Magic Chef, Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Apr 22, 1954

108 N.L.R.B. 392 (N.L.R.B. 1954)

392 DECISIONS OF'NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
MAGIC CHEF, INC., FEDERAL FOUNDRY COMPANY DIVI-
SION and LOCAL 171, METAL POLISHERS, BUFFERS,
PLATERS & HELPERS INTERNATIONAL UNION, AFL,
Petitioner. Case No. 35-RC-955. April 22, 1954
DECISION AND ORDER
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National
Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before John H.
Hendrickson, hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings
made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are
hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds:
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning
of the Act.
2. The labor organizations involved claim to represent em-
ployees of the Employer.'
3. No question affecting commerce exists concerning the
representation of employees of the Employer within the mean-
ing of Section 9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act, for
the following reasons:
The Petitioner seeks a unit of metal polishers and buffers.
The Employer and the Intervenor contend that the existing unit
of all production and maintenance employees, excluding pattern-
makers (who are separately represented), is the only appropri-
ate unit.
The Employer and the Intervenor have been parties to succes-
sive collective -bargaining agreements covering productionand
maintenance employees since 1945 , and a supplemental agree-
ment covering employees in the newly created polishing and
buffing operations . The existing agreements are not asserted
as a bar.'
The Employer employs approximately 150 employees and
manufactures stoves and household fixture parts. During 1952
the Employer installed a machine shop in its plant, and, in May
1953, installed polishing and buffing equipment in the machine
shop. There are 3 polishers and buffers, all of whom had over
3 years' experience when hired by the Employer. They are
under separate immediate supervision.
The Employer's polishing operations as of the date of the
hearing were, for the most part, limited to steam irons and
brass doorknobs (rough polished). These operations, according
to the record, require relatively little skill. The Employer also
had polishing and buffing operations on electric fan blades--an
operation that requires a higher degree of skill--but the amount
of such work was minor and on a pilot basis only. Polishers
'Local 761, United Automobile , Aircraft R, Agricultural Implement Workers of America,
UAW-CIO, herein called the Intervenor , was permitted to intervene at the hearing.
2 The supplemental agreement covering the polishers and buffers expired on October 13,
1953, and was not renewed.
108 NLRB No. 69.
HUMBOLDT LUMBER HANDLERS, INC. 393
and buffers normally advance to the top job rate in a period of
12 months; 1 new employee, however, advanced to the top job
rate after only 2 months of employment. Although a maximum 1
year on-the-job training program is maintained for the em-
ployees in question, we find that the record in this case reveals
that the type of polishing and buffing work performed by them
is limited in scope and involves a restricted variety of metals.
The Board recognizes that employees in the metal-polishing and
buffing classifications sometimes possess true skills and in
those situations, as craftsmen are entitled to severance on a
craft basis. However, the employees sought herein do not, in
our opinion, exercise sufficiently the skills generally attribut-
able to employees in those craft classifications, and for that
reason we are constrained to deny the Petitioner's request for
severance. As we have found the proposed unit inappropriate,
we shall dismiss the petition.
[The Board dismissed the petition.]
3George J. Mayer Company, 77 NLRB 425 at 427. See also Kwikset Locks, Inc., 107 NLRB
247.
The Board announced in American Potash & Chemical Corporation, 107 NLRB 1418,
that it would "exercise great care in making certain that in the administration of [the craft
severance] rule only groups exercising genuine craft skills will be embraced within the ambit
of the rule."
HUMBOLDT LUMBER HANDLERS, INC. and JAMES J. KANE,
Petitioner
WES-CAL MFG.CO. and RICHARD D. GILLESPIE, Petitioner.
Cases Nos. Z0-RD -93 and 20-RD-94. April 22, 1954
DECISION AND ORDER
Upon petitions duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National
Labor Relations Act, a consolidated hearing was held before
Milen C. Dempster, hearing officer. The hearing officer's
rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error
and are hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in this proceeding, the Board finds:
1. Humboldt Lumber Handlers, Inc., hereinafter called
Handlers, is a California corporation engaged in the business
of custom carloading of lumber. Its only plant is located at
Arcata, California. During the past year it rendered services
worth in excess of $ 180,000. Four of its principal customers
during this period were Diebold Mills, Inc., Paragon Plywood
Corporation, Cal Pacific Redwood Company, Inc., and Arcata
Lumber Services, Inc. Handlers furnished services valued at
approximately $82,000 to these 4 companies, each of which
annually shipped outside the State goods worth more than
108 NLRB No. 79.