Cutter Laboratories

414 . DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD general manager to discuss clarification of the wage increase in the current contract with regard to probationary employees. The group was not and did not represent itself as a shop committee of either the Intervenor or Petitioner. Kirk's testimony reveals that the initiative in seeing the general manager came from the other three employees and that they-had invited him to accompany them. The decision to meet with the general manager and the meeting itself appear to have been informal and the meeting was not prearranged. Another em- ployee rather than Kirk was the spokesman for the group. Although Kirk testified that he believed he was still the president of Local 13346, he also testified that he had never seen the charter of that organization and that he did not keep or supervise any of its records. On the basis of these facts we conclude thaj Local 13346 is for all practical purposes defunct at the Employer's plant. Accordingly, in view of this and the scope of the action taken, we find that the existing contract with the Employer is not a bar to an immediate election 3 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. 4. The following employees of the Employer constitute a unit ap- propriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act; All production and maintenance employees employed at the Em- ployer's Carbondale, Illinois, plant; including inspectors; but exclud- ing office clerical employees, guards, professional employees and all supervisors as defined in the Act. [Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this volume.] 3,T. J. Tourek Manufacturing Co., 90 NLRB 5. CUTTER LABORATORIES and OIL WORKERS INTERNATIONAL UNION, CIO, PETITIONER CUTTER LABORATORIES and OFFICE EMPLOYEES INTERNATIONAL UNION7 LOCAL 29, AFL, PETITIONER. Cases Nos. 20-RC-1561 and 20-RC- 1582. February 29,1952 Decision and Direction of Elections Upon petitions duly filed, a consolidated hearing was held before Robert V. Magor, a hearing officer of the National Labor Relations Board. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed. 98 NLRB No. 69. CT9'PTER LABORATORIES 415 Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3 (b) of the National Labor Relations Act, the Board has delegated its powers in connection with this case to a three-member panel '[Members Houston, Murdock, and 'Styles]. Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds : 1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act. 2. The labor organizations named below claim to represent employees of the Employer. 3. A question of representation exists concerning the representation of employees of the Employer, within the meaning of Section 9 (a) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act. 4. The Oil Workers seeks a unit of all employees at the Employer's Berkeley, California, plant, excluding executives, administrative employees, confidential employees, professional employees, and super- visors. This has been the established bargaining unit at the plant since 19441 Currently, Local 6 of the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union, which was allowed to intervene at the hearing, has succeeded to the contractual rights of Bio-Lab Union 225, United Office and Professional Workers of America, CIO, with which the Employer has had contracts covering the over-all unit since 1944. The Intervenor was negotiating with the Employer at the time the petitions were filed herein; it would continue the over-all unit. The AFL Office Employees seeks a unit of office employees only, specifically those listed in the "Office and Clerical Schedule" printed in the 1949 agreement between the Employer and the Bio-Lab Union.2 The office employees sought to be severed are approximately 60 of the 525 employees in the established unit.3 They are represented in the following of the Employer's divisions : research, production, control, sales, and general finance ¢ About one-half of them work in the main office building, and another 15 in an "overflow" building for the office. The remaining 15 to 20 work in various buildings, 1 or 2 in open production areas. Their supervision varies- according to the division in which they work. The record indicates that the classification of employees by contract pursuant to a "Production Work Schedule" and an "Office and Clerical Schedule" was suggested by the Union, and that wages rates were 1 See Cutter Laboratwse8, 80 NLRB 213. The professional employees were granted a severance election in 1949 2 Another group of employees whose work is largely clerical but who are included on the "Production Schedule" are not requested by the AFL Office Employees on the ground that they are "plant" clericals. 1 Total employment at Berkeley was about 900 at the time of the hearing. Personnel is the sixth division ; apparently its clerical employees have been excluded from the unit as confidential. 416 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL, LABOR RELATIONS BOARD assigned on that basis by a War Labor Board order in 1945 directing the. Employer and the Uiiion to include the said classifications and rates of pay in the agreement to be signed by them. Originally all employees had been paid on a monthly basis; from then on those covered by the "Production Work Schedule" were paid on an hourly basis. However, the record indicates, that benefits for all employees are the same and seniority is on a company-wide basis. All new employees are give the same orientation, including pamphlets to read, a tour of the plant, and the showing of a film, with emphasis on the degree of care required in the manufacture and shipment of and record keeping concerning biological products. Although skill tests are given applicants for strictly office work and dexterity tests for production work, the record shows that the average education for each type applicant during the year before the hearing was slightly more than a high school education. Only a third of the employees in the over-all unit are engaged in strictly production activities Job openings are posted and office employees may apply for production work and vice versa. A severance election is urged by the AFL Office Employees, who refer to the Board's customary exclusion of office clerical employees from production and maintenance units. The Oil Workers and the Employer urge the long bargaining history and the type of industry as indicative of the appropriateness of the existing over-all unit. Although this record shows little dissimilarity of work and working conditions, between those employees on;the "Office and Clerical Sched- ule" and those on the "Production Schedule," no persuasive reason is advanced for the Board departing from its usual policy of sanction- ing the exclusion of office clerical employees from a production and maintenance unit even though there has been an established bargaining history on a single unit basis .3 We think that the employees sought by the AFL Office Employees may constitute a separate bargaining unit if they so desire. We direct that the questions concerning representation which have arisen be resolved by separate elections by secret ballot among the employees in the following voting groups : 1. All office clerical employees of the Employer at its Berkeley, California, plant, excluding confidential employees, all supervisors and all other employees, 2. All production and maintenance employees of the Employer at its Berkeley, California, plant including regular part-time employees,7 5 150 to 175 employees work on an assembly line basis. Savage Arms Corporation, 62 NLRB 1156, 1159. ° Part-time employees have been excluded from previous contracts and the Employer would retain a 30-hour a week employment minimum as the distinction Eight or ten employees regularly work 8 to 20 hours a week . The Oil Workers and the Longshoremen RCA SERVICE COMPANY, INC. 417 but excluding executives, administrative employees, confidential em- ployees, professional employees, office clerical employees, salesmen," watchmen, guards, and supervisors as defined in the Act. If the employees in group 1 select a bargaining representative differ- ent from that selected by the employees in group 2, the Board finds that the group 1 employees constitute a separate appropriate unit; and if, in these circumstances, the employees in group 2 also select a bargain- ing agent, the Board finds that the employees in group 2 also consti- tute an appropriate unit. If the employees in the two groups select. the same bargaining agent, the Board finds that together they con- stitute an appropriate unit. The Regional Director conducting the elections directed herein is instructed to issue a certification of repre- sentatives to the union or unions in the unit or units which may result from the elections. If either group selects no bargaining agent, the Regional Director shall issue a certificate of results of elections to such effect. [Text of Direction of Elections omitted from publication in this volume.] would include these. In addition the Employer has some part-time employees who are on call and work occasionally, but with no regularity. We include in the unit, and find eligible to vote, all regular part-time employees. See Illinois Bell Telephone Company, 95 NLRB 913. 8 The Employer has 60 outside salesmen who have no assigned hours of work. They have never been included in the unit. We agree with the parties that they are properly excluded. RCA SERVICE COMPANY, INC. and INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS, LOCAL UNION 1481, AFL,1 PETITIONER. Case No. 5-RC-930. February 29, 1952 Decision and Direction of Election Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before William A. McGowan, hear- ing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.2 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-mem- ber panel [Members Houston, Murdock, 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. i Herein called the IBEW. 2 The Office Employees International Union, Local 33, APL, was permitted to intervene on the basis of its showing of interest among the employees involved herein. 98 NLRB No. 62.