Truscon Steel Co.

In the Matter of TRUSCON STEEL COMPANY and LOCAL 487, INTERNA- TIONAL ASSOCIATION OF BRIDGE, STRUCTURAL AND ORNAMENTAL IRON WORKERS (AFL) In the Matter of TRUSCON STEEL COMPANY and NEW DEAL LODGE 404, INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS (AFL) Cases Nos. R-2561 and R-2565.-Decided June 30, 1941 Jurisdiction : steel fabricating manufacturing industry. Investigation and Certification of Representatives : existence of questions: com- pany refused to negotiate new contracts until unions are certified by Board ; elections necessary. Unit Appropriate for Collective Bargaining : determination of whether produc- tion and machine shop employees constitute single unit or two separate units held dependent on desires of employees. Practice and procedure : jurisdictional dispute : although two affiliates of Amer- ican Federation of Labor seek to represent same employees , petitions not dis- missed since third union , unaffected by jurisdictional dispute, seeks to represent same employees ; consolidation : since the issues arising in both cases are closely related, two cases consolidated for purposes of decision. Mr. Thomas F. Patton, and Mr. William B. Belden, of Cleveland, Ohio, and Mr. E. J. Magee, of Youngstown, Ohio, for the Company. Mr. Harold Stern, of New York City, and Mr. Honor V. Kelly, of Youngstown, Ohio, for Local 487. Mr. A. P.Nobozny, of Lorain, Ohio, for the I. A. M. Mr. Meyer Bernstein, of Pittsburgh, Pa., for the S. W. O. C. Mr. Frederic B. Parkes, p2nd, of counsel to the Board. DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS STATEMENT OF THE CASE On April 11 and 29, 1941, respectively, Local 487, International Association of Bridge, Structural and Ornamental Iron Workers, A. F. L., herein called Local 487, and Lodge 404, International Association of Machinists, A. F. L., herein called the I. A. M., filed 33 N. L. It. B., No. 14. 61 62 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD with the Regional Director for the Eighth Region (Cleveland, Ohio) separate petitions alleging that a 'question affecting commerce had arisen concerning the representation of employees of Truscon Steel Company, Youngstown, Ohio, herein called the Company, and requesting an investigation and certification of representatives pur- suant to Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act, 49 Stat. 449, herein called the Act. On April 21 and May 3, 1941, respec- tively, the National Labor Relations Board, herein called the Board, acting 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 investigations with respect to the petitions of Local 487 and the I. A. M. and authorized the Regional Director to conduct them and to provide for appropriate hearings upon due notice. On May 5, 1941, the Regional Director issued separate notices of hearing, copies of which were duly, ,served upon the Company, Local 487, the I. A. M., and upon Steel Workers Organizing Com- mittee, C. I. O., 'herein called the S. W. O. C., labor organization- claiming to represent employees directly affected by each of the investigations. Pursuant to notice, separate hearings were held on May 15 and 16, 1941, at Youngstown, Ohio, before Max W. John- stone, the Trial Examiner duly - designated by the Chief Trial Examiner. The Company, Local 487, the I. A. M., and the S. W. O. C. were represented by counsel or official representatives and,. par- ticipated in each of the hearings: Full opportunity to be heard, to examine and cross-examine witnesses, and to introduce evidence bearing on the issues was afforded all parties. The S.. W. O. C. moved that the petition filed by Local 487 be dismissed upon the ground that the unit sought by Local 487 was inappropriate. The Trial Examiner reserved ruling on this motion for the Board. The motion is hereby denied for reasons set forth below. During the course of the hearings the Trial Examiner made various rulings on other motions and on objections to the admission of evidence. The Board has reviewed the rulings of the Trial Examiner and finds that no prejudicial errors were committed: The rulings are hereby affirmed. On May 27, 1941, Local 487 filed a brief which the Board has considered. Since the issues arising in both cases are closely related, we shall consolidate the, two cases for the purpose of decision. TRUSCON STEEL. COMPANY 63 Upon the entire record in the cases, the Board makes the following : FINDINGS OF FACT 1. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY Truscon Steel Company,' a Michigan corporation, is engaged in the manufacture of steel window products, steel doors, floor systems, steel deck roofs, steel joists, railroad crossings, metal lathe products, reinforcing steel, road reinforcing, steel insulation, steel poles, and pressed and drawn steel products. The' Company operates plants at Youngstown, Ohio, Cleveland, Ohio, Los Angeles, California, Gads- den, Alabama, Baltimore, Maryland, and Bremen, Indiana. The, latter plant ceased active operations in May 1941. The instant case is concerned only with the Youngstown plant, which produces 75 per cent of the total output of the Company. The principal raw materials used by the Company consists of steel in the following forms : rods, wire, strip sheets, bars, angles, special sections, bar royce, lathes, plates, channels, structural and floor plates. During the year 1940 the Company purchased approximately 300,000 tons of raw materials, of which approximately 200,000 tons were pur- chased and shipped to it from points outside the State of Ohio. During the same period the Company produced in Ohio finished products valued at approximately $14,000,000, of which approxi mately $12,000,000 were sold and shipped to points outside the State of Ohio. The Company employs approximately 1,548 employees at its Youngstown plant. ,II. THE ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED . Local 487, International Association of Bridge, Structural and