Minneapolis-Moline Co.

In the Matter Of MINNEAPOLIS-MOLINE COMPANY, EMPLOYER Gptd UNITED AUTOMOBILE, AIRCRAFT & AGRICULTURAL) IMPLEMENT WORK- ERS OF AMERICA, C. I. 0., PETITIONER Case No. 13-RC-615.-Decided August 8, 1949 DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before Philip Licari, 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 commerce within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act. 2. The Petitioner is a labor organization claiming to represent cer- tain 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 single unit composed of shop clerical and office clerical employees at the Employer's plant at Moline, Illi- nois, excluding employees in the factory personnel department, jani- tors, truck drivers, nurses, the secretary to the general plant manager, department heads, and other supervisors. Although the Petitioner urges that shop and office clerical employees together constitute a single appropriate unit, it would in the alternative represent them in separate units. The Employer agrees only to the Petitioner's alterna- tive request for separate units. It also agrees with the specific exclu- sions suggested by the Petitioner, but would in addition, exclude cer- tain other categories and individual employees. 85 N. L. R. B., No. 109. 597 598 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD Scope of the Units The Employer manufactures farm implements at its plant in Moline, Illinois, with which we are here concerned. The United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America, C. I. 0., Local 814, is the certified bargaining representative at this plant for a production and maintenance unit which does not include any of the clerical employees petitioned for here. The shop clericals whom the Petitioner seeks to include in the unit are checkers, timekeepers, the, time-study depart- ment employees, and the production control department employees. Checkers are supervised by the foremen of the shops in which they work. The timekeepers and the time-study department employees are separately supervised by their own department heads who report to the factory superintendent. The production control department employees are under a supervisor who reports to the general plant manager. These shop clerical employees work throughout the factory in office space which is completely separated from the Employer's general offices. In the general offices are the accounting, pay-roll., repairs, shipping and order, mailing, purchasing, billing, and cost departments. The employees in the general office are mainly clerks, typists, stenographers, and office machine operators. There is no interchange of employees between the shop and office clerical staffs. Shop clerical employees are separately hired, their hours of work are different and they are paid from a separate pay roll. Employee benefits such as vacations, pensions, and insurance are the same for both groups. We have held that shop clerical employees have a closer community of interest with production and maintenance employees than with office clericals, and have declined to establish single units composed of the two clerical groups.' The present bargaining representative for the production and maintenance unit, however, has not intervened in this proceeding, and may not, therefore, appear on the ballot as one of the choices for bargaining representative of the shop clerical em- ployees. As these employees would otherwise be unrepresented, we shall under these circumstances, establish a separate unit for them. We shall direct separate elections in a shop clerical unit and an office clerical unit to determine whether the employees therein wish to be represented by the Petitioner. The Employer would exclude from any unit the time-study men, certain stenographers, an insurance clerk, and the telephone operators. 3 Matter of General Petroleum Corporation, 83 N. L. R. B., No. 83 ; Matter of Chrysler Corporation, 76 N. L. R. B. 55 ; Matter of Smith Paper, Incorporated, 76 N. L. It. B. 1222. MINNEAPOLIS-MOLINE COMPANY 599 . Time-study men. There are five time-study men and a chief time- study engineer employed at the Moline plant. Their principal func- tion is to time jobs and set piecework rates on them. A time-study man observes a factory operation, making certain that the conditions surrounding it are proper, that the operator is qualified and is putting forth a normal effort. He must himself be familiar with the opera- tion of the machine, and must take into account the effect that con- tinued production has on the machine's output. After accumulating the necessary data, he must be able to make an analysis of the facts arrived at, applying the employee's hourly rate to the operation, and calculating the piecework price. If the operator whose job is timed is dissatisfied with the price set by the time-study man, he may go to his foreman who will discuss the problem with the chief time-study engi- neer and the man who timed the job. If they are unable to agree on the price to be set for the job, the controversy is thereafter treated as a grievance. The grievance provisions of the contract do not. provide for the participation of time-study men as management representa- tives in negotiating the settlement of grievances arising out of the study, although it appears that they may be called in to help develop the facts of the grievance. We cannot agree with the Employer's contention, as a general propo- sition, that the time-study men should be excluded from any unit because they are managerial or confidential employees. Their princi- pal function is to provide the data necessary for operation of the Employer's incentive wage plan; although they may exercise consider- able judgment in performing this function, they do not thereby formu- late or effectuate management policies. Accordingly, we do not con- sider them to be executive or managerial employees such as we would customarily exclude from a clerical unit.' Nor are they confidential employees within the Board's definition of that term, as they neither handle labor relations negotiations nor deal with confidential data pertaining to labor relations.' We believe, however, that the lack of any substantial community of interest between the time-study men and either the office clerical 4 or the shop clerical ,5 units precludes their inclusion in either of the units requested here. 8 Matter of Ford Motor Company (Chicago Branch), 66 N. L. R. B. 1317. s Matter of Brown & Sharpe Mfg. Co., 70 N. L. R. B. 709 ; Matter of Wagner Electric Corporation, 67 N. L. R. B. 1104. 4 Matter of Adams & Westlake Company, 72 N. L. R. B. 726. 