Container Research Corp.

586 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD Container Research Corporation and International plant unit of production and maintenance employees Union, United Automobile, Aerospace & is appropriate. Agricultural Implement Workers of America, UAW, The Petitioner seeks to exclude and the Employer Petitioner. Case 4-RC-8811 would include the following job classifications: Mate- rial planner, expediter, production control coordi- February 19, 1971 nator, estimator, contracts coordinator, cost coordinator, materials coordinator, draftsman, blue- DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION print control clerk, technical clerk, and fire preven- tion employee. The Petitioner would include and the BY CHAIRMAN MILLER AND MEMBERS BROWN AND Employer would exclude over-the-road truckdrivers JENKINS employed by Container Research, Inc., while the par- ties agreed to include the local driver employed at the Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9(c) of the Flextron plant. National Labor Relations Act, as amended, a hearing The record reveals that the Employer' s manufac- was held before Hearing Officer Sarah Parker. Fol- turing operation is divided into a number of depart- lowing the hearing and pursuant to Section 102.67 of ments. The production function is directly supervised the National Labor Relations Board Rules and Reg- by foremen who report to the plant superintendent, ulations and Statements of Procedure, Series 8, as who in turn is supervised by the marketing and manu- amended, by direction of the Regional Director for facturing manager. The record indicates that certain Region 4, this case was transferred to the National other departments relevant herein are supervised by Labor Relations Board for decision. The Employer personnel who are at the same level in the managerial and the Petitioner have filed briefs. hierarchy as the plant superintendent, although it is Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the not clear to whom these other supervisors report. National Labor Relations Act, as amended, the Na- They are: the chief engineer who supervises the draft- tional Labor Relations Board has delegated its powers ing and engineering department, which includes the in connection with this case to a three-member panel. draftsmen, blueprint control clerk, and technical The Board has reviewed the Hearing Officer's rul- clerk; the chief bookkeeper who supervises the book- ings made at the hearing and finds that they are free keeping department, to which the cost coordinator from prejudicial error. They are hereby affirmed. and the materials coordinator are assigned; the ship- Upon the entire record in this case, the Board ping and receiving foreman who directs the shipping finds:) and receiving department including the two over-the- 1. The Employer, which is comprised of Container road truckdrivers; and the contracts administrator Research Corporation and its "sister" corporation, who directs the contracts department which includes Flextron Industries, Inc.,' is engaged in commerce the contracts coordinators. The general office area of within the meaning of the Act, and it will effectuate the plant is set off from the production area by a wall, the policies of the Act to assert jurisdiction herein. and each of the above departments described herein 2. The labor organization involved claims to repre- is assigned separate working space in the general of- sent certain employees of the Employer. fice area. 3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning The material planners, who are under the immediate the representation of certain employees of the Em- supervision of the plant superintendent, schedule ployer within the meaning of Section 9(c)(1) and Sec- production and the flow and utilization of materials. tion 2(6) and (7) of the Act. Their duties specifically require that they check raw 4. Container Research Corporation is a Delaware material availability in the raw material storage areas, corporation engaged in the production of specialty write up requisitions for procurement, check with re- containers primarily for the helicopter and related ceiving personnel to determine material received, industries. The plants of Flextron, Inc., and Container meet with inspection personnel, and issue shop orders Research Corporation are located on the latter's prop- to plant production personnel. In addition they main- erty in Glen Riddle, Pennsylvania, approximately 100 tain production and inventory control records. The feet apart. It is undisputed that the two plants carry material planner's function requires contact with on an intergrated manufacturing operation. The par- production and maintenance, inspection, storeroom, ties have stipulated and the record reveals that a two- drafting, and shipping and receiving personnel. Mate- rial planners are salaried and receive the same fringe The'Petitioner's request for oral argument is hereby denied as the briefs benefits and earnings comparable to other production and the entire record adequately present the issues and the positions of the and maintenance employees in addition to being sub- parties. ject to the same supervision. In view of the foregoing 2 The parties stipulated and the record reveals that these companies consti- tute a single employer facts we find that the material planners are plant cleri- 188 NLRB No. 89 CONTAINER RESEARCH CORPORATION 587 cal employees and their interests lie with those of the production and maintenance employees. We shall therefore include them in the unit.' The expediters are salaried employees who spend approximately 95 percent of their time on the shop floor where they verify materials on hand, maintain production records, and deliver materials. Their pri- mary function is to ascertain that the movement of parts and other materials conforms to the schedules worked out by the material planners. They