Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

May 4, 1943

49 N.L.R.B. 445 (N.L.R.B. 1943)

In the Matter of WESTINGHOUSE ELECTRIC & MANUFACTURING COMPANY
(LouIsviLLE ORDNANCE DIVISION) and INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD
OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS, LOCAL UNION #369, A. F. OF L.
,Case No. R--5083. -Decided May 4, 1943
Mr. T. M. Galphin, Jr., of Louisville, Ky., for the Company.
Mr. Lawrence F. Daly, of Washington, D. C., and Mr. H. H. Hudson,
of Louisville, Ky., for the IBEW.
Mr. D. J. Amer, of Louisville, Ky., for the IAM.
Mr. C. H. Van Tyne, of Louisville, Ky., and Mr. Waldo Stager, of
Cincinnati, Ohio, for the CIO.
Mr. Glenn L. Moller, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
- AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
•STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon petition duly filed by International Brotherhood of Electrical
Workers, Local 'Union #369, A. F. of L., herein called the IBEW,
alleging that a question affecting commerce had arisen concerning the
representation of employees of Westinghouse Electric & Manufactur-
ing Company (Louisville Ordnance Division); Louisville, Kentucky,
herein called the Company, the National Labor Relations Board pro-
vided for an' appropriate hearing upon due notice before William S.^
Shooer, Trial Examiner. Said hearing was held at 'Louisville, Ken-
tucky, on March 30, 1943. The Company, the IBEW, the Interna-
tional Association of Machinists, herein called the IAM, and United"
Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America, CIO, herein called
the CIO, appeared, participated, and were afforded full opportunity
to be heard, to examine and cross-examine witnesses, and to introduce
evidence bearing on the issues.. The Trial Examiner's -rulings' made
at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.:
At the hearing the Company moved. to dismiss the petition 'on' the
grounds that the employees here involved have already been found by
the Board to constitute part of a larger industrial unit, and that, the-
unit here sought is inappropriate., This motion was'referred •by*the'
Trial Examiner to ' theBoard for decision: The -motion' is" hereby:
49 N. L. R., B., No. 59.
445
446 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATSONTS ' BOARD ,
denied. On April 16 , 1943, the IBEW filed a' brief which the Board
has considered. -
Upon the entire record in the,case, the Board makes the following:
FINDINGS OF FACT
k I. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing -Company, incorporated
under the laws of the State of Pennsylvania , has its principal offices
and place of business in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania . It is,engaged in
the manufacture of a. wide variety of electrical machinery and equip-
ment and has numerous plants in various States of the United States.
The Company operates a,plant at Louisville , Kentucky , the only opera-
tion here involved , known as the Louisville Ordnance Division, at
which ordnance is produced for the United States Navy. Of the raw
materials used at the Louisville plant 95 percent is shipped to the
plant from points outside the State of Kentucky and virtually all of
the finished products of the plant , are shipped therefrom to points
"outside the State of Kentucky.
The Company admits that it is engaged in commerce within the
meaning of the National Labor Relations Act.
'II. THE ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED
International , Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local Union-
#369, 'affiliated with the • American Federation of Labor, is a labor
organization admitting to membership employees of the Company.
International Association -of Machinists, Naval Ordnance Lodge
x$830, affiliated with the American Federation of Labor , is a labor or-
ganization admitting to membership employees of the Company.
United Electrical , Radio & Machine Workers of America, affiliated,
with the Congress of Industrial Organizations , is a labor organization,
admitting to membership employees of, the Company.
III. THE' QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
Since March 1942, the IBE%y has been requesting that the Company
recognize it as the exclusive barganing representative of the electrical
mantenance. men,, the : gun, wiremen, and the crane operators at the
Louisville Ordnance Plant, but the Company has refused such recogni-
tion on„the ground that the employees involved have already been
found by the.Board to be' part-of an industrial unit- and that as a result
o the certification of the, IAM as the:barganing representative of the
aforesaid industrial,unit, a• contract;,dated,April 14;1942;-vas executed
by the Company- and the IAM, covering the employees, here involved,'
WESTINGHOUSE ELECTRIC & MANUFACTURING COMPANY 447
and that this, contract is still in force and is a bar to this proceeding.'
The Company further contends that the unit proposed by the IBEW
is functionally inappropriate.
- The TAM has taken the position, even since the Company refused
to recognize the IBEW in March 1942, that it makes no claim to mem-
bership among the employees in the unit claimed by the IBEW and
waives its jurisdiction over these employees and that it is willing that
the Board place the employees here involved in a separate appropriate
unit.
The contract referred to above is of indefinite duration and is there-
fore, not a bar to a present determination of representatives.
As to the Company's contention that our previous finding that an
industrial unit was appropriate bars a present finding that a different
unit is now appropriate, we have frequently held that when only the
propriety of a proposed industrial unit was involved in an earlier case,
and no union was requesting a craft unit, the decision in the earlier
case is not necessarily determinative of,whether or not a presently pro-
posed craft unit is appropriate=
A statement of a Field Examiner for the Board, introduced into
evidence at the hearing, indicates that the IBEW represents a sub-
stantial number of employees in the unit hereinafter found appro-
priate.3
We find that a question affecting commerce has arisen concerning
the representation of employees of the Company within the meaning
of Section 9 (c), and Section 2'(6) and (7) of the Act.
IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT
The IBEW claims that all electrical maintenance employees and
their apprentices, gun wiremen and their apprentices, and crane oper-
ators, excluding those who have the power to hire and discharge,
constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining.
The IAM agrees that such a unit is appropriate.
The Company and the CIO contend that the present industrial unit
