Mallinckrodt Chemical Works

730 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD senior clerks,13 buyers, stenographer in personnel department, fir'st aid man, secretaries to project manager, personnel manager, business manager, and construction superintendent, chief and field expediters, storekeeper, and all supervisors as defined in the Act. [Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.] MEMBER RoDGERS took no part in the consideration of the above Decision and Direction of Election. 19 Except Kenneth Peters. Mallinckrodt Chemical Works and Local No. 1, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, AFL-CIO,' -Petitioner. Case No. 14-RC-2877. March 7,1956 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 Henry L. Jalette, hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed. At the hearing the parties agreed that the record to be considered by. the Board in this proceed- ing should include the transcript, exhibits, and entire record in Case No. 14-RC-2728! Upon the entire record in this case and the entire record in Case No. 14-RC-2728, the Board finds : 1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the Act. 2. The labor organizations 3 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 Employer is engaged in St. Louis, Missouri, in the manufacture and sale of chemicals and in the processing of materials containing uranium. These operations occupy a 30-acre tract which contains over 100 buildings. The plant consists of a main plant and the ura- nium division. 1 The AFL and CIO having merged since the hearing in this case , we are amending the identification of the Petitioner's affiliation as indicated in the caption. 2 Malltn.ekrodt Chenvlcal Works, 114 NLRB 187, decided October 3 , 1955. In that case the Petitioner sought a unit similar to the one it seeks now. However , without consider- ing the unit contention , the Board dismissed the petition for the reason that it was untimely filed because an existing contract constituted a bar thereto. a Independent Union of Chemical Plant worker s, herein called the Intervenor , was per- mitted to intervene at the hearing on the basis of a contractual interest. The p4gties agree that its contract is not a bar to this proceeding. 115 NLRB No. 110. MALLINCKRODT CHEMICAL WORKS 731 The Petitioner seeks to sever from an existing unit of production and maintenance employees a unit of all the Employer's maintenance and construction electricians. In the alternative it seeks a departmen- tal or any other unit of electricians which the Board may deem to be appropriate. The Intervenor and the Employer oppose the unit sought, contending that only a production and maintenance unit, which the Intervenor has represented since 1937, is appropriate. The Employer also contends that the unit sought is neither a craft unit nor a functionally distinct departmental group within the meaning of the American Potash case.4 In support of this contention, the Employer argues that there is no apprenticeship program in the plant, and no predetermined pattern of progression from trainee to journeyman; that the unit sought is an arbitrary and illogical grouping of a seg- ment of maintenance employees frequently interchanged with other employees; and that all employees have a common community of interest. The electricians sought are classified as senior mechanics, mechan- ics class A, mechanics class B, and mechanic trainees.' The trainees receive on-the-job training. They are assigned to act as helpers to the electricians. By performing the duties assigned to them and observ- ing the electrical work that is performed they acquire electrical skill and knowledge. Electrician trainees require about 18 months to ac- quire sufficient skill to qualify for a class B classification; class B elec tricians require approximately 20 months to reach the maximum rate of pay of their classification, and after 2 years at the top rate of pay may progress, through merit rating, into class A. The class A elec- tricians take a minimum of 28 months to progress from the bottom to the top of their wage range. There is a senior electrician for every five class A electricians in the plant. Senior electricians act as leadmen and are the highest and most skilled electricians in the plant. They perform all the duties of the class A electricians and in addition they explain operations to other electricians, instruct them in the manner in which certain jobs should be performed, and report any difficulties noted in electrical designs. Class A electricians work with electricians' tools and use electrical testing equipment. They make tie-ins of electrical circuits through- out the plant; install wires, cables, conduits, junction boxes, and panel boards; hook up motors; repair motors and switches; work on elec- trical alarm and public address systems, industrial electronic equip- ment, electrical temperature and refrigeration controls, and energized lines. They work in power substations with voltages ranging from 112, 220, and 440 to 4,100 volts; they read blueprints; and they trouble- 4 American Potash & Chemical Corporation, 107 NLRB 1418. At the tune of the heaung these were no electrician trainees in the plant 732 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD shoot throughout the plant. Class B electricians are engaged in duties many of which are similar to those performed by class A electricians. Electricians at both the main plant and the uranium division gen- erally engage in the same type of electrical work. However, there is a greater amount of direct current and older type machinery at the .main plant, the uranium division having more elaborate interlocking and high power voltage