Kimble Glass Co.

KIMBLE GLASS COMPANY 933 of transfer between physical and clerical employee classifications, and the community of interest existing between both groups of employees, we find that the Petitioner's proposed unit, limited to the physical employees in the distribution department, is inappropriate 5 As the Petitioner has evinced no desire to proceed to an election in the larger unit, we shall dismiss his petition. Order IT Is HEREBY ORDERED that the petition involved herein be, and it hereby is, dismissed. 5 East Ohio Gas Company, 94 NLRB 61. KIMBLE GLASS COMPANY 1 and DISTRICT LODGE No. 1, INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS, AFL, PETITIONER. Cases Nos.. -RC- 1692 through 4-RC-1703. February 3,1953 Decision, Order, and Direction of Elections Upon separate petitions duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act, a hearing in the above-consolidated cases 2 was held before Joseph A. Weston, hearing officer. The hear- ing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.3 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.4 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. i The Employer 's name appears as amended at the hearing. 2 On August 25, 1952, the Regional Director, pursuant to Section 102.64 (b) of the Board's Rules and Regulations , Series 0, consolidated the proceedings in these cases. 8 The hearing officer referred to the Board the Employer 's motion to dismiss the petitions filed in this proceeding . For the reasons stated herein , we deny the motion with respect to Cases Nos. 4-RC-1692, 4-RC-1697, 4-RC-1698, and 4-RC-1703, and grant the motion with respect to the remaining petitions. 4 The hearing officer granted the motion to intervene at the hearing by American Flint Glass Workers' Union of North America, AFL, hereinafter called the Intervenor, acting on the behalf of itself and its Locals Nos. 44 , 132, 145, and 701 , on the basis of a current contractual interest. 102 NLRB No. 85. 2509S3-vol. 102-53-60 934 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD 4. The appropriate unit : The -Petitioner seeks to sever 12 alleged craft groups from the existing production and maintenance unit, now represented by the Intervenor, at the Employer's Vineland, New Jersey, plant. In the alternative the Petitioner requests the establishment of a single, multi- craft maintenance unit and the establishment of a separate unit of blacksmiths. The Employer and the Intervenor, however, contend that the only appropriate unit is the existing plantwide unit. The Employer's plant herein involved manufactures glass tubing and, from that, a great variety of medical and technical glassware. The tubing is produced on several production lines which operate continuously, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. In the batch house soda ash, sand, lime, and other ingredients are carefully weighed and mixed into batches. These batches are, at regular intervals, introduced into a series of three furnaces operating at temperatures of 2500° to 3000° Farenheit. There they are converted, in the melt- ing and refining furnaces, into molten glass. The molten glass passes into the reheating furnace and is drawn over a clay sleeve and through the tube alley, from 100 to 250 feet in length, by the tube-drawing machine. Through proper control of the speed of drawing and the pressure of air blown through the clay sleeve nose, the glass is formed into tubing of the desired diameter and wall thickness. At the end of the tube alley the hardened glass tubing is nicked and broken into uniform lengths. Operations on these production lines are entirely mechanized. Cases Nos. 4-RC-1693, 4-RC-1694, 4-RC-1695, 4-RC-1696, 4-RC-1699, 4-RC-1700, 4-RC-1701, and 4-RC-1702 In the above cases the Petitioner requests the establishment of separate craft units of pipefitters, sheet-metal workers, carpenters, welders and ironworkers, painters, general mechanics,5 garage me- chanics, and electricians, their helpers and apprentices. Maintenance on production lines and other plant facilities is per- formed by maintenance employees in the three maintenance shops in the engineering department. They are the general maintenance shop, the systems shop, and the machine shop, all of which are located in a separate maintenance building. These shops are supervised by the plant engineer and supervisors and foremen in each shop. The em- ployees whom the Petitioner seeks to represent in separate units are those employed in the general maintenance shop, and the electricians and systems maintenance men employed in the systems shop. There is no evidence in the record to indicate that the Employer has any employees that may be so classified. KIMBLE GLASS COMPANY 935 General maintenance employees: The general maintenance shop is supervised by a supervisor and two foremen. General maintenance shop employees are called upon to perform throughout the plant a great variety of tasks which include pipefitting, painting, sheet- metal and iron work, carpentry, welding, car loading, unloading and bracing, excavation, and electrical work.6 The Employer has en- couraged and emphasized the development of multicraft skills through on-the-job experience and does not require general maintenance work- ers to possess journeymen skills in a particular craft. While they may be more skilled in performing, and more frequently work at, certain types of work, most of the general