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OFFICE OF THE UMPIRE No. C-319 February 16, 1945
Appeal From An Alleged Violation Of Paragraph 63
GRIEVANCE: Chevrolet—Atlanta—Case C-23 "Charge Management with violation of Paragraph 63. Request that I be given job in paint room as paint mixer since I have all due qualifications. Also seeking retroactive pay from date of this grievance." "Charge Management with violation of Paragraph 63, by placing men on job in paint room as paint mixer when I am qualified and also have more seniority. My request is that I be given job as paint mixer."
Umpire’s Decision: The grievance is dismissed. (Entire Decision should be read)
In the Matter of: United Automobile Workers of America—C.I.O.—Local 34 and General Motors Corporation—Chevrolet—Atlanta—Case C-23
During the month of October, 1944, a vacancy occurred in the classification of Paint Mixer in the Paint Department at the Chevrolet Plant at Atlanta. In filling this vacancy Management gave consideration to two employees who had a high school education and whom it considered to be otherwise approximately equal in ability, merit and capacity. One did not desire the job; the other, Employee W., was thereupon given the promotion. The three complainants in these grievances all have greater seniority than Employee W., and all claim to be his equal in ability, merit and capacity. None of them, however, has a high school education, two of them having completed the eighth grade and one the ninth. Management admits that it passed them over largely because of their lack of education. It points out that it is now preparing its Paint Department for the resumption of commercial production and that under modern conditions it must meet the color requirements of its customers rather than set its own color standards. Paint mixing has therefore become a far more complicated and specialized operation than it formerly was. A qualified Paint Control man must be able to maintain records and perform detailed clerical work, and must have sufficient knowledge to read mathematical formulae for tinting colors and to compute the various mixes he requires. A minimum of a high school education is thus necessary for Paint Control work, Management argues, and since Paint Mixers may eventually graduate to Paint Control, it is proper to consider the educational qualifications of candidates for a Paint Mixing job. The Union does not dispute Management’s claims with respect to the education necessary for successful Paint Control work. It insists, however, that paint mixing involves only simple mechanical operations and requires no mathematical or theoretical knowledge whatsoever. It notes that in rejecting a request for a wage increase for Paint Mixers at the time of the distribution of the one and one-half cent allotment under the 1940 Agreement, Management itself pointed out that no skill was required for paint mixing. It asserts, finally, that Management should judge the qualifications of candidates for promotion solely with relation to the job which is to be filled, and that their relative fitness for future promotions to still a higher classification cannot properly be considered. This latter contention by the Union has already been considered and rejected by the Umpire in Decision B-55. In filling a job which is considered to be a stepping stone to a higher classification, Management may properly weigh not only the ability of candidates successfully to perform all functions of the job which is vacant but also their potentialities for later promotion. It is clear, of course, that if Management once adopts this principle it must carry it out in good faith. It could not properly base its promotions to a lower paid job upon a program of further intradepartmental promotions and then disregard this program when vacancies in the top jobs are eventually filled. Despite the Union’s suggestions to the contrary, however, the Umpire must assume that Management’s assertion that Paint Mixers are potential Paint Control men is made in good faith. Upon that assumption Management’s consideration of the educational qualifications of candidates for the Paint Mixing job is reasonable and proper. There is no necessary inconsistency between Management’s earlier position with respect to the proper wage rate for Paint Mixers and its present assertion that an employee’s educational background should be considered in weighing his relative fitness for the job. Management is not now saying that the Paint Mixers’ job is difficult or that these three complainants could not do it. It is saying only that an employee who can not only perform the job successfully but also be trained for future promotion is superior in ability, merit and capacity to employees who lack the educational requirements for such training. In the view of the Umpire, Management’s desire to staff its Paint Department with potential Paint Control men is reasonable and its action in filling this vacancy involved no violation of Paragraph 63.
Decision The grievance is dismissed. Signed, Ralph T. Seward UMPIRE February 16, 1945. |