Armour and Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Feb 17, 1944

54 N.L.R.B. 1462 (N.L.R.B. 1944)

In the Matter of ARMOUR AND COMPANY and PACKINGHOUSE WORKERS
ORGANIZING COMMITTEE, AFFILIATED WITH THE CONGRESS OF INDUS-
TRIAL ORGANIZATIONS
Case No. 17-R-714.-Decided February 17, 1944
Mr. Paul E. Blanchard, of Chicago, Ill., for the Company.
Messrs. Ralph M. Baker and Irvin L. DeShelter, of Kansas City,
Mo., for the Union.
Mr. Eugene R. Thorrens, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon petition duly filed by Packinghouse Workers Organizing
Committee, affiliated with the Congress of Industrial. Organizations,
herein called the Union, alleging that a question affecting commerce
had arisen-concerning the representation of employees of Armour and
Company, Kansas City, Kansas, herein called the Company, the
National Labor Relations Board provided for an appropriate hearing
upon due notice before John A. Weiss, Trial Examiner. Said hear-
ing was held at Kansas City, Missouri, on September 29, 1943. The
Company and the Union 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 Trial Exam- -
iner's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error
and are hereby affirmed. All parties were afforded opportunity to
file briefs with the Board.
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
54 N. L. R. B., No. 230.
1462
ARMOUR AND COMPANY 1463
June 1917, it has been qualified to do business in the State of Kansas,
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 is purchased
in stockyards located in Kansas City, Missouri. The total production
of products of livestock slaughtered at the Kansas City plant during
the year 1942 was in excess of 500,000,000 pounds, having a total value
in excess of $45,000,000, of which more than 75 percent 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 is a labor organiza-
tion affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations, admit-
ting to membership employees of the Company.
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
On or about August 18, 1943, the Union notified the Company that
it represented a majority of the office employees at the Kansas City
plant. The Company questioned the Union's claim to majority status
and replied that it was unwilling to bargain with the Union with re-
gard to these employees.
A statement of a Field Examiner of the Board, introduced into evi-
dence at the hearing, indicates that the Union represents a substantial
number of office employees.,
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
At its Kansas City plant the Company employs, in addition to pro-
duction and maintenance workers, among others, plant clerks. The
plant clerks perform no manual or production labor but do the same
type of work usually done by office workers. The plant clerks are
engaged in collecting, checking, and tabulating data with respect to
production yields, costs, and other similar matters. Adjacent to the
plant, where the Company is engaged in the slaughtering, processing,
and packing of livestock, it maintains an office building where office
1 The Field Examiner reported that the Union submitted 65 authorization cards, all bear-
ing apparently genuine original signatures. The Field Examiner was unable to check the
authorization cards against the Company 's pay roll because the Company refused to submit
its pay roll prior to the hearing before the 'Trial Examiner.
1464 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
and other clerical employees on its pay roll work. The Union now
has a contract with the Company covering all production and mainte-
nance employees in the Kansas City plant, but excluding clerical work-
ers and other classes of employees not involved in this proceeding.
The Union also has been certified by the Board, following an election;
as the exclusive representative of the plant clerks; 2 and, in a'subse-
quent complaint proceeding, the Board has directed the Company to
bargain with the Union as such representative.' In the instant pro-
ceeding, the Union seeks to represent, separate and apart from the
production and maintenance' workers, "all office employees, general
office and superintendent's office, exclusive of supervisory employees
with authority to hire, promote, discharge, discipline, or otherwise
effect changes in the status of employees, or effectively recommend
such action." 4 Within such unit the Union seeks to include the Com-
pany's plant clerks.
The Company contends that the plant clerks should not be includ-
ed within a unit consisting of the office building employees and that,
even if the plant clerks are excluded from such unit, the remaining
employees do not constitute an appropriate unit since (a) its office
employees should not be represented by the same labor organization
which presently represents the Company's production and mainte-
nance employees, and (b) the duties of its office workers place them
in a confidential position with regard to management.
As indicated above, the plant clerks work in a separate building,
and, with few exceptions, do not come in contact with the office work-
ers employed in the Company's office building. While the plant clerks
are under the general supervision of the chief of the office force, the
immediate supervisors of the plant clerks are the foremen of the plant
departments in which they work. As stated above, the Board has
previously determined that the plant clerks constitute a separate ap-
propriate unit. Accordingly, we shall, as requested by the Company,
exclude the plant clerks from the broader unit of office employees.
