The Walworth Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Aug 2, 1938

8 N.L.R.B. 765 (N.L.R.B. 1938)

In the Matter of THE WALWORTH COMPANY and PATTERN MAKERS
ASSOCIATION OF PITTSBURGH AND VICINITY, PATTERN MAKERS' LEAGUE
OF N. A., AFFILIATED wITH A. F. OF L.
In the Matter of Tim WALWORTH COMPANY and STEEL WORKERS'
ORGANIZING COMMITTEE ON BEHALF OF THE A. A. I. S. T. OF N. A.
Cases Nos. R-647 and R-648.-Decided August 2,1938
Valve and Pipe Menufactuo tug Industry-Investigation of Representatives:
controversy concerning representation of employees : dispute between craft and
industrial unions as to appropriate unit ; no question as to majority ' status of
industrial organization in plant; substantial doubt as to majority status of
rival union-Unit Appropriate for Collective Bargaining : election to determine ;
where other considerations determinative of appropriate unit are evenly bal-
anced, decisive factor is desire and choice of employees involved-Election
Ordered-Representatives : proof of choice : signed petitions and membership
cards-Certification of Representatives: for industrial unit, withheld , pending
election in craft unit.
Mr. Henry Shore, for the Board.
Mr. E. H. Briggs, of Greensburg, Pa., for the Company.
Mr. William T. Corbett, of Pittsburgh, Pa., for the Association.
Mr. Benjamin C. Sigal, of Pittsburgh, Pa., for the S. W. O. C.
Mr. Richard Meigs, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
On November 22, 1937, Pattern Makers' Association of Pittsburgh
and Vicinity, herein called the Association, filed with the Regional
Director for the Sixth Region (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) a petition
alleging that a question affecting commerce had arisen concerning
the representation of employees of The Walworth Company, Greens-
burg, Pennsylvania, herein called the Company, and requesting an
investigation and certification of representatives pursuant to Section
9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act, 49 Stat. 449, herein called
the Act. On January 27, 1938, a similar petition was filed by Steel
Workers' Organizing Committee, herein called the S. W. O. C., on
behalf of Amaglamated Association of Iron, Steel, and Tin Workers
of North America, herein called the Amalgamated.
8 N. L. R. B., No. 88.
765
766 NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
On February 7, 1938, the National Labor Relations Board, herein
called the Board, acting pursuant to Section 9 (c) of the Act and
Article III, Section 3, of National Labor Relations Board Rules and
Regulations-Series 1, as amended , ordered an investigation and
authorized the Regional Director to conduct it and to provide for an
appropriate hearing upon due notice , and acting pursuant to Article
III, Section 10 (c) (2 ), of said Rules and Regulations , further or-
dered that the aforesaid two cases be consolidated for the purpose
of hearing.
On March 2'.1938, the Regional Director issued a notice of hear-
ing, copies of which were duly served upon the Company, upon the
Association , and upon the S. W. O. C. Thereafter .said parties were
notified that the hearing had been postponed until a later date.
Pursuant to the aforesaid notices, a hearing was held on March 18
and 19, 1938, at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, before Henry T. Hunt,
the Trial Examiner duly designated by the Board. The Board, the
Association, and the S. W. O. C. were represented by counsel and
participated in the hearing. The Company was represented by E. H.
Briggs, works manager at its Greensburg Works. Full opportunity
to be heard, to examine and cross-examine witnesses, and to intro-
duce evidence bearing on the issues was afforded all parties . During
the course of the hearing the Trial Examiner made several rulings
on motions and on objections to the admission of evidence. The
Board has reviewed the rulings of the Trial Examiner and finds
that no prejudicial errors were committed. The rulings are hereby
affirmed.
Upon the entire record in the case, the}board makes the following:
FINDINGS OF FACT
1. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
The Company is a corporation _ organized in 1872 under the laws
of Massachusetts . It operates plants in five different States and
maintains sales offices in New York City and in 12 other States. Its
products are sold through wholly owned subsidiaries in the United
States , Canada, and abroad. It employs 95 salesmen who travel in
all of the States of the United States. The volume of its business
in dollars for 1935 was $7 ,959,333; for 1936, $10,629 ,261; and for the
first 6 months of 1937. $7 , 562,366. The Company manufactures in
excess of 40,000 separate items , consisting of valves , pipe fittings,
pipe tools , cast-iron pipe, etc. There are in the United States some
160 manufacturers of these products. The Company does approxi-
mately 15 per cent of the total business of the industry.
