Continental Electric Co., Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Nov 26, 1954

110 N.L.R.B. 1062 (N.L.R.B. 1954)

1062 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
by The Item Company, New Orleans, Louisiana, but excluding elec-
tricians and all other employees, guards, professional employees, and
supervisors as defined in the Act, have selected New Orleans News-
paper Guild, Local 170, CIO, as their bargaining representative, and
as it appears that this organization is now the recognized exclusive
bargaining representative of the existing unit of editorial-circulation
department employees, we find that the employees in the above-de-
scribed category may be part of a single unit together with the
employees in the existing unit of editorial-circulation department
employees, which in the circumstances we find appropriate.
[The Board certified New Orleans Newspaper Guild, Local 170,
CIO, as the bargaining representative of the employees in the unit of
editorial-circulation department employees.]
CONTINENTAL ELECTRIC CO., INC. and INTERNATIONAL UNION OF
ELECTRICAL , RADIO AND MACHINE WORKERS, C. I. 0., PETITIONER.
Case No. 2-RC-7070. November 26,1954
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 John J. Carmody,
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 this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the Act.
2. The labor organizations involved claim to represent employees
of the Employer.
3. The Intervenor, United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers,
Local 437, herein called UE, contends that the current contract with
the Employer, which is effective until May 15, 1955, is a bar to this
proceeding. The Petitioner, herein called IUE-CIO, asserts that the
contract is not a bar because of a schism within the ranks of the
contracting union.
On August 17, 1954, the executive board of Local 437, U E, voted
unanimously that a special meeting be called on August 26, 1954,
to consider the executive board's recommendation that Local 437
disaffiliate from the UE and affiliate with the IUE-CIO. The reason
for this proposed action was the alleged Communist domination of
the UE.
Written notices were posted in the regular manner specifying the
purpose of the special meeting. On August 26, 1954, the meeting was
110 NLRB No. 172.
CONTINENTAL ELECTRIC CO., INC. 1063
held. Representatives from the IUE-CIO and UE, previously hav-
ing been invited by the executive board, spoke to the members of
the Local; however, the IUE-CIO and UE representatives left the
meeting hall prior to the voting. There is no evidence that the
IUE-CIO sponsored the meeting. By a hand vote of 168 to 0, the
recommendations of the executive board were affirmed. The next
day all employees in the unit working at the time, about 227 in
number, signed cards authorizing the IUE-CIO to represent them
as their exclusive bargaining representative.
The Board has held under circumstances comparable to those in
the present case, that the expulsion of a labor union by its parent
coupled with the later disaffiliation action on the local level for reasons
related to the expulsion creates a schism which warrants the holding
of an election despite a contract existing between the local and the
employer.' Accordingly, for this reason we find that the contract
between the Employer and the Intervenor does not bar the instant
proceeding.
4. The parties stipulate and we find that the following employees
of the Employer constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of
collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act:
All hourly, piecework, and salaried production and maintenance
employees, but excluding all office and clerical employees, timekeepers,
firemen, nurses, matrons, janitors, administrative employees, guards,
and supervisors, as defined in the Act.
5. The record reveals that the Petitioner's local has officers, has
processed grievances, and that its executive board is representing the
workers. Although the International alone is the Petitioner in the
present proceeding, we conclude by reason of the foregoing that the
local of the IUE-CIO is sufficiently in the picture to require the lo-
cal's compliance with Section 9 (f), (g), and (h) of the Act. Ac-
cordingly, the holding of the election directed herein is conditioned
upon the IUE-CIO local achieving compliance within 2 weeks after
the Decision and Direction of Election. No election will be held
pending compliance by the local.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.]
'A C Lawrence Leather Compasi,j, 108 NLRB 546; International Harvester Company,
East Mohne Works, 108 NLRB 600, General Electric Apparatus & Seivice Shop, 110
NLRB 1054
Member Rodgers concurs in the direction of election herein, but finds it unnecessary
to decide whether there has been a schism Instead , he would refuse to recognize the
contract of the Intervenors as a bar for reasons of broad public policy. Local 437's
parent organization , the UE , was expelled from the Congiess of Industrial Organiza-
tions because of Communist domination. Under these circumstances the availability of
the Board 's processes to the Intervenor would not , in Member Rodgers ' opinion, effectuate
the policies of the Act nor properly serve the interests of national security.