Warner Electric Brake & Clutch Co.

268 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD contract layers-off are independent contractors and shall exclude them and their employees from the units.9 On the basis of the foregoing and upon the entire record in these cases, we find that the following separate units, excluding in each case all other employees, contract layers-off and their employees, office clericals, guards, and supervisors as defined in the Act, are appropri- ate for purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Sec- tion 9 (b) of the Act. a. In Case No. 3-RC-1416: All layers-off employed by members of Block Cut Manufacturers, Inc., who are participating members of the association for bargaining purposes. b. In Case No. 3-RC-1417: All layers-off employed by members of Fulton County Glove Manufacturers, Inc., who are participating members of the association for bargaining purposes. c. In Case No. 3-RC-1457: All cutters and shavers employed by members of Block Cut Manufacturers, Inc., who are participating members of the association for bargaining purposes. d. In Case No. 3-RC-1458: All cutters and shavers employed by members of Fulton County Glove Manufacturers, Inc., who are par- ticipating members of the association for bargaining purposes. [Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.] 6 See Alaska Salmon Industry, Inc., 110 NLRB 900. WARNER ELECTRIC BRAKE & CLUTCH COMPANY and INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS, AFL, DISTRICT No. 68, PETITIONER. Case No. 13-RC-4028. January 20,1955 Decision and Direction of Election Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National La- bor Relations Act, a hearing was held before Allen P. Haas, 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 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) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act. The Intervenor, United Steelworkers of America, CIO, and its Local 3245, asserts its current contract as a bar to the present proceed- 111 NLRB No. 41. WARNER ELECTRIC BRAKE & CLUTCH COMPANY 269 ing alleging that the petition herein was filed prematurely. The Employer and the Intervenor executed an agreement effective from November 1, 1953, to November 1954, which provided for yearly auto- matic renewals unless notice was given by either party 60 days prior to the expiration date. As the Petitioner filed its petition on August 4, 1954, less than 1 month prior to the Mill B date, we find that it was not filed prematurely, and that the contract is no bar to this proceeding.' 4. The Petitioner seeks to represent the toolroom employees as a true craft unit and/or a departmental unit. The Intervenor contends that the unit sought is inappropriate as (1) the Petitioner does not seek all the employees of similar skills, and (2) the toolroom does not exist as a separate and distinct department because of the interchange between the employees due to the integrated operation of the Em- ployer. The Employer opposes severance for the same reasons as the Intervenor, and further urges that it would not be for the best in- terests of the Company or the employees. The Employer is engaged in the manufacture of electrical brakes, clutches, and controls for automotive and industrial use at South Beloit, Illinois. The Intervenor has been the certified bargaining representative since 1946 for the production, maintenance, and service employees, which includes those employees sought by the Petitioner. Approximately 200 employees are under the current contract. These employees work in a two story building consisting of first floor pro- duction area with no physical separation between production depart- ments. The offices and sales department are on the second floor. The toolroom is an area 50 x 90-100 feet, located on the southwest corner of the plant and across an open aisle from the machine floor. Employees in the toolroom are : 11 tool- and die-makers A, 4 tool- and die-makers B, 1 tool machinist A, 1 tool machinist B, 3 tool and die grinders, and 1 tool grinder C (crib attendant), a total of 21 em- ployees. All of these employees are under the direct supervision of the toolroom foreman who supervises no other employees. Located in the toolroom, department 5, are lathes, drill presses, milling machines, radial drills, surface grinders, and band saws. Some other lathes are located out in the production area and operated by production employees. The major duties of the toolroom employees are die and fixture maintenance, machine and assembly operations of nonregular produc- tion parts, sharpening and grinding of dies and tools, machining of standard components of dies that have become worn and broken, and the conforming of new dies to the Employer's need. The tool crib attendant gives out tools to all production employees and sharpens drills and carboloy items when not dispersing tools. The toolroom ' See Nesco, Inc., 101 NLRB 147. 