Campbell Soup Co.

CAMPBELL--SOUP- COMPANY 74L CAMPBELL SOUP COMPANY and DISTRICT No. 8, INTERNATIONAL Assooi- ATION OF MACHINISTS, PETITIONER. Case No. 1 °3-RC-2197. March 12,1952 Decision and Direction of Elections Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before Herbert B. Mintz, 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-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 Act. 2. The labor organizations involved claim to represent certain em- ployees of the Employer.' 3. A question affecting commerce exists 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. 4. As amended at the hearing, the petition in this case requests that the Board find appropriate six separate units at the Employer's Chi- cago, Illinois, plant. These units consist of, respectively, all welders and helpers; all millwrights and helpers including the beltman; all sheet metal workers and helpers; all carpenters and helpers; all pipe- fitters and helpers; and all machinists, machine repairmen, die repair- men, scale repairmen, and their helpers. The Employer's Chicago plant consists of five buildings containing six major departments: (1) production; (2) can manufacturing; (3) warehouse ; (4) powerhouse ; (5) service ; and (6) maintenance. Since 1940, the Intervenor has represented a broad unit of all produc- tion, maintenance, service, cafeteria, powerhouse, can manufacturing, and warehouse employees. The Petitioner herein requests severance of six craft groups composed of employees assigned to the mainte- nance department of the plant. The Employer and the Intervenor oppose the severance of these units on the grounds that there is no historical basis for the separation of these employees; that the inte- '1 Local 194 , Food, Tobacco , Agricultural and Allied Workers Union, Distributive , Process ing and Office Workers of America, herein called the Intervenor , was granted Intervention at the hearing on the showing of a contractual interest in the representation of these employees. Local 743, Warehouse and Mail Order Employees Union, AFL , although served with q notice of hearing , did not appear at the hearing held herein. 98. NLRB No. 112. - 998666-vol. 98-53-48 742 DECISIONS OF • NATIONAL LABOR REI;ATIONS BOARD gration of the plant makes such segregation undesirable; and that the employees sought are properly a part of the established broad unit. The plant maintenance department is composed of employees in the classifications included in the units sought by the Petitioner plus electricians, painters, oilers and greasers, and tool crib attendants, all of whose representation is not here at issue. The maintenance de- partment is under the general supervision of the superintendent of equipment and his assistant. The department personnel is distributed among the manufacturing building machine shop and two smaller machine shops located in the can manufacturing building. A master mechanic exercises direct supervision in the machine shops assisted by a foreman and an assignment clerk who routes -work orders to the maintenance employees. There are also four area supervisors who are assigned portions of the plant to anticipate maintenance needs and repairs in these areas, and who assume immediate supervision of maintenance work done in those locations. The welders, millwrights, sheet metal workers, carpenters, pipe- fitters, and machinists sought by Petitioner occupy more or less dis- tinct areas within the machine shop .2 They work, for the most part, on the same shifts as the production workers and share the same gen- eral working conditions and "fringe" benefits as those employees: The Employer does not have any apprenticeship programs for any of the maintenance groups involved and fills vacancies in its various main- tenance classifications by either hiring from outside the plant or transferring employees from other departments. Approximately one-third of the employees in the units requested were originally em- ployed in the manufacturing departments of the plant.' There is no question, however, and the parties agree, that the maintenance em- ployees concerned herein are highly skilled employees performing duties which the Board has consistently recognized as constituting craft work. They are separately supervised at all times and are paid a higher hourly rate than most production or operating employees. s The carpenter shop, tool crib, storeroom , paint shop, and the welding shop consist of partitioned-off spaces within the confines of the main machine shop . Each of the other maintenance craft groups has an area in the main machine shop considered to be its "shop" where the tools and machines for that particular work are located , but the boundaries of these shops are indefinite. 8 Transfers to the maintenance department , however, appear to be generally at the lower levels of skills , unless past experience , apprenticeship training , or ability qualify the applicant for a higher grade. There is no showing, herein, that the production departments operate as a training field for maintenance positions . While maintenance employees may request transfer to a production or operating department in case of a maintenance department layoff, it appears that this right has been rarely exercised. In the few instances such transfers have been made, the transferee has not ^ occupied a production lob comparable to the maintenance position. - CAMPBELL SOUP CO141 ANY 743 With one exception, noted hereinafter in the case of the machinists unit, there are no employees outside the maintenance department who perform duties or possess skills comparable to those in the requested units. While seniority is computed on a plant-wide basis, the em- ployees in the requested units also have departmental and craft seniority under the present contract. In view of these facts and the entire record, we find no merit in the contention of the Employer and the Intervenor that severance of these employees from the established production and maintenance unit would be inappropriate. While the bargaining history at the Em- ployer's other plants as well as the Chicago operations shows a pat- tern of bargaining on a plant-wide basis, we have held in the case of comparable industries that self-determination elections among craft employees such as sought herein are appropriate. The machinists: The Employer has 78 employees in the classifica- tions of machinist, machine repairman, die repairman, scaleman, and helper. The machinists spend most of their time within the shop in the construction and repair of metal parts, tools and machines, and other work requiring close tolerances. The die repairman is required to be able to use all machine tools and is assigned to dismantling, cleaning, rebuilding, hardening, and