Corn Products Refining Co.

In the Matter Of CORN PRODUCTS REFINING COMPANY, EMPLOYER and OIL WORKERS INTERNATIONAL UNION, CIO,' PETITIONER Case No. 39-RC-101.Decided November 21, 1949 DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before James P. Wolf, hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hear- ing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.2 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. ' Herein called Oil Workers. 2 Before the hearing, International Chemical Workers Union, AFL, herein called Chemical Workers, petitioned for leave to intervene and appeared at the hearing without objection from any of the parties. International Union of Operating Engineers, AFL, herein called Operating Engineers , and Lodge' 1276, International Association of Machinists , herein called IAM, moved to intervene at the hearing. The Employer, Oil Workers, and Chemical Workers objected to such intervention on the grounds that ( 1) an agreement for a Board- directed consent election signed by the objecting parties prior to the hearing was a bar to intervention, (2) the objecting parties were not timely apprised of the units sought by these intervenors, and (3 ) the units sought by these intervenors are inappropriate. We find no merit in any of these objections . As to the first ground, the Employer sug- gests that the Board should extend the "contract bar" rule to preclude intervention by a labor organization which seeks to become a party to a representation proceeding after the signing of a consent election agreement . Such an agreement , however, is merely an admin- istrative device of the Board to facilitate the holding of an election without the necessity of a formal hearing, and does not bar participation in a representation proceeding by other interested labor organizations . As we are administratively satisfied that the Operating Engineers and the JAM have a sufficient interest , we find that their intervention was proper. As to the second ground, we believe that no party hereto was prejudiced by the granting of intervention, as all parties were afforded the opportunity of fully exploring the unit issues at the hearing. As to the third ground , the inappropriateness of a unit is for the Board's determination upon consideration of the entire record , and is not a valid ground for objecting at a hearing to the intervention of a party . For the same reason , we find no merit in the objection of the Operating Engineers to the intervention by the IAM on the ground that the unit sought by the IAM includes the employees in the unit proposed by the Operating Engineers. 87 NLRB No. 30. 187 188 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD 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 Oil Workers and the Chemical Workers each seek to repre- sent a plant-wide unit of the production and maintenance employees in the Employer's Blue Bonnet plant at Corpus Christi, Texas. The Operating Engineers seeks to represent a unit of instrument depart- ment employees. The IAM seeks to represent a unit consisting of all maintenance employees, excluding the instrument department em-. ployees. As an alternative, the TAM is willing to include the instru- ment department employees, if the Board finds that they appropriately belong in a maintenance unit. The Employer, the Oil Workers, and the Chemical Workers assert that, because of the plant's functional integration, the interrelation of interests among all the employees, and because of the pattern of bargaining in the "wet- milling" industry, of which this plant is a part, only a plant-wide unit of production and maintenance employees is appropriate. There is no history of collective bargaining for the employees at this plant. The Employer is engaged in the manufacture, sale, and distribution of food and food products at its plants in Argo and Pekin, Illinois, North Kansas City, Missouri, Corpus Christi, Texas, and in certain foreign countries. Its principal products are starch, sugar, vegetable oils, and cattle food. The Blue Bonnet plant at Corpus Christi, which is the newest of the Employer's plant, began operations on June 6, 1949, and at the time of the hearing the plant was not yet in full production. Construction of all buildings, however, had been virtu- ally completed and the Employer expected to operate at full capacity within 30 to 45 days from the time of the hearing. The Blue Bonnet plant, like the Employer's other domestic plants 3 utilizes a "continuous flow process" for the processing of grain. These operations are known as "wet-milling," because the raw material is first saturated with water and chemical solutions. After the liquids are withdrawn, the material, called "grind," is pumped through a series of connected pipes throughout the plant. Machines, located at 3 Before opening the Blue Bonnet plant, the Employer hired 150 production employees locally and sent them to the Employer's northern plants for 12 to 15 months training. About 50 of these employees returned to the plant. Blue Bonnet differs from the other plants only in the following respects ; it has more modern machinery and equipment with more extensive automatic instrument control ; It manufactures fewer varieties of end products ; the basic raw material is milo maize , whereas the other plants use corn. These materials, however, have the same chemical analyses. Blue Bonnet machinery- and equip- ment can be adapted in a few hours to processing corn by -minor adjustments at a cost of only $200 for the entire plant. CORN PRODUCTS REFINING COMPANY 189 points along the line of flow, separate.and extract the various prod- ucts. Once the process has been started, the grind must flow con- tinuously without interruption until all phases of the process have been completed. Any halt in the process results in the inevitable loss of grind, as there are no storage facilities at any point along the line of flow.4 The maintenance department: There are 40 employees in this de- partment at Blue Bonnet, classified as maintenance mechanics 5 who work under a master mechanic. Presently, these employees are princi- pally engaged in installing and adjusting the production equipment, but their duties will eventually consist mainly in servicing and repair- ing this equipment. The Employer's experience indicates that there will be frequent break-downs, requiring that production operators assist the maintenance mechanics in order to get the process back into operation in the shortest possible time. It is also common in the "wet-milling" industry for plants to shut down frequently because of major break-downs, for periodic inspections, or because of lack of business.6 At such times, also, the production operators and the main- tenance mechanics will work together in making repairs and inspec- tions and, upon their completion, in getting the flow started. The production operators themselves frequently perform maintenance functions oil their equipment.' Tool boxes, located in several build- ings, contain hand tools, which they are authorized to use for this purpose. The instrument department: There are 17 employees,8 headed by an instrument supervisor, who maintain and repair the numerous pneumatic, hydraulic, and electric instruments throughout the plant. These instruments, which provide automatic controls and record measurements, are indispensable to the continuous function of the flow process and must be constantly maintained and repaired. 