Vanadium Corporation of America

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jul 22, 1939

13 N.L.R.B. 836 (N.L.R.B. 1939)

In the Matter Of VANADIUM CORPORAigoN OF AMERIOA and LOOAL
#953, UNITED VANADIUM WORKERS (AFFILIATED WITH THE C. I. 0. )
Case No. R-1405.-Decided July 22, 1939
Vanadium Alloy and Chemical Manufacturing Industry-Investigation of Rep-
resentatives : controversy concerning representation : employer refuses to recog-
nize petitioning union -until it is certified by the Board-Unit Appropriate for
Collective Bargaining : production and maintenance workers, including two labor
foremen and four watchmen , and excluding supervisory , clerical, and other
salaried employees ; agreement as to-Representatives : proof of choice : compari-
son of union membership cards not disputed by Company with pay roll-Certafi-
cation of Representatives : upon proof of majority representation.
Mr. W. G. Stuart Sherman, for the Board.
Mr. Thomas G. Rickert, of Niagara Falls, N. Y., for the Company.
Mr. Benjamin C. Sigel, of Pittsburgh, Pa., for Local #953.
Elisabeth W. Weston, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
CERTIFICATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
On May•19, 1939, Local #953, United Vanadium Workers, affiliated
with the C. I. 0., herein called Local #953, 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 Vanadium Corporation of Amer-
ica, Bridgeville, Pennsylvania, herein called the Company, and re-
questing 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 June 5, 1939, 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 investiga-
tion and authorized the Regional Director to conduct it and to provide
for an appropriate hearing upon due notice.
13 N. L. R. B., No. 89.
836
VANADIUM CORPORATION OF AMERICA 837
On June 6, 1939, the Regional Director issued a notice of hearing,
copies of which were duly served upon the Company, Local #953,
and upon the American Federation of Labor, whose affiliate, Vana-
dium Corporation Union No. 19602,' herein called Local #19602, was
named in the petition for investigation and certification as a labor or-
ganization claiming to represent employees directly affected by the
investigation. Pursuant to the notice, a hearing was held on June 14,
1939, at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, before Whitley P. McCoy, the
Trial Examiner duly designated by the Board. The Board, the Com-
pany, and Local #953 were represented by counsel and participated
in the hearing. No representative of the American Federation of
Labor or of Local #19602 appeared. Full opportunity to be heard,
to examine and cross-examine witnesses, and to introduce evidence
bearing on the issues was afforded all parties. No motions or objec-
tions to the admission of evidence were made during the hearing.
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following :
FINDINGS of FACT
I. TIIE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
Vanadium Corporation of America, a Delaware corporation author-
ized to do business in the State of Pennsylvania, has its principal
office and place of business in New York City. It owns and operates
two plants, one in the Town of Niagara, New York, and the other,
with which this proceeding is concerned, at Bridgeville, Pennsyl-
vania. At its Bridgeville plant the Company is engaged in the pro-
duction of vanadium alloys and vanadium chemicals, principally by a
chemical process. The principal purchasers of such vanadium alloys
and vanadium chemicals are manufacturers of steel and iron and man-
ufacturers of chemicals. During the calendar year 1938 the Bridge-
ville plant received for use in production operations approximately
10,000 tons of vanadium ore, salt soda ash, and other raw materials,
approximately 80 per cent of which tonnage was sent to the plant from
points outside the State of Pennsylvania. During the same year the
plant produced more than 1,200 tons of vanadium alloys and chemi-
cals, 70 per cent of which were shipped to destinations outside Penn-
sylvania. The Company maintains its main sales office in New York
City and branch sales offices in Chicago, Illinois, and Bridgeville,
Pennsylvania. It also receives orders from distributors and brokers
located in Chicago, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and Cleveland. It ad-
vertises in a number of trade magazines of national circulation, among
which, for example, are Iron Age, Steel, Metals and Alloys, and Rail-
' See Section III below for the history of this organization.
187930-39-vol. 13-54
838 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
way Age, and in two trade newspapers of national circulation, namely,
Daily Metal Trades, and American Metal Market.
On May 15, 1939, the Company had 158 hourly paid employees at
its Bridgeville plant.
H. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED
Local #953, United Vanadium Workers, is a labor organization
affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations , admit-
ting to its membership all hourly paid production and maintenance
employees. Ll^ 191
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
Following a strike in May 1934, Local #19602 was organized
among the Company's employees at its Bridgeville plant. For 2 or
more years thereafter the Company and Local #19602 bargained
collectively but no agreements were reduced to writing. In May or
June 1937 the Company and Local #19602 entered into a written
contract to run for a year. Upon its expiration this contract was
renewed by a second contract dated June 15, 1938, and effective for
a period of 1 year, in which Local #19602 was recognized as the
exclusive bargaining representative of the Company's Bridgeville
plant employees, other than the supervisory, clerical, technical, and
other salaried workers. This contract has now expired. On May 2,
