Armour & Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Feb 21, 1938

5 N.L.R.B. 535 (N.L.R.B. 1938)

In the Matter of Ai rouR & COMPANY and INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION
OF MACHINISTS, LOCAL 92
Case No. B-476.-Decided February 21, 1938
Meat Packing Industry-Investigation of Representatives : controversy con-
cerning representation of employees : rival organizations ; controversy between
craft and industrial unions as to appropriate bargaining units-Unit Appropriate
for Collective Bargaining : craft or plant ; where other considerations determina-
tive of appropriate unit are such that either of two contentions is valid, decisive
factor is the desire of the employees involved-Representatives : proof of choice :
signed authorizations ; ballots cast in consent election-Certification of Repre-
sentatives : upon proof of majority representation.
Mr. Paul Broderick, for the Board.
Mr. J. G. Campbell, of Kansas City, Mo., for the I. A. M.
Mr. B. A. McWilliams and Mr. Neil Beam, of Kansas City, Mo., for
the United.
Mr. Harry E. Selekman, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
CERTIFICATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
On July 30, 1937, the International Association of Machinists, Local
92, herein called the I. A. M., filed with the Regional Director for the
Seventeenth Region (Kansas City, Missouri) a petition alleging that a
question affecting commerce had arisen concerning the representation
of employees of Armour & Company, herein called the Company, at
its Kansas City, Kansas, plant, and requesting an investigation and
certification of representatives pursuant to Section 9 (c) of the Na-
tional Labor Relations Act, 49 Stat. 449, herein called the Act. On
August 9, 1937, the National Labor Relations Board, herein called the
Board, acting pursuant to Section 9 (c) of the Act and Article III,
Section 3, of National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations-
Series 1, as amended, ordered an investigation and authorized the
Regional Director to conduct it and to provide for an appropriate
hearing upon due notice.
On December 1, 1937, the Regional Director issued a notice of
hearing, copies of which were duly served upon the Company, upon
535
80535-38--35
536
NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
the I. A. M., and upon the United Packing House Workers, affiliated
with the Committee for Industrial Organization, herein called the
United, a labor organization claiming to represent employees di-
rectly affected by the investigation. Pursuant to the notice, a hear-
ing was held on December 9 and 10, 1937, at Kansas City, Missouri,
before Theo R. Bland, the Trial Examiner duly designated by the
Board. The Board. was represented by counsel, and the I. A. M.
and the 'United were represented by their officials. All participated
in the hearing. Full opportunity to be heard, to examine and to
cross-examine witnesses, and to introduce evidence bearing on the
issues was afforded all parties. During the course of the hearing the
Trial Examiner made several rulings on motions and on objections
to the admission of evidence. The Board has reviewed the rulings
of the Trial Examiner and finds that no prejudicial errors were
committed. The rulings are hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following:
FINDINGS OF FACT
1. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
Armour & Company, an Illinois corporation, is engaged in the meat
packing and distributing industry. It also manufactures allied
products, such as fertilizer, soap, and leather; operates creameries;
and owns establishments which slaughter and dress poultry, and pack-
age and sell eggs. The Company, which is one of the four largest
meat packing houses in the United States, operates 28 meat packing
houses in 22 States and about 300 branch houses throughout the
United States. The Company advertises in magazines of national
circulation and in local newspapers at the branch house points. The
total amount of business done by the Company in the fiscal year
of 1936 was $748,935,218.
The packing house at Kansas City, Kansas, occupies 67 acres, on
which are located 45 buildings, and is served by the St. Louis & San
Francisco Railroad Co. The average number of employees in the
plant for 1936 was 2100, approximately 90 per cent of whom are
engaged in production and maintenance work. About 1,500,000
animals of all kinds were slaughtered in the plant during 1936.
The purchases of livestock are made principally in Kansas, but 40
per cent of the livestock comes from outside the State. Approxi-
mately 90 per cent of the finished products are shipped outside the
'State of Kansas.'
1 All the facts set forth in this paragraph are taken from Board Exhibit No 6, a letter
written to the Board by Mr. McElroy , the superintendent of the plant.
DECISIONS AND ORDERS
II. THE ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED
537
The International Association of Machinists, Local 92, is a labor
organization affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, ad-
mitting to its membership machinists and machinist helpers of the
Company.
