Chrysler Corp.

In The Matter of CHRYSLER CORPORATION , EMPLOYER and INTERNA- TIONAL UNION , UNITED AUTOMOBILE, AIRCRAFT AND AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENT WORKERS OF AMERICA (UAW-CIO), PETITIONER Case No. 7-R- 2602.Decided February 9,1948 Rath,bone, Perry, Kelley and Drye, by Mr. T. R. Iserman, of New York City, for the Employer. Mr. Maurice Sugar, by Mr. Jack N. Tucker, of Detroit, Mich., for the Petitioner. DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS Upon a petition duly filed, hearing in this case was held at Detroit, Michigan, on July 17 and 18, 1947, before Jerome H. Brooks, hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.' Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3 (b) of the Act, the Board has delegated its powers in connection with this case to a three-man panel consisting of the undersigned Board Members.* Upon the entire record in the case, the National Labor Relations Board makes the following : FINDINGS OF FACT 1. THE BUSINESS OF THE EMPLOYER Chrysler Corporation, a Delaware corporation having its general offices in Detroit, Michigan, is engaged in the manufacture of auto- mobiles and automobile parts and accessories, at plants located in the States of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and California. This proceeding is concerned only with the Dodge Main plant, located in Detroit, Michigan. Annually, the Employer purchases raw materials and finished parts valued in excess of $250,000,000, of which approximately 45 percent is shipped to its Michigan plants from points located out- The Employer's motion, made after the close of the hearing, to correct the transcript of the hearing, is hereby granted *Chairman Herzog and Members Murdock and Gray. 76 N. L R. B., No. 10. 55 56 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD side the State. Before the war, the Employer sold and delivered to purchasers who resided outside the State, approximately 75 percent of the finished products manufactured in its Michigan plants. We find that the Employer is engaged in commerce within the weaning of the National Labor Relations Act. II. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED The Petitioner is a labor organization affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations, claiming to represent employees of the Employer. III. TIIE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION The Employer refuses to recognize the Petitioner as the exclusive bargaining representative of employees of the Employer. We find that a question affecting commerce exists concerning the representation of employees of the Employer, within the meaning of Section 9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act. IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNITS ; THE DETERMINATION OF 11EPRESENTATIVES The Petitioner requests a unit of all office and clerical employees in the Dodge Main plant, including employees in the timekeeping de- partment, telephone and telegraph operators, mail clerks, desk heads, and messengers, but excluding yardmasters, pattern trouble men and pattern engineers, staff men, special assignment men, confidential clerks and secretaries to executives and supervisors, professional em- ployees, supervisors, and all employees in the departments listed in Schedule A, attached hereto. The Employer contends that a single unit is inappropriate, alleg- ing that the duties, location, and working conditions of the office and clerical employees require that at least five separate bargaining units be established, consisting respectively of such employees in (1) the Accounting Division, (2) the Sales Division, (3) the office depart- ments of the Planning Division, (4) the manufacturing divisions, and (5) a number of smaller office and miscellaneous divisions and depart- ments. It agrees to the exclusion from all units of those employees whom the Petitioner seeks to exclude from its proposed single unit. But it would also exclude from any unit employees in the timekeeping department, telephone and telegraph operators, mail clerks, desk heads, and messengers. In the alternative, the Employer suggests a separate unit for the timekeeping department employees. The Dodge Main plant, where the Employer manufactures Dodge passenger cars and automobile and truck parts, is spread over 63 acres CHRYSLER CORPORATION 57 of ground and occupies 81 buildings. It employs approximately 23,000 employees, of whom more than 500 are office and clerical work- ers whom the Petitioner now seeks to represent.' The large majority of clerical employees are in 3 divisions of the plant, Accounting, Sales, and Planning, located in the factory office building and in the main office building adjoining it. The Accounting Division is divided into departments, such as book- keeping, cost, invoice audit, billing, comptometer, pay roll, and com- pany work order. Here the employees are clerks, typists, bookkeep- ers, pricers, checkers, file clerks, and comptometer and addressograph operators. As