Armour and Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

May 10, 1943

49 N.L.R.B. 688 (N.L.R.B. 1943)

In the Matter of ARMOUR AND COMPANY and PACKINGHOUSE WORKZ RS
ORGANIZING COMMITTEE, LOCAL No. 15, AFFILIATED WITH THE CiON-
GRESS OF INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS
Case No. R-5131.-Decided May 10, 1943
Mr. Paul E. Blanchard, of Chicago, Ill., for the, Company.
Messrs. H. C. Fremm ng and Ralph Baker, both of Kansas City,
Mo., for the P. W. O. C.
'Mr. David V. Easton, of ebunsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon petition duly filed by Packinghouse Workers Organizing
Committee, District No. 4,1 affiliated with the Congress of Industrial
Organizations, herein called the P. W.` O. C., alleging that a question
affecting commerce had arisen concerning the representation of em-
ployees of Armour and Company, Kansas City, Kansas; herein called
the Company, the National Labor Relations Board consolidated the,
petition herein with a petition filed by the P. W. O. C. covering
other employees of the Company, and provided for an appropriate
hearing upon due notice before John A. Weiss, Trial Examiner.
Said hearing was held at -Kansas City, Missouri, on April 7, 1943.
The Company and the P. W. O. C. appeared, participated, and were
afforded full opportunity to be heard, to examine and cross -examine
witnesses, and to introduce evidence bearing on the issues. The
P. W. O. C. moved, without objection, that the instant proceeding
be severed from Case No. R-5132 in order that.the,Board might pro-
ceed with the issuance of a decision in that -case. The Trial Exam-
iner referred the motion to the Board. Said motion was granted
1 By motion granted at the hearing, Local No. 15 was substituted for District No. 4.
49 N L. R. B., No. 101.
688
-ARMOUR AND COMPANY 689
and the proceedings severed.2 The Trial Examiner's rulings made
at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and' are hereby af-
firmed. The Company filed a brief which the Board has considered.
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following :
FINDINGS OF FACT
1. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
'Armour and Company, an Illinois corporation with its,principal
office and place of business in Chicago, Illinois, is engaged in the
slaughtering, processing, and packing of livestock products. Since
June 1917,'it-has been qualified to do business in the State of Kan-
sas, and maintains a plant at Kansas City, Kansas, which is engaged
in the slaughtering, processing; and packing of livestock products.
We are concerned herein with the operations of the Kansas City
plant.. All of the livestock slaughtered in the Kansas City plant are
purchased in stockyards located in Kansas City, Missouri. The total
production of products of livestock slaughtered at the Kansas City
plant during the year of 1942 was in excess of 500,000,000 pounds, hav-
ing a total value in excess of- $45,000,000, of which more than 75 per-
cent was distributed to points outside the State ,of Kansas. The
Company admits that it is engaged in commerce within the meaning
of the National Labor Relations Act.
II. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED
Packinghouse Workers Organizing Committee, Local No. 15,• is a
labor organization affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organ-
izations, admitting to membership employees of the Company.
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
On or about December 2, 1942, the P. W. O. C. notified the Com-
pany that it represented a majority of the plant clerks at the Kansas
City plant. The Company replied that it was unwilling to bargain
with the P. W. O. C. with regard to these employees until it has
been certified by the Board.
A statement of a Field Examiner of the Board, introduced into
evidence at the hearing, indicates that the P. W. O. C. represents a
substantial number of plant clerks .3
2 Matter of Armour and Company and Packinghouse Workers Organizing Committee
Local No. 15, affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations, 49 N L R B
195.
3 The Field Examiner reported that the P. W. O. C submitted 11 membership cards,
of which 10 bore apparently genuine original signatures , 7 of the 10 cards bearing appar-
ently genuine original signatures contained the names of persons appearing on the Com-
pany 's pay roll of January 23, 1943, which pay roll listed 17 employees in the appropriate
unit
690 -, DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
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
The P. W. 0. C. now has a contract with the Company covering
all production and maintenance employees in the Kansas City plant,
but excluding foremen, assistant foremen, clerical workers, employees
in the wholesale market, plant police, and the machinists and machin-
ists' helpers.- In the instant proceeding, it seeks to represent all
plant clerks at the Kansas City plant. The Company contends that'
plant clerks should not be included within a unit, consisting of pro-
duction and maintenance employees, basing this contention upon the
ground that their duties place them in a confidential position with
regard to management;, it made no contention as to whether or not
plant clerks constitute a separate and distinct appropriate unit.
The record discloses that plant clerks are under the supervision of
