Franklin Mint Corp., 714 (1981)

DECISIONS OF NATIONAL. LABOR RELATIONS BOARD Franklin Mint Corporation and Local 835, International Union of Operating Engineers, AFLCIO, Petitioner. Case 4-RC-13954

January 26, 1981 DECISION ON REVIEW AND

DIRECTION OF ELECTION

BY CHAIRMAN FANNING AND MEMBERS

JENKINS AND TRUESDALE

On March 24, 1980, the Acting Regional Director for Region 4 issued his Decision, Order, and Direction of Election in the above-entitled proceeding, in which he dismissed the petition filed herein for a unit of maintenance department employees at the Employer's Franklin Center, Pennsylvania, facility, Pennsylvania, facilities, as alternatively requested, on the basis that such units were inappropriate.' Thereafter, in accordance with Section 102.67 of the National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations, Series 8, as amended, Petitioner filed a timely request for review of the Acting Regional Director's decision on the ground that he erred in finding a maintenance unit to be inappropriate herein. The Employer filed a statement in opposition.

By telegraphic order dated April 28, 1980, as amended May 1, the National Labor Relations Board granted the Petitioner's request for review.

Thereafter, the Employer filed a brief on review.

Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, the National Labor Relations Board has delegated its authority in this proceeding to a three-member panel.

The Board has considered the entire record in this case with respect to the issues under review, including the Employer's brief on review, and makes the following findings:

The Acting Regional Director found that the maintenance department employees, whether confined to those at Franklin Center or including as well those at the Rockdale facility, did not constitute a distinct and homogeneous group of skilled journeyman craftsmen and, therefore, a unit of I In Case 4-RC-13974, which had been consolidated with the instant petition for hearing, Local 115, affiliated with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America, herein called Teamsters, sought a unit of production and maintenance employees at the Rockdale facility. In his decision the Acting Regional Director found solely appropriate a unit of production and maintenance employees at both the Franklin Center and Rockdale plants, as well as at the Employer's Concordville, Pennsylvania, warehouse facility He directed an election contingent upon Teamsters' submission of an adequate showing of interest. Teamsters filed no request for review. and on May 29, the Regional Director dismissed Teamsters' petition administratively because Teamsters had failed to submit an adequate showing of interest within the time period allowed 254 NLRB No. 84 maintenance department employees was inappropriate.2

The Employer is a mail-order house engaged in the design, manufacture, and sale to the public of collectibles, including coins, tokens, commemorative medals, jewelry, fine arts, and books. The Employer's operations consist of a main facility,

Franklin Center, and two smaller facilities, Rockdale (located approximately I mile from Franklin Center) and Concordville (located approximately 7 miles from Franklin Center). Franklin Center employs approximately 566 permanent hourly employees, including approximately 80 maintenance and toolroom employees; Rockdale employs approximately 197 permanent hourly employees, including 9 maintenance employees; and Concordville, a warehousing complex, employs approximately 25 permanent hourly employees, with no maintenance employees.

The maintenance department and toolroom machine shop comprise the Employer's maintenance and facilities engineering department, a separate administrative department. Its supervisory hierarchy consists of the director, the maintenance control supervisor, and individual supervisors for the various functions, including the toolroom machine shop employees, the production maintenance mechanics and the oiler, the building custodians, the heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning employees, the electricians, and the electronic instrument repairmen.

The machine shop at Franklin Center is comprised of 11 toolmakers and 4 toolroom machinists.

These employees devote most of their time to preparing tools, dies, molds, and small parts used in the production process. In preparing die blanks, the toolroom machinists receive solid bars, cut them into the lengths designated by the manufacturing control schedule, and, on a lathe, turn the bar to various diameters. The die blanks are then transported to the die shop, where the dies are fabricated and detailed artwork is added. If no artwork is required, the toolroom machinists make the dies.

After the dies have been used in the production process, they are routed to the welding shop, part of the toolroom machine shop, where a maintenance mechanic destroys them. The toolroom machinists also provide shafts and collets, as well as other parts, to the production maintenance mechanics for use in maintaining production machinery. During the Employer's annual shutdown for maintenance, approximately 20 percent of the toolroom employees are retained along with 'a large 2 For the reasons expressed in his Decision, we agree with the Acting Regional Director that a maintenance departmental unit limited to Franklin Center maintenance employees isinappropriate 714

FRANKLIN MINT CORPORATION portion' of the maintenance employees. Job applicants for the machine shop positions are required to have 4 to 7 years of prior experience with some schooling desirable. New employees in the machine shop usually come from outside the Company. The toolroom machinists and toolmakers are included in the Employer's top three pay classifications. Their supervisor is responsible to the director of maintenance and facilities engineering.

The production maintenance mechanics at Franklin Center are responsible for keeping production and production support machinery operating. Three to five mechanics are daily stationed in different maintenance zones, and are assigned to a zone by their supervisor upon reporting to the maintenance department. The zone mechanics repair small breakdowns as they occur, taking direction only from their maintenance department supervisor.

Between two to four of the maintenance mechanics work as truck repairmen. Their function is primarily to repair forktrucks at the Concordville and Franklin Center warehouses, where they spend an average of 3 days a week and 2 days a week, respectively. Their services are arranged for through the maintenance department at Franklin Center; they are directed to Concordville by their Franklin Center supervisor, who also directs them as to what repair 'methods' to employ. While they are employed at Concordville, the Concordville supervisor may remove them from their current jobs and may direct them to perform needed additional repairs. Any movement of the repairmen away from Concordville must be approved by...