The Underwood Corp.

-In the Matter of GENERAL RESEARCH LABORATORY OF THE UNDERWOOD CORPORATION, EMPLOYER and INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS, PETITIONER Case No. 1-R-3870.-Decided January 19, 1948 Messrs. Walfrid G. Lundberg and C. H. Anthony, both of Hartford, Conn., for the Employer. Mr. Harold F. Reardon, of Boston, Mass., for the Petitioner. DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION Upon a petition duly filed, hearing in this case was held at Hartford, Connecticut, on October 20, 1947, before Sam G. Zack, 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 the case, the National Labor Relations Board makes the following : FINDINGS OF FACT I. THE BUSINESS OF THE EMPLOYER The Underwood Corporation, a Delaware corporation, is engaged in the manufacture and sale of typewriters and other business machines and office supplies. The Employer operates plants in New Jersey and Connecticut, including the General Research Laboratory at Arbor Street, Hartford, Connecticut, with which we are here concerned. The Employer annually uses a substantial amount of raw materials originating outside the States in which its plants are located. It annually sells more than $10,000,000 worth of merchandise and makes substantial shipments to all parts of the world. The Employer admits and we find that it is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act. H. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED The Petitioner is a labor organization claiming to represent em- ployees of the Employer. 75 N. L. R. B., No. 109. 876 THE UNDERWOOD CORPORATION III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION 877 The Employer refuses to recognize the Petitioner as the exclusive bargaining representative of employees of the Employer until the Petitioner has been certified by the Board in an appropriate unit. We find that 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. IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT The Petitioner seeks a unit consisting of all tool and model makers and their apprentices at the laboratory. The sole issue between the parties concerns the apprentices, whom the Employer would exclude from the unit. The Employer started an apprentice program about 2 years ago designed to qualify apprentices as regular tool and model makers. As to the eight apprentices involved herein, the Employer intends to assign them upon completion of their training to duties similar to those performed by the regular tool and model makers. During the training period, they work on actual models in the machine shop, along with the tool and model makers, and the models when completed are used in production. They work the same hours as the tool and model makers, have the same supervision, and participate in the same vaca- tion program and group insurance program. Under all these circum- stances, and especially in view of their substantial community of interest with tool and model makers, we are of the opinion that the apprentices should be included in the requested unit.' We find, therefore, that all tool and model makers and their apprentices at the General Research Laboratory of the Employer, excluding office and clerical employees, executives and supervisors, i Matter of Coast-In Pontiac Company, Inc, 73 N. L R. B. 1496; Matter of Wytheville Knitting Mills, Inc., 70 N L R B 1354 ; Matter o f Chrysler Corporation, 57 N L R. B. 759. Matter of Hyatt Bearings Division of General Motors Corporation, 23 N. L. R. B. 92, cited by the Employer in support of its position , is clearly distinguishable from the instant case on its facts There , the Employer and the petitioning union had agreed to the ex- clusion of apprentices from similar units at other plants and sought to vary that pattern at the Hyatt Bearing Division . Consequently, the Board "in the interest of orderly col- lective bargaining," excluded apprentices at the Hyatt Bearings Division plant. Here, however, no such pattern exists. And, although apprentices are currently excluded from a production and maintenance unit at another plant of the Employer in Hartford, Con- necticut, their exclusion is not controlling herein , inasmuch as the unit sought is different. Moreover the elimination of apprentices from that contract unit was due primarily to a disagreement as to the function in the apprentice program of a joint committee on ap- prentice training, and not to any concession by the Petitioner that apprentices were properly excludable from a unit embracing the occupational classifications for which they are being trained. Moreover , it would appear from the record that at three other plants in Hartford, Connecticut, the Petitioner is currently the bargaining representative in units which include apprentices 878 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act. DIRECTION OF ELECTION As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the- purposes of collective bargaining with General Research Laboratory of the Underwood Corporation, Hartford, Connecticut, 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 First Region, and subject to Sections 203.61 and 203.62, of National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 5, among the em- ployees 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, but excluding those employees who have since quit or been discharged for cause and have not been rehired or reinstated prior to the date of the election, to determine whether or not they desire to be represented by International Association of Machinists, for the purposes of collective bargaining.