Combustion Engineering Company, Inc. And Lodge 1230, Amalgamated Assn. Of Iron, Steel & Tin Workers Of North America, 602 (1940)

In the Matter of COMBUSTION ENGINEERING COMPANY, INC. and LODGE 1230, AMALGAMATED ASSN. OF IRON, STEEL & TIN WORKERS OF NORTH AMERICA Case No. C-1108.-Decided February 90, 1940 Boiler and Pipe Manufacturing Industry-Interference, Restraint, and Coercion-Unit Appropriate for Collective Bargaining: all employees classified as boilermakers in former representation proceeding, and other production and maintenance employees, exclusive of supervisory and clerical employees, foundry employees, and machinists; unit determined in prior representation proceeding,

Globe election-Representatives: proof of choice: certification in prior representation proceeding, after Globe election-Collective Bargaining: charges of refusal to bargain sustained, where respondent refused to grant exclusive recognition on ground that inclusion by Board of all types of boilermakers in a single unit rendered unit inappropriate, and on asserted ground that grant of exclusive recognition would cause strike of dissenting minority of employees.

Mr. Alexander E. Wilson, Jr., for the Board.

Sizer, Chambliss &c Kefauver, by Mr. Burnet Sizer and Mr. Jao Chambliss, of Chattanooga, Tenn., for the respondent.

Mr. Noel R. Beddow, of Birmingham, Ala., for the Amalgamated and the S. W. O. C.

Miss Edna Loeb and Mr. Guy Farmer, of counsel to the Board.

DECISION AND ORDER STATEMENT OF THE CASE Upon charges duly filed on July 30, 1938, by Lodge 1230, Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel & Tin Workers of North America, herein called the Amalgamated, the National Labor Relations Board, herein called the Board, by the Regional Director for the Tenth Region (Atlanta, Georgia), issued its complaint, dated October 8, 1938, against Combustion Engineering Company, Inc., Chattanooga,

Tennessee, herein called the respondent, alleging that the respondent had engaged in and was engaging in unfair labor practices affecting commerce within the meaning of Section 8 (1) and (5) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the National Labor Relations Act, 49 Stat. 449, herein called the Act. Copies of the complaint and accompanying 602 603 notices of hearing were duly served upon the respondent and the Amalgamated. The complaint, in substance, alleged that on or about July 1, 1938, and at all times thereafter, the respondent refused to bargain collectively with the Amalgamated as the exclusive representatives of the respondent's employees in an appropriate unit consisting of all boilermakers and helpers, welders and welding-machine operators, welders' helpers and apprentices, galvanizers, form-press operators, form-machine operators, fit-up men (except those working on cast iron boiler castings), layers-out and helpers, chippers, grinders, burners, furnace operators, riveters and rivet-machine operators, rivet heaters, reamers, rod-room men, testers, test-pit helpers, boilermakers' mechanics, tube men, inspectors and helpers, punch-shear operators,

X-ray helpers, sub-foremen, flange workers, tapping-machine operators and helpers, and all other production and maintenance employees, exclusive of foundry employees, supervisory employees, clerical employees, machinists, machinists' helpers and apprentices, headermill specialists, drill-press operators and helpers, milling-machine operators, drill-machine operators, bolt-machine operators, handymen, engineers, crane operators employed in the machine shops, planer operators, repairmen, maintenance men, and tool-room helpers employed at the respondent's Hedges-Walsh-Weidner division, Chattanooga, Tennessee, and that the respondent by this and other conduct interfered with, restrained, and coerced its employees in the exercise of the rights guaranteed in Section 7 of the Act.

On October 14, 1938, the respondent filed its answer, admitting the allegations of the complaint concerning the nature and scope of its business, denying the refusal to bargain, but admitting that it had refused to recognize the Amalgamated as the exclusive representative of the employees in the alleged appropriate unit.

