Southern Alkali Corp.

In the Matter Of SOUTHERN ALKALI CORPORATION,. EMPLOYER and OFFICE EMPLOYEES INTERNATIONAL UNION, A. F. L., LOCAL 87, PETITIONER Case No. 15-RC-18g3.Decided June 10, 1949 DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before Charles A. Kyle, 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-member panel [Chairman Herzog and Members Houston and Reynolds]. 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 organization named below claims to represent certain 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 Employer operates a chemical manufacturing plant at Lake Charles, Louisiana. Hourly paid production and maintenance em- ployees at the plant, excluding inter alia, clerical office workers, are presently represented by International Association of Machinists, herein called the I. A. M.2 I After the close of the hearing , the Employer moved to reopen the record to clarify the job description of Stoner Moss, an accountant whose employment status was in dispute at the hearing. For reasons set forth below, the motion is denied. 2 The Employer's recognition of the I . A. M. as exclusive bargaining representative of these employees followed a Certification of Representatives , Issued by the Regional Director on September 20, 1948, upon a consent election held in Case No. 15-RC-65. 84 N. L. R. B., No. 20. 120 ,SOUTHERN ALKALI CORPORATION 121 The Petitioner herein seeks a ,unit of office clerical employees-at the Employer's Lake Charles plant, all of whom are salaried employees and excluded from the unit of hourly paid employees represented by the I. A. M. Office clerical employees, for the most part, work in the Employer's administrative office building, apart from its production and maintenance departments. As salaried employees, these workers fall under the vacation, insurance, and welfare plans instituted by the Employer for salaried, as distinct from hourly paid workers. The Employer and Petitioner generally agree that employees of the Employer in the following classifications may properly be included in the office clerical unit: warehouse clerks, traffic clerks, clerk typists, stenographers, steno-clerks, accounting clerks, accountants, pay-roll clerks, receiving clerks, statistical clerks, engineering clerks, record clerks, and telephone operators. They further agree that workers in, the following classifications-should be excluded from the unit; chem- ists, analysts, draftsmen, engineers, industrial designers, test engi- neers, nurses, safety inspectors, personnel assistants, guards, confiden- tial employees, the training and methods clerk, chief traffic clerk, storekeeper, foremen, shift supervisors, and supervisors. They disagree with respect to the unit placement of the tool and supply clerk, janitors, mail boys, the blueprint machine operator, and buyers. Although they agree that confidential employees and super- visors are, as such, properly excluded from the unit, they disagree with respect to the placement of certain individuals in those categories. The tool and supply clerk works in the machine shop in the manu- facturing plant, approximately 500 yards distant from the office departments. The tool and supply clerk issues parts, tools, equipment, and materials to hourly paid workers for use in the manufacturing plant and he maintains an inventory of these stores. He works under the supervision of the machine shop supervisor. As a salaried em- ployee, he does not fall within the unit description of hourly paid workers represented by the I. A. M. The Petitioner would include, and the Employer exclude, the tool and supply clerk from the office clerical unit. We agree with the' Employer that the mode of payment of the tool and supply clerk is not controlling on unit placement and that the general work interests of the tool and supply clerk lie with production and maintenance em- ployees in the plant departments where he works, rather. than with the- office clerical employees in the administrative departments who comprise the proposed unit. For this reason, we shall exclude the tool and supply clerk from the office clerical unit.3 $ Matter of Goodall On., 80 N. L. It. B. 562 ; Matter of General EZectrie Company, 80 N. L. It. B. 174. 122 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD Janitors, mail boys, and the blueprint maehiner operator: The janitors in dispute are under office, as distinct from plant, supervision. They sweep and clean the office departments, but they are not limited to janitorial work. They serve as inter-office messengers, handling requisitions, purchase orders, and receiving slips, which they carry from one office to another and from the purchasing office to the ware- house. The office janitors do not work in the plant production depart- ments. Mail boys are primarily inter-office messengers. They collect and sort the mail and distribute it to the various office departments. Mail boys bring the mail into town, purchase stamps, and make bank deposits. They pay small bills and, at times, may drive visitors between the town and the Employer's premises. For its office use the Employer prepares office forms for which sten- cils are cut by stenographers and clerk typists in its office departments. These stencils are run off in an office department by an employee classi- fied as a blueprint machine operator. He operates photostat and oxalid and ditto machines and his work flows to and-from the several offices. The same employee cleans, repairs, and moves office type- writers from one office to another. He occasionally does some typing work. He works exclusively in