Alcan Aluminum Corp.

362 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD Alcan Aluminum Corporation and Local Union 328, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, AFL-CIO,' Alcan Aluminum Corporation and United Steelworkers of America, AFL-CIO,' Cases 3-RC-4364 and 3-RC-4403 September 5, 1969 DECISION ON REVIEW, ORDER, AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION On March 22, 1968, the Regional Director for Region 3 issued a Decision and Direction of Election (attached) in Case 3-RC-4364, in which he found the IBEW's requested unit of maintenance employees at the Employer's Oswego (Scriba), New York, plant to be appropriate. Thereafter. the Employer and Steelworkers, which intervened in that proceeding,filed requests for review, asserting, inter alia, that the Regional Director departed from officially reported precedent in his unit finding. While the requests were pending before the Board, Steelworkers, on April 9, filed a petition in Case 3-RC-4403 for an election in a unit of production and maintenance employees at the same plant.' On April 12, the Regional Director issued a Supplemental Decision, in which he treated the pending requests for review as motions for reconsideration. rescinded his Decision previously issued, consolidated the two cases, and provided for reopening of the hearing. Thereafter, the parties stipulated that the record made in Case 3-RC-4364, together with documents subsequently filed, would constitute the record in the consolidated proceedings. On June 6, the Regional Director issued a Second Supplemental Decision and Direction of Elections (attached) in which he found that the IBEW's requested maintenance unit, as well as the broader unit sought, may be appropriate and directed self-determination elections in voting groups of the maintenance department employees and the production employees, respectively. Thereafter, the Employer and Steelworkers filed requests for review. in which they again urged that the Regional Director' s finding that a maintenance unit may be appropriate was a departure from precedent. The IBEW filed opposition to the requests. The Board by telegraphic Order on October 1 granted the requests for review and stayed the elections directed pending decision on review. All parties filed briefs 'Herein called the IBEW 'Herein called Steelworkers 'Steelworkers, we are administratively advised, had a showing of interest, based on authorization cards antedating the hearing date, which was adequate to support its petition and to block the election directed in Case 3-RC-4364 on review. The Board has considered the entire record in these cases with respect to the issues under review. including the briefs on review, and makes the following findings: The Employer's Oswego plant is an aluminum rolling mill.4 Its employees have no history of collective bargaining. At the time of the hearing there were approximately 160 production and 117 maintenance employees at the Oswego plant. These employees are located mainly in three departments, Production, Maintenance, and Purchasing and Traffic, whose managers report to the plant manager. Most production employees work a 5-day, 40-hour week. some on a three-shift basis, some on a two-shift basis.' Production employees rotate shifts every 2 weeks. About 70 of the maintenance employees work on the same rotating shift basis; some work the same shift every day, usually the day shift: some work a 6-day, 40-hour week on a rotating three-shift basis. The Maintenace Department is comprised of a number of subsections. Reporting to the department manager are a mechanical engineer and two general foremen, one for building and services and one for plant maintenance. Building and services has 2 subsections, building and yards and mobile equipment and service, each headed by a foreman. The building and yards subsection has its own shop in a separate building, a short distance from the plant. There, two building repairmen, four yard crew men, and two equipment operators work days, and seven janitors work shifts. The mobile equipment and service subsection has its own shop in the plant near the loading dock. Working days are an auto mechanic,' two general mechanics and an apprentice. On shifts are four forklift mechanics, three equipment operators, and three equipment operator helpers. The plant maintenance general foreman has seven foremen reporting to him. The second and third shift foremen have overall plant maintenance responsibilities. The other five foremen have their own subsections, as follows: The instrument maintenance subsection has two groups of men: four instrument men and an apprentice, working out of the hot line maintenance office, on days; and five pyrometrics electricians, The Employer has a number of other plants in the United States and Canada Headquarters for the division of the Employer's operations to which the Oswego plant belongs is at Cleveland , Ohio Other plants within this division are at Warren, Ohio (a cold mill and paint mill), Fairmont, West Virginia (a cold mill and a remelt operation ), Riverside, California (cold mills, forging and assembly ), South Carney, New Jersey (finishing mill for siding and extruded stock); and Elizabeth Town and Melrose Park, New Jersey (both warehousing operations). All of these production facilities have existing production and maintenance units 'Remelt production is a 3-shift operation, as are certain operations in the plate mill, the soaking pit is "a 7-day, 4-turn trick" (the meaning of "4-turn trick" is not given in the record presumably it meant on a 4-shift basis), the rest of production operates on a 2-shift basis `The auto mechanic works in the building and yards subsection shop 178 NLRB No 55 ALCAN ALUMINUM CORPORATION 363 working out of a cage in the remelt area, on shifts. The electrical maintenance subsection has a shop in the hot line motor room and comprises three groups of electricians: shift maintenance electricians (a group leader and two electricians on each shift plus two apprentices on the third shift); two or three construction electricians on days; and four or five shop electricians, including two apprentices and an air-conditioning specialist, also on days. The mill maintenance subsection operates from a crib close to the 100 inch mill. Each shift has a group leader, three mechanics and an apprentice--the first shift has one helper and the third shift three helpers. The remelt maintenance subsection comprises shift mechanics (a group leader, three mechanics and an apprentice on each shift) operating from their own shop in the remelt area; and a mason and a mold repairman on the day shift. each with his own small