Julien P. Friez & Sons

In the Matter of JuLIEN P. FRIEZ & SONS, DIVISION BENDIX AVIATION CORP. and AIRCRAFT RADIO ASSOCIATION Case No. R-41702.-Decided January 27, 1943 Jurisdiction : aircraft instruments manufacturing industry. Investigation and Certification of Representatives : existence of question: stipu- lation as to ; election necessary. Unit Appropriate for Collective Bargaining : single or separate units held de- pendent upon elections to be conducted among (1) all production, employees, with specified inclusions and exclusions, of four Baltimore plants of Company, and (2) all production employees, with specified inclusions and exclusions, at the Towson'plant. Messrs. Lucien L. Friez, Franklin Davis, W. J. Buckley, E. P. Lop- packer, and Hugh Renet, all of Towson, Md., for the Company. Mr. J. Wardlaw Ewell, of Baltimore,,Md., for the A. R. A. Mr. Jack Myers, of Baltimore, Md., for the C. 1.0. Mr. Arthur Leff, of counsel to the Board. DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS STATEMENT OF THE CASE Upon petition duly filed by Aircraft Radio Association, herein called the A. R. A., alleging that a question affecting commerce had arisen concerning the representation of employees of Julien P. Friez & Sons, Division Bendix Aviation Corp., Towson, Maryland, herein called the Company, the National Labor Relations Board provided for an appropriate hearing upon due notice before Albert P. Wheat- ley, Trial Examiner. Said hearing was held in Baltimore, Maryland, on December 28 and 29, 1942. The Company, the A. R. A., and United' Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America, C. I. 0., herein called the C. I. 0., appeared, participated, and were afforded full opportunity to be heard, to examine and cross-examine witnesses, and to introduce evidence bearing on the issues. The Trial Ex- aminer's rulings made at the bearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed. The Company and the C. I. O. filed briefs which have been considered by the Board. 47 N L R. B., No. 8. 43 44 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following: . FINDINGS OF FACT I. THE BUSINESS OF THJ COMPANY Julien P. Friez & Sons is a Division of the Bendix Aviation Corp., and is engaged in manufacturing weather and aircraft instruments and apparatus. It operates five plants, of which four are in Balti- more and one in Towson, Maryland. It receives annually from points, outside of Maryland raw materials and supplies of the approximate value of $600,000. It ships to points outside the State of Maryland annually products having a value in excess of $4,000,000. We find that the Company is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act. H. TH7q ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED Aircraft Radio Association is an unaffiliated, labor organization admitting'to membership employees of the Company. United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers. of America, is a labor organization affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organ- izations, admitting to membership employees of the Company. III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION It was stipulated that the Company, although requested to do so, had declined to recognize the A. R. A. as the exclusive bargaining agent for its production and maintenance employees until the A. R. A. was certified by the Board. A statement of the Field Examiner, introduced into evidence at the hearing, indicates that the A. R. A. represents a substantial num- ber of employees in the unit claimed by it to be appropriate., We find that a question affecting commerce has arisen concerning the representation of employees of the Company, within the meaning of Section 9 (c) 'and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act. The 'statement shows that the A. R A. submitted a total of 700 membership cards, all undated: Of these, 629 bore apparently genuine signatures of employees appearing on the Company 's November 30, 1942, pay roll,- which listed about 1,312 employees in all plants, the unit sought ,by the A. R. A . The pay roll showed 728 employees in the Towson plant, which is the unit sought by the C. I 0 ; 360 A. 11 A. cards bore the appar- ently genuine signatures of employees in that plant. The C. I. 0 submitted 45 cards bearing apparently genuine signatures of employees on said pay roll in the Towson plant. JULIEN P. FRIEZ & SONS 45 IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT; THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES The principal unit issue in this proceeding arises from conflict among the parties concerning the separability from an appropriate bargaining unit of one of the Company's five plants. The A. R. A. contends that all of the Company's plants should be 'included in a single unit. The C. I. 0., seeking certification only with respect to the Company's Towson plant, contends that the Towson plant should be found to be a separate unit. The Company agrees with the A.R.A. Four of the plants operated by the Company are located within the business district of the City of Baltimore. The fifth, located at Towson, outside of the city limits of Baltimore, is removed from the, other plants by from 8 to 10 miles. Because the Towson