American Smelting and Refining Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jul 21, 1953

106 N.L.R.B. 244 (N.L.R.B. 1953)

244 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
5. The Employer seeks to include the part-time extra
employees whom the Teamsters and the Retail Clerks would
exclude. These employees work regularly, but for limited
hours, generally averaging a minimum of 9 hours a week.
They do the same work as regular employees, are carried on
the same payroll, and receive the same rate of pay, but are
not eligible for certain other benefits until they have worked a
specified minimum number of hours in a year. In accordance
with our customary practice , we shall permit these regular
part-time employees to vote.'
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.]
[The Board dismissed the petition.]
7Sears, Roebuck & Co., 91 NLRB 1411.
AMERICAN SMELTING AND REFINING COMPANY, EL PASO
SMELTING WORKS' and INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD
OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS, LOCAL 583, AFL, Petitioner.
Case No. 33-RC-447. July 21, 1953
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 Byron E. Guse,
hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made atthe hear-
ing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3 (b) of the Act, the
Board had delegated its powers in connection with this case
to a three-member panel [Members Murdock, Styles, and
Peterson].
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds:
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the mean-
ing of the National Labor Relations Act,
2. The labor organizations involved claim to represent
certain employees of the Employer.:
3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the
representation of employees of the Employer within the mean-
ing of Section 9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
4. The Petitioner seeks to sever from the existing unit of
production and maintenance employees, a unit of electricians and
their helpers in the electrical department at the Employer's
El Paso Smelting Works. The Intervenor contends that this unit
is inappropriate because of a 10-year history of collective bar-
gaining on a plantwide basis in which the employees sought herein
have been included. The Employer takes no position.
1 The name appears as corrected at the hearing.
2 International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers, Local 509, was permitted to
intervene.
106 NLRB No. 43.
AMERICAN SMELTING AND REFINING COMPANY 245
The Employer, a New Jersey corporation, is engaged at its
El Paso Smelting Works in the processing of crude ores of
silver, copper, gold, lead, and zinc. For the past 10 years,
it has bargained with the Intervenor on the basis of a single
unit of all production and maintenance employees, including
the electricians and their helpers.
The Employer employs 10 journeymen electricians, 1 ap-
prentice helper, and 4 helpers who do the necessary electrical
work throughout the plant. They have a separate electrical
shop to which they report for work assignments. This shop
serves as an office for the chief electrician and the electrical
foreman and contains tools, work benches, and electrical sup-
plies.
The journeymen electricians, under the direction of the
chief electrician, maintain and service the generating system
and machinery. In the performance of their duties, they re-
pair motors, rewind coils, maintain and service underground
and overhead power lines, and repair emergency breakdowns
of other electrical machinery. The apprentice helper and
the helpers assist the journeymen electricians and, inaddition,
replace electrical fixtures and repair "light" lines. There is
no interchange between the electrical employees and the
production and maintenance employees.3
Upon the foregoing facts, we are satisifed that the employees
sought by the Petitioner exercise skills characteristic of the
electricians' craft. Notwithstanding the bargaining history on a
broader basis, we find that journeymen electricians, the ap-
prentice helper, and helpers comprise an identifiable,
skilled, and homogeneous craft group which the Board has
frequently held may, if they so desire, constitute an appropriate
unit. 4
We shall therefore direct an election in the following voting
group: All journeymen electricians, the apprentice helper,
and helpers in the electrical department at the Employer's
El Paso, Texas, Smelting Works, excluding all other employees,
office clerical employees, plant clerical employees, watch-
men, guards, and supervisors as defined in the Act.
If a majority of the employees in the voting group select the
Petitioner, they will be taken to have indicated their desire to
constitute a separate appropriate unit, and the Regional Di-
rector conducting the election directed herein is instructed to
issue a certification of representatives to the Petitioner for
such a unit, which the Board, under such circumstances, finds
to be appropriate for the purpose of collective bargaining. If,
however, a majority of the employees in the voting group select
the Intervenor, they will be taken to have indicated their desire
to remain part of the existing production and maintenance unit,
9 Occasionally, a production or maintenance employee may be permanently transferred as a
helper in the electrical department.
4W. C. Hamilton and Sons. 104 NLRB 627; Ingersoll Products Division of Borg-Warner
Corporation, 100 NLRB 1531; Rheem Manufacturing Company, 100 NLRB 564 The Inter-
venor's motion to dismiss the petition is therefore denied.
246 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
and the Regional Director is instructed to issue a certificate
of results to that effect.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.]
Member Peterson , dissenting:
The only justification for directing a self-determination
election in the present case is the craft character of the
electricians ' group. However , as stated in my dissent in the
Hamilton case ,' this factor is insufficient to warrant a self-
determination election where, as here , there has been a
successful collective -bargaining history for approximately 10
years.
5 W. C. Hamilton and Sons, 104 NLRB 627.
THE GENERAL TIRE AND RUBBER COMPANY and LOCAL
UNION NO. 211 OF THE UNITED ASSOCIATION OF
JOURNEYMEN AND APPRENTICES OF THE PLUMBING
AND PIPEFITTING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES
AND CANADA, AFL, Petitioner. Cases Nos . 39-RC-583
and 39-RC-599. July 21, 1953
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
Upon separate petitions duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the
National Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held in these
cases before Clifford W. Potter and John F. Burst, hearing
officers. The hearing officers' 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 these cases
to a three-member panel [Members Murdock, Styles, and
Peterson].
IIn its brief, the Employer moved to dismiss the petition in Case No. 39-RC-599 on the
grounds, in substance , ( 1) that the Petitioner does not have an adequate showing of interest
among employees sought therein; and ( 2) that the hearing officer acted improperly in ad-
vising the Petitioner at the hearing on the petition in Case No. 39-RC-583 . The motion is
denied.
As to ( 1): Showing of interest is an administrative expedient and is not litigable by the
parties . Moreover , we are administratively informed that the Petitioner has an adequate
showing of interest among employees sought in Case No. 39-RC-599. Swift & Company,
94 NLRB 917.
As to (2): On March 23, 1953, the Petitioner filed its petition in Case No. 39-RC-583,
requesting a unit of pipefitters and welders . At the hearing on this petition , held on April 10,
1953, the Petitioner sought to amend its petition to include instrument repairmen , insulators,
and salvagemen . The hearing officer advised the Petitioner to file new or amended petitions,
and adjourned the hearing . On the same day, the Petitioner filed an amended petition request-
ing a unit of pipefitters , welders , insulators , and salvagemen and a new petition in Case No.
39-RC-599, requesting a unit of instrument repairmen . At the consolidated hearing, held on
May 12, 1953, all parties were afforded full opportunity to litigate any issue raised by the
petitions . So far as the record discloses , the Employer was not prejudiced in any way by this
procedure. Cf. Paraffine Companies, Inc., 85 NLRB 325.
106 NLRB No. 49.