The only plant of the Company here involved is that located at
Greensburg , Pennsylvania . This plant consists of 30 departments, in-
DECISIONS AND ORDERS 767
eluding a pattern shop and five foundries. The principal raw mate-
rials used at the plant are iron and steel scrap, coal, oil, brass, etc.
Approximately 70 per cent of these materials are derived from out-
side the State of Pennsylvania. The products of the Greensburg
plant are shipped to all the States and possessions of the United
States, Canada, and foreign countries. Approximately 90 per cent
of such products are shipped to points outside Pennsylvania by rail-
road, truck, and airplane carrier. The average number of persons
employed at the plant for the first 11 months of 1937 was 1,864. Of
this number, 43 were employed in the pattern shop and one in pattern
storage.
II. THE ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED
Pattern Makers' Association of Pittsburgh and Vicinity, a local
of Pattern Makers' League of North America, is a labor organiza-
tion affiliated with the American Federation of Labor. It admits to
its membership "practical pattern makers (including their appren-
tices) known to be competent workmen of good character, who ac-
knowledge its jurisdiction and conform to its laws," and claims juris-
diction over the trade in all its branches. Foremen and supervisors
of pattern makers are also admitted.
Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel, and Tin Workers of North
America is a labor organization affiliated, through the Steel Workers'
Organizing Committee, with the Committee for Industrial Organiza-
tion. It admits to its membership all production and maintenance
employees, exclusive of foremen, assistant foremen, supervisors, watch-
men; and office employees, in the Company's Greensburg plant.
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
Prior to April 13, 1937, the Company maintained an employee repre-
sentation plan. On that date the plan was abandoned and the Com-
pany entered into a written agreement with the S. W. O. C., on behalf
of the Amalgamated, recognizing and dealing with that organization
as representative of its members among the production and mainte-
nance employees at the Company's Greensburg plant. On October 4,
1937, a supplemental agreement was executed by the same parties,
modifying and adding to the terms of the original agreement, and
providing that the entire contract should remain in force until Decem-
ber 31, 1938, and that thereafter conferences should be held relative
to the formation of a new contract. In June or the first part of July
1937, for the first time, representatives of the Association conferred
with Company officials, and, claiming to represent a majority of the
workers employed in the pattern shop at the Greensburg plant, unsuc-
cessfully attempted to obtain recognition as the bargaining representa-
tive for such employees.
768 NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
The Company, having entered into a collective bargaining agree-
ment with the S. W. 0. C., is unwilling to deal with the Association
unless and until the production and maintenance employees in its
pattern shop at the Greensburg plant are found by the Board to be
an appropriate unit for collective bargaining. The Association main-
tains that these employees should constitute a separate and appropriate
unit, that a majority thereof has designated it as representative, and
that it is entitled to be certified as such. _ .
The S. W. 0. C. maintains that the production and maintenance
employees as a whole constitute the sole appropriate unit, that a
majority thereof have designated it as representative, and that it is
entitled to certification as representative of all such employees, includ-
ing those employed in the pattern shop. The Company has recognized
the S. W. 0. C. as representative of its members employed in the
Greensburg plant, but declined to recognize it as the representative
of *non-member employees.
We find that a question has arisen concerning representation of
employees of the Company at its Greensburg plant.
1V. THE EFFECT OF THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION UPON
COMMERCE
We find that the question concerning representation which has
.arisen, occurring in connection with the operations of the Company
described in Section I above, has a close, intimate, and substantial
relation to trade, traffic, and commerce among the several States, and
tends to lead to labor disputes burdening and obstructing commerce
and the free flow of commerce.
V. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT
The S. W. 0. C. seeks a bargaining unit composed of all the pro-
duction and maintenance employees of the Company at its Greens-
burg plant,, exclusive of supervisory and clerical employees. The
Association asks that the employees of the pattern shop be excluded
from the industrial unit and set aside as a separate bargaining unit.
This Is the only objection raised by any of the parties at the hearing
to.the unit sought by the S. W. 0. C.
The pattern shop is one of 30 departments into which the Greens-
burg plant is divided. It occupies one floor of a building which it
shares with the cooperage and carpenter shops. There is a total
of 43 wood and metal pattern makers employed within the shop.
