Southland Paper Mills, Inc.

SOUTHLAND PAPER MILLS, INC. 707 the shipping and receiving clerk, but excluding professional employees , technical employees , guards , the stockroom super- visor, and all other supervisors as defined in the Act. [Text of Direction of Elections omitted from publication.] SOUTHLAND PAPER MILLS, INC.' and LODGE 1808, INTER- NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS, AFL, Petitioner. Case No. 16-RC-1295. June 22, 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 John F. White, hearing officer . The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby af- firmed.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-member panel [Members Houston, Murdock, and Peterson]. Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds: 1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the mean- ing of the National Labor Relations Act. 2. The labor organizations involved claim to represent certain employees of the Employer.3 3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the representation of employees of the Employer within the mean- ing of Section 9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act. 4. The Petitioner seeks to sever from the existing unit of production and maintenance employees, a unit of painters, painter helpers, and the painter leaderman. The Intervenor challenges the appropriateness of the unit apparently on the ground that the employees in question do not constitute a skilled group of employees and on the further ground that there is a contrary bargaining history on a broader basis. The Em- ployer takes no position. The Employer is engaged in the manufacture of newsprint and paperboard products at its plant in Lufkin, Texas. Since 1940 it has bargained with the Intervenor fora unit of production and maintenance employees including the employees whom the Petitioner seeks to sever. There is no evidence that any labor organization has heretofore sought to represent the painters separately. However, it appears that, as the result of Board- directed self-determination elections in 1945,4 and subsequent 1The correct name of the Employer appears as stated above. 2 At the hearing the Petitioner moved to amend its petition so as to seek certification of a separate and additional unit consisting of the furnace repair and installation man and helper. We find, contrary to the Petitioner's contention, that the hearing officer properly sustained the Intervenor's objection and denied the motion. 3International Brotherhood of Pulp, Sulphite and Paper Mill Workers, Local 401, was per- mitted to intervene on the basis of its existing contractual interest. 4Southland Paper Mills, Inc., 60 NLRB 63. 105 NLRB No. 107 708 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD years, the present Petitioner has been certified for separate units of machinists and millwrights, welders, pipefitters, blacksmiths, and garage mechanics and currently represents them in a single labor agreement. There are 5 painters, classified as journeymen painters, 1 painter helper, and 1 painter leadermanin the unit sought by the Petitioner. These employees are part of the maintenance de- partment and are under the immediate supervision of the assistant master mechanic, who also supervises the work of other craft employees in the department. The painters are solely responsible for keeping the plant, machinery, and equipment painted. They perform no other type of work. Al- though the Employer maintains no apprenticeship system, helpers who are promoted to journeyman status must be fully qualified journeyman painters. Painters who are hired from the outside are generally required to have 2 or 3 years' exper- ience . We are satisfied on the record as a whole that the employees sought by the Petitioner possess the traditional skills of their craft and constitute a distinct and homogeneous group of craft employees who the Board has frequently held may constitute a separate unit if they so desire notwithstanding a history of collective bargaining on a broader basis.5 In view of the foregoing, we shall direct an election among the following group of employees: All painters, painter helpers, and the painter leaderman at the Employer's Lufkin, Texas, plant, excluding office clerical employees, professional em- ployees, guards, watchmen, all other employees, and super- visors as defined in the Act. If a majority of the employees in the voting group select the Petitioner, they will be taken to have indicated their desire to constitute a separate appropriate unit, and the Regional Director conducting the election directed herein is instructed to issue a certification of representatives to the Petitioner for such a unit, which the Board, under such circumstances, finds to be appropriate for purposes of collective bargaining. In the event a majority of employees in the voting group select the Intervenor, they will be taken to have indicated their desire to remain part of the existing production and maintenance unit, and the Regional Director will issue a certification of results of election to that effect. [Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.] Member Peterson, dissenting: In accordance with the views expressed in my dissenting opinion in the Hamilton case,! I find no reason to grant craft -severance for the employees sought by the Petitioner, where, as here, for a period of 13 years there has been an apparently satisfactory history of collective bargaining for a plantwide unit of production and maintenance employees, including the painters involved herein. 5W. C Hamilton and Sons, 104 NLRB 627, International Paper Company, 94 NLRB 483, 496. 6W C Hamilton and Sons, 104 NLRB 627