Duro Metal Products Co.

In the Matter of DuRo METAL PRODUCTS COMPANY, EMPLOYER and CI31CAG0 DIE SINKERS' LODGE #100 OF THE INTERNATIONAL DIE SINKERS' CONFERENCE , PETITIONER Case No. 13-B-4113.-Decided April 14,1947 Messrs. M. M. Tveter and S. H. Bishop, of Chicago, Ill., for the Employer. Mr. Walter T. Lynch, of Cleveland, Ohio, and Mr. Lester M. Shearer, of Oak Park, Ill., for the Petitioner. Messrs. Anthony Doria and Angelo Incise, of Chicago, Ill., for the Intervenor. Mr. Martin Sacks, of counsel to the Board. DECISION AND ORDER As the result of a consent election held on June 25, 1946, in Case No. 13-R-3673, pursuant to a consent election agreement to which the Em- ployer, the Petitioner, and the Board were parties, the Petitioner was designated as bargaining representative of "all employees working on dies or parts of dies for the manufacture of forgings" at the Em- ployer',, Chicago plant. Petitioner now seeks, in its petition for clari- fication filed herein, a Board determination that the unit description set forth above includes the Employer's upset die maker and its two apprentice upset die makers. Hearing on this petition was held at Chicago, Illinois, on January 8, 1947, before Robert T. Drake, hear- ing officer. The hearing officer's rulings are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed. Upc--i the entire record in the case, the National Labor Relations Board makes the following : FINDINGS OF FACT In our Decision and Certification of Representatives in Case No. 13-R-3620, issued June 28, 1946, we found appropriate a unit con- sisting of all production and maintenance employees at the operations' here involved, excluding the die sinkers, among others, therefrom, and certified the United Auto Workers, AFL, the Intervenor herein, as 73 N. L. R. B., No. 70. 368 DURO METAL PRODUCTS COMPANY 369 the exclusive bargaining representative of these employees. About that time, as noted above, the Petitioner was designated in Case No. 13-R-3673 as the bargaining representative of the employees working on dies or parts of dies for the manufacture of forgings.l Thereafter, on August 6, 1946, the Intervenor entered into a collective bargaining agreement with the Employer as to the employees in the certified unit. Although no specific mention was made therein of the upset die maker and the two apprentice upset die makers, the parties have never- theless bargained concerning them. Thus, under the terms of this con- tract between the Intervenor and the Employer, dues have been checked off and wage increases have been obtained for the employees in question. The Petitioner has also entered into a collective bar- gaining agreement with the Employer covering employees in the die sinkers' unit, but the Employer has, at all times, resisted Petitioner's efforts to bargain for the upset die maker and his two apprentices.2 The Petitioner contends, in effect, that the term "die sinkers," as used by the Board to designate an excluded category in the above certification, includes the upset die maker and his two apprentices; and that, consistently-therewith, the Board should find that these three employees were, in fact, embraced within the unit for which it, the Petitioner, has been designated as the bargaining representative. The employer and the Intervenor object to such an interpretation .3 The record in the instant case discloses that the Employer's plant contains a die sinking department on one floor, and a separate tool- room department on another floor. The die sinking department is under the supervision of the die sinker foreman, and consists of approximately 13 employees who are classified as die sinkers, trimmer die sinkers, planers, shapers, and apprentice die sinkers. The person- nel of this department are exclusively engaged in making dies for drop forgings. The upset die maker and the 2 apprentice upset die makers are located in the toolroom together with approximately 30 other employees, all of whom are admittedly part of the production and maintenance unit for which the UAW is presently certified. There is no interchange between the employees of the die sinking department and the employees of the toolroom. The upset die maker and the 2 apprentices in question are, together with the rest of the toolroom employees, under the supervision of the toolroom foreman. i The Intervenor filed a waiver of Interest in Case No . 13-R-3673, the proceeding insti- tuted by the Die Sinkers ' The record shows that none of the employees in question voted in the die sinkers' elec- tion in Case No 13-R-3673, and that two of them voted with the production and mainte- nance employees in Case No 13-R-3620, only one of them being challenged. However, the challenged ballot was never passed upon by the Board, since the counting of the ballot could not affect the results of the election 3 The Intervenor also urges its contract with the Employer as a bar . However, for reasons hereinafter indicated , we find it unnecessary to pass upon that issue 370 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD More than half the time of the 3 employees in question is spent on the maintenance of dies and in the production of parts which differ from the dies forged in the die sinking department. Upset die making occupies the balance of their time, although only 10 percent of their upsetting work is completed to the close tolerance required of other upsetters in the locality. In this upsetting work, the employees in question use an upsetting machine; the die sinkers, on the other hand, use a drop forge or vertical milling machine, the operation of which requires a greater degree of skill. Under all these circumstances, we are of the opinion that the mere fact that the employees in question spend a small portion of their working time on the manufacture of dies does not warrant a finding that they are either a part of the die sinkers' department, or that they are possessed of the die sinkers' craft skill. They are, however, an integral part of the toolroom department by virtue of their location in the plant, their supervision, and the nature of the major portion of their duties. Accordingly, we find that they have been, and presently are, part of the production and maintenance unit at the Chicago plant of the Employer. ORDER By virtue of and pursuant to the power vested in the National Labor Relations Board by Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Rela- tions Act and pursuant to Section 203.54 of National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 4, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the Petition for clarification of the Board's Decision filed by Chicago Die Sinkers' Lodge #100 of the International Die Sinkers Conference be, and it hereby is, dismissed. CHAIRMAN HERZOG took no part in the consideration of the above Decision and Order.