Monsanto Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Aug 5, 1968

172 N.L.R.B. 1461 (N.L.R.B. 1968)

MONSANTO COMPANY
Monsanto Company and International Brotherhood
of Electrical Workers, AFL-CIO & CLC, Peti-
tioner . Case 15-RC-3781
August 5, 1968
DECISION AND ORDER
By CHAIRMAN MCCULLOCH AND MEMBERS BROWN
AND JENKINS
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9(c) of
the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, a
hearing was held before Hearing Officer Lawrence
Gentile III. Following the hearing and pursuant to
Section 102.67 of the National Labor Relations
Board Rules and Regulations and Statements of
Procedure, Series 8, as amended, and by direction
of the Regional Director for Region 15, this case
was transferred to the National Labor Relations
Board for decision. A brief has been filed by the
Employer.
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the
Act, the Board has delegated its powers in connec-
tion with this case to a three-member panel.
The Board has reviewed the Hearing Officer's
rulings made at the hearing and finds they are free
from prejudicial error. The rulings are hereby af-
firmed.
Upon the entire record in this case, including the
brief of the Employer and the stipulations of the
parties, the Board finds.
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within
the meaning of the Act, and it will effectuate the
purposes of the Act to assert jurisdiction herein.
2. The labor organization involved claims to
represent certain employees of the Employer.
3. No question affecting commerce exists con-
cerning the representation of certain employees of
the Employer within the meaning of Section
9(c)(1) and Section 2(6) and (7) of the Act, for
the following reasons:
Petitioner seeks to represent a unit composed of
approximately 80 mechanic-electricians, electri-
cians-trainees, and electrical "Group 12" of the
4,200 hourly paid employees at the Employer's
Pensacola plant. The Employer contends that the
petition should be dismissed because the employees
requested do not constitute a true craft and that
because of the highly automated and continuous
flow nature of its operation, only an overall produc-
tion and maintenance plant unit is appropriate.
At its Pensacola plant the Employer is engaged in
the production of nylon filament. This plant is
located on a 2,000-acre tract with more than 18
acres under roof. Because many of the raw materi-
1461
als essential to its productive process, including
some basic chemical constituents of nylon salts can-
not be readily obtained elsewhere , and in order
to assure uniform quality , the Employer produces
most of its own chemicals and related products at
the Pensacola plant . As the Employer has no
storage facilities for such materials , the entire plant
operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week . It is un-
disputed that the plant 's operations are automated
and programmed for continuous flow and that a
stoppage or shutdown of any part of the plant
would require a cessation of all operations for a
substantial period of time . There is no history of
collective bargaining at the Pensacola plant. At all
but one of the organized plants operated by the
Employer there is bargaining on a plantwide basis.
The employees are grouped in pay classifications
ranging from groups 7 through 12 with progression
from the lowest to the highest classification being
dependent upon length of familiarity with machin-
ery and equipment and an opening within the
designated complement . All employees, regardless
of classification , have substantially the same condi-
tions of work and enjoy the same fringe benefits.
The mechanic -electricians are a part of the en-
gineering department , which together with em-
ployees assigned to the manufacturing department,
monitors and maintains the automated equipment.
This is designated "support" work. The function of
mechanic -electricians is to perform maintenance
and repair on the electrical aspects of plant
machinery , equipment , and utilities in order to
facilitate the Employer 's continuous flow opera-
tions. Much of their work involves "trouble-
shooting"; i.e., checking dial readings, in-
stalling and replacing defective fuses and light
bulbs, minor rewiring of components , and removing
for repair electrical motors, mechanical gears, and
reduction assemblies . It also appears that many of
the functions performed by mechanic -electricians
are also performed by "support " personnel in other
classifications , who, because of such experience,
become eligible for transfer into the maintenance-
electricians classification . In addition , under the
direction of production supervisors , they perform
electrical duties embraced by preventive main-
tenance involving checkout , cleanup , and cor-
rection of computerized and predetermined func-
tioning of automated machinery . In carrying out
these functions over half of them are regularly as-
signed to specific plant areas and work with other
classifications in "support " crews . Others con-
tinually rewind small electrical motors. Con-
sequently, the work is repetitive and limited in the
range of skills required . Such work is performed
under the supervision and direction of an electrical
172 NLRB No. 159
1462 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
engineer , a production supervisor , or a mechanic-
electricians foreman . Mechanic -electricians do not
perform work connected with the plant 's high volt-
age distribution system . Nor do they do layout work
or install control panels , Such work , involving a
high degree of electrical skill, is and has been since
1955 performed by an outside contractor's crew of
electrical journeymen and apprentices.
The Employer has no formal apprenticeship pro-
gram for its electricians and does not require that
new hires have electrical backgrounds. In fact, of
the 79 employees petitioned for, 52 transferred into
the electrical department from other support clas-
sifications having little if anything to do with elec-
trical work. The only training given on the job is
confined to informative classes which the Employer
provides for acquiring employees with the basic
fundamentals and general principles of electronics.
Upon the record in this case, we are unable to
conclude that the employees petitioned for con-
stitute true craft electricians . It is clear that these
employees, like many others, in order to perform
the functions required by the Employer's auto-
mated process, do not undergo a program of ap-
prenticeship or through experience on the job ob-
tain the journeymen skills of craftsmen as their
work does not present the opportunity to exercise
the gamut of skills of the electrical craft. Rather,
the evidence shows that the skills, training, and du-
ties performed involve only the repetitive
predefined performance of limited special skills
particularly adapted to the Employer's productive
process. We note additionally that they spend a
large amount of time performing such custodial
tasks as changing and installing light bulbs, work re-
lated to but hardly requiring the traditional training
and skills of craft electricians. Accordingly, we find
that these employees are not craftsmen and are not
entitled to separate representation on that basis.'
Nor do the mechanic-electricians appear to con-
stitute a separate appropriate unit on any other ba-
sis. The record clearly shows that their work is
primarily confined to troubleshooting and precau-
tionary maintenance involving only the application
of certain basic principles of electricity, and
frequently performed jointly by interlocking teams
of other classifications of employees under the
direction of production supervisors. Further, the
high degree to which such work is integrated with
the Employer's overall process minimizes any
distinct community of interest as a readily indentifi-
able group separate from other employees.2 As no
basis appears for establishing a separate bargain-
ing unit for mechanic-electricians, we shall dismiss
the petition.
ORDER
It is hereby ordered that the petition filed herein
be, and hereby is, dismissed.
Potlatelt Forests, Im , 165 NLRB 1(165
Dundee Cens,'nt Compaen, 170 NLRB 422, cf L I Dupont de Nemnm,
Compaen (Mai Plant, Camden, Smith Carolina). 162 NLRB 413