report di- rectly to the plant superintendent, as do the material planners, and share the same benefits and facilities with other employees in the production and mainte- nance unit. Based on the foregoing factors, we find that the expediters are plant clerical employees whose interests are sufficiently allied to those of production and maintenance employees to require their inclusion in the overall unit and, accordingly, we shall include them.4 The production control coordinator works under the immediate supervision of the plant superintendent. She gathers and maintains production records and inventory control records and prepares production progress reports. Although she is salaried, as are most of the plant and office clerical employees, the pro- duction control coordinator works the same hours and enjoys the same fringe benefits as do the produc- tion and maintenance personnel and is subject to the same rules. In the performance of her functions she spends virtually all her time with production and maintenance and shipping and receiving personnel either on the. production floor or in the production control office, which is adjacent to the production floor. We find that the production control coordina- tor is a plant clerical employee with interests closely allied with those-of unit employees, and we shall in- clude this category in the unit found appropriate .5 The estimator works directly under the supervision of the manufacturing manager to whom the plant superintendent reports. The estimator's primary duty is to gather information on the cost of material and labor for certain products for company records. The information gathered is utilized in preparing estimates for use by company officials bidding on jobs. The estimator spends 90 percent of his time in the general office area away from production employees and en- ters the plant floor only to get certain necessary data. On the basis of these facts, we find that the estimator is an office clerical employee whose interests are dif- ferent from those of employees in the unit and we shall exclude this category.6 J Sperry Piedmont Company, Division of Sperry Rand Corporation, 162 NLRB 857, 859, 861. 4 Cf. American Type Founders Co., Inc, 173 NLRB No 108, In 6 ; Weyer- hauser Company, 132 NLRB 84, 85. 5 Maryland Cup Corporation, 171 NLRB No 71 The contracts coordinators work in the general office area, separated from the plant area, under the supervi- sion of the contract administrator. Their duties con- sist of the assignment of job numbers and the maintenance of manufacturing and production re- cords and shipping logs. Two of the three contracts coordinators are typists and the third is a stenogra- pher. The record indicates that the two typists spend approximately 15 percent of their time typing and the remainder in securing the information and maintain- ing the various records and logs. The contracts coor- dinators' functions require contact with production and maintenance employees, but such contacts occur primarily in the general office away from the pro- duction area of the plant. They have different hours of work than production and maintenance employees and do not lose salary when absent. In view of the foregoing facts, we find that the contracts coordina- tors are office clerical employees, and, in accordance with our usual practice, we shall exclude them from the production and maintenance unit. The cost coordinator and the materials coordinator are employed in the accounting department. They work in the general office area, which is apart from the production area of the plant. The plant superin- tendent, who supervises production and maintenance employees, has no supervisory authority over either of these categories. The employees have the same hours as the office clericals and, unlike the production and maintenance employees, are not docked when absent. The primary responsibilities of the cost coordinator are to collect production timecards from the foremen; analyze the timecards and verify the time; post infor- mation to job records; and maintain records of time spent on individual jobs. Utilizing this information, the cost coordinator develops the payroll for all pro- duction and maintenance employees. In performing the foregoing duties, the cost coordinator has only incidental contact with production and maintenance employees. The materials coordinator verifies the re- ceipt, inspection, and use of materials in the produc- tion operation and the receipt of all maintenance sup- plies and equipment. Although the materials coor- dinator spends about 25 percent of her time in the production area and thus has daily contact with pro- duction and maintenance personnel, it appears that her principal functions and duties relate to the general office operations and are performed within the gener- al office itself. We find, based on the foregoing facts, that the cost coordinator and the materials coordinator are office clerical employees who do not have a close communi- ty of interest with production and maintenance em- 6 Gary Steel Products Corporation, 127 NLRB 1170, 1171-72. 