National Cash Register Co.

NATIONAL CASH REGISTER COMPANY 27 NATIONAL CASH REGISTER COMPANY and UNITED STEELWORI.ERS OF AMERICA, C. I. 0., PETITIONER. Case No. 9-RC-1124. July 8, 1951 Decision and Direction of Election Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before William A. McGowan, 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 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 Act. 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 appropriate unit : The Petitioner seeks a unit composed of all production and main- tenance employees at the Employer's Dayton, Ohio, plant, excluding all clerical, technical, professional, and "Co-op" employees, students, instructors, medical department employees, watchmen, guards, job leaders, foremen, all supervisors as defined in the Act, and all em- ployees presently covered by contract with five AFL printing trade unions.2 The Employer and the Intervenor contend that the pro- posed unit is too limited in scope, asserting that the only appropriate unit should include, in addition to the employees sought by the Peti- tioner, all the classifications and categories of employees in the present contractual unit who have been represented by the Intervenor for a ' In support of motions to dismiss , the Employer and N. C. R. Employees Independent Union, herein called the Intervenor, contend that an agreement executed on August 23, 1950, covering the employees involved herein , constitutes a bar. In 1949, the parties had executed a contract to be effective for a 2-year period, and for yearly periods thereafter unless terminated by 90-day written notice. The 1950 agreement , executed 5 months before the anniversary date of the 1949 contract, extended the terms of that contract for a 3-year period, or until April 29, 1954, and contained a similar automatic renewal clause. As the petition was timely filed with respect to the 1949 contract's auomatic renewal date, we find that neither that contract, nor the extended agreement , is a bar to this proceeding. Louisville Railway Company, 94 NLRB 20: Consolidated Western steel Corp., 93 NLRB 1199 . Accordingly, the motions to dismiss are hereby denied. In the event the Board finds the requested unit to be inappropriate , the Petitioner desires in the alternative to represent any unit the Board deems to be appropriate, including the present contractual unit represented by the Intervenor. 95 NLRB No. 11. 28 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD period for more than 10 years, plus the employees in the Employer's slitting plant located at Washington Court House, Ohio. The Employer is engaged in .the manufacture of cash registers and other types of business machines. In 1949, because of the need for expanding its highly integrated and varied Dayton plant facilities, the Employer acquired a plant at Washington Court House, Ohio, about 38 miles from Dayton, to which it removed its paper slitting operations. Although the Washington Court House plant is not engaged in any phase of machine production, its operations form an integral link in the Employer's production process, as the small paper rolls produced there are essential to the operation of the cash registers and other machines manufactured by the Employer. Like the Dayton plant, the Washington Court House plant is under the general supervision of the Employer's vice president in charge of manufacturing. The handling of labor relations matters for both plants is centralized in Dayton. Likewise, certain administrative housekeeping functions, such as the placing of orders for paper and supplies, are centered in Dayton. Although employees in the two plants have separate plant seniority, all have the same general work- ing conditions and enjoy similar employee benefits. It appears that the Intervenor represented the employees engaged in the slitting opera- tion as part of the plant-wide unit when they were quartered in the Dayton plant. On July 20, 1949, the provisions of the April 1949 contract covering all production and maintenance employees at Day- ton, mentioned above, were, extended by a supplemental agreement to embrace specifically the employees in the Washington Court House plant. At all times since that date, the Intervenor has represented the employees at that plant. In view of the integration of operations, centralized administra- tion, unified control of labor relations, and community of employee interests in the two plants, and as the employees in both plants are at present represented in a single unit, we find that the Washington Court House employees should be included in the unit with the pro- duction and maintenance employees of the Dayton plant.' Further, as the Petitioner has indicated its willingness to represent the Wash- ington Court House employees, together with any other categories of employees found by the Board to be properly a part of the ap- _ propriate unit, and because we are administratively satisfied that the Petitioner has an adequate showing of interest in the broader unit hereinafter established, we shall not dismiss the petition but shall direct an election in a unit including both plants. 8 See Glass Fibers, Inc., 93 NLRB 1289 ; Central Cooperative Wholesale, 93 NLRB 1, Cf. McBryde Sugar Company, Ltd., et al ., 93 NLRB 1071 ; and Southwest Truck Body Company, 93 NLRB 1341. 14ATIONAL CASH REGISTER COMPANY 29 The parties are in disagreement as to the categories and classifica- tions of employees. discussed below, whom the Petitioner seeks to exclude, but whom the Employer and the Intervenor would include, primarily on the basis of their past inclusion in the contractual bar- gaining unit. In this connection, the Employer and the Intervenor urge that the history of collective bargaining should be determinative of the unit problems involved in this proceeding. Although bargaiii- ing history is a factor which the Board accords consideration in de- termining the appropriateness of a unit, it is nevertheless not neces- sarily conclusive where other impelling unit considerations are also present.' Clerical employees.