The Bendix Corp.

THE BENDIX CORPORATION 371 The Bendix Corporation , Launch Support Division' and Teamsters Local Union No. 769, affiliated with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen& Helpers of America, Petitioner2 and International Union , United Au- tomobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, UAW, AFL-CIO,' Petitioner and International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, AFL-CIO,4 Petitioner. Cases 12-RC-2720,12-RC-2734, and 12-UC-5 November 21, 1967 DECISION, ORDER, AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION BY CHAIRMAN MCCULLOCH AND MEMBERS FANNING AND BROWN Upon separate petitions duly filed under Section 9(c) of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, consolidated hearings were held before Hearing Officer Obediah R. Miller of the National Labor Relations Board. Thereafter, the Employer and International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, AFL-CIO, each filed a brief. Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the Act, the Board has delegated its powers in connec- tion with this case to a three-member panel. The Board has reviewed the Hearing Officer's rulings made at the hearing.and finds that they are free from prejudicial error. They are hereby af- firmed. Upon the entire record in these cases, including the briefs of the Employer and IAM,5 the Board finds: 1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the Act and it will effectuate the pur- poses of the Act to assert jurisdiction herein. 2. The labor organizations involved claim to represent certain employees of the Employer. 3. The Employer, since 1964, has been engaged in providing all direct support required for launch, vehicle, and spacecraft operations at Kennedy Space Center and at Cape Kennedy Air Force Sta- tion pursuant to a contract with NASA (Contract NAS-100-1600). The direct support provided by the Employer consists of operation, maintenance, and site management of launch complexes, test facilities, and ground support equipment; requisi- tioning and dispersal of propellants and gases; the storage and dispersal of ordnance and materials; and the operation of support shops and specialized laboratories. The engineering functions necessary to support the foregoing activities are also provided by the Employer. Its responsibility encompasses the operation and maintenance of a significant number of ground systems which directly support NASA's programs for the Atlas Centaur, Titan- Gemini, Saturn 1, the uprated Saturn, and the Apol- lo Saturn V vehicle operation. The Employer's nonadministrative work force at the space center consists of about 750 hourly rated production and maintenance workers, and a com- plement of about 400 nonadministrative salaried employees, variously classified as techinicians, lo- gistics employees, and propellant samplers. On March 12, 1965, the IAM, Petitioner in Case 12-UC-5, was certified as exclusive collective-bar- gaining representative of all hourly production and maintenance workers employed under the Em- ployer's contract with NASA at Cape Kennedy.6 Thereafter, on August 5, 1965, the IAM and the Employer executed a collective-bargaining agree- ment, scheduled to expire on March 1, 1968, adopt- ing the unit specified in the Board's certification. The instant proceeding involves the claims of the various petitioning labor organizations for all nonadministrative salaried employees. There is no bargaining history for the employees sought. Thus, in Case 12-RC-2720, the Teamsters seeks to represent separately all salaried logistics person- nel. In Case 12-RC-2734, the UAW seeks separate representation of the remaining un- represented salaried employees, comprising techni- cians and propellant samplers. On the other hand, the IAM opposes an election in any unit, claiming that all salaried logistics personnel, technicians, and propellant samplers constitute an accretion to the existing production and maintenance unit represented by it, and that its subsisting contract covers these classifications and hence bars a present election with respect to them. Accordingly, the IAM, in Case 12-UC-5, urges the Board to clarify its certification expressly to include the clas- sifications sought by the UAW and Teamsters, and to dismiss their respective RC petitions. We find no merit in the IAM's contention that the salaried classifications constitute an accretion to the unit covered by its subsisting collective-bargain- ing agreement. In this connection, the record shows that certain of the presently disputed classifications were in existence at the time of, but excluded from, the representation proceeding which culminated in IAM's certification for the hourly production and The name of the Employer appears as amended at the hearing s Hereinafter also referred to as Teamsters ' Hereinafter also referred to as UAW Hereinafter also referred to as IAM. The IAM's request for oral argument is hereby denied as, in our opinion , the record and briefs adequately present the issues and positions of the parties 6 The unit certified (Case l2-RC-2092, not published in NLRB volumes) was as follows / 168 NLRB No. 55 All production and maintenance employees of the Employer em- ployed at the John F Kennedy Space Center in the separate adminis- trative