E. W. Bliss Co.

In the Matter of E. W. BLISS COMPANY, TOLEDO MACHINE TOOL DIVISION,1 EMPLOYER and INTERNATIONAL UNION, UNITED AUTO- MOBILE, AIRCRAFT AND AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENT WORKERS OF AMERICA (UAW-CIO), PETITIONER Case No. 8-RU-- 62.Decided January 31, 19419 DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS 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 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 is a labor organization affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations, claiming 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 requests a unit of all office, clerical, and engineering 2 employees in the Toledo Machine Tool Division of the Employer, including employees in the finance department, engineering depart- ment, parts department, material control department, order depart- ment, production control department, purchasing department, ship- ping and receiving department, works manager's department, the 1 The name of the Employer appears as amended at the hearing. * Houston , Reynolds , and Murdock. 2 The Petitioner describes the unit requested as "all office and clerical employeedi" ex- .eluding supervisory employees . At the hearing the Petitioner described the unit sought by way of departments , and added "engineering employees" to those originally claimed. 81 N. L. R. B., No. 75. 428 E. W. BLISS COMPANY 429 sales department,' and the advertising department, but excluding confidential employees and supervisors as defined under the Act. The Employer, although agreeing to the exclusions proposed by the Petitioner, contends that various other employees should be excluded from the unit. Thus, the Employer argues that all employees in the engineering department, the parts department, the advertising department, and the sales department should be excluded upon the ground that such departments are controlled by and are integrated with plants of the Employer at other locations 4 In the alternative, the Employer contends that if the employees in the engineering depart- ment as such be included in the unit, certain employees therein in the classifications of junior and senior engineers, lay-out men, detailers and detail clerks, should be excluded as professional employees. The Employer further seeks the exclusion of all clericals in the shipping and receiving department and certain clericals in the material control department upon the basis that such employees are plant rather than office clericals. The Employer would also exclude as a supervisor a senior clerk in the material control department. The Toledo Machine Tool Division of the Employer, herein called the Toledo Plant, is located at Toledo, Ohio, and is one of five plants owned and operated by the Employer. The other four plants are lo- cated at Salem, Ohio; Cleveland, Ohio; Hastings, Michigan; and Englewood, New Jersey, respectively. The home office of the Em- ployer is in Detroit, Michigan. All five plants manufacture the same type of power presses. All five plants are served by three en- gineering offices, of which one is located in the Detroit home office, another in the Hastings Plant, and the third in the Toledo Plant. The engineering, parts, sales, and advertising departments are all located in buildings which are a part of the Toledo Plant. There being no evidence to the contrary, we assume that the work of each employee in these departments is performed at the Toledo Plant. The record discloses that such employees all perform substantially the same type of work (clerical technical) under similar working condi- tions as do the employees from other departments of the Toledo Plant. The employees of the questioned departments have frequent contact with similar employees in such other departments. It further appears that there has been no history of collective bargaining cover- 8 The record is not clear as to whether there is a sales department proper, as distin- guished from the sales engineering department . In referring to the sales department herein , we shall include the sales engineering department. 4Integration of these departments with plants at other locations is indicated by the fact that such departments function in their respective fields for the benefit of all plants of the Employer. The immediate supervisors of these departments are answerable to officials of the home office at Detroit rather than to officials of the Toledo plant. In the ease of the sales and advertising departments , the employees therein are listed on the Detroit office pay roll and their salary determinations are made in Detroit rather than at Toledo. -430 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD ing all plants of the Employer on a multiple-plant basis insofar as the claimed employees are concerned. In accordance with the Board's general policy of placing employees with similar interests in the same bargaining unit,5 we believe, under the present circumstances, that all the office, clerical, and technica16 employees in the engineering, parts, sales, and advertising departments, located at the Toledo Plant, may properly be included in a plant-wide office, clerical, and technical unit. There remains for consideration the question of excluding as pro- fessionals certain categories of employees in the engineering depart- ment together with the question of excluding plant clericals and the question of whether a senior clerk in the material control department is to be excluded as a supervisor. Professional Employees As previously noted, the Employer contends that junior and senior engineers, lay-out men, detailers, and detail clerks should be excluded as professional employees. (a) Junior and Senior Engineers: The record discloses that the work of the junior and senior engineers is predominantly intellectual and varied in character and involves the exercise of discretion and judgment. A college education is required of employees in either category. Senior engineers are capable of handling novel problems from the standpoint of design. Moreover, their work cannot be standardized. The duties of a junior engineer are lesser in nature than those performed by a senior engineer, but a junior engineer can advance in the course of his work to a senior engineer. Under the circumstances, we find that the junior and senior engineers are pro- fessional employees within the meaning of the amended Act,' and as such may not be included in the same unit with the non-professional employees unless a majority of the junior and senior engineers vote for such inclusion. Accordingly, we shall set up a separate voting group for the junior and senior engineers, as hereinafter provided for, in order to ascertain their desires with respect to their inclusion in the unit with the clerical and technical employees. (b) Lay-out Men: The function of a lay-out man is to explore the possibility of the manufacture by the Employer of a product ordered by a customer and to render a general recommendation thereupon. He makes drawings in which he applies general principles of engi- See Matter of Phelps Dodqe Mercantile C'ompan,l, 78 N L. R. B. 179 E The Board has, in numerous instances , under similar circumstances, included both tech- nical and clerical employees in a single bargaining unit. See Matter of Chrysler Corpora- tion, 55 N. L. R. B. 1039, and cases therein cited. 