The Carborundum Co.

216 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD Another assistant foreman on the first shift knitting room 4 testified that the foreman had told him he was assistant foreman, but he has exercised no supervision or assigned work; that he would report infrac- tions of plant rules occurring during the absence of the foreman; that he has attended supervisory meetings, and that a fixer had been work- ing with him for 4 or 5 weeks learning how to fix machines. The testimony of the assistant foremen set out above indicates that some assistant foremen exercise more supervisory authority than others. It is clear from the entire record, however, that assistant foremen have been given supervisory authority and that they respon- sibly direct employees. In the winding room they are the only per- sons present to direct and advise employees. Accordingly, we find that assistant foremen are supervisors as defined in the Act.' It appears that most of the individuals employed in machine fixing are assistant foremen whom we have found to be supervisors. As the unit requested is composed primarily of supervisors, it is inappro- priate, and we shall, therefore, dismiss the petition. Moreover, the present record fails to establish that a unit of nonsupervisory machine fixers is appropriate on a craft,6 residual, or other basis. [The Board dismissed the petition.] 4 The parties stipulated that the remaining assistant foremen on the knitting first shift would give substantially the same testimony.. G See Mock, Judson, Voehringer Company of North Carolina, Inc., 110 NLRB 437, 441 ; Nebel Knitting Company, 106 NLRB 114; Silver Snit Hosiery Mills, Inc., 93 NLRB 791. 0 Cf. New Bedford Cotton Mfgrs. Assn., 78 NLRB 319. The Carborundum Company and Office Employees International Union, Local 212, AFL-CIO, Petitioner. Case No. 3-RC-1591. January 23, 1956 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 William J. Cavers, 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. IL Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers, International Union, CIO , and its local 15-12058, herein called the Intervenor, was permitted to intervene at the hearing. 115 NLRB No. 32. THE CARBORUNDUM COMPANY 217 4. The Petitioner seeks to represent salaried clerical and technical employees at the Employer's Niagara, Globar, and Wheatfield, New York, plants. The Employer contends that the petition should be dismissed because (1) the proposed unit does not include hourly paid clerical employees currently represented by the Intervenor; and (2) the current collective-bargaining contract between the Employer and the Intervenor which covers, among others, hourly paid clerical em- ployees is a bar to an election in the enlarged unit urged by the Employer. The Intervenor agrees with the unit position of the Petitioner. The Employer manufactures abrasives and related products at the three plants involved in this proceeding. The plants are organized into a functional staff and operating divisions. The functional staff comprises sales, finance, industrial relations, manufacturing, and re- search and development divisions. The operating divisions include four subdivisions engaged in the actual work of manufacturing the Employer's products. There are approximately 600 salaried clerical and about 175 hourly paid,-clerical employees. Of the salaried clericals, about 200 work for the staff divisions. About 400 of the salaried clericals and all the hourly paid clericals work for the operating divisions. Approxi- mately 150 of the operating division salaried clericals work in the main office building where most of the staff salaried clerical employees also work. Fifty-eight salaried clericals-37 staff and 21 operating division-work in building No. 1, which is also primarily an office building. The remaining clericals, salaried and hourly paid, work in the buildings housing the operating divisions. Most of these build- ings have offices physically separated from the space where manufac- turing operations are carried on. Each of the manufacturing divisions also has branches which correspond for the most part to the subdi- visions of the functional staff. The great bulk of the salaried clericals .assigned to the operating divisions work in these plant offices; a few of them also work in production areas. Of the hourly paid clericals, some work in the plant offices and others in the production areas, the exact proportion is not clear from the record. As a result of a consent election, the Intervenor has been the certi- fied bargaining representative of the Employer's production and maintenance employees and hourly paid clerical employees for the last 12 years. At the present time all these employees are covered by a collective-bargaining contract which will not expire until 1958. The salaried clerks have been unrepresented. At the time of the con- sent-election agreement, the Employer and the Intervenor agreed to include the hourly paid clericals as plant clericals and to exclude the salaried clericals as office clerical employees. At that time most of 218 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD the salaried clericals worked in the main office building. The Em- ployer now contends that salaried and hourly paid clerical employees work together in the same departments and that many of the jobs per- formed by salaried clericals are now also performed by the hourly paid clerks. It therefore urges that only a single unit of all clerical employees be found appropriate. We find that the salaried clerks can be represented apart from the other clericals either because (a) as asserted by the Petitioner and the Intervenor, they are the only office clerical employees, or (b) assuming arguendo that, as contended by the Employer, all the clerks now have similar interests, the salaried clerks are the residual, unrepresented part of that broader clerical unit.' We find that all salaried clerical and technical employees at the Employer's Niagara, Globar, and Wheatfield, New York, plants, ex- cluding all production and maintenance employees, hourly paid cleri- cal employees, confidential and professional employees, and employees exempt under the Fair Labor Standards Act as managerial employees, guards, and supervisors as defined in the Act, constitute a unit appro- priate for purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act 4 [Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.] 2 Westinghouse Electric Corporation ( Elevator Division ), 112 NLRB 590. 3 There is apparently no dispute as to the inclusion of technical employees in the event the Board finds that the requested clericals may function separately from the other clericals . The parties stipulated to include time-study technicians and employees paid on a semimonthly ( salary ) basis at the Employer 's ceramic fibre project. `The parties stipulated • to exclude, as confidential employees, 13 secretaries to the executive group of the Corporation , 25 secretaries to the branch managers , superintendents, and vice presidents , 5 clerical employees in the office of the director of industrial relations, 7 clerical employees in the office of the director of industrial relations -bonded abrasives division , 1 secretary to members of the Employer's negotiating committee, 1 secretary to the staff assistant in the office of the president , the receptionist, the file cleric who handles the central files for the executive group, and the secretary in the office of the director of manufacturing. The parties agreed to exclude chemists , the job analyst, the X-ray tech- nician, and nurses as professional employees . The parties also stipulated to exclude the senior time-study technician as a supervisor and the, office maintenance men as guards. Further, the parties stipulated to exclude six production management trainees, sales trainees , employees at the Employer's Buffalo Avenue residence , and the fire inspector as they do not perform any clerical functions. American Tobacco Company, Incorporated and Local Union 369, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, AFL-CIG, Petitioner. Case No. 9-IBC-2656. January 03, 1956 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 William G. Wilkerson, hear- 115 NLRB No. 34.