Alaska Salmon Industry, Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jun 8, 1950

90 N.L.R.B. 168 (N.L.R.B. 1950)

In the Matter of ALASKA SALDioN INDUSTRV, INC., E ..Nt LOYER and
UNIMn PACKI.NW!OLiSE WORK ERS Or' A]IERICA, LOCAL 77, CIO,
PETITIONER
In the Matter of ALASKA SALMON INDUSTRY, INC., EMPLOYER and
ALASKA FIsii CANNERY WORKERS TJN:ON Oil TITE PACIFIC COAST
CHARTERED BY SEAFARERS INTERNATIONAL UNION, AFL, PETITIONER
Cases Nos. 19-RC-453 and 19-RC-51;'.-Decided June 8, .1950
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon separate petitions duly filed, a hearing in these consolidated
cases was held before Patrick H. Walker, hearing officer. The hear-
ing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial
error and are hereby affirmed.
TJpon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is a nonprofit corporation composed of employer-
members who operate salmon canneries in the Territory of Alaska.
The Employer and those of its employer-members involved in this
proceeding, are engaged in commerce within the meaning of the
National Labor Relations Act.
`2. The Petitioners, hereinafter called UPWA and SIU respectively,
and the Food, Tobacco, Agricultural and Allied Workers Union of
America (Independent), Cannery Workers and Farm Laborers Union,
Local No. 7, hereinafter called FT A, are labor organizations claiming
to represent certain employees of the Employer.
3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the represents
tion of employees of the Employer within the meaning of Section 9 (c)
(1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
4. The following, which is substantially the same unit found appro-
priate in Alaska Salmon Industry, Inc., 32 NLRB 1395, and which
all parties to this proceeding agree is appropriate, constitutes a unit
appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the mean-
ing of Section 9 (b) of the Act :
All nonresident cannery workers 1 employed by the following em-
ployer-members of the Employer, P. E. Harris Co., Pacific American
' For definiteness and certainty the term nonresident cannery workers as used above
embraces all those engaged in the making of cans, boxes, and cartons, operating and feeding
90 NLR 13 No. 13.
168
ALASKA SALMON INDUSTRY, INC. 169
Fisheries, Peninsula Packers, Western Fisheries, San Juan Fishing &
Packing, Alaska Packers Association, Kadiak Fisheries, Chignik
Fisheries, Inc., Alaska Year Round Canneries, General Fish Co., Cook
Inlet Packing Co., Seldovia Bay Packers, Emard Packing Company,
Ellama.r Packing Co., Cooper River Packing Co., Port Aslton Pack-
ing Co.-San Juan, New England Fish Co., L. G. Wingard Co., Red
Salmon Co., Columbia River Packers, Superior Packing Co., Wards
Cove Pkg. Co., Sabastian-Stuart, Libby, McNeill & Libby, Farwest
Wrangell Co., Todd Packing Co., Nakat Packing Corp., New England
Fish Co. from Orca, and Fidalgo Island Packing Co., but excluding
machinists, carpenters, radio operators, office employees, doctors,
nurses, winter watchmen, night watchman, company timekeepers, and
cannery worker foremen and second foremen and all other supervisors
as defined in the Act.
5. The FTA contends that no election should be held during the
1950 canning season for the following reasons: (1) The curtailment
of the number of prospective employees in 1950 would make a rep-
resentative vote impossible; (2) supervisory interference within the
UPWA and SIU would make either organization incapable of serv-
ing as the collective bargaining representative of the employees; and
(3) Section 9 (c) (3) of the Act precludes the Board from holding
an election. We find no merit to the FTA's contentions.
With respect to FTA's first contention, it is true that the record
shows that the Employer expects to hire 1,933 nonresident employees
in 1950, whereas 2,670 were hired last year. However, it appears
that this year's employment total more likely represents the antici-
pated annual employment norm than does last year's total. In any
event, even assuming that this year's figure is a curtailment of the
normal employee complement, such a figure represents a proportion-
ately large enough group of employees to insure a representative
vote.
Contrary to FTA's contention, there is nothing in the record to
convince us that either UPWA or SIU would be incapable of serving
as collective bargaining agent of the employees involved in this
proceeding, should either organization be selected for that purpose
in the election which we are directing herein. Moreover, the General
Counsel has refused to issue complaints in Cases Nos. 19-CA-304
of the following machines (but not the installation, upkeep. or maintenance) ; iron chinks,
gang knives, butchers or cutters, filling machines (feeders and helpers), clinchers, reformers,
slitters, can body machines, pasting machines, casing machines, stitching machines, and all
other work that has been customary heretofore (which does not conflict with any work
usually performed by members of the Machinists Union) in said canneries, and employees
engaged as utility men, leadmen (department heads), cannery worker timekeepers, cannery
worker cooks , packers , bull cooks , and culinary help.
170 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
and 19-CB-102 and 105 on charges filed by FTA after the close of
the hearing in this matter, and the charge filed by FTA in Case No.
