Adams-Millis Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Aug 14, 1945

63 N.L.R.B. 362 (N.L.R.B. 1945)

In the Matter of ADAMS-MILLIS CORPORATION, PLANT NUMBER 7, and
AMERICAN FEDERATION OF HOSIERY WORKERS, C. I. O.
Case No. 5-R-1877.-Decided August 1 4,1945
Messrs. Kenneth M. Brim and Roy L. Morgan, of Greensboro, N. C.,
for the Company.
Mr. W. Cedric Stallings, of High Point, N. C., and Mr. H. G. B.
King, of Chattanooga, Tenn., for the Union.
Miss Aida Casanas, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon a petition duly filed by American Federation of Hosiery
Workers, C I. 0., herein called the Union, alleging that a question
affecting commerce had arisen concerning the representation of em-
ployees of Adams-Millis Corporation, Plant Number 7, High Point,
North Carolina, herein called the Company, the National Labor Rela-
tions Board provided for an appropriate hearing upon due notice
before Sidney J. Barban, Trial Examiner. Said hearing was held at
High Point, North Carolina, on May 16, 1945. The Company, the
Union, and United Textile Workers of America, A. F. of L.,1 appeared
and participated. All parties were afforded full opportunity to be
heard, to examine and cross-examine witnesses, and to introduce evi-
dence bearing on the issues. The Trial Examiner's rulings made at
the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
All parties were afforded an opportunity to file briefs with the Board.
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following :
FINDINGS OF FACT
I. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
Adams-Millis Corporation is a North Carolina corporation with its
principal office in High Point, North Carolina.• The Company op-
1 After the hearing, the Intervenor, United Textile Workers of America, A F. of L., re-
quested that its name' be eliminated from the ballot in any election directed in this pro-
ceeding The request is hereby granted.
63 N. L . R. B., No. 53.
362
ADAMS-MILLIS CORPORATION 363
erates seven plants in North Carolina, four of which, including Plant
Number 7, with which this proceeding is concerned, are located at
High Point. This plant is engaged in the manufacture of ladies' full
fashioned hosiery. During the year 1944 the Company purchased
raw materials valued in excess of $300,000, about 65 percent of which
was shipped to the Company's Plant Number 7 from points outside
the State of North Carolina. During the same period the Company
produced finished products at its Plant Number 7 of a value in excess
of $2,000,000, approximately 85 percent of which was shipped to
points outside the State of North Carolina.
The Company admits, and we find, that it is engaged in commerce
within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act.
II. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED
American Federation of Hosiery Workers, affiliated with the Con-
gress of Industrial Organizations, is a labor organization admitting
to membership employees of the Company.
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
The Union, by letter dated March 14, 1945, requested recognition
from the Company as collective bargaining representative of the
Company's employees, and by letter dater March 20, 1945, the Com-
pany replied that it was not prepared to recognize the Union as
collective, bargaining agent.
A statement of a Board agent, introduced into evidence at the hear-
ing, indicates that the Union represents a substantial number of em-
ployees in the unit hereinafter found appropriate.2
We find that a question affecting commerce has arisen concerning
the representation of employees of the Company, within the meaning
of Section 9• (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT
There is no history of collective bargaining at the Company's Plant
Number 7, which is the plant involved in this proceeding. This plant
makes women's full-fashioned hosiery, whereas the Company's other
three plants in High Point produce men's seamless half-hose. The
manufacture of women's full-fashioned hosiery requires a high degree
of skill; the manufacture of seamless hosiery does not require so much
skill. For this reason there is no interchange of employees between
Plant Number 7 and the other three plants, nor is there any inter-
2 The Field Examiner reported that the Union submitted 175 authorization cards, all of
which bore apparently genuine original signatures These cards were dated in March and
April 1945 . There are approximately 324 employees in the appropriate unit.
364 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
change of raw materials or finished products among the four plants.
All the parties agree that the operations of Plan Number 7 differ from
the operations of the other three plants and that Plant Number 7
'should be a separate bargaining unit. We so find.
The Union requests a unit of all production and maintenance em-
ployees at Plant Number 7, but excluding office and clerical employees,
machinists, fixers, instructors, timekeepers, floorlady, and supervisory
employees. Except as to the categories of timekeeper'and fixer, the
Company agrees that the unit so described is appropriate.3 Con-
troversy centers about the following employees, all of whom the Union
would exclude and the Company would include:
AStore and samples girl: This employee's principal duty is working up
samples. She makes up samples at a table in the plant where she pulls
out new styles as they come through, sews them together, and sends
them to the Company's customers as the customers request them. Each
afternoon this employee is occupied in a Company store located at the
entrance to the building, where the Company sells stockings to its
employees for cash or on credit, to be charged against their pay. When
she is not occupied making up samples, this employee may be given
work pairing stockings. She is hourly paid and is carried on the
Finishing Department pay roll and is responsible to the superintendent
of that department. Her average wage is lower than that of the
pairers, who are on a piece rate.
