Dictaphone Corp.

In the Matter of DICTAPHONE CORPORATION and UNITED ELECTRICAL, RADIO & MACHINE WORKERS OF AMERICA, C. I. O. Case No. 2-R-6118.-Decided April 1. ,1946 Mr. James J. Winters, of New York City, and Mr. Charles J. Hodge, of Bridgeport, Conn., for the Company. Miss Marian Danforth and Mr. Joseph Caiazza, of Bridgeport, Conn., for the Union. Mr. Elmer P. Freischlag, of counsel to the Board. DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION STATEMENT OF THE CASE Upon an amended petition duly filed by United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America, C. I. 0., herein called the Union, alleging that a question affecting commerce had arisen concerning the representation of employees of Dictaphone Corporation, Bridgeport, Connecticut, herein called the Company, the National Labor Relations Board provided for an appropriate hearing upon due notice before George Turitz, Trial Examiner. The hearing was held at Bridgeport, Connecticut, on February 1, 4, and 6, 1946. The Company and the Union appeared and participated. All parties were afforded full opportunity to be heard, to examine and cross-examine witnesses, and to introduce evidence bearing on the issues. The Trial Examiner's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed. All parties were afforded opportunity to file briefs with the Board. Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following : FINDINGS OF FACT I. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY Dictaphone Corporation, a New York corporation, with its prin- cipal office in New York City, and branch and district sales offices throughout the United States, has a factory at Bridgeport, Connect- 67 N. L R. B., No. 41. 307 308 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD icut, and a subdivision at Fairfield, Connecticut, 4 miles distant. The Company manufactures and sells dictating, recording, transcribing, and resurfacing machines. During the year 1945, the Company pur- chased raw materials consisting of metals, plastics, rubber, fiber, and electronic components, valued in excess of $500,000, more than 50 per- cent of which represented shipments to the Bridgeport factory from points outside the State of Connecticut. During the same period, the Company sold finished products amounting in value to over $500,000, over 80 percent of which represented shipments to points outside the State. The Company admits, and we find, that it is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act. It. TILE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America is a labor organization affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations, admitting to membership employees of the Company. III. TILE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION By letter dated December 6, 1945, the Union advised the Company that it represented a majority of the Company's employees, and re- quested recognition as their exclusive bargaining representative. The Company has refused such recognition until the Union has been cer- tified by the Board. A statement of a Board agent, introduced into evidence at the hearing, indicates that the Union represents a substantial number of employees in the unit hereinafter found appropriate' We find that a question affecting commerce has arisen concerning the representation of employees of the Company, within the meaning of Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act. IV. TILE APPROPRIATE UNIT The Union requests a unit covering all production, maintenance, and shipping employees in the Company's Bridgeport plant, includ- ing inspectors, expediters, truck drivers, store employees, and truckers, but excluding watchmen, guards, timekeepers, time-study employees, engineering employees, production planners, office em- ' The Field Examiner reported that the Union submitted 343 cards , and that the cards are dated as follows : 15 from January to April 1945 , 185 from May to August 1945, 42 in September and October 1945, 42 in November and December 1945, , ,nd 59 are undated, There are approximately 690 employees in the appropriate unit. At the hearing, the Company moved to dismiss the petition on the ground that the Union had failed to make a showing of present substantial representation among the employees in the unit petitioned for inasmuch as 200 cards are over 6 months old and 59 are undated. We find the contention to be without merit, and the motion is hereby denied. See Matter of Baker & Company, Inc, 65 N L R B. 646, and cases cited therein. DICTAPHONE CORPORATION 309 ployees, sales employees, foremen's clerks, assistant foremen, foremen, and all supervisors with authority to hire, promote, discharge, disci- pline, or otherwise effect changes in the status of employees, or effectively recommend such action. The Company would, however, extend the scope of the unit to include employees in its Fairfield plant, and takes the further position that, in any event, the follow- ing employees should be excluded from any unit found appropriate: all inspectors in Departments 9, 22, and 41; electric motor inspectors in Department 20, and the expediters. The Fairfield plant: The Company contends that the Fairfield plant is in effect part of the Bridgeport plant, and that the unit should include employees in both plants. The Company commenced oper- ations at Fairfield in 1941, because there was insufficient space in Bridgeport to handle the reconditioning of old machines. In the latter part of 1944 the Company set up assembly lines at the Fairfield plant for its acoustical machine, which operation had previously been carried on at Bridgeport. On or about December 30, 1945, the Company began to transfer this operation back to Bridgeport. At the time of the hearing, only nine production employees, including a supervisor, remained at Fairfield, and the Company planned to return them to the Bridgeport plant by February 15, 1946. The Company's plans, as