American Stores Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Apr 7, 1949

82 N.L.R.B. 882 (N.L.R.B. 1949)

In the Matter of AMERICAN STORES COMPANY, EMPLOYER and RETAIL
CLERKS INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION, LOCAL 639-A, A. F. L., PETI-
TIONER and AMALGAMATED MEAT CUTTERS & BUTCHER WORKMEN OF
NORTH AMERICA , A. F. L., LOCAL UNION 555, PETITIONER
Case Nos. 5-RC-226 and 5-RC-229.-Decided April 7, 1949
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon separate petitions duly filed, a hearing in the above-consoli-
dated cases was held at Baltimore, Maryland, on January 10, 1949,
before a hearing officer of the National Labor Relations Board. The
hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial
error and are hereby affirmed.
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3 (b) of the National Labor
Relations Act, the Board has delegated its powers in connection with
this case to a three-man panel.*
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the
National Labor Relations Act.
2. Retail Clerks International Association, Local 639-A, A. F. L.,
hereinafter called the Clerks, and Amalgamated Meat Cutters &
Butcher Workmen of North America, A. F. L., Local Union 555, here-
inafter called the Amalgamated, are labor organizations claiming to
represent employees of the Employer.
3. Questions affecting commerce exist concerning the representation
of employees of the Employer within the meaning of Section 9 (c) (1)
and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
4. The Clerks and the Amalgamated seek separate units of the
grocery department employees and of the meat department employees,
respectively, at the Employer's Winchester, Virginia, store. The Em-
ployer does not oppose the establishment of separate units for the
employees of the grocery and meat departments? The Employer con-
*Reynolds , Murdock, and Gray.
Recently the Board recognized the feasibility of separate units for such employees In
other stores of the Employer . Matter of American Stores Company, 80 N. L. R. B. 126.
See also Matter of The Kroger Company, 77 N. L. R. B. 370.
82 N. L . R. B., No. 103.
882
AMERICAN STORES COMPANY 883
tends, however, that the scope of the units requested is too limited, and
that the units to be appropriate should include employees in all the
stores in the Employer's administrative area, which includes the Win-
chester store.2
The Employer operates about 2,000 retail meat and grocery stores
and markets in the Middle Atlantic States and the District of Colum-
bia. For purposes of administration, the Employer's stores are
grouped into zones. The zones are in turn subdivided into areas, each
of which is under the supervision of a superintendent. Each store has
a manager in charge of local store operations. There are approxi-
mately 21 employees in the Winchester store.
Despite the grouping of the Employer's stores into zones and areas
for purposes of administration-a necessary step in the operation of
any chain retail establishment, a large degree of autonomy remains at
the individual store level. Thus, although such broad personnel mat-
ters as wages and vacation plans are determined at the top manage-
ment level, the local store manager, including the Winchester store
manager, makes up his own pay roll, pays wages out of the store's
receipts, hires and discharges store personnel subject to the later
approval by the superintendent, and orders supplies for the store.
With respect to the Winchester store in particular, its independent
nature is emphasized by the lack of interchange of employees between
the Winchester and other stores, and by the separation of the Win-
chester store by at least 20 miles from any of the Employer's other
stores.
Because of their location in geographically separated communities,
the operation of the Employer's stores has been accommodated to the
economic life of these communities .3 The Employer's practice of con-
forming the operation of its stores to the economic life of the various
communities has resulted in a pattern of collective bargaining on a
community basis with apparent disregard of an administrative area
such as the Employer now asserts should be the basis of any unit find-
ings herein. This pattern is notably present among certain of the Em-
ployer's Maryland stores, including four of the five Maryland stores
which the Employer would include in the multi-store area units pro-
posed herein as the appropriate units. Thus, since 1937, the Employer
has engaged in collective bargaining in units which cover only-the em-
2 The area which includes the Winchester store consists of nine stores ; the eight other
stores are located as follows : four in Hagerstown , Maryland-44 miles from Winchester ;
and one each in Boonsboro , Maryland-53 miles from Winchester , in Martinsburg, West
Virginia-22 miles from Winchester , in Charles Town, West Virginia-20 miles from
Winchester, and in Shepherdstown , West Virginia-33 miles from Winchester.
