Western Electric Co., Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Apr 22, 1954

108 N.L.R.B. 396 (N.L.R.B. 1954)

396 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
WESTERN ELECTRIC COMPANY, INCORPORATED and IN-
TERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF ELECTRICAL WORK-
ERS, AFL and DIE & TOOL MAKERS LODGE NO. 113,
INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS, Peti-
tioners. Cases Nos. 13-RC-3535 and 13-RC-3539. April22,
1954
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
Upon separate petitions duly filed under Section 9 (c) of
the National Labor Relations Act, a consolidated hearing was
held before Virginia McElroy, hearing officer. The hearing
officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from prej-
udicial error and are hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds:
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the mean-
ing of the Act.
2. The labor organizations involved claim to represent
certain employees of the Employer.
3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the
representation of employees of the Employer within the mean-
ing of - Section 9 ( c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
4. Two major unit questions are raised in this case. The
first relates to the appropriateness of a unit limited to the
Employer's Hawthorne Works in Chicago. International Broth-
erhood of Electrical Workers, AFL, herein called the IBEW,
Communication Equipment Workers, Inc., herein called the
CEW, and the Employer request the continuance of a production
and maintenance unit limited to the various plants and in-
stallations in the Chicago area, which together comprise the
Hawthorne Works. Communications Workers of America,
CIO, herein called CWA, .contends that such a unit is in-
appropriate in scope and that these production and mainte-
nance employees may only be represented in a single com-
panywide production and maintenance unit embracing all of
the Employer's many plants and installations throughout the
country.'
The second major unit dispute arises from the request of
Die & Tool Makers Lodge No. 213, International Association
of Machinists, herein called the IAM, for severance from the
existing production and maintenance unit at the Hawthorne
Works of a specified number of categories of employees whom
the IAM asserts to constitute a craft unit enjoying a distinct
and separate community of interest from that of all other
employees. The Employer and all the other unions involved in
this proceeding oppose the severance of any employees from
'The CWA has filed, in Case No. 2-RC-6319, a petition for an election in a single unit
composed of all the Employer's production and maintenance employees throughout its wide-
spread operations. The Regional Director administratively dismissed the petition and the
CWA carried an appeal from such dismissal to the Board. For reasons hereinafter appearing
in this decision, we have sustained the Regional Director's dismissal of that petition.
108 NLRB No. 86.
WESTERN ELECTRIC COMPANY, INCORPORATED 397
the remaining production and maintenance workers here in-
volved.
A final unit question is raised by CWA as an alternative
position in the event its attack upon the appropriateness-of a
unit limited to the Hawthorne Works is rejected by the Board.
CWA asks that if an election is held at the Hawthorne Works,
the draftsmen be included in the unit or, as a further alter-
native, that a separate election be held among the draftsmen
whom CWA wishes to represent in any event. All other parties
oppose the inclusion of draftsmen in a Hawthorne Works pro-
duction and maintenance unit.
The Employer is engaged in the manufacture , distribution,
and installation of electrical communication equipment, oper-
ating a number of plants located in various States. For ad-
ministrative purposes , its manufacturing operations are di-
vided into an eastern area and a western area . The latter
consists of the Hawthorne Works involved in this proceeding
and a smaller plant at St . Paul, Minnesota . The Hawthorne
Works includes a large, main plant located at Cicero and
Cermak Roads in Chicago, 4 relatively smaller plants in the
Chicago metropolitan area known as the Clearing , Kolmar
Avenue, 47th Street, and Fullerton Avenue plants, and 4 aux-
iliary warehouses. The Hawthorne Works is a very large and
complex operation principally engaged in manufacturing central
office dial telephone equipment, lead-covered cable, and non-
ferrous metals , and employing about 22 , 846 persons , of whom
about 15,289 are involved herein. It is headed by a works
manager who , in turn, is assisted by a number of division
heads, including 3 assistant works managers and an engineer
of manufactures , who are responsible for various separate
phases of its operations . Under the division heads are various
plant superintendents , assistant superintendents , department
chiefs, section chiefs , and group chiefs who constitute the
lowest supervisory level. All hourly rated employees, irre-
spective of classification, enjoy substantially the same bene-
fits and have similar working conditions, except that certain
production employees work under an incentive wage plan.
From 1937 until 1943 all hourly rated employees at the
Hawthorne Works have been represented by Western Electric
Independent Labor Association . During the latter year, the
name of the bargaining representative was changed to that of
the CEW. Since that year the CEW has continuously repre-
sented these employees, the most recent contract covering
them having expired on October 26 , 1953, a few days before
the hearing in this proceeding.
