General Steel Castings Corp.

GENERAL STEEL CASTINGS CORPORATION 607 Order IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the results of the election held among the employees of Maine Fisheries Corporation, Portland, Maine, on March 14,1952, be, and they hereby are, set aside. [Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this volume.] GENERAL STEEL CASTINGS CORPORATION and INTERNATIONAL BROTHER- HOOD OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS, LOCAL 309, AFL, PETITIONER. Case No.14RC 1841. June 10, 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 Benjamin E. Cook, 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 [Chairman Herzog and Members Murdock and Peterson]. 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 employees 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 a result of Board-directed elections in 1937, the employees of the Employer have been represented by labor organizations on the basis of four units : production and maintenance, welders, main- tenance machinists, and patternmakers. The Petitioner now desires to be certified as the bargaining representative of a unit of elec- tricians A, electricians B, electrician helpers, and electrician learn- ers, at the Employer's Granite City, Illinois, plant. These employees have been represented by the Intervenor as part of the production and maintenance unit. The Employer and the Intervenor maintain i United Steelworkers of America , Local 1022, CIO, was allowed to intervene in this proceeding on the basis of a contract with the Employer in which the Intervenor represents the production and maintenance employees . International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Ship Builders and Helpers of America , AFL, Local 530, moved to intervene, but later withdrew its motion and did not participate in the hearing. In view of our decision herein, the motion of the Intervenor to dismiss the petition is denied. 99 NLRB No. 94. 608 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD for the following reasons that the only appropriate unit is the exist- ing production and maintenance unit : (1) The proposed unit is not a true craft unit; (2) the employees in question comprise an integral part of the over-all production process, and severance should be denied under the doctrine of National Tube Company; 2 (3) the industrial relations of the Employer would become confused and complicated if the Employer should become obligated to bargain for another unit of employees in addition to the four units which already exist. The electricians are employed in the maintenance repair depart- ment. They engage in the installation, repair, and overhaul of elec- trical equipment, and generally perform electrical maintenance work throughout the entire plant. These employees report to the electrical shop at the beginning of each shift, and from there are assigned to the particular production department in which they are needed. However, these electricians perform no production work, and have separate supervision from employees engaged in that type of work. Although the Employer has no formal apprenticeship program, it maintains a training system whereby a learner is advanced every 500 hours, until at the completion of 1,500 hours he becomes a "B" electri- cian. Moreover, a "B" electrician may progress to the status of an "A" electrician whenever he can meet the requirements for that rating as prescribed by the foreman. Accordingly we are satisfied that these employees exercise to a substantial degree the skill of the elec- trical craft. Upon the foregoing facts, and notwithstanding a bargaining his- tory on a broader basis,3 we find that these employees constitute an identifiable, skilled, homogeneous craft group who may, if they desire, constitute an appropriate unit.' The severance of this group is not precluded by the doctrine of the National Tube case. In that case the Board enunciated the prin- ciple that, due to the integrated nature of operations in the "basic steel" industry, it will deny, in that industry, severance of a craft group from a production and maintenance unit. The Employer operates a steel foundry. It manufactures steel castings, and specializes in railroad equipment such as locomotives and certain types of freight cars. The manufacturing process com- mences when ingot or scrap steel is melted down in open hearth fur- naces, and terminates with the fabrication of the finished machine 2 76 NLRB 1199. a See The Atlantic Refining Company, 92 NLRB 651. • See Ravenna Arsenal, Inc., 98 NLRB 1 ; The Brush Beryllium Company, 96 NLRB 1383; S i 9 Corrugated Paper Machinery Co., 93 NLRB 333. GENERAL STEEL CASTINGS CORPORATION 609 device. The Employer's operations differ from those of the "basic steel" industry in that it manufactures its products from cold scrap steel or steel ingots, and does not purchase or use iron ore nor operate a blast furnace. Furthermore, the Employer does not produce ingot steel, rolled steel; or sheet metal products which are the principal products of "basic steel." We hold therefore that the Employer is not primarily engaged in the "basic steel" industry and that the National Tube doctrine does not control this decision., Nor do we believe that, apart from the "basic steel" contention, the Employer's operations are so integrated as to preclude the establish- ment of craft units. It is apparent from the record that the employees whom the Petitioner seeks to represent do not perform routine and repetitive tasks of a type which are integrated and inseparable from the production process.6 We also find without merit the contention of the Employer and the Intervenor that to find appropriate a separate unit of electricians would hamper industrial relations in the plant and disrupt the processes of collective bargaining, to the extent that severance should not be granted 7 Under these circumstances we find that these electricians constitute a group which could be either separately represented or included in the production and maintenance unit at present represented by the Inter- venor. We shall therefore direct an election in a voting group com- posed of all electricians A, electricians B, electrician helpers, and electrician learners employed at the Employer's Granite City, Illinois, plant, excluding professional employees, guards, and supervisors as defined in the Act." If a majority of the electricians vote for the Petitioner, they will be taken to have indicated their desire to consti- tute a separate appropriate unit, and the Regional Director conducting the election directed herein is instructed to issue a certificate of repre- sentatives to the Petitioner for the group described above, which in that event the Board finds to be a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining. In the event a majority vote for the Intervenor, the Board finds the existing production and maintenance unit to be appropriate, and the Regional Director will issue a certification of results of election to such effect t [Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this volume.] 5 Mesta Machine Company, 94 NLRB 1624; cf. Scullin Steel Co., 95 NLRB 530. 6 See Mesta Machine Company, supra; Ravenna Arsenal, Inc., Supra; Ford Motor Com- pany, Aircraft Engine Division, 96 NLRB 1068; cf. Ford Motor Company (Maywood Plant), 78 NLRB 887. 18 d S Corrugated Paper Machinery Co., supra. 8 The description of the voting grouD anoears as amended at the hearing.