American Radiator & Standard Sanitary Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Nov 16, 1955

114 N.L.R.B. 1151 (N.L.R.B. 1955)

AMERICAN RADIATOR & STANDARD SANITARY CORPORATION 1151
strained to find that the discharge was ill-advised and effectuated by reason of Bla-
lack's protected concerted activities with other employees for the purpose of collec-
tive bargaining or other mutual aid or protection. The Respondent thereby dis-
criminated in regard-to the tenure of employment of its employees to discourage
membership in a labor organization.
W. THE EFFECT OF THE UNFAIR LABOR PRACTICES UPON COMMERCE
The -activities of Respondent set forth in section. III, above, occurring in con-
nection with its operations sef forth in section I, above, have a close, intimate, and-
substantial relation to trade, traffic, and commerce among the several States, and
tend to lead to labor disputes burdening and obstructing commerce and the free flow
of commerce. _
V. THE REMEDY
Having found that Respondent engaged in and, is engaging in certain unfair
labor practices, I shall recommend that it cease and desist therefrom, and that it
take certain affirmative action designed to effectuate the policies of the Act.
I shall recommend that Respondent offer immediate and full reinstatement to
Harold R. Blalack to his former or substantially equivalent'position z-without prej-
udice to his seniority or other rights and privileges, and make him whole for any
loss of pay resulting from the discrimination against him by paying to him a sum of
money equal to the amount he would have earned from the date of his discharge
to the date when a proper offer of reinstatement is made by Respondent, less his
net earnings 3 to be computed on a quarterly basis in the manner set forth in F. W.
Woolworth Company, 90 NLRB 289, and N. L. R. B. v. Seven-Up Bottling Company
of Miami, Inc., 344 U. S. 344. Earnings in one particular quarter shall have no
effect upon the back-pay liability for any other such period. It will be further
recommended that Respondent make available to the Board and its agents, upon
request, all timecards, payrolls, and other records necessary to analyze, compute,
and determine the back pay and other emoluments herein awarded.
Upon the basis of the foregoing findings of fact, and upon the entire, record in the
case,Ii'make the following:
CONCLUSIONS OF LAW
1. The Ohio Aviation Company is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
2. District Lodge No. 13, International Association of Machinists, A. F. L., is a
labor organization within the meaning of Section 2 (5) of the Act.
3. By interfering with, restraining, and coercing its employees in the exercise of
the rights guaranteed in Section 7 of the Act, Respondent has engaged in and is
engaging in unfair labor practices within the meaning of Section 8 (a) (1) of the Act.
4. By discriminating in regard to the hire and tenure of employment of Harold
R. Blalack, thereby discouraging membership in a labor organization, Respondent
has engaged in and is engaging in unfair labor practices within the meaning of See-
tion8 (a) (1), and (3) of the Act.
5. The aforesaid unfair labor practices are unfair labor practices affecting com-
merce within the meaning of Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
[Recommendations omitted from publication.]
2 See : The Chase National Bank of the City of New York, San Juan, Puerto Rico,
Branch, 65 NLRB 827.
I See : Crossett Lumber Company, 8 NLRB 440, 497, 498.
American Radiator & Standard Sanitary Corporation , Louisville
Plant, Plumbing & Heating Division and General Drivers,
Local Union No. 89, International Brotherhood of Teamsters,
Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America, AFL,
Petitioner . Case No. 9-RC-f538. November 16, 11955
DECISION AND ORDER
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National La-
bor Relations Act, a hearing was held before William G. Wilkerson,
114 NLRB No. 156.
3
1152 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
hearing officer . The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are
free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in these cases, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the
Act.
2. The labor organization involved claims to represent certain em-
ployees of the Employer.
3. No question affecting commerce exists concerning the represen-
tation of employees of the Employer within the meaning of Section 9
(c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act for the following rea-
sons:
The Employer is engaged in the manufacture and sale of plumb-
ing and heating fixtures. Involved in the present proceeding is its
plant located at Louisville, Kentucky. The Petitioner seeks a unit of
all employees in the shipping and warehouse offices. The Employer
contends that the unit requested is inappropriate because the clericals
in the shipping and warehouse offices are primarily office clericals as
distinguished from plant clericals. More specifically, it contends that
the shipping and warehouse offices are segments of the main office and
located as they are because of the large area the factory occupies; and
that the employees requested by the Petitioner perform work only of
a clerical nature similar to the duties performed by clericals in the
main office , and are, in fact, despite their location , an appendage, of
the main office.'
