United States Gypsum Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Nov 8, 1950

92 N.L.R.B. 18 (N.L.R.B. 1950)

In the Matter of UNITED STATES GYPSUM COMPANY, EMPLOYER and
UNITED UNION WORKERS OF UNITED STATES GYPSUM COMPANY
(UNAFFILIATED), PETITIONER
Case No.2-RC-250I.-Decided November 8, 1950
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National
Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before I. L. Broadwin, hear-
ing 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 a three-member
panel [Members Houston, Murdock, and Styles].
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 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 Petitioner and the Employer agree that all production and
maintenance employees at the Employer's gypsum wallboard, paint,
and plaster plant at New Brighton, New York, excluding office and
clerical employees, professional employees, watchmen, guards, and
supervisors as defined in the Act, constitute an appropriate bargain-
ing unit. The parties disagree, however, as to the leadermen, board
machine men, and the laboratory testers, the Petitioner desiring to
include, and the Employer to exclude, them from the unit.
Laboratory testers: There are 22 testers or quality-control em-
ployees. The testers work in both departmental laboratories,' and
in the main laboratory. All testers are under the separate super-
vision of a quality supervisor. They perform the usual functions of
1 The departmental laboratories are subdivisions of the main laboratory and are located
in the respective departments for the convenience of the testers.
92 NLRB No. 5.
18
0
UNITED STATES GYPSUM COMPANY 19
such employees, making tests of the Employer's products and of prod-
ucts of competitors.
In a prior proceeding involving these employees, the. Board found
that they constituted a separate appropriate unit.2 The employees
then selected District 50, United Mine Workers of America, the same
union that represented the production and maintenance employees,
as their bargaining representative. These employees have apparently
never been bargained for as part of the production and maintenance
unit. In view of the technical nature of their work and the prior
history of bargaining at this plant, and in accordance with our previ-
ous decisions as to similar employees in other plants of the Employer,
we shall exclude testers from the unit. 3
Board machine men and the leadermen: There are three board
machine men on the payroll, one on each shift. Their immediate
supervisor, in each instance, is a board plant shift foreman who super-
vises the operation of the entire board machine, at which the board
machine man is stationed. The board machine is several stories high
and 850 feet long, and is used in the Employer's, operations for the
manufacture of gypsum board. Each board machine operator is
responsible for maintaining the proper proportions in the materials
used, and for the proper edging of the wallboard. He must see that
his area is clean and that the machine is properly prepared for week
end shutdowns. He also makes some of the entries in a log, contain-
ing data as to the manufacture of the board and the ingredients used.
The crew working with each board machine man is made up of the
following : Mixer man, edgeman, stucco man, puddler, supply man,
paperhanger, and on occasion, an emulsion man. Each board ma-
chine man receives from 8 to 20 cents per hour more than the others
on the crew.
There are 19 leaderman with the following classifications : Take-off
leadermen, kettle mill leaderman, block plant leadermen, paste paint
leadermen, paint shipping leaderman, manufacturing leaderman,
perf-a-tape department leaderman, track leaderman, raw materials
leaderman, and boat loading leadermen. Each leaderman is super-
vised by a department foreman who is in charge of the entire depart-
ment. The crew working with each leaderman varies from depart-
ment to department, and ranges generally from 6 to approximately
15 employees 4
2 United States Gypsum Company , 70 NLRB 1345.
s United States Gypsum Company, 91 NLRB 404 ; 79 NLRB 48 ; 72 NLRB 863.
* The record shows that the manufacturing leaderman ( in the dry paint section) has 25
employees in his crew . However, the Employer 's organizational chart indicates that the
dry paint department foreman, unlike other departmental foremen, has an assistant to
aid him in his duties.
20 DECISIONS OF NATIONAJ LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
'A crew operation under the leaderman is similar to the crew opera-
tion under the board machine man. Thus a crew, working with the
leaderman, 'is responsible either for the operation of a section of the
Employer's large manufacturing machines, or for various loading and
unloading operations. Each crew is composed of some employees
who are skilled in the operation to which they are assigned. Both
the leadermen and the board machine men move about among the
members of their crew for much of their working day.
All leadermen, board machine men, and other employees, except
packing department employees who are pieceworkers, are hourly paid
and punch a time clock. Foremen and other supervisors are paid on
a salary basis. The vacation program for the board machine men
nand the leadermen is the same as for other employees, while the vaca-
tion program established for the foremen and other supervisors varies
considerably. Leadermen have the same rules of seniority as do mem-
bers of their crew.
