General Motors Corp., 1063 (1961)

DECISION AND ORDER DENYING MOTIONS AND DIRECTING REGIONAL DIRECTOR TO OPEN AND COUNT

BALLOTS

On September 12, 1960, the Petitioner filed a petition seeking an election among listed classifications of apprentices, excluding production and maintenance employees and all other employees, at the Fisher Body Division, Plant No. 1, Grand Rapids, Michigan, plant of the General Motors Corp. On October 12, 1960, the Regional Director for the Seventh Region approved a stipulation for certification upon consent election for a unit of all apprentices to the classifications of diemaker, toolmaker, patternmaker, welder equipment maintenance and repair, hardener, and welder, excluding all other employees not specifically included, and the customary statutory exclusions.

On October 25, 1960, an election was conducted in the unit stipulated to by the Petitioner and the Employer but, apparently upon the objection of the International Association of Tool Craftsmen, which had not received notice of the petition or the election, the Regional Director for the Seventh Region impounded the ballots which had been cast and, on February 9, 1961, directed a hearing upon notice to all parties including the Association.

The hearing was held on February 21, 1961, before Iris H. Meyer, hearing officer. All parties, including the Association, which intervened at the hearing and is hereafter called the Intervenor, appeared and participated. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.' i We find without merit the contentions of the Petitioner and the Employer that the Regional Director erred by impounding the ballots cast at the October 25 election and directing the instant hearing , and that the hearing officer erred by allowing the Intervenor's intervention Though the Petitioner and the Employer knew that the Intervenor claimed to represent the tool and die apprentices, one of the classifications covered by the instant petition and stipulation, they failed to notify the Regional Director of Intervenor's claim. ( See Grand Rapids General Motors (Fisher Body Plant #1), 131 NLRB 439, in which the Intervenor herein, there the petitioning union, sought a unit including the tool and die apprentices .) Because of their failure to notify the Regional Director, they effectively reserved to themselves the question of whether Intervenor was entitled to receive notice of the instant petition or an opportunity to participate in the proceeding.

But the Intervenor was entitled to have its rights determined not by them, but by the Regional Director or by the Board. See U S. Chaircraft, Inc., 132 NLRB 922. The ballots, therefore, were properly impounded And as the Intervenor claimed to represent some of the apprentices as part of another unit, apart from any other reasons therefor, it was properly granted...