W. C. Nabors Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Aug 23, 1948

79 N.L.R.B. 40 (N.L.R.B. 1948)

In the Matter of W. C. NABORS COMPANY, EMPLOYER and INTERNA-
TIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF BOILERMAKERS , IRON SHIP BUILDERS AND
HELPERS OF AMERICA, LODGE No. 79, A. F. OF L., PETITIONER
Case No. 15-RC--84.-Decided August 03, 1948
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing in this case was held at Mans-
field, Louisiana, on June 30, 1948, before Richard C. Keenan, 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-man panel consisting of Chairman Herzog and
Members Reynolds and Murdock.
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 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 2
4. The appropriate unit:
The Employer and the Petitioner are agreed that the unit should
be composed of all production and maintenance employees, excluding
professional employees,- office and clerical employees, guards, and
1 The ruling of the hearing officer denying the motion to intervene made by an attorney
claiming to represent certain employees of the Employer is affirmed . The group of em-
ployees involved did not purport to be, or to function as, a collective bargaining representa-
tive. The purpose of the proposed intervention was to show that a majority of the em-
ployees of the Employer did not wish a labor organization to represent them. The
question of representation is the precise issue in the instant proceeding , and we are of the
opinion that it can best be resolved by means of a secret election as hereinafter directed.
See Consolidated Steel Corp ., 69 N. L. R. B 805; Shell Oil Co , Inc., 66 N . L. R. B. 510.
2 We reject the Employer's contention that the question of the Petitioner's representative
interest should have been fully inquired into at the hearing. As we have frequently held,
the requirement of a showing of interest is an administrative matter not subject to objec-
tion at the hearing. See H & H Manufacturing Company, Inc ., 76 N. L . R. B. 459; Barry
Biscuit Corporation, 76 N. L. R. B 640
79 N. L. R. B , No. 5.
40 .
W. C. NABORS COMPANY 41
supervisors. The Employer, however, wishes to include employees
in its branch offices in the unit with the employees at its main plant
whereas the Petitioner would exclude the branch office employees.
The Employer also wishes to include, and the Petitioner would exclude,
over-the-road truck drivers, receiving and shipping clerks, and two
employees who work at both the plant and the Employer's personal
farm.
The main plant of the Employer is at Mansfield, Louisiana, where
224 men are employed in the manufacture of trailers and truck bodies.
The branch offices are located at Houston, Texas; Jackson, Tennessee ;
Memphis, Tennessee; and Dallas, Texas; and employ a total of 33 men.
Employees at both the main plant and the branches are paid on an
hourly basis, but the branch office employees are paid at a higher scale
to compensate for their higher cost of living. Both groups of em-
ployees are paid from Mansfield. There is no bargaining history as
to the main plant or the branch offices. Some, but not all, of the same
equipment is used in the branch offices as at the main plant. The
branch offices handle finishing work, alteration and changes to fit cus-
tomer preferences, and service and repair work. They are under the
same company name and ownership as the main plant. In view of the
fact that the branch offices appear to be primarily concerned with the
repair, service, and delivery part of the business rather than with pro-
duction, and in view of the geographical separation of the branch
offices and the main plant which would militate aga^nst effective
coordination of employees for bargaining, we are of the opinion the
branch employees should not be included. Accordingly we shall ex-
clude them from the unit.3
The over-the-road truck drivers pick up the trailers manufactured at
the Employer's plant in Mansfield and deliver them to the branch
offices, returning with materials and supplies when the latter are avail-
able. The drivers' time is spent exclusively in the performance of
those duties, and they do no production or maintenance work. Since
the truck drivers constitute a distinct and separate group of em-
ployees whose interests and conditions of employment differ from those
of the other employees, we shall exclude them from the unit.4
The receiving and shipping clerks check shipping orders, help
gather materials, handle the receiving and disposition of carload and
less-than-carload freight, and work primarily in the plant rather than
in the office although they do little manual labor. Their pay is by the
hour as is that of production and maintenance employees and they
are in the same pay range as those employees. There is nothing in the
See W. C. Norris Manufacturer, Inc, 73 N. L. R. B 838.
See Concrete Pipe & Products Company, Inc ., 74 N. L R. B. 905, and cases cited therein.
42 DECISIONS„ OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
record to indicate that their working conditions or supervision differs .
sufficiently from that of the production and maintenance employees
to warrant their exclusion from the unit. We shall therefore include-
them 5
Two employees work at both the Employer's personal farm and at
the plant. They do maintenance and repair work respectively when
at the plant, but their presence there is determined by the weather
and other conditions not specified in the record. In the absence of
any evidence as to the amount of time spent on each job, we conclude
that these employees are casual rather than part-time plant employees.
We shall therefore exclude them from the unit .6
We find that all the production and maintenance employees of the
W. C. Nabors trailer plant at Mansfield, Louisiana, including shipping
clerks and receiving clerks, but excluding employees of the branch
offices, over-the-road truck drivers, professional, office and clerical
employees, casual employees as herein described, guards and super-
visors, constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bar-
gaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the pur-
poses of collective bargaining with the W. C. Nabors Company, Mans-
field, Louisiana, 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
Fifteenth Region, and subject to Sections 203.61 and 203.62 of Na-
tional Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 5, among
the employees in the unit found appropriate in paragraph numbered
4, above, who were employed during the pay-roll period immediately
preceding the date of this Direction, including employees who did not
work during said pay-roll 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 by the International Brotherhood
of Boilermakers, Iron Ship Builders and Helpers of America, Lodge
No. 79, A. F. of L., for the purposes of collective bargaining.
MEMBER REYNOLDS' took no part in the consideration of the above
Decision and Direction of Election.
° See National Mattress Company, 73 N L R. B 185.
° See Teesdale Manufacturing Company, -7114. L. R. B. 932.