Riverdale Products Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Dec 13, 1946

71 N.L.R.B. 1043 (N.L.R.B. 1946)

In the Matter of RIVERDALE PRODUCTS Co., EMPLOYER and OIL WORKERS
INTERNATIONAL UNION, C. I. 0., PETITIONER
Case No. 13-R-3789.-Decided December 13, 1946
Messrs. T. T. Chapman and E. R. Hibben, of Chicago, Ill., for the
Employer.
Messrs. Russel H. Brandon and Roy M. Freeman, of Chicago, Ill.,
for the Petitioner.
Mr. Michael J. Costello, of Chicago, Ill., for the Intervenor.
Miss Irene R. $hriber, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed, hearing in this case was held at Chicago,
Illinois, on August 21, 1946, before Robert T. Drake, hearing officer.
The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from preju-
dicial error and are hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in the case, the National Labor Relations
Board makes the following :
FINDINGS OF FACT
I. THE BUSINESS OF THE EMPLOYER
Riverdale Products Co., an Illinois corporation with its office in
Chicago, Illinois, and its plant in Calumet City, Illinois, is engaged
in the'manufacture and sale of greases, tallow, fertilizers, bone meal
and digester tankage. During the year 1945, the Employer purchased
raw materials having a value in excess of $750,000, of which approxi-
mately 75 percent was shipped to it from points outside the State of
Illinois. During the same period, the Employer sold finished products
having a value of more than $1,000,000, of which approximately 75
percent was shipped to out-of-State purchasers.
We find that the Employer is engaged in commerce within the
meaning of the National Labor Relations Act.
71 N. L. R. B., No. 174.
1043
1044 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
H. THE ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED
The Petitioner is a labor organization affiliated with the Congress
of Industrial Organizations , claiming to represent employees of the
Employer.
International Brotherhood of Fireman and Oilers , Local 223 , herein
called the Intervenor , is a labor organization affiliated with the Ameri-
can Federation of Labor, claiming to represent employees of the
Employer.
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
The Intervenor and the Employer contend that a presently existing
collective bargaining agreement between them is a bar to this
proceeding.
On August 15, 1941, the Employer and the Intervenor entered into
a collective bargaining agreement covering the employees whom the
Petitioner seeks to represent. The contract contained the following
clause :
This contract shall be in effect for one (1) year from the date
of signing of the same. Should either party desire to re-open
the contract at the expiration of the contract period of one (1)
year, they shall notify the other party to the contract within
thirty (30) days of the expiration of the same. Should no such
notification be filed the contract shall be extended from year to
year without change.
In accordance with this provision, the contract was automatically
renewed from 1942 through 1945. On July 15, 1946, 1 month before
the anniversary date of the contract term, the Petitioner filed the
petition herein. Inasmuch as the Petitioner filed its petition before
the operative renewal date of the 1941 agreement, we find that it is
not a bar.
We find that a question affecting commerce has arisen concerning
the representation of employees of the Employer, within the meaning
of Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT
The Petitioner seeks a unit comprising all the production and main-
tenance employees of the Employer , excluding supervisory and clerical
employees . The Intervenor would exclude from the proposed unit
the employees working in the mill department . The Employer states
that it prefers to bargain with one union.
The Employer's plant consists of five departments known as the
boiler room , the cook room , the extractor department , the mechanical
RIVERDALE PRODUCTS CO. 1045
department and the mill department , respectively . Each of these de-
partments is located in a separate building. The buildings are, how-
ever, within a short distance of one another.
The record shows that the mill department is the only department
employing unskilled workers and a foreman who devotes his full time to
that department . The employees in the other four departments are
highly skilled , and, except for those in the cook room, have no im-
mediate foreman . Despite the differences in skill, there are many
occasions when the skilled employees in other departments work along-
side the unskilled laborers of the mill department . Thus, mill depart-
ment workers are frequently assigned to other departments to perform
such unskilled tasks as the loading and unloading of material. The
extractor department requires that such work be done daily and the
mill department employees do it. Furthermore , when production is
slack in any department , the employees therein are transferred to other
departments including the mill department . At the time of the hear-
ing, the cook room was operating about 3 or 4 hours a day and its
regular employees were doing unskilled work.
Since 1938 the Intervenor has been the recognized bargaining
representative of the production and maintenance employees in all
five departments. • The current collective bargaining agreement be-
tween the Employer and the Intervenor includes mill as well as other
department employees within its coverage . In view of this collective
bargaining history on a plant-wide basis and the evidence of inter-
relationship among the employees in the various departments, we are
of the opinion that the appropriate unit should include the employees
in all five departments.
Accordingly , we find that all the Employer 's production and main-
tenance employees , including those who work in the boiler room, the
cook room, the extractor department , the mechanical department, and
the mill department , bizt excluding all supervisory employees with
authority to hire, promote , discharge , discipline , or otherwise effect
changes in the status of employees , or effectively recommend such
action, constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bar-
gaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the
purposes of collective bargaining with Riverdale Products Co.,
Chicago, Illinois, an election by secret ballot shall be conducted as
early as possible, but not later than thirty (30) days from the date of
this Direction, under the direction and supervision of the Regional
1046 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Director for the Thirteenth Region, acting in this matter as agent for .
the National Labor Relations Board, and subject to Sections 203.55
and 203.56, of National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regula-
tions-Series 4, among the employees in the unit found appropriate-
in Section IV, above, who were employed during the pay-roll period
immediately preceding the date of this Direction, including employees
who did not work during said pay-roll period because they were ill
or on vacation or temporarily laid off, and including employees in the
armed forces of the United States who present themselves in person
at the polls, but excluding those employees who have since quit or been
discharged for cause and have not been rehired or reinstated prior
to the date of the election, to determine whether they desire to be
represented by Oil Workers International Brotherhood of Firemen
and Oilers, Local 223, A. F. L., for the purposes of collective bar-
gaining, or by neither.
CHAIRMAN HERZOG took no part in the consideration of the above
Decision and Direction of Election.