Mathieson Alabama Chemical Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board DecisionsDec 17, 1952

101 N.L.R.B. 1079 (N.L.R.B. 1952)

MATHIESON ALABAMA CHEMICAL CORPORATION 1079 for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act: Unit No. 1: All cutters, Tuggers, and helpers at Swift and Company's North 6th Street, New York City, branch house, excluding all other employees and supervisors as defined in the Act. (Case No. 2-RC- 4858.) Unit No. 2: All luggers, cutters, and scalers at Wilson & Company, Inc.'s, branch at 154 Fort Greene Place, New York City, excluding the shipper, salesmen, office and clerical employees, the manager, depart- ment heads, and supervisors as defined in the Act. (Case No. 2-RC- 4943.) Unit No. 3: All luggers, cutters, and scalers at Wilson & Co., Inc.'s, branch at North 6th Street, New York City, excluding the shipper, salesmen, office and clerical employees, the manager, department heads, the checker, and supervisors as defined in the Act. (Case No. 2-RC- 4944.) Unit No. 4: All luggers, cutters, boners, scalers, egg candlers, and production and maintenance employees in Armour and Company's branch located at North 6th Street, New York City, excluding all other employees and supervisors as defined in the Act. (Case No. 2-RC- 4855.) Unit No. 5: All luggers, cutters, boners, production and maintenance employees including processing employees, and egg candlers at Armour and Company's branch located at 197 Fort Greene Place, New York City, excluding all other employees and supervisors as defined in the Act. (Case No. 2-RC-4856.) Unit No. 6: All luggers, cutters, boners, checkers, shipping and re- ceiving clerks, production and maintenance employees, and egg can- dlers, at Cudahy Packing Company's branch located at 110 North 6th Street, New York City, excluding all other employees and supervisors as defined in the Act. (Case No. 2-RC-4857.) [Text of Direction of Elections omitted from publication in this volume.] MATHIESON ALABAMA CHEMICAL CORPORATION and INTERNATIONAL CHEMICAL WORKERS UNION, AFL, PETITIONER MATHIESON ALABAMA CHEMICAL CORPORATION and INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS, LOCAL No. 505, AFL, PETI- TIONER. Cases Nos. 15-RC-905 and 15-RC-820. December 17,1952 Decision, Order, and Direction of Election Upon separate petitions duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the Na- tional Labor Relations Act, a consolidated hearing was held before 101 NLRB No. 182. 1080 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD Joseph Smolen, 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 these cases to a three- member panel [Members Houston, Murdock, and Styles]. Upon the entire record in these cases , the Board finds : 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 Employer manufactures caustic soda and chlorine at its plant at McIntosh, Alabama. It is a subsidiary of Mathieson Chemi- cal Corporation of Baltimore , Maryland, and began operations on August 2, 1952 . Chlorine and caustic soda is produced at the Em- ployer's plant by an electrolytic mercury cell process. From wells on land adjacent to the plant property, brine is pumped into the brine treatment or purification area and the impurities removed. The fluid then passes into electrolytic cells where it is subjected to electric cur- lent and thereby the end products , caustic soda and chlorine , are pro- duced. Due to the lack of intermediate storage facilities during the production steps, ' the fluid must flow continuously throughout the entire production process. Such process is dependent upon the con- tinued flow of electric current and electrically driven devices , gauges, instrument , and valves . All phases of the process are interdependent and an operating failure in any portion of the plant necessitates a shutdown of the entire operation . The plant operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. At the top of the supervisory hierarchy at the Employer's plant is the operations manager. Under him supervision is divided between the production superintendent and the plant engineer . The latter is in charge of plant maintenance excepting the cell maintenance crew which reports directly to the general foreman under the production superintendent . The plant engineer directly supervises the instru- ment electricians and the electricians , first-class ; the master mechanic is responsible to him for all other maintenance personnel. On the production side, under the general foreman, the shift foreman is in charge of all shift employees. A Brine, the raw material , is stored prior to the beginning of the production process and the end products are sometimes stored before shipment MATHIESON ALABAMA CHEMICAL CORPORATION 1081 There are approximately 82 hourly paid production and mainte- nance employees. Forty-four of this number, including all mainte- nance repairmen, are day workers and the remaining employees are shift workers.2 All employees share a common gatehouse, locker room, and lunch room; they have the same pension, health, and vaca- tion benefits; but the shift workers work a continuous full 8 hours whereas the day workers have a lunch period and are allowed a clean-up period at the end of the day. The shift worker has to re- main on duty until actually relieved by a new shift man. In Case No. 15-RC-805, the International Chemical Workers Union, AFL, hereinafter called the Chemical Workers, seeks a unit consisting A all production and maintenance employees including all janitors, but excluding chemists, analysts, office and clerical employees (in- cluding the storekeeper and store clerk), all professional employees, guards, and supervisors. In Case No. 15-RC-820, the International Brotherhood of Electri- cal Workers, Local No. 505, AFL, hereinafter called the Electrical Workers, seeks a unit of certain employees engaged in electrical main- tenance work. The Employer contends the only appropriate unit is a plant-wide bargaining unit of all production and maintenance employees because of the integrated and interdependent character of the production and maintenance fuctions. Both the Employer and the Chemical Work- ers contend that the unit sought by the Electrical Workers is inappro- priate. We have described the Employer's operations above. While its methods are integrated and continuous in nature, we do not think they are equivalent to the operations in industries in which we have found an industrial unit the only unit appropriate for bargaining purposes.' Accordingly, we are of the opinion that craft representa- tion may be appropriate for the Employer's employees.' There re- mains for determination the question of whether the employees re- quested by the Electrical Workers constitute an appropriate craft unit. These employees are rectifier operators, instrument electricians and trainees, and electricians first-class. Rectifier operators: The rectifier operators work in a separate build- ing contiguous to the cell building. Large plate glass windows in front of the rectifier operator's control panel face into the cell building so that the operator can at all times survey the operation of the electrolytic units and if, at any time, the operator sees trouble develop- ing in one of the cells, the operator is within immediate reach of his ' The shift workers are the brine well operators, chlorine department operators, cell operators , caustic and boiler operators , and rectifier operators. 