maintenance men are proficient in and frequently perform several types of work. In this way the Employer has gained a flexible maintenance force which permits the shifting of maintenance employees to different types of work as the maintenance workload varies and has developed main- tenance employees who can apply a number of skills to rapidly and efficiently complete critical repair jobs. General maintenance shop employees are classified and paid by the Employer on the basis of general experience and the diversity of skills exercised rather than on the possession of particular craft skills. They are classified as general, standard, and regular workers,? de- pending upon whether they are skilled in several trades, skilled iii only one trade and experienced in other, or only experienced in one or more trades, respectively. The general workers are the highest paid, followed by the standard and then the regular workers; pay l ates are, therefore, not related to the particular craft function performed. Electrical department employees: The electrical department, a part of the systems shop, is organized and operates in much the same man- ner as the general maintenance shop. Electricians are classified as general, standard, and regular workers, although, working princi- pally in one trade, their work is not as diversified as that of the general maintenance employees. Most of their time is spent in production areas doing on-the-spot work on motors, switches, and starters. They also paint and clean the boiler and engine rooms, maintain and repair mechanical and electrical weighing scales, and build and bal- ance pedestal fans. There is no apprenticeship or formal training for electricians; helpers in the department work into maintenance rat- ings through work experience on simple electrical jobs. Electricians are transferred into and out of the department as the electrical maintenance load varies. Not all electrical work is confined to the e In the general maintenance shop are a garage mechanic and helper who maintain automotive equipment and perform other duties. * Also a part of the general maintenance shop are helpers who assist wherever needed and assigned . They are not assigned permanently to work in only one trade. 936 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD electricians in the electrical department, nor does any electrician per- form electrical work entirely. Systems maintenance men: Systems maintenance men in the sys- tems shop maintain pipelines, sewers, sewer and deep-well pumps, and coal conveyers. Several are licensed as engineers or firemen and occasionally act as substitutes in the engine and boiler rooms. It ap- pears that there is no apprenticeship or formal training program in pipefitting available to these employees, that the pipefitting is also done by the general maintenance employees, that the Employer does not classify or consider these employees as journeymen pipefitters, and that no employee is engaged in pipefitting exclusively. The record shows, then, that the alleged craft employees for whom the Petitioner requests the establishment of separate bargaining units in the above cases are jacks-of-all-trades who frequently exercise skills associated with a number of traditional crafts. Much of the work performed by these employees does not demand craft skills. They are not organized, supervised, or paid along craft lines and have not received apprentice training in any craft. The record fails to show that these employees comprise identifiable and homogeneous craft groups having the journeyman skills and duties the Board re- quires in order to grant severance on a craft basis." Case No. 4-RC-1697 The Petitioner in this case requests the severance of all blacksmiths, their helpers, and apprentices .9 There are in the mold shop, a pro- duction department, one blacksmith and a helper, both engaged pri- marily in the fabrication and repair of tools and machinery parts. The record clearly shows that they perform the traditional work and possess the requisite skills of their craft. We find that the black- smith and his helper exercise the functions similar to those exercised by other employees who, the Board has held, may constitute separate appropriate units io Cases Nos. 4-RC-1698 and 4-RC-1703 The Petitioner requests the establishment of two separate units for powerhouse employees, one consisting of the engineers, their helpers and apprentices, the other of firemen, their helpers and apprentices. At the Vineland plant, the boiler and engine rooms are supervised by a powerhouse foreman. The powerhouse unit, a part of the sys- tems shop, supplies the steam used to produce high and low pressure s Columbia Southern Chemical Corporation, 97 NLRB 1555 ; 0. B. Andrews Company, 96 NLRB 150 ; National Container Corporation of Wisconsin, 97 NLRB 1009, 1015. There are employed at the Vineland plant no blacksmiths ' apprentices 10 Merck & Co., 88 NLRB 975. KIMBLE GLASS COMPANY 937 compressed air used in the production of glass tubing and other glass products. In the engineroom 3 engineers work on a 3-shift, round- the-clock schedule; a fourth engineer rotates as a substitute for the other 3 on their days off. Working in the boilerroom on a similar schedule are 4 firemen. The firemen tend the boilers under the direction of the engineers, maintain and repair their own equipment, and act as helpers for the engineers. The Petitioner requests separate units