Westinghouse Electric Corp.Download PDFNational Labor Relations Board - Board DecisionsDec 21, 195092 N.L.R.B. 871 (N.L.R.B. 1950) Copy Citation In the Matter of WESTINGHOUSE ELECTRIC CORPORATION ( STURTEVANT DIVISION ), EMPLOYER and FEDERATION OF WESTINGHOUSE INDEPEND- ENT SALARIED UNIONS, PETITIONER Case No. 1-RC-1716.Decided December 01, 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 Sidney A. Coven, 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 Act, the Board has delegated its powers in connection with this case to a three-mem- ber panel [Chairman Herzog and Members Houston and Reynolds]. Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds : 1. The Employer i s 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 appropriate unit : The Petitioner seeks to represent a unit of all professional employ- ees, including design engineers, tool designers, service engineers, engi- neers, engineering assistants, maintenance engineers, advertising as- sistants, production specialists, generator engineers, junior engineers, maufacturing engineers, tool engineers, and the nurse, but excluding application engineering staff assistants and supervisors. The Em- ployer agrees that the aforesaid unit is appropriate, except that it would exclude manufacturing engineers, tool engineers, and the nurse as managerial employees, and would include the application engineer- ing staff assistants as professionals. Manufacturing engineers are directly subordinate to the general superintendent. They have a wide variety of duties involving the efficient and economical operation of the entire plant. They coordi- nate the work of the designing and manufacturing staffs, recommend 92 NLRB No. 143. 871 872 DECISIONS. OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD new manufacturing methods, and prepare cost estimates. They are consulted by the suggestion committee about proposals for improved methods of manufacture and they make recommendations concerning such proposals. They do not have subordinates. Recently, in a case involving another plant of the Employer, the Board decided that manufacturing engineers having duties and responsibilities like those of the manufacturing engineers in this case were managerial em- ployees.' We make a similar finding in this case. We shall therefore exclude them from the unit. Tool engineers draft specifications for new tools and work with the tool designers in designing such tools. They work under the same supervision as the tool designers who are included in the unit. The tool engineers occasionally negotiate with outside manufacturers for tools or parts which are to be manufactured outside the Employer's plant. However, authority to make the purchase is vested in the tool engineers' supervisor and not in the tool engineers. We do not believe that the duties and functions of the tool engineers can be said to be managerial. Accordingly, we shall include them in the unit. The nurse is in charge of the dispensary except for 1 hour during the day when the company doctor is present. She administers first aid to sick or injured employees. As part of her duties she may refer a patient to an outside doctor and thereby commit the Employer to pay necessary doctor and hospital expenses. However, under Massachusetts law an employee injured in the course of his employ- ment can choose his own physician to tend his injuries and the Em- ployer is obligated to pay the physician's fee. The nurse's authority to commit the Employer financially seems, therefore, hardly to go beyond the authority of an injured employee similarly to obligate the Employer. We find that the nurse, like industrial nurses generally, is not a managerial employee. Nor is she a confidential employee because she prepares .and completes the records of employee injuries which are used in compensation cases 2 We shall include her. . Application engineering staff assistants act as technical assistants to various production managers in reviewing correspondence dealing with engineering matters. The Employer requires that all employees in this classification have engineering degrees or their equivalent. Contrary to the Petitioner's contention, we find that application en- gineering staff assistants are professional employees and shall in- clude them in the unit. 1 Westinghouse Electric Corporation , 89 NLRB 8. See also Westinghouse Electric Corporation, 91 NLRB No. 40. 2 Westinghouse Electric Corporation , 91 NLRB No. 40; American Locomotive Company, Alco Products Division, 92 NLRB 115. WESTII\TGHOUSE ELECTRIC CORPORATION 873 We find that all professional employees employed at the Employer's Sturtevant Division plant, Hyde Park, Massachusetts, including tool engineers, design engineers, tool 'designers, service engineers, engi- neers, engineering assistants, maintenance engineers, advertising as- sistants, product specialists, junior engineers, application engineering staff assistants, and the nurse, but excluding office clerical employees, manufacturing engineers, guards, and supervisors as defined in the Act, constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bar= gaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act .3 [Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this volume.] J The Petitioner asked that the professional employees be given the opportunity of voting on whether or not they desired to be included in the unit of clerical employees proposed by the Petitioner in Case No. 1-RC-1715. In view of the Employer's objection to the inclusion of the professional employees in the same unit with the clerical employees, the Petitioner's request is hereby denied. American Locomotive Company, Alco Products Division, supra; International Harvester Company, West Pullman Works, 90 NLRB No.. 240. 929979 -51-vol. 92--57 Copy with citationCopy as parenthetical citation