They may be roughly classified as masters, ordinary skilled, and
apprentices. Their work is a part of a continuous process of manu-
facturing finished products from raw materials. Wood patterns
are constructed by the wood pattern makers from' drawings created
DECISIONS AND ORDERS 769
in the engineering department, and where the production of only a
small number of items from the pattern is required, a sturdy wood
pattern is sufficient for the purpose. Where quantity production is
necessary, however, the wood patterns are sent to one of the five,
foundries and from them are cast metal patterns. It is the prin-
cipal work of the metal pattern makers to file, plane, mill, and other-
wise process the rough castings to make them usable. Occasionally
they turn out simple and cylindrical metal patterns on a lathe by
direct reference to engineers' drawings.
The testimony indicates that the duties of the wood pattern makers
in the Greensburg plant require more skill than that required of the
metal pattern makers; that is, there are five metal pattern makers,
known as grinders, whose work is rated but a slight degree above
ordinary labor; that these.grinders are promoted within the craft
group as their skill increases, but rarely do they become wood pattern
makers; and that the majority of wood pattern makers are derived
from the ranks of apprentices in that branch of the craft. However,
although actual skill and knowledge may vary widely among the
individuals in the two groups, it is clear that pattern making, whether
metal or wood, is -a high-skilled work, involving in varying degrees a
knowledge of drafting, the ability to read drawings and visualize the
object, and a theoretical knowledge of moulding the machinery.
It is to be noted, in connection with the contentions of the S. W. O. C.
that pattern shop workers should be included in the plant unit, that
the Association did not take concrete steps to organize the pattern
shop until June 1937, approximately 2 months after the S. W. O. C.
had succeeded, on behalf of the Amalgamated, in negotiating a written
contract with the Company. Under the contract the Company repre-
sentative plan was abandoned, the Amalgamated received recognition
as the representative of its members, certain agreements were reached
as to hours, wages, working conditions, seniority, adjustment of
grievances, safety and health, holidays and vacations, and negotia-
tions for a new contract on the termination of the old were provided
for. The contract also provided for a raise in pay of 10 cents per hour
which was 5 cents more than the raise which had been promised under
the employee representation plan previously in force. The contract,
by its terms, was applicable only to" members of the Amalgamated.
Since a considerable number of employees in the pattern shop were
members of the Amalgamated, they automatically shared in all the
benefits obtained under the contract. Moreover, deeming it imprac-
tical to confine the increase in pay to Amalgamated members only,
the Company extended it throughout the entire plant, including the
pattern shop. In short, the negotiations between the S. W. O. C.
and the Company resulted in substantial benefits for both members
770 NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
and non-members of the Amalgamated, including those employed in
the pattern shop.
The testimony at the hearing showed that in the plants of many
other companies the S. W. O. C. represents all the production em-
ployees, including pattern makers, in a single unit, and that the
interests of the pattern makers have not suffered by inclusion in the
larger unit. On the other hand, it was testified that the Association
successfully represents pattern makers in a number of other plants
in which industrial unions contemporaneously exist. While this is
by no means conclusive, it does indicate that such separate representa-
tion has not universally been regarded, even by industrial unions, as
an impractical arrangement.
In light of all the circumstances of this case, we find that the
employees in the Company's pattern shop, exclusive of three foremen
employed therein,' can be considered either as a separate unit appro-
priate for the purposes of collective bargaining, as claimed by the
Association, or as a part of a single industrial unit, as claimed by the
S. W. O. C.2 The essential separateness of pattern making work at
the Greensburg plant, and the requirement of a certain amount of
skill for that work support the feasibility of the former approach.
The successful negotiation of a plant-wide agreement on April 13,
1937, as well as the interrelation and interdependence of the various
departments at the Greensburg plant, are proof of the feasibility of
the latter. Under similar circumstances, we have held the determining
factor to be the desires of the men themselves.3 In the instant case,
the record does not show clearly what the desires of the employees in
the pattern shop are in respect to representation. The Company intro-
duced in evidence a list prepared from its pay roll as of December
30, 1937, showing the names of 40 pattern shop employees, exclusive
of the three foremen. A comparison of the names on the list with
the names appearing on membership cards introduced by the Associa-
tion and membership cards and petitions introduced by the S. W. O. C.
showed that out of the said 40 eligible persons 14 had signed member-
ship cards of the Association, 11 had signified a preference for the
S. W. O. C. by signing membership cards or petitions, and 9 had
signed cards or petitions for both organizations.