of powerhouse engineers and firemen. However, the evident mutuality of their employment inter- ests and close working contacts requires that we find that together the firemen and engineers constitute a powerhouse unit such as the Board has frequently found to be an appropriate bargaining unit." Case No. 4-RC-1692 The Petitioner seeks, in this petition, a unit of all machinists, tool and die makers,'' their helpers and apprentices, employed in the Em- ployer's Vineland plant. Most of the approximately 60 machinists employed by the Employer are assigned to the machine shop located on the second and third floors of the maintenance building. They are supervised by a machine shop supervisor and one foreman. How- ever, in order to minimize interruptions in the production of glass tubing, machinists spend most of their time in maintenance of pro- duction machinery under the work supervision of production fore- men. They repair and maintain batch house equipment, furnaces, tube alley equipment, and equipment used in the fabrication of the finished glassware produced by the Employer. Machinists also build new production machinery not elsewhere available and set up and keep in adjustment complicated production machines, work also done by some production employees. There is in effect in the machine shop an apprentice program pro- viding for 4 years' training. While these machinists are not classified as A, B, and C machinists or first-, second-, and third-class machinists, they are paid on the basis of a wage rate varying with the degree of skill and experience attained as a machinist. Also employed in the Vineland plant are a small number of machinists in the production development department and the mold shop. They perform much the same type of work as the maintenance machinists in the machine shop and are interchangeable with them. Although they are hired, super- vised, and located separately from the maintenance machinists, they use the machine shop toolroom and receive their machine equipment "Liggett d Myers Tobacco Company, 98 NLRB 210; cf. Packard Motor Company, 94 NLRB 1550, 1' As the record indicates that there are currently employed no employees in this classifi- cation, we will not consider them at this time. 938 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD from the machine shop. The Employer concedes that all its ma- chinists are skilled craftsmen. In view of the foregoing, we find that the machinists and machinists' apprentices in the machine shop, the mold shop, and the production development department comprise an identifiable, homogeneous craft group L3 exercising the usual skills of their trade.14 Conclusions The Employer and Intervenor contend that the integrated nature of the Employer's basic operation, glass tube production, precludes the establishment of separate craft and department bargaining units; the Employer especially relies upon the Board's decisions in National Tube Company, 76 NLRB 1199, and Ford Motor Company (Maywood Plant), 78 NLRB 887. We do not find such a degree of integration here as existed in the cases relied upon by the Employer. The Em- ployer's maintenance employees are not engaged in repetitious, rou- tine, or prescheduled work at fixed stations along a production line nor are their maintenance functions otherwise so closely identified with production functions as to be indistinct 15 Furthermore, the Em- ployer has failed to show the presence of the prerequisites for the ap- plication of the principle in these cases, viz, a history of bargaining in the industry on an industrial basis and a similar pattern of integration throughout the industry. We find, as did the Board recently in a similar decision involving this industry,16 the integration of operations at this plant insufficient to offset the special community of interests among employees in otherwise appropriate department and craft groups. The Employer and Intervenor further contend that the long and satisfactory history of collective bargaining at this plant precludes the severance of the units requested by the Petitioner. There exists for this plant a substantial history of collective bargaining on a plant- wide basis. The Employer has recognized and dealt with the In- tervenor as the bargaining representative for all its production and maintenance employees since 1937.17 Therefore, the employees in- 13 The Employer contends that because the maintenance machinists perform some duties as mechanics , setting up and adjusting production machinery, and because this work is also done by production employees, the machinists are especially integrated with and indistin- guishable from the production force. However, we believe that work does not detract from the distinctiveness of the machinists as a craft group. Armstrong Cork Company, 97 NLRB 1057. 14 The Rauland Corporation, 9T NLRB 1333. 15 Knox Glass Bottle Company, 101 NLRB 36 ; Ravenna Arsenal, Inc, 98 NLRB 1. 1U Knox Glass Bottle Company, supra. 