McCann Steel Co., Inc.

MCCANN STEEL COMPANY, INC. 635 McCann Steel Company, Inc. and Shopmen's Local Union No. 733, International Association of Bridge, Structural and Ornamental Iron Workers, AFL-CIO, Petitioner and Iron Workers Local Union 492, International Association of Bridge, Structural and Ornamental Iron Workers, AFL-CIO, Petitioner. Cases 26-RC-3543 and 26-RC-3545 November 18, 1969 DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS BY CHAIRMAN MCCULLOCH AND MEMBERS BROWN AND ZAGORIA Upon petitions duly filed under Section 9(c) of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, a consolidated hearing was held before Hutton S Brandon, Hearing Officer. The Employer alone has filed a brief 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 Board has reviewed the Hearing Officer's rulings made at the hearing and finds that they are free from prejudicial error. They 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 labor organizations involved claim to represent certain employees of the Employer. 3. Questions affecting commerce exist concerning the representation of employees of the Employer within the meaning of Section 9(c)(1) and Section 2(6) and (7) of the Act. 4. The Employer operates two steel fabrication plants located on opposite sides of Second Street in Nashville, Tennessee. The steel, after processing at the plants, is trucked to construction sites for installation by the Employer's field erection crew, or it is sent f.o.b. jobsite to be installed by other parties. Petitioner Local 733 is seeking a unit of all production and maintenance employees and truckdrivers, excluding field erection, office clerical, drafting and engineering employees, watchmen, guards, and supervisors as defined in the Act Petitioner Local 492 is seeking a unit of all field erection employees. The Employer contends that the units sought are too restrictive in scope and are based solely upon the extent of organization which, as a controlling factor in the Board's determination, is prohibited by the Act. The field erection crew consists of three ironworkers, three welders and four helpers Although there are welders among the Employer's 56 production and maintenance employees, there are no ironworkers regularly assigned to either of the shops on Second Street. The erection process consists of climbing, bolting and welding above ground and utilizes the special skills of the ironworker. The fabrication shop personnel, on the other hand, are employed in the layout of steel on the floor with the use of a blueprint. Welders are paid the same base pay in the plants and in the field, and ironworkers' pay is comparable to the wages of the highest paid shop employees, the layout men. Both field and plant employees enjoy the same fringe benefits However, because erection work, as compared to fabrication, involves a higher risk of physical injury, the Employer pays premium rates to erection employees for particularly hazardous assignments. The erection crew is under separate immediate supervision, except on those occasions when field employees are assigned to work in the plant side by side with production and maintenance employees, or plant employees are sent to assist in the field. The Employer states that plant personnel are assigned to the field when some "little insignificant job will come up," and when the field employees have an extraordinarily heavy workload. Correspondingly, during periods of inclement weather, the erection crew is absorbed, without maintaining crew identity, by the two fabrication shops. Ironworkers, when assigned to the shops, do welding or unskilled cleanup work. Approximately 80 percent of the erection crew's time annually, is spent in field work and 20 percent is spent in the plants. Regular erection crew employees punch in with plant workers and return from the field to punch out However, about 50 percent of the time, they are required to work over 40 miles from the plant, and on those occasions field employees stay overnight and their timecards are marked and returned by the field supervisor to indicate hours worked. The Employer supplies transportation to the field, and on overnight assignments , reimburses employees for room and board expenses. Field construction and installation employees have been found by the Board to be properly excluded from a broader in-plant unit where the inside and outside workers perform essentially different types of work under separate immediate supervision and interchange is limited' Such cases have applied the long established principles that the appropriate unit for self-organization among employees of a given employer is generally based upon a community of interest in their occupation as manifested, inter alia, by their common experiences, duties, organization, supervision, and conditions of employment.' Conversely, where the separation of the community of interest is less distinct, separate appropriateness 'Ingersoll Milling Machine Company, 78 NLRB 535, York Corporation, 87 NLRB 613, McCann Steel Company . 94 NLRB No 65, Case 10-RC-1262 (not published in NLRB volumes) 'Sears , Roebuck and Co. 160 NLRB 1435, 1436, Famous-Barr 179 NLRBNo. 105 636 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD has not been found Where there is no difference in skills between plant personnel and outside erection employees,' or where the only identifiable difference between outside and inside men is in the situs of employment,' or where there is extensive interchange,' the Board has found proposed units of production and maintenance employees that excluded construction and installation crews, to be Inappropriate. The Employer contends that the petitions herein should be dismissed because, under the above principles, it must be concluded that the shop and field employees have such a community of interest as to compel their inclusion in a single overall unit. In support of this contention , the Employer argues that there is substantial interchange between its shop and field employees In a prior proceeding involving the same Employer and Petitioner Local 733, the Board rejected the Employer's arguments, substantially identical to those now presented against separate units, and found that a unit of production and maintenance employees excluding the field erection crew was appropriate .' The record does not contain any evidence that materially distinguishes the facts in the earlier case from those in the case now before us, and the Board is not, persuaded that a different finding is warranted at this time. On the basis of the entire record, we are Company. 168 NLRB No 63 'San Antonio Machine and Supply Company , 85 NLRB 143 'Peerless Products Company , 114 NLRB 1586 'Hunt Tool Company. 82 NLRB 399 'McCann Steel Company, supra convinced that the erection employees possess a unique community of interest based upon their separate supervision , their separate work stations that frequently demand overnight lodging away from home, their special skills , the hazardous nature of their work , and the premium rates paid them for it. Moreover, no union seeks to represent both the field erection crew and the shop employees in a single unit. Accordingly , we find that the following employees of the Employer constitute separate units appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9(b) of the Act: A All production and maintenance employees, and truckdrivers; excluding office clerical , drafting and engineering employees , watchmen, guards, and supervisors as defined in the Act , and field erection employees. B. All field erection employees excluding all other employees , and supervisors as defined in the Act. [Direction of Elections ' omitted from publication ] '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 elections should have access to lists of voters and their addresses which may be used to communicate with them Excelsior Underwear, Inc. 156 NLRB 1236, NLRB v Wyman-Gordon Company. 394 U S 759 Accordingly, it is hereby directed that election eligibility lists containing the names and addresses of all the eligible voters, must be filed by the Employer with the Regional Director for Region 26 within 7 days of the date of this Decision and Direction of Elections The Regional Director shall make the lists-available to all parties to the elections No extension of time to file these lists shall be granted by-the Regional Director except in extraordinary circumstances Failure to comply with this requirement shall be grounds for setting aside the elections whenever proper objections are filed