The facts before the Board when it made its decision are: The Firestone Tire and Rubber Company employs 15,000 production and maintenance employees in 11 plants across the nation. All production and maintenance employees have been represented by the United Rubber Workers of America since 1948. Two thousand of the employees represented by the URW are skilled tradespeople. These skilled workers are members of nearly 50 different crafts and include machinists, carpenters, crane operators, and refrigeration mechanics. The rubber manufacturing production process is highly integrated, and these skilled workers spend up to 90 percent of their working time in production areas repairing production machinery.
A union called the International Society of Skilled Trades seeks to sever all skilled trades from the URW and to represent the various skilled workers in one unit. This would be the first such dual representation of production and maintenance workers in the rubber industry.
What factors must the Board consider before it allows craft severance? Based on the facts of this case, should the skilled trades be severed into their own unit? Explain. [Firestone Tire and Rubber Co., 223 NLRB 955, 91 LRRM 156]