Standard-Coosa-Thatcher Co.

In the Matter of STANDARD-COOSA-THATCHER CoDIPANY, EMPLOYER and TEXTILE WORKERS UNION or AMERICA, CIO, PETITIONER Case No. 10-R-2246.-Decided April 2, 1947 Messrs. Frank A. Cons tangy and Legare Davis, both of Atlanta, Ga., for the Employer. Mr. Join J. Brownlee, of Atlanta, Ga., and Mr. Paul R. Cristopher, of Knoxville, Tenn., for the Petitioner. Mr. Emil C. Farkas, of counsel to the Board. DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION Upon a petition duly filed, hearing in this case was held at Chatta- nooga, Tennessee, on October 22, 1946, before Paul S. Kuelthau, hearing officer. 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 Standard-Coosa-Thatcher, a Tennessee corporation, is engaged in the manufacture of mercerized yarn and thread at its plants located at Plechnont, Alabama, Gadsden, Alabama, Rossville, Georgia, and Ridgedale, Tennessee, a suburb of Chattanooga, Tennessee. We are concerned with its operations at Ridgedale, hereinafter referred to as the Ridgedale plant. The Employer purchases annually for use at this plant raw materials valued in excess of $3,500,000 a year, approxi- mately 95 percent of which is obtained from sources outside the State of Tennessee. Finished products manufactured by the Employer at this plant are valued in excess of $5,000,000 a year, approximately 75 percent of which is shipped outside the State. The Employer admits and we find that it is engaged ,in commerce within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act. 73 N L R. B., No 19 123 124 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD It. TFIE ORGA NIZATION INAOLVED The Petitioner is a labor organization affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations , claiming to represent employees of the Employer. III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION The Employer refuses to recognize the Petitioner as the exclusive bargaining representative of certain employees of the Employer until the Petitioner 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 Employer , within the meaning of Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act. IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT The Petitioner seeks a unit composed of all production and main- tenance employees at the Thatcher building of the Employer's Ridge- dale plant including section men, but excluding office, clerical, tech- nical and cafeteria employees , superintendents, foremen, secondhands, and all other supervisory personnel . The Employer contends that, in view of its ifttegr"ated operations , the only appropriate unit is a plant- wide unit embracing all production and maintenance employees at its Thatcher, Standard and Maintenance buildings, which together make up its Ridgedale plant. It contends further that section men are su- pervisory employees and should be excluded from any unit found to be appropriate. The Employer's Ridgedale plant consists of approximately 18 or 19 buildings of various types. The three main buildings are the Standard, the Thatcher and the Maintenance building, all of which are located within an area of 4 blocks. In the course of its operations the Employer employs approximately 1,400 persons , about 900 of whom work at the Thatcher building, 425 at the Standard building and 90 at the Maintenance building ; 10 or 12 of these latter employees are classified as cafeteria employees . The Standard building and the Thatcher building, where the Employer's manufacturing operations are carried on, are located side by side and are separated by a narrow street which runs the length of the buildings. The warehouse for raw materials is situated in the Thatcher building, while the shipping and packing room, the storage house and the central heating plant are all located in the Standard building. The general supervision of the Employer 's Ridgedale plant is under the direction of the vice president who also controls and determines the labor policy for the plant . Uniform personnel policies and work- STANDARD-COOSA-THATCHER COMPANY 125 ing conditions prevail throughout the plant and facilities such as the cafeteria, athletic field and housing, and benefits such as first-aid and hospitalization, a credit union and a system of group insurance are extended in like manner to all employees. Rates of pay are by depart- ment and wage increases, whenever made, are applicable to all em- ployees. Salary- disbursements are made through a single pay-roll department, but the Standard, Thatcher, and Maintenance buildings and the cafeteria each has a separate pay roll for its employees. Al- though one set of corporate books is kept for the Ridgedale plant, oper- ating costs are figured separately and operating expenses are charge- able to the respective buildings. Hours of employment at the various buildings are the same but there exists no interchange of employees between the Standard and Thatcher buildings, and each building has its own superintendent and supervisory staff. Maintenance employees in general have no specific working stations although a number of such workers are assigned full time to each of the several buildings. The Employer's manufactured products are sold under a single trade name known as Durene. In the Employer's operations, the Thatcher building is considered a spinning mill where the raw cotton is passed through a number of carding and spinning processes, and the Standard building a processing mill where bleaching, mercerizing, and other finishing processes are carried on. The raw cotton stored in the warehouse, at one end of the Thatcher building, is opened by a balebreaker and is then passed by means of suction pipes to the picker room where the actual manufacturing process begins. There follows a series of operations such as carding, lapping, combing, drawing, and slubbing, "intermediate machines, speeders and jacks," after which the product is ready to enter the spinning department. In the, spin- ning department the first step is that of spinning; at the end of this