the office departments. Janitors, mail boys, and the blueprint machine operator are office service employees. They have been excluded with other general office employees from the production and maintenance unit represented by the I. A. M. The Petitioner would exclude, and the Employer would include these employees in the office unit. Their interests clearly appear to lie with the office clerical employees. For this reason, and in the absence of any cogent reason for their exclusion, we will include the employees in these three categories in the office clerical unit .4 Buyers work in the purchasing department, which is under the supervision of the purchasing agent. There are eight or nine em- ployees in the department, including a stenographer, clerk-typists, steno-clerks, and two buyers. As requisitions for material to be purchased are received from de- partment heads, buyers solicit and investigate bids made by vendors of such goods, and make purchases of materials for the Employer. They exercise judgment and discretion in their work, spend the majority of their time in contact with vendors, and do no regular clerical work. They may personally check with clerical employees certain invoices upon goods ordered, or they may delegate all this work to clerical em- 4 Matter of Automatic Electric Company , 78 N. L . R B 1057; Matter of Chrysler Cor. oration, 76 N. L. R.'B.-55; and' Matter 'of Wilson'& Co., Inc., 81 N. L:,R. B. 504. - .SOUTHERN ALKALI CORPORATION 123, ployees in the purchasing department, who write their letters 'and re- ports. Buyers recommend the clerical employees in their, departlnt to the merit rating committee for merit increases and their recom- mendatioiis are followed. One of the two buyers was promoted to the position of buyer from that of storekeeper or warehouse manager, a supervisory category whom the parties agree to exclude from the clerical unit. Office clerical employees do not normally advance to buyers' positions. The Petitioner would include buyers in the unit of office clerical workers in the Employer's plant. The Employer would exclude them, urging that, if they are not supervisors of clerical employees in the pur- chasing office department, buyers, in any event, have interests substan- tially different from those of the various clerks who principally com- prise the proposed office clerical unit. In view of the differences in- herent in their primary work, we shall exclude buyers from the unit of clerical employees.5 The accounting department is, in part, concerned with the prepara- tion of pay rolls and cost matters. A. J. Talbot, head of the depart- ment, is designated the chief accountant, and E. B. Cloutman, an accountant, is his assistant. Working under them are two other accountants, and accounting and other clerks. The parties agree that Talbot and Cloutman are supervisors, and are to be`excluded from the office clerical unit. The Employer and the Petitioner agree that accountants, accounting clerks, and pay-roll clerks generally are cleri- cal employees who are properly included in a clerical bargaining unit. The Employer, however, contends that the two other persons whom it presently classifies as accountants, namely Stoner Moss and Willard E. Meek, and one person presently classified as an accounting clerk, namely, Elaine Vincent, should be excluded from the unit. The Peti- tioner disagrees. Moss, according to the Employer's contention, directs and supervises the work of three clerks in the department, and is expected as part of his duties to make recommendations concerning their work and advancement. This contention is supported by two documents per- sonally prepared and signed by Moss. In December 1948 Moss sub- mitted a recommendation for merit increases for the pay-roll clerks whose work he reviews, commending their efficiency. In a job descrip- tion prepared also in December by himself, Moss described himself as "supervising" the pay-roll clerks in the department. Moss testified that he accurately described his duties in December, but that he was s Matter of Wise, Sauth & Company, Inc. (I-RC-897), 83 N L. R B. 1019, and cases cited therein. 124' DECISIONS- OF NATIONAL LABOR' RELATIONS BOARD reclassified in November or December from accountant, to senior- acc(iunting clerk. The Employer lists him as accountant. The rec. ord reveals no differences in the two categories mentioned. It does, however, reveal that the pay-roll clerks were less experienced in the f all of 1948 and that Moss was told by his superiors to give them all assistance possible. The record otherwise reveals no clear or spe- cific change in Moss' duties during the past months. Moss is the, immediate person in a higher ranking category who regularly checks and reviews the work of the three clerks and is in the best position to judge their accuracy and efficiency. We believe that Moss is a super- visor within the meaning of the Act, and shall exclude him as such from the clerical unit.6 - Meek, also classified as an accountant by the Employer, is in charge of the Employer's analysis journal.' He keeps records of work prog- ress- at the plant and material and labor costs. He makes cost and accounting studies for the Employer respecting hourly paid produc- tion and maintenance workers at the plant and supplies such studies for the Employer's use in labor-management meetings. He correlates these studies with similar ones made by affiliated companies of the Employer in reference to their respective plants. These and other. comparable cost studies form the basis of the Employer's action in dealing with the bargaining representatives