Telling Belle Vernon Co.

In the Matter of TELLING BELLE VERNON COMPANY, E1rPLOYER and UNITED ASSOCIATION OF JOURNEYMEN AND APPRENTICES .OF THE PLUMBING AND PIPEFITTING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA, LOCAL UNION No. 120 (AFL), PETITIONER - Case No. 8-KC-100.-Decided September 15, 19.48 DECISION AND ORDER 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 labor, organizations involved claim to represent employees of the Employer. ' _ ' ' ' ' ' ' 3. No question of representation 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, for the following rea- sons: ' The Petitioner seeks a unit, for purposes of collective bargaining, composed of all the employees of the Employer engaged in the instal- lation and servicing of refrigeration units at the plant or at stores selling the Employer's products. The International Association of Machinists, herein called the Intervenor, and the Employer contend that the proposed unit is inappropriate, and that the employees sought by the Petitioner should not be severed from the group which the Inter- venor represents. The Intervenor's motion to dismiss, made at the *Houston , Murdock , and Gray. 79 N. L. R. B, No. 89. 694 TELLING BELLE VERNON COMPANY 695 hearing and referred by the hearing officer to the Board, is hereby granted for the reasons set forth below. In the Employer's garage, there are approximately 40 employees described as auto mechanics, cabinet servicemen, sheet metal workers, woodworkers, blacksmiths, electricians, painters, porters, tire repair- men, and washers, who work in the cabinet shop, garage, paint shop, or body shop. Since 1946, these employees have been covered by a single contract executed by the Employer with the Intervenor, International Brother- hood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of Amer- ica, Gas Station, Garage and Parking Lot Union No. 964, herein called the Teamsters, and International Brotherhood of Blacksmiths, Drop Forgers and Helpers, Local No. 307, herein called the Black- smiths., There are six cabinet servicemen, who install and service the ice cream cabinets which the Employer places in its customers' stores, whom the Petitioner seeks to represent. The installation of these units is for the most part a platter of hauling the unit, unloading it, and plugging the cord into a socket. These men can make minor re- pairs, such as replacing a fan belt, adding gas, or repairing switches or wiring, in the customer's store. For major repairs the unit must be returned to the Employer's garage or, in some instances, sent back to the factory. In the Employer's shop, these cabinet servicemen replace insulation, repair, paint and clean cabinets, and replace and repair parts of the motors or compressors. Such repairs may include grinding valves, setting valves, or replacing piston rings. They do a very small amount of pipe work. Approximately half of the repair work is electrical and the remainder is primarily mechanical. In the cabinet shop, for use in making these repairs, is such machinery as a lathe, drill press, armature undercutter, grinder, and buffer. When the cabinet servicemen have a heavy work load, as usually occurs in the summer, other employees in the garage, such as auto mechanics, painters, or metal workers, do some work on the cabinets. Similarly, when the work of the cabinet servicemen slacks off, they sometimes help the auto mechanics, the body men, or the painters. Such inter- change is not frequent nor of long duration. The Petitioner offered its "Apprentice Standards for the Steann- fitting Industry" as proof that pipe fitting is an apprenticeable craft. However, the cabinet servicemen have served no such apprenticeship, five of the six have gained all of their refrigeration experience with the Employer, and they know little or nothing about air-conditioning I It appears from the record that although the Teamsters and the Blacksmiths are parties to the contract, the active negotiations have been by the Intervenor. 696 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD units, meat-display cases, or other refrigeration equipment. The foreman stated that a man with some mechanical aptitude could learn most of the work in a few months . They do no work on the ref rigera- tion equipment in the Employer's ice cream manufacturing plant or, dairy. The auto mechanics in the garage do most of the work on the Employer's refrigeration trucks; their mechanical and electrical work is very similar to that of the cabinet servicemen ; and the piping they instalLin trucks is identical with that in the refrigeration units. All ,employees in the garage, including the cabinet servicemen, have the same hours and working conditions and have use of the same facilities; and, with the exception of washers, porters, and tire repairmen, all are classified for pay-roll purposes as "mechanics " or "helpers." It is clear from the foregoing facts that the unit requested by the Petitioner is not a craft group . There is intermingling of work by the various groups of employees who have heretofore been covered by one contract ; and there is similarity of work performed as between employees within and without the proposed unit. We therefore find that the unit sought by the Petitioner is inappropriate for purposes of collective bargaining. ORDER Upon the basis of the entire record in this case, the National Labor Relations Board' hereby' orders that the petition filed in the instant matter be, and it hereby is, dismissed.