the chief of the office force, whereas all other plant employees are
under the supervision of the plant executive. However, the immedi-
ate supervisors of the plant clerks are the foremen of the departments
in which they work. The plant clerks perform 'no manual or pro-
duction labor' but do the same type of work usually done by office
workers. They are engaged in • collecting, checking, and tabulating
data. They do not participate in the determination of company policy
or the handling of labor disputes' other than to prepare information,
if requested, on the amount of work performed in a department or
by an individual in the department. They are not concerned with
personnel or administrative records, but are confined to keeping rec-
ords and maintaining reports and statistics within the department
to which they are assigned. They have access to information' available
only to supervisory employees. The Company argues that this places
the plant clerks in the position of confidential employees and supports
this by pointing to the fact that plant clerks have been uniformly ex-
cluded from units which were the subject of past bargaining agree-
ments with the Company.4 _ However, the record does not disclose that
the information accessible to these 'employees deals with questions of
labor policy or other matters which we have heretofore determined
to be of a confidential nature. We find that the information to which
these employees have acceses is not of such character as to warrant'
denying them the rights guaranteed in the Act. However, their duties
are different from those of production and maintenance employees
+Matter of Armour and Company and Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Walk-
men of North America, Local 377, affiliated withI the American Federation of Labor, 43
N. L R B 307, at 310.
ARMOUR AND CON1PINT 691
and we shall not include them in the broader unit. Accordingly we
find that the plant clerks constitute a separate appropriate unit.
The possibility that the same labor organization which presently
represents the production and maintenance employees may also rep-
resent the plant clerks is not enough, in our opinion, to preclude these
employees from the right to bargain collectively in an appropriate
unit through whatever bargaining agent they may desire to represent
them. We see no necessity, for any conflict between self-organization
for the purposes of collective bargaining and the faithful performance
of duty. In any event the remedy for inefficiency or willful disregard
or neglect.of duty on the part of these employees lies implicitly in the
power of the Company to discipline or discharge them. We see no
reason, therefore, why the same labor organization may not, if chosen
by these employees, represent both them and the production and
maintenance employees.
At the time of the hearing, the Company employed 30 plant clerks,
13 of whom were compensated on a weekly basis and 17 on an hourly
basis. The latter group consists of new or temporary clerks who are
employed by the Company on a probationary status. The record does
not disclose any reason why there should be any differentiation in
treatment between these 2 groups, and accordingly, we shall include
both groups within the appropriate unit.
Two of the plant clerks are considered, to be senior clerks and oc-
casionally act as substitutes for the supervisory employees of their
departments, but neither has the power to hire or discharge. While
on occasion they may be consulted with regard to the quality of work
performed by the other clerks, there is no evidence to show that these
employees are vested with authority to make recommendations with
respect to hire, discharge, or discipline. They, too, are under the
direct supervision of the foremen of the department in which they
work. We find that the two senior clerks are not supervisory em-
ployees. We shall, therefore, include them within the unit herein
after found appropriate. -
Accordingly, we find that all plant clerks employed at the Kansas
City plant of,the Company constitute a unit appropriate for the pur-
poses 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 Election
herein, subject to the limitations and additions set forth in the
Direction.
531647-43-vol. 49-45
r- ,
692 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
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 2, as amended, it is hereby
DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation to ascertain representa-
tives for the purposes of collective bargaining with Armour and Com-
pany, Kansas City, Kansas, an election by secret ballot shall be con-
ducted as early as possible, but not later than thirty (30) days from
the date of this Direction, under the direction and supervision of, the
Regional Director for the Seventeenth Region, acting in.this matter
as agent for the National Labor Relations Board,. and 'subject -to
Article III, Section 10, of said Rules and Regulations, among the em-
ployees 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
those employees who have since quit, or been discharged for cause, to
determine whether or not they desire to be represented by Packing-
house- Workers Organizing Committee, Local No. 15, affiliated with
the Congress of Industrial Organizations, for the purposes of collec-
tive bargaining.