is completely satisfactory and that the work of the employees in the
'Matter of Westinghouse Electric it Manufacturing Company, Louisville Ordnance 1):v,-
€ion and International Association of Machinists, Local Lodge #681, 38 N. L R B 412-
'Matter of International Shoe Co ., Wood River Tanneries and International Association
of Machinists , District No 9, A. F L, 49 N L R B, No 13; Matter of'Bethlehem Seel
Company ( Boston Yards ) and Pattein Makers League iof North Amciica (AFL) 39,
N L, R-13 1230 t, -
3 The Field Examiner reported that the IBEW submitted its office ledger which contained
the names of 84 paid-up members whose names appeared on the pay roll of the Company
as of February 23. 1943, in the alleged appropriate unit . - There ate approximately 1.30 per-
sons in the alleged appropriate unit and approximately 53 persons in the unit which we,
find to be appropriate
At the hearing the CIO submitted to the Trial Examiner 16 authorization cards bcaring
apparently genuine signatures of persons whose names appear on the aforesaid pay l oll
and who are in the alleged appropriate unit.
448 _, ,DECISIONS•. OF -^NAT'TONAL LABOR RELATIONS- ;BOARD
unit here sought is too closely related to the work of the- other produc-
'tion and maintenance employees to justify the establishment of the
unit herein sought.
The unit here sought by the IBEW is composed of three groups:
electrical maintenance employees, gun wiremen; and crane operators.
The electrical maintenance employees are highly skilled electricians
whose function is to repair and maintain all of the varied electrical
equipment throughout the plant. The Company has several wage
brackets, based upon the Company's estimate of the relative skills,
abilities, and responsibilities required by the various types of work.
The electrical maintenance employees, as well as, the gun wiremen, are
for the most part classified in the, Company's second highest wage
bracket, a few being in the highest bracket. The work of the elec-
trical maintenance men is not only highly skilled but is frequently
dangerous. A thorough' period of training and apprenticeship is
necessary to attain the necessary skills and knowledge required of a
competent electrician. The Company has itself recognized the skilled
character of his trade by employing, wherever possible, "qualified.
journeymen." Electricians have long been recognized as an identifi-
able craft and have historically bargained on a craft basis. .
The second classification of employees which the IBEW would
include in the unit is that' of gun wiremen and their apprentices. The
.gun wiremen are also skilled electricians whose function is to install,
on the ordnance being produced at the plant, the various electrical
items which are part of the finished product, including wiring, conduit,
fittings and controls. Their work requires the same skills as are
required of the electrical maintenance employees. As above indicated,
they are classed in the same wage bracket, as the electrical maintenance
employees.
The third classification of employees which the, IBEW would iti-
elude is that of crane operators.. These employees operate the,many
electric cranes by which the various heavy parts of the ordnance are
moved from one place to another during the course of construction.
This work does not require a knowledge of electricity and is.not con-
sidered by the Company to be a particularly skilled occupation. ,The
highest-paid' crane operators are in the wage bracket below that in
which the electrical maintenance men. and gun wiremen, are found.
After a training period of from 10 to 15 weeks, crane operators 'are
considered to be competent to handle most'of the operations' required
of, crane operators. ' Their only concern with electricity is that their
cranes are motivated by',electric power. • This,',of, course, is true even
of stenographers who use electric typewriters. • . • •
Under all the circumstances,,we are, of the opinion.that the'electrieal
,maintenance. employees and their apprentices, and the'gun wiremen
WESTINGHOUSE ELECTRIC & MANUFACTURING coMPANTY 449
and their apprentices can constitute an appropriate unit, but that the
crane operators should not be included in the unit.
Accordingly , we find that all electrical maintenance employees and
their apprentices , and all gun wiremen and their apprentices, at the
.Company's Louisville Ordnance Division , excluding those who have
the power to hire and discharge , and also excluding crane operators
and all other employees at the said Louisville Ordnance Division,
constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective - bargain-
ing within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
V. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
We shall direct that the question concerning representation which
has arisen be'resolved by an election by secret ballot -among the em-
ployees in the appropriate unit who were employed during the pay-
roll period immediately preceding the date of the Direction of Elec-
tion herein , subject to the limitations and additions set forth in the
Direction.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
By virtue of and pursuant to the power vested in the National Labor
Relations Board by Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations
Act, and pursuant to Article III, Section 9, of National Labor Rela-
tions Board Rules and Regulations-Series 2, as amended , it is hereby
DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation to ascertain representa-
tives for the purposes of collective bargaining with Westinghouse
Electric & Manufacturing Company ( Louisville Ordnance Division),
Louisville , Kentucky, an election by secret ballot shall be conducted
as early as possible , but not later than thirty ( 30) days from the date
of this Direction , under the direction and supervision of the Regional
Director for the Ninth Region, acting in this matter as agent for the
National Labor Relations Board, and subject to Article III, Section 10,
of,said Rules and Regulations , among the employees iii the unit found
appropriate in Section IV, 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, and including em-
ployees'in the armed forces of -the United States who present them-
selves in person at the polls , but excluding those employees who have
since quit or been discharged for cause , to determine whether they
desire to be represented by International Brotherhood of Electrical
Workers, Local Union # 369, affiliated with the American Federation
of Labor, or by United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of Amer-
ica, affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations, for the
purposes of collective bargaining , or by neither. ^',