The General Tire and Rubber Co.

246 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD and the Regional Director is instructed to issue a certificate of results to that effect. [Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.] Member Peterson, dissenting: The only justification for directing a self-determination election in the present case is the craft character of the electricians' group. However, as stated in my dissent in the Hamilton case,5 this factor is insufficient to warrant a self- determination election where, as here, there has been a successful collective-bargaining history for approximately 10 years. 5 W. C. Hamilton and Sons, 104 NLRB 627. THE GENERAL TIRE AND RUBBER COMPANY and LOCAL UNION NO. 211 OF THE UNITED ASSOCIATION OF JOURNEYMEN AND APPRENTICES OF THE PLUMBING AND PIPEFITTING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA, AFL, Petitioner. Cases Nos. 39-RC-583 and 39-RC-599. July 21, 1953 DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS Upon separate petitions duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held in these cases before Clifford W. Potter and John F. Burst, hearing officers. The hearing officers' 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 these cases to a three-member panel [Members Murdock, Styles, and Peterson]. iln its brief, the Employer moved to dismiss the petition in Case No. 39-RC-599 on the grounds, in substance, (1) that the Petitioner does not have an adequate showing of interest among employees sought therein; and (2) that the hearing officer acted improperly in ad- vising the Petitioner at the hearing on the petition in Case No. 39-RC-583. The motion is denied. As to (1): Showing of interest is an administrative expedient and is not litigable by the parties Moreover, we are administratively informed that the Petitioner has an adequate showing of interest among employees sought in Case No. 39-RC-599 Swift R, Company, 94 NLRB 917. As to (2): On March 23, 1953, the Petitioner filed its petition in Case No 39-RC-583, requesting a unit of pipefitters and welders. At the hearing on this petition, held on April 10, 1953, the Petitioner sought to amend its petition to include instrument repairmen, insulators, and salvagemen. The hearing officer advised the Petitioner to file new or amended petitions, and adjourned the hearing On the same day, the Petitioner filed an amended petition request- ing a unit of pipefitters, welders, insulators, and salvagemen and a new petition in Case No. 39-RC-599, requesting a unit of instrument repairmen. At the consolidated hearing, held on May 12, 1953, all parties were afforded full opportunity to litigate any issue raised by the petitions. So far as the record discloses, the Employer was not prejudiced in any way by this procedure. Cf. Paraffine Companies, Inc., 85 NLRB 325. 106 NLRB No. 49. THE GENERAL TIRE AND RUBBER COMPANY 247 Upon the entire record in these cases, 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 representation of employees of the Employer within the meaning of Section 9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act. 4. From the larger plant unit of which they have been a part, the Petitioner seeks to sever two separate units of em- ployees at the Employer's rubber plant at Baytown, Texas, (1) pipefitters and (2) instrument repairmen. The Employer, alleging the integration of its operations and the previous history of bargaining on a broader basis and, with respect to the proposed pipefitters' unit, the diverse skills of employees sought for inclusion therein, contends that employees in neither requested unit may constitute a separate appropriate unit at this time. Houston Metal Trades Council, A. F. of L., the Intervenor herein, contends that its present contract unit is the appropriate bargaining unit for all these employees. The Employer is engaged at its Baytown, Texas, plant in the manufacture of synthetic rubber by the polymerization of butadiene and styrene in "a continuous flow process." This integrated process is a mechanical and chemical operation carried on 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. The Employer divides its operations, under the overall direction of its general manager, into many sectors, each under the direction of a manager , superintendent, or other supervisor. These sectors include, among others, the techni- cal and production divisions, the personnel office, the payroll section, and the safety engineering and the engineering de- partments. The Employer' s engineering department, under the overall supervision of the chief engineer , includes (a) the engineering and design sector and (b) the field forces. Engineers and a draftsman, under the immediate supervision of the chief engi- neer, constitute the engineering and design sector. The approximately 29 employees sought by the instant Petitioner are all a part of the field forces, who work under the overall supervision of the Employer's assistant maintenance engineer and the separate immediate supervision of maintenance foremen. The approximately 23 employees in the proposed pipefitters' unit, with a boilermaker, and the approximately 6 employees in the proposed instrument repairmen's unit work under the separate immediate supervision of their respective maintenance foremen. Other maintenance employees, in- cluding machinists, sheetmetal workers, millwrights or oilers, painters, carpenters, and laborers, work under the immediate supervision of other maintenance foremen. Maintenance employees, including those sought by the Peti- tioner, work in the two maintenance shops, in a salvage shed or yard, and throughout the plant, where needed, and use a common toolroom. All production and maintenance employees 248 