Following a consent election, on July 29, 1941, the Board certified the
AFL Standard Trades Council as the bargaining representative for
"all employees excluding supervisory employees in main office and all
employees covered by written contracts now in effect between the com-
pany and several AFL organizations." On December 18, 1948, a cer-
tification was issued by the Board to the AFL Office Employees, Local
61 (Case No. 9-RC-254, not reported in printed volumes of Board De-
cisions and Orders), for a unit of "all employees engaged in checking,
weighing, and tabulating the brass production of the piece work em-
ployees," which unit included production clerks and checkers of the
brass division who performed the major part of their work on the pro-
duction floor. The Pattern Makers League is a. separately certified
representative of another group of employees at this plant.
Despite the overall coverage of the 1941 certification, the Council
has apparently not represented office workers or certain other clerical
employees. At present there are 14 individual unions which comprise
the AFL Standard Allied Trades Council, recognized by the Employer
as the exclusive bargaining agent for the production and maintenance
employee's,' excepting the group represented by the Pattern Makers
Leagud, ' the, employees requested ' by Petitioner, and certain other
AMERICAN RADIATOR & STANDARD SANITARY CORPORATION 1153
clerical employees referred to hereinafter. The Employer and the
Council are parties to a master agreement which covers general and
certain fringe items. Wages, seniority, special working conditions,
hours of work peculiar to a craft, and other fringe benefits are left to
the individual unions to negotiate with the Employer. Each of the
individual unions is at liberty to strike on the issue of wages, hours, or
other benefits. The Petitioner under this bargaining arrangement now
represents 482 employees who are classified as janitorial employees,
warehouse employees, and operators of mechanical equipment (truck-
ers, tractor drivers, and forklift operators).
The Employer's plant is within a fenced enclosure, covering 57
acres, and comprises numerous buildings. There are two main oper-
ating, divisions in the plant : the brass division where the Employer
produces chrome plated and brass fittings, and the iron division where
it produces enamel cast iron fixtures, bathtubs, and kitchen sinks.'
The main office is located in the front part of the brass building where
production work is carried on, and fronts on the main street. At the
extreme end of this enclosure are located the shipping and warehous-
ing operations. It is in one of the larger warehouses that the ware-
house and shipping offices are located. Each office is a separate en-
closed room-one on each side of the office of the production super-
intendent who exercises general supervision over these offices, the re-
lated employees in the warehouse, the employees in the box shop where
crates are made, and a certain part of the iron division.
The-warehouse office operations are divided into five sections each
under a foreman : export section, miscellaneous section, tub section,
sink and lavatory section, and inventory control section. Each fore-
man also has supervision over certain employees who belong to his sec-
tion but are located in the warehouse and are warehouse employees.
This office handles the clerical work after shipment has been made.
The shipping office is divided into 2 sections : the traffic manager who
supervises 8 employees, and the order handling supervisor who has
12 employees' under his direction. The shipping office handles clerical
work relative to shipping.
The shipping -and warehouse offices are under the general supervi-
sion of the production superintendent whose office is situated between
the two offices. The chief clerk of the main office testified that he issues
orders to the employees in the shipping and warehouse offices-to the
production superintendent superiors and to the clericals through the
supervisory chain.
Personnel in the shipping and warehouse offices handle all clerical
and administrative detail relative to processing orders and shipping
merchandise-preparation of shipping and charge sheets, customer's
'sheets, packing sheets, and bills of lading and maintenance of Kardex
1154 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
file and other information-for the billing department. All employees
perform their duties within the offices, except that occasionally an
employee under the traffic manager will need to go to the shipping dock
to make a correction or to ascertain car numbers, but at no time do
any of these clerical employees perform any manual labor.
