Wyandotte Transportation Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jul 30, 1945

62 N.L.R.B. 1518 (N.L.R.B. 1945)

In the Matter of WYANDOTTE TRANSPORTATION COMPANY and NATIONAL
ORGANIZATION, MASTERS, MATES AND PILOTS OF AMERICA, A. F. L.
Case No. 7-R-2003.-Decided July 30, 1945
Dykema, Jones & Wheat, by Mr. Elroy 0. Jones, of Detroit, Mich., for
the Company.
Mr. Stanley Barr, of Wyandotte, Mich., for the MMP.
Mr. Donald H. Frank, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon an amended petition duly filed by National Organization, Masters,
Mates and Pilots of America, A. F. L, herein called the MMP, alleging
that a question affecting commerce had arisen concerning the representation
of employees of Wyandotte Transportation Company, Detroit, Michigan,
herein called the Company, the National Labor Relations Board provided
for an appropriate hearing upon due notice before Max Rotenberg, Trial
Examiner. Said hearing was held at Detroit, Michigan, on April 23, 1945.
The Company and the MMP appeared and participatecl. All parties were
afforded full opportunity to be heard, to examine and cross-examine wit-
nesses, and to introduce evidence bearing on the issues. The Trial Exam-
iner's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are
hereby affirmed. All parties were afforded an opportunity to file briefs
with the Board.
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following :
FINDINGS bF FACT
I. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
Wyandotte Transportation Company is a Michigan corporation with its
principal offices in Detroit, Michigan. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of
Wyandotte Chemical Company, the principal offices of which are located
62 N L R B, No. 213.
1518
WYANDOTTE TRANSPORTATION COMPANY 1519
at Wyandotte, Michigan. The Company owns and operates four cargo
vessels on the Great Lakes and the connecting rivers, and it is engaged
thereon in the transportation of soda ash, caustic soda, chlorine, bicarbo-
nate of soda, calcium carbonate, and other products of the Wyandotte
Chemical Company, and coal and limestone, between points in the Staten
of Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin.
During the calendar year 1944, the Company transported aboard its
ships products and materials, valued in excess of $1,000,000, between
points in the afore-named States. More than 50 percent of the products
and materials transported by the Company is used by manufacturers of
war materials in their manufacturing businesses.
The Company admits that it is engaged in commerce within the meaning
of the National Labor Relations Act, and we have so found.'
II. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED
National Organization, Masters, Mates and Pilots of America, affiliated
with the American Federation of Labor, is a labor organization admitting
to membership employees of the Company.
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
The Company has refused to grant recognition to the MMP as the exclu-
sive bargaining representative of the mates employed on the Company's
vessels, on the grounds discussed in Section IV, infra.
A statement of a Board agent, introduced into evidence at the hearing,
indicates that the MMP represents a substantial number of employees in
the unit hereinafter found appropriate.
We find that a question affecting commerce has arisen concerning the
representation of employees of the Company, within the meaning of Sec-
tion 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act. ,P
IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT
The MMP seeks a unit composed of the mates employed on the Com-
pany's vessels. The Company contends that the mates should not be deemed
to constitute an appropriate unit on the ground that since these employees
are members of the Coast Guard Reserve, their assumption of "obligations
to the Union and their fellow workers" would be contrary to the public
interest e We have had occasion in many previous cases to consider similar
contentions and have concluded that the militarization of employees does
1 Matter of Wyandotte Transportation Company, 25 N. L. R. B. 336.
2 The Field Examiner reported that the MMP submitted 12 authorization cards, all of which bore
apparently genuine original signatures, that the names of all persons appearing on the cards were
listed on the Company's pay roll of March 15, 1945, which contained the names of 12 employees in
the appropriate unit; and that all of the cards were dated in March 1945.
3 The Company bases its argument upon the decision of the United States Circuit Court of Appeals
for the Sixth Circuit in N. L R B. v Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation, 146 F. (2d) 718, cert
granted, remanded for further consideration June 4, 1945, 65 S Ct. 1413. We do not acquiesce in
the doctrine enunciated in that decision.
1520 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
not, per se, establish that collective bargaining for such employees under
statutory protection would defeat the policies of the Act or the national
interest in prosecution of the war.' The Company introduced no evidence
which would lead to the corclusion that these employees are essential],,,,.
different from those involveu in the cited cases. The militarization of 1:.
mates involved their taking an oath of allegiance, and vested in them the
authority to intercede in disorders among Coast Guard personnel, with
power to arrest the offending parties. This authority cannot be said to
alter their duties to the Company, to impair their ability to carry out their
assigned tasks, or in any way to alter the collective bargaining procedures
they would otherwise engage in with the Company. The only other effect
of their militarization has been to require them to exercise a higher degree
of care in the performance of their regular duties, to assure that shipping
and products vital to the war effort will not be lost through accident or
sabotage. They have not been armed ; their compensation, hours of work,
vacation privileges, and supervision were not changed by their enrollment
in the Coast Guard; they have continued to receive their pay from the
Company. We are of the opinion that the creation of a collective bargaining
unit for the mates will effectuate the policies of the Act and serve the public
interest.