of its hourly paid. employees. If the Petitioner is certified as bargaining representative of the office clerical employees, Meek will make similar-cost studies as to them. Meek, however, neither participates in, nor even attends bargaining conferences. He does not determine nor effectuate labor' policies. We have generally held that the preparation of data such as Meek prepares does not render an employee a confidential employee in the sense in which we use that term.7 We shall, therefore, include Meek, as an accountant, in the bargaining unit. Vincent, classified as an accounting clerk, handles the monthly and semi-monthly salary pay rolls for office employees. She makes insur- ance records under the Employer's insurance plan, makes reports for the State and Federal Governments in connection with the office pay roll, and supplies, on request, pay-roll data on salaried employees for possible merit increases. She makes studies on salaried workers, sim- ilar to those prepared by Meek on hourly paid workers. The reports which she furnishes will form, in part, the basis for the determination of company labor policy in dealing with a bargaining representative' 9 Matter of American Window Glass Company, 77 N. L. R. B. 1030. 7 Matter of American Window Glass Company , supra and Matter of Automatic Electric' Company, supra. SOUTHERN ALKALI CORPORATION 125 of office clerical employees. We find that Vincent, like Meek, is not a confidential employee, and will include her in the unit with other accounting clerks. The Employer's warehouse is a facility under the over-all charge of the purchasing agents and under the immediate supervision of the storekeeper or warehouse manager. The warehouse is physically seg- regated from other departments of the plant. Under the storekeeper, are two individuals, classified as warehouse clerks, whose status is in dispute. Bailey, classified as a warehouse clerk, is responsible for, the ware- house books and records. The warehouse contains 75,000 different storage items. Bailey works upon the records and directs the work of a clerk-typist, a receiving clerk, and a warehouse clerk. Bailey and .the clerks whose work he directs are salary paid employees. Bailey's ,wages ,are comparable to that of an accountant and are considerably more than the wages of the clerks under him. It is estimated that he .spends about 1 day per week in supervisory work. He regularly takes the place of the storekeeper as manager of the warehouse when the latter is away. He makes recommendations with respect to advance- ment for clerical employees in the warehouse, and these recommenda- tions carry weight. Wade, also classified as a warehouse clerk, supervises the four or five hourly paid laborers who do the physical work in the warehouse, mov- ing material from one place in the warehouse to another, storing mate- rial, and delivering material as needed to job locations in the plant. Wade occasionally checks material to be stored, but he does very little clerical work. The laborers, whose work he directs, are hourly paid employees represented under the contract with the I. A. M. Four or five laborers usually work in the warehouse under Wade, but more are borrowed, as needed, from plant departments. The Petitioner would include Bailey and Wade as warehouse clerks in the office clerical unit. The Employer agrees that warehouse clerks, as such, may properly be included in the office clerical unit, .but contends that Bailey and Wade are supervisors, and, therefore, must be excluded from the unit. Although Bailey apparently does considerable clerical work himself, he is clearly responsible for the work of the clerks in the warehouse who work under his imme- diate direction and his recommendations concerning them carry weight. We shall, therefore, exclude Bailey from the unit as a super- visor within the meaning of the Act. Wade is clearly not primarily a clerical employee, nor is he associated in his work with clerical employees. We shall, therefore, exclude Wade from the clerical unit. 126 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD The chief telephone operator: The Employer has one full-time tele- phone operator designated as the chief telephone operator. She begins work at 8 o'clock in the morning and works steadily throughout the day on the switchboard except for a lunch period and 10 or 15 minute relief periods during the morning and afternoon, when the stationery room clerk or a pay-roll clerk takes the switchboard. In addition to her switchboard duties, the chief telephone operator operates a tele- type machine. She is further entrusted with the keeping of keys for company automobiles, which she releases to duly authorized persons. She relays to the mail boy or messenger, when he brings mail to the stationery room, messages which she may receive for- him over-the telephone. The chief telephone operator is directly responsible to the chief accountant, who likewise, has supervision over the accounting depart- ment and the stationery room. The Petitioner would include, and the Employer exclude, the chief telephone operator. The Employer con- tends that she is a supervisor. The record does not disclose that she has or exercises any of the duties which are descriptive of a supervisor under Section 2 (11) of the Act. The Employer further contends that the chief telephone operator is a confidential employee, in-that she may, from time to time as directed, send to companies affiliated with the Employer teletype messages which may relate to labor rela- tions matters. The dispatch of selected messages does not alone con- stitute