Truscon Steel Co.

In the Matter of TRuscoN STEEL COMPANY, EMPLOYER and OFFICE EMPLOYEES INTERNATIONAL UNION, LOCAL 239 (AFL), PETITIONER Case No. 8-RC,539.Decided January 30, 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 hear- ing 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 Murdock]. 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 represen- tation of employees of the Employer within the meaning of Section 9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act. 4. The Petitioner seeks to represent a unit of all office and clerical employees in the Employer's operating department in its Youngs- town, Ohio, plant, including clerks, comptometer operators, dupli- cator operators, key punch operators, machine operators, produc- tion recorders (timekeepers), mail messenger, and mail car driver in the works accounting department; clerks, dispatchers, planners, and typists in the production department; clerks in the receiving and general stores department; clerks in the shipping department; clerks in the machine shop office and in the master mechanic's office, and janitors and janitresses, but excluding all general office employees, private secretaries, plant protection men, draftsmen, engineers, effi- ciency rate setters (time-study men), industrial engineers in the experimental. department, all employees in the sash engineering de- partment, all employees in the purchasing division in the general 88 NLRB No. 86. 331 332 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD office, all employees in the warehouse division, and supervisors. United Steelworkers of America (CIO), herein called the Intervenor, contends that (1) all hourly rated clerks in the works accounting department, the production department, the receiving and general stores department, the shipping department, the paint department, the machine shop, the master mechanic's office, and the Employer's Youngstown warehouse are included in and covered by the existing collective bargaining agreement between the Employer and the Inter- venor; (2) the dispatchers and timekeepers presently excluded under the collective bargaining agreement should be included in the exist- ing production and maintenance unit; and (3) the salaried office workers in the plant operating office, together with the salaried office employees of the sash engineering department should comprise a separate unit. The Employer argues that all employees in the pro- posed units are supervisors, confidential or professional employees, and therefore the units sought by both the Petitioner and the Inter- venor are inappropriate for collective bargaining. The Employer, a subsidiary of the Republic Steel Corporation, operates plants at Youngstown, Cleveland, and Canton, Ohio, and at Gadsden, Alabama. Only the Youngstown plant is involved in this proceeding. Since about 1944, the Intervenor has been the bargain- ing agent for the production and maintenance employees at the Youngstown plant. The office and clerical employees at Youngstown are divided into two groups, the operating department employees and the general office employees. The operating department, which is under the over-all supervision of the works manager, handles office and clerical work for the Employer's production plant in Youngstown. The ma- jority of these employees work in a separate office building known as the plant operating building.' Those not housed in this building, work in offices in the plant. The general office building houses the Employer's sales, executive, and administrative divisions.2 The gen- eral office employees work under the supervision of the executive vice president. There is no interchange between the plant and general office clerical staffs. The operating department consists of the following departments : Works accounting department, production department, industrial en- gineering department, plant engineering department, works manage- ment department, receiving and general stores department, shipping ' In the record, this building is also called the operating department building, the production office building, and the plant office. 2 Only employees in the operating department are supposed to be housed in the plant operating building. Because of space limitations in the general office building, however, some employees who belong in the general office building are now housed in the plant operating building. I ` TRUSCON STEEL COMPANY 333 department, paint department, machine shop office, and master me- chanic's office. There are also janitors and janitresses included in this department. Works accounting department: This department, which is under the supervision of the works accountant, accumulates the costs of the products manufactured in the plant, up to the time the products are loaded on cars to be shipped.' It also makes up the payrolls for all hourly rated production and maintenance employees and plant clerks. There are approximately 49 clerks in the department, with the fol- lowing classifications : 4 Clerks, comptometer operators, duplicator operators, machine operators, production recorders (timekeepers), mail messenger, and mail car driver. All of these employees, with the exception of the two timekeepers and one mail car driver, are salaried employees. All, except