Underwriters Salvage Co. of New York, 337 (1952)

13-RC-2286: This group consists of one electrician and one employee hired temporarily for the installation of certain new electrical equipment. The latter was hired by an electrical engineer from the St. Louis office for a special project at the Ottawa plant, and may be allowed to stay on as a production worker when the project is completed. The electrician spends his time on electrical maintenance in the plant, with the exception of an hour or more a day when he makes tests on the boiler water. He is on 24-hour call in case of emergency.

However, he has no license and acquired the necessary skill for his work on the job. Apart from other considerations we shall grant the motion of the Employer and the Intervenor to dismiss this petition inasmuch as the unit requested, in effect, consists of but one employee.' 13-RC-2287: This group actually consists of a journeyman carpenter who, except for occasional cabinet work in the plant, devotes his whole time to moldmaking, and two other employees who divide their time between machine repair and carpentry .5 The latter, like all other maintenance employees requested by the Petitioner, are supervised by the plant's master mechanic when engaged in machine repair work; the moldmaker, who is the plant's only moldmaker and works without helpers, is supervised by a production foreman. There are no carpenter helpers or apprentices. Despite the admitted carpentry skill of the sole moldmaker in the plant, there is no justification on this record for severance of the group requested as skilled employees commonly engaged in craft work.6

As none of the units requested by the Petitioner is appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining, we shall dismiss the petitions.

We therefore do not pass upon the apparent contract bar issue raised by the Intervenor.

Order .

Upon the entire record in these cases, the National Labor Relations Board hereby orders that the petitions filed herein be, and they hereby are, dismissed.

4 See Griffin Wheel Company, 80 NLRB 1471.

5 One of these employees, Harry Werner, was requested in connection with petition No.

13-RC-2285 as a machine repairman.

e Compare Gulf Oil Corporation, 77 NLRB 308. 312.

UNDERWRITERS SALVAGE COMPANY or NEW YORK and INTERNATIONAL CHEMICAL WORKERS UNION, LOCAL #430, AFL, PETITIONER. Cia$e No. 20-RC-1737. May 27,1952

Decision and Direction of Election Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before Albert Schneider, hearing 99 NLRB No. 54.

officer. 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 Act, the Board has delegated its powers in connection with this case to a three-member panel [Chairman Herzog and Members Styles and Peterson].

Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :

1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the Act.

2. The labor organization involved claims to represent certain employees of the Employer.

3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the representation of employees of the Employer within the meaning of Section 9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.

4. The Petitioner seeks a unit of all production and maintenance employees employed in the Employer's pickery and general salvage operations. The Employer contends (1) that no unit is appropriate, and (2) that if any unit is appropriate, only a unit limited to its pickery operations, excluding employees in its general salvage operations, is appropriate. The parties also disagree as to the unit placement of a truck driver, whom the Petitioner would include and the Employer would exclude.

   The Employer is engaged in salvaging property which has been damaged by fire, water, or other causes. In connection with its Fresno, California, operations, the only operations involved in this proceeding,' the Employer maintains a pickery, where cotton is reconditioned, baled, and stored, and a general salvage warehouse, where other types of property, such as grain, hardware, lumber, canned goods, and automobiles, are salvaged. The pickery and warehouse are located about 300 feet apart, separated by a large open space used for storage.

   The Employer's cotton salvaging operations are seasonal in nature, and correspond roughly to the California cotton picking season, which lasts from about October to March. The general salvage operations, on the other hand, are conducted on a year-around basis.

   Most of the Employer's salvaging operations are carried out at the site of the loss; only when property cannot be conveniently or economically salvaged at that point is it transported for salvaging to the pickery or warehouse. Because the Employer's operations are dependent on the occurrence of losses, such operations are generally intermittent.

   In addition to its supervisory personnel, the Employer...