General Electric Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Dec 23, 1952

101 N.L.R.B. 1341 (N.L.R.B. 1952)

GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY 1341
pilot plant employees, office clerical employees, technical employees,
guards, watchmen, professional employees, and supervisors as defined
in the Act :
(a) All machinists, excluding repairmen, repairmen helpers, and
the maintenance truck driver.
(b) All welders.
(c) All remaining production and maintenance employees, exclud-
ing the over-the-road truck drivers.
If a majority of the employees in voting group (a) or (b) vote for
the same labor organization as do a majority of employees in voting
group (c), such employees will be taken to have indicated their desire
to constitute a single appropriate unit of production and maintenance
employees and the Regional Director conducting the elections di-
rected herein is instructed to issue a certification of representatives
to such labor organization for a unit comprising employees in voting
group (c), plus the employees in the other voting groups selecting
the same organization, which unit the Board, in such circumstances,
finds to be appropriate for purposes of collective bargaining. If a
majority of employees in voting group (a) or (b) vote for a different
representative, then the employees in that voting group will be taken
to have indicated their desire to constitute a separate appropriate
unit, and the Regional Director is instructed to issue a certification
of representatives to the labor organizations thus selected for a unit
comprising the employees in that voting group, which the Board, in
the circumstances, finds to be appropriate for purposes of collective
bargaining.
[Text of Direction of Elections omitted from publication in this
volume.]
GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY and INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION or
MACHINISTS, LODGE 398, AFL, PETITIONER . Case No. 4-RC-1671.
December 03, 1952
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 Eugene M. Levine,
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 :
101 NLRB No. 202.
1342 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the Act.
2. The labor organizations involved claim to represent certain em-
ployees 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 appropriate unit :
The Petitioner seeks to sever a tool and die department 12 including
the tool and die makers and cutter makers, from an established produc-
tion and maintenance unit. The Employer contends that the unit
sought is inappropriate on the grounds (1) that the history of collec-
tive bargaining has been on a plant-wide basis," (2) the unit sought
would embrace only a segment of a craft by excluding the model
makers, and (3) the requested unit is an integral part of the Em-
ployer's production process.
The Employer, a New York corporation, is engaged in the manu-
facture and servicing of electrical and other related products. The
Trenton, New Jersey, plant, the only plant in question, is engaged in
the manufacture of automatic washing machines and clothes driers.
There are presently employed 15 tool and die makers and 8 cutter
makers in the alleged tool and die department, 8 model makers in the
model makers room, and approximately 1,100 employees in the entire
plant.
The chief function of the 15 tool and die makers is to fabricate and
repair tools, dies, jigs, and fixtures. The record reveals that all of
the tool and die makers exercise the skill of their craft, and along with
the model makers are the highest paid employees in the plant. The
8 cutter makers, who are in the next highest pay grade to the tool and
die makers and model makers, develop and maintain cutters. The
record further reveals that the more adept mechanics from the pro-
duction and maintenance department have been taken into the cutter
makers room and trained on the job. Although these employees use
such machines as cutter grinders, grinding equipment, lathes, drill
crafts, and boring machines, the record fails to reveal that any of the
1 The Intervenor, International Union of Electrical , Radio and Machine Workers, CIO,
Local 455 , did not attend the hearing , but requested the hearing officer by telephone to
place its name on the ballot in the event of an election . The Intervenor 's interest is based
upon a current contract, which none of the parties asserts is a bar to this petition. In
view of its interest , the Intervenor 's request will be granted.
2 Although the Petitioner in its petition seeks a tool and die department , the record is
not clear as to whether or not the Employer has administratively provided for such a
department within Its administrative structure.
® The Employer has bargained with the Intervenor since June 6, 1950, and with the
United Electrical , Radio and Machine Workers, its predecessor in interest , since 1943,
for a unit covering all production and maintenance employees , including the tool and die
makers, model makers, and cutter makers.
GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY 1343
cutter makers are skilled journeymen who have undergone a substan-
tial period of appenticeship or comparable training usually associated
with craft status 4 Moreover, none of these employees is ever pro-
moted to the position of tool and die maker. The 8 model makers, who
are engaged exclusively in making models, are located apart from the
tool and die employees, and are under separate supervision. However,
it is clear from the record that they exercise skills comparable to the
tool and die makers, and are comparably paid. On the basis of these
facts, we find that the tool and die makers and model makers, but not
the cutter makers, are craftsmen.
The Board has heretofore found appropriate and severed from a
broader unit tool and die departments, which included a substantial
nucleus of craftsmen and lesser skilled employees, such as those here
involved, on the ground that these employees have a special com-
munity of interest justifying their separation from other plant em-
ployees for the purpose of collective bargaining .5 In a recent case,6
however, the Board reexamined its severance policy and determined
that where, as here, there are other employees in the plant possessing
and using substantially the same skills as the craftsmen sought to
be severed, severance would be granted only on a true craft rather
than a departmental basis.
In view of the foregoing, notwithstanding a history of collective
bargaining on a broader basis, we find that a unit of tool and die
makers and model makers, who are craftsmen of substantially the
same type, may be appropriate? Nor do we find that the kind of
integration in this industry precludes the establishment of such a
craft unit." We therefore shall grant a self-determination election to
all members of this craft group.9
Accordingly we direct an election among all of the tool and die
makers and model makers employed by the Employer at its Trenton,
New Jersey, plant, excluding cutter makers, all other employees,
guards, professional employees, and all supervisors as defined in the
Act. If a majority vote for the Petitioner they will be taken to have
indicated their desire to constitute a separate appropriate unit, and
the Regional Director conducting the election directed herein is in-
structed to issue a certification of representatives to the Petitioner for
the unit described above, which the Board, under such circumstances,
finds to be appropriate for purposes of collective bargaining. In the
4 The record indicates that the top grade cutter makers are sent to a special school for
3 months' training.
n General Electric Company, 89 NLRB 745; B. F. Avery A Sons Company , 86 NLRB 24
Westinghouse Electric Company, 101 NLRB 441.
1 Ibid.
e Ibid.
9 As the Board's records show that the Petitioner has a representative interest in this
craft group , we shall order an election to be held among these employees.
1344 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
event a majority vote for the Intervenor the Board finds the existing
unit to be appropriate and the Regional Director will issue a certifica-
tion of results of election to such effect.
5. The determination of representatives.
The Employer asserts that this plant will cease operations by the
middle of August 1953. It therefore contends that it would not ef-
fectuate the purposes of the Act to conduct a representation election
at this time. The record reveals that the Employer is in the process
of constructing a plant located at Appliance Park, Kentucky, which
will consolidate the manufacture of all of the major appliances of the
Company. The Trenton, New Jersey, plant, the plant in question, will
be affected by this consolidation. The plant manager testified that
the cessation of production of the automatic driers will take place
during the first quarter of 1953. The plans, however, do not can for
the complete cessation of production until sometime, as indicated
above, in mid-August of 1953. The cessation of the production of
the driers will necessarily involve a layoff of some of the production
and maintenance employees, as well as some of the tool makers. The
record, however, is not clear as to how many of the tool and die
makers and model makers will be affected by the layoff during the
first quarter of 1953, and between the first quarter and the date of
the complete shutdown in mid-August of 1953.
As the cessation of operations will continue over an extended period
of time, and as all of the tool and die makers and model makers are
presently employed, and as a substantial and representative number
will continue to be employed for a major portion of the termination
period, we perceive no reason for depriving them of an opportunity to
select a collective bargaining representative at this time 10
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this
volume.]
10 Cf . The Girdler Corp., 96 NLRB 894; General Motors Corp ., 88, NLRB 119.
SEATTLE BAKERS' BUREAU , INC. and CONGRESS OF INDUSTRIAL ORGAN-
IzATIONS , PETITIONER . Case No. 19-RC-1186. December 23,
1952
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 Donald D. McFeely, hearing
officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from
prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
101 NLRB No. 196.