Chicago Molded Products Corp.

In the Matter of CHICAGO MOLDED PRODUCTS CORPORATION and RUEBER AND PLASTIC WORKERS' UNION, LOCAL 20911, AFFILIATED WITH A. F. OF L. Case No. R-51,04.-Decided May 11, 1943 Mr. Otto A. Jaburek, of Chicago, Ill., for the Company. Mr. S. G. Lippman, of Chicago, Ill., for the AFL. Mr. Frank Ingram, of Chicago; Ill., for the Independent. Mr. William C. Baisinger, Jr., of counsel to the Board. DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION STATEMENT OF THE CASE Upon petition duly filed by Rubber and Plastic Workers' Union, Local 20911, affiliated with the A. F. of L., herein called the AFL, alleging that a question affecting commerce had arisen concerning the representation of employees of Chicago Molded Products Cor- poration, Chicago, Illinois, herein called the Company, the National Labor Relations Board provided for an appropriate hearing upon due notice before Leon A. Rosell, Trial Examiner. Said hearing was held at Chicago, Illinois, on April 6,-1943. The Company, the AFL, and the Independent Plastic Workers' Union, herein called the Inde- pendent, appeared, participated, and were afforded full opportunity to be heard, to examine and cross-examine witnesses, and to intro- duce evidence bearing on the issues. At the hearing, the Trial Examiner reserved ruling upon the motion of the Independent to dismiss the petition filed herein on the ground-that the AFL did not have a sufficiently substantial interest to raise a question concerning representation. For reasons hereinafter stated, said motion is hereby denied.' The Trial Examiner's rulingsmade at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed. The Independent filed a brief which the Board has considered. Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following : 49 N. L. R. B., No. 107. 756 CHICAGO MOLDED PRODUCTS CORPORATION FINDINGS OF FACT I. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY 757 Chicago Molded Products Corporation is an Illinois' corporation engaged at Chicago,- Illinois, in the manufacture, fabrication, and molding of synthetic plastic materials. During the ' year 1942, the Company purchased raw materials valued at approximately $800,000, of which 75 percent was transported to the plant from points outside the State of Illinois. The total value of the sales made by the 'Com- pany during the same year was approximately $2,500,000, of which approximately 50 percent was shipped by the Company- to purchasers outside the State of Illinois. The Company admits that it is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act. H. THE ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED Rubber and Plastic Workers' Union, Local 20911, is ' a ' labor or- ganization affiliated 'with the American Federation of Labor, admit- ting to membership employees of the Company. Independent Plastic Workers' Union, is an unaffiliated labor or- ganization, admitting to membership employees of the Company. III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION On April 14, 1942, the Company and the Independent entered into an exclusive bargaining contract, covering the production and main- tenance employees of the Company and providing for a closed shop. The contract expired by its terms on April 13, 1943, and neither the Company nor the Independent urges it as a bar to this proceeding. The record discloses that on or about September 8, 1942, a repre- sentative of the AFL met with several employees of the Company, at their request, to discuss affiliation with the AFL. These em- ployees claimed to represent the members of the Independent who had met that morning and moved to request affiliation -with the AFL. The AFL representative suggested that these employees distribute AFL authorization cards among the employees of the Company for their signatures. Some employees of the Company did sign AFL authorization cards, but others expressed the fear that if they signed such cards they would be violating Article III, Section 3, of the con- stitution and bylaws of the Independent which reads : - If any member shall, after being admitted to membership,, be- come active or engaged in any other Union he shall forfeit his membership in this Union ... DECISIONS OF 'NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD 758 and, thus, jeopardize their tenure of employment because of the closed-shop contract between the Independent and the Company. On September 17, 1942, at the suggestion of the AFL representative, a general meeting of employees of the Company was called by cer- tain members of the Independent: Approximately 150 persons at- tended this meeting, at which the AFL representative advised the employees present to sign petitions requesting an election. These petitions are dated November 20, 1942, and are the petitions herein- after set forth in the statement of the Regional Director. Subse- quently, on ors about September 30, 1942, and again oil or about January 23, 1943, the AFL requested the Company to recognize it as the bargaining representative of the employees in the unit alleged to be appropriate. On both occasions the Company declined to so recog- nize the AFL because it assertedly doubted that the AFL repre- 'sented a majority of the employees in the alleged unit and further because of the existence of the contract between the Independent and the Company. A statement of the Regional Director, introduced into evidence at the hearing, shows that the AFL submitted to him 59 application for membership cards, bearing apparently genuine signatures; that 29 of these cards bear signatures corresponding to the names of per- sons appearing on the Company's pay roll of February 1, 1943, which contains' the names of 681 persons in the unit alleged appropriate by the AFL. The Regional Director further states that the. AFL also submitted two petitions dated November 20, 1942, and signed by employees of the Company; that the first petition is headed "We, the undersigned, wish to have our names withdrawn from the Independ- ent Plastic Workers' Union, and refrain from deducting dues from our pay checks" and contains 41 apparently genuine signatures, of which 29 are the names of persons on the Company's pay roll of February 1,'i943, none, of which are duplicated by, any of the 29 application' for membership cards; and that'the second petition which is headed "We, the undersigned, paid up members in good standing of the Independent Plastic Workers Union, hereby petition the Na- tional Labor Relations Board to hold a secret ballot election to determine the Union, American Federation of Labor (AFL), Com- mittee of Industrial Organizations (C. I. 0.), or Independent Plastic Workers (I. P. W.), or none, to represent us in our dealing with the management," 1 contains 194 apparently genuine signatures, of which 115 are the names of persons on the Company's pay roll of February 1, 1943, 20 of which are duplicates of the signatures appearing on the afore-mentioned, application for membership cards. 