Federal-Mogul Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Mar 11, 1946

66 N.L.R.B. 532 (N.L.R.B. 1946)

In the Matter of FEDERAL -MOGUL CORPORATION and FOREMAN'S As-
SOCTATION OF AMERICA (INDE PENDENT ), CHAPTER No. 46
Case No. 7-R,9029.-Decided March 11, 1946
Mr. R. I. Marquis, of Detroit, Mich., for the Company.
Mr. William Valiance, of Detroit, Mich., for the Union.
Mr. Bernard Goldberg, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon a petition duly filed by Foreman's Association of America
(Independent), Chapter No. 46, herein called the Union, alleging that
a question affecting commerce had arisen concerning the representa-
tion of employees of Federal-Mogul Corporation, Detroit, Michigan,
herein called the Company, the National Labor Relations Board pro-
vided for an appropriate hearing upon due notice before Meyer D.
Stein, Trial Examiner. The hearing was held at Detroit. -Michigan,
on September 11, and 19,1945. The Company and the Union
appeared and participated. All parties were afforded full opportun-
ity to be heard, to examine and cross-examine witnesses , and to intro-
duce evidence bearing on the issues. At the hearing, the Company
moved to dismiss the petition. The Trial Examiner referred this
motion to the Board. For reasons stated, infra, the motion is hereby
denied. The Trial Examiner's rulings made at the hearing are free
from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed. All parties were af-
forded an opportunity to file briefs with the Board.
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following:
FINDINGS OF FACT
1. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
Federal-Mogul Corporation, a Michigan corporation having its
principal office and place of business in Detroit, Michigan, is engaged
in the manufacture of bearings, bushings, bronze castings and bear-
66 N. L . R. B., No. 70.
532
FEDERAL-MOGUL CORPORATION 533
ings, and babbitt materials at a number of plants located throughout
the United States. This proceeding is concerned only with the Shoe-
maker plant, also known as Plant I, located in the City of Detroit.
During 1944, the Company purchased more than $2,000,000 worth of
materials, supplies, and equipment for use at the Shoemaker plant
and manufactured in excess of $12,000,000 worth of finished products
at the same plant. Approximately 75 percent of the purchases was
shipped into the State of Michigan from sources outside the State and
about 80 percent of the products manufactured was shipped out of the
State.
The Company admits that it is engaged in commerce within the
meaning of the National Labor Relations Act.
II. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED
Foreman's Association of America (Independent), Chapter No. 46,
unaffiliated, is a labor organization admitting supervisory employees
of the Company into membership.
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
The Company has declined to recognize the Union as the collective
bargaining representative of its supervisory employees.
In support of its motion to dismiss the petition, the Company con-
tends that the foremen involved herein are not employees within the
meaning of the Act. The arguments advanced by the Company to
support this position have been considered in a number of previous
cases . The Board has found,' as have the courts,2 that the definitions
of "employer" and "employee" contained in the Act are not mutually
exclusive; that a foreman is an "employer" when he acts in the interest
of his employer, but he is an "employee" when he acts in his own
interest, as when he seeks to better the terms and conditions of his
employment. Inasmuch as the foremen in the present proceeding are
acting in their own interests, we find that they are employees within
the definition contained in Section 2 (3) of the Act.
A statement of a Board agent, introduced into evidence at the hear-
ing, indicates that the Union represents a substantial number of em-
ployees in the unit hereinafter found appropriate.3
I Matter of Soss Manufacturing Company, et al, 56 N. L. It. B. 348; Matter of Packard
Motor Car Company, 61 N. L. It. B. 4, and 64 N. L. It. B 1212; Matter of L A
Young Spring & Wire Corporation, 65 N. L. It. B. 298; Matter of The B. F. Good-
rich Company, 65 N. L. It. B. 294 ; Matter of Simmons Company, 65 N. L. R. B. 984;
Matter of The Midland Steel Products Company , 65 N L R B 997.
2N. L. R. B. v. Armour and Co, 154 F. (2d) 570 (C. C. A. 10) ; Jones & Laughlin
Steel Corporation v. N. L. R. B, 146 F. (2d) 833 (C. C. A. 5) ; N. L R. B. v. Skinner &
Kennedy Stationery Company, 113 F. (2d) 667 (C C A 8).
3 The Field Examiner reported that the Union submitted 68 membership application
cards and that there were 69 employees in the alleged appropriate unit.
534 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
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 Union seeks a unit of assistant foremen, foremen , and general
foremen in the foundry, lining and plating, machining, toolroom,
machine repair , maintenance, salvage and dispatch, inspection, re-
ceiving, shipping, and tool crib departments of the Company's Shoe-
maker plant, including assistant superintendent of the foundry de-
partment, assistant chief tool designer, assistant chief inspectors, de-
partmental supervisor and assistant departmental supervisor in the
time department, but excluding assistant to plant superintendent, as-
sistant plant superintendents, and all other supervisors of the same or
higher rank, chief tool designer, chief inspector, personnel depart-
ment supervisors, standards department supervisors, production man-
ager, material supervisor, scheduling supervisor, tooling supervisor,
plant-protection supervisors, foundry superintendent, plant engineer,
laboratory supervisors, and general office supervisors.