revealed at the hearing, are to abandon produc- tive operations at Fairfield and install therein various sales and office departments, and a distribution center, and to have all maintenance work at the Fairfield plant performed by employees working out of the Bridgeport plant, as heretofore. Although the Company has indicated that the distribution center at Fairfield will include some shipping employees, the evidence indicates that its plans are at best only speculative. In view of the probability that the Company has already discontinued, or will very shortly discontinue, its productive operations at Fairfield, and because of the present impossibility of establishing the nature of the resulting integration between the two plants once the change over of the Fairfield plant has been com- pleted, we perceive no present basis for extending the scope of the unit to embrace any employees at Fairfield. Accordingly, we shall exclude employees at the Fairfield plant from the unit. Inspectors: The Union would include in the unit all inspectors, while the Company disputes the inclusion of only those inspectors in Departments 9, 22, and 41. and electric motor inspectors in Depart- ment 20.1 Department 9 einploN s inter-departmental or floating in- spectors, bench inspectors, and salvage inspectors. Inter-depart- mental or floating inspectors, by the use of various testing equipment, check parts produced by the machines in the production departments ' Departments 9, 22, and 41 are solely concerned with inspection , chile Department 20 Is a production department. 310 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD for defects in quality, finish, and tolerances. Bench inspectors gauge a given lot of parts produced, and report on the number of defective parts therein, and salvage inspectors determine which parts can be, salvaged and which must be scrapped. After final assembly, the machines are given mechanical and acoustical tests with voltmeters, ammeters and other equipment by the inspectors in Department 22. The electronic equipment on the machines are tested by the inspectors in Department 41, with respect to features listed on appropriate test sheets. The Company requires these inspectors in Department 41 to have a trade school training in electronics, since the testing devices used require a knowledge of this subject. In Department 20, the elec- tric motor inspectors make performance, poise and lead tests on motors, rejecting a motor for such things as rough commutators and speed irregularity. The tests depend principally on their judgment and discretion, rather than the measuring devices they use. In general, whenever any inspector discovers a defect, the operator or assembler responsible must correct it, and if that employee is found to be at fault, he may thereby suffer a loss of pay. In the event the supervisor of the operator or assembler disagrees with the inspector as to his determina- tion that a part or machine is defective, the matter is taken up with the inspector's foreman, and then with higher authority, the latter making the final decision as to the responsibility. All the inspectors in issue work the same hours, and receive vacations on the same basis as the production employees. Some of the inspectors, especially those in Department 41, are more highly skilled than many of the production workers. However, some toolmakers, who are more highly skilled and receive more pay than these inspectors, are included in the proposed unit without objection by the Company. Nor has the Company ob- jected to the inclusion of other inspectors in other departments, al- though their duties are presumably similar. And the Company would also include control box and armature inspectors in Department 20, who do routine checking on simple parts, because they perform some production work. It appears further that many inspectors were trans- ferred to their present positions from other jobs in the production, maintenance, and shipping departments. The Company's opposition to the inclusion in the unit of these groups of inspectors seems to be based upon its fear that such inclusion would result in the passing of defective work of an operator or as- sembler which would otherwise be rejected. However, the effect of an inspector's activities on the status of the production employees is too indirect to lend any substantial weight to this contention. Moreover, it is clear that improper inspection work would be traced to the in- spector thus affectifig his own position 3 Accordingly, because the in- See Matter of Aluminum Company of America, 52 N. L. R. B. 1040. DICTAPHONE CORPORATION 311 spectors in issue have interests closely related to those of the other inspectors, and to those of the production employees, and inasmuch as there is no evidence in the record that they have -supervisory authority over the production employees Whose work or machines they inspect, we shall include all inspectors in the unit.' Expediters : The Union would include expediters in the appropriate unit, whereas the Company would exclude them. It is the chief func- tion of the expediters who form part of the Shop Expediting Depart- ment to insure a proper flow of parts from the production departments to the Part Stores Department, each expediter being assigned to a certain area of the factory. At the beginning of each week the fore- man of the expediters gives each expediter a list of parts to be needed, and supplemental lists are distributed during the week. The expediter gives the supervisor of the production department making those parts a list of the parts needed, and arranges with that supervisor as to the time within which the parts are to be produced. Should the super- visor advise the expediter that he cannot meet the time limit set, the expediter reports that fact to his foreman, who then handles the matter. In carrying out his duties, the expediter consults with foremen, assist- ant