Armour and Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Mar 5, 1946

66 N.L.R.B. 279 (N.L.R.B. 1946)

In the Matter of ARMOUR AND COMPANY and UNITED PACKINGHOUSE
WORKERS OF AMERICA, LOCAL I#8, C. I. O.
In the Matter of ARMOUR AND COMPANY and UNITED PACKINGHOUSE
WORKERS OF AMERICA, LOCAL #8, C. I. O.
Cases Nos . 17-R-1232 and 17-R-1L44, respectively.-Decided
March 5, 1946
Messrs. Paul E. Blanchard and J. C. Moore, of Chicago, Ill., for
the Company.
Messrs. Patrick Ratigan, John Henry, Reginald C. Dean, Fred
Romano, Emerson Dappan, and Leroy East, all of Omaha, Nebr.,
for the Union.
Mr. Joseph D. Manders, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon separate petitions duly filed by United Packinghouse
Workers of America, Local #8, C. I. 0., hereinafter called the
Union, alleging that questions affecting commerce had arisen con-
cerning the representation of employees of Armour and Company,
Omaha, Nebraska, herein called the Company, the National Labor
Relations Board consolidated the cases and provided for an appro-
priate hearing upon due notice before Elmer L. Hunt, Trial Exam-
iner. The hearing was held at Omaha, Nebraska, on November 5,
1945. The Company and the Union appeared and participated.' All
parties were afforded full opportunity to be heard, to examine and
cross-examine witnesses, and to introduce evidence bearing on the
issues. At the hearing, the Company moved for dismissal of the
petition filed in Case No. 17-R-1232. For reasons indicated in Sec-
tion IV, infra, the motion is hereby denied. The Trial Examiner's
rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are
x Brotherhood of Railway Carmen of America, A F. L, was served with a notice
of hearing, but failed to appear or participate in the hearing
66 N. L. R. B., No. 31.
279
280 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
hereby affirmed. All parties were afforded opportunity to file biefs
with the Board.
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following :
FINDINGS OF FACT
I. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
Armour and Company, an Illinois corporation, with its principal
office in Chicago, Illinois, is engaged in the slaughtering, processing,
and packaging of livestock products. The Company's operations at
Omaha, Nebraska, are solely involved in the present proceeding.
During 1944, approximately 50 percent of the raw materials used at
the Company's Omaha plant was purchased and transported from
points outside the State of Nebraska. During the same period the
Company slaughtered and processed in excess of 500,000,000 pounds
of livestock products at its Omaha plant, valued in excess of
$1,000,000, approximately 75 percent of which was shipped to points
outside the State of Nebraska.
The Company admits, and we find, that it is engaged in commerce
within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act.
IT. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED
United Packinghouse Workers of America, Local #8, is a labor
organization, affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organiza-
tions, admitting to membership employees of the Company.
III. THE QUESTIONS CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
The Company has refused to recognize the Union as the bargain-
ing representative of the employees involved in these cases until the
Union has been certified by the Board in the appropriate unit or
units.
A statement of a Board agent, introduced into evidence at the
hearing, indicates that the Union represents a substantial number
of the employees for whom it.seeks to bargain.2
We find that questions affecting commerce have 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.
s The Field Examiner reported that, in Case No 17-R-1232, the Union submitted 14
membership -authorization cards, and that there were 24 employees in the proposed unit
He further reported that, in Case No. 17-R-1244, the Union submitted 19 membership-
authorization cards, and that there were 22 employees in the proposed unit.
ARMOUR AND COMPANY 281
IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT; THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
Case No. 17-R-1244
The Union seeks to include the Company' s car shop maintenance
employees in the presently existing unit of packinghouse production
and maintenance employees for which the Union is the bargaining
representative.3 The Company contends that the car shop mainte-
nance employees comprise a separate and distinct unit for collective
bargaining purposes.