-Of the approximately 930 class "D", or "rank- and-file," clerical employees, about 172 are classified as time writers, assistant clerks, and head clerks. Seventy-six others are classified as factory clerks and are assigned, together with the afore-mentioned classifications, to various plant manufacturing departments. All have their quarters on the production floor, or adj acent thereto. They maintain various production records such as factory time-cost cards, employee attendance records, and render general clerical assistance to the foremen. None possesses or exercises any supervisory author- ity.. The remainder of the class "D" employees are assigned to var- ions administrative offices such as the production and export, do- mestic and overseas sales, costs , comptroller, stock order, payroll, purchase, industrial relations, supply orders, sales record, invoice control, and sales order offices, where they perform duties customarily performed by office clerical employees. As the interests and work- ing conditions of the office employees differ substantially from those of the production and maintenance employees, we shall, in accord with well-established Board policy, exclude the office clerical em ployees from the production and maintenance units However, as it is clear that the time writers, assistant clerks, head clerks, and the factory clerks are plant clerical employees, we shall follow Board practice and include them in the unit .6 Co-operative students.-There are two groups of co-operative stu- dents; the first consisting of about 74 local high school students and the second comprising 39 university students majoring in various fields of engineering. The high school co-operative students begin working part time in their third year of school and are assigned to the mailing department, where they perform messenger work through- out the plant. After completing their high school courses, from 70 to 4 Kohler Company, 93 NLRB 398. 6 General Motors Corporation, 79 NLRB 341 ; Westinghouse Electric Corporation, 89 'NLRB 8, 28. 6 Goodman Manufacturing Company, 58 NLRB 531; Art Metal Construction Company, 75 NLRB 80; Northwest Engineering Company, 73 NLRB 40; and Welding Shipyards, Inc., 81 NLRB 936. 30 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD 75 percent of these -employees obtain full-time employment with the Employer, most of the boys receiving assignments as apprentices in the several crafts, and the girls receiving assignments to factory and office clerical positions. The university co-operative students begin their employment after their first semester in college, working periods of 5 and 7 weeks at a time, followed by like periods of study at the colleges where they are enrolled. While working in the plant, they are assigned to the research, engineering, tool planning, tool design- ing, standards and cost control departments, and various supervisors' offices. During the periods of their employment, the Employer rates them on their work performance for the universities where they are matriculated. Although some of the university co-operative students obtain responsible professional or management positions with the Employer after their graduation, it is clear that their employment in most instances is in technical or professional work and is merely incidental to their education. In view of the divergent nature of their interests, we shall exclude the university co-operative students from the unit.? However, in another proceeding concerning the Employer, the Board held that the duties performed by high school co-operative stu- dents similar to those involved herein were such as to warrant their inclusion in the unit with the other employees." As there has been no material change in the Employer's operations since the date of that decision, and because it is evident that the high school co-opera- tive students have a reasonable expectation of eventually becoming regular employees, we shall include them in the unit, and in accord- ance with Board policy, shall permit them to vote in the election hereinafter directed. Alleged technical employees.-The Petitioner would exclude within this category 9 artists within the advertising department, 245 engi- neering department employees, including 134 model makers and 12 detailers, and 106 employees in the research department. The artists are principally engaged in making posters for use in plant safety and educational programs. Model makers, although assigned to the engi- neering division, are in fact production employees engaged in making new parts and the assembly of such parts into finished models for en- gineering purposes. They perform practically the same duties as a number of the production employees in the manufacturing division, receive comparable pay, and have the same benefits. The remaining employees in the engineering division are for the most part technical employees, including a number who have professional and specialized training, such as engineers, physicists, designers, electronics laboratory technicians, blueprint operators, and detailers, or draftsmen, who are ' The American Rolling Mill Company, 73 NLRB 617. e National Cash Register Company, 74 NLRB 1350. NATIONAL CASH REGISTER COMPANY 31 primarily engaged in the designing and development of the various machines manufactured by the Employer. The employees in the research department are likewise skilled tech- nical employees. In that group are 29 professional employees, such as chemical engineers, chemists, metallurgists, and several other classi- fications of engineers. Also within that department