1939, Local #19602 held a regular meeting, at which 76 of its mem-
bers 2 attended, and voted, 75 to 1, to affiliate with the Congress of
Industrial Organizations. On May 5 the local was chartered as
United Vanadium Workers, Local Industrial Union #953, by the
Congress of Industrial Organizations. On or about May 12, Local
#953 requested the Company to recognize it as exclusive bargaining
representative of the employees at the Bridgeville plant. The Com-
pany replied that it would not deal with Local #953 prior to the
expiration of the contract of June 15, 1938, nor until Local #953
had obtained certification by the Board.
We find that a question has arisen concerning representation of
the employees of the Company at its Bridgeville plant.
IV. 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
2 John A . Hastings , financial secretary of Local #953 and formerly , prior to May 2,
1939, financial secretary of Local #19602 , testified that on this date Local # 19602 had
155 members.
VANADIUM CORPORATION OF AMERICA 839
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
It was agreed by the Company and Local #953 that the produc-
tion and maintenance employees at the Bridgeville plant, including
two labor foremen and four watchmen, and excluding foremen,
superintendents, timekeepers, clerical, and all other salaried employees,
constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargain-
ing. This unit corresponds to the unit covered by the contracts made
by the Company in 1937 and 1938 with Local #19602. We see no
reason to depart from the unit already established by practice and
agreed upon by the parties.
We find that the production and maintenance employees of the
Company at its Bridgeville plant, including the labor foremen and
watchmen, and excluding supervisory, clerical, and other salaried em-
ployees, constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective
bargaining and that said unit will insure to employees of the Com-
pany the full benefit of their right to self-organization and to col-
lective bargaining and otherwise effectuate the policies of the Act.
VI. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
Local #953 introduced its membership cards in evidence at the
hearing, and thereafter, with the permission of the Trial Examiner
and without objection by the Company, substituted therefor a list of
the names appearing on the cards. These cards were available for
inspection by all parties during the hearing. They were identified
by the financial secretary of Local #953, who testified that all of the
signatures were authentic, to his personal knowledge. The Company
did not question the genuineness of any of the signatures appearing
on the cards. A check of the names copied from these cards against
the Company's May 15 pay-roll list, also in evidence, reveals that
143 8 of the 158 employees who were working in the appropriate unit
on May 15, 1939, are members of Local #953 and have specifically
designated it as their bargaining representative. The Company does
not question the claim and showing of Local #953 that it represents
a majority of the employees, but asks only that Local #953 secure
the certification of this Board. We find that Local #953 has been
designated and selected by a majority of the employees in the appro-
priate unit as their representative for the purposes of collective bar-
8 Including nine members of Local #953 whose names differ only slightly in spelling
from names on the pay-roll list.
840 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
gaining. , It is, therefore, the exclusive representative of all the em-
ployees in such unit for the purposes of collective bargaining, and
we will so certify.
Upon the basis of the above findings of fact and upon the entire
record in the case, the Board makes the following :
CONCLUSIONS OF LAW
1. A question affecting commerce has arisen concerning the repre-
sentation of employees of Vanadium Corporation of America, Bridge-
ville, Pennsylvania, within the meaning of Section 9 (c) and Section
2 (6) and (7) of the National Labor Relations Act.
2. The production and maintenance employees of the Company at
its Bridgeville plant, including the labor foremen and watchmen,
excluding supervisory, clerical, and other salaried employees, consti-
tute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining,
within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the National Labor Relations
Act.
3. Local #953, United Vanadium Workers (affiliated with the
C. I. 0.), is the exclusive representative of all the employees in such
unit for the purposes of collective bargaining, within the meaning of
Section 9 (a) of the National Labor Relations Act.
CERTIFICATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
By virtue of and pursuant to the power vested in the National
Labor Relations Board by Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Rela-
tions Act, and pursuant to Article III, Section 8, of National Labor
Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 2,
IT IS HEREBY CERTIFIED that Local $ 953, United Vanadium Work-
ers (affiliated with the C. I. 0.), has been designated and selected by
a majority of the production and maintenance employees of Vana-
dium Corporation of America, Bridgeville, Pennsylvania, including
the labor foremen and watchmen, and excluding supervisory, cleri-
cal, and other salaried employees, as their representative for the pur -
poses of collective bargaining and that, pursuant to the provision of
Section 9 (a) of the Act, Local #953, United Vanadium Workers
(affiliated with the C. I. 0.), is the exclusive representative of all
such employees for the purposes of collective bargaining in respect to
rates of pay, wages, hours of employment, and other conditions of
employment.