plant is over 2 miles distant from the nearest public transportation facilities, it is necessary to make special arrangements for automobile transportation of employees to and from that plant. The Towson plant is essentially a machining plant where parts are 'fabricated. All of the other plants are essentially assembling and finishing plants, even though some machining and tooling inci- dental to the assembling and finishing processes are also performed there. Raw materials are received at the Towson plant, are there fabricated into parts, and are then sent to one or more of the other plants for assembling and finishing. Among the assembly plants in Baltimore city there is, however, a frequent shifting of the products from plant to plant during the various stages of manufacturing and processing. On occasions, personnel have been transferred from plant to plant, but the extent to which the Towson plant has been involved in such interchanges has been relatively slight.2 The Company maintains a central general office, clerical system and production control. There is a general supervisor in charge of all plants, but each 'plant has its own superintendent who is authorized to' make decisions affecting employees within his own plant. There is a central personnel office located at Towson, but the Company also maintains a personnel interviewer's office at one of its Baltimore city plants, where applicants are received, interviewed and hired. The several plant superintendents also hire men at their respective plants. All employment is cleared through the central personnel office. Ex- cept for janitors who are regularly stationed at the several plants, the maintenance employees have no regular station and are assigned to duty in the various plants from their headquarters which are located at the Towson office of the Company: The record shows that during the 6-month ' period ending December 1942, 22 em- ployees were shifted from Towson to other plants, and 23 employees from other plants to Towson. 46 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD The A. R. A. has separate chapters representing respectively the employees in the Towson plant and the employees in the Baltimore city plants. Each chapter is organized along autonomous lines. Although provision is made in the A. R. A. constitution for an over- all executive, committee, the two chapters have not yet been unified by the designation of such a committee. The evidence shows that each .chapter of the A. R. A. made its own separate request upon the Company for bargaining conferences. In support of their contention, for a single over-all unit, the Com- pany and the A. R. A. emphasize principally the functional inter- dependence of all the plants. The Company also claims that separa- tion may require reorganization of its personnel administration. The C. I. 0., on the other hand, contending that the Towson plant be set apart as a separate unit, points to the physical separation of Towson from its other plants, the special transportation problem relating to the Towson plant, the separate chapter organization and requests to bargain of the A. R. A., and the fact that the several plants have separate superintendents with power to hire and discharge employees. The C. I. 0. stresses, above all, the distinction between the machin- ing and fabrication work conducted- at the Towson plant and the assembling and finishing work performed at the other plants. We find no great preponderance of evidence in this record in favor of one contention over the other, and the record does not disclose any history of collective bargaining on behalf of the employees which might aid us in arriving at a determination. Under all the circum- stances we are of the opinion that the inclusion of the 'Towson plant in a unit with the Company's other plants should depend in part on the express desires of the employees. Consequently, we shall direct separate elections, one to be conducted among the employees in the Towson plant, of the Company, and the other among the em-, ployees of the Baltimore city plants of the Company. The election at the Towson plant shall be conducted to determine whether the employees of that plant desire to be represented for purposes of col- lective bargaining by the A. R. A., the C. I. 0., or by neither. In the election at the Baltimore city plants, the employees' will express their wishes as to whether they desire to be represented by the A. R. A. or by no union. If the A. R. A. receives a majority of the votes cast by the employees in each election, the five plants will constitute it single appropriate unit. If the C. I. 0. receives a majority of votes cast by the employees at the Towson election, the Towson plant will constitute a separate appropriate unit. All of the Company's maintenance employees who are regularly, stationed at one or more of its Baltimore city plants, shall vote in the election to be conducted among the employees of such plants, and that all maintenance employees of the Company who are regularly sta- JULIEN P. FRIEZ & SONS 47 tioned at the Towson plant or who are not regularly stationed at any particular plant, but whose headquarters are at the Towson plant or who receive their work assignments from an