Arcata Plywood Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jun 25, 1958

120 N.L.R.B. 1648 (N.L.R.B. 1958)

1648 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Accordingly, in agreement with the Regional Director's recommenda-
tions, we hereby overrule all the objections. As the Petitioner has
secured a majority of the valid votes cast, we shall certify it as the
bargaining representative of the employees in the appropriate unit.
[The Board certified International Union, United Automobile,
Aircraft & Agricultural Implement Workers of America, AFL-CIO,
as the collective-bargaining representative of the employees of the
Employer, in the stipulated unit set forth in paragraph 4 herein.]
MEMBER JENKINS, dissenting :
I disagree with my colleagues insofar as they would permit ob-
servers designated by any party to wear insignia, apart from insignia
which merely identifies, at the polls during polling hours. If such
insignia partakes of electioneering and urges the voters to vote for
or against a party to the election it should, in accordance with past
Board practice, be removed from the person of the observer. Sanc-
tion of the wearing of such insignia will make it impossible to control
electioneering at the polls by insignia, placards, signs, and other
devices and will only serve to open the door to a multitude of prac-
tices to which objections will be filed and to which valid criteria can
no longer be applied. This decision, together with the Board's recent
decision in George K. Garrett Company, Inc., 120 NLRB 484, effec-
tively impair the authority of the Board agent to impose proper
standards of conduct upon the parties at the polls.
Arcata Plywood Corporation , Fortuna Veneer Company, Orleans
Veneer and Lumber Company' and Brotherhood of Teamsters,
Warehousemen & Auto Truck Drivers, Local 684, International
Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen &
Helpers of America, Petitioner. Case No. 20-RC-3463. June
05,1958
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National
Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before Albert Schneider,
hearing officer. 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-member panel [Chairman Leedom and Members
Rodgers and Bean].
1 The name of this employer appears as corrected at the hearing.
120 NLRB No. 205.
ARCATA PLYWOOD CORPORATION , ' 1649
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employers are engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the Act.
- 2. The labor organization involved claims to represent certain
employees of the Employers.
3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the representa-
tion of certain employees of the Employers within* the meaning of
Section 9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
_ 4. The Petitioner seeks to represent in a single unit all truckdrivers
and truck maintenance men employed by Arcata Plywood Corpora-
tion, Fortuna Veneer Company, and Orleans Veneer and Lumber
Company. The companies moved to dismiss the petition, contending
that the unit sought is inappropriate because : (1) The companies are
engaged in the lumber industry and, under the holding in Weyer-
haeuser Timber Company,2 craft or departmental units are not appro-
priate in that industry; (2) the truckdrivers and maintenance men
are included in existing production and maintenance units; and (3)
the employees sought do not constitute an appropriate residual unit
as there are other unrepresented production and maintenance em-
ployees whom the Petitioner does not seek to include in its unit. The
companies further contend that, if the Board denies its motion
to dismiss, separate units, one for each plant, should be found
appropriate.
Arcata Plywood Corporation and Fortuna Veneer Company, whose
plants are 26 miles apart, are engaged in the manufacture of veneer
and plywood. Orleans Veneer and Lumber Company, whose plant
is about 100 miles from the plants of the other two companies, manu-
factures only veneer. Some of the Orleans veneer is sold to, Arcata
and Fortuna. None of the companies is engaged in logging opera-
tions; logs are brought to the plants by contract loggers.
Fortuna owns 10 trucks, but operates none of them. Four are
leased to Arcata, 4 to Orleans, and 2 to the Rochlin Veneer and Lum-
ber Company at Willow Creek, California.' Arcata employs 10
truckdrivers, 4 of whom are assigned to the 2 trucks that operate be-
tween its plant and those of Orleans and Rochlin Veneer, hauling
veneer to Arcata. Six drivers are assigned to the other two trucks
which haul veneer to the Plywood Manufacturing Company, Inc., in
Torrance, California. Orleans employs 7 drivers who operate 4
trucks, delivering veneer from Orleans to Arcata and Fortuna.
Fortuna operates a truck maintenance shop in Arcata, California,
adjacent to the Arcata plant but not on its property. There are four
2 87 NLRB 1076.
3 This company, also owned by the Rochlin family, is not involved in the instant
proceeding.
483142-59-vol . 120-105
1650 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
employees in this shop who perform all the maintenance work, tire
changing, and lubrication on the trucks.