are a number of laboratory technicians, process control technicians, designers, manu- facturing chemists, laboratory assistants, laboratory testers, process control assistants, and 6 instrument repairmen. With the exception of the instrument repairmen, all these research department employees are engaged in varying phases of produce research and testing. In the course of their duties they maintain and operate the Employer's 4 research laboratories and 11, process control laboratories. Although the instrument remairmen have their headquarters in the instrument control laboratory, they work throughout the plant re- pairing gauges and other instruments, performing duties that are very similar to those of some of the plant maintenance men. It is clear from the foregoing that the artists and the employees in the engineering and research departments, with the exception of the model makers and instrument repairmen, perform work of a technical nature, and lack a community of interest with the production and maintenance employees.. We shall therefore adhere to Board prac- tice and exclude the artists and technical employees in the research and engineering departments from the unit.9. As the model makers and the instrument repairmen are engaged in work very similar to that of other production and maintenance employees, and their inter- ests are more closely allied with the latter group than with the tech- nical employees, we shall include them in the unit ."o Analyzers.-The 16 or 17 employees in this classification work in the assembly departments under the foremen of those departments. They examine orders for machine assemblies and accompanying blue- prints received from the order department, and determine what non- standard parts are required to complete the assembly job. Most of them have worked as skilled assemblers. As the analyzers are essen- tially plant clerical employees who have a close community of interest with the production employees with whom they work, we shall include them in the unit. Inspection investigators.-The approximately 19 inspection inves- tigators, or checkers, work in the inspection department under the supervision of the chief inspector. By means of comparitors, ver- niers, and other measuring instruments, they inspect and examine new parts for the purpose of determining whether their measurements and See Carbide and Chemical Divisions ( Y-12 plant ) Union Carbide and Carbon Corpora- tion, 92 NLRB 1555; General Electric Company, 89 NLRB 726 ; Welding ,Shipyards, Inc, supra, and cases cited therein., 10 Westinghouse Electric Corporation, 89 NLRB 8, 23. 32 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD quality meet minimum requirements. Difficulties encountered in con- nection with the production of new parts also are called to the atten- tion of the checkers, who ascertain the trouble. Their work is similar to that of parts and tool inspectors. A number have progressed to the inspection investigator classification from that of tool maker. In view of the foregoing, we shall adhere to our practice of including inspectors in production units and include the inspection investi- gators.11 Tool planners.-There are 41 employees in this classification, all of whom work under tool division supervisors. They are located in the building that houses the Employer's tool designing employees, with whom they have.very close contact. Tool planners, after studying blueprints accompanying job writeups or orders, plan the necessary operations for making the required tools, and forward their pl9ns to the tool designers. Although a tool maker background is beneficial, it is clear that the duties of the tool planners are primarily technical in character. We shall therefore exclude them from the unit 72 ..Instructors.-The approximately 25 instructors are assigned to sev- eral production operations including the heat-treating enamel, assem- bly, and indicator departments, where they teach new employees the particular operations involved, or generally assist employees in con- nection with problems arising in their phases of production. All are e,perienced production employees and some frequently operate ma.- chines in connection with nonstandard production jobs. They also substitute occasionally for regular production workers. None has au- thority to make recommendations concerning changes in the employ- ment status of other employees, nor does any possess, or exercise, other supervisory authority. Because the instructors have the same work- ing conditions and perform duties similar to those of the other pro- duction employees, we shall include them in the unit 13 Instructor field repair.-Unlike the employees in the immediately preceding category, the 24 field repair instructors are assigned to the service department and quartered in the building which houses the Employer's sales department. Their duties are not directly related to the manufacture of the Employer's products, but are concerned with the servicing of products in the various branch offices. The Employer periodically brings field or branch office employees to Dayton, where they undergo instruction relating to the Employer's products. The field repair instructors explain the design, function, improvements, and servicing of such, products to the visiting field employees. As their interests are more closely aligned with those of the employees in the sales and servicing branches of the Employer's organization, than 11 See Clayton Mark & Company, 76 NLRB 230; Luminous Processes, Inc., 71 NLRB 405. 11 Cf. American Locomotive Company, Alco Products Division, 92 NLRB 115 ; Kearney 1 Trecker Corporation, 93 NLRB 890. 13 Rockwood Pottery, Division of Sperti, Inc., 89 NLRB 1349. NATIONAL CASH REGISTER COMPANY 33 with those of the production workers, we shall exclude the field repair instructors from the unit. Job leaders.