National Licorice Co.

In the Matter of NATIONAL LICORICE COMPANY, EMPLOYER and INTER- NATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF FIREMEN AND OILERS , LOCAL 473, A. F. L., PETITIONER 1 Case No. 4-RC-391.-Derided July 11, 19419 DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before John H. Wood, Jr., hearing officer. 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 Reynolds and Gray]. Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds : 1. The Employer is engaged in comerce within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act. 2. The Petitioner is a labor organization.claiming to represent em- ployees 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 Petitioner seeks to represent a unit of boiler room employees at the Employer's Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, candy and drug manu- facturing plant. The Employer contends that the unit is inappro- priate because of its small size, and that these employees should be included in the existing production and maintenance unit. There are three employees in the proposed unit, who fire the boilers in the Employer's plan and are responsible for their efficient opera- tion. The boiler room in which they work is a separate enclosure in the basement of the plant. The production departments are on three upper floors. The basement is also used in part for storage purposes, and contains the machine shop for the maintenance crew, where they 1 The Petitioner's name appears as amended at the hearing. 85 N. L. R. B., No. 23. 140 NATIONAL LICORICE COMPANY 141 repair the production machinery. , The maintenance crew also makes all major repairs on the boilers and appurtenant equipment such as pumps and water heaters. In the boiler room there is a forge, anvil, and workbench occasionally used by the maintenance crew when there are jobs that require heating or when boilers are being repaired. Although all other employees are supervised by foremen, the boiler room employees are directly responsible to the general manager and his assistant without intermediate supervision. Unlike all other em- ployees, they work on a three-shift basis. They also have separate seniority. They are required to be licensed by the municipality ; there is no qualified replacement among the other employees except the fore- man of the maintenance crew, who substitutes, in an emergency, for a boiler room employee. The Employer has bargained with the Bakery and Confectionery Workers Union, Local No. 6, for a unit of produc- tion and maintenance employees, and for the preceding 5 years has entered into written bargaining agreements. All of these agreements have specifically excluded the boiler room employees, who have never been represented by any labor organization. We find that the em- ployees involved herein constitute a homogeneous, identifiable boiler room group such as we have frequently found may constitute a sep- arate appropriate unit.2 We reject the Employer's contention, raised in its brief, that the unit is inappropriate because curtailment of the Employer's opera- tions might reduce the boiler room complement to only one employee. This is mere speculation unsupported by any facts in the record to show that the Employer contemplates such action. We also deem the Em- ployer's objection to the unit because of its small size to be without sufficient merit, as we have previously determined that two or more employees may constitute an appropriate unit.' We find that all boiler room employees at the Employer's Philadel- phia, Pennsylvania, plant, excluding all other employees and super- visors as .defined in the Act, 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 2 Matter of Alderwood Products Corporation, 81 N. L. R. B. 136 ; Matter of Tin Processing Corporation, 80 N. L. R. B. 1369; Matter of The Wooster Rubber Company, 77 N. L. R. B. 1044. 1 [hatter of Tennessee Valley Broadcasting Company, 73 N. L. R. B. 1509. 142 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD than 30 days from the date of this Direction, under the direction and supervision of the Regional Director for the Region in which this case was heard, and subject to Sections 203.61 and 203.62 of National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series '5, as amended, among the employees 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 of Election, includ- ing 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 excluding employees on strike who are not entitled to reinstate- rnent, to determine whether of not they desire to be represented, for purposes of collective bargaining, by International Brotherhood of Firemen and Oilers, Local 473, A.F.L.