Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Co.

In the Matter Of WESTINGHOUSE ELECTRIC & MANUFACTURING COM- PANY (WILKES BARRE, PENNSYLVANIA) and UNITED ELECTRICAL, RADIO & MACHINE WORKERS OF AMERICA, LOCAL 137 (AFFILIATED WITH THE CONGRESS OF INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS) Case No. R-2477.-Decided May 6, 1941. Jurisdiction : electrical equipment manufacturing industry. Investigation and Certification of Representatives : existence of question : refusal to accord union recognition until it is certified by the Board ; election un- necessary : membership cards compared with pay roll ; Company had no, objection to certification upon the record. Unit Appropriate for Collective Bargaining : all employees of the Company at one of its plants, excluding salesmen, office employees, and supervisory em- ployees; stipulation as to. Mr. C. A. Reinavald, of New York, N. Y., Mr. A. D. Hunt, of Phila- delphia, Pa., and Mr. H. B. Leady, of Wilkes Barre, Pa., for the Company. Mr. Carl Bersing and Mr. Richard Linsley, of Philadelphia, Pa., and Mr. Carl Norwig and Mr. Thomas Young, of Wilkes Barre, Pa., for the Union. Mr. Herbert Shenkin, of counsel to the Board. DECISION AND CERTIFICATION OF REPRESENTATIVES STATEMENT OF THE CASE On February 27, 1941, United Electrical, Radio & Machine Work- ers of America, Local 137 (affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations), herein called the Union, filed with the Regional Director for, the Fourth Region (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)' a petition alleging that a question affecting commerce had arisen con- cerning the representation of employees of Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company (Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania), herein called the Company, and requesting an investigation and certification of rep- resentatives pursuant to Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Rela- tions Act, 49 Stat. 449, herein called the Act. On March 26, 1941, the National Labor Relations Board, herein called the Board, acting 31 N., L R. B., No. 104. 616 WESTINGHOUSE ELECTRIC &, MANUFACTURING CO. 617 pursuant to Section 9 (c) of the Act and Article III, Section 3,-of National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 2, as amended, ordered an investigation and authorized the -Regional Di- rector to conduct it and to provide for an appropriate hearing upon due notice. On March 31, 1941, the Regional Director issued a notice of hear- ing, copies of which were duly served upon the Company and the Union. Pursuant to the notice a hearing was held on April 15, 1941, at Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, before Jerome I. Macht, the Trial Examiner duly designated by the Chief Trial Examiner. The Company and the Union were represented by their representatives and participated in the hearing. Full opportunity to be heard, to examine and cross-exiymine witnesses, and to introduce evidence bearing on the issues was afforded all parties. During the course of the hearing the Trial Examiner made several rulings on motions and on objections to the admission of evidence. The Board has reviewed all the rulings of the Trial Examiner and finds that no prejudicial errors were committed. The rulings are hereby affirmed. Upon the entire record in the case the Board makes the following: FINDINGS OF FACT I. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company is a Pennsyl- vania corporation, with its principal office and place of business in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is engaged in the manufacture, sale, and distribution of a wide variety of electrical machinery and equip- ment and has plants, service departments, and sales agencies in various parts of the United States. Only the Wilkes Barre, Penn- sylvania, servicing plant is involved in the present proceeding. At this plant the Company is engaged in the servicing and repair of various types of electrical machinery and equipment manufactured and sold by the Company. A substantial amount of the raw mate- rials necessary for the operation of the Wilkes Barre plant and a substantial amount of the electrical equipment serviced there is shipped to the Wilkes Barre plant from points outside the State of Pennsylvania. A substantial amount of the electrical equipment serviced at the Wilkes Barre plant is shipped to points outside the State' of Pennsylvania. , The respondent stipulated at the hearing that it was engaged in commerce at the Wilkes Barre plant within the meaning of the Act. I II. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America, Local 137 (affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations), is a 618 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD labor organization admitting to 'membership employees of the Company. M. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION The Company has refused to grant the Union exclusive bargaining rights until the Union is certified as such representative by the Board. A statement of the Regional Director, introduced in evidence, indi- cates that a substantial number of the Company's employees within the unit alleged and hereinafter found to be appropriate have desig- nated the Union as their bargaining representative.' We find that a question has arisen concerning the representation of employees of the Company. IV. THE EFFECT OF THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION UPON COMMERCE We find that the question concerning representation which had arisen, occurring in_ connection with the operations of the Company described in Section I above, has a close, intimate, and substantial relation to trade, traffic, and commerce among the several States and tends to lead to labor disputes burdening and obstructing commerce and the free flow of commerce. • V. