Western Electric Co., Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jul 15, 1949

85 N.L.R.B. 227 (N.L.R.B. 1949)

In the Matter of WESTERN ELECTRIC COMPANY, INC., EMPLOYER and
INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS, AFL,
PETITIONER
Case No. 4-RC-403.-Decided July 15,1949
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
. Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before Ramey Dono-
van, hearing officer of the National Labor Relations Board. 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.
Reynolds and Gray].
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 Petitioner and Communications Workers of America, CIO,
herein called the Intervenor, are labor organizations claiming to rep-
resent employees 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 seeks to represent a unit composed of all employees
at the Employer's Allentown 0 Pennsylvania, plant, including office
clerical employees as well as production and maintenance employees,,
but excluding professional and confidential employees, guards, and
supervisors.' As an alternative, in the event that the Board should.
1 At the hearing the parties referred to the office clerical as salaried workers and to the
production and maintenance as hourly paid workers ; it is clear however that the designa-
tions of office clerical and production and maintenance are appropriate. There are
certain clerks in the manufacturing building , who are clearly plant clericals , paid on an
hourly basis , and their inclusion with the production and maintenance employees is not
in dispute . These same employees were part of the production and maintenance unit
found appropriate by the Board in a prior decision . Matter of Western Electric Company;
Inc., 76 N. L. R. B. 400.
85 N. L. R. B., No. 41.
227
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228 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
find a single over-all unit to be inappropriate, the Petitioner requests
that elections be directed in two separate units, one consisting of the
production and maintenance workers, and the other of office clerical
employees. The Intervenor agrees with the primary unit contention
of the Petitioner. The Employer asserts that all employees such as
the office clerical employees should be excluded from any unit of pro-
duction and maintenance workers.
The Employer's Allentown operations consist primarily of an office
building and a manufacturing building, adjacent to and connected
with each other by ramps. The office building houses a majority of
the office clerical employees. There is at the present time, however,
insufficient space to accommodate all the employees who normally
would work in the office building and, as a result, a substantial number
of office clerical and other salaried employees are located in the manu-
facturing building in space set apart for their use. Except for a few
employees such as secretaries to factory department heads, the Em-
ployer expects eventually to transfer the. office clerical employees now
in the manufacturing building to other permanent quarters. It is
apparent that the office clerical employees working in the office building
and those working in the manufacturing building constitute a single
group of office employees whose working conditions and interests are
separate and distinct from those of the production and maintenance
employees. We have consistently held that office clerical employees
should not properly be included in a production and maintenance
unit.'
We find that the following employees constitute a unit appropriate
for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Sec-
tion 9 (b) of the Act : All production and maintenance employees,
excluding all office clerical, professional, and confidential employees,
cafeteria employees,3 guards, and supervisors as defined in the Act.
5. The Employer sought to exclude from any unit of office and
clerical employees 22 classifications Mich it asserts are confidential
and managerial. Examination of the record as to the duties of these
employees reveals that the greater portion of these employees are not
either confidential or managerial and therefore would be included in a
unit of office and clerical employees. We are administratively advised
that the Petitioner does not possess sufficient representative interest
within an office and clerical unit, embracing all those classifications
which the present record indicates should be included, to justify pro-
2 Matter of Blue Star Airlines, Inc., 73 N. L. R. B. 663. Matter of Shell Oil Company,
Inc., 72'N. L. R. B. 516.
8 The parties agree that the cafeteria employees are employees of an independent con-
tractor and should be excluded.
WESTERN ELECTRIC COMPANY, INC. 229
ceeding to a separate election in such a unit. Therefore we shall direct
an election only in the production and maintenance unit.
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 pay-roll period immediately
preceding the date of this Direction of Election, including employ-
ees who did not work during said pay-roll period because they were
ill or on vacation or temporarily laid off, but excluding those em-
ployees who have since quit or been discharged for cause and have
not been rehired or reinstated prior to the date of the election, and
also excluding employees on strike who are not entitled to reinstate-
ment , to determine whether they desire to be represented, for pur-
poses of collective bargaining, by International Brotherhood of Elec-
trical Workers, AFL, or by Communications Workers of America,
CIO, or by neither.