The Western Automatic Machine Screw Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Aug 4, 1943

51 N.L.R.B. 1042 (N.L.R.B. 1943)

In the Matter of THE WESTERN AUTOMATIC MACHINE SCREW CO., and
MECHANICS EDUCATIONAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA, LOCAL #15
(C. U. A.)
Case No. R-5593:=Decided August 4,1943
Mr. John A. Hull, of Cleveland, Ohio, for the Board.
Mr. Otto A. Jaburek, of Chicago, Ill., and Messrs. B. C. Franklin
and W. A. Corlett, of Elyria, Ohio, for the Company.
Mr. George Pilkiewicz, of Elyria, Ohio, and Mr. William Bullock
of Cleveland, Ohio, for the Union.
Miss Frances Lopinsky, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon petition duly filed by Mechanics Educational Society of
America, Local #15, (C. U. A.) herein called the Union, alleging
that a question affecting commerce had arisen concerning the repre-
sentation of employees of The Western Automatic Machine Screw
Co., Elyria, Ohio, herein called the Company, the National Labor
Relations Board provided for an appropriate hearing upon due notice
before Charles E. Persons, Trial Examiner. Said hearing was held
at Elyria, Ohio, on June 25, 1943. The Board, the Company, and
the Union appeared and participated.' All parties were afforded full
opportunity to be heard, to examine and cross-examine witnesses, and
to introduce evidence bearing on the issues. The Trial Examiner's
rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are
hereby affirmed. All parties were afforded opportunity to file briefs
with the Board. . The Union filed a brief which has been considered
by the Board.
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following :
United Steelworkers of America, District, 28 (CIO), also served with notice, did not
appear.
51 N. L. R. B., No. 105.
1042
THE WESTERN AUTOMATIC MACHINE SCREW CO. 1043
FINDINGS OF FACT
1. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
The Western Automatic Machine Screw Co., a wholly owned sub-
sidiary of the Standard Screw Company of Connecticut, is a Con-
necticut corporation. This proceeding concerns its plant at Elyria,
Ohio. The main products of the Company are stainless -steel and
aluminum capped materials which are used in the manufacture of
airplanes. The principal raw materials used are steel, brass, alumi-
num, and stainless steel. During the year 1942 the Company pur-
chased and used at its Elyria, Ohio, plant raw materials in excess
of $4,000,000 in value, approximately one-third of which was pur-
chased and received from outside the State of Ohio. In the year
1942 the Company produced and shipped from its Elyria, Ohio, plant
finished products of a value in excess of $10,000,000, 80 percent of
which were shipped outside the State of Ohio. The Company em-
ploys about 2,293 persons. It is engaged 100 percent in war pro-
duction work.
The Company admits that it is engaged in commerce within the
meaning of the National Labor Relations Act.
II. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED
Mechanics Educational Society of America, Local #15 is a labor
organization affiliated with the Confederated Unions of America,
admitting to membership employees engaged in maintenance depart-
ments, tool makers, tool grinders, millwrights, electricians, and other
skilled tradesmen employed by the Company in maintenance service
work 2
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
On December 5, 1940, a consent election was held at the Company's
Elyria, Ohio, plant among employees in a unit covering all the Com-
pany's employees at Elyria with certain exceptions not material here.
The Union was the only union appearing on the ballot. It was de-
feated by a vote of 119 to 699.
On or about March 24, 1943, the Union wrote the Company that it
represented a majority of its employees in a unit appropriate for
the purpose of collective bargaining, made up of Departments #60
and #61 of the Company. The Company, on or about April 1, 1943,
advised the Union that it doubted that the Union represented a
majority of employees of the Company in any appropriate bargain-
ing unit and declined to enter into conference with the Union. The
M. E. S. A. Local #18, C. U. A. admits to membership production employees of the
Company.
540612-44-vol. 51-67
1044 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Union filed a petition with the Board April 2, but withdrew it May
4, 1943, and thereafter filed the petition in-the instant matter claim-
ing as the appropriate unit, all of the employees of Departments #60
through #67, excluding factory clerks and supervisory employees.