Although the production superintendent could not recall any trans-
fer of main office clericals into the shipping and warehouse offices,
hourly contact is maintained with the main office through the services
of mail boys who carry shipping sheets and other information between
the shipping and warehouse offices and the main office-a distance of
800 to 1,000 feet-every hour. Seniority is applied within the ship-
ping and warehouse offices, although not strictly enforced, and prac-
tically all the employees for these offices have been hired as new
employees. Part of the shipping and warehouse clericals are sal-
aried and others are hourly paid without any apparent reason for
the difference except in one instance all girls in the shipping and
warehouse offices are salaried (as are some men), whereas all em-
ployees in the main office are salaried. Working hours for employees
in the main office are from 7: 30 a. m. to 4 p. in.; for eight of the em-
ployees in the warehouse and shipping offices, from 7: 30 a. in. to 4: 15
p. m., and for the remainder of the employees in these offices, from 7
a. m. to 3: 45 p. m., the same as warehouse employees. Main office em-
ployees are permitted 30-minute lunch periods and warehouse and
shipping offices employees, 45 minutes.
In the brass building where the main office is located there is a small
group of employees, not a part of the main office, who handle parcel
post packaging. After the small items of the brass division are
packaged and ticketed, they are stored in the brass building and
mailed out by these employees as ordered. This group is known as
the parcel post unit and a few of these employees are members of Local
61, Office Employees International Union.
Approximately 187 plant clericals from both divisions of the plant
are represented by Local 61, Office Employees International Union.
There are about 150 to 170 remaining clerical employees who work
outside the main office; the clericals who perform their duties in the
shipping and warehouse offices and whom the Petitioner seeks in the
instant proceeding constitute about 40 of these remaining clericals.
It appears from the above facts that the Employer has many un-
represented clerical employees, both plant and office, in addition to
those sought by the Petitioner. So, whether the clericals in the
shipping and warehouse offices are considered plant clerical. employees
or office clerical employees, they constitute only a segment of related,
unrepresented clerical employees. We see no basis for a unit limited
MONTGOMERY WARD S. CO. 1155
to such a segment, and find it inappropriate.' Accordingly, we will
dismiss the petition.
In view of our decision to dismiss the petition because of the in-
appropriateness of the unit requested, it is unnecessary to pass upon
the Employer's contention that the Petitioner is barred from rep-
resenting the employees involved because of their exclusion from the
contract covering production and warehouse employees.
[The Board dismissed the petition.]
MEMBER MURDOCK took no part in the consideration of the above
Decision and Order.
1 See B. I. Dupont de Nemours and Company , Inc, Constauctton Division, Savannah
River Plant, 107 NLRB 734, 747; F. H. McGraw d Company, 106 NLRB 624, 626.
Montgomery Ward & Co. and Department and Specialty Store
Employees Union Local 1265, Retail Clerks International As-
sociation , AFL, Petitioner. Case No. 2O-RC-2770. November 16,
1955
SUPPLEMENTAL DECISION AND DIRECTION
Pursuant to a Decision and Direction of Election issued by the
Board herein on August 17, 1955,' an election by secret ballot was con-
ducted on September 12, 1955, under the direction and supervision of
the Regional Director for the Twentieth Region, among the employees
of the Employer in the unit found appropriate in the Decision. At
the conclusion of the election, the parties were furnished with a tally
of ballots which showed that of approximately 354 eligible voters, 253
cast ballots, of which 125 were for the Petitioner, 81 were for the
Intervenor ,2 42 were against both labor organizations, 4 were chal-
lenged, and 1 was void.
As the challenged ballots were sufficient in number to affect the
results of the election, the Regional Director, pursuant to the Board's
Rules and Regulations, investigated them and on October 16, 1955,
issued and duly served upon the parties a report on challenged ballots,
in which he recommended that the Board sustain the challenges to the
ballots of Phyllis Plastrik and Anita George, overrule those to the
ballots of Florence Florey and Gloria Reitan, open and count the lat-
ter two ballots, and issue a revised tally of ballots. The Petitioner
1113 NLRB 798.
2 Warehousemen 's Union Local 853, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs,
Warehousemen
,
and Helpers of America, AFL.
114 NLRB No. 167.
387644-56--vol. 114-74