division responsible for Contract NAS-I00-1600, but exclud- ing all other employees including office clerical employees, technicial and professional employees , executive and management employees, analysts, co-ordinators , planners, schedulers, statisticians , liaison men, accountants , estimators , timekeepers , buyers, administrators, laboratory and test employees , guards , and supervisors as defined in the Act. 336-845 0 - 70 - 25 372 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD maintenance employees. That the parties intended their exclusion from said unit is amply demon- strated by the fact that the lAM's bargaining agree- ment merely incorporates the terms of the Board's certification, and, while listing the hourly paid job classifications, omits reference to the salaried lo- gistics , technician, and propellant sampler posi- tions . In these circumstances , the addition of some 400 salaried employees to the unit of about 750 hourly employees now represented by IAM without affording them an opportunity to select or reject such representative appears unwarranted.7 As we find it inappropriate to add the salaried em- ployees to the IAM's unit on petition for clarifica- tion , we shall dismiss that petition . Accordingly, we find that IAM's subsisting collective-bargaining agreement does not bar an election herein and that a question affecting commerce exists concerning the representation of employees of the Employer within the meaning of Sections 9(c)(1) and 2(6) and (7) of the Act. 4. As indicated, Teamsters seeks a separate unit of logistics personnel , and UAW seeks a separate unit of technicians and propellant samplers. The Employer and the IAM contend that the separate units, as requested , are inappropriate , and maintain that the only appropriate unit is one consisting of all unrepresented technicians , propellant samplers, and logistics personnel . We find merit in the posi- tion of the Employer and LAM insofar as they con- tend that the separate units requested are inap- propriate. Concerning the logistics employees sought by Teamsters, the record shows that they are engaged in the procurement and storage of parts, materials, and tools, which they thereafter issue to both hourly and salaried employees upon request . They also maintain open bench stock at some locations and stock- and tool-rooms at other locations . They are classified as parts analysts , expeditor, material analyst, and component specialist . All are required to be high school graduates and the parts analysts are required to have additional training in business accounting. In the order noted above, they are required to have experience varying from 6 years' experience in logistics work for analyst to 1 to 2 years' experience as stockmen in the missile indus- try, operating toolcribs, issuing spare parts, and maintaining records, in the classification of com- ponent specialist . The salary range is from a top pay of $777 monthly for analyst to $531 monthly for component specialist . The logistic employees are not separately located but are assigned to various areas within the installation also occupied either by employees represented by the IAM or those sought by the UAW herein, or both. As their work is in- tegrated with and is performed in areas geographi- cally proximate to that of both salaried and hourly employees , it requires frequent contacts with other workers. The technicians and propellant samplers sought by the UAW (numbering over 300 employees), like the logistics employees, are not separately located, but perform their work in areas shared with other employees. They are specialists, who, broadly speaking, are engaged in material, component and facility analysis, and other activities designed to as- sure safety of operation within the phases of the program covered by the Employer' s contract with NASA. More specifically, there are about 67 technicians who monitor work being done by all employees to assure that specifications are met and to check parts for conformity to specifications. An additional 39 technicians are responsible for checking high-pressure gaslines throughout the complex to detect leaks . Some 20 others analyze gas samplers to determine their moisture and hydrocarbon content, while 5 others utilize X-ray and other methods to determine if any systems have flaws which could cause leaks . Of the remaining technicians , 16 operate and maintain equipment measuring the amount of gas distributed to the vari- ous complexes ; 42 maintain and validate the high- pressure systems, cranes , and doors on several buildings; 36 maintain and activate the electrical supply systems in such buildings and perform elec- trical work on cranes located therein; 18 assist the astronauts in simulated tests and are responsible for rescue operations in the event of malfunction; 53 are responsible for operation, maintenance, and repair of life-support equipment ; and 10 others are responsible for the maintenance, validation, and operation of various other types of test equipment. The 31 propellant samplers are responsible for removing gas samples from the system and trans- porting them to the lab for analysis by other techni- cians. Generally, all technicians are required to be high school graduates with 2 years of training in their