Pursuant to notice, a hearing was held at Chattanooga, Tennessee, on October 17, 1938, before Earl S. Bellman, the Trial Examiner duly designated by the Board. The Board, the respondent, the Amalgamated, and Steel Workers Organizing Committee, herein called the S. W. O. C., were represented by counsel and participated in the hearing. Full opportunity to be heard, to examine and crossexamine witnesses, and to introduce evidence bearing upon the issues was afforded all parties. During the course of the hearing, counsel for the respondent moved to have the record in the representation proceeding hereinafter referred to 2 made a part of the record in the present proceeding. The Trial Examiner reserved ruling on this motion for his Intermediate Report. At the close of the Board's SThe Board in the representation proceeding hereinafter referred to certified Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel & Tin Workers of North America which is the parent organization of the Amalgamated. For the purposes of this proceeding we consider the Amalgamated and its parent organization as one and the same labor organization.

s See Section III below.

case counsel for the Board moved to have the pleadings conformed to the proof. The motion was granted by the Trial Examiner. The Board has reviewed the rulings of the Trial Examiner at the hearing on motions and on objections to the admission of evidence and finds that no prejudicial errors were committed. The rulings are hereby affirmed.

On December 27, 1938, the Trial Examiner issued his Intermediate Report, finding that the respondent had engaged in and was engaging in the unfair labor practices alleged in the complaint, and recommending that the respondent cease and desist therefrom and upon request bargain collectively with the Amalgamated as the exclusive representative of its employees in the unit. In his Intermediate Report the Trial Examiner denied the motion made by the respondent at the hearing to incorporate the record in the representation case into the record of this proceeding. The Board has reviewed this ruling and finds that the Trial Examiner erred in denying the motion of the respondent. The ruling is hereby reversed and the record in the representation case is hereby made a part of the record in the present proceeding. On January 9, 1939, the respondent filed exceptions to the Intermediate Report and, on February 9, 1939, filed a brief. Pursuant to notice to the respondent, the Amalgamated, and the S. W. O. C., a hearing was held before the Board in Washington, D. C., on April 13, 1939, for the purpose of oral argument. The respondent appeared by counsel and participated in the oral argument. The Board has considered the respondent's exceptions to the Intermediate Report and its brief in support thereof, and to the extent that they are inconsistent with the findings, conclusions, and order below, finds the exceptions to be without merit.

Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following:

FINDINGS OF FACT I. THE BUSINESS OF THE RESPONDENT Combustion Engineering Company, Inc., is a Delaware corporation with its principal executive offices located in New York City and branch offices located in a number of States in the United States.

The issues in this case are confined to the plant which the respondent operates at Chattanooga, Tennessee. At this plant, which is known as the Hedges-Walsh-Weidner division, the respondent is engaged in the manufacture of range boilers, power boilers, miscellaneous pressure vessels, soil pipe, and boiler aeeessories. All the raw materials used in the operation of the Hedges-Walsh-Weidner division are procured from points outside Tennessee. Approximately 605 12,000 tons of pig iron, 6,000 tons of sheet steel, 1,000 tons of structural steel plate, 500 tons of steel bars, 6,000 tons of steel boiler plate, and 345 tons of spelter (zinc), all used in the course of a year, are shipped to the plant by rail from Alabama, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Texas. The products manufactured and sold by this division annually are valued at approximately $3,500,000, and over 90 per cent of such products are shipped to points outside Tennessee. The pay roll lists 913 employees, exclusive of supervisory and clerical employees.

  1. THE ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel & Tin Workers of North America is a labor organization affiliated with the Committee for Industrial Organization. Lodge 1230 is a local union chartered by that organization and admits to membership employees of the respondent. Steel Workers Organizing Committee is likewise a labor organization affiliated with the Committee for Industrial Organization. It organizes workers on behalf of the Amalgamated, and forms, supervises, guides, and assists lodges thereof.

    International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Ship Builders and Helpers, Subordinate Lodge No. 656, is a labor organization affiliated with the Building Trades Department, the Metal Trades Department, and the Railway Employees Department of the American Federation of Labor. It admits to membership all employees of the Hedges-Walsh-Weidner divison engaged in the construction, assembly, and erection of boilers, drums, tanks, and parts thereof.

  2. THE UNFAIR LABOR PRACTICES In June 1937, the S. W. O. C., for and in behalf of the Amalgamated, filed a petition with the Regional Director, alleging that a question affecting commerce had arisen concerning the representation of the respondent's employees in its Hedges-Walsh-Weidner division, and requesting an investigation and certification of representatives, pursuant to Section 9 (c) of the Act. On February 16, 1938, after hearing upon due notice, the Board issued its Decision and Direction of Elections,3 finding, inter alia, that the determination of the appropriate unit or units for the purposes of collective bargaining among the respondent's employees at its Hedges-Walsh-Weidner division...

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