NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD

170 THIRD ANNUAL REPORT OF NATIONAL .LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
union, among the pattern makers, and among the employees in the foundries, to
determine the desires of these men as to unit is unnecessary and would cause
unwarranted confusion. Upon the showing made at the hearing, the result of
such elections would be a foregone conclusion.
As to two crafts, however, the Board found that a substantial number
of employees had evinced a desire for separate representation, and
consequently it directed the holding of separate elections for these
groups.31
Separate elections may also be denied where the circumstances do
not present sufficient reasons for finding that the group in which such
an election is requested could be aptly considered a separate unit. In
Matter of American Hardware Corporation,32 where the Board directed
the holding of separate elections as to one group of employees,
it stated with regard to another group of employees:
The I. A. M. also contended that the header department at the Corbin Screw
plant constituted a separate unit. This department is composed of specialist
machinists engaged in making the heads for screws. The, Corbin Screw plant
is the only ooie of the fowr plants in New Britain that has such a department.
There are, however
'
specialist machinists of many other types eligible to membership
in the I. A. M. employed both at the Corbin Screw plant and at the
other plants of the Company. The machinists in the header department are no
more highly skilled than the other specialist machinists, and the I. A. M. made
no contention that all specialist machinists constitute an appropriate unit. Further
there is no history of collective bargaining by the header department as a
separate unit, and no reason appears for separating those employees from the
other specialist machinists who are to be included in the industrial unit. We
therefore find that the header department does not constitute a separate unit
for the purposes of collective bargaining and that the employees of that department
are part of the industrial unit.'
The Board has also held that where it is contended that certain
skilled groups should be set aside from other workers in a plant because
of the nature of their work, it will not permit a single election
for all of the skilled employees on a semi-industrial basis. Thus, in
Matter of Schick Dry 'Shaver Com,pany, 34 one union was organized
on an industrial basis, and another union, which admitted as its members
employees within a particular craft, had also been designated
as bargaining representative by employees in two other crafts. The
Board directed separate elections for each of the crafts, although the
names of the same unions were placed on all of the ballots. The
Board said:
The fact that the carpenters and electricians in the maintenance department
are also the most highly skilled ba their respective trade classification does not,
a A similar result was reached in Matter of American Hardware Corporation and
United Electrical and Radio Workers of America, 4 N. L. R. B. 412; and Matter of Shell
Oil Company and International Association of Oil Field, Gas Well and Refinery Workers of
America, 7 N. L. R. B. 417. In the first of these, the Board found that four plants
constituted a single appropriate unit. Consequently, while a separate election was proper
where a craft union had organized employees in all of the plants, such an election would
would not be held where a craft union had not succeeded in more than one plant, and
consequently represented only a negligible minority of the employees who were eligible to
join it. In the second, four separate elections were directed, as agreed on by the parties.
It was also claimed that the company's plumbers constituted a separate appropriate unit.
There was doubt as to whether a unit for plumbers would number 341 employees or 645,
as claimed by the industrial union involved. The Board stated that it was not necessary
to decide this question since even if the smaller number was chosen, the craft union had
shown that it had at most 40 members.
=Matter of American Hardware Corporation and United Electrical and Radio Workers
of America, 4 N. L. R.. B. 412.
a See also Matter of Standard Oil Company of California and 0i/ Workers International
Union, Local 299, 5 N. L. R. B. 750; and Matter of Consolidated Afreraft Corporation and
International Union, United Automobile Workers of America, Local No. 508, C. I. 0., 7
N. L. B. B. 1061.
84 Matter of Schick Dry Shaver Company and Lodge No. 1557, International Association
of Machinists, 4 N. L. R. B. 246.