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD have or use the same change house , group insurance , parking lot, clockalley , lunchroom , first-aid facilities , smoking sheds, and payday. There is no apprentice training program at the plant. For several years, the Employer and the Intervenor's predecessor, Tri-Cities Central Labor and Trades Council, and the Employer and the Intervenor , have bargained for employees sought herein by the Petitioner as part of a plant unit . The last contract between the Employer and the Inter- venor provides , among other things, for plant and job seniority and a common grievance procedure and vacation schedule. The Board has found that craft units may be appropriate for bargaining purposes inthe synthetic rubber industry.' The instant record does not, in our opinion, disclose that the Employer's production operations are so highly integrated as to persuade us to depart from this finding . 3 Nor does bar- gaining history on a broader basis preclude the severance of craft employees , where feasible.4 We therefore consider on their merits the separate units requested by the Petitioner. The proposed pipefitters' unit: Approximately 9 pipefitters and their leaderman and 7 helpers perform the customary duties of their usual and respective work classifications. We find that pipefitters and their leaderman5 and helpers con- stitute a traditional craft group, and may, if they so desire, constitute a separate appropriate unit.6 In the unit proposed for these employees, the Petitioner would include welders, insulators , and salvagemen. Welders, of whom there are approximately four, are not regularly assigned to work with any particular craftbut work with whatever group may need their services. Under these circumstances, we shall not include welders in the pipefitters' group , but we shall establish a separate voting group of welders and find that , if they so desire, welders may constitute a separate appropriate bargaining unit.' Approximately two insulators apply thermal insulation to boilers, valves , piping, and other fittings, to prevent loss of heat or cold, as the case maybe.This work, about 75 percent of which relates to piping , is similar to that done in other plants by pipe coverers. It is not skilled craft work. An undis- closed number of salvagemen , formerly craftsmen with long employment records but now unable to perform craft duties, collect and repair used parts , such as valves and flanges and other pipefittings, and supply them to other employees from storage bins. Insulators and salvagemen are not pipe- 2 Copolymer Corporation, 74 NLRB 921, and cases cited therein. 3Cf International Paper Company, Southern Kraft Division, and International Paper Company, Container Division, 94 NLRB 483. 4Hudson Pulp & Paper Corporation, 94 NLRB 1018. 5So far as the record discloses , leadermen proposed for inclusion in the units requested herein are not supervisors as defined in the Act. 6 McCarthy Chemical Company, 86 NLRB 14, and cases cited therein. 7 International Paper Company (Southern Kraft Division), 96 NLRB 295. THE GENERAL TIRE AND RUBBER COMPANY 249 fitters, and we shall therefore exclude them from the craft voting group of pipefitters.8 The proposed instrument repairmen's unit: Approximately four instrument repairmen with their leaderman and helper repair pneumatically operated control valves. This is pre- cision work. As a group, they have some of the skills of pipefitters and some of the skills of electricians. We find that instrument repairmen constitute a well-defined and functionally cohesive craft group of a type which the Board has found appropriate for the purposes of collective bargain- ing, and may, if they so desire , constitute a separate appro- priate unit.9 We shall direct separate elections by secret ballot among the following groups of employees at the Employer's Baytown, Texas, plant, including leadermen, helpers, trainees, and apprentices in each group, but excluding therefrom all other employees and supervisors as defined in the Act: Group 1, all pipefitters, excluding insulators and salvage- men; group 2, all welders; group 3, all instrument repairmen. If a majority of the employees in any of the 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 election among these em- ployees is instructed to issue a certification of representa- tives to the Petitioner for such unit, which the Board, under these circumstances, finds to be appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining. If a majority in any of the groups vote for the Intervenor, they will be taken to have indicated their desire to remain in the existing larger unit, and the Regional Director conducting the election will issue a certi- fication of results of election to that effect. [Text of Direction of Elections omitted from publication.] Member Peterson, dissenting: The record in this case reveals that there has been a suc- cessful 10-year bargaining history of representation of the instrument repairmen, pipefitters, and welders in an overall unit; the Employer' s operations are highly integrated; there is nothing to indicate that the proposed craft groups main- tained their identity as such during the period of bargaining on a more comprehensive basis; and there is no evidence that the Petitioner had obtained membership among the alleged craft employees before the establishment of the broader unit. Under the circumstances, and for the reasons more fully set forth in my dissenting opinion in the Hamilton case," I would dismiss the petitions. 8Cf. Armstrong Cork Company, 100 NLRB 1163, and Globe Steel Tubes Co., 101 NLRB 772. 9McCarthy Chemical Company, 98 NLRB 1084, and cases cited therein. 10 W. C. Hamilton and Sons, 104 NLRB 627.