I As an example of this accommodation is the fact that the wage scale for the employees
of the Winchester store is adjusted to the wage scale generally prevalent in that community.
884 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
ployees of its four Hagerstown, Maryland, stores.' The record also
discloses a similar history of bargaining on a community basis for the
Employer's Baltimore, Maryland, stores. Furthermore, in accord-
ance with an agreement to which the Employer was a party, the Board
recently found appropriate units limited to the employees of the Em-
ployer's Frederick, Maryland, stores.' The existence of these bargain-
ing units which, without following any administrative line based on
the organization of the Employer, have been established with the con-
sent of the Employer, indicates that the Employer's administrative
areas have been rejected as the basis of its history of collective bargain-
ing. Such a fact obviates the necessity in this case of adherence to an
administrative area in determining the units appropriate for the em-
ployees of the Winchester store.
As the Employer's history of collective bargaining is inconsistent
with the adoption of the administrative area as a basis for finding
approprate units, and in view of the independence from an operations
standpoint of the Employer's Winchester store together with the simi-
larity of interests of the Winchester store employees and the commu-
nity which it serves, we are of the opinion that the requested units
limited to the employees of the Winchester store are appropriates We
find the following units appropriate for the purposes of collective bar-
gaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act:
(1) In Case No. 5-RC-226-All grocery department employees of
the Employer at its Winchester, Virginia, store, including grocery and
produce clerks and checker cashiers, but excluding the store manager
.and other supervisors as defined in the Act; and
(2) In Case No. 5-RC-229-All meat department employees of
the Employer at its Winchester, Virginia, store, including journeyman
and apprentice meat cutters, but excluding the head meat cutter' and
other supervisors as defined in the Act.
DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the pur-
poses of collective bargaining with the Employer, separate elections
by secret ballot shall be conducted as early as possible, but not later
* In 1948, a consent union-authorization election was held under Board auspices, among
the employees of the four Hagerstown , Maryland , stores . Case No. 5-UA-700.
s Matter of American Stores Company, supra.
See Matter of Koppers Stores, 73 N. L. It. B. 504. We believe that the facts in the
present case are clearly distinguishable from those present in Matter of The Grand Union
Company, 81 N. L. It. B. 1016, where the Board (Chairman Herzog dissenting) dis-
missed a petition for a unit limited to the employees of a single store of a retail store chain
I As the head meat cutter has authority effectively to recommend the hire and discharge
of employees, we find that he is a supervisor and, therefore, exclude him from the unit.
See Matter of The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, 77 N. L. It. B. 389.
AMERICAN STORES COMPANY 885
than 30 days from the date of this Direction, under the direction and
supervision of the Regional Director for the Fifth Region, and subject
to Sections 203.61 and 203.62 of National Labor Relations Board Rules
and Regulations-Series 5, as amended, among the employees in the
units found appropriate in paragraph numbered 4, above, who were
employed during the pay-roll period immediately preceding the date of
this Direction of Elections, including employees who did not work
during said pay-roll period because they were ill or on vacation or tem-
porarily laid off, but excluding those employees who have since quit
or been discharged for cause and have not been rehired or reinstated
prior to the date of the election, and also excluding employees on strike
who are not entitled to reinstatement, to determine whether or not
the employees in the unit found appropriate in Case No. 5-RC-226
desire to be represented by Retail Clerks International Association,
Local 639-A, A. F. L., for the purposes of collective bargaining, and to
determine whether or not the employees in the unit found appropriate
in Case No. 5-RC-229 desire to be represented by Amalgamated Meat
Cutters & Butcher Workmen of North America, A. F. L., Local Union
555, for the purposes of collective bargaining.
838914-50-vol. 82-57