In 1951 Lumber and Sawmill Workers, Local Union No. 2808,'
was certified as the exclusive bargaining representative of "all pro-
duction, maintenance, transportation employees" at Arcata, with
the usual exclusions. In 1955 the same union was certified at Orleans
for "all production and maintenance, shop, power house, yard em-
ployees." There have been no Board proceedings involving Fortuna,
but since 1953 that employer has recognized Plywood and Mill Work-
ers Local Union No. 3008 as the representative of "all the employees"
in the company's employ except' executives, office employees, superin-
tendents, and foremen. Collective-bargaining contracts, which are
not here alleged as a bar, have been entered into and extended by
the companies and the respective unions. At no time, however, have
the unions sought to bargain for, nor has bargaining ever existed for,
the truckdrivers or maintenance shop employees here sought by the
Petitioner.
The Companies, as noted above, are engaged in the manufacture of
veneer and plywood. This involves cutting the logs into blocks,
stripping the bark off the blocks, and running the blocks through
lathes to peel them into veneer, which are thin sheets of wood. The
veneer is then dried, graded, and glued together cross-grain. After a
specified time in the press, depending on the number of sheets of
veneer, the finished plywood is obtained. We find, contrary to the
Companies' contention, that they are not engaged in that portion of
the "lumber industry" to which the Weyerhaeuser Timber doctrine
is applicable.5 The unions certified at Arcata and Orleans and recog-
nized by Fortuna have never sought to bargain for these drivers or
maintenance shop men. In fact, Lumber Workers Local No. 2808,
when notified of the hearing in this case, disclaimed any and all
interest in these employees. Accordingly, we find that the truckdrivers
and truck maintenance shop men are not included within the bar-
gaining units for which other unions are acting as representatives.
Moreover, even if they were so included, these employees constitute
a functionally distinct group which, the Board has long held, may
be severed from a broader unit 6 Accordingly, the Companies' motion
to dismiss is denied.
- Arcata is a corporation, all the stock of which is owned by Abe and
Sonja Rochlin. Fortuna is a partnership, owned by Larry Rochlin
and Franz Boschwitz, son and son-in-law of the Rochlins, for them-
selves and as trustees for their children. Orleans is a corporation, all
a This is the present name and local number of the union, as the result of a merger
in 1955.
5 See J H Baxter and Company, 118 NLRB 682; Burke M Uwork Co., Inc, 100 NLRB
522; Brooksngs Plywood Corporation, 98 NLRB 794.
0 Sherman Wh4te and Company, 109 NLRB 1.
ARCATA PLYWOOD CORPORATION 1651
the stock of which is held by Abe, Sonja, and Larry Rochlin and
Franz Boschwitz. No one outside the Rochlin family holds any
interest in the three Companies.
One general office at Arcata handles all accounting and office work
for the three Companies. Separate payrolls are sent to Arcata and
prepared there. Although each plant has its own plant manager,
Larry Rochlin is general manager, Strauser is controller, and
Bieberstein is chief engineer, of all three. Fortuna and Orleans pay
a fee to Arcata for these central services and as part of the salaries of
the above three men. Boyes, employed by Fortuna, assists Bieberstein
and directly supervises all truckdrivers and the truck maintenance
shop. Drivers are hired by Bieberstein or Boyes, and Boyes sets up
the work schedule for all drivers in addition to acting as dispatcher:
In the, past, Strauser has negotiated separate contracts for the three
Companies. Thus, the Companies contend that this history of separate
collective bargaining precludes the multiemployer unit sought by the
Petitioner. We do not agree. The provisions of the separate con-
tracts are virtually identical, with only minor variations with respect
to rates of pay. Further, the Board has held that the bargaining
history for one group of organized employees, though persuasive,
should not invariably control the bargaining pattern for every other
group of unorganized employes.'
In view of the interrelation of operations among the three Com-
panies, common ownership and management, and centralized control
of labor relations, we find, contrary to the contention of the Com-
panies, that Arcata, Fortuna, and Orleans constitute a single employer
within the meaning of Section 2 (2) of the Act,8 and that their truck-
drivers and truck maintenance shop employees comprise a single
appropriate unit for the purposes of collective bargaining.
We find that the following employees of Arcata Plywood Corpo-
ration, Fortuna Veneer Company, and Orleans Veneer and Lumber
Company, at their operations at Arcata and Orleans, California, con-
stitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining
within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act:
All over-the-road truckdrivers, lubrication men, and automotive
maintenance men, but excluding all other employees, office clerical
employees, guards, supervisors as defined in the Act, and all em-
ployees presently covered by the collective-bargaining contracts
between the above-named Companies and Lumber and Sawmill
Workers, Local Union No. 2808 and Plywood and Mill Workers,
Local Union No. 3008.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.]
7,1o8eph E. Seagram cE Sons, Inc , 101 NLRB 101; Lownsbury Chevrolet Company, 101
NLRB 1752
8 Commercial Equcpment Company, Inc , 95 NLRB 354.