Price National Corp.Download PDFNational Labor Relations Board - Board DecisionsFeb 13, 1953102 N.L.R.B. 1393 (N.L.R.B. 1953) Copy Citation PRICE NATIONAL CORPORATION 1393 tain the Petitioner's challenges to the ballots of employees Dickenson, Castillo, Ruiz, and Garcia. In its decision and direction of election, the Board made no final determination as to the appropriate unit. The Board stated : If a majority [of the brickmasons and brickmason leadman] vote for the Petitioner they will be taken to have indicated their desire to constitute a separate appropriate unit... . Upon the entire record in this proceeding, the Board makes the following : Supplemental Finding of Fact We find that all brickmasons, including the brickmason leadman, employed at the Employer's Hurley, New Mexico, plant, excluding all other employees, office and clerical employees, guards, and supervisors as defined in the Act, constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act. As the Petitioner has secured a majority of the valid ballots cast in the election, we shall certify it as the bargaining representative in the appropriate unit. Certification of Representatives IT IS HEREBY CERTIFIED that the International Association of Ma- chinists has been designated and selected by a majority of all brick- masons (including the brickmason leadman) employed at the Employer's Hurley, New Mexico, plant, excluding all other employees, office and clerical employees, guards, and supervisors as defined in the Act, as their representative for the purposes of collective bargaining, and that, pursuant to Section 9 (a) of the Act, the said organization is the exclusive representative of all employees in such unit for the purpose of collective bargaining with respect to rates of pay, wages, hours of employment, and other conditions of employment. PRICE NATIONAL CORPORATION and DISTRICT LODGE No. 76, INTERNA- TIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS, AFL, PETITIONER . Case No. 3-RC-1113. February 13, 1953 Decision and Direction of Election Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before Robert Corlett, hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed. 102 NLRB No. 139. 1394 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3 (b) of the Act, the Board has delegated its powers in connection with this case to a three-member panel [Chairman Herzog and Members Murdock and Peterson]. 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 Petitioner and the Intervenor, the United Steel Workers of America, Local 4762, are labor organizations within the meaning of the Act and claim to represent employees of the Employer. 3. The Employer is a Delaware corporation, with its principal office at 15 Forest Avenue, Buffalo, New York, and, in addition to its plant on Forest Avenue, has plants at 5 Austin Street, Buffalo, New York, and at 237 Jacksonville Road, Hatboro, Pennsylvania. This proceed- ing is limited to the employees of the Forest Avenue plant. The Intervenor and the Employer entered into a contract on June 2, 1952, whereby the Employer recognized the Intervenor as the ex- clusive collective-bargaining representative for the production and maintenance employees at its Austin Street plant. The contract also provided that if operations heretofore conducted at this plant should be removed to another plant in Erie County that the contract would extend to employees performing such operations at such other plant. The. Intervenor contends that its contract with the Employer renders the petition herein "defective." As the record reveals, however, that the contract in question was executed before the Employer commenced operations and engaged production workers at its Forest Avenue plant, it cannot constitute a bar to this proceeding.' We find that a question affecting commerce exists concerning the representation of employees of the Employer within the meaning of Section 9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act. 4. The appropriate unit: The Petitioner seeks a separate unit of all production and main- tenance employees at the Employer's Forest Avenue plant. The In- tervenor opposes the requested unit, contending that the operations at the Forest Avenue plant are a mere extension of the same productive processes at the Employer's Austin Street plant, and that, therefore, due to the integrated nature of operations, the only appropriate unit should comprise the production and maintenance employees of both plants. The Employer takes no position concerning the appropriate unit, but rather leaves the question to be resolved by the Board. The Employer's Forest Avenue and Austin Street plants are. geographically situated approximately 1 mile apart. The Employer is. engaged primarily in the production of metal fireplaces, septic tanks,. 