Levingston Shipbuilding Co.

LEVINGSTON SHIPBUILDING COMPANY 205 permissible. Relying on Peoples Drug Stores, Inc.,2 the Regional Director found the Employer's contention without merit and recom- mended that the objection be sustained. In its exceptions to the Regional Director's report, the Employer does not contend that his findings are wrong. Rather it relies on the arguments expressed in the dissenting opinions in the Peoples case. For the reasons set forth in the majority opinion in Peoples we reject the Employer's con- tentions. Accordingly, we accept the Regional Director's recommen- dations and shall set aside the election and order a second election s [The Board set aside the election held on November 20, 1957.] [Text of Direction of Second Election omitted from publication.] z 119 NLRB 634. 8 Member Fanning agrees that the individual interviews in this case require setting aside the election, without thereby passing upon whether or not interviews with groups of employees in retail establishments would also warrant the same decision as found by a Board majority in Peoples Drug Stores, Inc, 119 NLRB 634. Levingston Shipbuilding Company, Petitioner and Orange Metal Trades Council and Lodge 1457, District 31, International Association of Machinists, AFL-CIO. Case No. 39-RM-61. March 06, 1958 DECISION AND ORDER Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before Clifford W. Potter, 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 Bean and Jenkins]. The Employer filed this petition to resolve conflicting claims by the two certified bargaining agents both of whom contend that their certification covers the employees involved. The Employer is willing to recognize as bargaining agent for the employees involved that union which the Board determines represents the disputed group because of certification, but does not desire an election and is neutral with respect to the conflicting claims. Thus the Employer requests a clarification of the outstanding certifications in this matter. The intervening Orange Metal Trades Council does not desire an election but contends that its certification covers part of the employees in dispute, while the intervening Machinists, likewise does not desire an election but asserts that its certification covers all the employees involved. 120 NLRB No. 32. 206 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD The Employer is engaged in repairing ships and building offshore drilling rigs at a shipyard located on the waterfront at Orange, Texas. In November 1955 the Employer, as part of its expansion program, began adding facilities on an island in the river across from its ship- yard to erect and outfit ships and barge hulls. These facilities were an extension of its mainland operation. The only access to the island is by Employer's ferries from piers at its mainland shipyard to the island landings. The operation is under the direct supervision of the assistant superintendent of the mainland shipyard, and employees from the latter were used to man the island operation. Both island and mainland employees use the clockhouse at the mainland shipyard and no separate administrative facilities were established for the island operation. None of the parties contend that this is anything other than an extension of the mainland operation, and the record supports such a conclusion. In view of the foregoing, it is clear that the island operation is an expansion of the mainland shipbuilding facilities and that employees on the island are an accretion to the units established on the mainland.' The Orange Metal Trades Council, in 1946, was certified as bargain- ing representative of a unit of production and maintenance em- ployees 2 of the Employer. In 1951 Lodge 1457 of District 31, In- ternational Association of Machinists was certified after a consent election for a machinist unit.' When the machinist unit severed from the larger unit, there was in existence a combined machine shop and toolroom and a tool crib on the bargeways, the latter designated as tool crib #1. This separately located tool crib, which served as a storage and distribution place for the simpler tools and a limited variety of equipment used by the various employees in the production process,. ' See Richfield Oil Corporation, 119 NLRB 1425 2 This certification embraced all production and maintenance employees in the Company's Orange, Texas, plant, including burners , blacksmiths , boiler firemen , carpenters , crabhouse operators, crane hookers , crane operators , coppersmiths , calkers ( wood), chippers and calkers , drvdock operators, drill press operators , electricians , helpers ( anglesmith , black- smith , carpenter, machinist, pipefitter, shipfitter ), gas free laborers , laborers' leadingmen (labor, paint , shipfitter , carpenter), loftsmen , special machine operators ( machine depart- ment ), machinists , painters , combination sandblasters and painters , pipefitters, pipe- coverers , toolroom checkers, truckdrivers ( winch , trailer tiuck , stake body ), riggers, swampers , tank testers , shipfitters , welders and regular apprentices ( sandblaster, ship- fitter , painter, coppersmith, carpenter, blacksmith , machinist) ; but not including man- agerial employees, foremen, office and clerical employees , technical engineers , draftsmen, safety engineers , warehouse employees , guards, janitors, timekeepers , and all supervisory employees with authority to hire, promote , discharge , discipline, or otherwise effect changes in the status of employees or effectively recommend such action. S The machinist unit included all employees employed in the Company 's machinist de- partment, including leadermen , machinists inside, machinists outside, garage