Union Carbide and Carbon Corporation

ELECTRO-METALLURGICAL COMPANY 577 ELECTRO-METALLURGICAL COMPANY, A DIVISION OF UNION CARBIDE AND CARBON CORPORATION ' and INTERNATIONAL UNION, UNITED AUTOMOBILE WORKERS OF AMERICA, AFL, PETITIONER. Case No. 8-RC-1672. November 25,1952 Decision and Order Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before Philip Fusco, hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from prej- udicial error and are hereby affirmed. 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 employees of the Employer. 3. No 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, for the following reasons: The Petitioner seeks to sever a unit of power division employees from an existing plant-wide unit at the Employer's Ashtabula, Ohio, plant, represented since the plant began operation in 1943 by the In- tervenor, United Steelworkers of America, CIO, and its Local 3081. The Employer and the Intervenor oppose severance upon the grounds, among others, that the Employer's operations are so highly integrated and interdependent, so closely resemble the operations of a basic alu- minum plant, and are so identified with the basic steel industry as to compel application of the rule of the Permanente and National Tube cases 2 to this case. Moreover, they contend that the history of collec- tive bargaining at the Employer's various plants has followed the pattern of industrial bargaining established in the basic steel industry generally. The Employer produces ferro-alloys and calcium carbide at a num- ber of plants in the United States and Canada, including the plant at Ashtabula, Ohio, which is involved in this proceeding. The cal- cium carbide and ferro-alloys are produced in electric furnaces which require large amounts of electric power supplied by the powerhouse. The Employer's name appears in the caption as amended at the hearing. 2 The Permanente Metals Corporation, 89 NLRB 804; National Tube Company, 76 NLRB 1191. 101 NLRB No. 120. 578 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD Organizationally, the powerhouse constitutes one of the major divi- sions of the plant. It has three sections : Operating, coal handling, and maintenance. The operating section includes firemen who oper- ate boilers by automatic devices, assistant firemen who watch over pumps and fans and check boilers and related equipment, condenser pit equipment attendants who operate the condensate pumps, water pumps and a hydrogen cooling system, ash removal attendants who remove ashes from the furnace bottom, turbine oilers who regulate pressures on turbines and take various gauge readings, and a relief man. The coal handling section consists of a coal handler and two helpers who operate coal crushers and conveyors. The maintenance section includes mechanics and their helpers, a plant oiler, a mechanic- welder, and electricians and their helpers. There are also a number of laborers not definitely assigned to particular sections, who do neces- sary labor work. Power division employees work in and about the powerhouse under their own supervisors. They do not interchange with other plant employees, except that, in case of emergency or in the event of a major overhaul, mechanics and electricians from the main plant may be assigned to work in the powerhouse and vice versa. Several of the mechanics in the powerhouse are also responsible for the charging and maintenance of steam stations in the plant area which are used for charging fireless locomotives. However, this work is under pow- erhouse supervision. The powerhouse employees punch a separate time clock and utilize separate locker facilities. Generally, working conditions and em- ployee benefits are the same for all employees throughout the plant. However, powerhouse employees do have some advantage in seniority over other employees in that, although seniority is plant-wide, the only powerhouse employees who can be "bumped" are those in the lowest labor grade. The Employer's production process is almost identical with that employed in the basic aluminum industry.3 This process involves placing materials such as quartzite, limestone, coal, coke, scrap steel, and various metallic ores in an electric furnace where they are sub- jected to intense heat generated by electric arcs supplied with elec- tricity produced in the powerhouse.' The ferro-alloys produced, ferro-silicon, ferro-manganese, and silico-manganese, are sold to steel companies for use in the manufacture of alloy and specialty steels. 8 See The Permanente Metals Corporation, supra. + There are meters at each furnace and the control board at the powerhouse. Each head furnace man controls the power input to his furnace. A control operator at the power- house watches the meters on his board to make sure that the power transmitted to each furnace does not exceed a given maximum and that the load remains balanced. If the control operator observes any irregularity , he informs the head furnace man at the furnace involved. ELECTRO-METALLURGICAL COMPANY 579 Thus, the Employer performs an essential preliminary step in the basic steel industry. Moreover, in a prior case 5 involving this Ashtabula plant, decided almost 10 years ago, the Board refused to find appropriate a separate unit of railroad engineers, firemen, and hostlers upon the grounds that they were part of a department more intimately related to the production of ferro-alloys than to railroad transportation, the plant operated as a "highly integrated enterprise," 6 and the bargaining history at the Employer's 13 other plants and throughout the steel industry generally