Ornamental Iron Workers, is a labor organization affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, admitting employees of the Company to membership. i At the present time Republic Steel Corporation owns approximately 97 per cent of the outstanding stock of Truscon Steel Company . It is one of 437 stockholders of the Company. None of the other stockholders ,, who own approximately 22,000 shares of Truscon Steel Company stock , have any connection with Republic Steel Corporation . Truscon Steel 'Company is a separate and distinct corporate entity having its own offices , board of di- rectors, office staffs , etc. Truscon Steel Company is a fabricator and engages in a business separate and 'distinct from that of Republic Steel Corporation , which is-engaged in the basic steel industry . Truscon Steel Company buys from Republic Steel Corporation all the steel required of the character manufactured by the latter . Truscon Steel Company buys that portion of its requirements which are not within the facilities of Republic Steel Corporation from other steel companies. 64 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD New Deal Lodge 404, International Association of Machinists, is a labor organization affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, admitting employees of the Company to membership. Steel Workers Organizing Committee is a labor organization, affili- ated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations, admitting em- ployees of the Company to membership. III. THE QUESTIONS CONCERNING REPRESENTATION On March 7, 1941, Local 487 attempted to negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement with the Company. On April 1, 1941, the Company refused to sign an agreement .until Local 487 was certified by the Board. On April 10, 1941, the I. A. M. requested the Com- pany to meet with it in a conference to negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement which would be reduced to writing and signed. The Company refused to sign any agreement until the I. A. M. should be certified by the Board. Statements of the Board's Field Examiner introduced into evidence show that Local 487, the I. A. M., and the S. W. O. C. represent a substantial number of the Company's employees.2 The parties further stipulated at the hearing that the S. W. O. C. represents employees of the Company directly affected by the investigation. We find that questions have arisen concerning the representation of employees of the Company. 1V. THE, EFFECT OF THE QUESTIONS CONCERNING REPRESENTATION UPON COMMERCE We find that the questions concerning representation. which have arisen occurring in connection with the operations of the Company described in Section I, above, have a close, intimate, and substantial relations to trade,-traffic, and commerce among the several States and tend to lead to labor disputes burdening and. obstructing commerce and the free flow of commerce. 2 Local 487 filed application cards dated between 1935 and 1941 and dues records for the current year with the Field Examiner. The dues records did, not bear the signatures of the members, but for each dues record there was a corresponding application for member- ship. A comparison of the dues records with a list of employees submitted by the Company from its pay roll of May 1, 1941, disclosed that 743 employees.of the Company are mem- bers in good standing of Local 487. There are approximately 1345 production employees. The S. W. O. C. filed with. the Field Examiner 302 membership cards, of which 240 were dated between January and May 1941 and 62 were undated. The Field Examiner, found the signatures of 205 cards to be genuine and to be the names of persons on the Company's pay roll of May 1, 1941. He found further that 100 employees have'signed applications for membership in both the S. W. O. C. and Local 487 and are claimed as active members by both organizations. The I. A. Al. filed authorization cards with the Field Examiner who found that 77 bore genuine signatures, which were names of persons on the Company's pay roll of May 1, 1941. There are approximately 110 machine-shop employees. TRUSCON STEEL COMPANY V. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT 65 Local 487 contends that all production employees in the Youngs- [own plaint of the Company, including boilerhouse employees. but excluding policemen, foremen, timekeepers, male and female janitors, female nurses, factory-office , clerks, expeditor, production clerks, print-shop employees, all salaried and supervisory employees, office employees, yardmasters, carpenters, electricians, machinists, machin- ist helpers, inspectors, millwrights, and related employees in the mechanical department, constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective .bargaining. The I. A. M. claims that all machine-shop employees in the Youngs- town plant of the company, including machinists, machinist helpers, machinist apprentices, millwrights, pipefitters, heat treaters, black- smiths, blacksmith helpers, grinders in the machine shop, drill-press operators who work under the master mechanics, welders in the machine shop, carpenters and electricians who work under the mas- ter mechanics, diemakers, die repairmen, all, toolroom employees, and all boilerhouse employees, excluding supervisory and clerical em- ployees, constitute a_unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining. The S. W. -O. C., on the other hand, contends that all production and maintenance employees, in all the plants of the Company, ex- eluding policemen, foremen, timekeepers, male and female janitors, female nurses, factory-office clerks, expeditor, production clerks, print-shop employees, office employees, and all salaried and super- visory employees, constitute a single unit appropriate for collective bargaining purposes, and that the foregoing units requested by Local 487 and the I. A. M. are inappropriate. If the Board should