The Company 's car shops are located approximately three-fourths
of a mile from the plant housing the production and maintenance
employees. The car shop employees, consisting of welders, air brake
men, car scrubbers, brine valve repairers, plug and canvassers, wheel
and axle fitters, brake beam repairers, and laborers, are engaged in
the general maintenance and repair work on both the running gear
and superstructure of the Company's refrigerator cars. A substan-
tial portion of these cars is ultimately moved to the packinghouse
docks for loading purposes.
It is apparent that the functions and duties of the car shop
employees are not identical to those of the packinghouse production
and maintenance employees. On the other hand, we note that the
car shop employees, like the packinghouse employees, are hired
through the personnel manager in the main office at the packinghouse
and that both groups of employees are under the general supervision
of the plant superintendent,4 and receive their wages through the
general office at Omaha. On the basis of the foregoing facts, we are
of the opinion and find that the car shop employees may properly
form part of the production and maintenance unit if the employees
so desire."
In view of the absence of any question concerning representation
among the employees in the original production and maintenance
unit, we shall direct an election only among the employees in the
Company's car shops wherein a question concerning representation
has arisen. If the employees in this voting group select the Union,
they will have thereby indicated their desire to be included in a unit
6In August 1945, the Company and the Union entered into a master collective bar-
gaining agreement covering , inter alia, a unit of production and maintenance employees
at the Omaha plant.
'In reference to car shop matters, the superintendent is responsible to the Company's
vice president in charge of transportation . He refers packinghouse matters to the
vice president in charge of operations.
6 We need not offer the car shop employees the opportunity of functioning as a sepa-
rate unit , inasmuch as there is no labor organization to represent them in such a unit.
Cf. Matter of Armour and Company, 49 N. L. R. B. 1208, where a labor organization
sought to represent these same employees in a separate unit.
282 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
with the general production and maintenance employees and will
become a part of such unit.
With respect to the composition of the car shop employees' voting
group, we shall exclude, in accordance with the agreement of the
parties, the policemen or watchmen, plant superintendent and his
assistant, the general foreman, car inspector, and all other super-
visory employees within our customary definition.
We shall, accordingly, direct that the question concerning repre-
sentation be resolved by an election among all the maintenance
employees in the car shops of the Company's Omaha, Nebraska.
plant, excluding policemen or watchmen, the plant superintendent
and his assistant, general foreman, the car inspector, and all other
supervisory car shop employees having the authority to hire, pro-
mote, discharge, discipline, or otherwise effect changes in the status
of employees, or effectively recommend such action, 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.
Case No. 17-R-1232
In this case, the Union seeks to include the Company's plant-pro-
tection employees," excluding supervisory employees within our
usual definition, in the production and maintenance unit, referred to
above. The Company moved at the hearing that the Union's peti-
tion be dismissed on the ground that its plant-protection employees
are not employees within the meaning of the Act.
The Company's plant-protection force consists of a chief guard
(chief of police), assistant chief guard (assistant chief of police),
and approximately 26 plant guards (policemen). All if the plant
guards, who receive a weekly salary, are armed, uniformed, and
deputized, but were recently released from militarization. They also
wear badges, which symbolize their authority. Generally described,
the duties of the plant guards consist of the maintenance of order
and the protection of life and property. More specifically, their
collective functions consist of the patrolling of the plant area to
guard against fire, sabotage and theft, "ringing-in" on an A D T
system at various points on their route. They check all persons and
vehicles entering and leaving the plait. In addition, the plant
guards must enforce all of the Company's rules and regulations.
Any infraction of these rules or regulations, such as gambling, loaf-
ing, drunkenness, and disorderly conduct, must be reported to the
• The Company also refers to these employees as "policemen "
ARMOUR AND COMPANY 283
chief guard, who has the sole authority to recommend disciplinary
action.7 We note that the reports, which are either oral or written,
are merely factual in nature ; and that the plant guards, excluding
the chief guard, have no authority to discharge, discipline, or censure
any of the Company's other employees.
