General Electric Co.

GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY 199 General Electric Company and International Union of Electri- cal, Radio and Machine Workers, AFL-CIO, Petitioner. Case No. 1-RC-5091. March 25, 1958 DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before William I. Shooer, 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 [Chairman Leedom and Members Rodgers 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 single unit of all technical and office clerical employees 1 at the Employer's Holyoke, Massachusetts, trans- former and inductor manufacturing plant. The plant is a specialized operation entailing little repetitive manufacture. The Employer objects to the inclusion of the office clerical employees and the technical employees in a single unit, contending, in effect, that they should be placed in separate bargaining units. The parties further disagree with respect to the unit placement of the several categories discussed below, which the Petitioner would include, but which the Employer would exclude as confidential, managerial, professional, or supervisory. In view of the Employer's expressed objection to the inclusion of the technical employees and the office clerical employees in a single unit, and the Board's established policy against commingling these groups where any party objects thereto, we shall establish separate units of the Employer's office clerical employees and its technical employees, respectively.2 1 The Petition refers to these employees as "all technical and salaried clerical employees." A local of the Petitioner currently represents the production and maintenance employees, excluding the employees involved herein. .1 Westinghouse Air Brake Company, Union Switch h Signal Division, 119 NLRB 1391. 120 NLRB No. 31. 200 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD The disputed categories 3 (a) Technical employees The parties agree that engineering technicians, laboratory and quality control technicians, and draftsmen and drafting room em- ployees are technical employees within the meaning of the Act. With respect to the disputed procedures and office methods employees, the Employer in effect admits that they are at least technical employees, but primarily contends that they should be excluded as managerial or professional. The Petitioner leaves this determination to the Board. These two employees analyze specific routine office functions, interpret them, and recommend revisions therein. Although their work is some- what analogous to that of the planning and time-study employees in the factory areas, hereinafter found professional, it is of a more routine nature and requires only a high school diploma, without fur- ther formalized training. Under these circumstances, and as they do not meet the several criteria by which Section 2 (12) of the Act defines professional status, we find that the procedures and office methods employees are technical, rather than professional employees .4 Fur- thermore, as they make no policy decisions of such a nature as to render them managerial employees,' we shall include them as technical employees in the unit herein found appropriate. (b) Office clerical employees Contrary to the Petitioner, the Employer would exclude the cashier; the secretaries to the plant accountant, the manager of engi- neering, and the manager of sales; the specialist-budgets, measure- ments, and internal auditor; and the specialist-computer programer. The cashier prepares the salaried payroll, is responsible for cash funds at the plant, acts as insurance agent under the Employer's insurance program, and has access to the top management payroll. Neither he nor the secretaries assist or act in a confidential capacity to officials who determine or effectuate management policies in the field of labor relations, and therefore they are not confidential employees.6 The specialist-budgets, measurements, and internal auditor acts as a budget officer and auditor, recommends expenditures, and is respon- sible for the preparation of long- and short-term budgets, the inter- pretation of statistics obtained from the office clerical employees, and forecasting. The plant accountant is his supervisor. The specialist- 8 In view of our dispositions of the several disputed categories herein, we find it unnec- essary to consider the parties' several alternative contentions as to their status. 4 Westinghouse Electric Corporation (Ii win Mica Works), 97 NLRB 1271. s Armour and Company, 119 NLRB 122 6Westinghouse Air Brake Company, Union Switch & Signal Division, supra. GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY 201 computer programer translates engineering calculations into data appropriate for IBM computer use and on occasion performs mathematical calculations on the computers. As none of the foregoing employees is a confidential employee, as none makes policy decisions of such a nature as to render him mana- gerial, and as none meets the criteria of Section 2 (12) of the Act as a professional employee,' we find that each is essentially an office clerical employee, and we shall therefore include them in the office clerical unit.8 (c) Supervisors The parties agree, and we find, that the specialist-standards and the specialist-test and inspection are supervisors as defined in the Act and should therefore be excluded. The Employer contends that the disputed individuals below, whom the Petitioner would include, are supervisors. The personnel accounting analyst, in charge of five employees, directs, and is responsible for, the payroll activities. The specialist- drafting planning, in charge of the 28 draftsmen and drafting room employees, is responsible for all drafting work. The specialist-pro- duction control, in charge of six employees, schedules the flow of materials through production and takes action to overcome shortages. The specialist-customer service, in charge of six employees , processes customer requisitions, schedules the necessary engineering and drafting work, and keeps the sales department informed of the factory load and shipping dates. The specialist-fabrication, in charge of one employee, develops plans for the long-range improvement and expan- sion of the fabrication areas in the plant. The specialist-inventory control and systems, in charge of six employees, analyzes the inven- tory control and assists in the development and installation of im- proved control systems. The specialist-procedures and office methods, in charge of two employees, analyzes current office methods and pro- cedures and recommends their improvement. The above individuals assign, direct, and instruct the employees under them and are responsi- ble for the proper quality and quantity of their work. They are required to measure the performance of, and to recommend concerning the hire, discharge, or employment status of, the employees in their sole charge. Under these circumstances, we find that all of the afore- mentioned individuals responsibly direct their employees, and we shall therefore exclude them as supervisors.' 