Crown Zellerbach Corp.

378 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD guards, and supervisors as defined in the Act, constitute a unit ap- propriate for the purposes of collective bargaining, within the mean- ing of Section 9 (b) of the Act. [Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this volume.] 'CROWN ZELLERBACH CORPORATION and INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS, PETITIONER. Cases Nos . 3-RC-724, 725, 726, 727, and 728. September 25, 1951 Decision and Direction of Elections Upon separate petitions duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the Na- tional Labor Relations Act, a consolidated hearing was held before Ralph E. Kennedy, hearing officer., The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby af- firmed. 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-member ,panel [Members Houston, Reynolds, and Styles]. Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds : 1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the Act. 2. The labor organizations involved claim to represent certain em- ployees of the Employer.' 3. Questions affecting commerce exist concerning the representa- tion of employees of the Employer within the meaning of Section 9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.2 4. The Petitioner seeks to sever from the existing plant-wide unit five separate units composed respectively of machinists, painters, pipefitters, millwrights, and firemen and their helpers, at the Em- ployer's Carthage, New York, plant, where it is engaged in the manu- facture of paper and paper products. For 14 years the Employer has executed collective bargaining agreements with the Joint Intervenors ' International Brotherhood of Pulp, Sulphite and Paper Mi11 Workers of the United States and Canada, AFL, and International Brotherhood of Paper Makers, AFL (herein- after called Joint Intervenors ), were permitted to intervene on the basis of a joint contract with the Employer covering the employees in the proposed bargaining unit 9 At the hearing none of the parties to this proceeding asserted that the current contract between the Employer and the Joint Intervenors is a bar to a present determination of representatives. However, in its brief, the Employer contends that the petitions were untimely under the rule recently announced by the Board in De Soto Creamery and Produce Company, 94 NLRB 1627. We do not agree . While there are other factors which dis- tinguish this case from the De Soto case, it is sufficient for our conclusion that the rule of that case is not applicable here to note that the petitions in the instant case were filed on .May 29, 1951 , prior to the execution of the current contract on July 9, 1951. 96 NLRB No. 57. - CROWN ZELLERBACH CORPORATION 379 covering a single unit of all production and maintenance employees including the employees now sought by the Petitioner. Relying on this history, on the contention that the integration of the Employer's operations precludes craft severance, and on the further contention that, in any event, the employees involved herein are not craftsmen, the Employer and the Joint Intervenors oppose the severance of these groups. The Board has recently reexamined the problem of craft severance in the paper industry and reaffirmed its earlier conclusion that the operations involved in typical paper plants do not present the kind of integration that precludes craft severance.3 Although the instant plant is smaller and the number of different skills used in maintenance work fewer, than was involved in that case, we find nothing in the present record that would justify the conclusion that ' maintenance work is so inextricably interwoven with production in the plant in- volved herein as to render inappropriate true craft units of main- tenance employees. Nor can we agree that the machinists, painters, pipefitters, and millwrights sought by the Petitioner are not craftsmen of the type which the Board permits to be separately represented despite a his- tory of prior inclusion in a plant-wide unit. The machinists work primarily in the machine shop operating lathes, milling machines, doctor blade grinders and other machine shop equipment in connec- tion with the repair of production machinery. The painters paint the buildings and machinery throughout the plant.. The pipe fitters perform maintenance work on boilers as well as pipe work through- out the plant. The millwrights make general repairs throughout the plant, and install equipment. All of these employees are supervised by the master mechanic, who reports to the resident engineer. The record indicates that none of these employees does any production work, that the production employees do not assist them in their main- tenance work and that, with rare exceptions,4 they confine their work to the type normally performed by craftsmen bearing their job titles. The record clearly indicates that employees in each of these categories are required to possess a high degree of skill. Although the Employer has no formal apprenticeship training program for its maintenance employees, the record indicates that it maintains a comparable helper- training program, into which employees enter upon their employment in the maintenance department. We conclude that the employees in these four groups constitute traditional craft groups who may, if they so desire, properly constitute separate bargaining units, together 3 International Paper Company, Southern Kraft Division , 94 NLRB 483. 4 Such exceptions occur when , for example, millwrights do some carpentry or welding in connection with the installation of equipment , and pipefitters do some masonry in connection with their pipefitting work. 380 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD with their helpers, notwithstanding their prior inclusion in an over-all unit of production and maintenance employees .5 The fifth group sought. by the Petitioner is composed of firemen, who work in the boiler room, and their helpers. Except for the oc- casional assistance of pipefitters on major repair jobs, the firemen and their helpers are the only persons working in the boiler room. There is no interchange between boiler room and other employees. The steam produced in the boiler room is used for the driers on the paper machines and for the operation of two small turbines which generate direct current for drives on two of the smaller paper ma- chines, as well as for heating the plant buildings. We find that the firemen and their helpers constitute a homogeneous, identifiable power- house group and may properly constitute a separate bargaining unit despite a history of collective bargaining on a broader basis.6 However, we shall make no final determination with respect to the unit or units appropriate for employees at the Employer's Carthage, New York, plant, deferring such conclusions until separate elections shall have been held among the following voting groups, including helpers in each group, but excluding from each all supervisors as de- fined in the Act. 1. All millwrights. 2. All pipefitters. 3. All painters. 4. All machinists. 5. All firemen. If a majority of the employees in any group select the Petitioner the employees in that group will be taken to have indicated their desire to be separately represented. [Text of Direction of Elections omitted from publication in this volume.] 6International Paper Company, supra. See also International Paper Company, 94 NLRB 500 (pipefitters, machinists, millwrights, and painters). 6 Crocker, Burbank & Co. Asscn., 80 NLRB 774. F. W. WOOLWORTH CO. and RETAIL CLERKS' INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIA- TION, LOCAL. UNION No. 324, PETITIONER. Case No. 21-UA-3098. September 25, 1951 Second Supplemental Decision and Certification of Results On November 30, 1950, pursuant to Section 9 (e) (1) of the Act, an election was conducted under the supervision of the Regional Director for the Twenty-first Region to determine whether the em- 96 NLRB No. 56.