Herron Testing Laboratories, Inc.

508 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD Herron Testing Laboratories, Inc. and International Union of Operating Engineers , Local 18 AFL-CIO, Petitioner. Case 8-RC-7690, • < May 18, 1970 DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION BY CHAIRMAN MCCULLOCH AND MEMBERS BROWN AND JENKINS Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9(c) of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, a hearing was held before Hearing Officer James M. Mancini. By direction of the Regional Director for Region 8, this case was transferred 'to the Board for 'decision. Thereafter,, briefs were filed by the Employer and by the Petitioner. Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the Act, the National Labor Relations Board has delegated its powers in connection with' this 'case to a three- member panel. The Hearing Officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error, and are hereby affirmed. Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds: 1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the Act and it will effectuate the purposes of the Act to assert jurisdiction herein. 2. The Petitioner is a labor organization claiming to represent certain employees of the Employer. 3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the representation of 'employees of the Employer`' within the meaning of Sections 9(c)(l) and 2(6) and (7) of the Act. I The Employer is engaged primarily in the testing of metals, welders, construction materials, and subsoil conditions, and employs some 57 rank-and-file employ- ees, none of whom are represented by a labor organiza- tion.The test activities are performed in laboratories located in,a single building but divided into 10 depart- ments. The_ Petitioner, in an initial organizational effort, seeks a unit of all 12 employees in the. drill department. No other union is involved, and no other unit is sought. The Employer, however, contends that the appropriate unit must include employees in all 10 departments. Five of the Employer's departments test the strength,' durability, or content of plastics, metals, or ores. One department administers welding tests to determine the qualifications of welders. The other four departments- drilling, inspection, soils, and materials testing-consti- tute the Employer's construction services division. Each department head in the construction, services division. reports to the head of the division. Other department heads report^directly to the president of the company. The drill department occupies a separate room and has its own washroom and locker facilities. The authority of the head of the department is limited to that depart- ment. He has the authority to hire and fire employees. Six drillers and six helpers work in the department.' Drillers report to the plant, receive assignments, and with a helper, drive their rigs to the drilling sites. One driller and one helper operate a drill rig, a large piece of equipment mounted on a truck and used to obtain soil samples. At the site the team puts down test holes where indicated by stakes, by a diagram, or by oral instructions at the site. Drillers are not required to do difficult layout work. Only a driller or a helper with at least 1 year's experience operates a rig. Special hazards are present because of the size, complexity, and function of the equipment, difficulties in transporting equipment of this size, and varied terrain and environ- ment. The drilling team takes samples and maintains a log of what is found. At required depths they perform impact tests, which require counting the number of blows it takes to drive a sample tube a given depth. They take very careful measure of the ground water. They make particle size tests, reaction tests (trying to shake'water out), and consistency tests. They classify, seal, and record samples, and make logs of the depths at which the samples were taken. They must see that all the data are developed and recorded. Some drillers complete their logs in the field; others do so after returning to the plant. The samples and the logs are then sent to the soils department, where chemical and other tests are made, if required by the client. In any event, the report that is given to the client is prepared by the soils department. The drillers and helpers do not directly report to the client. In this connection'the work'of the drilling depart- ment has been described as supplying "the lab with the base product." One they receive their job assignments, drillers are generally without supervision. At the jobsite they deter- mine whether to use augers and whether to work over- time to complete the job or to leave it for the next day. They also decide when the weather prevents them from drilling. Drillers also at'times work some distance from the plant. If the distance is over 30 miles they get subsistence allowances to permit them to stay over- night.2 Unlike other employees, the drillers spend from 75-90 percent of their time in the field. When they are in the shop their first duties are to complete the logs, and then maintain their equipment. Next they are expect- ed to perform routine maintenance in the shop. If they are not occupied with these tasks, they may be temporari- ly transferred to other departments in order to keep ' The department also employs one person who acts as a liaison between the department head and the drillers He gives out assignments and occasionally stakes out drilling sites In the past there was also a mechanic, but no employee' has occupied this position for several months 2 Although the 30-mile policy applies uniformly to employees in all departments, and while the record suggests that onsight soil technicians and others also are required to travel outside the city, it would seem that this rule would be invoked more frequently in the case of the drillers. 