7 See Matter of Solar Manufacturing Corp., 80 N. L. R. B. 1358; Matter of Westinghouse Electric Corporation , 80 N. L. R. B. 591 ; Matter of Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph Company, Inc., 78 N L. R. B. 814. E. W. BLISS COMPANY 431 neering and specific principles of power press design. Some of the lay-out men have college degrees and some do not. The amount of training required is variable, depending upon the individual. In hiring a lay-out man the Employer would consider primarily his experience, rather than whether or not he possesses a college educa- tion. While the work of a lay-out man has some of the attributes of a professional employee, it does not appear that such work requires "knowledge of an advanced type in a field of science or learning cus- tomarily acquired by a prolonged course of specialized intellectual instruction and study in an institution of higher learning, . . ." within the meaning of Section 2 (12) of the Act, as amended. Accordingly, we find that the lay-out men are not professional employees.8 (c) Detailers and Detail Clerks: It is the duty of the employees described as detailers to take the graphic outline of a product to be manufactured and thereafter to break it down to its component parts. The detailers then draw up the parts for manufacturing. Their work requires a basic understanding of engineering and about 2 years of practical experience. A detailer ordinarily advances to a lay-out man. The detail clerks read blueprints and make drawings. The Board has customarily included detailers and similar classifications in units of clerical and technical employees, and has recently found that detailers are not professional employees within the meaning of the Act 10 We therefore find that the detailers and detail clerks are not professional employees within the meaning of the Act. Plant Clerks The Employer contends that all shipping and receiving department clericals should be excluded from the unit for the reason that they are plant clerks, rather than general office clerks. Such employees are classified as senior clerk, junior clerk, and typist. They perform no manual labor, the major portion of their time being devoted to paper work. The Employer also objects to the inclusion of Victor Puhl and Leo Drudzinski, who are under the supervision of the head of the material control department, on the basis that they also are plant clerks. Puhl and Drudzinski keep records, receive invoices, and price parts. Their desks are stationed in the production area of the Toledo Plant only because such location is more convenient to them in the performance of their work. They are under no supervision other than the head of the material control department. Inasmuch as the See Matter of Murray Ohio Manufacturing Company, 61 N L R B. 47, wherein lay-out engineers were included in a unit of clerical and technical employees. 9 See Matter of Chrysler Corporation, 55 N. L. It. B. 1039, and cases therein cited. 10 Matter of George A . Fuller Company, 78 N. L. R. B. 207. 432 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD duties and interests of the above-mentioned plant clericals are closely allied to the other employees in the proposed unit, and since the plant clericals were not included in the plant-wide production unit cur- rently being bargained for by the Petitioner , we shall include them within the voting group of the clerical and technical employees sought herein 11 The Senior Clerk in the Material Control Department The Employer would exclude this senior clerk upon the ground that he is a supervisor. The job of such employee is to mark specifications on orders as they come through the material control department. He has no authority to hire or discharge or make effective recom- mendations in connection therewith. He punches a time clock, whereas supervisors do not. We find that this senior clerk is not a supervisor within the meaning of the amended Act; accordingly, we shall include him within the voting group of clerical and technical employees sought herein. In view of the foregoing, we shall direct that separate elections be held in the following groups at the Toledo Machine Tool Division of the Employer at Toledo, Ohio, and shall defer our determination as to the scope of the unit until the results of these elections have been ascertained: 1. All office, clerical and technical employees, including the employ- ees in the finance department, engineering department, parts depart- ment, material control department,12 order department, production control department, purchasing department, shipping and receiving department, works manager's department, sales department, and ad- vertising department, but excluding confidential employees and super- visors, within the meaning of the Act. 2. All junior and senior engineers. DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the purposes of collective bargaining with the Employer, separate elec- tions 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 Eighth Region, and subject to Sections 203.61 and 203.62 of National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 5, as amended, among 1 See Matter of Plankinton Packing Company , 69 N. L R. B. 920 , wherein the Board found no merit to the contention that p lant clericals should be excluded from a unit com- posed of office clericals . See also Matter of Republic Steel Corporatson, 72 N. L. R. B. 525. 11 Included herein is the senior clerk referred to above. E. W. BLISS COMPANY 433 the employees in the voting groups described above, who were em- ployed during the pay-roll period immediately preceding the date of this Direction of Elections, 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 rein- stated prior to the date of the election, and also excluding employees on strike who are not entitled to reinstatement, to determine whether or not they desire to be represented by International Union, United Auto- mobile, Aircraft and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW-CIO) for the purpose of collective bargaining.