equipment. All electricians, including their foremen, are responsible to the Employer's chief electrician who is an electrical engineer. All electrical work performed at the Em- ployer's operations is performed under a license issued to the chief electrician by the city of St. Louis, is performed in compliance with the National Electrical Code, and is subject to inspection by the St. Louis Electrical Inspection Department. The electricians have their own electrical shops. In the main plant it is located in a separate area of the maintenance shop and contains various types of electrical testing equipment and electrical materials used exclusively by them. The office of the electrical foreman is located in this area. In the uranium division the electrical shop is in a sep- arate building used exclusively by electricians. The electricians also have mobile trucks carrying electrical equipment and tools through- out the plant. 4. The Employer's operations are on a 24-hour, 3-shifts-a-day basis. There are 14 electricians at the main plant on the day shift and 1 on each of the 2 night shifts.' In the uranium division there are 13 electricians on the day shift and 2 on each of the night shifts. All the day shift electricians are supervised by electrical foremen. Electricians on the night shifts at the main plant are under the supervision of the night superintendent who also supervises all manu- facturing and maintenance employees on those shifts. The electricians on the night shifts in the uranium division are supervised by the same foremen who supervise all maintenance employees on those shifts. The night supervisors, however, do not direct the actual electrical work performed by electricians but confine their supervisory authority over them to giving instructions as to the order in which jobs are to be performed. From the foregoing, it appears that the electricians classified as senior mechanics and mechanic class A have, and use, the normal skills of electricians, and are experienced craftsmen. It appears further that class B electricians and the electrician trainees. when they be- come qualified, progress to the higher classifications. In these cir- cumstances, we find that the Employer's electricians, who are sought by a union which traditionally represents craft electricians, constitute a distinct craft group of employees such as the Board has deemed to MALLINCKRODT CHEMICAL WORKS 733 be entitled to separate representation ,' and who therefore may be severed from the existing production and maintenance unit if they so desire.' The fact that electricians may perform certain incidental- work such as servicing batteries and cleaning electrical equipment and motors, and the fact that electricians are temporarily transferred to other maintenance work to balance the Workload in the plant or to meet production or maintenance schedules do not, in our opinion and contrary to the Employer's contention, affect their craft status as they are primarily engaged in electrical work.' Accordingly, we shall direct that an election be conducted in the following voting group of employees at the Employer's St. Louis, Missouri, plant : All maintenance and construction electricians, their leadinell, ap- prentices, and helpers, excluding office clerical employees, professional employees, guards, watchmen, all other employees, and supervisors as defined in the Act. If a majority of the employees in the voting group vote for the Petitioner, they will be taken to have indicated their desire to be rep- resented in a separate unit, and the Regional Director coiidiicting the election directed herein is instructed, in that event, to issue a cer- tification 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 Inter- venor, they will be taken to have indicated their desire to remain part of the existing production and maintenance unit, and the Regional Director is instructed to issue a certification of results of election to such effect. [Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.] , 9 General Elects is Company , 112 NLRB 839 , 4nnet icait Smelting and Refin tng Companty, 106 NLRB 244 t Marinette Paper Company, 114 NLRB 1452 , Stauffer Chemical Company of Nevada, 113 NLRB 1255, Boeing Airplane Compawy, 113 NLRB 794; Cessna Aircraft Contpawj, 113 NLRB 450 , Santhern Paperboard Corporat9on , 112 NLRB 302 , Lockheed Ain craf t Carporation, 111 NLRB 594 'There are insttumentuien in the plant who pettouu some repair work oil electiical instruments The record does not disclose the number of such employees or indicate whether they peitouu othei electucal tvnctions Ilowevet, the presence of these cut- ployees is not ample ground for denying severance to the electricians See North Antes scan Aviation, Inc , 108 NLRB 863, 869 The cases relied on by the Einployci in its huet all have factual situations distinguish- able itoni the tacts herein Thus in Chicago Pneumatic Tool Company, 108 NLRB 174, and in Pmecisioit Castings Cotpoiatton, 114 NLRB' 63, the electricians sought did not exer- cise the "gamut of skills characteristic of the electucians' craft ' In Clayton & Lambent dfantefactu , tag Coanpamy, 108 NLRB 305, most of the electucians sought neither exercised riot possessed genuine ctatt skills, and were not in the direct line of electrical pru>jression In John, Deere Pon lit ant Compunil. 114 NLRB 3-10 employees piogiussed to pattern- inakets (the unit sought) from othei clasafic.itions, the record tailed to show the skills or training of patteinnial.ets, and theie was no Evidence of the job requirements of the employees sought In Buoi/ius-A'iie Company 110 NLRB 314, the unit sought consti- tuted only a segniemit of the electiictans employed in the plant