Neches Butane Products Co.

388 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD same Employer.3 The Employer takes the contrary view and requests the Board to reconsider its earlier finding. It does not appear from this decision that the foregoing facts were before the Board at that time. In view of these facts, indicating the temporary and limited nature of the seasonal employees' employment, we now find that the tenure of their employment is not sufficiently regular or substantial to entitle then' to participate in the election. Therefore, although the nature of their work warrants their inclusion in the unit, we find that they are ineligible to vote.' [Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this volume.] 8 86 NLRB 319. (September 1949.) 4 S fL Co. of Pipeatone, 96 NLRB 1418 ; R. Appel, Inc., 95 NLRB 7. NECHES BUTANE PRODUCTS COMPANY and OIL WORKERS INTERNA- TIONAL UNION, CIO, PETITIONER. Case No. 39-RC-466. July 28,1952 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 Charles Y. Latimer, hearing officer. The hearing officer's 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 this case to a three-member panel [Members Houston, Styles, and Peterson]. 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. 3. A question. affecting commerce exists concerning the representa- tion of employees of the Employer within the meaning of Section 9 (c) (1) aild Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.' 4. The Petitioner's unit request, as amended at the hearing, embraces pipefitters, pipefitter helpers and apprentices, and insulators at the ' Pipe Fitters Local No. 195, United Association of Journeymen & Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry of the U. S and Canada , AFL, herein called the In- tervenor, asserts that its contract covering the employees sought herein constitutes a bar to the petition . The contract term was from June 25, 1951, to June 30, 1952, with a 60-day automatic renewal clause . On April 28, the Petitioner wrote to the Employer requesting recognition , and filed its petition on May 8 As the request for recognition preceded the automatic renewal date of the contract and was followed by the timely filing of the petition , the contract is not a bar. 100 NLRB No. 62. NECHES BUTANE PRODUCTS COMPANY 389 Employer's Port)Neches, Texas, plant: In the alternative, the Peti- tioner seeks separate units of pipefitters and insulators. The Em- ployer and the Intervenor oppose severance on the grounds of a history of bargaining on a more .comprehensive basis and a commingling of the functions of pipefitters and welders. The Employer is engaged in the production of butadiene, the major component of synthetic rubber. The various maintenance crafts em- ployed by the Employer are, under the over-all supervision of the general foreman and the two assistant general foremen of the mainte- nance division. Each craft is in turn under a separate foreman, and the Employer recognizes craft lines in the allocation of work. In 1944, following a consent election,2 the Intervenor was certified for a unit of pipefitters, welders, and insulators, their helpers and apprentices,.and has continued to represent these-employees since then. The Employ- er's pipefitting and welding shops are located within the same area, and the 64 pipefitters and 17 welders perform their tasks both in the shops and in the field. The pipefitters are skilled craftsmen engaged in the traditional work of their craft, having acquired journeyman status by previous training and experience or by apprenticeship in the plant. While the welders are not an apprenticed craft, they are required to exercise complete welding skills and to pass a pipe-welding test. Although the welders assist whatever crafts require their special services, they spend a major-part of their time working with the•pipe- fitters. The 4 insulators who, it appears, do not possess craft skills, work with the pipefitters in covering and insulating pipe and heat exchanges. The factors that both the pipefitters and the welders are craftsmen, that the welders spend a major part of their time working with the pipefitters,3 that the work of the insulators is more closely identified with that of the pipefitters than with other crafts in the plant, and that the history of bargaining has been on a departmental basis, establish that the existing unit of-pipefitters, insulators, and welders is appro- priate rather than the groups the.Petitioner,seeks to sever. Accord ingly, we find that the pipefitters, pipefitter helpers and apprentices, insulators, welders and their helpers at the Employers' Port Neches, Texas, plant, excluding all other employees and supervisors, consti- tute a unit appropriate within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act. [Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this volume.] ' s 16-R-941. 2 Cf. International Paper Company ( Southern Kraft Division ), 96 NLRB 295; Sinclair Rubber, Inc, 96 NLRB 220.