E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Mar 12, 1946

66 N.L.R.B. 631 (N.L.R.B. 1946)

In the Matter of E. I. DU PONT DE NEMOURS & COMPANY, INC.,
SPRUANCE WORKS, RAYON DivisioN and INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD
OF FIREMEN AND OILERS, A. F. OF L.
Case No. 5-R-20049.-Decided March 12, 1946 '
Mr. P. B. Collins, of Wilmington, Del., for the Compal}y.
Mr. Charles J. Verlander, of Richmond, Va., for the Firemen' and
Oilers.
Mr. R. J. Francis, of Petersburg , Va., for the Independent.
Mr. Donald H. Frank, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon a petition duly filed by International Brotherhood of Fire-
men and Oilers, A. F. of L., herein called the Firemen and Oilers,
alleging that a question affecting commerce had arisen concerning he
representation of employees of E. I. Du Pont de Nemours & Company,
Inc., Spruance Works, Rayon Division, Richmond, Virginia, herein
called the Company,' the National Labor Relations ' Board provided
for an appropriate hearing upon due notice before S. J. 13arban, Trial
Examiner. The hearing was held at Richmond, Virginia, on Decem-
ber 19, 1945. The Company, the Firemen and Oilers, and Ampthijl
Rayon Workers, Incorporated, herein 'called the Independent, ap-
peared and participated.2 All parties were afforded full opportunity
to be heard, to examine and cross-examine witnesses, and to intr-duce
evidence bearing on the issues. The Trial Examiner's rulings made
at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
All parties were afforded an opportunity to file briefs with the Board.
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following :
i The name of the Company appears herein as corrected at the hearing.
2 International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers was served with notice of hearing,
but did not appear or participate.
66 N. L. R. B., No. 88.
63f
632 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
FINDINGS OF FACT
1. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
E. I. Du Pont de Nemours & Company, Inc., is a Delaware cor-
poration engaged in the manufacture of rayon at its Spruance Works,
Richmond, Virginia, the sole operation involved in this proceeding.
From December 1, 1944, to December 1, 1945, the Spruance Works
used raw materials valued in excess of $1,000,000, of which 80 percent
was shipped to that Works from points outside the Commonwealth
of Virginia. During that same period, the Spruance Works manufac-
tured finished products valued in excess of $1,000,000, of which ap-
proximately 80 percent was shipped from that Works to points
outside the Commonwealth of Virginia,
The Company admits that it is engaged in commerce within the
meaning of the National Labor Relations Act, and we so find.
II. THE ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED
International Brotherhood of Firemen and Oilers, affiliated with
the American Federation of Labor, is a labor organization admitting
to membership employees of the Company.
Ampthill Rayon Workers, Incorporated, is an independent labor
organization admitting to membership employees of the Company.
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
The Company has refused to grant recognition to the Firemen and
Oilers as the exclusive bargaining representative of the Company's
power section employees until the Firemen and Oilers has been cer-
tified by the Board in an appropriate unit.
On November 27,1945, the Company and the Independent signed a
collective bargaining contract covering, among others, the Company's
power section employees involved herein. The contract, entered into
after the filing of the Firemen and Oilers' petition, is not urged as a
bar to the instant proceeding.
A statement of a Board agent, introduced into evidence at the
hearing, indicates that the Firemen and Oilers represents a substan-
tial number of employees in the unit sought .3
*The Field Examiner reported that the Firemen and Oilers submitted 78 authorization
cards, 57 of which bore names of persons appearing on the Company's pay roll of August
6, 1945 , which contained the names of 82 employees in the unit sought; and that the
cards were dated 2 in May, 13 in July , 35 in August, 4 in September, and 3 in October
1945.
At the hearing a company witness testified that of the Company's 3,954 employees,
2,144 had signed voluntary dues deduction cards for the Independent by December 17,
1945, of which 72 were cards of employees within the unit sought by the Firemen and
Oilers.