shop in the remelt area. The machine shop subsection is made up of a roll shop, a machine shop and a fabrication shop. The machine shop, located at one end of the motor room, has a group leader, two machinists, a tool grinder, and an apprentice on the first shift, and a machinist on each of the other two shifts. The fabrication shop, within the machine shop, has a group leader, six fabricators and a helper, on days only. The roll shop, adjacent to the machine shop, has a group leader, a roll grinder on each shift, two assemblers and an apprentice on days, and two bearing inspectors on the second shift. The mechanical engineer supervises directly three shift lubricators who use a desk in one of the two roll coolant buildings as their headquarters. In addition to the foregoing Maintenance Department employees, the following employees in other departments perform both production and maintenance functions: three roll coolant operators in the Production Department, working shifts,, and the stores employees (a chief storekeeper, a storekeeper. a receiving clerk, four stores clerks, and a truck driver-expediter-stores clerk) in the Traffic and Purchasing Department. The flow of production at the Oswego plant may be described as follows: About 60 percent of the aluminum ingots' used in production at the Oswego plant is shipped in from the Employer's Canadian smelting plants; the other 40 percent is cast from aluminum scrap in the remelt mill at the Oswego plant. The remelt process involves first the unloading of scrap from railroad cars or trucks by trackmobiles operated by a two-man crew (the shift equipment operator and his helper in the equipment and service subsection). In these unloading operations. and in transferring the scrap from the trackmobiles to the mill receiving dock, production employees in the remelt mill and building and yards maintenance employees are frequently assigned to help. The scrap is stored in scrap boxes. It is taken from storage by forklift and dumped into a scrap charging machine which shoves the scrap into one of two melting furnaces. Dross collecting on the surface of the melt is removed and conveyed to a nearby dross pad where usable metal is recovered. The melt, when heated to the proper temperature, is transferred to a holding furnace, where tests are made and alloy ingredients added, if necessary. The melt is then given a chlorine bath (under pressure) and transferred to a casting unit, a table with water-cooled molds mounted on hydraulic cylinders which are retractable into a deep pit. As the melt flows into the mold it solidifies and the cylinder retracts into the pit, generally 10 to 12 feet. depending on the length of ingot desired. A crane then removes the ingot and places it on the floor. A fork trucker then picks it up, weighs it and conveys it either to storage or, if it is to go directly into production. to the nearby scalper area. Before going into hot line production, all ingots are taken to the scalping machine which cuts off one-half to 1 inch from both sides of the ingot. The hot line production department consists of the soaking pits, the 120 inch rolling mill, and the 100 inch rolling mill. The soaking pits at the Oswego plant are 14 gas-fired furnaces with retractable roofs which are retracted by radio control from a large crane. The crane loads the ingots into the pits where they are heated to the required rolling temperatures, which vary from 900 to 1200 degrees F. The ingots "soak" in the pits for periods of a few to 24 hours. After the soaking process is completed the crane removes the ingots from the pits and places them in an "ingot buggy"which takes them by rail to a position in front of the 120 inch rolling mill. The 120 inch mill is a large 4-high rolling mill through which the ingot is passed back and forth until the thickness of the ingot has been reduced to 1 -- 1 1 /2 inches. After this process the ingot is trimmed at a shear and, unless it is to be processed into plate in the adjacent plate mill, passed on to the 100 inch mill. The 100 inch mill consists of three stands through which the material passes just once." After passing through the last stand the product is coiled on a coiling machine, weighed, transported to the shipping department, wrapped, and loaded into truck or trailer car for shipment to other plants. Material to be moved from the 120 inch mill to the plate mill is cut into lengths from 4 to 20 feet and in the plate mill several operations are performed. including stretching and sawing, to achieve the correct shape and size. The plate is then taken to the shipping area by crane for wrapping or packaging and shipment. 'These ingots are big slabs of aluminum 18 inches thick , up to 4 feet wide, and roughly 10 feet long This mill is closed down for maintenance at least 1 day a week. 364 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD As to the integration of the various maintenance functions performed by the aforementioned groups of maintenance employees, the record reveals the following facts: Building and yards subsection employees work with production employees on major repair fobs,' as extra help in the remelt department. and in rebuilding remelt furnaces (such rebuilding projects occur two or three times a year for periods of about 3 weeks on a three-shift basis). Production employees work with building and yards employees during annual production slowdowns (of I to 3 months' duration). Production employees working on the 100 inch mill may be assigned to such building and yard work at least I day each week when that mill is down. The shift forklift mechanics in the mobile equipment and service subsection service, repair and maintain the 24 forklift trucks in use as well as 2 trackmobiles and 10 personnel carriers. They spend at least half their time doing such work in the remelt area and the rest in the hot line departments, or in the shop doing major repairs. Forklift operators frequently assist fork lift mechanics when emergency repairs are being made on their vehicle,,. The two general mechanics in the subsection service equipment, such as compressors, scales, water treatment equipment, water cooling towers and roll coolant pumps, throughout the plant The trackmobile crews, although assigned to this subsection, take directions from the remelt production foreman, and, as aforementioned, frequently are assisted by production employees in scrap moving operations. The shift lubricators are responsible for the correct operation of all lubricating equipment in the plant. Every several months sludge collecting in the oil tanks under the mills must be removed When such cleaning occurs during slack production