The Company contends, further, that the proposed unit is inappropriate
because mates are executive officers and constitute a part of the manage-
ment of the Company. This contention, also, has been considered by us in
many previous cases, and we have found it to be without merit. No persua-
sive argument has been presented in the instant case for a reversal of our
previous holdings on this question. The first mate is in direct charge of the
hire and discharge of the unlicensed personnel, and to him the other mates
wake their recommendations on these subjects. In the event of the incapacity
or absence of a master, a mate takes over the master's position, in which
case he has absolute control over his ship, its cargo, and all personnel,
including the other mates, when the ship is not in port. Except for that
single instance, the mates have no supervisory authority over each other.
The position of these employees is the same as that of the licensed deck
officers involved in our prior decisions, wherein we determined that, despite
their supervisory authority and managerial responsibility, such employees
are entitled to the benefits of the Act.'. We reaffirm that determination.
A See Matter of National Lead Company, Titanium Division, 62 N. L R B 107; Matter of
Sealed Power Corporation, 61 N L R. B 1639; Matte) of Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, Lock-
heed Modification Center, 61 N L. R B 1336, Matter of The Babcock & Wilcox Company, 61
N. L R B 529; Matter of Rohm & Haas Company, 60 N..L. R B 554; Matter of International
Harvester Company, Milwaukee Works, 61 N. L R B 912
s Matter of Ohio Barge Line, Inc, 59 N. L. R B 154; Matter of Jones & Laughlin Steel Corpo-
ration (3 cases), 37 N L R. B. 366, 47 N. L. R. B. 1272, and 51 N. L. R. B. 1204; 54 N. L. R B.
679, enf'd 146 F (2d) 833 (C C. A. 5), cert. den. June 18, 1945, 65 S. Ct. 1575; Matter of Drava
Corporation, Keystone Sand Division, 39 N. L. R. B. 846; Matter of Tide Water Associated Oil Com-
pany, 38 N. L. R. B 582, Matter of Carnegie-Illinos Steel Corporation, 37 N. L. R. B. 19.
f
WYANDOTTE TRANSPORTATION COMPANY 1521
The conventional unit in such cases is composed of masters, mates, and
pilots. In the instant case, the Company employs no pilots. The MMP has
not organized the Company's masters and does not seek their inclusion in
the unit, since it believes that the masters do not wish to engage -in collec-
_,,'tye bargaining e There is no history of collective bargaining involving
these employees. The Company does not specifically object to the exclusion
of the masters, or concede that the unit would be appropriate if this class
were included. We have in a number of cases refused to approve the exclu-
sion of masters from units of licensed deck officers where the reason for
such exclusion, urged by affiliates of the present petitioner, was the super-
visory status of the masters.' We have elsewhere held, however, in cases
where there was no showing that the positions of masters and subordinate
deck officers overlapped or that a unit excluding masters would represent a
departure from the historical bargaining pattern, that masters might prop-
erly be excluded.' In this case, it appears that the Company's masters, a
distinct minority among the licensed deck officers, do not desire representa-
tion by the MMP, and that that organization does not presently desire to
represent them. Under the circumstances, we see no reason to insist upon
their inclusion. This determination is without prejudice to the enlargement
of the unit, by including the masters therein, if at some future date they
indicate that they desire collective bargaining.
We find that all of the mates employed on the Company's vessels con-
stitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within
the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
V. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
We shall direct that the question concerning representation which had
arisen be resolved by an election by secret ballot among the employees in
the appropriate unit who were employed during the pay-roll period imme-
diately preceding the date of the Direction of Election herein, subject to
the limitations and additions set forth in the Direction.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
By virtue of and pursuant to the power vested in the National Labor
Relations Board by Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act, and
pursuant to Article III, Section 9, of National Labor Relations Board
Rules and Regulations-Series 3, as amended, it is hereby
9 Cf. Matter of Tide Water Associated Oil Company , 9 N. L. R. B. 823.
7 Matter of Seas Shipping Company ( Supplemental Decision and Second Amendment to Direction
of Election), 8 N. L R. B. 422 ; Matter of New York & Cuba Mail Steamship Company, 9 N. L.
R B. 51; Matter of Tide Water Associated Oil Company , supra; cf. Matter of Standard Oil Com-
pany of New Jersey, 8 N. L. R B 936
8 Matter of McCormick Steamship Company , 25 N L R B . 587; Matter of United States Lines
Company, 28 N. L R. B. 896; Matter of Detrost & Cleveland Navigation Company, 29 N. L.
R. B. 176.
1522 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation to ascertain representatives
for the purposes of collective bargaining with Wyandotte Transportation
Company, Detroit, Michigan, an election by secret ballot shall be conducted
as early as possible, but not later than thirty (30) days from the date of
this Direction, under the direction and supervision of the Regional Director
for the Seventh Region, acting in this matter as agent for the National
Labor Relations Board, and subject to Article III, Sections 10 and 11, of
said Rules and Regulations, among the employees in the unit found appro-
priate in Section IV, above, who-were employed during the pay-roll period
immediately preceding the date of this Direction, including employees who
did not work during said pay-roll period because they were ilP or on vaca-
tion or temporarily laid off, and including employees in the armed forces
of the United States who present themselves in person at the polls, but
excluding any who have since quit or been discharged for cause and have
not been rehired or reinstated prior to the late of the election, to determine
whether or not they desire to be represented by National Organization,
Masters, Mates and Pilots of America, -A. F. L., for the purposes of
collective bargaining.
CHAIRMAN HERZOG took no part in the consideration of the above Deci-
sion and Direction of Election.
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