Astronautics Corp. of America

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

May 16, 1974

210 N.L.R.B. 652 (N.L.R.B. 1974)

652 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Astronautics Corporation of America and Interna-
tional Brotherhood of Electrical Workers,
AFL-CIO-CLC, Petitioner . Case 30-RC-2099
May 16, 1974
SUPPLEMENTAL DECISION, ORDER,
AND SECOND DIRECTION OF
ELECTION
BY MEMBERS JENKINS, KENNEDY, AND
PENELLO
On September 28, 1973, the Regional Director for
Region 30, after a hearing, issued a Decision and
Direction of Election' in the above-entitled proceed-
ing in which he found the unit noted below2
appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining.
Before the election was held, the Petitioner and the
Employer disagreed as to whether certain employees
in the material department should be included in the
unit. To resolve this matter, a further hearing was
ordered by the Regional Director which was held by
Hearing Officer Cecil Sutphen. Thereafter, in ac-
cordance with Section 102.67 of the National Labor
Relations Board Rules and Regulations, Series 8, as
amended, this case was transferred to the Board. The
Employer and the Petitioner filed briefs with the
Board.
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the
National Labor Relations Act, as amended, the
National Labor Relations Board has delegated its
authority in this proceeding to a three-member panel.
The Board has reviewed the Hearing Officer's
rulings made at the hearing and finds that they are
free from prejudicial error.
The Employer is engaged in the manufacture and
sale of electronic aircraft instruments at three plants,
all located within a two-block radius. The material
department, under the overall supervision of B. L.
Peters, has three separately supervised sections
known as industrial engineering, purchasing, and
material control. The Employer contends that the
employees in the material department do not have a
sufficient community of interest with the production
and maintenance employees to warrant their inclu-
sion in the same unit. The Petitioner is agreeable to
the exclusion of certain of these employees, but
would include others as plant clericals. Thus, the
Petitioner would exclude the employees in the
industrial engineering section which, it appears,
consists of professional and office clerical employees.
It would also exclude the buyers in the purchasing
section as managerial employees, in view of their
authority to commit the Employer for purchases that
may amount to many thousands of dollars, but
would include the clerks in the purchasing section,
whose duties of maintaining records, typing, and
taking dictation show them to be office clerical
employees. We shall exclude the employees in the
industrial engineering and purchasing section.
Remaining for determination are the employees in
the material control section whom, except as noted
below, the Petitioner would include in the unit as
plant clericals. That section is divided into three
separately supervised subsections: stockroom, mate-
rial expediting, and inventory control.
The stockroom employees are hourly paid and are
classified as receiver, storekeeper, assistant store-
keeper, drivers, store attendant, and store attendant
helper. They perform the usual duties associated with
receiving, in-plant distributions, storing, and record-
keeping of material shipped to the Employer. They
also assemble parts from "kit sheets" and place them
into a kit or container for use by the production
employees.
There are employees in material expediting who
are salaried and are classified as senior expediter,
expediter, material control clerk, and material clerk.
They maintain records relating to the flow of
materials throughout the plant and "run" needed
parts from the stockroom to other locations, princi-
pally to the production area. There is also a salaried
material coordinator who interprets engineering
drawings to resolve complex problems that arise with
respect to material shortages at various plant
locations, for which work a formal technical educa-
tion is required.
The employees in inventory control who are
salaried are classified as scheduler, material control
clerk, and senior clerk typist; one hourly paid
employee is a packer. The employees are responsible
for all shipping operations and the maintenance of
an adequate supply of materials. They also prepare
the kit sheets for the stockroom personnel and
maintain a separate storeroom for office supplies.
There are also salaried employees classified as
material coordinators in inventory control, whom the
Petitioner would exclude. Their duties require the
analysis of engineering drawings in the planning of
the more difficult shipments, some of which are
destined for overseas. A formal technical education
is also a requisite for their jobs.
Except for the material coordinators, the work of
the employees in the stockroom, material expediting,
1 Unpublished quality assurance and reliability department employees , office clerical
2 All production and maintenance employees employed at the Employ - employees, managerial employees , professional employees, guards, and
er's Milwaukee , Wisconsin, facilities , including plant clerical employees and supervisors as defined in the Act , and all other employees.
production inspectors, but excluding civil aviation department employees,
210 NLRB No. 101
ASTRONAUTICS CORP. OF AMERICA 653
and inventory control of the material control section
is in the nature of that performed by plant clericals .3
We shall therefore include them in the production
and maintenance unit found appropriate by the
Regional Director which specifically includes plant
clerical employees by agreement of the parties.
However, in view of the technical nature of their
work, we shall exclude the material coordinators
from the unit in which technical employees have
been excluded.4
ORDER
It is hereby ordered that the unit found by the
Regional Director to be appropriate be, and it hereby
is, amended to read as follows:
All production and maintenance employees em-
3 See Container Research Corp, 188 NLRB 586.
4 During the hearing , it was disclosed that the Employer had acquired, in
October 1973, the assets of another company which was engaged in the
computer terminal business. The Employer has established a computer
terminal department, but this department is in a developmental engineering
ployed at the Employer's Milwaukee, Wisconsin,
facilities, including plant clerical employees (in-
cluding those employed in the stockroom, materi-
al expediting, and inventory control subsections
of the material control section of the material
department), and production inspectors, but
excluding all other employees in the material
department, civil aviation department employees,
quality assurance and reliability department
employees, office clerical employees, managerial
employees, professional employees, guards, all
other employees, and all supervisors as defined in
the Act.
[Direction of Second Election and Excelsior foot-
note omitted from publication.]
stage, employing only engineers, and no decision has been made as to the
extent the Employer will utilize its recent acquisition . In these circumstances
it would be premature to make a unit determination of the employees who
will be employed in that department.