182 NLRB No. 83 HERRON TESTING LABORATORIES 509 fully employed The Employer's president testified that drillers are thereby afforded an opportunity to learn additional skillls Although there is evidence that drill department employees were transferred to several other departments, the only evidence with respect to specific jobs indicates they performed nontechnical work such as routine maintenance and pickup and delivery Company Exhibit 11(b) is a list of eight drill depart- ment employees who were transferred for various lengths of time (not specified) during 1968 It is not clear whether the list was to cover the entire year or only January through July, the first and last months on the list The one driller who testified stated that during the past year on three or four occasions he picked up and delivered materials for other departments Transfers, however, occurred only when there was not sufficient work in the drill department, as in periods of inclement weather or when few requests for drilling services had been received If the drill department is busy, and a man is absent because of illness or some other reason, a person from another department will fill in as a helper Company Exhibit 11(a) is a list showing five such transfers dated between June 5, 1969, and December 8, 1969, one of which was for 2 days In addition, at least two drill department employees began employment in other departments and later transferred to their present jobs No one outside the drill department has ever operated a drill rig, and no one inside the department has ever been bumped by such transfers All employees in all departments are treated uniformly with respect to expense accounts, travel allowances, fringe benefits, and yearend bonuses The Employer, however, has met separately with representatives of the drilling department to discuss certain complaints of the drilling employees about out-of-town jobsites, jobsite preparation, drilling rig maintenance, and senior ty The Employer agreed, among other things, to set up departmental seniority Management has encouraged employees to so meet and has met with other groups Generally, any change of policy brought about by such meetings is applied to all employees The Board has ruled that, in the absence of any bargaining history, a distinct, homogeneous, and func- tionally coherent group of employees may be established in a separate departmental group 3 In the instant case the drill department occupies a separate room The drillers have their own supervisor who has the authority to hire In addition, they have separate seniority, though this, to date, may be academic since the Employer has never laid anyone off Their common interests are further evidenced by meetings between department representatives and management, which resulted in work rule changes Although the changes (except departmental seniority) applied to the whole plant, the change in overnight subsistence affected primarily dill department employees Drill department work is distinct Drillers work prima my in the field and primarily to obtain soil samples Other employees engage primarily in testing Operation of a drill rig requires special skills and involves hazards not present in other departments Although all employees are subject to the same general personnel policies, this factor does not detract from the separate community of interest among drillers and their helpers as manifested by separate supervision, separate seniority, performance of the bulk of their work away from the plant, and their distinct skills and work functions Nor is the evidence of interchange sufficiently substantial to defeat the separate identity of the employees sought 4 The interchange is limited and irregular Transfers of drillers to other departments result in the performance of unskilled tasks only, and occur only when the drillers are unable to perform their regular functions due to unforeseeable circum- stances Other employees are assigned to the drill depart- ment only to meet unusally heavy workloads when an employee in the drill department is absent Those employees work only as helpers, and such interchange occurs at most three times a month Upon these facts, and the entire record in this case, we find that the drilling department employees constitute a homogeneous grouping which possesses a distinct com- munity of interest and that a separate departmental unit of these employees is appropriate Accordingly, we shall direct an election in the following unit, which we find to be appropriate I All drill operators, drill helpers, and drill mechanics employed by the Employer at its Cleveland, Ohio, facilities, excluding all office clerical employees, professional employees, technical employees, guards, supervisors,, as defined in the Act, and all other employees [Direction of Election" omitted from publication ] 3 See for example Bagdad Copper Company 144 NLRB 1496 and Southern Union Gas Company 175 NLRB No 141 See McCann Steel Co Inc 179 NLRB No 105 There is some suggestion in the record that Kornovsky assistant to the head of the drill department may be a supervisor and ineligible to vote However the parties have taken no clear position on this question and the record with respect to his status is inconclusive Accordingly we shall permit him to vote subject to challenge 1 In order to assure that all eligible voters may have the opportunity to be informed of the issues in the exercise of their statutory right to vote all parties to the election shall have access to a list of voters and their addresses which may be used to communicate with them Excelsior Underwear Inc 156 NLRB 1236 N L R B v Wyman Gordon Company 394 U S 759 Accordingly it is hereby directed that an election eligibility list containing the names and addresses of all the eligible voters must be filed by the Employer with the Regional Director for Region 8 within 7 days of the date of this Decision and Direction of Election The Regional Director shall make the list available to all parties to the election No extension of time to file this list shall be granted by the Regional Director except in extraordinary circumst ances Failure to comply with this requirement shall be grounds for setting aside the election whenever proper objections are filed