United States Steel Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Nov 2, 1953

106 N.L.R.B. 1391 (N.L.R.B. 1953)

MICHIGAN LIMESTONE DIVISION 1391
As we have sustained the challenge to Paul Rademacher's
ballot, and overruled the objections, and as the tally of ballots
shows that the Petitioner secured a majority of the valid votes
cast in the election, we shall certify the Petitioner as the
bargaining representative of the employees in the appropriate
unit.
[The Board certified United Automobile Salesmen, Local
174, CIO, affiliated with United Optical & Instrument Workers,
as the designated collective bargaining representative of the
Employer' s new - and used - car salesmen , excluding all office
and clerical employees, mechanics, management , and super-
visor as defined in the Act. ]
Member Rodgers took no part in the consideration of the
above Decision and Certification of Representatives.
MICHIGAN LIMESTONE DIVISION, UNITED STATES STEEL
CORPORATION and UNITED STONE AND ALLIED PROD-
UCTS WORKERS OF AMERICA, CIO, Petitioner . Case No.
18-RC-1996. November 2, 1953
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before Lloyd
R. Fraker, hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made
at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby
affirmed.
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds:
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning
of the National Labor Relations Act.
2. The labor organizations involved claim to represent
certain employees of the Employer.
3. A question exists concerning the representation of em-
ployees of the Employer within the meaning of Section 9 (c) (1)
and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.'
4. The Petitioner seeks to represent employees at the
Employer's mining site at Cedarville, Michigan, known as
i We find no merit in the contention of the Employer and the intervenors herein (United
Construction Workers, UMW, and its Local No. 448), that their current contract for em-
ployees at the Employer's Calcite plant constitutes a bar to an immediate determination of
representatives among employees at the Employer's Cedarville operations sought by the
Petitioner. The contract was executed on August 1, •1952, to expire on June 24, 1954 It was
made expressly applicable "only to the Calcite plant of the Company," but extended by oral
agreement to cover employees at the Employer's new operations at Cedarville, which were
started after the execution of the contract. Under these circumstances, the contract may not
bar a present determination of representatives among Cedarville employees in an appropriate
bargaining unit. Price National Corporation, 102 NLRB 1393, and cases cited therein.
106 NLRB No. 246.
1392 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
the Cedarville plant, excluding office clerical employees and
supervisors as defined in the Act. The Employer and United
Construction Workers, UMW, and its Local No. 448, the
Intervenor herein, urge that the only unit appropriate for
these employees is one which also includes employees at the
Employer's mining site at Rogers City, Michigan, known as
the Calcite plant.
The Employer is engaged in quarrying, crushing, screening,
and shipping limestone. At its Calcite plant, where it employs
approximately 630 workers, the Employer quarries limestone
of 2 types: (1) High calcium and low magnesium limestone,
known as calcite; and (2) high magnesium limestone, known
as dolomite. When the supply of dolomite at the Calcite plant
appeared insufficient to meet its sales demands, the Employer
located a new dolomite supply at Cedarville, Michigan. It
commenced operations at its Cedarville plant in April 1953.
The Cedarville plant lies approximately 50 air miles north and
west of the Calcite plant. Transportation is by boat; communi-
cation is by radio and telephone.
At the time of the hearing, the Employer had approximately
105 workers at the Cedarville plant. Of these, 15 were trans-
ferred from the Calcite plant on a "semipermanent" basis;
all other employees were hired at the Cedarville plant from
the local area. The Employer expects to retain approximately
100 of the 105 employees for quarrying and further construc-
tion' work, training them as necessary, either at the Cedar-
ville plant or at the Calcite plant , as may seem best . Except
for such purposes, the geographical separation of the plants
precludes frequent contact between the Cedarville and the
Calcite employees. While overall policies emanate from the
Employer's main office at Rogers City, Cedarville-employees
are locally hired and locally supervised.
Under these circumstances, we find that the employees at
the Cedarville plant constitute a stable working force, posses-
sing a sufficient integrity of plant operations and separate-
ness of plant work interests to justify their inclusion in a
bargaining unit apart from the employees at the Calcite
plant.'
Accordingly, we find that all employees at the Employer's
plant at Cedarville, Michigan, excluding office clerical em-
ployees and supervisors as defined in the Act, constitute a
unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining
within the meaning of the Section 9 (b) of the Act.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.]
2 Construction work, which includes the clearing of surface ground and the building of
roads and fences, continues to some extent at the mining sites as quarrying progresses.
3 Price National Corporation, supra, and cases cited therein.