Farrell-Cheek Steel Co.

In the Matter of FARRELL-CHEEK STEEL COMPANY, EMPLOYER and INTERNATIONAL UNION, UNITED AUTOMOBILE, AIRCRAFT AND AGRI- CULTURAL IMPLEMENT WORKERS OF AMERICA, CIO, PETITIONER Case No. 8-RC-554.Decided January 06, 1950 DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before Bernard Ness, 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 Reynolds]. 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 employees of the Employer.2 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.3 The Employer's request for oral argument is hereby denied, as the record and briefs, in our opinion, adequately present the issues. 2 The Employer stated at the hearing that it had reason to believe that the authorization cards which Petitioner submitted to the Regional Director to substantiate its claim of majority representation were to a large extent outdated , having been obtained when Peti- tioner had been the certified bargaining agent at this plant in 1944 . The Regional Director's examination indicated that more than 30 percent of the cards submitted to him were signed by individuals employed at the plant when the instant petition was filed in September 1949. Although some of these cards were undated , the Employer may not, under well-established practice, question their currency . Wm. P. McDonald Corporation, 83 NLRB 427. 3 The Employer contends that the petition should be dismissed because the Petitioner must, under its constitution , establish a local before collective bargaining may be fully consummated , and the local , not being in existence, cannot comply with the filing require- ments of the Act. We will not inquire into the limitations , imposed by its own constitu- tion, on the powers of an international or local union to negotiate with employers and to sign bargaining contracts , absent a showing that the Petitioner will not adequately repre- sent all the employees in the unit it seeks, or that the Petitioner is not, in fact , the real party in interest in the proceedings . United States Gypsum Company, 80 NLRB 779; 88 NLRB No. 83. 303 304 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD 4. The parties agree that a unit of production and maintenance employees, with certain exclusions, at the Employer's foundry at Sandusky, Ohio, is appropriate. The Petitioner would include checkers and inspectors in the unit as plant clericals, and the Employer seeks to exclude them as managerial employees. Checkers, under the supervision of their own foreman, work mainly on the factory floor, but have an office in another building where they make their computations. Their principal task is to keep records of the number of castings produced. They also prepare an evaluation for each new casting which the Employer is to manufacture. This is done by analyzing the operations necessary to produce a finished casting after it is poured, and listing the value, previously assigned to each type of operation by time-study engineers, on a specification sheet. The sum of these values is the unit rate for each particular casting, and by multiplying this rate by the number of castings pro- duced, the checkers determine the wages of the piece-rate workers. The checkers may not change any of the values. Their determination of the separate operations required to produce a finished casting is not based on technical or professional skill, but on such factors as the size of the casting, the number of rods, vents, etc., which the specifications call for. They may affect the pay of production workers only by mak- ing an error in their evaluations, but not through the exercise of any discretion on their part. We do not believe that their job of deter- mining evaluations transforms them into something other than time- keepers. They are essentially factory clericals who secure production tallies for payroll purposes, on a unit rather than a time basis. We do not perceive in their work any skills or responsibilities beyond those normally exercised by other timekeepers whose interests we have found to be similar to those of production workers.4 We shall there- fore include the checkers in the production and maintenance unit. Inspectors do virtually no production work, and are under the supervision of their own foremen. Inspections are performed during the various stages of the casting and finishing processes, and finally just before shipping. The Employer contends the inspectors are managerial employees because they are responsible for the quality of the work coming through the foundry, which bears directly on manu- facturing costs. Inspectors may require a production employee to rework a rejected casting, and may thereby affect the earnings of piece- Samuel Banat & Bro. Inc., 81 NLRB 1249 ; cf. United States Gypsum Company , 84 NLRB 339. Where, as in this case , there is no local presently in existence or in the process of being formed , we will not dismiss the petition of an international union on the mere conjecture that it may at some time charter a local which will not be in compliance. Granite Textile Mills, Inc., 76 NLRB 613; Minneapolis Knitting Works, 84 NLRB 826. 4H. 0. Canfield Company, 76 NLRB 606 ; Art Metal Construction Company, 75 NLRB 80; West Steel Casting Company, 68 NLRB 795. FARRELL-CHEEK STEEL COMPANY 305 rate workers. They do not, however, exercise any supervisory author- ity, nor do we believe that their responsibilities, which are admittedly to cut manufacturing costs and maintain the Employer's standards, set them apart from the production workers.5 We shall include them in the unit sought herein. We find, in accord with the agreement of the parties and with our own findings above, that all production and maintenance employees at the Employer's plant at Sandusky, Ohio, including checkers and inspectors, but excluding nurses, laboratory, canteen, office and execu- tive employees, watchmen, and all supervisors 6 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. 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 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 payroll period immediately preceding the date of this Direction of Election, including employees who did not work during said payroll 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 re- instated prior to the date of the election, 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 bar- gaining, by International Union, United Automobile, Aircraft and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, CIO. 5 Bryant Heater Co., 77 NLRB 744; Clayton Mark f Company, 76 NLRB 230. 6 The parties agree that foremen and subforeinen are supervisors.