Specialty Manufacturing Co., Inc.

80 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD selecting music for programs she sometimes works with pro- gram directors and sponsor representatives . Although her musical background is quite extensive , she testified that not a great deal of musical knowledge is necessary for her duties. She is paid $ 285 amonthandhasno assistant . About 25 percent of her time is spent indirect clerical work . The Employer con- tends that Miss Jenkins is a profe s sional employee , and also that her duties are more closely allied with production activities than office or clerical work. Upon these facts we reject both of the Employer's contentions and find that the TV music librarian is properly included in the unit. Accordingly , we find that the following employees constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act : All office clerical em- ployees at the Employer ' s Hollywood and Los Angeles , Califor- nia, offices, including employees in the continuity acceptance and literary rights department , TV music librarian , secretaries to department heads, 15 all mail room and message service em- ployees, telephone operators , personnel department employees; but excluding watchmen , guards, professional employees, the TV production analyst, and all other employees and supervisors Was defined in the Act. 17 [Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.] i5 Except, as stipulated, the secretaries to the western division 's labor relations manager, general manager, and vice president. 16 including the accounting supervisor and the accounts receivable supervisor , assistant to the director of TV engineering , secretary to the director of engineering and special services , and the cashier. 17 It was stipulated by the parties that the following should be excluded from the unit: page staff; tour people; guest relations personnel; salesmen; head of continuity acceptance department; music clearance supervisor ; guest relations supervisor ; mail room and mes- senger supervisor ; production control manager ; sales service manager of network radio; sales service manager for KECA- TV; payroll supervisor; supervisor of TV stenographic department ; PBX supervisor; supervisor of announcers; radio supervisor of announcers; radio program operations manager; director of TV program operations; and the auditor. SPECIALTY MANUFACTURING COMPANY, INC . and DIS- TRICT 37 , INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MACHIN- ISTS , AFL, Petitioner. Case No. 39-RC-659 . November 16, 1953 DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before Wilton Waldrop, hearing officer . ' The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed. Upon the entire record in this case , the Board finds: 1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the mean- ing of the Act. 'At the hearing, the petition and other formal papers herein were amended to reflect the correct name of the Employer. 107 NLRB No. 28. SPECIALTY MANUFACTURING COMPANY, INC. 81 2. The labor organization named below claims to represent certain employees of the Employer. 3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the rep- resentation of certain employees of the Employer, within the meaning of Section 9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act. 4. The parties generally agree that a unit of production and maintenance employees, including employees in the toolroom and in the punch press and screw machine departments, but excluding office clerical employees, professional employees, watchmen, guards, and supervisors as defined in the Act, is appropriate for bargaining purposes at the Employer's plant at Houston, Texas. The parties disagree as to the inclusion of employees in the defense contract or ordnance department, herein otherwise called defense contract employees. The Peti- tioner would include these employees in the production and maintenance unit. The Employer would exclude them from that unit and establish them as a separate appropriate unit, on the ground that they may be permanently laid off in October 1953. The parties further disagree as to the unit placement of chief inspectors in the defense contract department, discussed below. There is no history of collective bargaining at the plant. For a number of years, the Employer has been engaged in the manufacture of punch press and screw machine products. Since 1951 or 1952, it has alsobeenengaged as a subcontractor under a defense contract in the manufacture of parts for mortar shells. At the time of the hearing, the Employer divided its manufacturing operations into several sections, including a toolroom and punch press, screwmachine,anddefense contract, departments, with approximately 4, 10, 4, and 70 employees, respectively. The defense contract expires by its terms in October 1953, and the Employer expects that, if the production schedule has been met, all defense contract employees will then be permanently terminated. While such layoff, if it occurs, may affect the eligibility of the defense contract employees to vote in the election hereinafter directed,: the prospect of such a layoff does not warrant the exclusion of such employees from the production and maintenance unit. Their unit placement depends on their job functions and not on the nature of their tenure. 3 As their work does not appear to be so dissimilar to that of the Employer's other production and maintenance em- ployees as to warrant the establishment of a separate unit of defense contract employees, we shall include them in the production and maintenance unit. Chief inspectors in the defense contract department: The Petitioner would include this category in the production and maintenance unit. Although the Employer's position as to the chief inspectors is not entirely clear, it appears that the Employer would either exclude them from any unit herein found appropriate on the ground that they are supervisors t See paragraph 5, below. 3 The Sheffield Corporation, 94 NLRB 1781. 82 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD within the meaning of the Act , or would establish them as a separate appropriate unit on the ground that their work interests are different from those of other employees. The approximately 3 chief inspectors in the defense contract department inspect finished products . They have authority to reject work done by production employees . One of the chief inspectors is assisted by 5 or 6 other inspectors . Although chief inspectors may recommend the discharge of employees, such recommendations do not carry effective weight . Nor does the record disclose that chief inspectors have any of the other powers of a supervisor as set forth in Section 2 (11) of the Act. We therefore find that chief inspectors are not supervisors within the meaning of the Act. The Board has found that em- ployees such as the instant chief inspectors may appropriately be included in a production and maintenance unit.4 We shall therefore include chief inspectors in the unit hereinafter found appropriate. Upon the entire record in this case , we find that the follow- ing employees of the Employer at its punch press and screw machine plant at Houston , Texas , constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act: All production and maintenance em- ployees , including employees in the toolroom and in the punch press , screw machine , and defense contract , departments, chief inspectors in the latter department , and other inspectors, but excluding office clerical employees, professional employees, watchmen , guards , and supervisors as defined in the Act. 5. No election can be held in this proceeding until after October 1953 , the time of the expected layoff of the defense contract employees . If any such employees have actually been laid off by the date of the election , without reasonable expecta- tion of reemployment , they will be regarded as having been permanently severed and will be ineligible to vote in the election hereinafter directed.' Otherwise , they will be eligible to vote. [Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.] 4Palmer Manufacturing Company, 103 NLRB 336, aid cases cited therein. s Mosher Steel Company, 88 NLRB 173. SONOCO PRODUCTS COMPANY and INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF PULP , SULPHITE , AND PAPER MILL WORKERS, AFL , AND INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF PAPER MAKERS , AFL, Petitioners . Case No . 11-RC-566. November 17, 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 Jerold B. Sindler , hearing officer . The hearing officer's rulings made 107 NLRB No. 24.