4 "Dry-milling" differs in that no liquids are added to the raw material which is processed in a dry state. This Processing method permits storage of grind at any stage without loss. s Although these employees are experienced in one or more crafts, they do not work along craft lines but are required to perform any work they are capable of doing. B The Employer estimates that shut-downs for all these reasons will regularly occur at intervals of 2 to 3 weeks. ' They change metal and nylon screens on grain cleaning and de-watering equipment, change broken paddles on the agitators in germ separators, replace hammers, remove wash water lines and baskets on Reitz disintegrators, take oil expellers apart, take apart Merco centrifugal machines and replace nozzles, replace valves on sealed water lines and pumps, disassemble Mereo and DeLaval machines for cleaning, and lubricate equipment. Produc- tion operators either perform these operations alone or together with maintenance mechanics who may be called upon to participate with the operators in getting these jobs done quickly. 8 They are classified in their order of skill as three zone leaders, six instrument mechanics, four instrument process men, one instrument repairman, and three instrument helpers. The Employer does not recognize these employees as members of a recognized craft, and there is no apprenticeship program for them: They are regarded by the Employer as skilled technicians. In hiring instrument mechanics, the Employer desires men with 5 or 6 years' experience in instrument work, and requires 1 to 5 years' experience for repairmen. 190 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD Therefore the instrument men have been specially instructed in all phases of the production process to facilitate their work. At times of instrument failures, they may be required to assist ptodu.ction operators in maintaining operations on a manual basis while repairs are being made, and in starting up machinery after instruments have been reinstalled. Production operators also assist instrument men in speeding repairs. As part of their regular duties, instrument men frequently perform ordinary maintenance work, such as moving and lowering valves, cleaning pump pipes, dismantling and reassembling motors, and pulling electric wires through conduits.° Employee benefits and working conditions are generally the same for all employees in the plant. Although there is separate depart- mental supervision, when mechanics or instrument men are assigned to a repair job in the production sections, they work under the super- vision of a production foreman. All operators, mechanics, and instru- ment men on the night shifts are under the supervision of the night superintendent. Seniority is on a plant-wide basis, with promotions and ]ay-offs depending primarily on merit. Although there have been few instances so far of employee interchange 10 between departments, the Employer's policy calls for all plant jobs to be filled by bids from employees, irrespective of the departments in which they work. In earlier cases,,-, involving other domestic plants of the Employer, the Board has held that only plant-wide production and maintenance units were appropriate because of the community of employee in- terests arising from the functional integration of the "wet-milling" process, and because the industry generally appears to have followed the pattern of bargaining in plant-wide units.12 The evidence in the The instrument men also maintain and repair the air-conditioning and water-cooling units in the plant, as well as photo-switches for alarms and motor controls. Occasionally, maintenance mechanics will work together with the instrument men in repairing this equipment. Each of these groups has its own shop facilities and storage space, located in the same building, but they frequently use the same machine tools and work on the same work-bench. 10 Two employees from another department have been transferred to the maintenance department. Blue Bonnet also has a labor pool, administratively part of the production department, from which each department requisitions employees on a temporary basis as they are needed. The Employer's policy is to assign new employees to the pool and to catalog all their skills. Eventually, it is expected that vacancies in all departments will be filled mostly by transfer of employees from the labor pool. 11 Corn Products Refining Company, 80 NLRB 362; Corn Products Refining Company, 60 NLRB 02. 12 The record indicates that the following companies, together with the Employer, consti- tute the "wet-milling" industry in this country: Clinton Industries, Inc., Clinton, Iowa; The Hubinger Company, Keokuk, Iowa ; Penick and Ford, Ltd., Inc., Cedar Rapids, Iowa ; A. E. Staley Mfg. Co., Decatur, Illinois ; Union Starch and Refining Company, Granite City, Illinois ; National Starch Products, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana; American Maize Products Co., Robey, Indiana. Except for a unit of masons consisting of three or four employees at the Clinton Industries plant, and a machinists' unit at the Employer's Argo plant, it appears that all employees of these. companies are bargained for in production and maintenance units. CORN PRODUCTS REFINING COMPANY 191 instant case reveals the same compelling reasons which supported the Board's decisions in these cases. We believe, therefore, that only a plant-wide production and maintenance unit is appropriate. We find that all production and maintenance employees at the Employer's Corpus Christi, Texas, Blue Bonnet plant, excluding office, clerical, administrative, technical, and professional employees, guards, and supervisors 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. 5. The Employer requests that employees whom it expects to lay off be excluded from voting in any election as temporary employees. There are presently 305 employees employed at this plant. The Em- ployer contemplates that when operations at the plant have been sta- bilized, the working complement will be reduced to 200 to 225 employees. The Employer asserts that it will be able to determine, before any election in this proceeding is held, which of its employees will not be retained. Should there be an increase in the Employer's business after they have been laid off, these employees may be given preferential rehiring rights with accrued seniority on the basis of their present employment. The Employer, however, is uncertain as to its future policy in this regard. We find that none of the Employer's employees may be classified as temporary, as all appear to have been hired as permanent employees and presently appear to hold such sta- tus. However, employees who are laid off before the election herein directed, without reasonable expectation of reemployment, will be regarded for these purposes as being permanently severed and ineligi- ble to vote.13 DIRECTION OF ELECTION As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the pur- poses of collective bargaining with the Employer, an election 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 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- ' Waterman Steamship Corporation , 78 NLRB 20. 192 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD 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 Oil Workers International Union, C. I. 0., or by International Chem- ical Workers Union, AFL, or by Lodge No. 1276,, International Asso- ciation of Machinists,14 or by none. 44 By Order dated December 6, 1949, the above Decision and Direction of Election was amended by according Lodge No. 1276, International Association of Machinists, a place on the ballot for the directed election herein.