indicated by the names of the departments in the division, these employees perform the usual clerical work necessary for the operations carried on throughout the plant. The-Accounting Division also employs timekeepers and checkers, telephone operators, and mail clerks, whose duties are discussed below. This division is supervised by the factory auditor, who reports to the general factory auditor in the office of the comptroller of the corporation at Highland Park. The Sales Division is in charge of selling Dodge trucks, which the Employer manufactures at another plant, and Dodge passenger cars. It directs the activities of sales offices located throughout the country. The various departments in the division maintain records and files of dealer agreements, allocations, completed sales, and advertising and distribution correspondence. Employed in the division are file clerks, typists, stenographers, dictaphone operators, a messenger, a telegraph operator, and a group of desk heads. The duties of the telegraph operator and the desk heads are discussed below. The head of the Sales Division reports to the corporation's vice president in charge of sales. The Planning Division correlates information concerning materials required for production throughout the plant, plans methods for obtaining the -materials, both from other Chrysler manufacturing units and from outside vendors, and maintains constant inventories of materials on hand and used. It is divided into 13 departments, of which 4 are located in the.office buildings, and 9 have employees both in the office buildings and in the factories. In the 4 office depart- nments are clerks, typists, stenographers, posting machine operators, messengers, drivers, schedule and follow-up men, and engineering 2 The Petitioner is presently the certified bargaining representative of the Employer's production and maintenance employees in a multi -plant unit including Dodge Main. Matter of Chrysler Corporation, 17 N. L. R. B. 737. In a separate unit, it also represents tool, the, and fixtuic engineers in Dodge Main Matter of Chrysler Corporation, 55 N L It B 1039 58 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD specifications men.• The remaining 9 departments of the Planning Division are charged with the duty of physically receiving and han- dling incoming material, storing it, and moving it to the manufac- turing departments or from department to department as needed. Most of the employees in these 9 departments are hourly rated manual workers; in addition, there are clerks who record the movement of material. Some of these clerks work in the office buildings as salaried employees, others work in the factories on an hourly pay basis. The supervisor in charge of this division reports to the general works manager. Throughout Dodge Main there are a number of smaller non-pro- ductive divisions and departments, such as plant engineering. In- spection, master mechanics, traffic, central pattern, and courtesy, each of which employs a few clerical employees, consisting of clerks, typists, stenographers, and follow-up men, of whom some are salaried office workers and others are hourly paid factory clerks.4 Finally, there are a small number of clerks employed in manufac- turing departments throughout the plant. These are hourly paid factory clerks who work with the production employees under su- pervision of production foremen. The clerical employees in the office buildings are salaried, whereas, clerks working in the factories generally are hourly rated, either be- cause they are part of manufacturing departments or because, although employed by the larger clerical divisions, they are assigned to produc- tion departments. The hourly paid clerks work under conditions comparable to those of production employees.' As previously stated, the Employer contends that there should be at least five separate units instead of a single unit. It argues that the Labor Management Relations Act, 1947, requires the Board to exercise its discretion in favor of the separate units. Apparently, it concedes that a single unit would have been appropriate under the Act before its amendment.5 The principal criterion used by the Board in grouping employees for bargaining purposes has been community of interest. The Board has generally held that employees with similar 3 The specifications men read analysis reports and record changes in manufacturing plans. 4Included in the Master Mechanics ' Division is a group of engineering record clerks who are part of a unit of tool, die and fixture engineers established by the Board in Matter of Chrysler Corporation, 55 N. L R B 1039 , and who are presently represented by the Petitioner. In accordance with an agreement of the parties, we shall exclude them from the unit hereinafter found appropriate. 