the timekeepers, work in the plant operating building. The timekeepers, who work in an office in the plant, accumulate the time for the production and maintenance em- ployees in the machine shop, shipping department, and electrical department. Production department: There are 8 clerks, 19 dispatchers, 26 plan- ners, 12 typists, 1 dispatcher checker, 1 secretary, and expeditors and tractor drivers in this department, who work under the supervision of the superintendent of the production department .5 The clerks are hourly rated employees who work in a dispatcher's office in the plant. Their duties are essentially keeping time, check- ing production of the production employees, and making reports for the dispatchers. They fill in the necessary information on produc- tion and attendance forms, which they get from production records and time clock cards. The dispatchers work throughout the plant and in an office located in the production department., They are hourly rated employees. Their principal duty is to job assign all work performed in the plant. They apply all base rates and incentive rates to production tickets given to the employees.' They report all time to the accounting de- 3 This includes the labor costs, the material values, and the overhead applicable to the cost of the products sold. 4 The parties stipulated that the works accountant , assistant works accountant, chief cost clerk , paymaster , chief payroll clerk , and chief clerk in charge of tabulating should be excluded from any unit as supervisors , and that the supervisory clerk and secretary to the works accountant should be excluded as confidential employees. 5 The parties stipulated that the superintendent and the assistant superintendent should be excluded from the unit as supervisors , and the dispatcher-checker and secretary to the superintendent should be excluded as confidential employees. The expeditors and tractor drivers are covered under the Intervenor 's contract covering production and maintenance employees. 6 The dispatchers and clerks, for all practical purposes , work together as a team. The dispatchers direct the clerks in their work, but have no supervisory authority over them. ' The incentive rates are set up by the industrial engineering department. 334 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD partment, and production to the production office, and make up any reports required by the superintendent of the production depart- ment. The planners are salaried employees who spend about 90 percent of their time in the plant office and the remainder of their time in the plant. They plan the sequence of operations of the work to be done in the plant, and the work that the dispatchers job assign. They apply incentive rates for all operations, and report production to the ac- counting department. They also make reports as required by the superintendent of the department. The typists are salaried em- ployees who work with or under the planners. Receiving and general stores clepcurtment : There are three raw ma- terials stores clerks, one hardware stores clerk, and two miscellaneous stores clerks in this department." They work in an office in the plant, under the supervision of the superintendent of stores and raw stock. All, with the exception of one of the raw materials stores clerks, are hourly rated employees. The raw materials stores clerks keep track of materials received, materials on hand, disbursement, and stock balances. The clerk, who is a salaried employee, does typing for the head of the department in addition to his other clerical duties. About an hour and a half of each clay is spent on this typing work. The correspondence he handles covers the prices and shipments of steel. The only work he does relating to labor relations is the typing up of grievance reports.° The hardware stores clerk keeps track of the receipts and disburse- ments and materials on order, and the balances in stock of the hard- ware parts. it is his duty to see that there is enough hardware on hand for orders, and to originate orders to replace the stock. He does not physically handle the merchandise. He spends all of his time in the receiving and general stores office doing clerical. work. The miscellaneous stores clerks do the same type of work as is clone by the hardware stores clerk. Shipping department: 10 The nine clerks in this department work in the shipping office which is located in the plant.'-, There are two billing clerks who prepare bills of lading covering shipments of prod- ucts from shop orders, make daily reports of shipments, and order There are also packers :in(] receiving men in this department who are covered by the contract for the production and maintenance employees. 0Th(- superintendent of this department does not have anything to do with setting up labor relations policy, and has no authority outside of his own department insofar as labor relations policies are concerned. 