find the system-wide unit inappropriate, the S. W. O. C. further contends that the above-mentioned employees in the Youngstown plant of the Company constitute a single appropriate unit. The.Company contends that the respective units sought by Local 487 and the I. A. M. are appropriate. In the main, the employees in the unit sought by Local .487 are production workers, employed in the Company's main plant, fabri- cating steel into many products. Those whom the I. A. Al. seeks to. represent are, generally speaking, maintenance employees, work- ing directly under, the supervision of . the master mechanics. .The majority of such employees work for the most part in the machine shop, which is located in a separate building, across a road, from the main production plant. The toolroom is a part of the machine shop. The boilerhouse is a separate building on the opposite side of the plant from the machine shop. Millwrights are ei%gaged prin- cipally in ,the repair of the production machinery and necessarily 66 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD spend most of their time in the production plant as do the pipefitters. The maintenance employees are further distinguished from the pro- duction employees in that they are, in general, paid a higher hourly rate than the latter. Local 487 commenced its organizational activities at the Company's Youngstown plant in September 1935, when it was chartered, thereby superseding Federal Labor Union No. 18288, A. F. L:, which had theretofore exercised jurisdiction over the Company's employees. As a result of negotiations between Local 487 and the Company in 1935 and 1936, an agreement was executed, containing provisions govern- ing hours of work, rates of pay, and general working conditions, extending to the same employees as are in the unit sought by Local 487 herein. The Company -did not sign the agreement but orally accepted it. On May 10; 1939, Local 487 and the Company entered into another oral agreement, similar to that made in 1936, but ex- tending only to the production employees who were members of Local 487. On March 7, 1941, Local 487 attempted. to- negotiate a new agreement, which the Company refused to sign. On April 12, 1941, however, the Company granted the demands for a wage in- crease made by Local 487 on April 1, 1941. Throughout, all its negotiations, Local 487 has, in general, not sought to bargain for those employees it would exclude from the unit nor for those employees eligible to membership in the I. A. M. The I. A. M. commenced its organizational activities in the Com- pany's Youngstown plant in March 1933 and chartered New Deal Lodge 404 in August 1933. On April 2, 1933, the I. A. M. sub- mitted to the Company a document stating its desires in regard to working conditions and labor policies of the Company. The Com- pany orally agreed to most of the provisions, covering hours of work, seniority rights, wage rates; classifications of employees, and other labor policies. As a result of negotiations by the I. A. M., a policy governing apprentices was adopted by the Company in 1934. Again in 1935, the I. A. M. submitted certain proposals governing labor policies, to most of which the Company orally agreed. It was pro- vided that these agreements should_ continue in effect indefinitely until notice 'of a change should be given by either party. The benefit of the negotiations made by the I., A. M. extended to all employees working under the master mechanics and included all those categories of employees in the unit herein sought by the I. A. M. The S. W. O. C. commenced its organizational activities at the Company's Youngstown plant, sometime before February 26, 1941, when its local was chartered at Youngstown. The S. W. O. C. offered no evidence of its organizational activities in other plants of the Company in support of its contention for a system-wide unit TRUSCON STEEL COMPANY '67 of all production and maintenance employees of the Company's various plants. International Association of Bridge, Structural and Ornamental Iron Workers has chartered locals at Los Angeles, California; Balti- more, Maryland; and Bremen, Indiana. The three locals have nego- tiated agreements for the production employees in the Company's plants located in those cities. In each instance, the Company has made oral agreements and the bargaining unit in each plant is generally the same as that sought by Local 487 herein. The only plants em- ploying machinists are those at Baltimore, Maryland, and Youngs- town, Ohio, and in both plants the L A.M. has negotiated for such machinists. From the foregoing it appears that the production and machine- shop employees of the Company's Youngstown plant might properly constitute a single unit or two separate bargaining units. We shall direct that two elections be held, one among the production em- ployees •of the Company's Youngstown plant to determine whether they desire to be represented by the S. W. O. C., by Local 487, or by neither, and the other among the machine-shop employees of the Company's Youngstown plant to determine whether they desire to be represented by the S. W. O. C., by the I. A. M., or by neither. If the employees voting in the two elections select the same repre- sentative, they will constitute a single appropriate unit. If they choose different representatives, they will constitute two separate and distinct appropriate units. There remains for consideration the question of whether certain specific groups of employees should be included in the voting units. The S. W. O. C. would include yardmasters and Local 487 would exclude them from the unit. Yardmasters expedite freight move- ment inside the plant, reduce demurrage fees as much as possible, and arrange the transfer of cars to the proper tracks. Since their duties appear to be chiefly supervisory, we shall exclude them from the voting units. ' The S. W. O. C. would also include carpenters and electricians in