TWENTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT - National Labor Relations Board

Unfair Labor Practices 109
man unit also preclude it from directing an employer to bargain with
iespect to such a unit It noted further that there was no presumption
that the contract unit, which the employer disavowed in midterm,
was appropriate because the parties contemplated that additional employees
would be hired during the term of the contract, since there
was but one employee in the unit at the time of the execution of the
contract
In one case, the Board ieiterated its policy of excluding plant dencals
fiom office clencal units when any party objects " It held that
an employer did not unlawfully refuse to bargain with the union for
timekeepers, who were plant clericals, wheie the only bai gaining
demand which the union made with respect to timekeepers was that
they be bargained for as part of the office clerical unit And, in another
case, a panel majority found that an employer was obligated
to bargain with the union notwithstanding the Board's minor modification
of the unit proposed by the union 25 The majority held that
the variance between the requested unit which excluded certain employees
and the appropriate unit including such employees was too
insubstantial to excuse the employer from its statutory duty to bargain
with the union It noted, moreover, that the inclusion or exclusion
of the omitted category was not an issue between the parties at the
time the bargaining request was made
Another employer violated section 8(a) (5) by refusing to bargain
with the certified union on the ground that the union did not qualify
under the American Potash, 26 doctrine, i e, the union was not the
"traditional representative" of a previously severed and now separately
represented departmental unit 27 The Board held that the
"traditional representative" test of American Potash is limited to
severance cases and is not applicable where a craft or departmental
unit has once been severed from a production and maintenance unit
and has, since then, developed its own bargaining history
c Subjects for Bargaining
The statutory duty to bargain extends to all matters pertaining to
"rates of pay, hours of employment, or other conditions of employment
" 28 Regarding such matters, the employer, as well as the employees'
representative, must bargain in good faith, although the
statute does not require "either party to agree to a proposal or require
24 Ainsworth Mfg Co ,131 NLRB No 48
Asle Market eE Gasoline, 130 NLRB 641 Member Rodgers, dissenting, believed that
the unit was in fact inappropriate and that the employer did not violate its obligation to
bargain
At/lemon Potash d Chemical Corp • 107 NLRB 1418 (1954) Nineteenth Annual
Report (1954), pp 88-41
2- Industrial Rayon Corp, 128 NLRB 514, set aside in 291 F 2d 809 (CA 4y
Sees 8(d) and 9 of the act.