Dierks Paper Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board DecisionsApr 1, 1958

120 N.L.R.B. 290 (N.L.R.B. 1958)

290 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD of the boilermaker craft, we find that they are ineligible for severance from the existing unit. As the unit sought by Petitioner is therefore inappropriate, we shall dismiss the petition. [The Board dismissed the petition.] Dierks Paper Company and International Brotherhood of Pulp, Sulphite and Paper Mill Workers , AFL-CIO, and United Papermakers and Paperworkers, AFL-CIO, and International Association of Machinists, AFL-CIO, Petitioners. Cases Nos. 32-RC-1098, 32-RC-1102, and 3'2-RC-1103. April 1, 1958 DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS Upon separate petitions filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act, a consolidated hearing was held before Joseph W. Bailey, 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 these cases to a three- member panel [Chairman Leedom and Members Bean and Fanning]. 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 organizations involved claim to represent certain employees of the Employer.' 3. A 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. 4. The Petitioners in Cases Nos. 32-RC-1098 and 32-RC-1102, referred to herein as Pulp and Sulphite Workers, and Papermakers, respectively, seek plantwide units of production and maintenance employees. The Petitioner in Case No. 32-RC-1103, herein called Machinists, and the Intervenors, International Brotherhood of Boiler- makers, Iron Ship Builders, Blacksmiths, Forgers & Helpers, Local Lodge No. 592, AFL-CIO, (Boilermakers), and Local Union 706, United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing 1 After the hearing was closed , International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, AFL- CIO, sought to intervene in order to appear on the ballot for a unit of electricians. As the IBEW request is for a unit which none of the Petitioners sought to represent, it was incumbent upon it to support its motion to intervene with a petitioner 's showing of inter- est. However , as the number of authorization cards which it supplied are less than 30 percent of the number of employees in the electricians group , we deny the motion to intervene . Thiokol Chemical Corporation, 114 NLRB 21 and 113 NLRB 547. 120 NLRB No. 45. DIERKS PAPER COMPANY 291 & Pipe Fitting Industry of the United States and Canada, AFL-CIO, (Plumbers), each seek to represent a unit of maintenance and repair employees. The Pulp and Sulphite Workers and the Papermakers oppose a separate election of maintenance employees on the ground that they do not constitute a homogeneous group, but if such an elec- tion is directed, they would exclude therefrom certain categories of employees because of their asserted close relationships with produc- tion processes. The Employer takes no position on the appropriate- ness of a maintenance unit, nor on the classifications to be included therein, but contends for the exclusion of a half-dozen individuals from any unit on the ground that they are supervisors, professional or office clerical employees. The Employer manufactures kraft paper at its newly established pulp and paper mill at Pine Bluff, Arkansas. It employs approxi- mately 135 employees in production and maintenance work. All departments at the plant with the exception of wood procurement are under the supervision of a general superintendent to whom the various departmental supervisors report. The maintenance unit: The plant engineer supervises the 4 power- house employees directly and through 2 subordinate supervisors, the chief electrician and the master mechanic, oversees the activities of the maintenance, repair, and utility employees. The chief electrician supervises the electricians and their helpers, as well as the instrument mechanics who maintain the pneumatic and electronic controls of the production machinery. The master mechanic supervises the ma- chinists, roll-grinders, welder-boilermakers, pipefitters, millwrights, painters, their helpers and utility men, and oilers. These are all based in the maintenance shop located in a separate building from the pulp and papermaking processes. In addition, the master me- chanic also supervises the yard employees, consisting of a leadman, a truckdriver, and 12 laborers who are assigned to work anywhere in the plant. The Pulp and Sulphite Workers and the Papermakers assert that there is no homogeneous maintenance department or employee group which would be entitled to separate representation, although they do not deny that these employees exercise craft skills in many cases, and in no instance interchange with production employees. We are satisfied from the record as a whole that the employees engaged in maintenance and repair at the plant possess interests which are suf- ficiently separate from those of the production employees to warrant their establishment in a separate unit if they so desire, since there is no collective-bargaining history on a broader basis.' 9 Olin Matheson Chemw.eal Corporation, 117 NLRB 1441 ; East Texas Pulp & Paper Company, 113 NLRB 539. 292 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD We now consider what job categories constitute a homogeneous maintenance group. The Pulp and Sulphite Workers and the Paper- makers would limit the maintenance group to a segment of the em- ployees who are supervised by the master mechanic , thereby exclud- ing the electricians and instrument mechanics , the oilers , the boiler operators in the powerhouse and the yard employees . The Machinists and the Boilermakers would exclude the boiler operators and the yard employees , whereas the Plumbers would treat all the disputed categories as part of the maintenance group. All the Unions seek= ing separate representation of maintenance employees , however, are willing to participate in an election for whatever unit the Board finds may be appropriate . We agree with the position taken by the Plumbers . The electricians , instrument mechanics , and oilers cer- tainly are as fully engaged in the normal type of maintenance work performed in pulp and paper mills as the other skilled workers or maintenance helpers who are supervised by the master mechanic.3 The fact that they work in production areas and on production ma- chinery does not impair their community of interests with other main- tenance workers. The powerhouse department consists of four boiler operators who perform the customary duties of their classification in a separate building located between the maintenance and production areas. As they are not directly engaged in production , and are supervised by the plant engineer , the official responsible for plant maintenance, we find that they are properly included and may vote in the maintenance group