Kaiser Co., Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Mar 13, 1944

55 N.L.R.B. 439 (N.L.R.B. 1944)

In the Matter of KAISER COMPANY , INC. (IRON AND STEEL DIvIsIoN)
and GENERAL TRUCK DRIVERS UNION, LOCAL 467, AFL
Case No. 21-R-P.'N'5.Decided March, 13, 1944
Messrs. Thomas T. Inch and Walter Farrell, both of Fontana , Calif.,
for the Company.
Mr. John C. Stevenson, of Los Angeles, Calif., for the Truck Drivers.
Mr. W. P. Brzrnton, of Fontana, Calif., for the CIO.
Mr. Glenn L. Moller, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
ORDER
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon a petition duly filed by General Truck Drivers Union, Local
467, AFL, herein called the Truck Drivers, alleging that a question
affecting commerce had arisen concerning the representation of em-
ployees of Kaiser Company, Inc. (Iron and Steel Division), Fontana,
California, herein called the Company, the National Labor Relations
Board provided for an appropriate hearing upon due notice before
George H. O'Brien, Trial Examiner. Said hearing was held at Los
Angeles, California, on January 20, 1944. The Company, the Truck
Drivers, and United Steelworkers of America, CIO, herein called the
CIO, appeared, participated, and were afforded 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.
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following :
FINDINGS OF FACT
I. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
Kaiser Company, Inc., is a Nevada corporation with its principal
office in Oakland, California. The Company's Iron and Steel Divi-
sion operates a plant near Fontana, California , where it is engaged in
55 N. L. R. B, No 83.
439
440 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
the manufacture , production , and sale of pig iron, coke , and coke by-
products . The Company is presently constructing at the Fontana
location a completely integrated iron and steel plant which is now
partially in production.
During the year 1943 , in addition to materials and equipment pur-
chased and shipped to the Fontana plant for construction , the Com-
pany purchased raw materials valued in excess of $1,000,000 , 50 per-
cent of which was shipped to the Fontana plant from points outside
the State of California . During the same period the Company pro-
duced and shipped from the Fontana plant pig iron and steel valued
in excess of $1,000 ,000, 20 percent of which was shipped from the afore-
said plant to points outside the State of California.
The Company admits, and we find , that it is engaged in commerce
within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act.
II. TIIE CRGANIZATIONS INVOLVED
General Truck Drivers Union, Local 467, affiliated with the Inter-
national Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and
Helpers of America and with the American Federation of Labor, is
a labor organization admitting to membership employees of the
Company.
United Steelworkers of America, District 38, affiliated with the
Congress of Industrial Organizations, is a labor organization ad-
mitting to membership employees of the Company.
III. THE ALLEGED QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION IN AN
APPROPRIATE UNIT
The Truck Drivers contends that all persons employed as chauffeurs,
in driving company cars throughout the plant, to transport company
officials and guests, excluding supervisory employees, constitute an
appropriate bargaining unit. The Company and the CIO contend
that the employees are a part of the general production and mainte-
nance unit recently found appropriate by the Board.'
Subsequent to the issuance of the Decision and Direction of Election,
cited above, the Truck Drivers filed its petition in this proceeding. In
our certification, in that proceeding, of United Steelworkers of Amer-
ica as exclusive bargaining representative of the Company's produc-
tion and maintenance employees at the Fontana plant ,2 we alluded
to the Truck Drivers' petition and stated :
Subsequent to the hearing and the issuance of the Decision and
Direction of Election, but before the election was held, General
1 53 N. L. R B. 880.
2 54 N. L. R B. 1219
KAISER C0DIPA\ Y , INC. 441
Truck Drivers Union. Local 407, AFL, herein called the Truck
Drivers, filed a petition with the Board in Case No. 21-R-2225,
seeking an election in a unit consisting of all persons employed
as chauffeurs, driving company cars throughout the plant in trans-
porting company officials and guests. During the election, three
of the approximately nine employees in this alleged appropriate
unit cast ballots. Pursuant to the prior announcement, their
ballots were challenged and impounided. Thereafter, on January
20, 1944, pursuant to notice issued by the Regional Director, a
hearing on the Truck Drivers' petition was conducted, and the
matter is presently pending before the Board. In the interest
of expedition, we shall refrain, at this time, from certifying tin
CIO as bargaining representative of this group of employees
However, our action in this regard shall be without prejudice to
a later determination, after examination of the relevant facts,
that such employees should not be set apart from the production
and maintenance employees.
Our conclusions are set forth in the discussion below.
The employees here involved are women chauffeurs who operate the
automobiles in a car pool in the transport of company employees and
officials about the plant. Although there were eight or nine of these
employees when the car pool arrangement began, about November 1,
1943, there are now only five of them. They are carried on the Com-
pany's production and maintenance pay roll. Most of their passengers
are timekeeepers, going to and from various parts of the plant in order
to obtain pay-roll data, plant engineers studying operations or super-
vising repairs and alterations, and company officials. The functions
of the car pool are, therefore, essential to the operation of the plant
and may appropriately be considered to be part of the Company's pro-
duction and maintenance activities.
The Truck Drivers urges that our recent finding that a plant-wide
production and maintenance unit is appropriate is not determinative
of the unit issue herein, and that its proposed unit is appropriate
because the car pool did not exist at the time of the hearings in the
earlier proceedings ; the question of the propriety of a separate unit of
these chauffeurs has not previously been considered; the chauffeurs are
supervised by the individual who is in charge of most of the truck
drivers in the Company's employ, all of whom are carried on the Com-
pany's construction pay roll and therefore not included in the produc-
tion and maintenance unit; and all of the chauffeurs allegedly wish
to be represented by the Truck Drivers. It is true that the issue of the
propriety of a separate unit of these chauffeurs has not previously been
before us. At the time of the prior proceeding, however, a number
of chauffeurs were attached to the various departments in the plant
442 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
driving pick-up trucks and passenger cars of the Company. None of
the parties to that proceeding questioned the propriety of including
such employees in the unit with production and maintenance em-
ployees, and the separate unit now proposed by the Truck Drivers does
not cover them. The result, so far as this proceeding is concerned, of
the recent establishment of the car pool has been merely to increase the
number of car drivers in the Company's employ. We find no reason
to separate this increment from the car drivers previously employed.
Moreover, these intraplant chauff eurs, whose functions are integrated
with those of the production employees,3 do not have craft interests
which would warrant our segregating them, for the purposes of collec-
tive bargaining, from the employees in the industrial unit which we
have found appropriate in this plant, and which conforms to the pat-
tern we have frequently approved in other cases involving the steel
industry.4 Since it is apparent that the employees to whom the petition
herein pertains are among the occupational groups included in the
bargaining unit of production and maintenance employees previously
found appropriate, we find that the unit sought by the Truck Drivers
is inappropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining. Accord-
ingly, we shall dismiss the Truck Drivers' petition.
ORDER
Upon the basis of the foregoing findings of fact, the National Labor
Relations Board hereby orders that the petition for investigation and
certification of representatives, filed by General Truck Drivers Union,
Local 467, AFL, be, and it hereby is, dismissed.
MR. JOHN M. HOUSTON took no part in the consideration of the above
Decision and Order.
8 Cf Matter of Sutherland Paper Company, 55 N L R. B. 38.
A Matter of Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company, 39 N. L. R. B. 626, and cases
cited therein.