mechanics, toolroom employees , helpers, apprentices , bolt machine operators employed in the machin- ist department , at the Company 's Orange, Texas, plant, but excluded all other employees, including without limitation by enumeration , employees of #1 tool crib on bargeways, office clerical , guards, watchmen , professional employees and supervisors as defined in the Act, as amended. LEVINGSTON SHIPBUILDING COMPANY 207 was excluded from the machinists unit by agreement of the parties. Repairs of such tools and equipment were and still are made by transporting the items requiring such work to the machine shop- toolroom. As a result of the Employer's expansion of its operation onto the island, and to eliminate the time and cost of transporting tools and equipment to and from the mainland, an island toolroom was estab- lished in November 1955. Early in 1956, machinists were assigned to the toolroom to make necessary tool repairs. The island toolroom, although not as complete as the mainland machine shop-toolroom, handles a substantially larger variety and more complicated types of tools and equipment than tool crib #1 and also contains machinery for repair purposes. An individual from the mainland toolroom checks stock and orders necessary tools and equipment for all three locations and observes that stock items are in proper repair. How- ever, because of the dispute between the 2 unions as to coverage of the island toolroom by their respective contracts the Employer has found it necessary to have 2 supervisors-1 for the members of each union working in the island toolroom. Outside machinists working on the island are admittedly a part of the Machinists unit and the Orange Metal Trades Council similarly admits that machinists or tool repairmen at the island toolroom are in the machinist unit. How- ever, it claims for its jurisdiction the toolroom attendants. Some of the attendants were brought to the island from tool crib #1. During rush hours and intermittently during the day, when the attendants have more checking of tools than they can handle, the machinists assist the attendants, as is the practice in the mainland machine shop- toolroom. We have decided that the island operation is an accretion to the mainland operation of the Employer. The specific question pre- sented in the Employer's request 4 for clarification of certifications is to which unit is the island toolroom an accretion. The position of the intervening Orange Metal Trades Council presents the issue of whether the employees assigned to the island toolroom are all encom- passed in, and an accretion to one of the certified units, or whether they fall under one or the other of the outstanding certifications depending upon their classification or type of work assignment. As a toolroom constitutes a separate identifiable group which the Board has regarded as having a special community of interest, we find that all employees in the island toolroom should be a part of the same unit. As the island toolroom is in effect a branch or an extension of the machine shop-toolroom on the mainland we find that it is an accretion to the machinists certification covering like and similarly classified employees. 4 Cf. The Bell Telephone Company of Pennsylvania , 118 NLRB 371. 208 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD Accordingly, we find that an affirmative claim to represent the employees in the island toolroom as a separate bargaining unit has not been raised by either certified labor organization and we therefore dismiss the petition filed by the Employer herein.' The Employer has, however, made a proper request for an order clarifying the unit in Case No. 39-RC-380. The unit description in that case will be amended accordingly. [The Board amended the certification of representatives issued in Case No. 39-RC-380 to include in the unit description thereof all island toolroom employees and dismissed the petition.] 6 See Amperew Electronic Corporation, 109 NLRB 353, 354. Geyer Manufacturing Co., Division of The Wood Shovel and Tool Co. and Lodge No. 1988, International Association of Machinists, AFL-CIO, Petitioner. Case No. 13-RC-5748. March 27,1958 DECISION AND CERTIFICATION OF RESULTS OF ELECTION Pursuant to a stipulation for certification upon consent election entered into between the parties and the Regional Director for the Thirteenth Region on October 23, 1957, an election by secret ballot was conducted November 8, 1957, under the supervision of the Regional Director among the employees in the appropriate unit set forth in the stipulation. Upon completion of the election, the parties were furnished with a tally of ballots which showed that of approxi- mately 57 eligible voters, 14 cast votes for the Petitioner, 34 against, and 6 were challenged. On November 15, 1957, the Petitioner timely filed objections to the election and the conduct thereof, and timely served copies upon the Employer. The objections alleged in substance that (1) during the course of the election campaign the Employer published and sent to its employees a series of letters and leaflets, together with photostatic copies of newspaper articles in an effort to persuade employees to vote against the union; (2) that the letters, leaflets, and newspaper articles contained false, slanderous, and misleading statements; and (3) that approximately 1 week before the election the Employer deducted 3 dollars from each employee's paycheck and returned it in an envelope on which it was stated,. "The union wants us to take this $3.00 out of your check each month and send it to them." In accordance with the Board's Rules and Regulations the Regional Director conducted an investigation and on January 30, 1958, issued 120 NLRB No. 33.