office located at that plant, shall vote in the election to be conducted among the employees of.that .plant. There remains to be considered the question as to whether certain specific groups of employees shall be included within the unit or units. In its petition the A . R. A. requested that there be-included within the appropriate unit, all production and maintenance employees, ex- clusive of clerical and supervisory employees . At the hearing all parties agreed that the term "supervisory , employees" was to be de- fined as including executives , foremen, subforemen, and all employees having the power'to hire or discharge or the power , to recommend hir- ing or discharge, but that group leaders -were to be excepted ,from such exclusion. All parties further agreed-that shipping clerks should be included in the appropriate unit, and Ahat mechanical engineers should be excluded . The Company, however, would -exclude, whereas the A. R. A. would include , timekeepers and expediters . The C. I. 0. has taken no position as to the inclusion or exclusion of timekeepers and expediters. - The timekeepers are charged with the duty of keeping time records relating to the work done in the plants by production employees, and preparing and ; submitting reports to the management. They travel throughout the plant to which they are attached . The record does not indicate the extent, if any, of their supervisory duties. They, alone among the employees in the suggested units, are paid on a salary basis. Their work is essentially clerical. The expediters, who have their headquarters at the Towson plant, are charged with the duty of expediting the completion of orders and assuring adherence to production time schedules. They follow the work in all plants from its start, through its various intermediate stages, until final completion and shipment. If stoppage occurs they take up the matter with the foreman of the department then handling the work. Under the circumstances disclosed we agree with the contention ' of the, Company that its timekeepers are clerical and its expediters are closely related to the management, and therefore find-that employees within these disputed categories should be excluded from the appro- priate , unit or units. We find that the questions concerning representation which have arisen can best be resolved by means of election by secret ballot among the employees in the groups described below who were employed dur- ing the pay-roll period immediately preceding the date of the Direc- tion of Election ' herein, subject to, the limitations and additions set forth in the Direction. 48 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RE'LATIONS BOARD DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS' - ` .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 9, of National Labor Relations Board 'Rules 'and .Regulations-Series .2, as amended, it is hereby - ' . ' • ' I Dnwo D that, as part of the investigation to 'ascertain; representa- tives for the purposes .of collective bargaining with Julien P. Friez & Sons,,Division Bendix Ayiation Corp., separate elections by secret -ballot shall be conducted as, early, as possible, but not later than thirty •(30)''dayslfrom the date of this Direction, under the direction and supervision of the Regional Director for the Fifth Region, acting .in this matter as agent for the National Labor Relations Board, and subject to Article :111,: Section .10, 'of said Rules and,Regulations, among the following groups of employees who were employed during ,the pay-roll period immediately preceding the date of this Direction, including any such employees who did not work during said pay- ; roll period because they were ill, or on vacation 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 : (a) All production. employees (including, group: 'leaders and shipping clerks) at the Baltimore plants of the Company, and all maintenance employees regularly stationed at one or more'.of said plants'; but excluding all executives,, foremen, subforemen, and all other supervisory employees having the power to hire or discharge or the power to recommend hiring or discharge, and all mechanical engineers, timekeepers, expediters, and clerical employees, other than shipping clerks ; to determine whether or not they desire to be repre- sented for the purposes of collective bargaining by Aircraft Radio Association. (b) All production employees (including group leaders and shipping clerks), at the Towson plant and all maintenance employees wjio are regularly stationed at that plant, or' who are not regularly stationed at any particular plant of the Company but whose head- quarters are at the Towson plant or who receive their work assign- ments from an office at that' plant; but excluding all executive's, foremen, subforemen, and all other supervisory employees having the power to hire or discharge or the power'to recommend hiring or discharge, and all mechanical engineers; timekeepers, expeditors; and clerical employees, other than shipping clerks;-to 'determine whether -they desire to be' represented by Aircraft Radio Association, by United Electrical,' Radio & Machine' Workers of America, C. I. 0., for the purposes of collective bargaining, or by neither.