19-CA-301 has been resolved by a Board Order.2
The third contention of FTA concerns the effect upon this case of
the 12-month provision of Section 9 (c) (3).3 Pursuant to a Decision
and Direction of Election issued on April. 8, 1948, balloting among
the employees in the bargaining unit found appropriate therein com-
menced on April 29, 1949,and ended on August 10, 1949. The FTA
argues that the proper method for computing the 12-month period
is by counting the interval between the.date on which the balloting
was finally concluded in- the prior election and the date on which bal-
loting is begun in a later election. We do not agree.
Normally the Alaska salmon season extends from June 1 to Sep-
tember 18. However, the dates on which the season begins in various
fishing areas differ, and those areas which open earlier close earlier.
Each of the employers involved in this case generally restricts its
operations to a single area. Thus a given employer's period of opera-
tions will depend upon the fishing season in the area of its operations.
Some employers commence operations late in May, while others do
not begin until mid-August. For this reason the earlier election was
spread over a period of 4 months ending co August 10, 1949. Unless
balloting in the instant proceeding is begun before August 10, 1950,
an election during the 1950 season would be impracticable because
many of the employers involved herein would have ceased their
operations for the season before that date. To adopt the rule urged
by FTA, therefore, would mean that the employees herein would be
restricted to an election every 2 years. We do not think that such
a, result was contemplated by Section 9 (c) (3) of the Act.
Section 9 (c) (3) proscribes a second election within 12 months after
"a valid election shall have been held." It is our opinion that a valid
election has not been held until the balloting has been completed..
The record shows that the balloting in the 1949 election was completed
on August 10, 1949. In the instant case the balloting will not be
completed in the entire unit until after August 10, 1950. Therefore
the election which we are directing herein will not have been held
until more than 1 year after the previous election. We therefore
conclude and find that Section 9 (c) (3) does not proscribe holding
the election which we hereinafter direct.
2 Issued June 8, 1950.
Section 9 (c) (3) provides in part:
"No election shall be directed in any bargaining unit or any subdivision within which,
in the preceding twelve-month period , a valid election shall have been held."
ALASKA SALMON INDUSTRY, INC. 171
6. The determination of representatives :
FTA contends that eligibility should be based on employment dur-
ing the 1949 as well as the 1950 season. We do not agree. In the
previous election in 1949, eligibility was determined on the basis of
employment at the time of the election. The record indicates that
upon the arrival of the cannery workers in Seattle, Washington, and
Portland, Oregon, before the opening of the salmon fishing season,
they are signed on by the individual member companies of the Em-
ployer. Each employee is issued a health card which he must present
to a doctor furnished by the Employer to obtain a physical examina-
tion. On passing this examination his health card is stamped and
the worker then reports to the company office to sign the payroll.
The worker is considered a company employee only after he has
passed his physical examination . In these circumstances , all workers
who have passed the required physical examination shall be eligible
to vote prior to their departure from Seattle or Portland in the election
hereinafter directed . In those instances of employee departure from
Seattle or Portland before the commencement of balloting, such em-
ployees shall vote upon their return to the Continental United States
upon completion of their respective employers' 1950 fishing season.
We shall vest in the Regional Director discretion to determine the
exact time , places, and procedure for holding the election.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION 4
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the
purposes of collective bargaining with Alaska Salmon Industry, Inc.,
an election by secret ballot shall be conducted beginning as soon as
practicable after the date of this Direction, in conformity with the
instructions set forth in paragraph numbered 6, above, under the
direction and supervision of the Regional Director for the Nineteenth
Region, and subject to Sections 203.61 and 203.62 of National Labor
Relations Board Rules and Regulations, among the employees in the
unit found appropriate in paragraph numbered 4, above, to determine
whether they desire to be represented for the purpose of collective
bargaining by Alaska Fish Cannery Workers Union of the Pacific
Coast, chartered by Seafarers International Union, AFL; or by
United Packinghouse Workers of America, Local 77, CIO; or by Food,
Tobacco, Agricultural and Allied Workers Union of America (In-
dependent), Cannery Workers and Farm Laborers Union, Local 7;
or by none.
4 Any participant in the election directed herein may , upon request to and approval thereof
by the Regional Director , have its name removed from the ballot.
172 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
MEMBER MURDOCK, dissenting :
In my view, insofar as the Direction of Election herein contemplates
and authorizes the Regional Director to proceed with balloting during
the period from the issuance of the Decision to August 10, 1950, it does
so in specific violation of Section 9 (c) (3) of the Act. Section 9
(c) (3) prohibits the holding of a second election in any unit "within
which, in the preceding twelve-month period, a valid election shall
have been held." My majority colleagues are wholly right when
they say "a valid election has not been held until the balloting has
been completed." As the last election was not completed until August
10, 1949, by starting a new election now we are clearly holding one in
a unit within which one has been held "in the preceding twelve-month
period," contrary to the plain language of Section 9 (c) (3).