A. O. Smith Corp. of Texas

A. O. SMITH CORPORATION OF TEXAS 977 A. O. SMITH CORPORATION OF TEXAS and SHOPMEN'S LOCAL UNION 694 OF THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIA- TION OF BRIDGE, STRUCTURAL AND ORNAMENTAL IRON WORKERS, AFL, Petitioner A. O. SMITH CORPORATION OF TEXAS and PIPEFITTERS LOCAL 211, UNITED ASSOCIATION OF JOURNEYMEN & APPRENTICES OF THE PLUMBING & PIPE FITTING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES & CANADA, AFL, Petitioner A. O. SMITH CORPORATION OF TEXAS and MILLWRIGHTS LOCAL 2232 OF THE UNITED BROTHERHOOD OF CAR- PENTERS AND JOINERS OF AMERICA, AFL, Petitioner. Cases Nos. 39-RC-567, 39-RC-568, and 39-RC-570. May 13, 1953 DECISION, ORDER, AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION Upon separate petitions duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act, a consolidated hearing was held before Clifford W. Potter, hearing officer. The hearing of- ficer'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 these cases to a three-member panel ,Chairman Herzog and Mem- bers Styles and Peterson]. Upon the entire record in these cases, the Board finds: 1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the mean- ing of the Act. 2. The labor organizations involved claim to represent cer- tain employees of the Employer. 3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the representation of employees of the Employer within the mean- ing of Section 9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act. 4. At Houston, Texas, the Employer operates a steel pipe manufacturing plant, with approximately 275 production and maintenance employees. The production operations, by means of which sheet steel is converted into piping of various sizes through successive applications of chemical, mechanical, and heat processes, are highly integrated and function continuously on a 20-hour-a-day basis. The Employer, the Iron Workers,' and the Steel Workers= agree that an existing collective-bargaining unit, currently represented by the Steel Workers, and composed of all production and maintenance employees, excluding electricians and their helpers, A office and clerical employees, professional employees, chemists, metallurgists, laboratory technicians, t Shopmen's Local Union 694 of the International Association of Bridge, Structural and Ornamental Iron Workers, AFL. 2 United Steelworkers of America. CIO. (Currently represented by international Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. AFL. 104 NLRB No. 115. 9 78 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD guards, watchmen , and supervisors as defined in the Act, constitutes the only appropriate collective -bargaining unit for employees at the Employer ' s plant. The Pipefitters4 seeks to sever from the existing unit em- ployees engaged in the maintenance of pipe and piping equip- ment, including their helpers and apprentices , but excluding all other employees and supervisors as defined in the Act. The Millwrights6 seeks to sever from the existing unit two separate units, as follows : (a) All machine repairmen, in- cluding machine repairmen B, but excluding all other em- ployees and supervisors as defined in the Act; and (b) all maintenance welders, including the welder in the machine shop , but excluding all arbor welders, all other welders, all other employees , and supervisors as defined in the Act. The Employer' s plant is administratively organized for the primary purpose of promoting the uninterrupted flow of its production operations .6 With 2 exceptions ,7 the 9 pipefitters, 13 machine repairmen, and 6 welders herein sought to be severed work with other maintenance employees O within a single department known as the mechanical maintenance department , under the supervision of a maintenance super- visor. There is no separate supervision for any of the em- ployee groups within this department , and there are no separate pipe, machine repair, or welding shops for the employee groups herein sought to be separately represented, all of whom perform bench and booth work in a common working area. The plant is equipped with a system of coded whistle calls which inform these employees of maintenance jobs to be performed anywhere in the plant and of the type of job to be performed. These whistle - call jobs, which take precedence over other mechanical maintenance department work, are under the jurisdiction of the production supervisor, who operates the whistle , instructs maintenance employees who respond to the calls with respect to the nature of the jobs to be performed , and frequently directs them in the per- formance of their work. None of the pipefitter, machine repairman , or welder groups herein sought to be separately represented possess specific 4Pipefitters Local 211, United Association of Journeymen & Apprentices of the Plumbing & Pipe Fitting Industry of the United States & Canada, AFL. SMillwrights Local 2232 of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, AFL. 6 The Employer's production operations are briefly described as follows: Steel plate which arrives at the freightyard is cleaned in an acid bath and trimmed and shaped into cylinders, in 4 successive stages , in the press department. Lugs are then welded to either end of the cylinders and butt-welding machines attached thereto, which machines flash-weld the entire seam, 40 feet in length, in a single operation. The pipe is trimmed of excess flash, tested, inspected, and loaded on trucks or railroad equipment for shipment. 