Diamond T. Utah, Inc., 966 (1958)

Diamond T. Utah, Inc. and International Association of Machinists, Local Lodge No. 1525, District Lodge No. 114, AFL-CIO,

Petitioner. Case No. 2O-RC-3757. September 17, 1959 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 Robert M. Yeates, hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.

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 employees engaged in service and repair of trucks at the Employer's shop, Salt Lake City, Utah, excluding parts men, office clerical employees, janitors, guards, professional employees, and supervisors as defined in the Act. The Employer agrees except that it would include the parts men.

There are about 11 employees in the requested unit. Most of them are classified as journeymen mechanics on the basis of their previous experience. The remaining few are classified as helpers and are permanently assigned to the journeymen mechanics. There are no apprentices in this small operation. Uncontradicted testimony shows that the Employer prefers to hire journeymen mechanics and not merely unskilled or inexperienced employees, as the dissent suggests, from the outside labor market. The job of the mechanics, and their helpers, is to diagnose and repair every phase of motortruck malfunction, and frequently requires the use of numerous kinds of machine and handtools and equipment and knowledge about working at close tolerances and on complicated machinery. As in all crafts, there is a variation in the type of work some of the mechanics can and do perform.

We reiterate our previous holding, in International Harvester Company, 119 NLRB 1709, that the present-day automotive engine is a highly complex and complicated machine and that it requires increasing know-how and skill to adjust and maintain this machine.

Because of the inherent nature of the work tasks performed by the mechanics here involved, and even taking into account the absence of such on-the-job training or apprenticeship programs, we find that the mechanics and their helpers in this case are primarily engaged in 124 NLRB No. 133.

DIAMOND T. UTAH, INC. 967 the performance of tasks requiring the use of craft skills and, as such,.

constitute a craft unit for the purpose of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9(b) of the Act.

The evidence discloses that the parts men, although occasionally working in association with the mechanics, are not primarily assigned to them, as helpers, and are not in direct line of...