3 Cf National Tube Company, 76 NLRB 1199 1 See Mathseson Chemical Corporation , 100 NLRB 1028. 1082 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD controls. The primary duty of a rectifier operator is to convert AC to DC current and supply direct current to the electrolytic cells. He must constantly be alert to any surge of power and make corrections in the cell load, then notify the shift foreman so that the rest of the plant can be brought back into line. When the cell maintenance crew cuts a cell out for repairs and later restores it, the rectifier operator must stand by his control panel board and make corrections in his load as he actually sees the cell crew physically cut the cell out or return it to operation. During the day shift it is necessary to change a cell unit about once every hour; on the night shifts, changes are less fre- quent. These operators work on a 24-hour basis-3 shifts. They report directly to the shift foreman who instructs them what to do. However, instructions pertaining to the operation of the rectifiers are received from the plant engineer. The plant engineer works during the day and is not present during the two late shifts. Rectifier oper- ators can be trained in 6 to 8 weeks. Replacement of a rectifier operator would probably be made by moving up the cell operator (whose pay is approximately 15 cents an hour less) and in turn placing the assistant cell operator in the cell operator's position. Instrument electrician: The one instrument electrician and the two instrument electrican trainees work at present without formal work orders and are directly supervised by the plant engineer due to the inability of the Employer to hire a qualified supervisor of electrical maintenance employees. Inability of the Employer to hire qualified people in the local area necessitates the use of the trainees. The one instrument electrician was the first to be hired for this position and has been trained longer than the trainees. This is his first job since gradu- ating as an electrical engineer, and the Employer states that he will leave this position and go on a salary basis as soon as he gets the instruments in the plant in operation and completes the training of the trainees. According to the testimony of the Employer, the instrument electrician, after 3 months' training, is able to do a very good job for the operations department and he feels the trainees can do as well since they were selected on the basis of their technical background .5 Maintenance electricians: The Employer has three maintenance electricians that perform all electrical maintenance outside the elec- trolytic cells. According to the Employer's classifications they are "Electricians, 1st class." The record does not disclose the precise nature of their duties, the skill or training of these men, or the require- ments for the position. At present they are directly supervised by the plant engineer a who "is the only man . . . who is fully qualified to 5 One has formerly been a school teacher, is a college science graduate , and has had some Navv training ; the other was a radio repairman. A The Employer states that there is need for a supervisor of these electricians so that responsibility can be removed from the plant engineer, but such a person had not been hired at the time of the hearing. POPEIL BROTHERS, INC. 1083 solve difficult electrical problems7." The Employer states that it would be necessary to hire outside electrical contractors for any new work. The foregoing facts and the entire record as here presented concern- ing the employees sought by the Electrical Workers would not, in our opinion, support a finding that these employees constitute a unit of craft employees. We note particularly the brief training period re- quired for rectifier operators and instrument electricians and the absence of any specific evidence as to the skills and training of the electricians first-class. Accordingly, we shall dismiss the petition in Case No. 15-RC-820. In regard to Case No. 15-RC-805, we find that a unit consisting of all production and maintenance employees at the Employer's plant at McIntosh, Alabama, including all janitors, but excluding chemists, analysts, office and clerical employees (including the storekeeper and the store clerk), all professional employees, guards, and supervisors as defined in the Act,' is appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act. Order IT Is HEREBY ORDERED that the petition filed in Case No. 15-RC-820 by the National Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local No. 505, AFL, be, and it hereby is, dismissed. [Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this volume.] I This testimony was given by the operations manager , the only witness in the case. 8 As agreed to between the Employer and the Chemical Workers. POPEIL BROTHERS , INC . and BASIC PROCESSCR 'S UNION, LOCAL 44, D. R. W. W. I. U., A. F. OF L. Case No. 13-CA-654. December 17119-52 Decision and Order On February 26, 1952, Trial Examiner W. Gerard Ryan issued his Intermediate Report in the above-entitled proceeding, finding that the Respondent had engaged in and was engaging in certain unfair labor practices and recommending that it cease and desist therefrom and take certain affirmative action, as set forth in the copy of the Inter- mediate Report attached hereto. The Trial Examiner also found that the Respondent did not engage in certain other alleged unfair labor practices and recommended that the complaint, as amended, be 101 NLRB No. 186.