Danly Machine Specialties, Inc.

In the Matter of DANLY MACHINE SPECIALTIES, INC., EMPLOYER and UNITED ELECTRICAL, RADIO & MACHINE WORKERS OF AMERICA, C. I. 0., PETITIONER Case No. 2-R-6600.-Decided November 14, 1946 Ir. Owen Fairweather, of Chicago, Ill., for the Employer. Frank Scheiner, by Mr. Morton Friedman, of New York City, for the Petitioner. Mrs. Platonia P. Kaldes, of counsel to the Board. DECISION AND CERTIFICATION OF REPRESENTATIVES STATEMENT OF THE CASE Upon a petition duly filed, the National Labor Relations Board on June 28, 1946, conducted a prehearing election pursuant to Section 203.49 of National Labor Relation Board Rules and Regulations-- Series 4, among the employees of the Employer in the alleged appropriate unit to determine whether or not they desired to be repre- sented by the Petitioner for the purposes of collective bargaining. At the close of the election a Tally of Ballots was furnished the parties. The Tally shows that there were approximately 18 eligible voters, that all of these eligible voters cast ballots of which 17 were for the Peti- tioner, 1 was against the Petitioner, and none was challenged. Pursuant to Section 203.55 of the Rules and Regulations, the Board thereafter provided for an appropriate hearing upon due notice before George Turitz, hearing officer. The hearing was held at New York City on August 22, 1946. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed. Upon the entire record in the case, the National Labor Relations Board makes the following : FINDINGS OF FACT I. THE BUSINESS OF THE EMPLOYER Danly Machine Specialties, Inc., is an Illinois corporation engaged in the manufacture, assembly, and warehousing of die sets and die- makers' supplies. It operates and maintains for this purpose a factory 71 N. L. R. B., No. 113. 696 DANLY MACHINE SPECIALTIES, INC. 697 and warehouse in Chicago, and warehouses and assembly plants in several States of the United States, including one at Long Island City, New York, the plant here in question. In the course of its operations at the Long Island City plant during the past year, the Employer used materials and parts valued at more than $250,000, all of which were shipped to said plant from points located outside the State of New York. During the same year, the value of the finished products assembled by the Employer at the Long Island City plant was in excess of $250,000, two-thirds of which represents such products sold by the Employer and shipped by it from the said plant to purchasers located outside the State of New York. The Employer admits and we find that it is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act. H. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED The Petitioner is a labor organization, claiming to represent em- ployees of the Employer. III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION The Employer refuses to recognize the Petitioner as the exclusive bargaining representative of employees of the Employer until the accordingly, we shall exclude Kuchta from the unit. We find that a question affecting commerce has arisen concerning the representation of employees of the Employer, within the meaning of Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act. IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT The parties stipulated at the hearing that the appropriate unit should be composed of all production and maintenance employees, excluding the office clerical employees, executives, the foreman,' and all other supervisory employees with authority to hire, promote, dis- charge, discipline, or otherwise effect changes in the status of em- ployees, or effectively recommend such action. The parties were in dispute, however, as to the supervisory status of Alex Kuchta, the assistant foreman. Kuchta schedules production, assigns work to the employees, regu- lates the flow of work, instructs and warns employees concerning errors in their work and takes steps to prevent minor infractions of discipline. While he also does considerable manual work such as making minor repairs, and operating machines, such manual work is done primarily by way of replacing absentees or helping out em- ployees who are exceptionally busy; in actual practice, the major portion of his time is spent in directing the operations of the em- i Identified as Yost. '698 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD ployees. While Yost, the foreman, is his superior, the record shows that Yost spends 1 or 2 hours away from the shop each day attending to shipments and 6 or 7 hours each day operating a machine. The normal work day is 10 hours with one-half hour for lunch. In Yost's absence, Kuchta is in full charge of the shop. Yost is the only one consulted with respect to the hiring of employees in the shop and the pay increases granted them. Kuchta, however, is consulted by both Yost and the branch manager as to the men's efficiency and is relied upon for recommendations as to the transfers of employees under his supervision. We are of the opinion that Kuchta is a supervisory employee within the meaning of our customary definition thereof and, accordingly, we shall exclude Kuchta from the unit. , We find that all production and maintenance employees of the Em- ployer at its Long Island City plant, excluding office clerical employees, the foreman, the assistant foreman, executives, and all other super- visory employees with authority to hire, promote, discharge, discipline, or otherwise effect changes in the status of employees, or effectively recommend such action, constitute a unit appropriate for the pur- poses of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act. V. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES The results of the election held prior to the hearing show that the Petitioner has secured a majority of the valid votes cast and that there were no challenged ballots. No objection has been raised to the conduct of the election or to conduct affecting the results of the elec- tion. Accordingly, we shall certify the Petitioner as the collective bargaining representative of the employees in the appropriate unit. CERTIFICATION OF REPRESENTATIVES IT Is HEREBY CERTIFIED that, United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America, C. I. 0., has been designated and selected by a majority of all production and maintenance employees of Danly Ma- chine Specialties, Inc., at the latter's Long Island City, New York, plant, but excluding office clerical employees, the foreman, the as- sistant foreman, executives, and all other supervisory employees with authority to hire, promote, discharge, discipline, or otherwise effect changes in the status of employees, or effectively recommend such action, as their representative for the purposes of collective bargain- ing, and pursuant to Section 9 (a) of the Act, the aforesaid organiza- tion is the exclusive representative of all such employees for the pur- poses of collective bargaining with respect to rates of pay, wages, hours of employment, and other conditions of employment.