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT In accordance with a stipulation of, the 'parties at the hearing we find that all the employees of the Company at the Wilkes Barre plant, excluding salesmen, office employees, and supervisory employees (supervisory employees being defined to mean manager, foremen, and assistant foremen), constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining, and that said unit will insure to employees of the Company at the Wilkes Barre plant the full benefit of their right to self-organization and to collective bargaining, and otherwise effectuate the policies of the Act. VI. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES At the hearing the union representatives requested the Board to certify the Union on the basis of the evidence in the record. The Company does not oppose this request, nor join in it; its position is 1 The Regional Director reported that he had examined 28 signed applications for mem- bership in the Union, all of which were dated during the month of February 1941. He further reported that he had checked the'pay roll of March 4, 1941, for the Wilkes Barre plant, found that there Mere 36 persons in the unit alleged by the Union to be appropriate, and that the name of each of the 28 persons who had signed applications for membership in the Union was on that pay roll. ` WESTINGHOUSE ELECTRIC & MANUFACTURING CO. 619 that the matter is for the Board to decide, and that if the Board feels justified in certifying the Union on the record the Company has no objection. , The Union introduced its membership cards into evidence at the hearing The Company's representative' examined these cards, and agreed that the signatures thereon were genuine. A copy of the Company's pay roll as of April 1, 1941, was introduced-into evidence; there are, according to this pay roll, 28 employees in the appropriate unit.2 Twenty-six of these employees, according to the evidence, are members of the Union in good standing as of April 1, 1941.3 We shall, therefore, certify the Union as the exclusive representative of these employees. Upon the basis of the above findings of fact and the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following : CONCLUSIONS OF LAW 1. A question affecting commerce has arisen concerning the repre- sentation of employees of Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company (Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania), within the' meaning of Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the National Labor Relations Act. 2. All the employees of the Company at the Wilkes Barre plant, excluding salesmen, office employees, and supervisory employees (supervisory employees being defined to mean manager, foremen, and assistant foremen), constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the National Labor Relations Act. 3. United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America, Local 137, (affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations) has' been designated and selected by a majority of the employees in the above unit as their representative for the purposes of ,collective bar- gaining, and is the exclusive representative of all the employees in said unit, within the meaning of Section 9 (a) of the National 'Labor, Relations Act. CERTIFICATION OF REPRESENTATIVES By virtue of and pursuant to the power vested in the National Labor Relations Board by Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Re- lations Act, and pursuant to Article III, Section 8, of National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 2, as amended, 2 The discrepancy between this pay roll and the one examined by the Regional Director is accounted for by resignations and absences because of military training. The secretary-treasurer of the Union testified as to dues payments, and produced the official dues book of the Union for inspection by all parties., 620 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD IT IS HEREBY CERTIFIED that United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America, Local 137 (affiliated with the Congress of In- dustrial Organizations) has been designated and selected by a ma- jority of the employees of Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company (Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania), excluding salesmen, office employees, and supervisory employees (supervisory employees being defined to mean manager, foremen, and assistant foremen), as their representative for the purpose of collective bargaining, and that, pursuant to the provisions of Section 9 (a) of the` National Labor Relations Act, United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America, Local 137 (affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Or- ganizations) is the exclusive representative of all such employees for the purposes of collective bargaining in respect to rates of pay, wages, hours of employment, and other conditions of employment.