reassembling punches and dies while the scale repairman maintains, repairs, and-tests scales used in the plant. Employees, classified as machine repairmen fit, repair, and assemble mechanical equipment using hand and machine tools. The Petitioner would exclude from this proposed unit employees classified as adjustors and maintenance men. These employees are under the supervision of manufacturing department foremen and are perma- nently located in the production area. They make mechanical ad- justments on the machines, oil and lubricate them, make minor part changes and generally perform maintenance on the machines except when a, major overhauling is required. If the adjustors and mainte- nance men are not able to cope with a maintenance job arising on their machines, the machine repairmen from the maintenance department are called and the two work together to perform the necessary repairs. In view of this close community of skills and duties, and the necessary integration of the work of these employees with that of the machine repairmen, the Board finds that the adjustors and maintenance men should be included in the machinists and machine repair group .4 The pipe fitters: There are approximately 27 pipefitters who perform the usual duties of that craft including installation of radiators, heat- ing and ventilating units, sanitary fixtures and thermostatic systems, & Bee Merck 4 Co., 88 NLRB 875 ; and The John Deere Dubuque Procter Works of Deere Manufacturing Company, 77 NLRB 1424. 744 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD and other work requiring the use of pipe.: The pipefitters are under the separate immediate direction of an overseer or subforeman who the parties agree is not a supervisor as defined in the Act .5 . The carpenters: Five carpenters, including the overseer, work from a shop within the main machine shop and cut, shape, and assemble parts for furniture, fixtures, and production equipment. They are re- quired to have the usual skills and experience necessary to work with glass, wallboard, lumber, and linoleum. The welders: The Employer has seven welders who do both acetylene and electric are welding of a highly skilled nature. The welders are required to have the ability to weld and cut steel, stainless steel, cast iron, bronze, copper, monel metal, aluminum, and nickle, and perform any necessary brazing. While they frequently work with mainte- nance employees of other craft skills, they are not assigned to any one craft group and work as a pool.6' Sheet metal workers: There are eight sheet metal workers in the maintenance department who assemble sheet metal parts, brackets, and hangers, and make various attachments, seams, and joints in such work. They have skills conforming to those generally found in the sheet metal trade. The sheet metal helper is stationed at some dis- tance from the sheet metal shop in the main machine shop but spends his entire time in grinding aril polishing work for the sheet metal group. _ The millwrights: The Employer has, two employees in the mainte- nance department classified-as millwrights. These employees erect and dismantle machines and install new or repaired parts. The mill- wrights are situated in or near the carpenter shop but are not under the direction of the carpenter overseer. The Petitioner requests that the classification of beltman be included in any unit of millwrights. There is only one employee in this classification whose duties are to inspect, make, and repair leather, canvas, or other type belts used to drive machinery or cbnvey materials. The beltman has a small truck on which to carry his materials and spends a large portion of his time working throughout the production and operating areas of the plant. While he may work with the millwrights on occasions, the record indicates that he also performs work apart from these em- ployees, and has separate work quarters in the main machine shop. As the record shows this employee works independently as well as with craftsmen other than millwrights, we find that the beltman should, be excluded from the millwright group. sMost of the craft groups sought- bythe Petitioner include .the.classification,af overseer, a, position roughly corresponding to that of leadman. The= parties agree, and. the Board finds, that these overseers do not possess the status of supervisor as, defined in the; Aet', 6 Cf. International Paper Company ( Southern Kraft Dsvision ), 96 NLRB 295. 4 1 CAMPBELL SOUP COMPANY, •745 On the entire record the Board finds that machinists, machine re- pairmen, die repairmen, scalemen, adjustors, and maintenance men and helpers; pipefitters and helpers; carpenters and helpers; welders and helpers; sheet metal workers and helpers; and millwrights and helpers, at the Employer's' Chicago plant have skills and functions similar to those of -employees at other plants whom we have held to, constitute identifiable, homogeneous, craft groups which may con- stitute separate bargaining units? The inclusion of these. employees in the existing plant-wide unit is also appropriate. Accordingly, we direct that the questions concerning representation which have arisen among the employees of the Employer at its Chicago, Illinois, plant, be resolved by separate elections by secret ballot among the employees in the voting groups enumerated below : (a) All machinists, machine repairmen, die repairmen, scalemen, and helpers, including adjustors and maintenance men but excluding supervisors and all other employees. (b) All pipefitters and helpers but excluding supervisors and all other employees. (c) All carpenters and'helpers but excluding, supervisors and all other employees. (d) All welders and helpers but excluding supervisors and all other employees. (e) All sheet metal workers and helpers but excluding supervisors and all other employees. (f) All millwrights and helpers but excluding the beltman, super` visors, and all other employees. I ' If a majority of the employees in each or any of these voting groups vote for the Petitioner they will be taken to have indicated their desire to constitute a separate appropriate unit, and the Regional Director conducting the elections directed herein is instructed to issue a certification of representatives to the Petitioner for such unit or units which the Board, under such circumstances, finds to be appro- priate for purposes of collective bargaining. In the event a majority in each or any of these voting groups vote for the Intervenor, the Board finds their inclusion in the existing unit to be appropriate and the Regional Director will issue a certificate of results of election to such effect. [Text of Direction of Elections omitted from publication in this volume.] See Merck cE Co , supra, and cases cited therein.