specialized field plus several years of experience. The propellant samplers are required to be high school graduates with 1 year of experience in the sampling of propellants . All technicians are in the salaried grade 8 ($557 to $777 monthly), while propellant samplers are in salaried grade 6 ($465 to $642 monthly). Propellant samplers, technicians , and logistics employees have the same fringe benefits , but their fringe benefits are different from those of the hourly employees . Each of the three categories of salaried employees regularly work in different departments, to which production and maintenance employees may also be assigned. The technicians and propel- lant samplers have different lines of supervision up to a certain level. However, beyond that level, their supervision, like logistics employees , is the same as I Gould-National Batteries, Inc , 157 N LRB 679,681. THE BENDIX CORPORATION 373 that of hourly paid employees. While the record shows there is some overlapping of the duties of hourly and salaried employees, and that they work side by side, other hourly employees have no work contact with salaried employees. Neither the UAW nor the Teamsters has in- dicated the grounds on which it predicates its claim for separate representation of technicians and propellant samplers and logistics personnel, respec- tively. It is clear from the record, however, that neither grouping qualifies as a craft, departmental, or process unit wich the Board recognizes as ap- propriate for purposes of collective bargaining. Nor does it appear that the technicians and propellant samplers are wholly or predominately composed of technical employees with an independent communi- ty of interest sufficient to warrant separate representation. Accordingly, as the UAW and Teamsters merely seek separate representation of a segment of unrepresented employees, we find that the units sought by the UAW and Teamsters are in- appropriate. However, as the various labor or- ganizations involved in this proceeding have in- dicated a willingness to participate in an election in any unit found appropriate herein, and as the salaried employees sought encompass all un- represented nonadminstrative employees of the Employer at this location, they constitute a residual unit which may be appropriate for separate representation, and we find that a question concern- ing representation has been raised as to them.8 Accordingly, we find that the following em- ployees constitute and appropriate unit for pur- poses of collective bargaining:9 All technicians, propellant samplers, logistics em- ployees occupying salaried classifications at the Employer's Cape Kennedy and Merritt Island, Florida, operations, excluding all other employees, office clerical employees, professional employees, guards and supervisors as defined in the Act. ORDER It is hereby ordered that the petition in Case 12-UC-5 be, and it hereby is, dismissed. [Direction of Election 10 omitted from publica- tion.] 8 The Board is administratively advised that the UAW has made a showing of interest sufficient to warrant an election in an overall unit of non-administrative salaned employees However , as the unit ultimately found appropriate herein is at variance with that sought by UAW, we shall permit it to withdraw its petition on notice to the Regional Director for Region 12 not later than 5 days after issuance of this Decision Should the UAW withdraw its petition , the election we direct shall be contingent upon the Regional Director's being administratively satisfied that the Teamsters has made a sufficient showing in the more comprehensive unit " As the IAM seeks to separately represent the residual unit in the event of an election, and since the Employer contends that 1AM should be permitted to participate in the election under the same terms as the UAW and the Teamsters, Chairman McCulloch and Member Fanning have de- cided to dispense with the usual provisions for self-determination election which would require the lAM to represent the salaned employees as part of its existing production and maintenance unit, if at all Member Brown dissents from the majority's failure to require a self- determination election whereby residual employees could vote on whether or not they wish to be represented by IAM as part of the existing production and maintenance unit 10 An election eligibility list, containing the names and addresses of all the eligible voters in the voting group found appropriate , must be filed with the Regional Director for Region 12 within 7 days after the date of this Decision, Order, and Direction of Election This list may initially be used by the Regional Director to assist in determining an adequate show- ing of interest by Teamsters Local Union No 769, affiliated with the In- ternational Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen & Helpers of America The Regional Director shall make this list available to the parties to the election when it shall be established that the election will be conducted. No extension of time to file this list shall be granted by the Regional Director except in extraordinary circumstances. Failure to comply with this requirement shall be grounds for setting aside the elec- tion whenever proper objections are filed Excelsior Underwear Inc , 156 NLRB 1236