Hunter Packing Co.

In the Matter of HUNTER P_1CKING COMPANY, EMPLOYER' and LOCAL B-309, INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS, AFL, PETITIONER Case No . 14-RC-176.-Decided August 27, 1948 DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before a hearing officer of the National Labor Relations Board. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed. Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3 (b) of the National Labor Relations Act, the Board has delegated its powers in connection with this case to a three-man panel consisting of the undersigned Board Members.* Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds : 1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act. 2. The Petitioner and Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America, Local 530, affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, hereinafter called the Intervenor, are labor organizations which claim to represent employees of the Employer. 3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the representa- tion of employees of the Employer, within the meaning of Section 9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act. 4: The appropriate unit : The Petitioner seeks a unit of all electricians and their helpers, ex- cluding all other employees and supervisors as defined in the Act. The Employer and the Intervenor urge that an 11-year history of plant-wide collective bargaining, integration. of operations in the plant, and the history of over-all bargaining on a non-craft basis in the meat packing industry make the appropriate unit one which would include all of the production and maintenance employees. •Chairman Herzog and Members Houston and Reynolds. 79 N. L. R. B., No. 25. 197 809095-49-vol 79-14 198 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD The Employer is engaged in the packing of meat and meat pro- ducts. It asserts that it conducts an integrated packing-house opera- tion. A considerable amount, although not all, of its production work is performed on an assembly-line basis. Carcasses and other materials move on conveyor belts and when these conveyor belts stop, the pro- duction process is stalled until the maintenance men eliminate the cause of the stoppage. Cooperation and interdependence among'.pro- duction and maintenance workers is, therefore, required. The Employer has 62 maintenance employees in the plant represent- ing 14 different craft classifications. There are 2 maintenance electri- cians and 2 helpers. The electricians were originally hired as journey- men and presumably had a considerable amount of prior training. The record reveals that they are highly skilled employees engaged exclusively in work relating to electrical repair and maintenance. The Employer states that if the amount of their work should decrease, they might be called upon to do other types of work for which they were -qualified. However, this situation has never occurred. Their wages are, next to the machinists, the highest in the plant. The electricians are supervised directly by the chief engineer, whereas all of the other maintenance employees report to one of his assistants. The reason for this is that neither of these assistants has sufficient knowledge of electrical work. However, maintenance employees, including the elec- tricians, are often requested by the various production foremen to do maintenance work in their departments and they perform such work without reporting in advance to their own supervisors. The electri- cians have a shop of their own to which they report each day. It is primarily a storeroom for electrical equipment and supplies ; they do not spend more than 5 percent of their time in the shop. The remain- der of their time they are engaged in performing their duties through- out the plant. Although their helpers were transferred from the production department and a considerable number of the other, main; tenance employees came originally from that department, there has been no interchange of personnel between the electricians and other employees of the Employer. The helpers of the electricians work only with them. - - , _ - We have held. that where the employees sought in a proposed unit do.not constitute a true craft group and there is past collective bar- gaining histor_y.on a.plant-wide basis as well as highly integrated oper- ations in the plant, there is no justification for severing such a group from an existing production and maintenance unit.' However, the i Matter of Pacific Car and Foundry , Company, 76 N: L. R. B.'31; Matter, of-Marine.7ron and Ship Building Company; 78 N. L R. B 309; Matter of Kimberly-Clark _Corporatrn, 78 N. L. R. B. 478. HUNTER PACKING COMPANY 199 electricians involved herein comprise a distinct craft group which we have often found might appropriately be represented in either a craft unit or a production and maintenance unit, depending upon their desires as expressed in a self-determination election.2 They are not ,confined to regular and repetitious performance of such indispensable assembly-line operations as to constitute an integral part of the pro- duction process, but,-are responsible for all of the electrical mainte- nance work of the entire-plant 3 - The Employer and the Intervenor contend that the meat-packing industry is organized on a non-craft basis. While the Board in deny- ing craft severance has considered, among other factors, the existence of an industry-wide pattern, of over-all bargaining, we do not believe that the absence of evidence of craft units in the industry concerned is sufficient to be determinative under present circumstances, where rep-_ resentation is sought for a recognized craft group and the employees involved are not fully integrated in the production process .4 We find that the electricians and their helpers are an identifiable, skilled; and homogeneous craft group and may constitute an appro- priate unit, if they so desire, notwithstanding their previous inclusion in a broader unit. However, the Board will not make any unit deter- mination until it has first ascertained the desires of the employees involved. We shall direct that an election be held among all electricians and their helpers employed by the Employer at its East St. Louis, Illinois, plant, excluding all other employees and supervisors as defined in the Act. If, in this election, the employees select the Petitioner, they will be taken to have indicated their desire to constitute a separate bargain- ing unit. DIRECTION OF ELECTION 5 As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the pur- poses of collective bargaining with the Employer, an election by secret ballot shall be conducted _ as. early as possible, but not later than 30 days from the date of this Direction, under the direction and super- 2 Matter of Turbine Engineering Company, 73 N. L R. B 163 ; Matter of B. F. Goodrich Chemical Company (Geon ,Plant), 75 N. L. R. B. 1142 ; Matter of Lockheed Aircraft Corpora- tion, 77 N. L. R B 507; Matter of Hughes Tool Company, 77 N. L It. B. 1193; Matter of Tin Processing Corporation, 78 N L. It. B. 96. 3 Cf Matter of Ford Motor Company (Maywood Plant), 78 N. L R B 887 d Cf. Matter of National Tube Company, 76 N. L. It. B. 1199, where the Board denied severence to a proposed unit of bricklayers because, among other factors, there was a history of industry-wide bargaining on a non -craft basis. In that case , however, unlike the present one, the Board also predicated its decision upon the high degree of integration between the bricklayers and the production process and the character of the industry 5 Any participant in the election directed herein may , upon its prompt request to, and approval thereof by, the Regional Director, have its name removed, from the ballot. 200 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD vision of the Regional Director for the Fourteenth Region, and sub- ject to Sections 203.61 and 203.62 of National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 5, among -the.employees in the voting group described 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, and also exclud- ing employees on strike who are not entitled to reinstatement, to deter- mine whether they desire to be represented, for purposes of collective bargaining, by Local B-309, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, AFL, or by Amalgamated Meat Cutters -and Butcher Work- men of North America, Local 530, affiliated with the American Feder- ation of Labor, or by neither.