-The approximately 128 job leaders are assigned to .various departments throughout the plant, where they issue material requisitions and give routine directions to their fellow workers con- cerning work assignments. A number assigned to production depart- ments are engaged in actual production work. In such departments where an incentive pay schedule is in effect, some of them earn less than the other production workers. In all other departments, they receive about 10 cents more per hour than the other employees. None ever substitutes for the department foreman or the several job foremen or assistant foremen assigned to each department. They do not possess or exercise any supervisory authority, but their duties and functions are very much like those of group leaders in other departments whose inclusion in the unit is not opposed by any party. In another pro- ceeding involving employees in the Employer's electrical maintenance department, the Board found that job leaders in that department were not supervisors." We perceive no reason for departing from that de- termination in that case. Accordingly, we find that the job leaders are not supervisors and we shall include them. Watchmen.-The 28 watchmen, or subwatchmen as they are classi- fied by the Employer, are regularly employed, full-time plant em- ployees who work two extra hours each day at plant entrances and exits during the morning work reporting hours, the lunch hour, and the afternoon quitting hour, observing whether employees properly punch the time clocks and exhibit authorization passes for packages.15 As none 'of the subwatchmen spends more than 50 percent of his time in the performance of guard duties, we shall include them in the unit.16 Chauffeurs.-Although the Petitioner agrees to include the truck drivers and car washers assigned to the plant garage, it objects to the inclusion of seven chauffeurs assigned to the same garage and who work under the same supervision, on the ground that they are "confidential" employees. These chauffeurs work on a "call" basis and drive the Employer's passenger cars, frequently transporting its officials. We find that these employees are not confidential employees, within the meaning of the Board's definition. As they have the same working conditions as the other garage employees, we see no reason for exclud- ing them from the unit. We shall therefore include the chauffeurs.17 Commissary employees.-The approximately 51 -employees in this category prepare and serve food in the Employer's 2 cafeterias, 4 dining National Cash Register Company, supra. is The Employer also has 54 full-time plant guards , whom the parties have agreed to exclude. , 3e Wiley Mfg . Inc., 92 NLRB 40. 1T Federal Telecommunications Laboratories, Inc., 92 NLRB 1395. 34 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD rooms, and several plant food concessions. Such facilities are practi- cally the only ones available to employees within the plant area. In accord with our practice, we find that the interests of commissary or restaurant employees are sufficiently related to those of the production and maintenance employees to warrant their inclusion in the unit.18 Accordingly we find that the following employees at the Employer's plants at Dayton and Washington Court House, Ohio, constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the mean- ing of Section 9 (b) of the Act : All production and maintenance employees,19 including the time writers, assistant clerks, head clerks, and factory clerks,- high school co-operative students, model makers, instrument repairmen in the in- strument control laboratory, analyzers, inspection investigators, in- structors, job leaders, subwatchmen, chauffeurs, and commissary em-. ployees, but excluding all office clerical employees, university co- operative students, technical employees, professional employees,'-' temporary employees at Old River and Sugar Camp,- all employees presently represented by the American Federation of Labor printing craft unions,23 guards, job foremen, and all other supervisors as de- fined in the Act.24 . [Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this volume.] 18 Kohler Company, supra, and cases cited therein. 19 The parties agree that the maintenance employees in the plant engineering department, the outside department employees , garage department employees, and group leaders, should be included within this category . It is clear from the record , and we find , that group leaders are not supervisors within the meaning of the Act. 20 The parties agree that the 6 clerks in the receiving department and the 11 clerks in the traffic department should be included in this category. 21 The parties agree that the registered nurses, the part -time dentist , and the two part- time physicians should be excluded in this category. 22 In accordance with the agreement of the parties. 28 Dayton Typographical Union No. 57 ; Dayton Electro-typers Union ( Local No. 114) I. S. & U.; Dayton Photo-Engravers Union ( Local No. 60 ) ; Dayton Stereotypers Union No. 15; and Dayton Printing Pressmen and Assistants ' Union No. 24. 241f the Petitioner does not desire to participate in an election at this time, we shall permit it to withdraw its petition without prejudice upon notice to the Regional Director, within 10 days after issuance of the Decision and Direction of Election herein. Flora Cabinet Company, Inc., 94 NLRB 12, and case cited therein. POOLE FOUNDRY AND MACHINE COMPANY and LODGE 211, INTERNA- TIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS. Case No. 5-CA--35.. July 9,1951 Decision and Order On March 9, 1951, Trial Examiner C. W. Whittemore issued his Intermediate Report in the above-entitled proceeding, finding that the Respondent had engaged in and was engaging in certain unfair labor 95 NLRB No. 3.