Nu-Way Corp.

In the Matter of NU-WAY CORPORATION, EMPLOYER and UNITED FARM EQUIPMENT AND METAL WORKERS OF AMERICA, CIO , PETITIONER Case No. 13-RC--885.-Decided December 5, 1949 DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before Richard C. Swander, 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 labor organization involved claims 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 appropriate unit : The Petitioner seeks to represent a unit of all production and main- tenance 1 employees, including the janitor, but excluding outside servicemen, probationary employees, leadmen, watchmen, guards, and supervisors. The Employer is in substantial agreement with the Petitioner, but would include the outside service men and the proba- tionary employees. The Employer is a manufacturer of oil heating equipment which it also installs in the homes of its local customers. It employs four outside servicemen to do the necessary local installation and service work. These men spend from 15 to 80 percent of their time in instal- lation and repair work outside the plant, and the remainder of their ' The Employer has no regular maintenance employees , except a janitor . All other maintenance work, both plant and machine, is done by outside contractors , except for auinor jobs which are handled by production employees. 87 NLRB No. 54. 377 378 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD time in production or repair work within the plant. The record is clear that the outside servicemen work in close association with the production workers in the plant, and under the same terms and con- ditions of employment. Accordingly, we shall include them in the unit. The Petitioner would exclude a group of employees classified as probationary, upon the ground that they are actually only temporary employees. The record shows that these are production employees who have been hired as the result of a recent expansion of the Employer's operations. If they are satisfactory workers, they will become regular employees at the end of a 60- or 90-day period of em- ployment. It is clear that these probationary employees are not tem- porary employees within the meaning of the Board's definition. Ac- cordingly we shall include them in the unit.2 We find that all production and maintenance employees in the Em- ployer's plant at Rock Island, Illinois, including the janitor, outside servicemen and probationary employees, but excluding office and cleri- cal employees, guards, leadmen, and other supervisors as defined in the Act, constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bar- gaining, 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 than 60 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 reinstated prior to the date of the election, and also excluding em- ployees on strike who are not entitled to reinstatement, to determine whether or not they desire to be represented, for purposes of collec- tive bargaining, by United Farm Equipment and Metal Workers of America, CIO. 2 Matter of Milliron's, 72 NLRB 69.