Ball Brothers Co.

In the Matter of BALL BROTHERS COMPANY, EMPLOYER and AMERICAN FLINT GLASS WORKERS' UNION OF NORTH AMERICA, AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR, PETITIONER Case No. 35-RC-185.Decided July 21,1949 DECISION AND ORDER Upon a petition duly filed, hearing in this case was held before William A. McGowan, hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed. The Intervenor moves to dismiss the petition upon the ;ground that the proposed unit is inappropriate. This motion, for reasons hereinafter stated, is granted. 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 [Members Reynolds, Murdock, and Gray]. 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 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 for the following reasons: The Petitioner requests the severance of three welders from a unit of miscellaneous employees for the purpose of including them in a unit of mold makers at the Employer's Muncie, Indiana, plant. The Intervenor contends that, in view of its bargaining history with the Employer, the proposed unit is inappropriate upon the ground that the welders are neither skilled mold makers nor traditionally part of the mold makers' unit, and therefore not entitled to severance from the unit represented by the Intervenor.2 The Employer takes no position with respect to the question of the appropriate unit. 1 Federation of Glass, Ceramic and Silica Sand Workers of America, C. I. 0., was per- mitted to intervene upon the basis of a current contractual interest. 2 The collective bargaining history shows that since 1937 the welders have been part of a unit of miscellaneous employees initially represented by the Glass Bottle Blowers 85 N. L. R. B., No. 56. 298 BALL BROTHERS COMPANY 299 The Employer is engaged in the manufacture of glass containers at its Muncie, Indiana., plant. It employs approximately 60 mold makers and apprentices in the mold division under the supervision of a division superintendent. The work of the employees in the mold division is concerned entirely with the processing and repair of the molds used in the manufacture of glass containers.3 Also employed in the mold di- vision and intermingled with the mold makers throughout the division are about 31 employees in miscellaneous classifications and included in the broad unit represented by the Intervenor. Among them are 3 welders, mold polishers, cleaners, sand blasters, and inspectors, and a driver and tool maker. The 3 welders work almost exclusively on the repair of molds 4 and perform the function of replacing parts of the mold destroyed by wear or careless handling.- In addition to the 3 welders, there are approximately 12 other weld- ers who work in the plant's general welding departments Some of -the welders are assigned to general maintenance and others to different departments in the plant, as in the case of the mold division.7 Al- though assignments are intended to be on a more or less permanent basis, the Employer nevertheless retains the right to transfer welders to other jobs in other departments if the need requires." The Em- ployer maintains a separate pay-roll for all welders including those Association of the United States and Canada. In 1943 the Intervenor was first certified as bargaining representative for this unit , and has since bargained collectively with the Employer. The Petitioner recognizes that the welders have been working under the jurisdiction of the Intervenor , as expressed in the latter 's contracts with the Employer. 3 The nature of the work performed by the mold makers and the skills exercised by them may, perhaps , be best indicated by the definition of mold making as contained in the Petitioner 's industry -wide contract . This provides that "the following work shall be classed as mold making , and mold makers and apprentices shall be engaged to perform this class of work. Planing, joining, pinning, venting, letter cutting, filing, scraping in the construction of new cast figured molds , turning and chipping of molds and keeping same in repair . . . " A fourth welder is employed in the "neck ring," or neck mold , part of the mold division . He devotes only a small portion of his time to the task of welding the neck mold to certain bars to assure proper alignment . The Petitioner does not seek to sever this welder from the miscellaneous unit upon the ground that he does no work on the mold itself. 5 After initial processing by a skilled mold maker, the mold welder welds a piece of metal into the cavity in the mold prepared by the mold maker . His job in connection with the mold is finished with the completion of the weld . The mold is returned to the mold maker who by the exercise of his special skills refines the crude weld until the mold is restored to its original shape. Although the welding department operates under the immediate supervision of a fore- man, the welders assigned to other departments are directly supervised by the head of the department to which they are assigned. ° The three welders assigned to the mold division have been employed there for approxi- mately 3 years. Prior to the adoption of the practice of assigning welders to other depart- ments on it permanent basis, all mold repair work was performed in the welding department. In fact there is some testimony in the record that as recently as the early part of 1948, welders on the second shift in the welding department were doing mold repair work. 'Thus one of the welders in the sheet metal department was transferred to the mold division. 300 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD in the mold division. All welders are subject to the same seniority provisions in lay-offs and rehirings. In urging the severance of the three welders in the mold division from the miscellaneous unit, the Petitioner contends that the work of the welders is an important and integral part of the work of the mold division and is closely allied with the mold makers craft. It asserts that because of the confinement of the workers to the mold division, their physical proximity to mold makers working on mold repair, their common supervision and their common interests with mold makers in the terms and conditions of employment in the mold division, the appropriateness of a. unit of mold makers and welders is fully established. We do not agree. Although the work of the welders is an important part of the work in the mold division, we recognize that the skills exercised by the three welders who repair molds are essentially the skills of an experienced welder and are not the traditional skills of the mold maker.9 Nor does it appear that the proposed unit of mold makers and welders is a well defined and homogeneous craft unit of the type which the Board has customarily .found appropriate.10 The interests of such welders are as closely allied to the interests of the other welders employed throughout the plant as they are to those of the mold makers. The welders of the mold division are to be distinguished from the other welders in the plant solely by the fact that the former work on only one type of material. Under the circumstances and in view of the absence of a :bargaining history for welders as part of a unit of mold makers, we believe that there is an insufficient basis for severing the welders in the mold division from the existing unit of miscellaneous employees and including them in the unit of mold makers.1' We find that the unit as sought by the Petitioner is inappropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining and shall, therefore, dismiss the petition. 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. 9 The mold division superintendent testified that in his opinion a skilled welder could become an accomplished mold welder in a period of about 3 or 4 months, and that he did not consider a mold welder as being more skilled than a fully qualified general welder. 10 Cf. Matter of Ball Brothers Company of California, Inc., 80 N. L. It. B. 1316, where the Board found , in effect, that the similar inclusion of mold polishers and mold repairmen in a single group did not constitute an appropriate craft unit. 11 Matter of General Electric Company, 77 N. L. R. R. 1198 ; Matter of B. F. Goodrich Chemical Company, 84 N. L. it. B. 429.