The foregoing brief facts show clearly that the Hawthorne
Works is operated by the Employer as a sufficiently auton-
omous and separate functional entity to constitute a separate
bargaining unit apart from any of the employees of the Em-
ployer located at other plants or installations . This fact,
coupled with the considerable geographical separation of the
398 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Hawthorne Works from all other plants and with the long
history of bargaining on the single-works basis, unquestionably
makes the continued existence of the unit appropriate now.
Although an Employerwide production and maintenance unit
such as that sought by the CWA might also ultimately be appro-
priate (a matter which we need not now determine), it follows
from the separate appropriateness of the existing Hawthorne
unit that, under established principles, the Board would not
merge these employees into the broader unit without first
conducting a separate election to determine the desires of the
Hawthorne employees themselves. And this situation is repeated
elsewhere within the Employer ' s organization . For it appears
from the information presented in Case No. 2-RC-63192 that,
at the nine manufacturing division plants whose employees the
CWA seeks to join with those it now represents , there is a
bargaining pattern consisting of a number of separate units
represented by labor organizations other than the CWA.3 These
units for the most part are plantwide in scope and , like the
Hawthorne Works, appear to be inherently appropriate. It is
clear that as to the employees in these established units also,
the Board would not merge them into a broader Employerwide
unit such as that asserted to be appropriate by the CWA with-
out first conducting separate elections to permit the expression
of the employees ' own desires . For these reasons and apart
from other considerations ," it becomes apparent that until the
CWA, or some other labor organization , has itself achieved
representative status in each of these lesser existing units,
it will not be possible to establish a unit coextensive with the
Employer's entire production and maintenance operations as
alone and exclusively appropriate.' In Case No. 2-RC-6519,
the Board has affirmed the Regional Director's refusal to pro-
ceed to hearing upon the CWA's petition. In the present case,
the Board finds insufficient reason in the CWA's contention
to deny the elections, hereinafter described, among the Haw-
thorne employees.6
2 See footnote 1, supra
3CWA presently represents about 35,000 employees, of whom approximately 17,000 hourly
rated employees in the installation operation of the telephone and installation division and
about 6,800 hourly rated warehouse and repair shop employees of the same division, are
represented in 2 separate companywide units. CWA also represents approximately 5,000
hourly rated production and maintenance employees at 3 plants comprising the radio division,
and about 5,600 similar employees, ona single- plant basis, at 6 plants within the manufacturing
division. The remaining 36,000 employees are represented by different labor organizations
principally in separate single-plant units at 9 plants.
4 For example, the Regional Director found that there are existing contracts which would
constitute effective bars to an election in some of the existing units.
6Standard & Poor's Corporation, 95 NLRB 248, at page 249; New Jersey Brewers Asso-
ciation, 92 NLRB 1404, at page 1407.
6CWA asserts that the hearing officer erred in denying its motion to suspend the hearing
in this proceeding until after the Board has made a determination in Case No. 2-RC-6319.
For the reasons stated above, we find that the hearing officer properly denied the CWA's
motion.
WESTERN ELECTRIC COMPANY, INCORPORATED 399
The proposed IAM unit: Among the approximately 1,267
employees sought y t e IAM there are about 327 tool and die
makers, 233 machinists, 11 model makers, 341 precision
machine operators, bench and machine operators, and heat
treaters, 28 detail makers, 7 test set makers, 34 junior
tradesmen, 103 machine tool and gauge inspectors, 1 engraver,
37 welders, and 148 trainees or apprentices. Employees in all
these various classifications are to be found in each of the 4
manufacturing plants at the Hawthorne Works.
The tool and die makers are assigned to the main toolrooms
and several smaller toolrooms and departments concerned with
tool production and development. Others are located in pro-
duction areas, such as department 1531 (miscellaneous central
office apparatus), for purposes of convenience. All, irrespective
of location or assignment, make and repair various types of
punches, dies, jigs, fixtures, and, in some instances, gauges.
The machinists are quartered in the main machine shop and
in the several machine repair and maintenance shops. Some
resident machinists are stationed in the production departments
although they report to their machine shop headquarters,
department 5114, for matters of assignment, etc. They repair
and maintain machines throughout the plant. Most of the major
overhauling jobs are performed within the several shops.
Model makers are assigned to the mechanical laboratory
where they perform punch, die, jig, and fixture work, similar
to that of the tool and die makers, but for experimental
purposes.
On occasion, some of the employees in the foregoing classi-
fications are required to work on details or parts for special
orders placed by agencies of the Federal Government or by
companies affiliated with the Employer, such as Bell Telephone
Laboratories. Such work in the past has been either of a
"pilot" type, wherein limited quantities have been produced
prior to commencement of mass-production, or of such a
character that it could not be performed within the production
departments. Tool and die makers, machinists, and model
makers use the customary machine and hand tools of the
machinists' trade, and are required to work to very close
tolerances, in some instances as low as ten-thousandths.
