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OFFICE OF THE UMPIRE No. C-410 July 6, 1946
Claim Of Improper Wage Classification
GRIEVANCE: Hyatt Bearings—Case C-83 "Charge Violation of Paragraph 112 of the National Agreement on New Job of ‘Rotary Head Miller’."
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 511 and General Motors Corporation Hyatt Bearings Division—Case C-83
The only question at issue in this grievance is whether or not the operation of the Milwaukee Rotary Head Miller in the Tool Room at the Hyatt Bearings Division differs so substantially from the operation of the other milling machines as to justify its designation as a "new job" within the meaning of Paragraph 112 of the National Agreement. The Umpire finds from his investigation of the job that a new classification is not justified. It is true, as the Union points out, that among the jobs performed on this machine are a number which had formerly been performed by the Jig Borer. Management has established, however, that most of these jobs could be and often had been performed on the regular milling machines and were assigned to the Jig Borer only in order to utilize all available machine capacity. Few of these jobs require the precision and close tolerance ordinarily associated with a Jig Borer’s work. The regular Jig Borer jobs, which justify the special Jig Borer classification and rate, are not and can not be performed on the Rotary Head Miller. It is also true, as the Union points out, that the rotary head attachment and the great precision of which the Rotary Head Miller is capable make it possible to perform many operations with this machine which could not be performed on a standard milling machine. By the same token, however, there are a number of difficult jobs, requiring great skill on the part of the operator, which have been performed on the regular milling machines and never on the Rotary Head Miller. It must be remembered, moreover, that we are concerned in this case with classifying not the machine itself, but rather the job of operating it. The very attachments which differentiate this machine from other types of milling machines appear to the Umpire to reduce the amount of work and in some cases the degree of skill which is required of the operator. There seems, indeed, to be a rough balance between the higher standards of precision and the closer tolerances which the operator of the Rotary Head Miller must sometimes meet and the special attachments on the machine which simplify the task of meeting them. The Union claims in its brief that it takes six months to train a milling machine operator to operate the Rotary Head Miller. The evidence does not support this claim. W.K., the first operator assigned to the machine, testified that he operated it "on his own" after only a few days of instruction and that it took him only a day or two to break in the present operator. It appeared to the Umpire that throughout its argument the Union was concentrating on the types of precision jobs which the machine could turn out rather than on the part played by the operator in achieving such precision. Even were this a proper basis upon which to decide a question of wage classification, the Union’s case would have grave weaknesses, since a majority of the jobs which have in fact been assigned to the Rotary Head Miller could have been turned out on other milling machines. It must be emphasized, however, that in applying a general wage classification, such as the "Milling Machine Operator" classification in the present local wage agreement, we are not so much concerned with the machine or with the products as with the demands which are made on the operator. Viewing the case in this light, the Umpire finds that the nature of this operator’s task and the degree of skill which is required to perform it are not sufficiently different from those of a regular milling machine operator to justify the establishment of a new classification.
Decision: The grievance is dismissed. Signed, Ralph T. Seward UMPIRE July 6, 1946. |