Glazer Steel Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Feb 9, 1949

81 N.L.R.B. 530 (N.L.R.B. 1949)

In the Matter of GLAZER STEEL CORPORATION , EMPLOYER and INTER-
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF BRIDGE , STRUCTURAL AND ORNAMENTAL
IRON WORKERS, SHOEMENS LOCAL No. 715, A. F. L., PETITIONER
Case No. 10-RC-382.-Decided February 9,1949
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed, 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 National Labor
Relations Act, the Board has delegated its powers in connection with
this case to a three-man panel consisting of the undersigned Board
Members.*
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the
National Labor Relations Act.
2. The labor organization involved claims to represent employees of
the Employer.
3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the representa-
tion of employees of the Employer, within the meaning of Section 9
(c) (1) andSection 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
4. The Petitioner seeks a unit of all the production and maintenance
employees, including all truck drivers, yardmen, plant janitors, stock-
room clerks, and electricians, but excluding the janitress, office boy,
salesmen, scrap buyers, watchmen, office and clerical employees, guards,
professional employees, and all supervisors as defined in the Act.
While otherwise in agreement, the Employer contends that the scrap
yardmen and truck drivers should be excluded from the proposed unit.
The Employer, a Tennessee corporation, is engaged at its plant in
Knoxville, Tennessee, in the fabrication and sale of heavy structural
steel and in the purchase and sale of scrap metals.
All the physical facilities of the Employer are within the same
fence enclosure, though the functional activities are sectionalized as
much as possible into three divisions: steel fabricating, steel ware-
• Houston, Reynolds , and Murdock.
81 N. L. R. B., No. 96.
530
GLAZER STEEL CORPORATION 531
housing and yard, and metal scrap. The steel fabricating division
manufactures various structural shapes and plates. The steel ware-
housing division handles new steel and plate material for use either
by the fabricating division or for resale in its original form. The
scrap division handles both non-ferrous metal and scrap iron; it also
bales scrap iron into 300 pound bundles for shipment to the steel mills.
The steel fabrication division occupies an entire building. A second
building is occupied principally by the non-ferrous metal scrap work-
ers with the smaller portion of the same building used for new steel
warehousing. An overhead crane runway, several hundred feet in
length, runs between these two buildings to a railroad siding and load-
ing point. On one side of these buildings is an outdoors yard area
where new and used steel is stored while on the other side of the build-
ings is a yard area devoted to the baling and storage of the scrap
metal. The crane runway is used by the scrap yard as well as by the
fabricating shop and new steel yard.
There are approximately 35 yardmen. Of this number, however,
approximately 5 are classed by the Employer as new steel yardmen
who work in the warehousing of new steel and whom it would include
in the unit. The Employer maintains that the work performed by
the remaining 30 employees is separate and distinct from all the other
employees. Approximately 4 of these scrap yardmen work inside the
building largely devoted to the scrap non-ferrous metals. The remain-
ing scrap yardmen work outdoors in the scrap yard. The Employer
contends that the yardmen have different supervision from the fabri-
cating shop; that they are in a different type of operation and work
under different conditions ; and that they are a different type of worker.
Separate bookkeeping records are kept for the various departments.
The record shows that though each operation has its own supervisor
each of these officials is responsible to the Employer's general super-
intendent. Further, there is testimony that "Management itself and
the owners of the company do a lot of direct supervision." All em-
ployees use the same time clock, are subject to the same working hours
and regulations, the same insurance and employee relation programs,
and use the same sanitary facilities. Though there is little interchange
of employees between departments, all employees have easy access to
all parts of the plant and use some of the same physical facilities. One
employee' works in both the shop and yard. The new steel yardmen.
whom Employer would include in this proposed unit, assist the scrap
yardmen in emergencies. In view of these circumstances and the
entire record in the case we find that the scrap yardmen have a sub-
'Ralph Stevens.
829595-50-vol. 81-35
532 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
stantial community of interests with the other employees in the unit
and we shall therefore include them .2
There remains for consideration the question whether the truck
drivers should be included in the proposed unit.
Three of the five drivers spend a large percentage of their time away
from the plant hauling scrap metals and new steel metals in interstate
commerce. The remaining two drivers haul principally in and about
the local area . Employer contends that the working conditions and
the laws governing these individuals are so different as to warrant their
exclusion from the proposed unit.
We are of the opinion that the difference between the duties and
working conditions of the truck drivers and those of the production
and maintenance employees does not itself require a separation of
these groups for purposes of collective bargaining. Though the
drivers keep their own time when out of town, they all punch the same
time clock when in town; they come under the same insurance plans
as all other employees; all are subject to the same general supervision
by management officials . The three out-of-State drivers spend a large
part of their time hauling steel for delivery to other plants in carry-
ing out the jobber-broker aspect of the Employer's business, but the
testimony clearly emphasizes that these drivers only follow orders
and are not salesmen or agents of the Employer. The Employer
testified that these truck operations are necessary in order to continue
company operations even though not all departments might be imme-
diately affected.
On the basis of the entire record, including the absence of any bar-
gaining history at the plant, and the fact that no other labor organiza-
tion presently seeks to represent the Employer's truck drivers in a
separate unit, we are of the opinion that these employees may appro-
priately be included in the employer-wide unit of production and
maintenance employees for the purposes of collective bargaining. Ac-
cordingly, we shall include the truck drivers in the unit hereinafter
found appropriate.8
We find that all production and maintenance employees of the
Employer, including all truck drivers, yardmen, plant janitors, stock-
room clerks, and electricians, but excluding the janitress, office boy,
salesmen, scrap buyers, watchmen, office and clerical employees,
guards, professional employees, and all supervisors as defined in the
Act, constitute a unit appropriate for the purpose of collective bar-
gaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
2 Cf. Matter of George Block, d/b/ a Block Brothers, 80 N. L . R. B. 257 ; Matter of El
Campo Rice Milling Company, 73 N L . R. B. 927 ; Matter of Horton's Lumber Company,
Inc., 72 N. L. R. B . 1129 ; Matter of Cummer-Graham Company , 71 N. L . R. B. 289.
3 Matter of Wasatch Oil Refining Company, 76 N. L . R. B. 417.
GLAZER STEEL CORPORATION 533
DIRECTION OF ELECTION 11
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the
purposes of collective bargaining with Glazer Steel Corporation,
Knoxville, Tennessee, an election by secret ballot shall be conducted
as early as possible, but not later than 30 days from the date of this
Direction, under the direction and supervision of the Regional Direc-
tor for the Tenth Region, and subject to Sections 203.61 and 203.62
of National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series
5, as amended, among the employees in the unit found appropriate in
paragraph numbered 4, above, who were employed during the pay-
roll period immediately preceding the date of this Direction, includ-
ing employees who did not work during said pay-roll period because
they were ill or on vacation or temporarily laid off, but excluding
those employees who have since quit or been discharged for cause and
have not been rehired or reinstated prior to the date of the election,
and also excluding employees on strike who are not entitled to rein-
statement, to determine whether or not they desire to be represented,
for purposes of collective bargaining, by International Association
of Bridge, Structural and Ornamental Iron workers, Shopmens Local
No. 715, AFL.
4 Petitioner requested that an eligibility date of August 10 or 11, 1948 , be used in order
to permit 19 employees to vote who had been temporarily laid off . The Direction of
Election makes sufficient provision to include these temporarily laid-off employees within
the group eligible to vote.