General Motors Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Sep 29, 1943

52 N.L.R.B. 954 (N.L.R.B. 1943)

In the Matter of GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION ( EASTERN AIRCRAFT
DIVISION, BALTIMORE PLANT) and UNITED AUTOMOBILE WORKERS,
C.I.Q.
Case No. R-5926.-Decided September 29,1943
Mr. John Thomas Smith, by Mr. Kevin McInerney, of New York
City, for the Company.
Mr. James J. Starling, of Baltimore, Md., for the Union.
Mr. David V. Easton, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon amended petition duly filed by United Automobile Workers,
C. I. 0., herein called the Union, alleging that a question affecting
commerce had arisen concerning the representation of employees of
General Motors Corporation (Eastern Aircraft Division), Baltimore,
Maryland, herein called the Company, the National Labor Relations
Board provided for an appropriate hearing upon due notice before
Anthony E. Molina, Trial Examiner. Said hearing was held at Bal-
timore, Maryland, on August 27, 1943. The Company and the Union
appeared, participated, and were afforded full opportunity to be
heard, to examine and cross-examine witnesses, and to introduce evi-
dence bearing on the issues . The Company moved at the hearing to
dismiss the petition; said motion was taken under advisement by
the Trial Examiner and referred to the Board. For reasons herein-
after indicated this 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 afforded opportunity to file briefs
with the Board.
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following :
52 N. L. R. B., No. 164.
954
GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION
FINDINGS OF FACT
1. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
955
The Eastern Aircraft Division of General Motors Corporation is
engaged at its Baltimore, Maryland, plant, in the manufacture of air-
plane subassemblies. The Company purchases raw materials for the
use of the Baltimore plant valued in excess of $1,000,000 annually,
of which approximately 90 percent are received from outside the
State of Maryland. The Company manufactures finished products
exceeding the value of $2,000,000 annually, all of which are shipped
to points outside the State of Maryland. The Company admits that
it is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the National Labor
Relations Act.
II. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED
United Automobile Workers, C. I. 0., is a labor organization
affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations, admitting
to membership employees of the Company.
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
By letter dated July 14, 1943, the Union requested recognition
of the Company as the bargaining representative of its timekeepers.
The Company replied by letter dated July 16, in which it refused
such recognition on the ground that timekeepers were clerical em-
ployees who were expressly excluded from the unit for which the
Union is the current bargaining representative, and on the further
ground that such recognition would be a violation of the contract
between the General Motors Corporation and the International
with which the Union is affiliated.
A statement of the Regional Director introduced into evidence
at the hearing indicates that the Union represents a substantial
number of employees in the unit hereinafter found appropriate.'
We find that a question affecting commerce has arisen concerning
the representation of employees of the Company, within the mean-
ing of Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT
The Union, currently the recognized bargaining representative of
the production and maintenance employees of the Company, seeks
to represent a unit consisting of all timekeepers employed at the
1 The Regional Director reported that the Union submitted 18 authorization cards, of
which 11 bore apparently genuine original signatures of persons appearing on the Company's
pay roll of July 27 , 1943. Said pay roll contained the names of 27 persons in the unit
hereinafter found appropriate.
956 DECISIONS OF NM ZONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Baltimore plant, excluding all supervisory employees with authority
to hire, promote, discharge, discipline, or otherwise effect changes
in the status of timekeepers. The Company, in its motion to dis-
miss, and throughout the course of the hearing, contended that
these employees do not comprise an appropriate unit, basing its
contention upon the grounds (a) that they are confidential em-
ployees with responsibilities to management, and do not have the
same interests as the production and maintenance employees, and
(b) recognition of the Union as the bargaining representative of
a unit consisting of timekeepers would be a violation of the present
contract between General Motors Corporation and the International,
of which the Union is an affiliate. Similar contentions were made
by the Company in a previous proceeding involving a unit of time-
keepers and were found to be without merit.2 We iterate herein
our finding in that case that timekeepers may constitute an appro-
priate unit.
A conflict exists with respect to the inclusion of certain time-
keepers known as "shift supervisors" whom the Union would ex-
clude from the unit, and the Company would include. A time-
keeper, testified that he received his orders through the shift super-
visors, and that he had never seen any of them perform non-
supervisory work. The assistant comptroller of the company testi-
fied that these employees spend approximately 50 percent of their
time performing the regular duties of timekeepers, and that the
Company considers them as group leaders. There is also evidence
in the record that the ordinary timekeepers regard these em-
ployees as supervisory. We are of the opinion and find that these
employees possess sufficient indicia of supervisory status as to warrant
their exclusion from the unit. We shall, therefore, exclude them.
We find, therefore, that a unit consisting of all timekeepers employed
at the Baltimore plant of the Company, excluding the head timekeeper,
shift supervisors, and all other supervisory employees with authority
to hire, promote, discharge, discipline, or otherwise effect changes in
the status of employees, or effectively recommend such action, consti-
tute 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
2 Matter of General Motors Corporation, Eastern Aircraft, Trenton Division, 51 N. L. R. B.
1806.
GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION 957
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 Relations
Board Rules and Regulations-Series 2, as amended, it is hereby
DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation to ascertain representa-
tives for the purposes of collective bargaining with General Motors
Corporation (Eastern Aircraft Division, Baltimore Plant), Baltimore,
Maryland, 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 those employees who have since quit
or been discharged for cause, to determine whether or not they desire
to be represented by United Automobile Workers, affiliated with the
Congress of Industrial Organizations, for the purposes of collective
bargaining.
CHAIRMAN Marls took no part in the consideration of the above
Decision and Direction of Election.