Employees within the top labor grades of these classifications
must be able to work from drawings and sketches. As indicated
above, most of their work is performed in the several tool-
rooms, machine shops, or in the mechanical laboratory.
The precision machine operators operate boring mills, die
sinking machines, grinding machines, jig borers, lathes,
milling machines, and planers. Together with bench and machine
operators and heat treaters in the toolrooms and machine
shops, they are engaged almost continuously in the performance
of specialized operations requiring a high degree of skill in
the use of their particular machines, performing duties such
as tool cutting, grinding, and treating. There are also a
400 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
number of employees scattered throughout production depart-
ments in the Hawthorne Works, not sought by the JAM, who
possess comparable skills and perform work similar to that
of these employees.
Detail makers and test set makers are assigned to the
mechanical laboratory where, among other duties , they exercise
some of the simpler mechanical skills. Detail makers operate
precision machines , performing simple or routine operations
in connection with the construction of mechanical details used
in the production of test sets .? They also wire panels and test
sets. Test set makers , under the direction of engineers, per-
form duties related to the construction , wiring , and modification
of test sets.
Junior tradesmen , most of whom are assigned to department
5254 ( millwrights ) and the remainder to several tool and
mechanical maintenance shops, perform a variety of routine
maintenance tasks. These employees are expected to qualify
for future plant positions in trades such as millwright,
carpentry , pipefitting , etc. None advances to machinist or tool
and die maker positions.
The machine tool and gauge inspectors , with one exception,
have their headquarters in department 5164, the inspection
department . One inspector is assigned to department 5114,
the electrical and machine repair and maintenance department.
They inspect tools , dies, gauges , and fixtures made by the
machinists and the tool and die makers, and mechanical parts
obtained from outside sources, to ascertain whether such
products conform to required tolerances. The Employer has
other inspectors , also assigned to the inspection department
and not sought by the IAM , who perform production inspection
duties. None of the inspectors sought herein performs any
tool and die or machinist work. Although they must be skilled
in the technique of examining tools and dies for defects, it
does not appear that they exercise the skills of tool and die
makers , or machinists.
The engraver is assigned to department 5123, where new and
replacement tools are made. Working from drawings , this em-
ployee engraves various styles and sizes of characters on
metal , wood, fibrous , and rubber surfaces.
Welders, a majority of whom are assigned to the same mill-
wrights department and the remainder to several tool and
machine shops , perform all acetylene welding. Some of the
employees within this category are qualified to do all types of
welding work . Although some of the welders assigned to the
toolrooms perform most of their work for machinists , they also
perform tasks for the pipefitters and electricians.
The Employer maintains a formal training program for all its
tool and die makers, machinists , and toolroom and machine shop
T Test sets are instruments , usually electrical. that are utilized in testing products made
by the Employer.
WESTERN ELECTRIC COMPANY, INCORPORATED 401
precision machine operators . Each tool and die maker and
machinist apprentice is required to complete a 7,320-hour
training course , including a somewhat standard course of in-
struction during the initial 4,000 hours , followed by advanced
shop training in the employee ' s particular specialty , and class-
room instruction in mathematics and theory . The model makers
appear also to receive a similar type of training . The precision
machine operators are required to complete an apprentice
course consisting of only 2,520 hours of instruction , and each is
taught how to operate a specific machine , such as a lathe or
milling machine .' During the past 5 years , approximately 151
tool and die maker and machinist apprentices , and 34 machine
shop and toolroom precision machine operators were trained.
The record demonstrates that the Employer , in addition to
obtaining toolmakers and machinists from its formal training
school, has directly hired such employees from the outside as
journeymen tool and die makers or machinists.
It is clear that the tool and die makers , machinists , and model
makers sought by the IAM perform work involving a high degree
of true craft skill. Although some of them work alongside, or
occasionally in conjunction with, employees in other occu-
pations, they nevertheless work primarily within the ambit of
their own craft. We have recently held that employees engaged
in true craft work of a distinctive character , who have been
traditionally represented by the labor organization seeking their
severance , as here , may constitute a separate bargaining unit.'
As the tool and die makers , machinists , model makers , and their
apprentices compose an identifiable , distinctive , and homog-
eneous craft group embracing all employees of the same type
within the plant , we find that they may be severed from the
existing plantwide unit, notwithstanding the fact that some of
them perform production work.'°
As it is evident that the precision machine operators, the
bench and machine operators , the heat treaters , and their
trainees are engaged in the performance of routine , repetitive
operations not requiring the exercise of true craft skills, 11
and are not in the direct line of progression in the craft,
we shall exclude them from the machinist voting group. We
shall also exclude the detail makers, test set makers , junior
tradesmen , machine tool and gauge inspectors , and the engraver
because it is clear that they do not exercise the skills of the
tool and die maker and machinists craft." Because a sub-
'The training school also trains precision machine operators assigned to production depart-
ments. Unlike the formal apprentices , their period of training is limited to a few weeks, and
they are not required to pass an examination for admission to the course.