'A written disclaimer of interest signed by the International Association of Die Casters ( C. I. 0.) was introduced into evidence at the hearing. CHICAGO MOLDED PRODUCT'S CORPORAT'I'ON 759 Although the Independent does not urge its contract with the Com- pany as a bar to this proceeding, it contends that the showing of rep- resentation made by the AFL is not sufficient to raise a question con-' cerning representation- among the employees of the Company, and moved, at the hearing, that the petition filed herein be dismissed. We find this contention to be without merit and, accordingly, have denied the motion made by the Independent. We are of the opinion and find that the AFL has made a sufficient showing of representation among the employees of the Company in the unit hereinafter found to be appropriate to warrant a determina- tion of representatives in view of the fact that the Independent and the Company were parties to a closed-shop contract at the time of the' hearing.2 We find that a question affecting commerce has arisen concerning the representation of employees of the Company, within the mean- ing of Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act. IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT The parties are in substantial agreement, with respect to the appro- priate unit. They stipulated at the hearing that the unit should be comprised of all production and maintenance employees of the Com- pany, excluding executives, superintendents, janitors, not more than 15 men for training purposes,3 employees in the customers sales de- partment, watchmen, guards and laboratory employees. However, they are in dispute over the inclusion or exclusion of foremen, factory clerical employees, and general office, clerical employees. . Foremen: All parties agreed to exclude the non-working foremen from the unit. The Company employs about 49 working or assistant foremen whom the AFL would exclude from the unit, while the Inde- pendent and the Company desire their inclusion. • These 49 employees are variously designated as assistant foremen, supervisors, and work- ing foremen, and are herein referred to as assistant foremen. The contract between the Company and the Independent is silent with respect to the assistant foremen. The Company and the Independ- ent contend that in actual practice they were represented and bar- gained for by the Independent. From the record it appears that while these employees do not have the authority to hire or discharge 2 See Matter of Certain -Teed Products Corporation and-International Longshoremen's & Warehousemen's Unson, Local 1-6, 28 N L. R. B 915; Matter of Oregon Plywood Com- pany and Plywood Box Shook and Door Council # 9, International Woodworkers of America, Affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations, 33 N. L. R. B. 1234. ' The record discloses that occasionally the Company, hires persons who, after a tem- porary training period spent in the factory proper, 'become salesmen . We are of the opinion that all employees who are employed only temporarily in production work for the purpose of training as salesmen , should be excluded from the unit. 4 760 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD employees, under them. -they may make recommendations in this re. gard. Eacli of them is in charge of from 2 to 15 production em- ployees. They are hourly paid; their records are used in determining job costs; and they judge the efficiency of the production. employees. Since these assistant foremen do possess some supervisory powers such as the authority to recommend the hire or discharge of production employees, and since they were 'not specifically included in the con- tract unit, we shall exclude them from the appropriate unit. Factory clerical employees: The AFL and the Company would ex- clude, while the Independent desires to include, factory clerical em- ployees in the appropriate unit. This group is comprised of about 28 employees who work in small offices located in the production departments. - They keep production records and check customers' orders ,as they are received by the Company. They are responsible to the general production foreman and carry the same departmental number on the pay roll as the production employees and are paid on an hourly basis. Factory clerical employees were covered by the contract between the Company and the Independent. Since they work 'in the production departments , perform functions directly related to production work, and were included in the contract unit, we shall include the factory clerical employees in the unit. General office clerical employees: The AFL and the Company desire to exclude, while the Independent would include , general office clerical employees in the appropriate unit. These employees work in the Company's 'main office, performing purely clerical duties. They were not covered by the contract between the Company and the Inde- pendent. Inasmuch as they do not perform functions related to production 'work, and since they were not covered by the contract between the Company and the Independent, we -shall ' exclude the general office clerical employees from the appropriate unit. We find that all production and maintenance employees of the Company, including factory clerical employees, but excluding execu- tives, superintendents , foremen and assistant' foremen, janitors, em- ployees hired for training purposes, employees in the customers' sales department, watchmen, guards, laboratory employees, and general office clerical employees , constitute''a -unit appropriate for the pur- poses 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 has arisen be resolved by means of an election by secret ballot among the employees in the appropriate` unit who were employed during the CHICAGO MOLDED PRODUCTS CORPORATION 761 pay-roll period immediately 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 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 DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation to ascertain representa- tives for the purposes of collective bargaining with the Chicago Molded Products Corporation, Chicago, Illinois, 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 Thirteenth Region, act- ing in this matter as agent for the National Labor Relations Board, and subject to Article III, Section 10, of said Rules and Regulations, among the employees in the unit found appropriate 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 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 employees who have since quit or been discharged for cause, to determine whether they desire to be represented by Rubber and Plastic Workers' Union, Local 20911, affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, or by Independent Plastic Workers' Union, unaffiliated, for the purposes of collective bargaining, or by neither.