270 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD grinders sharpen all tools for the various machines and grind dies. Only a few small, noncomplicated dies are made in the toolroom. Not over 10 percent of the dies that the Employer uses are made at the plant ; the vast majority and especially the complicated dies are purchased from the outside. The employees of the toolroom spend 40-50 percent of their time in repair of dies and replacement of die parts, but major die repairs are sent outside 80 percent of the time; 20-25 percent of the toolroom work is on schedule covering short run production or custom work and experimental runs, including 3-4 per- cent remachining production parts and 4-5 percent experimental parts; and, 25 percent of the time grinding production machine tools. Orders for a special brake or other product foreign to the regular run of production would usually be done in the toolroom on a job-shop basis. Equipment in the toolroom would not permit the employees to hold tolerances closer than two to three thousandths. Two of the Employer's tool- and die-makers A are journeymen tool- and die-makers, and one is a journeyman machinist who was granted the tool- and die-maker classification as a result of a grievance which was processed to secure him a tool- and die-maker classification. The Employer has no apprenticeship program, and journeyman standing or special training is not required for employment in the toolroom. The other tool- and die-makers have held previous jobs as welders, carpenters, toolroom employees, masons, etc. There appear to have been many transfers in and out of the toolroom , and at the present time a request is pending of one of the tool- and die-makers A to return to production . Evidence of one witness shows that he was hired by the Employer as a trucker in 1941, became a lathe operator operating radial drills, the milling machines , and the drill presses as well as the turret lathe, then became a setup man on the machine floor. In 1945, he transferred into the toolroom as a toolroom machinist, and after 3 or 4 months , his classification was changed to a tool - and die- maker B. In 1950, at his own request , he transferred out of the tool- room saying that the reason he had gone into the toolroom was to learn a complicated trade, but he became discouraged when the work con- sisted mostly of die repairs such as sharpening dies, making a few punches, etc. One tool- and die-maker testified that he did most of the "scraping in" of lathes and other items and was assisted by a helper from the maintenance department ; that on one occasion he performed a spe- cial job on the shoes of a milling machine and, as the machine oper- ator was ill and the setup man too busy , operated the machine for about 3 days. The Employer's manager of manufacturing testified that toolroom jobs were similar to jobs in other departments , evidently meaning - WARNER ELECTRIC BRAKE & CLUTCH COMPANY 271 that a substantial amount of machining was done on the machine floor as well as in the toolroom ; that the plant operates under both departmental and plantwide seniority and that movements to and from the toolroom are predicated on load requirements, employee re- quests, and changes during layoff. The Employer has 22 labor, grades : tool- and die-maker B is labor grade 19, there are no employees in labor grade 20, and tool- and die- maker A is labor grade 21. The highest labor grade includes an employee who sets up both new and old machines.- The International representative of the Intervenor testified that the labor grades at the Employer's operations are not set up according to the skill of the employees but are based on the following factors : preemployment training, experience and training, mental skill, manual skill, mate- rial, equipment, mental effort, physical effort, safety of others, sur- roundings, hazards, and responsibility for the operation. The man- ager of manufacturing stated that the lowest labor grade could work up to the tool- and die-maker classification, and that it was necessary to be able to transfer employees as the need arose in order to stay within the budget. From the foregoing, we find that the employees in the toolroom constitute a functionally distinct and homogeneous departmental group of the type the Board has held may, if they so desire, consti- tute a separate appropriate unit. As the Petitioner is a labor or- ganization which has traditionally served the special interest of such employees, we shall permit the toolroom employees to determine whether they desire to be represented by the Petitioner.2 Accordingly, we shall direct that an election be held in the follow- ing voting group at the Employer's South Beloit, Illinois, plant, ex- cluding all other employees and supervisors as defined in the Act: All employees in the toolroom. If a majority vote for the Petitioner, they will be taken to have indicated their desire to be represented in a separate unit, and the Regional Director conducting the election directed herein is in- structed in that event, to issue a certification of representatives to the Petitioner for such unit, which the Board, under the circumstances, finds to be appropriate for purposes of collective bargaining. If, however, a majority vote for the Intervenor, they will be taken to have indicated their desire to remain a part of the existing produc- tion and maintenance unit, and the Regional Director is instructed to issue a certificate of results of election to such effect. [Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.] 2 See Moe Light, Inc, 109 NLRB 1013; St. Louis Car Company, 108 NLRB 1388.