periods, the lubricators are assisted by production employees. Instrument maintenance men repair, maintain and troubleshoot instruments throughout the plant. Production employees assist them in troubleshooting work. Pyrometrics electricians do electrical work on the furnaces, troubleshoot thermocouples, install piping and controls, and, with the instrument men, do electrical maintenance on the dross pad. As aforesaid, on major repairs and furnace rebuilds, pyrometrics electricians are assisted by production employees and building and yard employees. The shift maintenance electricians keep the hot line running. Production operators assist then in their frequent troubleshooting assignments. Construction electricians install and repair wirings throughout the plant. The air-conditioning specialist maintains the plant air-conditioning equipment. Other electricians work mainly in the shop 'including major repairs of the remelt furnaces which occur about every 2 months and involve 3 days' to a week's work The mill maintenance mechanics perform mechanical maintenance mainly for the 100 inch rolling mills and, as needed, for the 120 inch rolling mill and the plate mill. This maintenance involves millwright work, pipe fitting, welding, mechanical repairs. and changing of rolls. Production employees assist them at controls when repairs are being made while the mills are in production. The remelt maintenance mechanics on each shift perform the necessary mechanical repairs to keep the remelt production equipment operating. The mason does masonry repair and installation on furnaces and takes directions from the remelt production foreman. Production employees as,,ist these mechanics and the mason in troubleshooting repairs and, as above stated, assist in furnace rebuilds and major repairs. The mold repairman repairs molds in his shop and sets them up with the help of mechanics and casting pit crew men, and he takes directions from the man in charee of the casting station. Machine shop employees spend most of their time in their shop, which has lathes, milling machines, drills, shapers, etc. The machinist on the second and third shifts is responsible for servicing the scalping machine. He goes to the scalper to install the newly sharpened sets of knives in the scalper head. The tool grinder, who grind,, these knives, changes the knives for the day shift. He also regrinds the saw blades in the plate mill. The fabricators spend about three-quarters of their time in their shop fabricating Steel parts for equipment and the rest of their time in the plant installing these parts. The roll shop employees also spend most of their time in their shop. The roll grinders change rolls on the first stand of the 100 inch mill at least once a day: on the second stand, about every second day; on the third Stand, twice a week: and on the 120 inch mill, usually once a week. In their work they have some contact with the production foremen. The assemblers disassemble and reassemble roller bearing housings (attach(,d to spray bars which spray coolant on the rolls) and stripper bars (attached to the rolls). The bearing inspectors on the second shift spend about half their time inspecting bearings, which are dismantled, washed, oiled and inspected twice a year. The rest of their time they work as assemblers. The roll coolant pump operators, under the supervision of the hot line general foreman, operate the equipment in the two roll coolant buildings, one for each rolling mill. They maintain the proper levels of coolant in the oils, clean the tanks out. remix coolant, operate water softeners, run the pumps, change filters, and also perform some repair work on their equipment.10 The stores employees handle stores for, and serve, both production and maintenance departments. "The general mechamc^ do most of it ALCAN ALUMINUM CORPORATION Seniority for job openings is departmental, and if openings are not filled from within the department. bids are sought from other plant departments before use is made of outside advertising. Most maintenance employees have previously worked in production jobs. However, such transferees frequently have had prior maintenance experience and those without it are transferred to generally unskilled maintenance jobs. Few maintenance employees have transferred to production jobs. Production and maintenance employees receive the same fringe benefits and their jobs are evaluated under the same system. They use the same plant entrance and the same wash and locker rooms. Although there are common eating facilities, maintenance employees generally eat in their own shops. The Regional Director concluded that "the identity of the maintenance employees is not obscured or obliterated by a fusion of functions in the production process . ," and, therefore,found that, in the absence of a bargaining history for a broader unit, a maintenance unit may be appropriate wider American Cyanamid Company, 131 NLRB 909. and subsequent cases applying the principles enunciated therein. The Employer and Steelworkers dispute the Regional Director's conclusion. The IBEW points to a number of factors in support of the conclusion reached by the Regional Director and, in addition, argues that Steelworkers' petition, filed after the issuance of the initial Decision and Direction of Election herein, should have been dismissed as untimely, because Steelworkers did not have a showing of interest to support a cross-petition in Case 3-RC-4364, and that, in any event, because of its time of filing, the petition for the broader unit should not be considered as a factor by the Board in judging the appropriateness of the requested maintenance unit. We reject this argument. The IBEW filed no request for review of the Regional Director's Supplemental Decision, Order Consolidating Cases and Notice of Hearing. Moreover, as above-noted, Steelworkers had a sufficient showing of interest to support a cross-petition for a unit of production and maintenance employees. Upon our evaluation of the facts of this case, as set forth above, we conclude, contrary to the Regional Director, that the maintenance department unit sought herein is not a distinct and homogeneous group of employees with interests separate from those of other employees and therefore it may not be represented as a separate appropriate unit. At the outset, we note that the Employer's plant here involved is in the basic aluminum industry in which operations are highly integrated and bargaining has proceeded historically on a plantwide basis. It was principally for these reasons that the National Tube" doctrine was extended to the aluminum industry in The Permanente Metals Corporation, 89 NLRB 