The Union contends that this employee is a clerical worker and that
she represents management in its personnel relations in that she clerks
in the Company store. We find no merit in this contention. Since the
employee in question works in close association with the production
employees, under the jurisdiction of a production department, she
will be included in the unit.'
Timekeepers: There are three timekeepers working for the Com-
pany. One of these girls is assigned to the Finishing Department and
occupies an office which the Company refers to as the interview office.
A second timekeeper is in the Greige-Goods Department on the third
floor and the third one is located on the first floor in the Knitting De-
partment in an office which the general foreman and assistant foreman
occupy in part. The duties of all three timekeepers are identical.
They record the hours of work, the production and the return of the
defective stockings, utilizing time cards collected by the foremen and
production slips turned in by another employee who collects finished
work from the operators. The records compiled by the timekeepers,
including records of defective work performed, are posted for the
8 The Union and the Company likewise agree that foremen and assistant foremen, as
well as the floorlady, are excluded as supervisory employees; and that the secretary to the
general superintendent is excluded as a confidential and clerical employee.
4 See Matter of Harry Monaster & Bro , 60 N. L. R B 979
ADAMS-MILLIS CORPORATION 365
information of the operators and the operators' pay is computed
therefrom in the pay-roll office. All the timekeepers perform their
duties exclusively at their desks. They are hourly paid and appear on
the Production Department pay roll, and they are responsible to the
foremen of the respective departments in which they work.
In accordance with our customary practice, we shall exclude the
timekeepers.5
Lot girl: This employee is referred to in the record as a lot stock
girl. She is given specifications by the foremen of the Finishing De-
partment with regard to wrapping and boxes needed, and she is
expected to send orders to the box factory, receive the boxes and wrap-
ping, and inventory them. At the present, most of her time is spent
working on a printing machine, printing labels on boxes. She shares
a desk in the Finishing Department where she can write her reports.
At most, she spends 3 hours a day at purely clerical work. The remain-
ing part of her time is spent in acting as a utility employee cutting
and printing labels and handling boxes. She was formerly a full-time
printer. She is hourly paid and appears on the Finishing Department
pay roll and is responsible to the foreman of that department.
The Union contends that the lot girl should be excluded as a clerical
employee. In view of her work, which is primarily manual , and the
fact that she is attached to a production department, we consider that
she is a plant clerical employee. We shall, accordingly, include the
lot girl in the unite
Shipping clerks: There are, three persons working in the Company's
Shipping Department who perform the ordinary duties of shipping
employees. They put boxes in cartons, weigh and seal them, paste
labels on the boxes, and deliver them to the truck. One of these per-
sons keeps the record of shipments and at the end of the day takes the
record to the Company's main office. These three employees are hourly
paid, they appear on the Finishing Department pay roll, and their
supervisor is the Finishing Department superintendent. These, too,
are plant clerical employees. As such, we shall include them in the
unit.
Truck driver: This employee brings yarn and stockings to Plant
Number 7 from another of the Company's plants at Tyron, North Caro-
lina, takes packages to the post office, brings shipments from the rail-
road station, hauls express packages and freight to and from the
express office. During rush periods he works in the plant in the Fin-
ishing Department or carrying yarn about the plant. This truck driver
5 See Matter of Aluminum Forgings, Inc., 53 N. L. R. B. 1054; Matter of The General
Fireproofing Company, 58 N L. R. B. 1609 ; Matter of Goodman Manufacturing Company,
58 N L. R. B. 531; and Matter of Joseph Dyson & Sons, Inc, 60 N. L. R. B 867.
9 See Matter of Shartle Brothers Machine Company , 57 N. L. R B. 1546 ; Matter of
The General Fireproofing Company , supra ; and Matter of Goodman Manufacturing Com-
pany, supra.
366 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
appears on the Finishing Department pay roll of Plant Number 7 and
is responsible to the Finishing Department superintendent. He is
hourly paid and is the only truck driver the Company employs.
As there is controversy regarding the truck driver and since the
duties, interests, and conditions of employment of this employee are
not altogether the same as those of the other employees in the plant, we
shall exclude him from the unit.'
Fixers: The Company employs 3 fixers in its Knitting Department.
Their function, in general, is that implied by their job title, namely,
the maintenance and adjustment of the knitting machines operated by
production employees in the department. They are hourly paid and
their earnings are about the same as the earnings of the operators, who
are paid on a piece-work basis. The, 3 fixers in this plant have regular
stations, and it appears that they are associated continuously with par-
ticular groups of operators, whom they aid and instruct and sometimes
correct. The Knitting Department is located on 3 floors of the plant.
