Ball Brothers Co., Inc.

In the Matter of BALL BROTHERS COMPANY, INCORPORATED, EMPLOYER and FEDERATION OF GLASS, CERAMIC & SILICA SAND WORKERS OF AMERICA, CIO, PETITIONER Case No. 35-RC-245.-Decided November 14,1949 DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing 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. . 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 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 certain 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 Federation of Glass, Ceramic & Silica Sand Workers of America, CIO, herein called the Petitioner, seeks to represent a unit limited to factory clerical employees at the Employer's Muncie, In- diana, plant, excluding confidential employees and supervisors. In the alternative it would merge these employees into a single unit with other employees whom its currently represents. The Glass Bottle Blowers Association of the United States and Canada, AFL, herein called the Intervenor, agrees with the Petitioner's unit request. The Employer asserts that the proposed unit is inappropriate, contending that the work of all its office and clerical employees is substantially similar, and there is therefore no distinction between its office and factory clerical employees. 87 NLRB No. 7. 34 BALL BROTHERS COMPANY, INCORPORATED 35 The Muncie plant is one of several plants operated by the Employer.' Its operations are carried on in about 35 buildings, including what is known as a main office building. There is no history of collective bargaining for any of the office or clerical employees at the Muncie plant. All of the production and maintenance employees are repre- sented for collective bargaining purposes.2 There are approximately 185 office and clerical employees, about 125 of whom work in the main office building. In the main office building are located the cashiers (personnel assigned to treasurer) ; the production planning and purchasing divisions (personnel assigned to manufacturing) ; the domestic, domestic home service, packing, food laboratory, and zinc, rubber, and paper departments (personnel assigned to sales) ; the invoicing, budget, cost, general accounting and pay-roll departments (personnel assigned to accounting) ; the indus- trial relations, traffic, and shipping division; the stenographic, credits, telephone reception, printing, and filing divisions, and the mail room. Outside of the main office building are located the personnel, health and safety, and bills of lading and scheduling divisions; the stock- room ; the timekeeping and bonus clerks ; and the industrial engineer- ing, plant service, rubber, zinc, quality control., glass, general engineering, paper, and research and development divisions (person- nel assigned to manufacturing). The Petitioner seeks to represent all of the clerical employees located outside of the main office building, except those in the personnel, health and safety, and bills of lading and scheduling divisions, and the secretaries to the plant managers of the industrial engineering, plant service, general engineering, and research and development divisions. A majority of the main office clericals are salaried employees, and are carried on the office pay roll. The greater number of the factory clericals are paid on an hourly basis, and are carried on the general pay roll.3 All office and clerical employees are under the general supervision of the Employer's office manager. The employees in the proposed unit are, for the most part, under the immediate supervision ' In addition to the Muncie plant, the Employer operates a strawboard mill at Nobles- ville , Indiana ; a zinc rolling mill at Greencastle , Indiana ; outside glass factories at Hillsboro, Illinois ; Okmulgee, Oklahoma ; Wichita Falls, Texas ; and El Monte, California ; a commercial cap plant in Chicago, Illinois ; and a glass plant in Jacksonville, Florida. 2 The Petitioner represents a miscellaneous group of employees including all employees in the glass division except the glass machine operators, the moldmakers, and the glass machine repairmen ; all employees in the zinc, paper, and rubber divisions, and in the shipping and warehouse department. The Intervenor represents the glass machine oper- ators and the glass machine repairmen. The American Flint Glass Workers Union of North America, AFL, represents the moldmakers. The International Association of Machinists represents the employees in the main machine shop. The Bricklayers, Masons & Plasterers' International Union of America, AFL, represents the bricklayers. s Not over 25 of the 125 clerical employees in the main office building are hourly paid, and not over 10 of the 60 clericals located outside the main office are paid on a salary basis. 877359-50-vol. 87-4 .36 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD .of the foreman and. plant managers of the various production de- partments where they are located. Prospective employees are interviewed by the manager of the di- vision concerned, who makes his recommendations to the office man- ager. The office manager makes the final determination as to employment of all office and clerical employees. All employees in the proposed unit, except the timekeepers and {bonus clerks, are personnel assigned to manufacturing.4 The time- keepers and bonus clerks are under the supervision of the paymaster in the pay-roll department, which is part of the accounting division. . Although the Employer argues that the employees sought to be rep- resented by the Petitioner should not be placed in a separate unit apart from its other office and clerical employees, it offered no evidence of the latter's duties and functions to support its contention that the work of all these employees is substantially similar. The record does not show that the office and clerical employees whom the Petitioner wishes to exclude from the unit have any contact or interests in com- mon with those of the employees it seeks to represent. The employees in the proposed unit do the usual clerical work in connection with manufacturing operations carried on throughout the plant. The Board has previously declined to establish a single unit of office and factory clerical employees 5 We believe that these factory clericals are a sufficiently homogeneous and distinct group to warrant estab- lishing them in a separate unit. The Petitioner would exclude from the unit the following employees who are located outside the main office building : Bills of lading and scheduling department: Two clerks from this department were moved into the factory in order to facilitate the loading of trucks. Bills of lading for rail shipments are still handled by clerks in the main office building. The work of both groups is similar, and all work under the supervision of the traffic manager. Personnel department: The three clerks in this department work directly with the industrial relations department. They are all en- gaged in the collecting of materials and records relating to personnel and labor matters. Safety and health department: The four employees in this depart- ment work on company records pertaining to safety matters for all .employees in the plant. In addition, they also do similar work for all 4 The only personnel assigned to manufacturing not included in the proposed unit are two employees in the production planning division, and five in the purchasing division, all located in the main office building. The record does not show the classification of these employees, or what kind of work they do. 5 Minneapolis-Moline Company, 85 NLRB 597 ; Auto-Fite Battery Corporation (Vincennes, Indiana, Division ), 85 NLRB 1034 ; Chrysler Corporation, 76 NLRB 55. Cf. General Petroleum Corporation, 83 NLRB 514. BALL BROTHERS COMPANY, INCORPORATED 37 .of the Employer's other plants, working through the plant managers of these plants.