6 We consider it inappropriate for time-study men to be included in a unit whose interests are as closely identified with a production and maintenance unit as are those of the shop clerical employees in this proceeding. As to the desirability of excluding time-study men from a production and maintenance unit, see Matter of Chicago Pneumatic Tool Company, 81 N. L. R. B. 584 and cases cited therein. 600 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD The stenographers. The Employer also seeks to exclude certain stenographers from any appropriate bargaining unit as confidential employees. The chief time-study engineer and the plant superintend- ent jointly use the services of a single stenographer. She takes dicta- tion from the plant superintendent regarding collective bargaining negotiations, and has access to his files relating to such matters. The plant superintendent is in charge of all production work at the Moline plant and is one of the Employer's representatives directly engaged in labor relations negotiations. Although the amount of time spent by the stenographer in handling labor relations matters appears to be relatively small, we find that she does act in a confidential capacity to the plant superintendent in the exercise of his managerial func- tions in labor relations. We shall therefore exclude her, as a confi- dential employee, from the shop clerical unit.6 One of the two stenographers in the production control department, it is contended, is a confidential employee. The production control department does production planning, keeps stock records, expedites and follows up on all correspondence relating to job evaluations. These consist of an outline of the duties of the job, the qualities neces- sary to fill it satisfactorily, and recommendations as to the grade and rate to be paid. We shall include this stenographer in the shop clerical unit because her supervisor, the head of the production control depart- ment, exercises no managerial functions in determining the Employer's labor relations policies.? The parties agree that the personal secretary to the general plant manager is to be excluded as a confidential employee, but they dis- agree with respect to the other two secretaries in his office. One of these secretaries takes dictation from several unspecified people in his office, while the other works in the purchasing department and does all of the dictation work required there. Apparently, these sec- retaries may take dictation with respect to labor relations at the de- partmental level, immediately below the general plant manager. However, as only the general plant manager and the plant superin- tendent actually negotiate collective bargaining agreements, we are satisfied that whatever labor relations work others may do is not managerial in character, but is mainly to develop facts or proposals for the benefit of the management negotiators. We therefore find that only the personal secretary, of,the three secretaries in.the general plant manager's office, is aconfidential employee. 6Matter of Art Metal Construction Company, 75 N. L. R. B. 80. ' Matter of Automatic Electric Company, 78 N. L. R. B. 1057; Matter of Inter-Mountain Telephone Company, 79 N. L. It. B. 715. MINNEAPOLIS-MOLINE COMPANY 601 The insurance clerk. The Employer is a self-insurer under the Illinois workmen's compensation statute. It has one clerk who handles all employee claims for workmen's compensation and for accident and health insurance benefits. The Employer contends that he is a con- fidential employee because he has access to all personnel files and may be called on in connection with grievances arising out of insurance matters. Access to personnel files is not in itself sufficient justification for exclusion from a bargaining unit as a confidential employee .8 Nor is the additional factor that he may participate in the grievance procedure sufficient to establish that he is either acting in a confi- dential capacity or is actually participating in the formulation of labor relations policy.9 We shall include the insurance clerk in the office clerical unit. The telephone operators. The Employer has one regular and two relief telephone operators, all of whom it contends are confidential employees because they are in a position to overhear confidential labor relations matters being discussed by the Employer's officials. The record does not disclose whether the telephone operators are required to monitor such conversations or whether they acquire the information 'adventitiously in the course of making the proper phone connections. We believe that the latter is more probably the case, in view of the fact that both the general plant manager and the plant superintendent have personal secretaries whose duties as confidential employees would reasonably include any monitoring of important phone conversations. We shall therefore include the three telephone operators in the office clerical unit.10 We find, in accordance with the foregoing, that the following groups .,of employees at the Employer's plant at Moline, Illinois, excluding janitors, truck drivers, nurses, time-study men, all department heads, and other supervisors as defined in the Act, constitute separate units appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act: 1. All shop clerical employees, including checkers, timekeepers, the variations man, the clerks in the time-study department, and all employees in the production control department, but excluding the secretary to the plant superintendent and the factory personnel de- partment employees. 8 Matter of Ford Motor Company (Chicago Branch), supra. °Matter of Worthinglon Pump and Machinery Corporation, 75 N. L. R. B. 678. 10 Matter of Smith Paper, Incorporated, supra ; Matter of Denver Dry Goods Company, 74 N. L. R. B. 1167. 602 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD 2. All office clerical employees , including the insurance clerk, tele- phone operators, and the secretaries in the general plant manager's office, but excluding the personal secretary to the general plant -manager. 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 30 days from the date of this Direction, under the direction and supervision of the Regional Director for the Thirteenth Region, and subject to Sections 203.61 and 203.62 of National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations, among the employees in the units found appropriate in paragraph numbered .4, above, who were employed 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 il.1 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 elections , and also excluding employees on strike who .are not entitled to reinstatement, to determine whether or not they desire to be represented, for purposes of collective bargaining, by United Automobile, Aircraft R Agricultural Implement Workers of America, C. I. O.