A report of the Field Examiner, introduced in evidence, discloses
that the Union represents a substantial number of employees in the
unit herein found appropriate.3
We find that a question affecting commerce has arisen concerning
the representation of employees of the Company, within the meaning
of Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
IN. TIIE APPROPRIATE UNIT
The Company insists that the only appropriate bargaining unit for
its employees is an industrial unit. The-record discloses a close inter-
relation between members of the unit herein found appropriate and
employees in the balance of the plant which, in the event that organ-
ization were extended throughout the plant, would be a fair basis for
finding an industrial unit appropriate. However, the history of or-
ganization' in the plant indicates that only the segment of employees
herein set aside as an appropriate unit have been organized; that they
have clung to their organization despite the decisive election defeat
of 1910, by which no bargaining representative was chosen ; and that
if an election is denied them at this time, they will again be left without
opportunity to designate a bargaining representative and will thereby
be denied their rights under the Act. In accordance with our usual
practice under such circumstances we shall find a unit smaller than
the one contended for by the Company to be appropriate, but this
finding does not preclude a later determination that an industrial
unit is appropriate.
The Union asks for a unit composed of employees of Departments
#60 through and including #67. The employees of Departments
#60 and #61 are tool makers and tool grinders. Those of Depart-
ment #62 are welders, carpenters, millwrights, and bricklayers. Em-
ployees of Department #63 are machine-building and repairmen;
Department #64, machine repairmen; Department #65, tool sharpen-
ers; Department #66, electricians; and Department #67, cammers.
We cannot, accept the Union's unit in the form in which it is
requested. It does not fall within the category of a maintenance unit
because it does not include janitors, powerhouse employees, and many
other maintenance employees employed by the Company. The desig-
nation of department numbers in description of the unit is unfortunate
8 The Union presented to the Field Examiner 61 undated cards, 56 of which appeared
to bear genuine original signatures of employees listed in the Company ' s May 21, 1943, pay-
roll which contained the names of 147 persons in the proposed unit. There are 119 persons
in the unit found appropriate.
THE WESTERN AUTOMATIC MACHINE SCREW CO. 1045
because the record indicates that the departments are not true depart-
ments but are for the most part an auditing device. However, an
examination of the alleged appropriate unit reveals that it is mainly
composed of maintenance machinists and maintenance mechanics with
a fringe of maintenance workers whose skills are not comparable to
those of the employees working on tools. The unit as requested
includes, with the exception of five die makers and four machinists
and repairmen in the Company's cold draw bar mill, all of the tool
and machine makers and repairmen in the Company's employ.
We believe that the unit may appropriately consist of all mainte-
nance mechanics and maintenance machinists employed throughout.
the plant including those in the cold draw bar mill, but it cannot be
confined to the eight departments claimed by the Union nor can it
contain all of them. We shall exclude from such unit the employees
of Departments #62 and #66, the welders and bricklayers, carpen-
ters, millwrights, and electricians, as well as the electrician in' the cold
draw bar mill. Although those employees are eligible for member-
ship in the Union, it appears that they do not come in the categories of
maintenance mechanics and maintenance machinists' Because of his
close tie with the craft, we shall include in such a unit the inspector
who works in Department #61 whose duties are confined to inspecting
the work of maintenance machinists.
We find that all employees of Departments #60, #61, #63, #64,
#65 and #67 including the inspector in Department #61, and all die
makers, machine repairmen and machinists in the cold draw bar mill,
excluding janitors, tool crib attendants, clerical employees and all
supervisory employees with authority to hire, promote, discharge, dis-
cipline, or otherwise effect, changes in the status of employees, or ef-
fectively recommend such action, constitute a unit appropriate for the
purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b)
of the Act.
V. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
We shall direct that the question concerning representation which
has arisen be resolved by an election by secret ballot among employees
of the Company in the unit found appropriate in Section IV, above,
who were employed during the pay-roll period immediately preceding
the date of the Direction of Election herein, subject to limitations and
additions set forth in the direction.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
By virtue of and pursuant to the power vested in the National Labor
Relations Board by Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations
4 See Matter of Willys Overland Motors, Inc., 9 N. L R. B 924.
1046 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Act, and pursuant to Article III, Section 9, of National Labor Rela-
tions Board Rules and Regulations-Series 2, as amended, it is hereby
DIREOTED that, as part of the investigation, to ascertain representa-
tives for the purposes of collective bargaining with Western Auto-
matic Machine Screw Company, Elyria, Ohio, an election 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 10, of said Rules and Regulations,
among the employees of the Company within the unit found appro-
priate in .Section IV, above, who were employed during the pay-roll
period immediately preceding the date of this Direction, including
employees who did not work during said pay-roll period because they
were ill or on vacation or temporarily laid off, and including em-
ployees in the armed forces of the United States who present them-
selves in person at the polls, but excluding employees who have since
quit or been discharged for cause, to determine whether or not they
desire to be represented by Mechanics Educational Society of Amer-
ica, Local #15 (C. U. A.) for the purposes of collective bargaining.
CHAIRMAN MILUs took no part in the consideration of the above De-
cision and Direction of Election.