Phillips & Buttorff Corp.

800 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD Phillips & Buttorff Corporation ' and Stove Mounters' Interna- tional Union of North America , AFL-CIO, Petitioner. Case No. 10-RC-3842. July 23,19J7 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 H. Stephan Gordon, 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 [Members Rodgers, Bean, and Jenkins]. 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 organization involved claims to represent certain employees 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. 4. The Petitioner seeks a unit of production and maintenance em- ployees at the Employer's stove factory. The Employer agrees that such a unit is appropriate. However, the placement of certain job classifications is in dispute. The Petitioner would include the inspectors;, the Employer takes no position. The inspectors, who work on the production floor under the direct supervision of the chief inspector, check the quality of prod- ucts on the assembly line and decide whether they are acceptable. Inspectors are hourly paid and have the same employment conditions and benefits as the production employees. They do not have .the authority to hire or discharge employees` or give them pay raises, or effectively to recommend such action; nor have they the authority to administer discipline. Inspectors may stop a job' when. the product is unsatisfactory, and may, make recommendations regarding the work performance of individual employees, but any subsequent action taken is up to the foremen, who make their own independent investigation and determination with respect to personnel action. We shall include inspectors in the unit. Hickory Chair Company, 116 NLRB 1105, 1107. The Petitioner would exclude load board operators as supervisors; the Employer would include them as plant clerical 'employees.'' Load board operators work on the production floor under the separate 1 The Employer's name appears as amended at the hearing. 118 NLRB No. 99. PFIILLIPS & BUTTORFF CORPORATION 801 supervision of the production and control supervisor. They do no production work. They receive a work schedule made up by the fore- man and the production and control supervisor, determine whether the necessary equipment is available, determine the sequence in which the various jobs are to be performed, and issue job assignments to the production employees. If there is any question as to which employee 'is to perform which job, they consult with the production foreman. Load board operators have no authority to hire or discharge employees, or effectively to recommend such action ; nor have they authority to grant time off. If they discover that an employee's work is badly done, they take the matter up with the production foreman, who, alone, is authorized to take corrective action. Like the production workers, they are hourly paid, and they enjoy the same benefits. We find that load board operators are not supervisors, and shall include them in the unit as plant clerical employees. See Western Gear Works, 98 NLRB 80, 83-84. The Petitioner would exclude schedulers and followup men as su- pervisors; the Employer takes no position. Schedulers and followup men are in the production and control department, but they work throughout the plant. In accordance with previously prepared plans, they detail breakdowns of'the schedules and daily runs, detail some -of the daily items to the departmental foremen, and check to see that everything is moving on time. Where work is behind schedule, they request the foremen to call for overtime work or additional help. They have authority to instruct production employees as to the performance of their duties, but their exercise of judgment is limited to the utilization of parts and machinery rather than the work performance of production employees. They have no authority to hire, discharge, or discipline employees. Although they may recommend discharge, the departmental foremen make their own independent investigations. Schedulers and followup men are. hourly paid, but receive substantially more than production employees. Their work requires some special training and a photographic memory. We find that the schedulers and followup men are not supervisors, and shall include them in the unit as plant clerical employees. George A. Fuller Company, 78 NLRB 207, 208-209; Continental Can Company, 116 NLRB 1202,1203 (general line assembly scheduler). The Petitioner would exclude plant accounting clerks as office cler- ical employees; the Employer takes no position. The plant accounting clerks spend half their time on the production floor, picking up job tickets and picking up and returning timecards. They spend the rest of their time in the accounting office tabulating and assembling these data, which they then forward to the Employer's downtown office. We shall include them in the unit as plant clerical employees. 450553-58-vol. 118-52 802 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD Westinghouse Electric Corporation, 89 NLRB 8, 16; General Electric Company, 105 NLRB 921, 922-923. We find the following unit to be appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act: All production and maintenance employees at the Employer's Nash- ville, Tennessee, plant, including inspectors, load board operators, schedulers and followup men, and plant accounting clerks, but ex- cluding office clerical employees, professional employees, guards, and supervisors as defiined in the Act. 5. By August or September 1957, the Employer expects to increase its working force by 10 percent and to set up a new department. Since the present personnel complement is a substantial proportion of the anticipated working force, and since there is no evidence that the employees to be hired will possess any new skills, in accordance with our usual practice we shall direct an immediate election. Packard- Bell Company, Service Division, 102 NLRB 1399. [Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.] G. F. Lasater and Local 47, Chauffeurs, Teamsters & Helpers, Af- filiate of International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America, AFL-CIO, Petitioner. Case No. 16-RC-1991. July 23,1957 SUPPLEMENTAL DECISION AND CERTIFICATION OF REPRESENTATIVES Pursuant to a Decision and Direction of Election issued herein on February 11, 1957,1 an election by secret ballot was -conducted on March 2, 1957, under the direction and supervision of the Regional Director for the Sixteenth Region, among the employees in the unit found appropriate by the Board. Following the election a tally of ballots was furnished the parties. The tally shows that of approxi- mately 23 eligible voters, 12 voted for the Petitioner, and 11 voted against the Petitioner. No ballots were challenged, and there were no void ballots. Thereafter, the Employer timely filed four objections to the elec- tion. In accordance with the Board's Rules and Regulations, the Regional Director caused an investigation to be made of the issues raised by the objections, and on March 25, 1957, issued and served on the parties his report on objections to the election, in which he recom- mended that all the Employer's objections be overruled and that the Petitioner be certified as the collective-bargaining representative of 1 117 NLRB 348. 118 NLRB No. 96.