E. I. DU PONT DE NEMOURS & COMPANY, INC. 63 3
We find that a question affecting commerce has arisen concerning
the representation of employees of the Company, within the meaning
of Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT
The Firemen and Oilers seeks a unit consisting of all the Com-
pany's power section employees, including the boiler operators,
switchboard operators, refrigeration engineers, utility operators, tur-
bine operators, condenser operators, pulverizing machine operators,
filter plant operators and filter plant operators second class , coal han-
dling head operators,4 coal handlers, process equipment cleaner,5
laborers, millwrights, `mechanics, instrument mechanics, pipe fitters,
and painter, but excluding the electricians, power supervisor, assistant
power supervisor, day shift supervisor, shift supervisors, foremen,
results engineer, technical assistant to results engineer , water purifica-
tion supervisor, filter plant foreman, chief electrician, power stand-
ards engineer , and all other supervisory employees within our usual
definition.
The Spruance Works consists of three rayon plants called the manu-
facturing building, a cellophane plant, and an experimental plant
called the semi -works. These plants are supplied with steam, elec-
tricity, compressed air, refrigeration, and water by the powerhouse,
which is approximately 150 yards from the manufacturing building,
in a separate building. The filter plant, which is a separate building
approximately 75 feet from the powerhouse, purifies, filters, and
softens water for the use of the powerhouse and the plants. In the
coal unloading area, 50 to 75 yards south of the powerhouse, the coal
used by the powerhouse is unloaded from cars onto a conveyor belt
which carries it to silos outside the powerhouse. The powerhouse,
filter plant, and coal unloading area constitute the Company's power
section.
The Company contends that the history of collective bargaining
upon a plant-wide basis makes the unit sought herein inappropriate.
We recently considered this contention, made by the Company con-
cerning this same operation in a case in which an electricians' unit
was found appropriate, and held it to be without merit.6
4 It is clear that coal handling head operators are working leaders who do not exercise
supervisory power within our usual definition.
s The record reveals that the title "process equipment cleaner " has been temporarily
awarded In the past to laborers from the yard departpnent , not a part of the power
section, who during the summer are assigned to cleaning the boiler drums in the powa'-
house. It is our intention to include in the unit hereinafter found appropriate only he
one employee who carries that title on a year -round basis.
a Matter of E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, Spruance Works, Rayon Divisioi, 64
N. L. R. B. 639.
634 DECISIONS OF,NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
The Company, further contends that the centralization of the Com-
pany's activities and supervision, the community of interest of all its
employees in terms and conditions of labor, the similarity of their
wages and conditions of employment, and the interdependence of the
various functions of the plant call for a single plant-wide unit and
demonstrate the impropriety of the smaller unit sought here. We
have had frequent occasion to recognize the propriety of a separate
unit of powerhouse and boiler room employees.' Here, all of the
employees involved are within the power section under identical su-
pervision. The present seniority system, introduced between 1936 and
1938, has resulted in a high rate of promotip between the various
,jobs within the power section. These employeesare carried, on a sepa-
rate pay roll. We are of the opinion that the, employees of the power
section in this case are a distinct group, similar to those we have con-
sidered in previous cases, and having a community of interest suffi-
cieiit to allow them to function as a separate bargaining unit.
The Company contends, moreover, that if a departmental unit of
power section employees is determined to be appropriate, it, should
not include that section's maintenance craftsmen and laborers. We
have, in the past, in several instances included maintenance employ-
ees in departmental units of power plant and boiler room employees.8
Here, all of the 17 maintenance employees involved, with the excep-
tion of the painter,9 are permanently assigned to the power section,
and. are under the exclusive supervision of the power section super-
visors. The millwrights, mechanics, and pipe fitters normally work
only within the section; thedinstrument mechanics perform some work
outside of the power section,, servicing and inspecting meters and
related power equipment. All of them are carried on the power sec-
tion pay roll, and all of them maintain power section equipment only.
Under similar circumstances, we recognized the propriety of a de-
partmental unit of electricians, and included maintenance employees
therein, in the earlier du Pont case10 involving this plant. We are of
the opinion that these employees have a community of interest with
the other power section employees in terms and conditions of em-
* Matter of Kearney & Trecker Corporation, 62 N. L. It. B. 1174, and cases cited
therein.