9 American Potash & Chemical Corporation , 107 NLRB 1418.
m Wagner Electric Corporation , 99 NLRB 815 at page 819. See, also, American Potash &
Chemical Corporation , supra
u Wagner Electric Corporation , supra Ford Motor Company, Aircraft Engine Division,
96 NLRB 1075 , at page 1082.
Q American Potash & Chemical Corporation , supra.
i'See Wagner Electric Corporation , supra , at page 819, and cases cited therein.
339676 0 - 55 - 27
402 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
stantial number of the welders work throughout the plant with
various craft groups other than toolmakers and machinists, we
shall, apart from other factors, exclude them from the voting
group.'
There remains for consideration the question as to whether
draftsmen should be included within the plantwide unit, or in
the alternative, should be accorded a separate election as
requested by the CWA.
Draftsmen: The approximately 730 employees within this
category are all paid on a salaried basis, unlike the other em-
ployees involved herein, and are assigned to the equipment
engineering department and the department known as the works
engineer of manufacturing department. They prepare drawings
and plans, modify prints, and perform line instrument work.
Draftsmen have not heretofore been represented by any labor
organization.
It is clear that these employees perform work of a technical
nature, and lack a substantial community of interest with the
production and maintenance employees. We shall therefore
adhere to Board practice and exclude the draftsmen from the
plantwide voting group. As the CWA has made no separate
showing of interest among the draftsmen, we also find, without
passing at this time upon the appropriateness of such a unit,
that a separate election within this group is not warranted.'
Accordingly, we shall direct separate elections in the
following voting groups:
(A) All tool and die makers, machinists, model makers, and
their apprentices employed at the Employer's Hawthorne Works
at Chicago, Illinois, excluding all bench and machine operators,
boring mill, die sinking machine, grinding machine, jig borer,
lathe, machine, milling machine, and planer operators, heat
treaters , detail makers, test set makers , junior tradesmen,
machine tool and gauge inspectors, the engraver, welders,
precision machine operator trainees , all other employees,
guards, and supervisors as defined in the Act.
(B) All hourly rated employees employed at the Employer's
Hawthorne Works at Chicago, Illinois, including installation and
merchandising employees but excluding employees in group (A),
draftsmen, employees designated by the Employer as chauffeur
(truck-fire apparatus); fireman, watch and fire service; fire-
man, watch and fire service (utility); guard; guard (patrol-
automobile); sergeant (guard); and all supervisors as defined
in the Act. a
t4lnternational Paper Company, 96 NLRB 295 at pages 297-298.
SNational Cash Register Company, 95 NLRB 27, at pages 30-31, and cases cited therein.
SR. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, 88 NLRB 600; Jax Beer Company of Houston, Texas,
89 NLRB 1233.
17 The description of this voting group is substantially that of the production and maintenance
unit now represented by the CEW, as shown by the record description of the bargaining
history and by the unit description appearing in the most recent contract
GERBER PLASTIC COMPANY 403
As one of the factors supporting the appropriateness of
separate representation for voting group (A) is that the
petitioner seeking to represent this group is a labor organ-
ization which traditionally represents such employees (the IAM),
we shall provide that if a majority of the employees in this
group select the union seeking to represent them separately,
they will be taken to have indicated their desire to constitute
a separate bargaining unit, and the Regional Director con-
ducting the election is instructed to issue a certification of
representatives to such labor organization for such unit which
the Board, in such circumstances, finds to be appropriate for
purposes of collective bargaining. On the other hand, if a
majority of the employees in voting group (A) do not vote for
the union which i's seeking to represent them in a separate
unit, that group will be included in the plantwide unit and their
votes shall be pooled with those in voting group (B),u and
the Regional Director conducting the election is instructed to
issue a certification of representatives to the labor organ-
ization selected by a majority of the employees in the pooled
group which the Board, in such circumstances, finds to be a
single unit appropriate for purposes of collective bargaining.
[Text of Direction of Elections omitted from publication.]
1aAmerican Potash & Chemical Corporation, 107 NLRB 1418, sets out the full language
of the new way of counting.
GERBER PLASTIC COMPANY and UNITED GAS, COKE &
CHEMICAL WORKERS OF AMERICA, CIO, Petitioner. Case
No. 14-RC-2487. April 22, 1954.
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National
Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held befo:eJoseph H. Solien,
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 Act.
2. The labor organization involved claims to represent cer-
tain employees of the Employer.
3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the
representation of employees of the Employer within the meaning
of Section 9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
4. The parties generally agree that a unit of all production,
maintenance, and warehouse employees at the Employer's
108 NLRB No. 73.