804. Although since our Mallinckrodt12 decision we 365 no longer adhere to the National Tube doctrine, we nevertheless view the integrated nature of operations and the pattern of bargaining in industries previously covered by that doctrine, although not themselves controlling, as relevant factors to be considered, together with all other facts and circumstances in each case, in making unit findings. Indeed, our overruling of National Tube was intended to apply a uniform standard to all industries and make integration of operations a relevant factor in all. The effect of the change was to end the automatic denial of separate units in the four previously favored industries, and the total disregard of this factor in all others. Starting with Mallinckrodt, we have considered, and shall continue to do so, the fact and degree of integration, as well as the industry pattern of bargaining, in each case on its merits. That is the standard we apply to this case. We are persuaded that a number of the other relevant factors set forth more fully above support our conclusion. Thus, production employees over the year spend substantial periods of time in various maintenance functions, especially in assisting building and yards employees and remelt maintenance employees. Likewise, maintenance employees, particularly building and services employees, are frequently called on to work as extra help along with production employees in the remelt departments. Furthermore, a number of equipment operators in building and services, although in the maintenance department, perform functions which are not strictly maintenance, while others do both production and maintenance work. 13 In addition, there is a close relationship among production employees and all the groups of maintenance employees in plant maintenance; all maintenance personnel perform functions essential to the continued operation of the various production processes, spending a substantial percentage of their time in troubleshooting production equipment and machinery; some work in close contact with, and require the assistance of, production employees in making repairs; and some take directions from production foremen in the performance of their maintenance duties. Indeed, it appears that, generally, the groups of employees in the various subsections of the maintenance department have more contact with production employees than they have with each other. And it appears that most maintenance employees have previously worked in production jobs. For the above reasons, and upon the entire record in these cases, we find the requested maintenance department unit to be inappropriate,"' and we shall "National Tube Company. 76 NLRB 1199 "Mallinckrodt Chemical Works. Uranium Division. 162 NLRB 387 "As noted above, the roll coolant operators and stores employees, not sought to be included in the requested maintenance unit, perform both production and maintenance functions "See American Cyanamid, supra. US Plywood-Champion Papers. Inc. 366 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD dismiss the IBEW's petition.15 We further find that the only appropriate unit herein, for the purposes of collective bargaining , is as follows: All production and maintenance employees at the Employer's Oswego (Scriba), New York plant, excluding office clerical employees, professional employees, guards, and supervisors as defined in the Act. ORDER It is hereby ordered that the petition filed in Case 3-RC-4364 be, and it hereby is, dismissed. [Direction of Election" omitted from publication.] MEMBER FANNING , dissenting: My colleagues here reverse a factually accurate, precedent-supported, well reasoned and discerning decision by the Regional Director granting self-determination to a maintenance department. I cannot agree. The setting is a plant where earlier bargaining attempts on a plantwide basis have not succeeded. The current consolidated proceeding arose after the initial petition for the maintenance unit was filed and decision granting it had issued. Quite significant, apparently, is the fact that the plant is an aluminum rolling mill. "At the outset," as my colleagues say, this is the "aluminum industry" highly integrated and accustomed to plantwide bargaining. "Other relevant factors," they say, support their conclusion that the maintenance employees sought are not a distinct and homogeneous group of employees- a conclusion which, I must say, reflects a remarkable talent for aggrandizing completely normal, run-of-the-mill contact between production and maintenance employees to keep a plant in operation. Thus it would seem that craft maintenance employees in the aluminum industry are right back where they were before Mallinckrodt, 162 NLRB 387. That decision in significant part dealt with a promised end to plantwide unit guarantees in four basic industries. My colleagues subscribed to this principle, but they have now effectively negated application of it in the aluminum industry. dust as 174 NLRB No 48 The case of Crown Simpson Pulp Company, 163 NLRB No 109, cited by the Regional Director as support for his contrary conclusion, is in our view, factually distinguishable "The IBEW indicated at the hearing that it did not wish to participate in an election in a production and maintenance unit "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 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 a corrected 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 3 within 7 days of the date of this Decision on Review 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 their Timber Products decision, 164 NLRB No. 109, did in the lumber industry . I dissented there; I dissent here." American Cyanamid , 131 NLRB 909, a decision presumably applicable to all industries, is cited in support of their conclusion that the employees at this aluminum plant are entitled to bargain only on a combined production and maintenance unit basis. The Regional Director cited this decision for the opposite result. Two of my colleagues participated with me in American Cyanamid, reiterating a longstanding Board policy of permitting separate maintenance units on initial organization and providing the lead case on this principle since.38 Another colleague participated with me in Crown Simpson Pulp, 163 NLRB No. 109, which relied upon American Cyanamid and is now termed factually distinguishable from the instant case, without discussion.19 The industry was chemical in American Cyanamid, an industry with integrated processing not unlike aluminum and steel and lumber and wet milling, though never added to that exempt group under the National Tube doctrine. The maintenance employees at the chemical