$Matter of Dodge Chacago Plant, Division of Chrysler Corporation, 55 N. L . R. B. 634;
Matter of Remrongton Arms Company, Inc., 54 N. L. R. B. 338; Matter of Industrial
Rayon Corporation , 33 N. L. R. B. 680; cf. Matter of E. I. DuPont de Nemours & Com-
pany, Indiana Ordnance Works, 59 N. L. It. B. 952 ; Matter of Alls, -Chalmers Mfg. Com-
pany, 47 N. L. R. B. 85.
i The sole painter presently working in the power section is supervised by the painter
foreman of the maintenance department . He does not appear on the power Section pay
rol. We shall exclude him from the unit hereinafter found appropriate.
"Footnote 6, supra.
E. I. DU PONT DE NEMOURS & COMPANY, INC. 635
ployment, and we shall include them in the unit hereinafter found
appropriate.11
The remaining categories in dispute are laborers and coal handlers,
about 16 in number. It has been our custom to include in units of
power plant employees those employees of the power plant engaged
in common labor.12 We are presented in this case with no factors
persuasive of a different ruling concerning those employees involved
herein, and we shall include them in the unit hereinafter found
appropriate.
We find that all of the Company's power section employees, includ-
ing the boiler operators, switchboard operators, refrigeration engi-
neers, utility operators, turbine operators, condenser operators, pul-
verizing machine operators, filter plant operators and filter plant
operators second class, coal handling head operators, coal handlers,
process equipment cleaner, millwrights, mechanics, instrument me-
chanics, pipe fitters, and laborers, but excluding the painter,
electricians, power supervisor, assistant power supervisor, day shift
supervisor, shift supervisors, foremen, results engineer, technical
assistant to results engineer, water purification supervisor, filter plant
foremen, chief electrician, power standards engineer, and any other
supervisory employees with authority to hire, promote, discharge,
discipline, or otherwise effect changes in the status of employees, or
effectively recommend such action, constitute a unit appropriate for
the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section
9 (b) of the Act.
V. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
We shall direct that the question concerning representation which
has arisen be resolved by an election by secret ballot among the em-
ployees in the appropriate unit who were employed during the pay-
roll period immediately preceding the date of the Direction of
Election herein, subject to the limitations and additions set forth in
the Direction. In the event that the Independent wins the election,
we shall, if that organization so desires, dismiss the petition filed by
the Firemen and Oilers, rather than certify the Independent as col-
lective bargaining representative of the employees in the collective
bargaining unit herein found appropriate.
11 We reject the Company's contention that the Firemen and Oilers may not be certified
as the collective bargaining representative of these employees because its constitution
does not provide for the membership of these employees in that organization . See Matter
of Platzer Boat Works, 59 N L. It. B. 292
v Matter of B I. Du Pont de Nemoors f Company , Indiana Ordnance Works, supra;
Matter of National Enameling and Stamping Company, 55 N. L . R. B. 1397 ; Matter of
Aluminum Forgings, Inc., 53 N. L. R. B. 1054.
636 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
By virtue of and pursuant to the power vested in the National
Labor Relations Board by Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Rela-
tions Act, and pursuant to Article III, Section 9, of National Labor
Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 3, as amended, it is
hereby
DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation to ascertain representa-
tives for the purposes of collective bargaining with E. I. Du Pont de
Nemours & Company, Inc., Spruance Works, Rayon Division, Rich-
mond, Virginia, an election by secret ballot shall be conducted as
early as possible, but not later than thirty (30) days from the date
of this Direction, under the direction and supervision of the Regional
Director for the Fifth Region, acting in this matter as agent for the
National Labor Relations Board, and subject to Article III, Sections
10 and 11, of said Rules and Regulations, among the employees in
the unit found appropriate in Section IV, above, who were employed
during the pay-roll period immediately preceding the date of this
Direction, including employees who did not work during said pay-
roll period because they were ill or on vacation or temporarily laid
off, and including employees in the armed forces of the United States
who present themselves in person at the polls, but excluding any who
have since quit or been discharged for cause and have not been rehired
or reinstated prior to the date of the election, to determine whether
they desire to be represented by International Brotherhood of Fire-
men and Oilers, A. F. of L., or by Ampthill Rayon Workers, Incor-
porated, for the purposes of collective bargaining, or by neither.
MR. GERARD D. REILLY took no part in the consideration of the
above Decision and Direction of Election.