In support of its motion to dismiss the petition, the Company
contends that the plant guards are closely allied with management
and that union membership of its plant-protection employees would
necessarily conflict with their loyalty to the Company. We have
considered both contentions in recent cases involving monitorial
plant-protection employees and have found them to be without
merit." Nothing in this case persuades us to hold otherwise. We,
therefore, deny the Company's motion to dismiss the petition. How-
ever, inasmuch as the guards exercise monitorial functions in relation
to the Company's other employees, we shall not add them to the
present bargaining unit, but shall place them in a separate unit, in
accordance with our usual practice.9
We find that all of the Company's plant-protection employees
(policemen), at its Omaha, Nebraska, plant, but excluding the chief
guard (chief of police), the assistant chief guard (assistant chief of
police), the Company's other employees, and any other supervisory
plant-protection employees with authority to hire, promote, dis-
charge, discipline, or otherwise effect changes in the status of
employees, or effectively recommend such action, constitute a unit
appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the
meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act. We shall refer to this unit
as voting group 2 in the Direction of Elections.
We shall direct that the question concerning representation which
has arisen be resolved by an election by secret ballot among the
plant-protection employees in the above appropriate unit who were
employed during the pay-roll period immediately preceding the date
of the Direction of Elections herein, subject to the limitations and
additions set forth in the Direction.
7 The chief guard is responsible to the plant superintendent, who has consistently
followed his disciplinary recommendations.
8 See Matter of Cudahy Packing Company, 65 N. L. R B 10; Matter of Pullman-
Standard Car Manufacturing Company, 63 N. L. It. B. 822; Matter of Great Lakes
Steel Corporation , 63 N. L. R. B. 8T4 ; Matter of National Lead Company , Titanium
Division, 62 N L R . B 107; Matter of Standard Steel Spring Company, 62 N. L. It. B
660; Matter of Bethlehem -Fairfield Shipyard, Inc., 61 N. L. R B. 901; Matter of
International Harvester Company, Milwaukee Works, 61 N. L . R. B. 912; Matter of
Chrysler Corporation, 44 N. L. It. B. 881.
9Matter of Standard Steel Spring Company, supra ; Matter of Kelsey-Hayes Wheel
Company, 62 N. L. R. B. 42; Matter of National Lead Company , Titanium Division,
supra; Matter of Bethlehem Fairfield Shipyard, Inc . supra; Matter of Bethlehem Steel
Company, 61 N. L, It. B. 892.
284 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
By virtue of and pursuant to the power vested in the National
Labor Relations Board by Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Rela-
tions Act, and pursuant to Article III, Section 9, of National Labor
Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 3, 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
Company, Omaha, Nebraska, separate elections by secret ballot shall
be conducted 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 those employees in each of the voting groups indicated below,
who were employed during the pay-roll period immediately preced-
ing 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 and have not been rehired or reinstated prior to the date
of the election, to determine whether or not the employees in each
of the voting groups desire to be represented by United Packinghouse
Workers of America, Local #8, C. I. 0., for the purposes of collec-
tive bargaining :
1. All maintenance employees in the car shops of the Company's
Omaha, Nebraska, plant, excluding policemen or watchmen, the
plant superintendent and his assistant, general foreman, the car
inspector, and all other supervisory car shop employees having the
authority to hire, promote, discharge, discipline, or otherwise effect
changes in the status of employees, or effectively recommend such
action.
2. All of the Company's plant-protection employees (policemen)
at its Omaha, Nebraska, plant, but excluding the chief guard (chief
of police), the assistant chief guard (assistant chief of police), the
Company's other employees, and any other supervisory plant-pro-
tection employees with the authority to hire, promote, discharge,
discipline, or otherwise effect changes in the status of employees, or
effectively recommend such action.
MR. GERARD D. REILLY took no part in the consideration of the
above Decision and Direction of Elections.