Mallinckrodt Chemical Works

In the Matter Of MALLINCKRODT CHEMICAL WORKS and INTERNATIONAL UNION OF OPERATING, ENGINEERS, LOCAL No. 2, A. F. OF L. Case No. 14-R-1V1 SUPPLEMENTAL DECISION AND SECOND DIRECTION OF ELECTION August 29,'1946 On May 6, 1946, the Board issued a Decision and Direction of Elec- tion in the above-entitled proceeding (67 N. L. B. ' B. 1147), and thereafter on June 5, 1946, an Order Amending Direction of - Elec- tion extending indefinitely the time in which to conduct an election. On June 6, 1946, the Board received a joint motion of the Company and Local No. 2 to reopen the record for the purpose of receiving evi- dence of new matter arising in the interim between the first hearing on July 19, 1945, and the issuance of the Decision and Direction of Election. On June 19, 1946, the motion was granted, 'and an Order Reopening Record was issued. Pursuant to this order, a hearing was held at St. Louis, Missouri, on July 22, 1946, before Elmer R. Hunt, Trial Examiner. Independent Union of Chemical Plant Workers, the intervenor at the first hearing, was present, but did not formally appear and participate. The Trial Examiner's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed. Upon the entire record in the case, including all prior proceedings, the National Labor Relations Board makes the following: SUPPLEMENTAL FINDINGS OF FACT Following the first hearing on July 19, 1945, the United States Government constructed a number of buildings, known collectively as Plant No. 6, on the property of the Company, and furnished the equipment installed in the plant. The Government provides the material required in the operation of the plant, and receives for its own use the finished products produced. Pursuant to a contract with the Corps of Engineers, United States Army, on behalf of the Man- hattan District, the Company operates Plant No. 6, and produces, in 70 N L R. B, No 71. 905, 906 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD accordance with three-month schedules, the regulation, suspension,.and termination of which are in the control 'of the Government, various chemicals used in atomic energy projects. As a part of Plant No. 6, the Company operates a gas-fueled power plant which produces steam solely for use therein. This power plant is located about 21/2 city blocks from the Plant No. 1 power unit, the subject of the earlier proceeding. The two have no physical or func- tional connection. The Plant No. 1 power unit is normally coal- fueled and produces electricity as well as steam. Electricity for Plant No. 6 is provided by a municipal public utility. The Company em- ploys three operating engineers at the Plant No. 6 power unit, and the single question open for consideration at the present time is the pro- priety of including these employees in the unit of Plant No. 1 operat- ing engineers previously found appropriate. Local No. 2 desires a single unit. The Company prefers the creation of a separate unit, basing its contention on purported differences in responsibility, char- acter of work, and relationship to the employer of the operating engi- neers at the two power plants. The Company does not, however, abandon its earlier contention of the inappropriateness of super- visory units. It was stipulated between the parties that the work of the operating engineers at the two plants is alike. Each is capable of the perform- ance of the other's duties, and in an emergency the employees would be transferable from one plant to the other. Of the three operating engineers employed at Plant No. 6,• at the time of the hearing, one was transferred from the power unit at Plant No. 1 and two newly hired employees. The Plant No. 6 engineers are carried on the company -pay roll and paid from company funds. The wage rates of both groups of employees are governed by the same schedule. The Com- pany's pension system and insurance plan is equally applicable to both groups. In the event of termination of activities at Plant No. 6, the operating engineers employed there would on a seniority basis be entitled to employment at Plant No. 1. Over-all operations super- vision at Plant No. 6, including the power plant, is vested in a project manager, but technical control of the power plant for all practical purposes is vested in R. H. Ruppel, assistant to the chief engineer, who is also in charge of the power unit at Plant No. 1. Ruppel dis- cusses problems of operation with the operating engineers who gen- erally follow his suggestions. The project manager and he both receive copies of the- operating engineers' daily and weekly reports. Hiring of all operating engineers, including those at Plant No. 6, is effected by Ruppel through the personnel office after perfunctory consultation with the chief engineer, Ruppel's superior. MALLINCKRODT CHEMICAL WORKS 907 Both power plants are in close physical proximity, and the same labor relations policy is applicable to the operating engineers at each plant. They have the same problems and interests in virtually every phase of their activity. The contractual relations between the Com- pany and the United States Government are irrelevant to the em- ployer-employee relations between the Company and the operating engineers who look not to the Government, but to the Company as their employer. We shall enlarge our earlier unit finding to include the engineers at Plant No. 6, and we shall direct an election based on the pay roll immediately preceding the date of this Direction. We find that the licensed stationary engineers employed by the Company in the boiler room and power house of its St. Louis Plant No. 1 and in the power plant at its St. Louis Plant No. 6 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 Mallinckrodt Chemical Works, St. Louis, Missouri, an election by secret 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 Fourteenth Region, acting in this matter as agent for the National Labor Relations Board, and subject to Article III, Sections 10 and 11, of National Labor Relations Board Rules and Reg- ulations-Series 3, as amended, among the employees in the unit found appropriate in the supplemental findings of fact, 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 represented by Inter- national Union of Operating Engineers, Local No. 2, A. F. of L., for the purposes of collective bargaining. MR. JAMES J. REYNOLDS, JR., took no part in the consideration of the above Supplemental Decision and Second Direction of Election.