'Goodyear Tire cE Rubber Company, 80 NLRB 1347 ; Potlatch Forests, Inc., 94 NLRB 1444. PRICE NATIONAL CORPORATION 1395 and fuel oil tanks at its Austin Street plant. At its Forest Avenue plant the Employer manufactures metal shipping containers under subcontract for the United States Air Force. The Forest Avenue location was acquired for expansion purposes in order that the Em- ployer might have adequate space for the manufacture of the metal shipping containers. These metal shipping containers have not here- tofore been manufactured by the Employer, but it has in the past manu- factured at its Austin Street plant a smaller container which was similar in design. The initial metalwork on the shipping containers is performed at the Austin Street plant, and the unfinished product is then transported to the Forest Avenue plant for completion. The necessary welding operation on these containers is performed by employees at the Forest Avenue plant who are required to pass an Air Force welding test for certification, which the Petitioner contends requires more skill than is required for the nongovernmental work per- formed at the Austin Street plant. Both plants are under the general supervision of a general manager; however, each is under separate immediate supervision. According to the testimony of the general manager, employees are hired at both locations by foremen who consult with him in unusual cases. Job classifications and wage rates at both locations are substantially the same. The testimony is in conflict as to the amount of interchange in personnel between the two plants, but the record indicates that the newly hired employees at the Forest Avenue plant outnumber substantially the employees either perma- nently or temporarily transferred from the Austin Street plant .2 The newly hired employees at the Forest Avenue plant have not been compelled to become members of the Intervenor under the union-shop provisions of its contract with the Employer. In fact, the record dis- closes that these employees were not informed of the contractual pro- visions at the time they were hired. Upon the record as a whole, and particularly in view of the dif- ference in the functions of the plants, the geographical separation of the plants, and the absence of any bargaining history at the Forest Avenue plant, we believe that the integration of the two plants is not such as to preclude the possibility that the Forest Avenue plant may appropriately constitute a separate unit. On the other hand, the record also contains sufficient evidence to justify the inclusion of the Forest Avenue plant employees in a single unit with the Austin 2 The president of Local 4762, United Steel Workers of America , as a witness for the Intervenor , testified that at the time of the hearing there were approximately 54 employees at the Forest Avenue plant , of which number about 20 had been transferred from the Austin Street plant The Employer 's general manager, who also serves as chairman of its board of directors , testified that the employees at Forest Avenue numbered approxi- mately 40, which included 5 employees who had previously been discharged from its Austin Street plant following a cutback in production and thereafter hired at the Forest Avenue plant , and approximately 5 employees that had been transferred temporarily from Austin Street. 1396 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD Street plant employees .3 Accordingly , we shall make no final unit determination at this time , but shall first ascertain the desires of these employees as expressed in the election hereinafter directed. Employed at the Forest Avenue plant are 3 watchmen and 1 time- keeper . The parties take no position as to their inclusion in the ap- propriate unit, but apparently leave the problem of inclusion or ex- clusion to the determination of the Board . The duties performed by the watchmen include punching the clock , checking sprinklers , guard- ing the premises , and limited janitorial work. Since the record dis- closes that these employees are primarily employed as watchmen, we shall exclude them from the unit . The timekeeper , in addition to keeping time records , maintains stock records , takes inventory, performs limited maintenance work, and is carried on the factory pay- roll. We shall include this employee in the unit. We shall direct an election in the voting group composed of the production and maintenance employees at the Employer's Forest Avenue plant , including the timekeeper , but excluding office cleri- cal employees , guards, watchmen , professional employees , and super- visors as defined in the Act. If a majority of the employees in this voting group vote for the Petitioner , they will be taken to have indicated their desire to con- stitute a separate plant bargaining unit. If the majority select the Intervenor , they will be taken to have indicated their desire .to be- come a part of the existing unit composed of employees at the Austin Street plant. [Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this volume.] General Metals Corporation, 95 NLRB 1490 ; Weyerhaeuser Timber Co ., 78 NLRB 1267. ACTIVE SPORTSWEAR CO., INC., and MARY LYONS, PETITIONER and LOCAL 75, INTERNATIONAL LADIES' GARMENT WORKERS' UNION, AFL. Case No. 1-RD-123. February 13, 1953 Decision and Direction of Election Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before Harold Kowal hear- ing 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, a Board has delegated its powers in connection with this case to the three- member panel [Members Houston, Styles, and Peterson]. 102 NLRB No. 136. Copy with citationCopy as parenthetical citation