1 The Association admits foremen to its membership and desires the inclusion of the
foremen in the pattern shop within the bargaining unit The S W 0 C wants the foie-
men excluded Inasmuch as one of the labor organizations participating in the election
desires their exclusion , we shall, in accordance with our usual practice under such circum-
stances, exclude the foremen
2 See Matter of Fairbanks , Morse & Company and Pattern Makeis Associatioii of Beloit,
7 N L. R B 229.
3 See Matter of The G lobe Machine and Stamipinp Co and Metal Polishers Union, Local
No 3, International Association of Machinists , District No. 54, Federal Labor Union 18988
and United Automobile Workers of America, 3 N. L R B 294
DECISIONS AND ORDERS 771
Under the circumstances we shall direct that an election be held
among the pattern shop employees , exclusive of foremen, to deter-
mine whether such employees desire to be represented by the Associa-
tion or by the S. W. O. C., for and on behalf of the Amalgamated,
for the purposes of collective bargaining, or by neither. If the
Association is chosen by a majority, the pattern shop employees will
constitute a separate bargaining unit. If the S. W. O. C. is chosen
by a majority , the pattern shop employees will be included in the
plant-wide unit.
VI. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
Neither the Company nor the Association questioned the fact that
the S. W. O. C., for and on behalf of the Amalgamated, represents a
majority of the production and maintenance employees at the Greens-
burg plant, exclusive of supervisors and clerks. A comparison of the
membership cards and petitions of the S. W. O. C. with the Company
pay roll for the period ending June 15, 1937, revealed that out of
1,706 such employees, exclusive of those working in the pattern shop,
1;238 desire representation by the S. W. O. C., for and on behalf
of the Amalgamated. , Since the Company employs only 43 workers,
in the pattern shop, it is clear that the S. W. O. C., for and on behalf
of the Amalgamated, represents a majority of the production and
maintenance employees, irrespective of the inclusion or exclusion of
the pattern makers. We 'shall,,therefore, certify the S. W. O. C., for
and on behalf of the Amalgamated, as the bargaining representatives
of the plant-wide unit as soon as the election hereinafter ordered
among the pattern makers has been held and a determination made
as to whether or not the pattern makers are to be included therein.
The persons eligible to vote in the election hereinafter ordered shall
be all the employees in the pattern shop at the Greensburg plant
who were employed by the Company during the pay-roll period end-
ing December 30, 1937, exclusive of the foremen and those who have
since quit or been discharged for cause. This eligibility date is
adopted in view of the fact that at the hearing all parties agreed that
a list of pattern shop employees appearing on the Company pay roll
as of that date should be used for the purposes of comparison with
membership cards and petitions of the S. W. O. C. and the Association.
On the basis of the above findings of fact, and upon the entire
record in the proceeding, the Board makes the following :
CONCLUSION OF LAW
A question affecting commerce has arisen concerning the representa-
tion of employees of The Walworth Company at its Greensburg, Penn-
sylvania, plant, within the meaning of Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6)
and (7) of the National Labor Relations Act.
117213-39-vol 8-50
772 NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
By virtue of and pursuant to the power vested in the National Labor
Relations Act, 49, Stat. 449, and pursuant to Article III, Section 8, of
National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 1, as
amended, it is hereby
DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation directed by the Board to
ascertain representatives for the purposes of collective bargaining
with The Walworth Company, Greensburg, Pennsylvania, an election
by secret ballot shall be conducted within twenty (20) days from the
date of this Direction, under the direction and supervision of the
Regional Director for the Sixth Region, acting in this matter as agent
for the National Labor Relations Board, and subject to Article III,
Section 9, of said Rules and Regulations, among the employees of The
Walworth Company at its Greensburg, Pennsylvania, plant, who were
employed in the pattern shop of said plant during the pay-roll period
ending December 30, 1937, excluding foremen and those who have
since quit or been discharged for cause, to determine whether they
desire to be represented by Pattern Makers' Association of Pittsburgh
and Vicinity, Pattern Makers' League of North America, affiliated
with the American Federation of Labor, or by Steel Workers' Organ-
izing Committee, for and on behalf of Amalgamated Association of
Iron, Steel, and Tin Workers of North America, affiliated with the
Committee for Industrial Organization, for the purpose of collective
bargaining, or by neither.
EDWIN S. SMITH, DISSENTING :
For reasons set forth in a number of similar cases 4 in which I have
dissented, I believe that the purposes of the Act as regards collective
bargaining will be best promoted by not permitting the pattern
makers as a craft to disassociate themselves from the general body
of employees.
I would deny the Association's petition.
4 E g. In the Matter of Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Company and International Union,
United Automobile Workers of America, Local 248, 4 N L R B 159