Barnhardt Manufacturing Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Mar 3, 1953

103 N.L.R.B. 261 (N.L.R.B. 1953)

BARNHARDT MANUFACTURING COMPANY 261
BARNHARDT MANUFACTURING COMPANY and TEXTILE WORKERS UNION
OF AMERICA, CTO, PETITIONER. Case No . 11-RC-486. March 3,
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 Martin L. Ball, Jr., hearing
officer. 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 Act, the Board
has delegated its powers in connection with this case to a three-member
panel [Members Houston, Murdock, and Styles].
Upon the entire record in this case, 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
employees 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 Employer, a North Carolina corporation, is engaged in the
manufacture of cotton batts, absorbent cotton, and medical and dental
cotton at its Charlotte, North Carolina, plant. The parties agree to
the scope and composition of the unit, except that the Petitioner would
exclude and the Employer include the following employees :
Leadmen: There are nine leadmen employed by the Employer who
spend part of their time doing manual work. They receive an hourly
rate of pay which is higher than that of the rest of the production and
maintenance employees. The record shows that they have no author-
ity to hire, discharge, or discipline employees, or effectively to recom-
mend such action. Although they give orders to other employees, it
appears that they merely pass along instructions which they have
received from the foremen. We find that the leadmen are not super-
visors within the meaning of the Act? We therefore include them in
the unit.
Gateman: The Employer employs one gateman, during the day,
who is assigned to the gatehouse of the plant. His duty is to see to it
that only authorized persons enter the plant. Although he is neither
armed, deputized, nor uniformed, we find that he is a guard within
the meaning of the Act.2 We will therefore exclude him.
Watchmen: The testimony of the Employer discloses that there are
only two night watchmen, and no other guards, employed by it at
1 Gastonia Weaving Company, 91 NLRB 899.
f We8t Virginia Pulp and Paper Company, 96 NLRB 871.
103 NLRB No. 22.
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262 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
night. They regularly patrol the plant, principally for fire protec-
tion. We find that they are guards within the meaning of the Act .3
We will therefore exclude them.
Routing or production clerk: The routing or production clerk works
in the office adjacent to the Employer's vice president, and is under
his supervision. The record discloses that he keeps records pertain-
ing to the scheduling of production, and that his work requires him to
spend substantial periods of time in production areas following up the
schedules and taking samples of the work back to the office. We are
of the opinion that he is in fact a plant clerical, and we shall include
him in the Unit .4
Office boys: The two office boys work in the mailroom, which is in the
office building, and are under supervision of the Employer's president.
They stamp mail and run errands to town and in the plant. On occa-
sions, they cut samples in the sample room for inclusion in outgoing
mail. Although their errands carry them into the plant, they have
no interests in common with the production and maintenance em-
ployees. We will exclude them from the unit.
Statistical clerk, billing clerk, and receiving clerk-typist: The sta-
tistical clerk makes up weekly production reports and checks invoices
after they have been calculated by the billing clerk. The billing clerk
maintains records pertaining to shipping, and the receiving clerk-
typist maintains a perpetual inventory of stock and handles incoming
invoices. Their place of work is in the main office, and they are
under the supervision of the Employer's vice president. Moreover,
none of their time is spent working in the plant. In our opinion the
work of the statistical clerk, the billing clerk, and the receiving clerk-
typist is more nearly related to that performed by the general office
employees than that performed by the production and maintenance
employees. We shall therefore exclude them from the unit .6
We find, therefore, that the following employees of the Employer
employed at its Charlotte, North Carolina, plant, constitute a unit
appropriate for purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning
of Section 9 (b) of the Act:
All production and maintenance employees, including leadmen and
the production or routing clerk, but excluding the office boys, the
statistical clerk, the billing clerk, the receiving clerk-typist, office
clerical employees, the gateman, the watchmen, professional employ-
ees, and all supervisors as defined in the Act.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this
volume.]
8 Goodall Company, 80 NLRB 562.
4 Westinghouse Electric Corporation, 89 NLRB 8.
6 Mississippi Products, Inc., 78 NLRB 873.
6 Alpine Trading Co., 77 NLRB 766; Rutherford Garment Company, 100 NLRB No. S.