10 The parties agree that the chief biller in this department should be excluded from any unit as a supervisor, and that the two weighmasters are included in the production and maintenance unit represented by the Intervenor. "The record does not show the mode of payment for the yard clerks. The others are all salaried employees. TRUSCON STEEL COMPANY 335 trucks for shipping purposes. Two yard clerks order and classify all freight cars for outbound shipping, maintain service car records, determine debit and credit balances, check demurrage reports and expense reports for railroad discrepancies, and keep storage records. A tag man and clerk cuts stencils and runs tags for L. C. L. shipments, receives and distributes mail, and operates the ditto machine for vari- ous reports required by the superintendent of the department. Four checker clerks plan and assemble truck and car shipments by classifica- tion from various shop orders they have received, and make reports on partial shipments. Machine shop office: There are two hourly rated clerks in this de- partment who work in the machine shop office in the plant. One clerk is principally a planner for the department. The other clerk makes up requisitions, does typing and general. clerical work as directed by the superintendent of the department. Master mechanic's of ee: There is one hourly rated clerk in this department who works in the master mechanic's office located in the plant operating building. He handles corespondence for the master mechanic and the chief electrical engineer, types up various reports, including those required for the works accounting department, and does general clerical work. His only duties involving labor relations is typing up grievances. Plant engineering department: 12 There is one clerk in this depart- ment who is responsible to the chief engineer. He issues purchase requisitions, job orders, and tool orders as directed by the chief tool designer and plant engineer, keeps accounts of all expenditures on appropriations and R and Al jobs, and makes monthly reports to the Cleveland office on the status of all active appropriations 13 Janitors: There are two janitors and two janitresses who maintain the cleanliness of the plant operating building. They are hourly rated employees, who work under the immediate supervision of the works manager's chief clerk. Warehouse division: The warehouse division, which is located in the plant operating building, is not a part of the Employer's operating department.14 It is an operating division of the Republic Steel Cor- poration, and is under separate management. This division is under the supervision of the manager of warehouses, who has charge of all warehouses owned by the Republic Steel Corporation, the Employer 12 In the transcript , this department is also referred to as the mechanical engineering department. 13 The reports go to the Cleveland office because this is one of the production departments coming under the vice president in charge of operations located at the Cleveland office of Republic Steel. 14The employees in the warehouse division are housed in the plant operating building only because of insufficient space in other buildings. 336 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD and the Berger Manufacturing Company, throughout the United States. It has its own operating and industrial relations depart- ments.15 We cannot agree with the Intervenor's contention that the hourly rated clerks in the operating department are included in and covered by the existing agreement between the Employer and the Intervenor. Dispatchers and timekeepers, who are hourly rated employees, are specifically excluded from the contract, as are office and salaried employees. The Employer's superintendent of industrial relations testified that it has always been his interpretation that the office and salaried employees referred to in the contract are the office and clerical employees in the operating department, and that this interpretation has never been challenged heretofore. We find that the employees in the operating department are not covered by the contract between the Employer and the Intervenor. The Intervenor contends that all salaried office employees in the operating department together with salaried office employees in the sash engineering department should comprise a residual unit. The sash engineering department is one of the departments of the general office division,16 and is under the over-all supervision of the executive vice president. The office and clerical employees are under the imme- diate supervision of the manager of the sash engineering department. The manager has no connection with the works manager who is in charge of the operating department. Each department hires its own employees, and there is no interchange of employees between the two groups. The Intervenor's proposed unit is one of salaried office and plant clerical employees. The Board has previously declined to establish a single unit of office and plant clerical employees 17 From the record, there appears to be no basis for the Intervenor's proposed unit, other than the fact that all are salaried employees. The mode of payment is not controlling on unit placement.18 We believe that the salaried office employees in the sash engineering department do not possess sufficient interests in common with those in the operating department to be joined for collective bargaining purposes with the latter. We therefore find the residual unit proposed by the Intervenor to be inappropriate. "The Employer's superintendent of industrial relations does not handle any problems in regard to the employees in this division . By virtue of a gentleman 's agreement, how- ever, the production and maintenance employees in this division have been covered under the existing contract between the Employer and the Intervenor. 