plant involved were established in separate departmental sections, with their own supervision. They performed varied maintenance work for the entire plant, exercising the particular skills required. Their work was frequently accomplished in groups and sometimes in conjunction with production workers, who also made adjustments on their own machinery. It is difficult to ignore the parallel between that case and this. The main witness here was the Employer's maintenance manager and we have in evidence the Employer's organization chart of its maintenance department. This reflects complete departmental organization of a group of approximately 106 employees and apprentices. The maintenance manager who testified is the head of this major department, which is supervised at the intermediate or section level by general foremen - one for Buildings and Services and one for Plant Maintenance- andsupervised at the subsection level by foremen. The subsections are: Buildings and Yards, Mobile Equipment. Instruments. Electrical. Machine Shop (including a Roll Shop and a "My colleagues speak of pre- Mallinckrodt severance as automatic denial for four favored industries on the basis of integrated operations and "total disregard" of that lactor "in all others ' Total disregard is a sweeping conclusion My own concern for the impact of integrated processing on severance is apparent in Mallinckrodt , 129 NLRB 312, to 3, and in Kennecott Copper, 138 Ni RB 118 124 that my colleagues no longer deny severance automatically in all industries is still not clear to me Their uniform standards seem to he insuring that sort of umlormily "I had dissented from an earlier decision in the same American Cyanamid proceeding, 130 NLRB I, 4 Chairman McCulloch, Member Brown, and then Member Leedom voted to vacate that decision at 131 NLRB 909, and I concurred "Member Zagoria there agreed with Member Jenkins and me that the maintenance lunction was separately identitiable at Crown Simpson's highly integrated and automated pulp mill despite the tact that some maintenance work was done in conjunction with production employees ALCAN ALUMINUM CORPORATION 367 Fabricating Shop, the latter working days only), Mill Maintenance, and Remelt Maintenance, reflecting by their titles a comprehensive plant of maintenance for structures, grounds, and equipment. My colleagues recite the full classification complement of each of these subsections of maintenance and then separately discuss various functions. The approach taken avoids meaningful correlation. It fails to show the true impact of the maintenance operation at this plant, as reflected by the testimony of the plant's maintenance manager. Apparently my colleagues are not impressed by the fact that employees hired at the top of the maintenance scale are hired as journeymen and that those recruited from production for maintenance are subject to apprenticeship "for instrumentation, electrical work, millwright work, and other areas of the plant." Their emphasis is a focus on contacts between production employees and maintenance employees at times when lack of such contact would be abnormal during periodic shutdowns, major breakdowns, and troubleshooting.20 The approach is piecemeal, to say the least. If ever a record established the existence of a distinct, well organized. separately supervised maintenance operation, this is it.21 It is an understatemenc. to say, as I do, that there is ample justification for the Regional Director's conclusion that here, as in American Cvanamid and in Crown Simpson Pulp, there has been no "fusion" of maintenance functions with the production process. To dismiss the petition for a separate maintenance unit by emphasis on troubleshooting, on "some" maintenance personnel working in contact with production employees and being assisted by them (in all ways but skill), and on `'some" taking "directions" from production foremen (when all are provided to the hilt with their own supervision to the extent they need it), avoids responsible assessment of this record and achieves the same old plantwide unit long accorded this industry by the Board. American Cyanamid, lead case'though it is, is left a hollow shell, and that part of Mallinckrodt intended to end plantwide unit guarantees only an "Shutdowns of parts of the plant aie periodic, partly due to basic repair and rebuilding regularly required and partly to the product being produced at particular times, such as the 100 inch mill not operating when plate is being produced The ctilization of production employees whose production work has temporarily been eliminated to assist maintenance employees is both economic and humane. But, on this record , there can be no question that the contact between the two during such shutdowns does not result in production employees contributing maintenance skills to the work at hand. The same is true during major breakdowns, when all employees bend their efforts to restore production As to calls for maintenance troubleshooting being made by production foremen without bothering the shift maintenance foreman, the authority so exercised is one of summoning not supervising, and the help supplied by the production operator whose equipment requires repair is that which any production employee would be expected to do, like starting a motor or watching a dial , while the maintenance employee attempts a repair. 'The unit sought in this case is a particularly appropriate maintenance unit because of its comprehensiveness, including laborers and janitors as well as skilled employees See Allied Chemical & Dye Corporation, 120 NLRB 63,67 illusory signpost. 22 Self-organization is a right guaranteed employees in Section 9(b), as I observed in American Cvanamid. Until the statute is changed by Congress itself, it is my interpretation that, on initial organization, maintenance employees as a group may be accorded self-organization, if they so desire. I would affirm the Regional Director. MEMBER JENKINS, dissenting. For the reasons expressed by the Regional Director, I would affirm his decision. DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9(c) of the National Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before a hearing officer of the National Labor Relations Board. 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 the undersigned Regional Director. Upon the entire record in this case, the Regional Director 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 labor organization(s) involved claim(s) to represent certain employees of the Employer.' 