5In Matter of Chrysler Corporation, Chrysler Motor Division, 52 N. L R B. 239, the Board established a single unit of office and cleiical employees in another plant of the Employer similar to Dodge Main In this proceeding , the parties stipulated that the duties of the office employees in Dodge Main are comparable to those of corresponding employees in the Chrysler Motor Division. CHRYSLER CORPORATION 59 interests shall be placed in the same bargaining unit. The recent amendments to the Act have not changed this rule of decision, except to emphasize the distinctiveness of craft employees, professional em- ployees, and guards. None of the employees involved in this proceed- ing comes within the latter three classifications. It would be impractical to put Accounting Division typists in one unit and Sales Division typists in another unit. All typists in the office, regardless of the department in which they work, have the same interests and should therefore be placed in the same unit. If the Em- ployer's contention were accepted, the Board would logically have to set up as many units as there are departments in a plant, in addition to craft, professional, and guard units. Labor relations under such a system would become so unwieldy as to be unmanageable. We believe that all office and clerical employees in the Employer's Dodge Main plant should be placed in a single unit, excluding, however, factory clerks and employees in the timekeeping, department for the reasons stated hereinafter. Factory Clerks: In many of the factory departments, there are fac- tory clerks who work under the supervision of production foremen and are generally hourly paid, as are production workers. Also working within the factory departments are employees of the timekeeping department, which is part of the Accounting Division. The employees of the timekeeping department-timekeepers, checkers, and counters- have their headquarters in the factory office building. However, they are assigned to factory departments and perform practically all their work in those departments. Like the production workers, they are hourly paid. Timekeepers distribute time cards at the time clocks be- fore employees ring in, collect then at the end of the day, compute the time each employee worked, deduct time for lateness, allocate time worked in each classification, check on whether employees who have rung in are actually at work, and see to it that employees are working in their proper classifications. Checkers assist the timekeepers, and counters weigh, count, and ship stock. Checkers and counters are also paid on an hourly basis. In recent cases,° the Board has unanimously held that both factory clerks and timekeepers belong in the same unit with production and maintenance employees. We perceive no reason for departing from that rule in this case. Accordingly, we shall exclude factory clerks and the employees in the timekeeping department from the office and cleri- cal unit. We shall, however, establish a separate voting group for 6 See Matter of Ai t Metal Construction Company, 75 N L. R B. 80 ( and cases cited therein ) and Hatter of Noithwest Engineering Company , 73 N L. R. B. 40 (and cases cited therein). 60, DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD these employees. If they vote for the Petitioner in the election directed hereinafter, they will be deemed included in the existing production and maintenance unit, and the Petitioner, which now represents the Employers production and maintenance employees at the Dodge Main plant, may bargain for them as part of this unit. The parties are in disagreement with respect to the following cate- gories of employees, whom the Petitioner would include and the Employer would exclude : Telephone and Telegraph operators.The telephone and telegraph operators perform the duties usual to employees in their category. The Employer contends that they are "confidential" employees and should therefore be excluded from any unit. We have rejected a similar con- tention in previous cases.' Accordingly, we shall include telephone and telegraph operators in the unit. Mail clerks.-Mail clerks collect, sort, and distribute incoming, out- going, and interplant correspondence, sealed and unsealed. The Employer would exclude them as "confidential" employees, because the material they handle pertains to confidential financial and, occasion- ally, -labor relations matters. We have considered and rejected a similar contention in another representation proceeding involving office and clerical employees in this Employer's John B plant." We shall include mail clerks in the unit. Desk heads.-In the Distribution Department of the Sales Division are 13 desk heads, who correspond with Dodge automobile dealers and handle orders and allocations of cars for the dealers. The Employer urges that they be excluded as supervisors. Each desk head has an assistant whose work he directs, telling him when and how to answer correspondence. The desk heads have no authority to grant raises, but the Employer follows their recommendations with respect to wage changes or other matters pertaining to the status of the assistant-desk heads. In view of these facts, we are of the opinion that desk heads are supervisors within the meaning of Section 2 (11) of the amended Act, and we shall therefore exclude them from the unit." Messengers.