In 1939, the Employer and United Gas, Coke & Chemical Workers
of America executed a contract covering the production and main-
tenance employees at the Employer's New Brighton plant. From
3.941 to 1948 the Employer was in continuous contractual relationship
with District 50, United Mine Workers of America covering the same
employees. The last contract was for 1 year and expired June 16,
1948. The board machine men and the leadermen have been included
in the unit as production and maintenance employees during this
entire period of bargaining.
The Employer argues that since the last collective bargaining con-
tract the plant has increased the number of its employees, and there-
fore the responsibility of the leadermen has increased considerably.
Expansion in the number of employees and increase in amount of
production are not controlling here in determining the supervisory
statics of leadermen and board machine men.
The record shows that the board machine men and the leadermen
coordinate all operations of the men with whom they work. They
are more experienced and receive a somewhat higher wage. The Em-
ployer contends, therefore, that all this indicates that they responsibly
direct the work of their crews. However, their direction is routine
Ind follows closely upon the schedules and orders of their super-
visors. The department foreman maps out the production schedule,
and the leaderman conveys this schedule to the otheremployees- within
the department. In our opinion, they function, in these respects, as
5 The classification of take -off leaderman did not exist at the time of the last contract
-with-District 50, United M ine workers.
UNITED. STATES GYPSUM- COMPANY-. 21
a more experienced worker in relation to his coworkers ;-they are no
lnmore than straw bosses or group leaders.
. The Employer further contends that the board machine men and
the leadermen have authority to make recommendations affecting the
status of the members of their crews. However, the record discloses
no evidence that these employees have ever been told that they possess
the power of effective recommendation, and when they do make rec-
ommendations, a separate investigation is made by either the depart=
ment foreman or the superintendent before any final action is; taken.e
There is no evidence in the record that either leadermen or board ma-
chine men attend foremen's or supervisors' meetings. However, the
record does indicate that safety meetings cannot be called by the lead-
ermen or by the board machine men, but in all instances are called
by the foremen or superintendents.' Although the board machine
men and the leadermen maintain records of production and may
from time to time reject or report defective products, this alone is not
conclusive on their status as supervisors.
We have recently considered the unit disposition of employees with
similar functions at other plants of this Employer and found such
employees to be part of the production and maintenance unit." In
view of all the foregoing, including the fact that these employees have
been bargained for as part of the production and maintenance unit,
and on the basis of the entire record, we find, contrary to the conten-
tions of the Employer, that the board machine men,9 and the leader-
men are not supervisors within the meaning of the Act. We shall,
therefore, include them in the unit.
We find that all production and maintenance employees at the Em-
ployer's gypsum wall board, paint, and plaster plant at New Brighton,
New York, including board kiln men, board machine men, leader-
6 A leaderman or board machine man may send an employee home for a day if that
employee reports for work intoxicated, or is absent from work without excuse, or commits
some other violation of the Employer' s rules. The leaderman or the board machine man
reports such action to the department foreman or superintendent at the first opportunity.
The foregoing is the extent of his authority in disciplining employees, and, in our
opinion, amounts to no more than giving effect to a well routinized pattern of plant
discipline.
4 The leadermen do not participate in the Employer's safety award program established
for the employees , but instead, are given a dinner by the Employer for an unusual safety
record.
8 United States Gypsum Company, 91 NLRB No. 33; 91 NLRB 404; 85 NLRB 162.
'The Employer urges that our finding , in United States Gypsum Company, 85 NLRB 9,
that board machine men were supervisors , is controlling . However, on the facts before us,
we find that board machine men are more like the board machine operators whom we
found to be nonsupervisory in United States Gypsum Company, 91 NLRB No. 33. Other
cases relied upon by the Employer are also clearly distinguishable.
22 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
men,10 but excluding office and clerical employees," professional em-
ployees,12 testers, watchmen, guards, executives, foremen, and other
supervisors 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.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in- this
volume.]
10 The parties agree that Fred Daley and Mike Andrescavage are acting foremen and
should be excluded from the unit. We shall exclude them as foremen.
11 Excluded as office and clerical employees are four clericals who work in the plant.
They are under the office manager, and are located in the plant for convenience.
12 In this category are the plant engineer, assistant plant engineer, two chemists, two
trainees, and a board engineer.