The Company's office workers employed in its office building consist
of the following departmental classifications: office manager; cashier;
auditor of disbursement; accounting, comptometer; storage account-
ing; test; sales journalization; shipments control; reclamation and
bookkeeping; point rationing; order, bill, and shipment; transporta-
tion; paymaster's; timekeeping; social security; salary and social se-
curity; mail and stationery; telegraph ; telephone and telegraph ; tubes
and messengers; credit; general manager; superintendent; industrial
engineering; purchasing; carcass sales; small stock sales; beef cut
2 Matter of Armour and Company, 49 N. L. It. B. 688 ; Certification of Representatives
issued June 24, 1943.
Matter of Armour and Company , 54 N. L. R B. 1005.
As indicated , the office employees consist of two groups , those in the superintendent's
office and those in the general office.
ARMOUR AND COMPANY 1465
sales; produce; provision; animal byproducts; sausage sales, margarine
sales; and plant sales.'
The record discloses that the bulk of these employees work as stenog-
raphers, typists, file clerks, comptometer operators, bookeepers, mes-
sengers, and at other jobs of a clerical nature. They are engaged in
the type of work indicated by their job titles. In the course of their
duties many of them, particularly stenographers, file clerks, comp-
tometer operators, bookkeepers, timekeepers, and those in the pay-
master's office have access to confidential information such as profits,
losses, production yields and costs, bank accounts, stock inventories, and
customer lists e The Company urges that this places them in the posi-
tion of managerial or confidential employees. However, these em-
ployees do not participate in the determination of company policy
or the handling of labor disputes. 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 access, although some of it may be of a secret
business nature, is not of such character as to warrant denying them
the rights guaranteed in the Act. Since they mainly assemble, com-
pute, and transcribe company production and other statistical records,
their work is not dissimilar to that performed by office personnel in any
large industrial plant.7 On the other hand, their duties are different
from those of production and maintenance employees, and we shall
not make the office workers a part of the production -and maintenance
unit. Accordingly, we find that the office building employees consti-
tute a separate appropriate unit."
At the hearing the Company introduced in evidence a list of office employees ( General
Office and Superintendent 's Office ), as of September 29, 1943, containing the names of
222 persons , including managerial , supervisory , and confidential employees . In addition,
the Company introduced a list of so-called temporary employees , as of the same date, con-
taining the names of 18 ordinary office employees
8 Switchboard , teletype and other telegraph operators have access to communications,
including those relating to labor relations matters, passing over the Company 's wires, but
such employees have instructions not to listen in on conversations to which the general
manager ' s office is a party Opportunities of this character do not render otherwise
ordinary employees ineligible for inclusion in an appropriate bargaining unit.
7 See , for example , Matter of Bohn Aluminum c& Brass Corporation , 47 N. L . R B. 1229;
Matter of Boston Edison Company, 51 N L. R. B 118 ; Matter of Republic Steel Corpora-
tion, Si N L R B. 1 228
8 The Union agreed to exclude from the appropriate unit, as managerial employees, the
Company's general manager, office manager, and superintendent, together with their re-
spective stenographers or other confidential assistants . These executives deal with matters
relating to labor relations and determine labor relations policy, and their assistants have
access to such confidential information which warrants their exclusion from the unit.
Accordingly , we shall exclude from the, unit persons occupying the positions of such
executives and of such assistants . In addition , in accordance with our usual policy, we
shall exclude from the unit as managerial or supervisory employees , all assistant superin-
tendents , department heads , including those department heads temporarily having no
subordinates in their charge , and assistant department heads The Company desires to
exclude from the unit 10 employees , whose recommendations as to promotions and demo-
1466 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR. RELATIONS BOARD
The possibility that the same labor organization which presently
represents the production and in employees may also repre-
sent the office employees 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 main-
tenance employees or any other employees.
The employees in the Company's industrial engineering department
require separate treatment. They are charged with the control of
production, hours, and standards from the standpoint of efficiency in
operations. The work of the department consists of three general di-
visions : time-study, checking, and computation 9 A time-study man
is given a job description describing a job in terms of production ob-
jectives. The time-study man breaks down"the job description into
its component elements, namely, the steps in the production process;
he times by the use of a stop watch a series of production operations,
and determines a normal time allowance for completion of each ele-
ment in the job description. This establishes a job standard. The
checker, armed with the job standard, observes production operations
to see that the operations are performed in accordance with the speci-
fications in the job standard, collects data as to actual production based
both on his own observation and from reports assembled by foremen
or plant clerks, analyzes the data, and fills out blank forms furnished
for the purpose. The forms containing the production figures are
given to comptometer operators who compute group or departmental
efficiency. Cost clerks in the industrial engineering department com-
pute labor costs of production departments for the Company's ac-
counting office.