operation the yarn passes through one of several steps known as a single-doubling, spooling, and single and splash winding. The yarn then goes through a twisting operation followed by either ply-wind- ing, reeling or single end gassing. The final operation in the Thatcher building is that of warping, upon the completion of which the product is ready for the mercerizing operations. Approximately 50 percent of the yarn from the Thatcher spinning mill goes to the Standard building while the remainder goes to the Employer's finishing plant at Rossville, Georgia. The materials are taken from the. Thatcher building. to the Standard building by Thatcher employees by means of small hand trucks. In the Standard building two different operations are performed. Part of the yarn is warp-mercerized or bleached, following which it passes through quilling and winding. The other portion of the yarn goes directly from the reeling department of the Thatcher building to the skein- 126 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD mercerizing department in the Standard building and passes through back winding and winding operations. The finished products are then prepared for packing, inspection and shipping by employees of the Standard building. As previously noted, the employees whom the Petitioner seeks in its unit are all located in the Thatcher building of the Ridgedale plant. The record discloses that in a prehearing election held on June 13, 1946, approximately 10 months ago, among all production and main- tenance employees at the Employer's Ridgedale plant, the Petitioner lost the election by a vote of 734 to 494. It reveals further that during the past year the Petitioner has renewed its organizational efforts among the production and maintenance employees throughout the Employer's plant; it has met with success only in the Thatcher build- ing, where the employees have evinced an active interest in organiz- ing beyond that exhibited before the June 1946 election. We are not unmindful, as urged by the Employer, that the nature of the operations and the uniform personnel policies and working con- ditions throughout the Employer's plant indicate that its production and maintenance employees could function for the purposes of col- lective bargaining on a plant-wide basis. However, it is significant that the Thatcher building alone functions as a spinning mill, that it is physically separated from the Standard building and the Main- tenance building, that it does not interchange its employees with those in the other two buildings, that separate pay rolls are kept for each building and that, essentially, different types of machinery and skills are utilized in each building. We also note that there is no labor organization presently seeking to represent the Employer's employees in a plant-wide unit and that there is absent any collective bargaining history on a more comprehensive basis. Under all these circumstances we are of the opinion that the unit sought by the Petitioner may at this time constitute an appropriate unit for the purposes of collective bargaining 1 This finding does not however, preclude future recon- sideration of the appropriateness of a huger unit should organization of the Employer's employees be extended to other buildings of its Ridgedale plant. There remains for consideration the disposition of the section men, whorl the Petitioner would include and the Employer would exclude from tine unit found appropriate. The record indicates that these em- ployees work directly under the secondhands. Their duties consist of adjusting and making minor repairs to machines, assisting the second- hand in placing help, assisting in training new workers, and inspecting the quantity and quality of work in their respective sections. In many I Matter of May, McEiven, Kaiser Company, May Full-Fashion Division . 66 N L. R B_ 1341 , Matter of Richmond Hosiery Mills, 62 N L R B 1481 , Matter of Charles II Bacon Company, 54 N L R B. 703. STANDARD-COOSA-THATCHER COMPANY 127 instances section men are paid less than men working under them. Although the Employer contended at the hearing that section men have authority effectively to recommend changes in the status of em- ployees working under them, we are satisfied from all the evidence that their recommendations when made, result in an independent investiga- tion by the Employer and that such investigations form the only basis for action by the Employer. Under the circumstances, we are of the opinion that section men are not supervisory employees within the meaning of our customary definition of that term, and we shall include them in the unit.2 Accordingly, we find that all production and ncalntenance employ- ees at the Thatcher building of the Employer's Riclgeclale plant, in- cluding section men, but excluding office, clerical, technical and cafe- teria employees, superintendents, foremen, secondhands, 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, 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 Standard-Coosa-Thatcher Company, Chattanooga, Tennessee, an election by secret ballot shall be conducted as early as possible, but not later than thirty (30) clays from the date of this Direction, ender the direction and supervision of the Regional Director for the Tenth Region, acting in this matter as agent for the National Labor Relations Board, and subject to Sections 203.55 and 203.56, of National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regu- lations-Series 4, among the 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 aeation or temporarily laid off, and including employees in the armed forces of the United States who present themselves in per- son 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 Textile Workers Union of America, CIO, for the purposes of collective bargaining. MR. JAMES J. REYNOLDS; JR., took no part in the consideration of the above Decision and Direction of Election. 2 Matter of Thomaston Cot too Mills, Griffin Di vision, 66 N. L R B 731. 739926-47-vol 73-10