16 This department is concerned with the sale of sashes and not with their production. 17 Ball Brothers Company, Incorporated, 87 NLRB 34, and cases cited therein. 18 General electric Company, 86 NLRB 327 ; International Harvester Company, Milwaukee works, 85 NLRB 1175; Bonwit Teller, Inc., 84 NLRB 414 ; Southern Alkali Corporation, 84 NLRB 120. TRUSCON STEEL COMPANY 337 The employees in the unit requested by the Petitioner do the usual clerical work in connection with manufacturing operations carried on throughout the plantl0 The Board has heretofore held that plant clericals such as those involved in this proceeding are not confidential employees,20 and may be represented in the same unit as other produc- tion and maintenance employees.21 Inasmuch as there has been a his- tory. of bargaining for the production and maintenance employees, from which these plant clericals have been excluded, we shall give them an opportunity in a self-determination election to voice their desire for or against representation in the production and maintenance unit.22 If they select the Intervenor as their bargaining representa- tive, they will be taken to have indicated their desire to be included in the existing production and maintenance unit and the Intervenor may bargain for them as part of such unit. If they select the Petitioner they will be taken to have expressed a desire to constitute a separate unit. We shall direct an election among all office and clerical employees in the Employer's operating department at Youngstown, Ohio, in- eluding clerks, comptometer operators, duplicator operators, key punch operators, machine operators, production recorders (time- keepers), mail messenger, and mail car driver in the works accounting department; clerks, dispatchers, planners, and typists in the produc- tion department; clerks in the receiving and general stores depart- ment; clerk in the shipping department; the clerk in the plant en- gineering department, clerks in the machine shop office and in the master mechanic's office; and janitors and j anitresses,23 but excluding the works accountant, assistant works accountant, chief cost clerk, paymaster, chief payroll clerks, chief clerk in charge of tabulating, supervisory clerk and secretary to the works accountant in the works accounting department ; the superintendent, assistant superintendent, dispatcher-checker, and secretary to the superintendent in the produc- tion department; the chief biller in the shipping department; em- ployees in the industrial engineering department; 24 clerks in the paint 19 Contrary to the Employer's contention, the record does not establish that the employees in the unit requested by the Petitioner are either professional employees or supervisors within the meaning of the Act. 20 None of these plant clericals act in a confidential capacity to an executive who formu- lates or effectuates the Employer's general labor relations policies. See Ball Brothers Company, Incorporated, 87 NLRB 34, and cases cited therein. 21 Harnischfeger Corporation, 86 NLRB 325; Hotpoint, Inc., 85 NLRB 485. 22 Gemmer Manufacturing Company, 85 NLRB 700; Watson-Flagg Machine Co., 83 NLRB 734; General Petroleum Corporation, 83 NLRB 514: Chrysler Corporation, 76 NLRB 55; Elastic Stop Nut Corporation of America, 87 NLRB 1532. 23 As the interests of these employees are similar to those of the other employees in the unit, and they would otherwise be unrepresented for collective bargaining purposes, we shall include them in the unit. Southern Alkali Corporation, 84 NLRB 120. 24 The parties stipulated that the clerk in this department should be excluded as a confidential employee. 338 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD department; 25 all general office employees, private secretaries, plant protection men, draftsmen, engineers, efficiency rate setters (time- study men), industrial engineers in the experimental department, all employees in the sash engineering department, clerks in the warehouse division,26 confidential and professional employees, and supervisors. DIRECTION OF ELECTION 27 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 supervision 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 reinstated 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 Office Employees International Union, 'Local 239 (AFL), or by United Steelworkers of America (CIO), or by neither. s' The parties agree that the clerk in the paint department belongs in the production and maintenance unit. 29 In view of the fact that the clericals in this division are not part of the Employer's operating department, and are under separate management and supervision, we do not believe there is a sufficient community of interest between these employees and those in the operating department to warrant their inclusion in the unit. 27 Either participant in the election directed herein may, upon its prompt request to, and approval thereof by, the Regional Director, have its name removed from the ballot.