In the normal course of his job, the checker issues no instructions to
any individual employee or group of employees, and, except in in-
tions and other similar matters, according to the testimony of the Company 's general
office manager , are given weight by reason of their long experience with the Company.
Their observations are made to department heads who make a complete investigation of
such matters brought to their attention. The 10 employees do the same kind of work as
their fellow employees and have no supervisory authority over the latter group . We shall
include them in the appropriate unit. '
9 The checking and computation employees were involved in Matter of Armour and
Company, 54 N. • L. R. B . 1005, and the nature and duties of the employees in the
Company 's industrial engineering department were considered by the Board in that pro-
ceeding. The findings in this section relating thereto are largely taken from the record
and the Board's findings in that case.
ARMOUR AND COMPANY 1467
stances where only a single employee is engaged in a given job clas-
sification, the checker makes no reports reflecting the efficiency of any
individual employee. On "day work," where no job standard has been
established, the checkers consult with the foreman as to the amount of
time to be allowed for the performance of such work. Sometimes a
checker times an operation with a watch to recheck the job standard
for accuracy. Such time-study operations as are performed by check-
ers are incidental to their primary duties as checkers. Should the
checkers note a variation in performance of an operation from the job
description, he normally would report the matter to the production
foreman. In this, and in cases where a department shows a low record
for performance, the checker has authority to make suggestions to the
foremen for improving efficiency, but the foreman may accept or'reject,
as he sees fit, the checker's suggestions. A checker has no authority to
hire or discharge or to make recommendations affecting change in job
status of any employee, except that such change may result from an
analysis of production data compiled by the checker. The Company's
three time-study men, however, make recommendations as to and par-
ticipate in the determination of piece rates for production workers.
We shall exclude the time-study employees as managerial employees
from the appropriate unit. The checkers, comptometer operators, and
cost clerks in the industrial engineering department are clerical
workers and not managerial employees within the meaning of the Act.
We shall include the Company's employees in the industrial engineer-
ing department, except time-study employees, in the appropriate unit. 10
The Company also contends that the industrial engineering depart-
ment employees have access to confidential information such as job
descriptions and job standards. While these matters are business
secrets, each production employee has knowledge of the job descrip-
tion and job standard pertaining to his job, and the Company has
made such information available to the Union as the representative of
production employees in connection with labor disputes involving such
employees. Checkers, comptometer operators, and cost clerks also have
access to rates of pay of production workers, costs, and other similar
matters. The information relates only to production employees, per-
sons in a separate unit, and such- information is not confidential in-
formation relating to labor relations in the sense that employees having
access to it should be denied protection of the Act.
Accordingly we find that all office workers of the Company employed
in its Kansas City, Kansas, general office and superintendent's office,
exclusive of plant clerks, time-study employees, the general manager,
10 See Matter of Westinghouse Electoic & Manufacturing Company, 45 N. L R. B. 826;
Matter of Oliver Farm Equipment, 53 N. L. R. B. 1078. Cf. Matter of Oar Wood Industries,
41 N. L. R. B..1156. '
1468 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
the office manager , the superintendent , confidential secretaries of the'
general manager, office manager, and superintendent, and exclusive of
assistant superintendents , all department heads, assistant department
heads, and all supervisory employees with authority to hire, promote,
discharge , discipline , or otherwise effect changes in the status of em-
ployees or effectively recommend such action , constitute a unit appro-
priate for the purposes of collective bargaining , within the meaning
of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
V. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
At the time of the -hearing the Company employed approximately
222 employees , including managerial , supervisory , and confidential em-
ployees, in its office building . In addition , the Company had approxi-
mately 18 ordinary office employees which it characterizes as tempo-
rary. Included among this group are employees expected soon to
depart for service in the armed forces, employees hired for a short
period to fill vacancies of persons sick or on vacation , and probationary
employees. Company experience indicates that about 50 percent of
its probationary employees eventually become permanent employees.
In accordance with our usual practice , probationary employees and
employees who are in , or who are about to enter the armed forces are
eligible to vote ; persons hired as temporary replacements for employees
on vacation or ill, have an insufficient interest in their jobs, and are,
consequently , not eligible to vote.
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.
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, 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, Sections 10 and 11, of said Rules and Regulations , among the em-
ARMOUR AND COMPANY 1469
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 em-
ployees 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 Packinghouse Workers
Organizing Committee, affiliated with the Congress of Industrial
Organizations, for the purposes of collective bargaining.