election which is directed below.4 The truckdriver and laborers in the yard department load, unload, and transport supplies and material between the various mill build- ings. The laborers also constitute a pool of unskilled helpers for either the production or maintenance departments . As their work is not directly related to the operation of the production machinery, and as they are supervised by the master mechanic , we find that they are properly included and may vote in the maintenance group election 8 The production and maintenance unit: None of the parties dispute the appropriateness of a production and maintenance unit, but the two Unions seeking to represent such a unit would include , and the Employer would exclude , the following employees : .Head, scaler and scaler: These two individuals are hourly paid employees who are supervised by the superintendent and assistant superintendent of the wood procurement department . The Employer contends that the head scaler is a supervisor , and that both scalers are East Texas Pulp & Paper Company, supra Olin Mathieson Chemical Corporation, supra ; Schesing Corporation , 107 NLRB 1540. Union Carbide Chemicals Company, 118 NLRB 954. DIERKS PAPER COMPANY 293 professional and managerial employees. They are graduates of an unnamed forestry school, but their present duties, checking the quality ,and quantity of incoming wood, has been normally considered as plant clerical in nature .6 There was testimony that the scalers may in the future travel about and confer with timber owners on proper methods of grading and selecting wood for cutting, and that they also write checks for company purchases of wood. There is no testimony that the check writing involves the exercise of discretion or judgment or is merely the scalers' computation of what is due to the vendors based on a rate fixed in advance by the company. We find, on the basis of the record before us, that the scalers are neither professional nor managerial employees. Furthermore, as the record does not `establish the Employer's contention that the head scaler is a super- visor we shall include him in the unit. Laboratory technical clerk : This employee works in the laboratory under the supervision of the chief chemist and his assistant. There are also eight testers in the laboratory who run routine tests on pulp and paper whom the Employer does not contend to be technical em- ployees. The clerk is not required to have any advanced educational or technical qualifications, but only a clerical aptitude. We shall in- clude him in the unit as a plant clerical employee. Storekeeper and timekeeper, mail and stock clerk: The duties of these two employees are apparent from their job titles. The Employer contends that the storekeeper supervises the timekeeper and that the latter is an office clerical. He keeps time for the employees supervised by the chief electrician and the master mechanic, picks up mail, and assists the storekeeper. As there was no testimony on the authority exercised by the storekeeper we find that he is a nonsupervisory plant clerical. The timekeeper's activities are mainly in the plant in close contact with production and maintenance workers, and are also clearly plant clerical in nature. We include both the storekeeper and the timekeeper in the production and maintenance unit. Yard leadman: This employee works in the labor pool with the truckdriver and 12 yard laborers. The Employer contends that he is a supervisor but did not introduce any evidence on the nature of his responsibilities. On the state of this record, therefore, we include him in the unit. In view of the foregoing, we shall direct elections by secret ballots among the following groups of employees at the Employer's Pine Bluff, Arkansas, mill, excluding from each voting group office clerical and professional employees, watchmen, guards, and supervisors as defined in the Act : (a) All maintenance and repair employees including electricians, instrument mechanics, oilers, boiler operators, and yard employees. 6 St. Regis Paper Company, 104 NLRB 411, 415, and cases cited therein. 294 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD (b) All production employees, including the plant clerical employees. If a majority of the employees in voting group (a) select the labor organizations (Machinists, Boilermakers, or Plumbers) seeking to rep- resent them separately, these employees will be taken to have indicated their desire to constitute a separate bargaining unit, and the Regional Director conducting the election is instructed to issue a certification of representatives to whichever of these three labor organizations has won a majority of the valid votes cast in this voting group, which the Board in such circumstances finds to be appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining. In that event, if a majority of the em- ployees in voting group (b) select either the Pulp and Sulphite Work- ers or the Papermakers, the Regional Director is instructed to issue a certification of representatives to such labor organization selected for a unit of production employees, which the Board, in these circum- stances , finds to be appropriate for collective bargaining. However, if a majority of the employees in voting group (a) do not vote for the labor organizations seeking to represent them separately, they will be included in, and their votes pooled with, those of voting group (b),° and the Regional Director conducting the election is instructed to issue a certification of representatives to the labor organization selected by a majority of the employees in the pooled production and maintenance group, which the Board, in such circumstances, finds to be appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining. [Text of Direction of Elections omitted from publication.] 7 If the vote 's are pooled , they are to be tallied In the following manner : The votes for the unions seeking a separate maintenance and repair unit shall be counted as valid votes, but neither for nor against the unions seeking to represent the more comprehensive production and maintenance unit; all other votes are to be accorded their face value, whether for representation by a union seeking the more comprehensive group or for no union. Rio de ,Oro Uranium Mines, Inc. and International Hod Carriers and Laborers Union, Local No. 16, AFL-CIO. Case No. 33-CA- 4Df3. April 3, 1958 DECISION AND ORDER On September 10, 1957, Trial Examiner Howard Myers issued his Intermediate Report in the above-entitled proceeding, finding that the Respondent had not engaged in the unfair labor practices al- leged in the complaint and recommending that the complaint be dis- missed in its entirety, as set forth in the copy of the Intermediate Report attached hereto. Thereafter, the General Counsel filed excep- 120 NLRB No. 49.