The Eagle-Picher Mining & Smelting Co.

In the Matter of THE EAGLE-PICHER MINING & SMELTING COMPANY and INTERNATIONAL UNION OF MINE, MILL AND SMELTER WORKERS, CIO Case No.17-R-1408.Decided July 2, 1946 Messrs. A. C. Wallace and John R. Wallace , of Miami, Okla.; and Messrs. Corbin Shouse and E. C. Mabon, of Joplin , Mo., for the Com- pany. Messrs. Howard Lee and Elwood B. Hain, of Joplin, Mo., for the Union. Mr. Melvin J. Welles, of counsel to the Board. DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION STATEMENT OF THE CASE Upon a petition duly filed by International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers, CIO, herein called the Union, alleging that a ques- tion affecting commerce had arisen concerning the representation of employees of The Eagle-Picher Mining & Smelting Company, Joplin, Missouri,, herein called the Company, the National Labor Relations Board provided for an appropriate hearing upon due notice before Harry L. Browne, Trial Examiner. The hearing was held at Miami,. Oklahoma, on May 28, 1946. The Company and the Union appeared and participated. All parties were afforded full oportunity to be heard, to examine and cross-examine witnesses, and to introduce evi- dence 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.. The Company's request for oral argument is denied. Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following : FINDINGS OF FACT 1. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY The Eagle-Picher Mining & Smelting Company is a Delaware cor- poration, licensed to do business in the States of Missouri, Oklahoma, and Kansas, with its principal office at Joplin, Missouri. Only the 69 N. L. R. B., No. 90. 755 7 56 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD Tri-State area of Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma, where the Com- pany is engaged in the mining and milling of lead and zinc ores and the production of concentrates, is involved in the present proceeding. In the Tri-State area, the Company owns and operates approxi- mately 27 mines. All the ore from these mines is processed at 2 of the Company's mills, the Central and Paxson Mills,' located in Okla- homa and Kansas. The Company also maintains shops and crews based at its Cardin, Oklahoma, field office. Approximately 59 percent of the Company's production at its'Central and Paxson Mills in 1945 was shipped to points outside the States of Oklahoma and Kansas. The value of these products was in excess of $1,000,000. The Company admits that it is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act. It. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers is a labor organization affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations, admitting to membership employees of the Company. III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION The Company has refused to grant recognition to the Union as the exclusive bargaining representative of certain of its employees until the Union has been certified by the Board in an appropriate unit. 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. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT The Union requests a unit of production and maintenance employ- ees of the Company at the Central and Paxson Mills and the Cardin field office, including watchmen and leadmen,2 but excluding mine employees, Miscellaneous Surface employees, office, clerical, and tech- nical employees and all supervisory employees with authority to hire, promote, discharge, discipline, or otherwise effect changes in the status of employees, or effectively recommend such action. Thus, the Union seeks a unit basically composed of mill employees. The Company, on the other hand, contends that the appropriate unit should be composed of all its production and maintenance employees in the Tri-State area, including those who work in the mines and Miscellaneous Surface employees, arguing that processing and mining are interdependent and constitute an integrated operation. ' The Company also owns the Bird Dog Mill, which is not presently in operation, and which the Company does not expect to place in operation in the foreseeable future. 2 The Company and the Union agree that the work of the leadmen is primarily manual, and they are not supervisory employees. THE EAGLE-PICHER MINING & SMELTING COMPANY 757 The Company employs approximately 800 miners, who are engaged in the breakage, loading, hauling, and hoisting of ore at the 27 mines in the Tri-State area. It also employs approximately 265 employees at its Central and Paxson Mills, who are engaged in the production of lead and zinc concentrates from the ore which is transported to the mills from the mines. Employees in the Cardin field office maintain and service both the mines and the mills. Attached to the Cardin field office are the following departments : carpenter shop, garage, general pumping, machine shop, pump crew, shaft repair, steel shop, unload- ing, truck transportation, motor service, power plant, and ore loading. The employees in the Cardin. field office are directly responsible to de- partmental supervisors, and not to the underground supervisor, and, like the mill employees, are clearly surface workers. All employees of the Company in the Tri-State area are under the supervision of the general superintendent. All are hourly paid, and receive the same benefits and vacations. The Company conducts its mining and processing operations as parts of a single enterprise and there is some interchange of employees among the Company's various operations. However. the mill employees are directly responsible to the mill superintendent, and the Cardin field office employees are directly re- sponsible to various departmental supervisors. The mine employees, however, are directly responsible to the underground superintendent. Furthermore, the mill and field office employees are not entitled to a production bonus, as are the mine employees, receive a lower hourly wage rate than the mine employees, and work three shifts, while the mine employees work only one shift. In addition, the mill and field office employees work in different locations from the mine employees, who spend most of their time underground, and the type of work performed by mill and field office employees is entirely different from that done by the miners. Any interchange which occurs between the mill and field office workers and mine employees, moreover, is either at the request of the employee concerned or as the result of a temporary shortage in one of the operations, and any transferred employee is likewise transferred to the pay roll of his new depart- ment. Significantly, the Union has attempted, since January 1946, to organize the mine employees, intending to form a single unit of all production and maintenance employees of the Company in the Tri- State area. This attempt has, however, proved unsuccessful, effective organization having been limited to the mill and field office workers. Considering the separate supervision of the mill and field office employees, and the mine employees; the difference in pay and certain conditions of employment between the two groups ; the fact that mill and field office employees work separately and perform functions dissimilar from that performed by the miners; the further fact that 758 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD the 'mill and field office employees constitute an identifiable group, distinct from the mine employees; and the extent of effective organi- zation by the Union, which has been limited to the mill and field office employees, we are of the opinion that a unit confined to mill and field office employees is appropriate.' There remains for consideration certain employees classified by the Company as Miscellaneous Surface employees, whom the Union would exclude. Although they work on the surface, each of these employees is attached to a particular mine, and all are engaged solely in mining operations, such as handling engines necessary to the func- tioning of the mines. Furthermore, they are responsible to the un- derground supervisor, who is in charge of all mine employees, and they are carried on a pay roll separate from that of regular mill and field office employees. We shall exclude the Miscellaneous Surface employees from the unit hereinafter found appropriate. Accordingly, we find that all production and maintenance em- ployees of the Company employed at the Central and Paxson Mills and Cardin field office in the Tri-State area, including watchmen and leadmen, but excluding mine, Miscellaneous Surface, office, clerical and technical employees, and all supervisory employees with author- ity to hire, promote, discharge, discipline, or otherwise effect changes in the status of employees, or effectively recommend such action, con- stitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act. V. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES We shall direct that the question concerning representation which has arisen be resolved by an election by secret ballot among employees in the appropriate unit who were employed during the pay-roll period immediately preceding the date of the Direction of Election herein, subject to the limitations and additions set forth in the Direction. 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 Relations Act, and pursuant to Article III, Section 9, of National Labor Rela- tions 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 The Eagle-Picher- Mining & Smelting Company, Joplin, Missouri, an election by secret ' See Matter of Kentucky Fluorspar Company, 52 N. L. R. B. 227 ; Matter of American Zinc, Lead and Smelting Company, 44 N. L. R. B. 443. See also Matter of The Globe Brick Company, 65 N. L. R. B. 527. THE EAGLE-PICHER MINING & SMELTING COMPANY 759 ballot shall be conducted as early as possible, but not later than thirty (30) days from the date of this Direction, under the direction and supervision of the Regional Director for the Seventeenth 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 Regu- lations, 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 who present themselves in person at the polls, 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, to determine whether or not they desire to be repre- sented by International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers, CIO, for the purposes of collective bargaining.