3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the representation of certain employees of the Employer within meaning of Section 9(c) (1) and Section 2(6) and(7) of the Act. 4. The following employees of the Employer constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9(b) of the Act:' "See "Two Years Under Mallinckrodt A Review of the Board's Latest Craft Unit Policy" by Laurence J Cohen, in CCH Labor Law Journal, April 1969, Volume 20, Number 4 'United Steelworkers of America. AFL-CIO, herein called Intervenor, was permitted to intervene on the basis of a showing of interest. 'The Employer is engaged in the operation of an aluminum rolling mill in Oswego (Scriba), New York. There is no history of collective-bargaining at this mill Basically, mill' s personnel structure consists of about 100 production employees who a re directly involved in the continuous process of producing aluminum and about 118 maintenance employees who do the repair work necessary to keep the plant functioning The Petitioner seeks a unit limited to all maintenance employees at the plant The Employer and the Intervenor contend that the highly integrated nature of the aluminum mill operation , including the necessity of the production employees working closely with the maintenance employees to facilitate continuous operations , make a unit consisting of the production and maintenance employees the only appropriate unit The Employer' s maintenance department consists of the buildings and services section and the plant maintenance section. each of which is headed by a general foreman who reports directly to the maintenance manager Both the maintenance manager and production manager report directly to the plant manager The buildings and services section and the plant maintenance section are divided into subsections which are located in separate areas throughout the plant, generally in close proximity to the production area which they 368 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD All maintenance employees employed by the Employer at its plant on Lake Road, Oswego (Scriba), New York, excluding office clerical employees, production employees, guards, professional employees, and all other employees and all supervisors as defined in the Act. [Direction of • Election3", i omitted from publication.1 service One of the subsections of the building and services section, the buildings and yard subsection , is located in a separate building away from the main plant The buildings and services section is subdivided into a buildings and yards subsection and a mobile equipment and service subsection Each is headed by a foreman who reports directly to the general foreman of the buildings and services section The plant maintenance section is subdivided into an instrument subsection, an electrical subsection , a machine shop subsection, a mill shop subsection and a remelt subsection, each of which is headed by a foreman who reports directly to the general foreman of the plant maintenance section Also reporting to the general foreman of plant maintenance are a second shift and a third shift maintenance foreman. The machine shop subsection is further subdivided into a roll shop , a machine shop, and a tabricating shop. Some of the classifications which are utilized in the various maintenance functions include auto , general, and equipment mechanics, forklift operators. electricians, instrument men, roll grinders. assemblers, tool grinders, fabricators, mold repair men, various apprentices, janitors, helpers, etc There are also three shift lubricators who report to the mechanical engineer who reports in turn directly to the maintenance manager Maintenance and production employees receive the same fringe benefits Approximately 70 of the maintenance employees work the same hourly schedule as do the production employees. and the balance of the maintenance employees work a schedule which is different from that of the production employees. According to the record , departmental seniority is utilized in maintenance promotional situations Thereafter, employees from the production department are permitted to bid upon any remaining opening before an outsider is hired to fill a vacancy. A majority of the Employer's present maintenance employees formerly worked in the production department From the record it appears that transfer of employees from the maintenance department to the production department is rare. The production employees and the maintenance employees do not interchange . For the most part, any work performed by production employees with maintenance employees appears to be incidental to the production employee's regular employment The record does disclose, however, that there are some instances where maintenance and production employees will work together on tasks which are not strictly related to the production process. Thus, when a furnace has to be rebuilt , employees are drawn from all departments and the maintenance supervisors will be allocated production employees who work with maintenance employees tearing down and rebuilding the furnaces Major rebuilding jobs occur two or three times a year and last roughly three weeks. Less extensive repairs of the same nature can require from three days to a week to complete There is also a track mobile crew (operator and a helper ) on each of the three shifts who works out of the building and service section, one of whose functions is to bring cars of scrap and ingot into receiving sections When material is jammed into the operator's truck, and extra help is required to remove it, production people can be utilized for this purpose. Generally, the track mobile crew (the operator and his helper) are directed by a production foreman, although they do not officially report to him Employees from the building and yard subsection can assist in the remelt department if there is a pile up of equipment or a flow out of metal into a casting pit in which case they will help the casting operator remove such metal from the pit When the plant has slow periods of production, the mill is run on a four day production schedule On the fifth day production employees from the mill may be used for such miscellaneous items as grass cutting or snow shoveling , painting and general cleanup, which would include the removal of oil and muck from the bottom of tanks Finally, the Employer's 100" mill and the hotline is generally shut down for a full day a week when the Employer is producing plate At this time the employees who are normally employed on the 100" mill and hotline, who are not utilized on the Employer's plate operation or engaged in clean up work for a production foreman, can, upon request by maintenance , assist mechanics from the maintenance department in the repair and maintenance of the 100" mill On the second and