Weyerhaeuser Timber Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Aug 20, 1948

78 N.L.R.B. 1267 (N.L.R.B. 1948)

In the Matter of WEYERHAEUSER TIMBER Co., EMPLOYER and INTER-
NATIONAL WOODWORKERS OF AMERICA, CIO, PETITIONER
Case No. 19-RC 8. Decided August 20,1948
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before a hearing offi-
cer 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-man panel consisting of the undersigned Board
Members.*
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 organizations named below claim 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.
4. The appropriate unit; the determination of representatives:
Petitioner seeks to add to its present unit,' production and main-
tenance employees of the new Plywood Department recently estab-
lished at the Employer's Longview Branch. The Employer is in ac-
cord with Petitioner's request. However, the Intervenor z urges that
the Plywood employees should be placed in a separate unit apart from
the other production and maintenance employees.
* Chairman Herzog and Members Houston and Reynolds.
Petitioner's present unit includes all production and maintenance employees in saw-
mills and planing mills at the Employer ' s Longview Branch. See Matter of Weyerhaeuser
Timber Co ., 29 N L R. B 571. Subsequently a Bark Products Department was established
and incorporated into the existing unit as no ether union sought to represent these
employees.
2 Ply« ood Workers, United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners. AFL
78 N. L. R. B., No. 180.
1267
1268 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
The Plywood Department consists of a new plywood plant located
in the area of the Employer's Longview Branch operations which
includes sawmills, planing mills, a pulp mill,3 and a Bark Products
Department. The operations of the Plywood Department are inte-
grated with those of the other Longview Branch Departments, under
the over-all supervision of the Longview Branch manager. How-
ever, the work in the Plywood Department is performed under the
direct supervision of the foreman of this Department. Although
some semi-skilled and skilled employees have been transferred from
other departments at Longview, the majority of employees hired for
the Plywood Department have come from other plywood plants
throughout the country. Moreover, due to the fact that the Plywood
Department has only recently been established, the employees in the
department have not been actively represented by any labor organ-
ization throughout the period covered by the existing contract ofthe
Petitioner, and also have never had an opportunity to determine for
themselves whether they desire to be represented in the existing pro-
duction and maintenance unit.
Under the circumstances, we believe that Plywood Department
employees may properly constitute a separate appropriate unit, or be
made a part of the unit including other production and maintenance
employees of the Employer's sawmills and planing mills.4 However,
the Board will make no unit determination until it has first ascer-
tained the desires of the employees involved. If in this election a
majority of the Plywood Department employees select the Inter-
venor,5 they will be taken to have indicated their desire to constitute a
separate bargaining unit. If on the other hand a majority of those
participating in the election select the Petitioner, they will be taken
to have indicated their desire to become part of the unit presently
represented by the Petitioner, and may be bargained for as part of
such unit.
We shall direct that an election by secret ballot be held among all
the production and maintenance employees of the Employer's Ply-
wood Department, Longview Branch, excluding office and clerical
employees and all supervisors as defined by the Act.
3 These employees are represented by the CIO in a Pacific coast industry -wide unit.
They come under different management from the employees in the Plywood Department
and those now represented by Petitioner.
4 Matter of Dohrmann Hotel Supply Company ( Manufacturing Dvvisson ), 71 N. L. R. B.
699
6 The Petitioner 's motion to exclude the Intervenor from the ballot on the ground that
no local plywood union now exists, except for the International Brotherhood , is hereby
overruled. See Matter of the Myers -Sherman Company, 71 N. L. R. B 910 ; Matter of
Rutherford Freight Lines Inc., 74 N. L. R . B. 1302.
WEYERHAEUSER TIMBER Co.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION 6
1269
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 super-
vision 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-Series 5, among the em-
ployees in the voting group described above, who were employed
during the pay-roll period immediately preceding the date of this
Direction of Election, including employees who did not work during
said pay-roll period because they were ill or on vacation or tempo-
rarily laid off, but excluding those employees 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 reinstatement, to determine whether they desire to
be represented, for purposes of collective bargaining, by International
Woodworkers of America, CIO, or by Plywood Workers, United
Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, AFL, or by neither.
U Any participant in the election directed herein may, upon its prompt request to, and
approval thereof by , the Regional Director , have its name removed from the ballot.
798767-49-vol. 78-81