The Company contends apparently that no unit of its foremen
would be appropriate because (a) the foremen involved are not em-
ployees with the meaning of the Act, (b) the Company is not engaged
in mass production, and (c) the foremen are not "traffic cops." With-
out waiving its objection to any unit of foremen, the Company agrees
to the composition of the unit as set forth above except that it would
exclude assistant chief inspectors, departmental supervisor and as-
sistant departmental supervisor in the time department, and assistant
chief tool designer.
In the recent Young case,4 the majority of the Board considered in
detail arguments similar to those made by the Company against the
appropriateness of any unit of its foremen. The majority in the cited
case held that foremen as employees within the meaning of the Act
were entitled to be placed in some appropriate bargaining unit under
Section 9 (b) ; that the type of industry in which the foremen are
employed is immaterial ; and that the nature of the duties and respon-
sibilities of the foremen is relevant only insofar as it bears on the
question of proper grouping of the foremen for collective bargaining
purposes.5
The unit proposed by the Union consists of assistant foremen, fore-
men, and general foremen. The parties have agreed that all three
classes of foremen have identical rights, duties, responsibilities, and
* Matter of L. A. Young Spring t Wire Corporation , 65 N L. R B. 298.
5 See Matter of The B . F. t oodrtch Company, 6.5 N. L. R. B. 294.
FEDERAL-MOGUL CORPORATION 535
authority within their respective spheres. Under all the circumstances,
we are of the opinion that the assistant foremen, foremen, and general
foremen may together constitute a single appropriate unit."
The unit sought by the Union consists of supervisors of production
and maintenance employees plus the fringe classifications discussed
hereinafter; the Company, as previously stated, desires to exclude
these fringe classifications from the unit.
Assistant chief tool designer: This employee supervises a group of
technical employees, principally draftsmen, engaged in tool design.
As the Board customarily excludes technical employees from units of
nonsupervisory production and maintenance employees, we shall ex-
clude the assistant chief tool designer, a supervisor of technical em-
ployees, from this unit of supervisors of production and maintenance
workers.
Assistant chief inspectors : By virtue of their duties these employ-
ees are on a level of supervision equivalent to that of assistant plant
superintendents who, the parties agree, are to be excluded from the
unit. We shall, therefore, exclude the assistant chief inspectors.
Supervisor and assistant supervisor of time office : The time office,
although located in one of the plant buildings, is actually a part of
the general corporate organization rather than of the plant organiza-
tion. The responsibility for the operations of the office rests with the
Company's comptroller and not with the plant manager as is the case
with all the other departments included in the unit. The checkers
and time office clerks employed check the time cards of the employees
in the Shoemaker plant and prepare the pay roll for employees of the
plant, for empolyees of the service division located elsewhere in the
City of Detroit, and for part-time office workers. It is apparent that
the supervisors in .the time office are clerical supervisors and that they
have more interests in common with general office supervisors who are
excluded from the unit than with plant production and maintenance
supervisors. Accordingly, we shall exclude them from this unit.
The Company has not contended that the Union is not independent
of International Union, United Automobile, Aircraft, and Agricul-
tural Implement Workers of America, CIO, which represents certain
of its nonsupervisory employees. As in previous cases involving the
Foreman's Association of America and its locals, we find that the
Union is an independent, unaffiliated labor organization organized
for the exclusive purpose of representing supervisory employees.?
We find that all assistant foremen, foremen, and general foremen
in the foundry, lining and plating, machining, toolroom, machine re-
6 See Matter of The Midland Steel Products Company, 65 N. L. R. B 997.
7 7 Matter of Packard Motor Car Company, supra; Matter of L. A. Young Spring
& Wire Corporation, supra; Matter of The B F Goodrich Company, supra; Matter of
Simmons Company, supra; Matter of The Midland Steel Products Company, supra.
536 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
pair, maintenance, salvage and dispatch, inspection, receiving, ship-
ping, and tool crib departments of the Company's Shoemaker plant
(also called Plant 1), including assistant superintendent of foundry
department, but excluding assistant chief tool designer, chief tool de-
signer, assistant chief inspectors, chief inspector, personnel depart-
ment supervisors, standards department supervisors, production man-
ager, material supervisor, scheduling supervisor, tooling supervisor,
plant protection supervisors, plant engineer, laboratory supervisors,
general office supervisors, foundry supervisor, assistant to plant super-
intendent, assistant plant superintendents, and all other supervisors
above the rank of assistant plant superintendent, constitute a unit
appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the mean-
ing 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 employees
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.
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 Relations
Act, and pursuant to Article III, Section 9, of National Labor Rela-
tions 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 Federal-Mogul
Corporation, Detroit, Michigan, 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 Seventh 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 em-
ployees 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
those employees 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 or not they desire to be represented by Fore-
FEDERAL-MOGUL CORPORATION S37
man's Association of America (Independent), Chapter No. 46, for the
purposes of collective bargaining.
MR. GERARD D. REILLY took no part in the consideration of the above
Decision and Direction of Election.