17 The last collective-bargaining agreement between the Employer and the Intervenor, not herein urged as a bar, continued in effect until October 15, 1952 , and so long thereafter as negotiations for a upw agreement continue. About 60 days before October 15y 1952, the KIMBLE GLASS COMPANY 939 volved in these cases may, if they so desire, continue to be represented by the Intervenor as part of the more inclusive plantwide unit. How- ever, a history of collective bargaining does not preclude the direction of self-determination elections among craft and departmental groups otherwise found to be appropriate bargaining units."' Finally, the Employer and the Intervenor contend that the em- ployees in the units sought by the Petitioner lack the necessary craft characteristics and functions for severance from the existing unit. We have already found that the blacksmiths, the machinists, and the powerhouse employees make up either craft or departmental groups which may constitute appropriate bargaining units. We shall, there- fore, direct self-determination elections among these employees. We have also found, as contended by the Employer and the Intervenor, that the remaining maintenance employees in the general maintenance shop and the systems shop lack the necessary craft qualities for sever- ance. The Petitioner proposed as an alternate unit, one including all maintenance department employees in a single, multicraft unit. The Board has, in the absence of a prior history of collective bargaining, permitted the formation of similar bargaining units of maintenace employees.19 However, the Board has consistently refused to estab- hsh such multicraft units in the face of a substantial history of col- lective bargaining on a plantwide basis.20 We therefore find that in the instant case, in which there is a bargaining history extended back to 1937, the maintenance department unit requested in the alternative by the Petitioner is inappropriate and shall dismiss the petitions re- lating to the remaining maintenance employees. In accordance with the foregoing, we shall direct separate elections by secret ballot among employees of the Employer at its Vineland, New Jersey, plant, in the voting groups set forth below, excluding plant executives, office employees, technical staff, laboratory, engineer- ing, and mechanical department employees, office janitors, plant guards, factory, shipping, and receiving clerks, guards, and all super- visors 21 as defined in the Act, and all other production employees rep- resented by the American Flint and Glass Workers' Union of North America, AFL : Intervenor opened negotiations with the Employer for a new agreement , which negotiations were in progress at the time of the hearing. 18 Campbell Soup Company, 98 NLRB 741. 19 Hallsburton Portland Cement Company, 91 NLRB 717. 20 General Mills, Inc., 91 NLRB 984; Crossett Paper Mills, Division of Crossett Lumber Company, 98 NLRB 542, 21 The parties stipulated that Elwood Larrabee, Purnell Bowker, Hernell MacFadden, Charles Houck, and Joseph Polinak, supervisors and foremen in the systems and machine shops, are supervisors within the meaning of the Act. 940 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR, RELATIONS BOARD (1) All machinists and machinists' apprentices in the machine shop, production development department, and mold shop 22 (2) All blacksmiths and blacksmiths' helpers in the mold shop. (3) All powerhouse employees working in the engine and boiler rooms.23 If a majority of the employees in any of the voting groups indicate, by voting for the Petitioner, their desire to be represented in a sepa- rate unit, the Board finds such unit to be appropriate and the Regional Director conducting the elections directed herein is instructed, in that event, to issue a certification of representatives to the Petitioner for such unit. If a majority of the employees in any of the voting groups vote for 'the Intervenor, the Board finds, in such event, that these employees are appropriately represented in the presently existing production and maintenance unit, and instructs the Regional Director to issue a certification of results of elections to that effect. Order IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the petitions in Cases Nos. 4-RC-1693, 4-RC-1694, 4-RC-1695, 4-RC-1696, 4-RC-1699, 4-RC-1700, 4-RC- 1701, and 4-RC-1702 be, and they are hereby, dismissed. [Text of Direction of Elections omitted from publication in this volume.] 12 The Petitioner has requested the inclusion of machinists' helpers in the unit. However, it appears that there are no helpers regularly or permanently assigned to the machinists and we shall omit them from the unit description. There is employed in the machine shop a general utility man who performs general cleanup and maintenance duties around the shop. In keeping with the Board's recent decision in Westinghouse Electric Corporation, 101 NLRB 441, we shall not include in this craft group an unskilled employee. He is therefore excluded from the machinist unit. as There are several maintenance men in the systems department, some of whom have fireman or engineer licenses . It is not clear from the record , however, whether these em- ployees are a part of the powerhouse unit or not. Therefore we shall include in the unit of powerhouse employees such systems maintenance employees , if any, who (1 ) are per- manently assigned to the powerhouse unit, ( 2) work under the supervision of the power- house foreman , and (3), work principally in the boiler and engine room or on steam, air, and other system lines related to the powehouse. Micam.old Radio Corp., 94 NLRB 1193. DEWEY AND ALMY CHEMICAL COMPANY and LODGE No. 831, INTER- NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS, AFL, PETITIONER. Case No. 18-RC-1731. February 3, 1953 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 Max Rotenberg, hearing 102 NLRB No. 91.