was on an industrial basis. The record shows that there has been no appreciable change in the Employer's method of operation since the earlier Board decision finding a plant-wide unit appropriate, except that a power plant was added in 1949 to furnish power formerly purchased from a public utility. Power plant employees have been included in the plant-wide unit since the erection of the powerhouse. Because of the close integration and interdependence of the pro- duction processes at the Ashtabula plant, because the production of ferro-alloys constitutes a part of the basic steel processes, and because the history of collective bargaining at the Employer's plants produc- ing ferro-alloys and in the basic steel industry generally has been predominantly on the basic of industrial units, we believe that the Board should not disturb the established plant-wide unit at the Em- ployer's Ashtabula plant by permitting severance of the powerhouse employees 7 Accordingly, we find that the unit sought is inappropri- ate. We shall therefore dismiss the petition. Order IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the petition filed herein be, and it hereby is, dismissed. CHAIRMAN HERZOG and MEMBER PETERSON, dissenting : We do not agree with the majority that the Employer in its opera- tions at the Ashtabula plant is part of the basic steel industry. There- fore we find inapplicable the doctrine of the National Tube case that only plant-wide units are appropriate in the basic steel industry. Electra Metallurgical Company, 54 NLRB 15. ° "The plant is a highly integrated enterprise, no one department of which could operate without the close and constant assistance of all others ... The plant is managed through the office of a single general superintendent. There is a single 'supervisor of service' who oversees employment and general relations of all employees. Wage rates and conditions of employment are centrally determined." 7 In Electro Metallurgical Company, 97 NLRB 230, the Board found a powerhouse unit appropriate at the Employer 's Marietta plant. However, at the time the Board rendered its decision the production facilities of that plant were not yet in operation and the power plant was furnishing electricity to a nearby plant of the Employer . Moreover, the appli- cability of the National Tube doctrine was not in issue in that case. 242305-53--35 .580 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD The Employer does not produce steel at the Ashtabula plant. Its output there is almost equally divided between calcium carbide and ferro-alloys such as ferro-silicon, ferro-manganese, and silico-manga- 11ese. Calcium carbide is a metallic solid from which is produced acety- lene, which in turn is used in oxyacetylene welding and in the production of organic chemicals. Calcium carbide is not used in the production of steel. The ferro-alloys are sold to the producers of basic steel who use them as ingredients in the manufacture of alloy steels. We have been referred to no authority which classifies a plant such as that of the Employer at Ashtabula as part of the basic steel in- dustry." Indeed, not even the Employer makes such contention. It asserts no more than that it is "closely allied with the steel industry." The Board itself, in a series of cases, has defined the kinds of steel manufacturing plants which it regards as coming within the "basic steel" classification. They are plants which produce "ingot steel, rolled steel, or sheet metal products." 9 The Employer produces none of these items. About a year ago, the Board found appropriate a unit of powerhouse employees at the Employer's Marietta plant, which is similar to the Ashtabula plant.1° We do not agree with the majority that the power- house unit was found appropriate in that case on an interim basis, because production facilities had not yet been put into operation. In justifying its finding, the Board said: "The Board has repeatedly found employees such as those sought herein to be distinct functional groups which may constitute separate appropriate units." As author- ity for this proposition, the Board cited American Smelting and Re- fining Company, 86 NLRB 1172, in which the Board permitted sever- ance of a powerhouse unit from an existing plant-wide unit in a metal refining plant. Moreover, the Board has found appropriate units less than plant-wide in scope at still other plants of the Employer.- In these circumstances, as the Employer is not part of the basic steel industry, we would adhere to the precedent of the recent case involving the Marietta plant, and permit the powerhouse employees to decide for themselves whether they desire to be represented as a separate unit ,or as part of the existing plant-wide unit. 8 Although in its 1944 decision involving the Ashtabula plant, issued before the amend- ments to the Act (Electro Metallurgical Company, 54 NLRB 15), the Board did refer to the "steel industry generally" as authority for finding a plant-wide unit appropriate, this term is much broader than the term "basic steel industry." Rheem Manufacturing Company, 100 NLRB 564; General Steel Castings Corpora- tion, 99 NLRB 607; Mesta Machine Company, 94 NLRB 1624 ; Scullin Steel Co., 95 NLRB 530 ; Baldwin Locomotive Works, 78 NLRB 803. '° Electro Metallurgical Company, 97 NLRB 230. n Electro Metallurgical Company (Sheffield, Alabama), 69 NLRB 772 (traffic and mainte- nance department employees ) ; Electro Metallurgical Company (Niagara Works ), 57 NLRB 1764 ( conductors, switchmen, and brakemen ; railroad engineers, firemen , and hostlers), reversing 57 NLRB 518.