foremen, group leaders, and set-up men in the production depart- ments assigned to him, but with no one below these levels. The expedi- ters are paid by the hour, and work the same schedule as the production employees. The record indicates that the duties of the expediters are directly concerned with production operations, and are unlike the essentially clerical duties of the production planners in the same de- partment, who prepare the list of parts to be required and submit them to the foreman of the department. In addition there is no evidence that expediters exercise any managerial or supervisory authority. We shall, therefore, include expediters in the unit.5 We find, therefore, that all production, maintenance, and shipping employees in the Company's Bridgeport plant, including inspectors, expediters, truck drivers, store employees, and truckers, but excluding watchmen, guards, timekeepers, time-study employees, engineering employees, production planners, office employees, sales employees, foremen's clerks, assistant foremen, foremen, supervisors, and all or any other supervisory employees with authority to hire, promote, dis- charge, discipline, or otherwise effect changes in the status of employees, or effectively recommend such action, constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act. 4 See Matter of Brad Foote Gear Works, Inc., 60 N. L R. B 97; Matter of Crane Enamel- ware Company, 56 N. L. R. B 259; and Matter of Snead & Company, 55 N. L. R. B 1206 See Matter of E. B. Gunzburg, Jacob Mandell, Sidney Scheinman and Arnold Schein- man, d/b/a Bridge Metal Products Co., 62 N. L. R. B. 644; Matter of Pacific Mills, 60 N. L. R. B. 467; Matter of Joseph Bancroft & Sons Company, 60 N. L. R. B. 1053; and Matter of Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation, Louisville Division, 58 N. L. R. B. 300. 312 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD V. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES The Company moved at the hearing that, if an election is ordered, its employees on military leave be permitted to cast ballots by mail. There were approximately 62 employees on military leave at the time of the hearing as evidenced by a list of such employees received in evidence. We are of the opinion that the facts in this case do not substantially differ from those in Matter of South West Pennsylvania Pipe Lines .:s Accordingly, we shall grant the Company's motion and provide for the mail balloting of employees in the armed forces who fall within the appropriate unit, subject to the conditions hereinafter mentioned. We shall direct that the question concerning representation be resolved by an election by secret ballot among employees in the ap- propriate unit who were employed during the pay-roll period im- mediately preceding the date of the Direction of Election herein, subject to the limitations and additions set forth in the Direction. The Regional Director shall mail ballots to employees within the appropriate unit on military leave, provided one or more of the parties hereto, within seven (7) days after receipt of the Direction of Elec- tion, files with the Regional Director a list containing the names, most recent addresses, and work classifications of such employees. The Regional Director shall open and count the ballots cast by mail by employees on military leave, provided that each ballot must be returned to and received by the Regional Office within thirty (30) days from the date they were mailed to such employees by the Regional Director.' DIRECTION OF ELECTION By virtue of and pursuant to the power vested in the National Labor Relations Board by Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Rela- tions Act, and pursuant to Article III, Section 9, of National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 3, as amended, it is hereby DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation to ascertain representa- tives for the purposes of collective bargaining with Dictaphone Cor- poration, Bridgeport, Connecticut, an election by secret ballot shall 6 64 N. L R. B. 1384. ° A free interchange between the interested parties of information on the addresses and work categories of the employees to be voted by mail will be necessary, in order to avoid challenges and post-election objections. Accordingly, the Board will make available to all interested parties any information of this nature furnished it by any other party. In the event that the parties should send the absentee voters information or literature bearing directly or indirectly on the pending election , copies of all such documents should be simultaneously filed with the Regional Office for inspection by or transmittal to the other parties. However, acceptance or transmittal of such literature by the Board's Office is not to be construed as conferring immunity on the filing party in the event that objections are later interposed concerning its content. The usual principles will apply. DICTAPHONE CORPORATION 313 be conducted as early as possible, but not later than forty-five (45) days from the date of this Direction, under the direction and super- vision of the Regional Director for the Second Region, acting in this matter as agent for the National Labor Relations Board, and subject to Article III, Sections 10 and 11, of said Rules and Regulations, among employees in the unit found appropriate in Section IV, above, who were employed during the pay-roll period immediately preceding the date of this Direction, including employees who did not work during said pay-roll period because they were ill or on vacation or temporarily laid off, and including employees in the armed forces of the United States, 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, to determine whether or not they desire to be represented by United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America, C. 1. 0., for the purposes of collective bargaining.