NLRB v. Appleton Electric Company

Decision Date27 November 1961
Docket NumberNo. 13244.,13244.
Citation296 F.2d 202
PartiesNATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Petitioner, v. APPLETON ELECTRIC COMPANY, et al., Respondents and Local 1031, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Intervenor-Respondent.
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Marcel Mallet-Prevost, Asst. Gen. Counsel, Standau E. Weinbrecht, Attorney, N. L. R. B., Stuart Rothman, General Counsel, Dominick L. Manoli, Associate General Counsel, Melvin J. Welles, Attorney, N. L. R. B., Washington, D. C., for petitioner.

Jay A. Canel, Leonard A. Canel, Chicago, Ill., for respondents.

Mozart G. Ratner, Joseph L. Sax, Washington, D. C., for intervenor.

Before HASTINGS, Chief Judge, and DUFFY and CASTLE, Circuit Judges.

DUFFY, Circuit Judge.

This is an unfair labor practices case and is here upon petition of the Labor Board for enforcement of an order issued April 16, 1958, reaffirmed June 24, 1960, and amended January 16, 1961. The Board's Decision and Order in the unfair labor proceeding is reported at 120 NLRB 451. The Board's Supplemental Decision and Order, ruling on an issue considered after further hearing, is reported at 127 NLRB No. 173. Its Second Supplemental Decision and Amendment of the Order is reported at 129 NL RB No. 168. The Board divided three to two in holding that respondent Appleton unlawfully assisted International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), Local 1031, within the meaning of sec. 8(a) (2) of the Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 158(a) (2).

Prior to 1952, Appleton Electric Company (Appleton) purchased the raw malleable castings used in the production of its electrical fixtures from Wisconsin Appleton Company, a foundry located in South Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The Appleton family held a controlling stock interest in this company. In July 1952, the assets of Wisconsin Appleton were transferred to Chicago Appleton; the former corporation was dissolved and its physical facilities were established as the South Milwaukee Foundry Division of Appleton. It continued to produce raw malleable castings which were sent to Appleton in Chicago for machining and shipping.

Prior to the transfer of the assets of Wisconsin Appleton to Appleton in July 1952, Appleton offered IBEW an opportunity to represent the employees in the Wisconsin Appleton foundry. IBEW declined because of the distance of the foundry from Chicago. Since 1952, as before, the employees in that foundry have been represented as a separate bargaining unit by International Molders and Foundry Workers Union.

On June 12, 1945, the Board certified an IBEW sister local as exclusive bargaining agent of the employees of Appleton. In 1947, Appleton purchased the assets of Goodrich Electric Company, including its plant on Belle Plaine Avenue in Chicago, about four miles distant from the Appleton plant. This plant became Appleton's lighting division. The lighting fixtures are there produced and then shipped to the main Appleton factory for finishing, packing and shipping. From the time Appleton acquired Goodrich, employees in the lighting division were treated by Appleton and IBEW as part of the original unit, and the contracts between Appleton and IBEW were applied to them. However, seniority rights were established on plantwide basis only.

In 1953, District No. 8, IAM filed with the Board a petition for election among all production and maintenance employees of Appleton in its plants in the Chicago area. The Board dismissed the petition holding that the May 5, 1952 agreement between Appleton and IBEW as automatically renewed on February 2, 1953, was a bar. No petition seeking representation of any portion of the Chicago area unit has since been filed with the Board.

On September 1, 1954, Local 1031, IB EW was admittedly the exclusive bargaining agent of an appropriate bargaining unit consisting of all production and maintenance employees employed by Appleton in its plant in the Chicago area. The Union Shop contract between Local 1031 and Appleton executed that day, defined the Unit as including the existing plants in that area and "any future plants or divisions located in the Greater Chicago Metropolitan Area."

On September 1, 1954, the expiration date of the 1953 contract, and prior to the time Appleton was aware that the assets of Illinois Malleable were available for purchase, Appleton entered into a new contract with Local 1031, which contract was to expire on September 1, 1956.

Between September 8 and 10, 1954, Appleton learned the properties of Illinois Malleable Iron Company (Malleable) were for sale. The factory facilities of Malleable were immediately adjacent to those of Appleton, being separated only by a railroad track. On September 21, 1954, Appleton Profit Sharing Plan purchased the real property of Malleable and leased it to Appleton. Appleton purchased substantially all of Malleable's stock. Because a tax loss by Malleable could be used, Appleton's attorney advised that the corporate structure of Malleable be retained and this was done. However, all of the directors of Malleable resigned and Appleton directors were elected to replace them.

Immediately upon the purchase of Malleable by Appleton, Attorney Canel, then counsel for Appleton, informed M. F. Darling, President and Business Manager of Local 1031, of the purchase. Canel informed Darling of the proposed plan of operation of the acquired plant. Canel expressed the opinion that the contract between Appleton and Local 1031 executed September 1, 1954, would cover all of the employees hired by Appleton for Malleable. Darling agreed that under the "Future Plants and Division" clause, the employees hired by Appleton for Malleable would become part of the bargaining unit of Local 1031.

Darling stated, however, that inasmuch as Malleable would be a separate corporation, a supplemental agreement would be desirable to show that Malleable was a part of Appleton, to provide for new job classifications and wage rates, and if Appleton should hire former employees of Malleable, to provide for granting extra seniority credits for vacation purposes to those employees in recognition of their former service, as had been done when Appleton acquired the Goodrich lighting division. Canel agreed, and a supplemental agreement was executed on September 22, 1954.

As soon as employees were hired for Malleable, Local 1031 appointed stewards for the Malleable plant to serve under the Appleton Chief Steward who was in charge of the stewards for all divisions and departments in the Chicago area unit. Malleable employees presented their grievances through Local 1031 stewards. Later, the Malleable employees elected their own Local 1031 stewards by secret ballot. From the very outset, Local 1031 treated the new employees as equal members of the existing bargaining unit. It integrated them into the Chicago area bargaining and grievance structure.

After the acquisition of Malleable, the first unit-wide negotiations were held in 1956. Four representatives of Malleable employees were members of Local 1031 negotiating committee. The contract of September 1, 1956, was the result of such negotiations. Thereafter, there was a favorable ratification vote by the employees at both Appleton and Malleable.

All of Appleton's Chicago employees including those at the former Malleable plant are under centralized control with respect to both production and labor relations. There was only one employer and that was Appleton. The foundry and other operations at the former Malleable plant have been integrated with Appleton's other Chicago plants. Virtually the entire production of the former Malleable plant is utilized by the other Appleton plants. The new employees number only 142 as compared with more than 1000 in Appleton's other Chicago operations.

Prior to the shut-down of the plant, and since 1940, the...

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