include
them in the unit.
The head storekeeper works in the storeroom, taking care of the
stock of factory supplies and some of the tools; no other employees
are regularly assigned to work with him. He requisitions supplies
and tools as necessary, issues materials as requisitioned by the fore-
men, and spends approximately 30 percent of his time keeping records.
He is also required to cut off stocks of material for the toolmakers,
and occasionally to sharpen or grind tools. On occasion he is called
in for individual conferences with management officials, as are the
foremen, but not the rank-and-file production and maintenance em-
ployees. There is no evidence, however, that these conferences are
related to the formulation or effectuation of management policies.13
Accordingly, we find that he is not a managerial employee. As his
interests are closely related to the interests of the other production
and maintenance employees, we shall include him in the unit 14
On the basis of the foregoing, and on the entire record in this case,
we find that all production and maintenance employees at the Employ-
er's Chicago, Illinois, plant, including department clerks, clerks in the
shipping room, toolroom schedule clerks, weigh clerks, the toolroom
engine lathe-operate and instruct,13 the clutch head tool maker ' 16
and the head storekeeper, but excluding office employees, outside truck
drivers, guard'17 and supervisors i8 as defined in the Act, constitute a
unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the
meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
"Johnson City Publishing Company , 81 NLRB 1341, 1343; Adams Motors, Inc., 80
NLRB 1518, 1520.
'y See Palace Laundry Dry Cleaning Corporation , 75 NLRB 320, 323.
For the reasons stated hereinbefore, we find without merit the Employer 's contention
that he should be excluded from the unit because of his clerical duties.
11 Selvino Barone.
'a John Vogrich.
11 Included in this category is the part-time watchman, classified as a millwright helper.
u Among those excluded as supervisors are the assistant foreman in the blanking press
department and the assistant foreman in the shipping room.
958 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
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 super-
vision 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
or this Direction of Election, including employees who did not 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 International Union, United Automobile, Aircraft &
Agricultural Implement Workers of America, CIO.