third shifts , when a production foreman determines that he requires the assistance of a maintenance man for such functions as changing a motor on a furnace door, he may, in the absence of the shift maintenance foreman, direct a maintenance employee to perform the work without consulting with the shift maintenance foreman However , as noted above, there is a maintenance foreman on both the second and third shifts whose responsibility it is to oversee the maintenance operations Also, when a production foreman has a special project involving such things as the improvement of equipment under his jurisdiction he may request and utilize maintenance employees to accomplish the task where their skills are needed From the record as a whole, and the examples furnished therein, it appears that the maintenance assistance work occasionally assigned to production employees is of the simplest kind consisting of elementary maintenance tasks which demand no special skill This fact suggests the narrow competence of production employees in the area of maintenance work See Chas Pfizer & Co. Inc. 162 NLRB No 137 In accord with longstanding Board policy concerning initial organization, and based on the record herein made concerning the separate function of these maintenance department employees, I find that they may constitute a separate unit for purposes of collective-bargaining See American Cyanamid Company. 131 NLRB 909. The reasons assigned by the Board in S D Warren Company, 144 NLRB 204, aftd. 353 F.2d 494 (C A 1), cent denied 383 U S 958. for finding appropriate the unit of engineering division employees are equally applicable to the unit sought in the present case The Board said in Warren In all the circumstances of this case, the absence of any bargaining history and the fact that the engineering division is a distinct administrative subdivision of the employer having a functional base of maintenance, construction and utility work and employing primarily skilled employees who work out of their respective craft shops and do not work directly in the productive process, we agree . that such unit is appropriate for collective bargaining purposes In reaching this result we are not unmindful of the fact that there is some overlapping of work skills among some of the employees doing maintenance work in the productions divisions and some of the lesser skilled employees in the engineering division However, we do not believe that in the circumstances of this case this factor is sufficient to destroy the homogenity and mutuality of interests of employees in the engineering division From the present record it appears that despite the integrated nature of the Employer's operation, the maintenance function is separately identifiable The maintenance department, while located in various sections of the Employer's operation to facilitate efficient service to the production areas they accommodate, nevertheless are separate and apart from the production areas The maintenance employees are, with only minor exception, under the separate maintenance supervision and do not interchange with production employees Additionally, it appears that they possess in the aggregate complex, skills not possessed by production employees Further, at times when the maintenance employees work in conjunction with production employees, the function performed by production employees is for the greater part only incidental to regularly assigned production tasks, and where this is not the case it appears that the assistance rendered to the maintenance employees by production employees is of the simplest kind requiring little or no maintenance skill Accordingly, I find that the maintenance employees constitute a unit appropriate for collective-bargaining within the meaning of Section 9(b) of the Act Myers Drum Company, 165 NLRB No 107. Crown Simpson Pulp Company . 163 NLRB No 109, Gerber Products Company. 162 NLRB No. 14. 'Three election eligibility lists, containing the names and addresses of all eligible voters, must be filed with the Regional Director within seven (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 In order to be timely filed, such list must be received in the Regional Office, The 120 Building , 120 Delaware Avenue, Buffalo, New York 14202, on or before March 29, 1968. Under Board directives, no extension of time to file this list may be granted except in extraordinary circumstances, nor shall the filing of a request for review operate to stay the filing of such list Failure to comply with this requirement shall be grounds for setting aside the election whenever proper objections are filed Excelsior Underwear Inc., 156 NLRB 1236. The Intervenor reserved decision on whether it wished to appear on the ballot in the event a unit limited to maintenance employees was found appropriate In the event Intervenor should decide to appear on the ballot, ALCAN ALUMINUM CORPORATION 369 then those eligible siall vote whether they desire to be represented for collective bargaining purposes by Local Union 328, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, AFL-CIO, United Steelworkers of America, AFL-CIO, or by neither. SECOND SUPPLEMENTAL DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION On March 22, 1968, the undersigned issued his Decision and Direction of Election in Case 3-RC-4364. On April 3, 1968, the Intervenor therein, United Steelworkers of America. AFL-CIO, filed its request. for review with the National Labor Relations Board, and on April 4, 1968, the Employer filed its request for review of the said Decision. On April 9, 1968, the United Steelworkers of America, AFL: CIO, filed its petition in Case 3-RC-4403, involving a larger unit but one encompassing the unit set forth in the Decision mentioned above. On April 12. 1968, the undersigned issued a Supplemental Decision, Order Consolidating Cases and Notice of Hearing, wherein; the requests for review were considered as motions for reconsideration, the original Decision and Direction of Election in Case 3-RC-4364 was rescinded. and the above-named cases were consolidated for hearing and decision. However, in lieu of a hearing, the parties stipulated and agreed that the record testimony and exhibits received at the hearing on February 20. 