The Company employs, on all 3 floors, approximately 100 knitters on
the day shift and 60 on the night shift. A shall group of these, about
5 on the day shift and 12 on the night shift, are located on the second
floor. They are under the jurisdiction of a foreman who also supervises
the knitters on the third floor, and who spends most of his time on the
third floor. Two of the fixers in question rotate on the day and night
shifts with this small group of knitters on the second floor. Thus, at
that location, the fixer is frequently the only person present who is in a
position to oversee the work directly. The fixer on the third floor
rotates with an assistant foreman who is also a fixer. On that floor,
on both the day and night shifts, a foreman is ordinarily present.
The Union contends, in opposition to the Company, that the fixers
are supervisory employees and, as such, should be excluded from the
unit. It also argues that, in full-fashioned, as distinguished from
seamless, hosiery mills, this classification is customarily excluded from
the production and maintenance unit. In this connection, the Union
proved, by the uncontradicted testimony of W. Cedric Stallings, one
of its international officials, that fixers are deemed to be excluded, as
9'employees engaged in any kind of managerial position or work," from
the coverage of a certain multiple-employer contract between the Union
and over 30 members of an association of full-fashioned hosiery manu-
facturers." The Union does not admit to membership fixers in full-
fashioned mills, considering them ineligible as supervisors.
' See Matter of Kingan it Co., Incorporated, 61 N L R B 1222 , and Matter of Wilson
it Company, Inc, 62 N. L. R . B 895 , cf Walter Jansen & Son, 63 N L. R. B. 121.
8 A copy of this contract was introduced into evidence at the hearing. For other data
as to the-coverage of this same contract , see Matter of Mack, Judson, Voehringer Company
of North Carolina, Inc, 63 N L. R. B . 96 Stallings testified that the Union has other
contracts , one of which is with an association of full -fashioned hosiery manufacturers in
Pennsylvania , under which fixers are likewise excluded from the unit
ADAMS-MILLIS CORPORATION 367
Considering all these facts, we are of the opinion that the fixers in
question may properly be excluded from the unit. We are not con-
vinced that they are supervisory employees within the meaning of our
usual definition, although there is some persuasive evidence to that
effect . However, in view of the absence of any bargaining history in
this plant, the Union's unwillingness to represent the fixers, its con-
sistent practice with respect to such employees, and the custom which
apparently prevails in the full-fashioned hosiery industry, we see no
reason to insist upon the inclusion of this distinct category of em-
ployees in the production and maintenance unit. We shall exclude the
fixers.0
We find that all production and maintenance employees employed
by the Company at its Plant Number 7, including the store and samples
girl, the lot girl, and the shipping department employees, but exclud-
ing all office and clerical employees, timekeepers, fixers, the truck
driver, the floorlady, foremen and assistant foremen, and any other
supervisory employees with authority to hire, promote, discharge, dis-
cipline, or otherwise effect changes in the status of employees, or effec-
tively recommend such action, constitute a unit appropriate for the
purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b)
of the Act.
V. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
We shall direct that the question concerning representation which
has arisen be resolved by an election by secret ballot among the em-
ployees in the appropriate unit who were employed during the pay-,
roll period immediately preceding the date of the Direction of Elec-
tion herein,10 subject to the limitations and additions set forth in the
Direction.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
By virtue of and pursuant to the power vested in the National Labor
Relations Board by Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act,
and pursuant to Article III, Section 9, of National Labor Relations
Board Rules and Regulations-Series 3, as amended, it is hereby
DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation to ascertain representa-
tives for the purposes of -collective bargaining with Adams-Millis
Corporation, Plant Number 7,1igh Point, North Carolina, an election
9 See Matter of Mock , Judson, Voehringer Company, supra.
10 The Union requested that the pay roll of May 11 be used to determine eligibility to
vote in the election , because of the prospect that the Company would hire many new and
unskilled employees as learners . However, since it appears that any such new employees
would be hired on a permanent basis to perform production work while learning the trade,
we see no reason to exclude them from participation in the election, by using the specified
pay-roll date, or otherwise.
368 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
by secret ballot shall be conducted as early as possible, but not later
than thirty (30) days from the date of this Direction, under the direc-
tion and supervision of the Regional Director for the Fifth Region,
acting in this matter as agent for the National Labor Relations Board,
and subject to Article III, Sections 10 and 11, of said Rules and Regu-
lations, among the employees in the unit found appropriate in Section
IV, above, who were employed during the pay-roll period immediately
preceding the date of this Direction, including employees who did not
work during said pay-roll period because they were ill or on vacation
or temporarily laid off, and including employees in the armed forces
of the United States who present themselves in person at the polls,
but excluding any who have since quit or been discharged for cause
and have not been rehired or reinstated prior to the date of the election,
to determine whether or not they desire to be represented by American
Federation of Hosiery Workers, C. 1. 0., for the purposes of collective
bargaining.
MR. GERARD D. REILLY took no part in the consideration of the above
Decision and Direction of Election.
11