The Firestone Tire & Rubber Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board DecisionsDec 29, 1965

156 N.L.R.B. 454 (N.L.R.B. 1965)

454 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD We therefore find that the following employees constitute a unit, appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 ( b) of the Act : All production and maintenance employees , loading and shipping employees , automotive ( garage ) employees , advertising employ- ees, and cooler service employees at Employer 's plant located at 2525 Kirk Avenue and 1200 West Hamburg Street , Baltimore, Maryland , but excluding all employees in sales department, office clerical employees , guards, professional employees, and super- visors as defined in the Act. [Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.] MEMBERS BROWN AND ZAGORIA took no part in the consideration of the above Decision and Direction of Election. The Firestone Tire & Rubber Company and International Broth- erhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs , Warehousemen , and Helpers of America , Local 384, Petitioner . Case No. 4-RC-6512. De- cember 29,1965 DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, a hearing was held before Hearing Officer Joseph C. Kelly. The Hearing Officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed. The Employer, the Petitioner, and the Intervenor each have filed briefs which have been considered by the National Labor Relations Board in making its decision in this case. 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 McCulloch and Members Brown and Zagoria]. Upon the entire record in this case, 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 jurisdic- tion herein. 2. The labor organizations 1 involved claim to represent certain employees of the Employer. 'United Rubber, Cork, Linoleum and Plastic Workers of America, AFL-CIO, and its Local No. 336, were permitted to intervene at the hearing on the basis of their con- tractual and representative interest 156 NLRB No. 49. THE FIRESTONE TIRE & RUBBER COMPANY 455 3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the representa- tion of certain employees of the Employer within the meaning of Section9(c) (1) andSection2(6) and (7) of the Act. 4. The Employer, an Ohio corporation engaged in the manufacture of tires, plastic products, and other items, operates about 26 plants throughout the United States. The Intervenor represents the produc- tion and maintenance employees in 10 of these plants.- Following separate Board certifications of production and maintenance units at each of the 10 plants beginning in 1952, the Employer and Intervenor have executed master agreements, but each plant and the local affiliate of the Intervenor at that plant execute supplemental agreements covering certain local employment conditions. In each of the 10 plants there is a laboratory and development section, including the technician categories sought herein, which has not been represented by the Inter- venor or any other labor organization;3 these employees are, in fact, expressly excluded from the contractual unit. The Petitioner seeks to represent a unit of the 112 technicians at the Pottstown, Pennsylvania, plant. The Intervenor agrees that this unit is appropriate,4 but the Employer contends that only a unit coextensive with the existing multiplant unit is appropriate. The Employer also contends that the employees in the proposed unit lack sufficient homogeneity to constitute a separate appropriate unit. For the reasons set forth below, we find no merit in these contentions of the Employer. All the employees at the Pottstown plant are divided into three production divisions designated as tire, chemical, and plastics, which are located in three separate but adjacent buildings. Each division has a laboratory and development section, part of which is designated as the technician subdivision, which is subdivided again into depart- ments, the tire division into the statistical quality control, technical service, and tire laboratory departments; the chemical division into the process control, technical service, pilot plant, research and develop- ment, and process engineering departments; and the plastics division into the development and analytical laboratory departments. 2 The 10 plants are located In Akron, Ohio ; Decatur, Illinois ; Des Moines , Iowa ; Fall River, Massachusetts ; Los Angeles, California ; Memphis, Tennessee ; New Castle , Indiana ; Noblesville , Indiana; Pottstown , Pennsylvania ; and Salinas, California. S The Intervenor , in Case No . 4-RC-4836, sought to represent a unit of 17 statistical quality control employees , one of the categories covered in the unit now sought, as a separate unit or as part of the existing production and maintenance unit. After a hearing held on January 23, 1962, the proceedings of which were Incorporated into the record of the instant case, the Regional Director dismissed the petition on the ground that these employees were but a segment of a larger unit with a separate community of interest. * The Intervenor asserted at the hearing that, if it Is designated as the representative of such unit, it will charter a separate local to represent these employees. 456 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD The employees sought herein are technicians and inspectors 5 who work in the laboratory and development sections. Like the employees in the production and maintenance unit, they are located in all three buildings. They are engaged in examining the various products or materials to check adherence to quality standards. They work under separate supervision. They are salaried, and all have the same salary scale, whereas the production and maintenance employees are paid on a piece-work basis. Moreover, these technicians receive other employ- ment benefits not available to the production and maintenance employ- ees, including a contributory pension plan, and they do not punch the timeclock. Although there are employees in the same classifications as those here involved at the Employer's other plants, there is no interchange or transfer of employees between the Pottstown and other plants. Management of the Pottstown plant does the hiring and discharg- ing for that plant and determines its personnel policies. Accordingly, in the absence of any bargaining history for the laboratory and development employees at any of the plants, and in view of the geographical separation of the plants and of the fact that no labor organization seeks to represent such employees on a broader basis, we find that a unit of the laboratory and development employees confined to the Pottstown plant is appropriate .6 Moreover, on the basis of the foregoing facts and of the entire record, we find that the employees in the proposed unit share a mutuality of employment interests which differ from those of the production and maintenance employees, and that they are a homogeneous group which constitutes a separate appropriate unit. In view of the foregoing, we find that the following employees constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act : All technicians, quality control inspectors, technician quality control, senior laboratory technicians, laboratory technicians and junior laboratory technicians at the Employer's Pottstown, Pennsylvania, plant, excluding all production and maintenance employees, office clericals, chemists, professional employees, guards, watchmen, and supervisors within the meaning of the Act. [Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.] 5 The parties stipulated that none of these employees are professional employees within the meaning of the Act. None of the parties challenge the technical status of these employees as that term is defined by the Board. e Piggly Wiggly California Company, 144 NLRB 708, 710; Joseph E. Seagram & Sons, Inc., 101 NLRB 101. See also The Wm. H. Block Company, 151 NLRB 318 , 320, in which the Board reaffirmed its established policy that "the Act does not compel labor organizations to seek representation in the most comprehensive grouping .. . unless such grouping constitutes the only appropriate unit."