the chief telephone operator a confidential employee within our definition of that term." We shall, therefore, include the chief tele- phone operator in the bargaining unit for office clerical employees. Chief record clerk: The chief record clerk is the responsible head of the record division of the process engineering department. The duties of the position provide that he spend the majority of his time analyzing the utility flow sheets, field records, and inventory of prod- ucts, making entries incidental to this work. This material is ob- tained from plant operating records. Two clerks work under his im- mediate supervision, one of whom, a record clerk, uses a comptometer. The chief record clerk usually makes certain entries himself and he directs that other entries be made by his assistant clerks according to his specifications. At the time of the hearing, the individual serving as chief record clerk was a recently hired employee who had not assumed all the duties of the position. He was temporarily performing substantially the same type of work as the clerks who work under his supervision. Upon this showing, the Petitioner would include the chief record clerk 8 Matter of Chrysler Corporation, 80 N L R B 334 and cases cited therein , and Mattes of Smith Paper, Incorporated, 76 N. L R. B. 1222. SOUTHERN ALKALI CORPORATION 127 in the unit. The Employer would exclude him on the job classifica- tion as supervisor. It appears from the record that the position of chief-record clerk is supervisory. As such we will exclude the cate- gory from the unit description. Stenographers to department heads: The, parties agree that stenog- raphers who serve as secretaries to department heads appointed to contract negotiating committees have access to advance information respecting bargaining negotiations, drafts of proposed labor agree- ments, and other labor relations matters, and should be excluded from the clerical bargaining unit as confidential employees. The Employer would also exclude the stenographer to the purchasing agent and the stenographer to the traffic agent. The Petitioner disagrees. The purchasing agent, as noted above, is the head of the Employer's purchasing department. He serves on the merit rating committee, composed of company representatives, who pass upon ingrade salary raises for specially deserving employees. At the time of the hearing the purchasing agent was not a member of any negotiating committee in which any recognized bargaining representative was involved. Ac- cording to the Employer, the purchasing agent will be placed on a negotiating committee to negotiate with the Petitioner, if the latter is certified as exclusive bargaining representative of its clerical employees. - The traffic agent, also a department head, is charged with schedul- ing delivery commitments made by the Employer's sales organization. He has four clerical employees in his department, among whom is the stenographer who handles all the important work pertaining to his office. The traffic agent is not a member of the merit rating com- mittee, nor does it appear that he will be placed on the negotiating committee to be formed if the Petitioner be certified as bargaining representative of clerical employees. The traffic agent, as a super- visor, is merely involved in grievances pertaining to employees in his own department, and he makes recommendations with respect to their wages. As the selection of the Petitioner as bargaining representative of the clerical employees herein concerned will place the stenographer of the purchasing agent in the same relative position as stenographers to the members of the union negotiating committees whom the parties agree are confidential employees, we shall exclude the stenographer to the purchasing agent from the clerical unit as a confidential em- ployee. Because the stenographer of the traffic agent is not in a com- parable position, and no other cause appears for her exclusion, we will include her in the unit.9 o Matter of Inter-Mountain Telephone Co., 79 N. L R. B. 715. 128 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD We find that all office clerical employees employed at the Employer's Lake Charles, Louisiana, -chemical manufacturing plant, including .warehouse clerks, traffic clerks, clerk-typists, stenographers,'.' steno- clerks, accounting clerks," accountants'12 pay-roll clerks, receiving clerks, statistical clerks, engineering clerks, record clerks, telephone operators, the chief telephone operator, office janitors, mail boys,'and the blueprint machine operator, but excluding chemists, analysts, draftsmen, engineers, industrial designers, test engineers, nurses, buyers, safety inspector, personnel assistants, confidential employees, 11; 'guards, training and methods clerk, traffic agent, chief traffic clerk, chief record clerk, tool and supply clerk, storekeeper, foremen, shift supervisors, and other supervisors, 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 the Employer, 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 Fifth Region, and subject to Sections 203.61 and 203.62 of National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 5, as amended, among the em- ployees in the unit found appropriate in paragraph numbered 4, 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 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 Office Employees International Union, A. F. L., Local 87, for the purposes of collective bargaining. 10 Including the stenographer to the traffic agent. 11 Including Vincent. " Including Meek. 18 Including the stenographer to the purchasing agent.