4 Armour and Company, supra. 8 Armour and Company, supra (internal auditor) ; Westinghouse Air Brake Company, Union Swatch & Signal Division, supra (tabulator). 8 Armour and Company, supra. 202 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD (d) Professional employees The Employer, contrary to the Petitioner, contends that the follow- ing disputed categories are professional. The majority of the 20 methods, planning, and time-study employees are graduates of the Employer's 4-year apprentice training program and have taken night school courses in mathematics and mechanical drawing. The methods employees determine the best method of per- formance for a particular machine or job. The planning employees plan the sequence of operations and the methods of fabrication and assembly used in production. The time-study employees make time studies to establish performance standards and prices and prepare the basic date therefor. In an earlier case involving another plant of the same Employer, the Board found that a virtually identical group of employees were professional.1° Absent persuasive reasons to the contrary, we find, in accord with the earlier decision, that the methods, planning, and time-study employees herein are professional em- ployees. The specialist-product cost analyses analyzes trends furnished by the cost-accounting unit and furnishes management with information aimed at securing optimum profits. The two specialists-planning and time standards make studies of operational planning and time studies procedures; one is currently engaged in a research project regarding future pay policies and time standards. The two specialists- transformer assembly are engaged in research on the establishment of manufacturing facilities and layouts in the Employer's assembly sub- unit, currently in its infancy. The specialist-manufacturing facili- ties formulates the future layout of the entire plant, so as to integrate it into an efficient whole. The work of these individuals is of a nonroutine nature and requires a considerable degree of intellectual activity and imagination. Prerequisites for such positions include the completion of a college course with an engineering degree, or the Employer's 3-year business training course or its 4-year manufac- turing training course, together with further training or experience as the individual position may require. Accordingly, we find that all of these specialists are professional employees within the meaning of the Act.11 Although the parties would accord the aforementioned disputed professional employees a self-determination election, they also agree to exclude 18 engineers from any unit or voting group found appro- priate. The uncontroverted evidence in the records shows that 17 of them are graduates of engineering schools and have had advanced engineering training, while the other has had equivalent training. General Electric Company, 89 NLRB 726, at pp. 731-733. n Westinghouse Electric Corporation , 116 NLRB 1545, at pp. 1546-1547; Westinghouse Electric Corporation, 89 NLRB 8, at pp. 10-11 and 24-25. GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY 203 These engineers are engaged in designing and developing equipment. They work with draftsmen and laboratory technicians, who are stipulated to be technical employees included in the unit. We agree with the Employer that the 18 engineers are professional employees, although the record shows that 7 of them also have supervisory authority. The parties would thus permit only the disputed cate- gories herein found professional to determine whether they should be included in the technical unit, but would deny the same privilege to the engineers, who have interests in common with the employees in the technical unit. In these circumstances, as the parties would have us direct an election for only an arbitrary segment of the professional employees, rather than for all such employees, we shall not direct a self-determination election, but shall instead exclude all professional employees from the units found appropriate herein.12 Accordingly, we find that the following employees at the Employer's Holyoke, Massachusetts, plant, excluding production and maintenance employees, employee and plant community relations employees, the secretaries to the plant manager and the manager of employee and community relations, commercial and sales employees, the general accounting analyst, the maintenance planner, the cost estimator, the purchasing agent, and the buyer; methods, planning, and time-study employees, the specialist-product cost analyses, the specialists-planning and time standards, the specialists-transformer assembly, the specialist-manufacturing facilities, engineers, and all other professional employees, guards, and the specialist-standards, the specialist-test and inspection, the personnel accounting analyst, the specialist-drafting planning, the specialist-production control, the specialist-customer service, the specialist-fabrication, the specialist-inventory control and systems, the specialist-procedures and office methods, the IBM technician, and all other supervisors as defined in the Act, constitute separate appropriate units for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act : 13 (A) All technical employees, including procedures and office methods employees, engineering technicians, laboratory and quality control technicians, and draftsmen and drafting room employees. (B) All office clerical employees, including the cashier, the secre- taries to the plant accountant, the manager of engineering, and the manager of sales, the specialist-budgets, measurements and internal auditor, and the specialist-computer programer. [Text of Direction of Elections omitted from publication.] 1' Westinghouse Elect> is Coi poi ation (East Springfield Works), 73 NLRB 818, at p. 823. Cf Union Electric Power Company, 83 NLRB 872 ; see also, Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Company, 117 NLRB 749. 11 These exclusions cover the categories considered herein as well as those stipulated by the parties.