-The Employer would exclude two messenger girls who escort visitors to the various offices and departments in the plant, because their work is unlike that of usual office employees. They are employed in the courtesy department, one of the small miscellaneous Matter of Chrysler Corporation, 58 N L R B. 239 ; Matter of Armour and Company, 54 N L R B 1462 8 Matter of Chrysler Corporation , 76 N L R 13 50 In its brief the Employer for the first time urged that assistant desk heads also be excluded because they are in closer contact with the Employer's customers than other employees in the unit . We do not consider this fact of such significance as to warrant the separation of these employees from the other office and clerical employees We shall therefore include assistant desk heads in the unit CHRYSLER CORPORATION 61 non-productive departments, and work in a reception room with a receptionist and her assistant. We shall include the messengers in the unit.io We find that all office and clerical employees employed by the em- ployer in its Dodge Main plant," including telephone and telegraph operators, mail clerks, assistant desk heads, and messengers, but exclud- ing yardmasters, pattern trouble men and pattern engineers, staff men, special assignment men, confidential clerks and secretaries to executives and supervisors, professional employees, courtesy drivers, engineering record clerks in the Master Mechanics' Division, desk heads, factory clerks, all employees in the timekeeping department, all employees in departments listed in "Schedule A," attached hereto, and all other supervisors as defined in the amended Act, constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act. We shall direct that separate elections be held among : (a) Employees in the unit found appropriate above. (b) Factory clerks and timekeeping department employees in the Employer's Dodge Main plant, including, but not limited to. employees in these classifications in the departments listed in "Schedule B," attached here to,12 but excluding all supervisors as defined in the amended Act. DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the purposes of collective bargaining with Chrysler Corporation, Detroit, Michigan, separate elections 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 Seventh Region, Detroit, Michigan, and subject to Sections 203,61 and 203.62 of National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regula- tions-Series 5, among the employees in the appropriate unit and the voting group described 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, but 10 'Ilieie me also in the department foul coui tesy drivers, who dove executives between the %arious plants Both parties agree to exclude the courtesy drivers fioin any unit We shall exclude them 11 This includes the office clerks of the Planning Division who are assigned for duty in the Pressed Steel Division. 11 The record is not clear as to whether or not any factory clerks are employed in a number of smaller non -productive departments throughout the Dodge Main plant. 62 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD 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, and any employees on strike who are not entitled to reinstatement, to determine in each group whether or not they desire to be represented by International Union, United Automobile, Air- craft and Agricultural Workers of America (UAW-CIO), for the purposes of collective bargaining. SCHEDULE A #4. Labor Relations #17. Service Garage #7. Superintendence #24. Plant Protection #8. Employment #313. Statistical #9. Time Study and Budget #314. Drive Away Cashier #14. Safety #316. Secretary #25A. Matrons #326. Works Administration #506. By-Products (Education and Ap- #509. Restaurants prentice) Transportation #339. Staff Master Mechanic #340. Personnel (Welfare and Mutual Aid) #345. Purchasing #420. Engineering #426. Truck Production Con- tract Regional Sales Fargo Cyclewald #612A. Cooperative Advertis- ing 13 13 The employees in the departments listed in this column, although located at Dodge Main, constitute subsections of, and are responsible to, divisions of the Highland Park plant, which is otherwise separate from Dodge Main. CHRYSLER CORPORATION SCHEDULE B 63 Accounting Division #99. Body Trim and As- Timekeeping Department sembly Planning Division #101. Cylinder #19A. Dodge Main Stores #102. Lathe #19B. Pressed Steel Stores #103. Small Parts #19C. Foundry Stores #104. Bolt and Stud #20A. Dodge Main Receiv- #106. Automatic Screw Ma- ing chine #20B. Pressed Steel Receiv- #107. Transmission ing and Shipping #108. Can and Crankshaft #21. Dodge Main Shipping #109. Cleaning #43. Waste Material #111. Piston Rods #56. Material Handling #114. Heat Treat #72. Square Shears #120. Motor Assembly Manufacturing Divisions #122. Chassis Assembly #90. Enamel #123. Final Assembly #91. Body Finish #126. Wiring #93. Sheet Metal Paint