7 These exceptions include the machine- shop welder and a pipefitter in the butt-weld depart- ment, a production department. s These include pump operators , oilers, truckdrivers , chipmen, janitors , sweepers, and laborers . The Employer has two other maintenance departments , known as the electrical maintenance department and the machine shop. A. O. SMITH CORPORATION OF TEXAS 979 craft skills not shared by other employees in the plant; in fact, the Employer hires employees within these groups primarily for their ability to handle any of the several different types of mechanical difficulties which arise in the course of its operations, rather than for any peculiar skills which they may possess in a single craft field. Such hirings are from within the plant and are frequently from the ranks of production employees. The Employer has no ap- prentice training program for its mechanical maintenance department employees. The employees herein sought to be severed are engaged in work which follows the functional requirements of the Em- ployer's continuous plant operations, rather than traditional craft work patterns. Accordingly, these employees frequently work in teams, with or without other mechanical maintenance department employees and production employees;' theyfre- quently perform a variety of jobs not associated with a particular craft;1° and other plant employees, using similar skills, frequently perform' pipefitting, machine maintenance, and welding work essentially similar to that performed by the pipefitters, machine repairmen, and maintenance welders." On October 12, 1950, following consent elections, the Steelworkers was certified as the exclusive collective -bargain- ing representative of the Employer's production and mainte- nance employees , with the aforementioned exclusions, in separate units of (a) machine shop employees and (b) all other employees. Since December 4, 1950, the Steelworkers has contractually represented these employees in a single production and maintenance unit. Under these circumstances, we conclude that the three separate groups of pipefitters, machine repairmen, and main- tenance welders herein sought to be separately represented lack both the craft skills and the group homogeneity and identity prerequisite to their establishment by this Board in separate bargaining units,'2 and that the unit of production and maintenance employees herein sought is the only ap- propriate collective-bargaining unit at this time. Accordingly, we find that the separate units of pipefitters, sought by the Pipefitters in Case No. 39-RC-568, and of machine repairmen and of maintenance welders, sought by the 9 Thus, pipefitters assist machine repairmen, maintenance welders, and other mainte- nance employees, and production employees work as a team to keep the butt -weld machine- - the Employer 's most important production machine-- in operation . Similar teamwork occurs during bimonthly changeovers of machinery, which occur when pipe of a different size is to be produced. 10 For instance, machine repairmen also perform rigging and iron work, and pipefitters also perform brick work, light burners, adjust lubrication on the dispatch washer, grind, repair, and replace valve seats , and clean and drain septic tanks. 11 There are, in addition to the maintenance welders herein sought to be severed , several categories of production welders , known as test head welders, lug welders, repair floor welders, and arbor welders . Production employees also do machine repair work, and other maintenance employees do pipefitting. uChicago Retort and Fire Brick Division of Laclede-Christie Company, 99 NLRB 335; Automatic Electric Company, 94 NLRB 1125. 980 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD Millwrights in Case No . 39-RC-570, are inappropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act, and we therefore dismiss the petitions in those cases . We further find that all production and maintenance em- ployees at the Employer' s Houston , Texas, steel pipe manu- facturing plant , including pipefitters , machine repairmen, and welders, but excluding electricians and their helpers, office and clerical employees , professional employees , chemists, metallurgists , laboratory technicians , guards, watchmen, and supervisors as defined in the Act, constitute aunit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act. ORDER IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the petitions in Cases Nos. 39-RC-568 and 39-RC-570 be, and the same hereby are, dismissed. [Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.] E. W. LOUDER AND C. E. DUNMIRE, d/b/a SOUTH FORK FOUNDRY AND MACHINE COMPANY and UNITED STEEL- WORKERS OF AMERICA, CIO, Petitioner UNIVERSAL ELECTRIC AND MANUFACTURING COMPANY and UNITED STEELWORKERS OF AMERICA, CIO, Petitioner NATIONAL BOOTH AND LOUNGE COMPANY and UNITED STEELWORKERS OF AMERICA, CIO, Petitioner FLOOD CITY BRASS AND ELECTRIC COMPANY and UNITED STEELWORKERS OF AMERICA, CIO, Petitioner WESTINGHOUSE ELECTRIC CORPORATION JOHNSTOWN MANUFACTURING AND REPAIR PLANT and INTERNA- TIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS, AFL, Petitioner . Cases Nos. 6-RC-1226 , 6-RC-1227, 6- RC-1228, 6-RC-1230, and 6-RC-1234, May 13, 1953 DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS Upon separate petitions duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act, a consolidated hearing was held before Harold L. Hudson, hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed. At the hearing , United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America , and its amalgamated Local 619 , herein called the UE and Local 619 , moved to dis- miss the petitions upon the ground that its several contracts with the individual Employers involved herein constitute re- 104 NLRB No. 123.