1968 in Case 3-RC-4364. together with documents subsequently submitted by the parties,' would constitute the record herein. All parties have filed supplemental briefs which have been duly considered. In its supplemental brief Local Union 328, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, AFL-CIO, hereinafter called IBEW, contends that the petition of the Steelworkers in Case 3-RC-4403 was untimely filed and, therefore, requests that said petition be dismissed . However, no valid issues, e.g., contract bar or expanding unit, have been raised with respect to the question concerning representation, as raised by the Steelworkers, and, accordingly. the request of the IBEW is denied. Cf., Myers Drum Company, 165 NLRB No. 107. In its supplemental brief the Steelworkers contend that an election should be directed only in the production and maintenance unit and. therefore, urges that the petition of the IBEW in Case 3-RC-4364 should be dismissed. For reasons set forth below, I find no merit in this contention, and the request to dismiss is denied. In support of their arguments that, on the basis of the record herein, a production and maintenance 'These documents consist of a request for review filed in Case 3-RC-4364 by the United Steelworkers of America, AFL-CIO (hereinafter called the Steelworkers), a request for review filed in Case 3-RC-4364 by the Employer , the petition filed by the Steelworkers in Case 3-RC-4403. and the related official documents unit is the only appropriate unit, the Steelworkers and the Employer rely, in large measure, upon such post- Mallinckrodt2 cases as: Wah Chang Albany Corp., 171 NLRB No. 47; Molony Electric Co., 169 NLRB No. 66; and General Foods Corp., 166 NLRB No. 126. All these cases involved petitions for severance from established or historic production and maintenance units, and the petitions therein were dismissed on the grounds that the units sought for severance were inappropriate under the standards set forth in Mallinckrodt. Herein we are concerned with the unit composition where there has been no history of collective bargaining. In the circumstances of initial organization and where the record shows that maintenance employees are readily identifiable as a group apart from the production employees, the Board has found that the maintenance employees may constitute a separate unit if they so desire. Myers Drum, supra, Crown Simpson Pulp Company, 163 NLRB No. 109; American Cyanamid Company, 131 NLRB 909. In further support of their unit positions, both the Steelworkers and the Employer have cited Dundee Cement Company, 170 NLRB No. 66. Dundee is distinguishable from the instant case. In Dundee the maintenance employees spend about 75 percent of their time in troubleshooting assignments which were integrated with the employer's automated cement manufacturing process. In the instant case, most of the occasions when maintenance and production employees may work side-by-side. or interchangeably on the same project, are planned, regular and foreseeably recurrent. In the main, these situations occur during the periodic rebuilding of furnaces, during the annual slack period when the mill is operated on a four-day production schedule, and during the weekly full-day shutdown of the 100 inch mill. I have reviewed the entire record herein, and find, for the reasons stated in my original Decision dated M arch 22, 1968. that the identity of the maintenance employees is not obscured or obliterated by a fusion of functions in the production process, but, rather, these employees are readily identifiable as a group whose similarity of_ functions and skills creates a community of interest apart from the production employees and, therefore, they may constitute a separate bargaining unit if they so desire. American Cyanamid, Crown Simpson Pulp, supra; Cf. International Paper Co., 171 NLRB No. 89. In view of this determination, I shall make no final unit determination at this time, but shall direct separate elections in the following voting groups at the Employer's Oswego (Scriba), New York plant, excluding from each group all office clerical employees, professional employees, guards and 'Mallinckrodi Chemical Works, Uranium Division , 162 NLRB No 48 370 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD supervisors as defined in the Act: Voting Group (A): All maintenance department employees, excluding all other employees, guards and supervisors as defined in the Act. Voting Group (B): All production employees, excluding office clerical employees, professional employees, maintenance department employees, guards, and supervisors as defined in the Act. If a majority of the employees in voting group (A) select the IBEW, they will be deemed to have indicated their desire to constitute a separate bargaining unit, and the undersigned Regional Director will issue a certification of representative to such organization for such group, which, under these circumstances, is found to be an appropriate unit for purposes of collective bargaining. If, in those circumstances, a majority of the employees in voting group (B) elect to be represented by the Steelworkers then a certification of representative will issue for a separate unit of production employees, which, in the circumstances, is found to be appropriate. However, if a majority of the employees in voting group (A) do not vote for the IBEW, such group will appropriately be included in the unit with the employees in voting group (B) and their votes will be pooled with those of voting group (B).' A certification of representative will issue to the Steelworkers if selected by a majority of the employees in the pooled group of production and maintenance employees which, in the circumstances, is found to be a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining. In all other events, the undersigned Regional Director will issue a certification of results of the election as appropriate in the circumstances. [Direction of Elections' omitted from publication.] 'Pooled votes shall be tallied as follows . Votes for IBEW shall be counted as valid votes, but neither for nor against the Steelworkers. All other votes are to be accorded their face value, whether for representation by the Steelworkers or for no union Three election eligibility lists containing the names and addresses of all the eligible voters, must be filed with the Regional Director within seven (7) days of the date of this Second Supplemental Decision and Direction of Election The Regional Director shall make the list available to all parties to the election In order to be timely filed , such lists must be received in the Regional Office, The 120 Building, 120 Delaware Avenue, Buffalo, New York 14202, on or before June 13, 1968. Under Board directives, no extension of time to file this list may be granted except in extraordinary circumstances, nor shall the filing of a request for review operate to stay the filing of such list . Failure to comply with this requirement shall be grounds for setting aside the election whenever proper objections are filed Excelsior Underwear Inc, 156 NLRB 1236