The Apex Electrical Manufacturing Co.

In the Matter of THE APEx ELECTRICAL MANUFACTURING ; COMPANY and OFFICE EMPLOYEES INTERNATIONAL UNION, LOCAL NO. 17 (AFL) Case No. 8-R-1932.-Decided January 10, 1.9416 Messrs. McAfee, Grossman, Manning, cC Newcomer, b v Mr. James R. Tritschler; and Messrs . TV. J. MacIntyre and Ralph G. Moore, all of Cleveland, Ohio, for the Company. Mrs. Pearl A. Hanna, of Cleveland, Ohio, and Mr. Stafford Ash- worth, of Willoughby, Ohio, for the Union. Mr. Stanley B. Koren gold, of counsel to the Board. DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION STATEIIP:NT OF TIIE CASE Upon a petition duly filed by Office Employees International Union, Local No. 17 (AFL), herein called the Union, alleging that a question affecting commerce had arisen concerning the representa- tion of employees of The Apex Electric Manufacturing Company, Cleveland, Ohio, herein called the Company, the National Labor Relations Board provided for an appropriate hearing upon due notice before Thomas E. Shroyer, Trial Examiner . The hearing was held at Cleveland, Ohio, on September 6, 1945. The Company and the Union appeared and participated. All parties were afforded full opportunity to be heard, to examine and cross-examine witnesses, and to introduce evidence bearing on the issues . The Trial Examiner's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed. All parties were afforded an opportunity to file briefs with the Board. Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following: FINDINGS OF FACT I. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY The Apex Electrical Manufacturing Company is an Ohio corpora- tion with its principal office in Cleveland, Ohio. During the war the 65 N L. R B, No 69 382 THE APEX ELECTRICAL MANUFACTURING COMPANY 383 Company was engaged in the business of fabricating war products and will be reconverting to its peacetime business of manufacturing household appliances. During the last few years its annual volume of business has exceeded $5,000,000 in value, a substantial portion of its products and its raw materials having passed in interstate commerce. We find that the Company is engaged in commerce within the mean- ing of the National Labor Relations Act. H. TIIE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED ' Office Employees International Union, Local No. 17, affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, is a labor organization admitting to membership employees of the Company. III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION The Company has refused to grant recognition to the Union as the exclusive bargaining representative of certain of the Company's em- ployees until the Union has been certified by the Board in an appropri- ate unit. A statement of a Board agent, introduced into evidence at the hear- ing, indicates that the Union represents a substantial number of em- ployees in the unit hereinafter found appropriate., We find that a question affecting commerce has arisen concerning the representation of employees of the Company, within the meaning of Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act. IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT The Union seeks a bargaining unit comprising all clerical employ- ees, including typists, stenographers, bookkeepers, billing and tabulat- ing machine operators, switchboard operators, and timekeepers, but excluding confidential secretaries, office pay-roll employees, employees in the personnel department, factory employees who have been tem- porarily assigned to work in the office,- salesmen and division sales managers, executive, administrative, and professional employees, and all supervisory employees within the Board's customary definition. The Company agrees to the foregoing unit except for the cost and pay- roll department employees whom it would exclude as confidential employees. 1 The Field Examiner reported that the Union submitted 62 application-for-membership cards, 55 of which bore the names of persons appearing on the Company' s pay roll of August 4, 1945 ; that 49 of these cards were dated July 1945 and 13 were undated ; and that there were 126 employees in the unit alleged to be appropriate. The parties agree that the factory employees now working in the Company's office who hold seniority in the Company 's factory and will retain it upon their return should be excluded from the unit. 679100-46-vol 65-26 384 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD Cost and pay-roll depa tment This department is separated into three divisions-cost division, pay-roll division, and tabulating division. The employees in the cost division are engaged in the computation of manufacturing costs, the preparation of cost estimates, and the auditing of labor work tickets; the employees in the pay-roll division are responsible for computing the earnings of the factory employees from each employee's work ticket; the tabulating division employees prepare the final statistical studies comparing the Company's actual costs with its estimated costs. The record indicates that these employees do not have access to the Company's personnel records nor do they possess confidential infor- mation directly concerning the Company's labor relations. We have frequently stated that mere knowledge of the Company's financial affairs is insufficient to establish a confidential relationship to man- agement.3 Accordingly, we shall include the cost and pay-roll depart- ment employees in the unit .4 We find that all clerical employees, including typists, stenographers, bookkeepers, billing and tabulating machine operators, switchboard operators, cost and pay-roll department employees, and timekeepers, but excluding confidential secretaries,5 office pay-roll employees, em- ployees in the personnel department, factory employees who have been temporarily assigned to work in the office, salesmen and division sales managers , executive, administrative, and professional employees, and all supervisory employees with authority to hire, promote, discharge, discipline, or otherwise effect changes in the status of employees, or effectively recommend such action, constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act. V. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES We shall direct that the question concerning representation which has arisen be resolved by an election by secret ballot among the employees in the appropriate unit who were employed during the pay-roll period immediately preceding the date of the Direction of Election herein, subject to the limitations and additions set forth in the Direction. ' See Matter of The Murray Ohio Manufacturing Company, 61 N. L. R. B. 47 ; Matter of General Motors Corporation , Chevrolet Motor Die,is,on, 53 N. L. R . B. 1096 4 The Company would exclude Eppich , a cost clerk in the cost and pay -roll department, on the further ground that his work is substantially professional in nature ; the record, however , does not indicate any substantial difference between his work and that of the other cost clerks in the department we shall, therefore , include him in the unit. 5 But including June Cedilnik , a stenographic clerk in the billing department whom the Company contends should he excluded from the unit ; the record does not indicate that her duties involve the handling of confidential matters relating to the Company 's labor relations. THE APEX ELECTRICAL MANUFACTURING COMPANY 385 DIRECTION OF ELECTION By virtue of and pursuant to the power vested in the National Labor Relations Board by Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act, and pursuant to Article III, Section 9, of National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 3, as amended, it is hereby DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation to ascertain representa- tives for the purposes of collective bargaining with The Apex Elec- trical Manufacturing Company, Cleveland, Ohio, an election by secret ballot shall be conducted as early as possible, but not later than thirty (30) days from the date of this Direction, under the direction and supervision of the Regional Director for the Eighth Region, acting in this matter as agent for the National Labor Relations Board, and subject to Article III, Sections 10-and 11, of said Rules and Regula- tions, among the employees in the unit sound appropriate in Section IV, above, who were employed during the pay-roll period immediately preceding the date of this Direction, including employees who did not work during said pay-roll period because they were ill or on vacation or temporarily laid off, and including employees in the armed forces of the United States who present themselves in person at the polls, but excluding those employees who have since quit or been discharged for cause and have not been rehired or reinstated prior to the date of the election, to determine whether or not they desire to be represented by O rice Employees International Union, Local No. 17 (AFL), for the purposes of collective bargaining. MR. GERARD D. REILLY took no part in the consideration of the above Decision and Direction of Election.