Harnischfeger Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Mar 31, 1944

55 N.L.R.B. 909 (N.L.R.B. 1944)

In the Matter Of HARNISCHFEGER CORPORATION and PATTERN MAKERS
LEAGUE OF NORTH AMERICA, MILWAUKEE ASSOCIATION (A. F. L.)
Case No. 13-R-0127.-Decided March 31, 1944
Mr. T. W. Korb, of Milwaukee, Wis., for the Company.
Mr. G. Hallstrom, of Chicago, Ill., and Mr. John D. Maher, of Mil-
waukee, Wis., for the Pattern Makers.
Messrs. W. C. Sonneman and Walter J. Burke, of Milwaukee, Wis.,
for the Steelworkers.
Messrs. Leon Novak and David V. Easton, both of counsel to the
Board.
DECISION
AND
ORDER
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon a petition duly filed by Pattern Makers League of North
America, Milwaukee Association (A. F. L.), herein called the Pattern
Makers, alleging that a question affecting commerce had arisen con-
cerning the representation of employees of Harnischfeger Corpora-
tion, herein called the Company, the National Labor Relations Board
provided for an appropriate hearing upon due notice before Robert
R. Rissman, Trial Examiner. Said hearing was held at Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, on December 20,1943. The Company, the Pattern Makers,
and United Steelworkers of America, Local 1114, C. I. 0., herein called
the Steelworkers, appeared and participated. All parties were af-
forded full opportunity to be heard, to examine and cross-examine
witnesses, and to introduce 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.
Uuon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following:
FINDINGS OF FACT
I. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
Harnischfeger Corporation is a Wisconsin corporation with its office
and principal place of business in Milwaukee. Wisconsin, where it is
55 N. L R . B., No. 162.
909
910 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
engaged in the manufacture, assembly, sale, and distribution of electric
motors, electric overhead cranes, hoists, arc welders, position finders,
power shovels, trenching machines, and truck cranes. Raw materials
used at the Milwaukee plant are chiefly steel, wood, copper, tin, coal,
tires, and motors. During 1943, the Company used such raw mate-
rials of a value in excess of $10,000,000, of which approximately 75
percent was shipped to its plant from points outside the State of Wis-
consin. During the same period the Company's gross sales were in
excess of $30,000,000, approximately 90 percent of which was shipped
to points outside the State of Wisconsin. The Company is engaged
exclusively in war production for the military forces of the United
States.
The Company admits that it is engaged in commerce within the
meaning of the National Labor Relations Act.
II. THE ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED
Pattern Makers League of North America, Milwaukee Association,.
(A. F. L.), affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, is a
Labor organization admitting to membership employees of the.
Company.
United Steel Workers of America, Local 1114, C. 1. 0., affiliated
with the Congress of Industrial Organizations, is a labor organization
admitting to membership employees of the Company.
III. THE ALLEGED APPROPRIATE UNIT
The Pattern Makers in its petition requests a unit consisting of all'
journeymen and apprentice pattern makers employed by the Com-
pany. The Company and the Steelworkers contend that only an.
industrial unit in which the pattern makers are included is,
appropriate.
Since 1939 the Steelworkers has bargained with the Company on'
an industrial basis. Included among the approximately 3,000 pro-
duction and maintenance employees employed by the Company, at
its Milwaukee plant, are 9 pattern makers. It does not appear that
the pattern makers at any time sought separate representation as a
craft unit. Following the advent of the Steelworkers as bargaining
representative of the Company's production and maintenance em-
ployees, a substantial number 1 of the pattern makers became members
of the Steelworkers. Thereafter, the Steelworkers represented the•
pattern makers as part of the industrial unit and,, on a number of
occasions, presented specific grievances in their behalf. As a result
of such bargaining by the Steelworkers, the pattern makers shared:
in the general increases obtained by the Steelworkers, in the years,
1939, 1940, and 1941. In 1942, the Steelworkers presented a request
I The record indicates that at least four of the pattern . makers joined , the Steelworkers.-
HARNISCHFEGER CORPORATION 911
to the Company for a wage increase for the pattern makers only, and
was successful in obtaining such an increase. The record also indi-
cates that the Steelworkers was successful, through bargaining with
the Company, in preventing temporary lay-offs of the pattern makers
in periods when there was insufficient work to keep them occupied,
and in obtaining continuance of the pattern makers department after
the Company had indicated a desire to discontinue the work per-
formed there. Thus it appears that there has been no history of
collective bargaining with the Company on other than an industrial
basis; that the pattern makers have acquiesced for years in the ex-
clusive agency of the Steelworkers, as illustrated by their voluntary
membership in that organization and by their acceptance of the
benefits obtained by it in their behalf, and that during this time they
made no effort to retain separate identity as a craft group.
We find no reason, on the basis of the facts and circumstances out-
lined above, to set the pattern makers apart from the remainder of the,
Company's employees. It is true, as we have frequently found, that
pattern makers form a highly skilled, clearly identifiable, homogene-
ous group, and that we have customarily permitted them to separate
from a plant-wide unit where the history of bargaining on a plant basis.
is of relatively short duration and the pattern makers have not af-
firmatively participated in the plant-wide bargaining and have at-
tempted to establish their separate identity. These factors are not
present here. We are of the opinion that the facts in this case do not
justify the disturbance of the long history of plant-wide collective
bargaining which appears to have achieved and maintained harmony
between the Company and the employees. We conclude that the unit
requested by the pattern makers is not an appropriate unit for the,
purposes of collective bargaining and we so find .2
1V. THE ALLEGED QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
Since, as we have held in Section III, above, the bargaining unit
sought to be established by the petition is inappropriate for the pur-
poses of collective bargaining, we find that no question has been raised
concerning the representation of employees in an appropriate bargain-
ing unit. Accordingly, we shall dismiss the petition.
ORDER
Upon the basis of the above findings of fact, the National Labor
Relations Board hereby orders that the petition for investigation and
certification of representatives filed by Pattern Makers League of
North America, Milwaukee Association ( A. F. L.), be, and it hereby
is, dismissed.
Y For a more complete discussion of this problem , see Matter of Goodyear Tire d Rubber
Company, Case No 8-11-1216 , 55 N. L. R. B. 918.