° We believe that these employees have a greater community of in- terest with the office clericals than with factory clericals. We shall therefore exclude them from the unit. The Employer and the Petitioner agree that the personal secretaries to the heads of the industrial engineering, plant service, general engi- neering, and research and development divisions should be excluded from the unit. They disagree with respect to the secretaries to the heads-of the rubber, zinc, glass, and paper divisions. The Employer contends that these secretaries should be excluded from the unit as con- fidential employees. The Petitioner would include them in the unit. . The secretaries about whom the parties are in dispute do general clerical and stenographic work. All do substantially the same type of work. The Employer argues that they are confidential employees because their work includes matters pertaining to merit increases, personnel seniority records, and absenteeism reports, and because they type grievance forms, and memoranda to the industrial relations divi- sion pertaining to grievances. The plant managers for whom these secretaries work handle labor relations for their divisions. They do not, however, establish labor relations policy for the entire company. This general policy is established by others in conjunction with the various factory managers. The secretaries do not attend the,meetings at which general labor relations policy is formulated. Inasmuch as these employees do not have access to general labor relations policy data, we find that they are not confidential employees.' We shall in- clude these secretaries in the factory clerical unit. There remains for consideration the supervisory status of the assist- ant foreman in the plant service division, and of the mold shop expe- diter in the glass division. The assistant foreman works principally with the general labor crew who do maintenance work. The direction of this crew is done on instructions received from his foreman. He also works as an expe- diter, checking up on hourly rated jobs to see how much time the employees spend on each particular job. The information which he :secures is for cost distribution purposes, and goes to the cost depart- ment. He does not have authority to hire or discharge.. We do not believe that the assistant foreman in the plant service division is a 6 The Employer does not have separate safety directors in its other plants. Aliieneapolis-Aloline Company, 85 NLRB 597; Ampler Manufacturing Company, 85 NLRB 523; Hotpoint, Inc., 85 NLRB 485 ; Wise, Smith & Company, Inc., 83 NLRB 1019; Ozark Central Telephone Company, 83 NLRB 258; The Ohio Associated Telephone Com- pany, 82 NLRB 972. 38 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD nnpervisor within the meaning of the Act. Accordingly, we shall in- clude him in the unit. The mold shop expediter sets up work schedules, assigns work to the mold shop employees, and follows the work through to see that all specifications are met. He does no mold work, and is an hourly paid employee. He supervises approximately 35 to 40 moldmakers, whose hiring and discharge he may effectively recommend. We find that the mold shop expediter is a supervisor. We shall exclude him from the unit. We have heretofore held that factory clerical employees should, if there is a history of bargaining for the production and maintenance employees from which-they have been excluded, be given an oppor- tunity in a self-determination election to voice their desire for or against representation in the production and maintenance unit." In the instant case, the Employer's production and maintenance em- ployees are represented in a number of separate units. In the absence of any presently existing over-all unit embracing the production and maintenance employees, we find that the factory clerical employees constitute a separate appropriate unit. We find that all factory clerical employees at the Employer's Muncie, Indiana, plant, including those in the stockroom, the indus- trial engineering, plant. service, rubber, zinc, quality control, glass, general engineering, paper, and research and development divisions, and the timekeepers and bonus clerks," but excluding the clerical em- ployees in the personnel, health and safety, and bills of lading and scheduling division, the secretaries to the plant managers of the indus- trial engineering, plant service, general engineering, and research and development division, the clerical employees in the Employer's main office building, the mold shop expediter, and all supervisors, consti- tute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act. DIRECTION OF ELECTION 10 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 8 Gemmer Manufacturing Company, 85 NLRB 700 ; Watson-Flagg Machine Co., 83 NLRB 734; General Petroleum Corporation, 83 NLRB 514; Chrysler Corporation, 76 NLRB 55. 9 As the timekeepers and bonus clerks are clearly factory clerical employees such as we have previously included in units of factory clerical or production and maintenance employees, we shall include them in the unit, although they are under the supervision of the paymaster. Chrysler Corporation, 76 NLRB 55; Hotpoint, Inc., 85 NLRB 485 ; The Clark Thread Company, 79 NLRB 542.; II. J. Heinz Company, 77 NLRB 1103. ]U Either participant in the election herein may, upon its prompt request to, and approval- thereof by, the Regional Director, have its name removed front the ballot. BALL BROTHERS COMPANY, INCORPORATED 39 S30 days from the date of this Direction, under the direction and super- vision 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, 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, 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 they desire to be represented, for purposes of collective bargaining, by Federation of Glass, Ceramic & Silica Sand Workers of America, CIO, or by Glass Bottle Blowers Association of the United States and Canada, AFL, or by neither.