the,unit. Local 487 would exclude them, and the I. A. M. would -include only those carpenters and electricians who work directly under the supervision of the master mechanics. Carpenters and electricians are engaged principally in maintenance work. The former, also brace freight after it is loaded in the railroad cars ; the latter repair electrical equipment and power lines in the plant.. Local, 487, however, has admitted 8 or 10-carpenters and 20 or 25 , electricians to membership and has bargained for their in the past. In view of- these facts, we shall include in the voting unit of the machine-shop employees, those carpenters and electricians who are, 450122-42=vol. 33 6 68 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD under the supervision of the master mechanics, and, in the voting unit of the • production employees, all the remaining carpenters and electricians. A's to boilerhouse employees, both the I. A. M. and Local 487 desire to represent them. -Since both labor organizations are chartered by international unions affiliated with and subject to dis- cipline by the same parent body, a jurisdictional conflict thereby arises. We have consistently dismissed proceedings wherein two unions subject to discipline by the same parent body have disagreed over the extent of their jurisdiction. However, since the S. W. 0. C., which is not a party to the jurisdictional dispute, is seeking to repre- sent employees of the Company in a unit which includes. the boilerhouse employees, we must determine the question of their representation which has been raised in this proceeding, irrespective of the incidental or collateral dispute over jurisdiction between the I. A. M. and Local 487, both of which are affiliated with. the Amer- ican Federation of Labor.' The I. A. M. has admitted two boiler- house employees to membership and has bargained for them. It appears that certain of these employees are engaged part of the time in maintenance work. In -view of these facts, we shall include them in the voting unit of the machine-shop employees. The Company, the I. A. M., Local 487, and the S. W. 0. C. request that policemen, foremen, timekeepers, male and female janitors, female nurses, factory-office clerks, expeditor, production clerks, print- shop, employees, office employees, and all salaried and supervisory employees be excluded from - the voting- units. We shall exclude all such employees from the voting units. VI. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES Local 487, the J. A. M., and the Company requested that the pay roll of May 7, 1941 be used for the purpose. of determining eligibility to vote in the elections. The S. W. 0. C. urges the use of the pay roll nearest to. the date of election for 'such purpose. We find no reason to depart from our usual practice and shall accordingly direct that the employees of the Company eligible to vote in' the elections- shall be those employees who were employed during the pay-roll period immediately preceding the date 'of the Direction of Elections herein, subject to such limitations and additions as are set forth in A he Direction. . 8 See Matter of Long Bell Lumber Company and International Association of Machinists, Local No. 1350, affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, 16 N. L. R. B. 892 ; Matter of Campbell, Wyant& Cannon Foundry Co. and Local 539, International Union, United Automobile Workers of America, C. I. 0., 32 N. L. R. B. 416. TRUSCON STEEL COMPANY 69 Upon the basis of the above findings of fact and upon the entire record in the cases, the Board makes the following : CONCLusION OF LAW Questions affecting commerce have arisen concerning the repre- sentation of employees of Truscon, Steel Company, Youngstown, Ohio, within the meaning of Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act. DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS, By virtue of and pursuant to the power vested in the National Labor Relations Board by Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Rela-" tions Act and pursuant to Article III, Section 8, of National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 2, as amended, it is hereby DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation authorized by the Board to ascertain representatives for the purposes of collective bargaining with Truscon Steel Company, Youngstown, Ohio, elections by secret ballot shall be conducted as early as possible, but not later than thirty (30) days from the date of this Direction, under the direction and supervision of the Regional Director for the Eighth Region, acting in this matter as agent for the National Labor Relations Board, and subject to Article III, Section 9, of said Rules and Regulations, among all employees of the Company's Youngstown plant in each' of the two following groups described below who were employed during the pay-roll period immediately preceding the date of this Direction, including employees who did not work during such pay- roll period because they were ill or on vacation or in the active mili- tary service or training of the United States, or temporarily laid off, but excluding policemen, foremen, timekeepers, male and female janitors, female nurses, factory-office clerks, expeditor, production clerks, print-shop employees, office employees, yardmasters, all salaried and supervisory employees, and employees who have since quit or been discharged.for cause : 1: Among all production employees, including carpenters and electricians not working under the supervision of the master mechanics, but excluding machinists, machinist helpers, inspectors, millwrights, and related employees in the mechanical department, to determine whether they desire to be represented by Local 487, Inter- national Association of Bridge, Structural and Ornamental Iron Workers, affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, or by Steel Workers Organizing Committee, affiliated with the Congress