NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD

VII. PRINCIPLES ESTABLTSHED 175
interest in collective bargaining among such employees. 49 Also of
importance is the fact that the labor policy affecting different groups
of employees is centrally determined 5°
Another factor which has been considered by the Board as indicating
a community of interest is the fact that the employees whose inclusion
in a single .unit is in issue utilize the same recreational, medical, or
parking facilities.' The factor of a common community life was
given weight in Matter of Tennessee Copper Company, 52 where the
issue was whether or not the company's employees in three towns
should be divided into three units. The Board, in holding that they
should not, pointed out that :
The three communities in the basin are likewise closely related. Copperhill, an
incorporated town, has a population of 6,000, including those just outside the
corporate limits. The other two settlements are unincorporated. Ducktown
has 1,500 inhabitants and Isabella 600. The entire basin constitutes a single
judicial district of Polk County; with a courthouse at Ducktoxvn. There is a
community center at Ducktown, which is used by residents of both Ducktown
and Isabella. A high school near Duektown serves both Ducktown and Isabella.
All the land between the three communities is owned or leased by the Company.
The Board has held that the mere fact that a proposed unit includes
only a small number of employees does not render such a unit necessarily
inappropriate. In Matter of The Warfield Company 53 it said :
Employees having special skills have long been organized into unions upon the
basis of those skills. Such unions are among the oldest and among those having
the most continuous experience of collective bargaining with employers. Very
often, too, because of the highly specialized character of the skill there are but
a few of them in any one plant. The respondent does not consider it impractical
to bargain with every single employee separately ; it is surely no more impractical
to bargain collectively with a group of 13 as a unit • • *."
(A) NATURE OF WORK
Generally, it will be seen that men who do the same type of work
will have the same problems with regard to hours, wages, and other
conditions of employment. The reasons for enabling them to bargain
collectively as a single unit are, therefore, obvious. 99 Conversely, the
" Mat ter of Aluminum Company of America and Its Wholly Owned Subsidiaries, The
Aluminum Cooking Utensil Company and The Aluminum Seal Company and International
Union Aluminum Workers of America. 6 N. L. R. B. 444; and Matter of The American Brass
Company and The Waterbury Brass Workers' Union, 6 N. L. R. B. 723.
0 Matter of Tennessee Electric Power Company and International Brotherhood of Electrical
Workers, 7 N. L. It. B. 24' and Matter of Fisher Body Corporation and United
Automobile Workers of America, Local 76, 7 N. L. R. B. 1083. This factor was also
given weight by the Board in several of the cases cited below in section G 3 (H), which
deals with geographically separated groups of employees, and in section G 3 (I), which
deals with the employees of separate companies.
ea matter of The American Brass Company and The Waterbury Brass Workers' Union, 6
N. L. R. B. 723; and Matter of Fisher Body Corporation and United Automobile Workers
of America, Local 76, 7 N. L. It. B. 1083.
Matter of Tennessee Copper Company and A. F. of L. Federal Union No. 21164, 5
N. L R. B. 768. 4
Matter of The Warfield Company, a corporation formerly known as The Thomson 4:4
Taylor Company and International Union of Operating Engineers, Local No. 399, et al.,
6 N. L. R. B. 58.
See also: Matter of Hopwood Retinning Company, Inc. and Monarch Retinning
Company, Inc., and Metal Polishers, Buffers, Platers and Helpers International Union
Local No. 8, and Teamsters Union, Local No. 584, 4 N. L. R. B. 922.
Els Matter of Huth cE James Shoe Mfg. Company and United Shoe Workers of America,
3 N. L. R. B. 220; Matter of International Mercantile Marine Company and United States
Lines Company and Industrial Union of Marine and Shipbuilding Workers of America,
Local No. 22, 3 N. L. R. B. 751; Matters of Rossie Velvet Company and Charles B. Rayhatt
and Textile Workers Organizing Committee, etc., 3 N. L. It. B. 804; Matter of Todd Shipyards
Corporation et al. and Industrial Union of Marine and Shipbuilding Workers of
America, 5 N. L. Ft. B. 20; Matter of International Harvester Company Tractor Works and
Farm Equipment Workers Association Division of A. A. I. S. d T. W. N. A. Lodge No. MO,
C. I. 0., 5 N. L. Ft. B. 192; Matter of Standard Oil Convpany of California and Oil Workers
International Union, Local 269, 5 N. L. R. B. 750; Matter of American Steel & Wire Corn-