General Electric Co.

GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY 419 Intervenor, they will be taken to have indicated their desire to con- tinue to be included in the existing production and maintenance unit, and the Regional Director shall issue a certificate of results of elec- tions to that effect. [Text of Direction of Elections omitted from publication in this volume.] GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY and DISTRICT #27, INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS, A. F. OF L., PETITIONER. Case No. 9- RC1599. July 30,1952 Decision and Order Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before Lloyd R. Fraker, 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 [Chairman Herzog and Members Houston and Murdock]. 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 employees of the Employer. 3. No question affecting commerce exists concerning the representa- tion of employees of the Employer within the meaning of Section 9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act, for the following reasons: The Petitioner seeks a unit of all model shop employees, including tool and die makers, model makers, toolroom machinists, tool machine operators, welders, sheet metal men, and their helpers and apprentices. The Employer and the two Intervenors, International Union of Elec- trical, Radio and Machine Workers, CIO, and United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of Amerik;ar, contend that the petition was filed prematurely because the Employer's operations are expanding. The Employer's major appliance division, operating 6 plants in the eastern part of the United States, manufactures electric refrigerators, freezers, ironers, washing machines, clothes dryers, dishwashers, food disposers, and room coolers. In 1951, the Employer decided to cen- tralize its electrical appliance operations and for that purpose began constructing, near Louisville, Kentucky, a large plant which will even- 100 NLRB No. 66. 227260-53-vol. 100-28 420 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD tually employ over 10,000 workers. The first of 5 planned buildings will be ready for operation this summer, the second this fall, and the third early in 1953. The model shop is temporarily located in a Louisville building but will be transferred to the new plant and become a part of a permanent combined toolroom and model shop that will service the entire division. The 21 model slop employees presently employed, classified as model makers and sheet metal workers, are engaged in making full-scale working samples and models of appliances for laboratory testing. In this work, these model makers exercise the usual skills of tool and die makers. Part of the present operation requires bending materials into shape to construct electric ranges; this work is now performed by the sheet metal workers in the model shop. To the present group of model shop employees, the Employer shortly plans to add new classifications of craft employees such as tool and die makers, tool makers, lathe operators, and milling machine operators. By September 1952, these toolroom and model shop employees will be increased to 75; by the end of 1952, to 150 employees; and by June 1953, to 250 employees. Be- cause of the imminence of this substantial expansion, the present group of model shop employees is not representative of all categories of employees to be included in the ultimate toolroom and model shop unit of which they will be a part; nor do they constitute a substantial proportion of the expected full complement of such employees. In these circumstances, we believe that any unit determination affecting these employees would, at present, be premature.' Accordingly, we shall dismiss the petition without prejudice. Order IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the petition filed herein be, and it hereby is, dismissed. 1 Westinghouse Electric Corporation, 85 NLRB 1519 ; Coast Pacific Lumber Company, 78 NLRB 1245. WESTERN ELECTRIC COMPANY, INCORPORATED and COMMUNICATIONS WORKERS OF AMERICA, CI(1, PETITIONER . Case No. 18-RC-1330. Juhy 30, 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 Max Rotenberg, hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed. 100 NLRB No. 67.