588 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD ployees.7 Therefore we shall exclude them from the production and maintenance unit. The draftsmen, blueprint control clerk, and the tech- nical clerk are employed in the engineering and draft- ing department of the plant as distinguished from the production section; their duties and functions are clearly distinguished from the production phase of the Employer's operations and they are subject to sep- arate supervision. Thus, they work in the drafting de- partment, which is located at one end of the office area, under the immediate supervision of the chief engineer, who has no supervisory authority over any production and maintenance employees. The blue- print control clerk works in a fully enclosed separate office and storage area in the drafting department. The technical clerk spends approximately 50 percent of her time performing the function of a blueprint control clerk and, at such times, works in the same area. At other times she performs clerical duties, in- cluding typing. The draftsmen's duties consist of preparing draw- ings and bills of materials based on layouts and in- structions provided by the chief engineer. Additionally, draftsmen spend an undetermined per- centage of their time working on prototype models where their duties include assembly, wiring, and ad- justing jigs and fixtures in conjunction with prototype employees. The record also indicates that draftsmen occasionally work alongside production employees in the start-up phases of unusually complicated jobs. Draftsmen have occasion for further contact with production employees at other stages of the operation where problems with fits and tolerances are encoun- tered or when production modifications are involved. Commonly such contacts occur in the drafting room, although occasionally draftsmen attend to such duties on the production floor. The draftsmen are required to use high school level mathematics, and they are trained on the job. The record clearly shows and we find that the interests of the draftsmen are not sufficiently close to those of the production and main- tenance employees to warrant including them in the production and maintenance unit. Accordingly, they will be excluded.8 The blueprint control clerk and the technical clerk are not required to have any formal education and are also trained on the job. In view of all the circum- stances, including their close association with the draftsmen who are excluded from the unit, we shall also exclude the blueprint control clerk and the tech- nical clerk.9 The fire prevention employees check the plants and 7 The cases cited by the Employer in support of its position are factually distinguishable. 6 Maryland Cup Corporation, 171 NLRB No. 71, The Sheffield Corporation, 134 NLRB 1101, 1103-04. all electrical and welding equipment at night for possi- ble fires, check the boilers to see that they are operat- ing satisfactorily, check compressors, and check to see that equipment has been turned off throughout the .plant at the end of the operating shifts. These employ- ees are present during the second and third shifts when three or four maintenance employees are pres- ent. They do not wear a uniform or carry a gun, they do not have authority to enforce company rules against other employees, and they are not required to keep unauthorized persons out of the plant. They are supervised by the maintenance foreman who super- vises other maintenance employees under the general supervision of the plant superintendent. They are hourly paid, receive overtime compensation, punch a timeclock, and on occasion perform janitorial-main- tenance work during periods of their shift when they are not required to be on their rounds. The fire pre- vention employees receive the same fringe benefits as other production and maintenance employees. Under all these circumstances, and upon the entire record, we agree with the Employer that the firemen are not guards within the meaning of the Act, and that, as their interests are closely allied with other production and maintenance employees, they should be included in the production and maintenance unit.10 The two over-the-road truckdrivers employed at the Container Research Corporation plants spend 80 to 85 percent of their time away from the plant making trips that range from 15-20 miles to 500-600 miles. They do not unload their trucks and are subject to ICC regulations. They perform no production work and have no contact with production and mainte- nance employees. They are hourly paid and receive expense money. We find they should be excluded from the unit." Accordingly, we find that the following employees constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of col- lective bargaining within the-meaning of Section 9(b) of the Act: All production and maintenance employ- ees 12 at the Employer's Container Research Corpora- tion and Flextron, Inc., plants in Glen Riddle, Pennyslvania, including fire prevention employees, production control coordinators, material planners and expeditors; but excluding draftsmen, blueprint 9 Century Electric Company, 146 NLRB 232, 236-237; The Sheffield Corpo- ration, supra at 1106 0 Cf. Thunderbird Hotel, Inc, 144 NLRB 84, 88. 1 Drexel Enterprises, 180 NLRB No 67. 12 The parties have further stipulated, and we find that: (a) Approximately 50 employees who were permanently laid off on August 14, 1970, for economic reasons have no expectancy of recall in the foreseeable future and are ineligible to vote; (2) The receiving clerk, stock handler, maintenance clerk, and inspec- tors are included in the unit, and (3) Eight group leaders have no supervisory authority and hence are included in the unit, and CONTAINER RESEARCH CORPORATION 589 control clerks, technical clerks , the estimator, contract coordinators, cost coordinators, material coordina- tors, over-the-road truckdrivers, all office clerical em- ployees, and guards and supervisors as defined in the Act. (4) Foremen Rudy Carlo, James Colson , Eugene Dargay , Tony Fig- urell, Thomas Hunter, William McGehrm, Nathan Morgan , and Fred Schmidt, Al Bendistis, Joseph Bendistis, and Henry Fisher are supervi- sors and thus excluded from the unit. 13 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 should have access to a list of voters and their addresses [Direction of Election13 ommitted from publica- tion.] which may be used to communicate with them . Excelsior Underwear Inc, 156 NLRB 1236, N L R B v Wyman-Gordon Co, 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 4 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 circumstances. Failure to comply with this requirement shall be grounds for setting aside the election whenever proper objections are filed.