United Packing House Workers is a labor ogranization affiliated
with the Committee for Industrial Organization. It admits to its
membership production and maintenance employees of the Company,
excluding foremen, assistant foremen, clerical workers, employees,
in the wholesale market, and the plant police.
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION,
On June 3, 1937, the United filed with the Regional Director a
petition 2 alleging that a question affecting commerce had arisen
concerning the representation of employees of Armour & Company,
at its Kansas City, Kansas, plant, and requesting an investigation
and certification of representatives pursuant to Section 9 (c) of the
Act. The hearing on this petition, scheduled for July 19, 1937, was
recessed while counsel for the Company, the United, and the Em-
ployees Bargaining Association of Armour & Company, an unaffiliated
labor organization claiming to represent employees in the plant, dis-
cussed the possibility of holding a consent election. On July 22, 1937,
John G. Campbell, the local representative of the I. A. M., informed
Irving G. McCann, the Trial Examiner duly designated by the
Board, that the I. A. M. desired to intervene in the hearing because
the machinists in the plant constituted a separate and distinct bar-
gaining unit. The Trial Examiner replied that the hearing was in
recess for the purpose of allowing the parties to agree to a consent
election, but that if no such agreement was made he would permit
the I. A. M. to intervene. On the same day the Company, the
United, and the Association agreed that an election should be held
on August 5, 1937, under the supervision of the Regional Director
among the production and maintenance employees of the Company,
excluding foremen, assistant foremen, clerical workers, employees
in the wholesale market, and the plant police. On July 23, 1937, the
Regional Director received from the I. A. M. a motion to intervene
in the hearing.
Thereafter, the Board in a telegram 8 dated July 31, 1937, notified
the Regional Director that the I. A. M. should file a petition, and
that if such a petition was filed prior to the holding of the consent
2 Matter o f Armour c6 Company and United Packing House Workers, Armour Local,
Case No. R-207.
B Board Exhibit No. 3.
538 NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
election on August 5, 1937, the ballots of the machinists should be
segregated and kept in a sealed envelope pending determination of
the claim of the I. A. M. that the machinists constituted a separate
bargaining unit. On July 30, 1937, the I. A. M. filed the instant
petition.
The consent election was held on August 5, 1937, the United re-
ceiving a majority of all the ballots cast. In accordance with the
instructions of the Board and of the Regional Director, the machin-
ists and machinist helpers wrote their choice of a representative on
the ballots used in the consent election. These votes of the machine
shop employees were not counted, but were segregated and placed in
a sealed envelope.
The United has now begun to bargain collectively with the Com-
pany on behalf of all the production and maintenance men in the
plant. We find that a question has arisen concerning representation
of employees of the Company.
IV. THE EFFECT OF THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION UPON
COMMERCE
We find that the question concerning representation which has
arisen, occurring in connection with the operations of the Company
described in Section I above, has a close, intimate , and substantial
relation to trade, traffic , and commerce among the several States,
and tends to lead to labor disputes burdening and obstructing com-
merce and the free flow of commerce.
V. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT
The United contends that the entire plant constitutes a single
unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining. The
I. A. Al. alleges that the machine shop employees constitute a sepa-
rate unit. Although the I. A. M. has had members in the plant
since 1924, the machinists have participated until 1935 in the em-
ployee representation plan set up by the Company and which func-
tioned on a plant-wide basis. There was testimony that the fore-
man in the machine shop usually called the I. A. M. for additional
machinists when they were needed, but that this was only an un-
official arrangement. The United did not appear in the plant until
May 1937, and has bargained collectively with the Company only
since August 5, 1937. The machinists are the only craft in the plant
seeking to be represented by a separate organization, although there
are other crafts in the plant.
A consideration of these facts leads us to the conclusion that the
machine shop employees could operate either as a separate unit or
DECISIONS AND ORDERS 539
as a part of the larger unit. In similar cases 4 we have held that
the desires of the employees are the determining factor. An exami-
nation of the wishes of the employees, discussed in Section VI, infra,
shows that the machine shop employees want to be represented by the
I. A. Al. as a separate unit.
We find, therefore, that the machinists and machinist helpers of the
Company constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective
"kargaining, and that such a unit will insure to employees of the
Company the full benefit of their right to self-organization and to
collective bargaining, and otherwise effectuate the policies of the
Act.
VI. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
At the Hearing officials of the I. A. Al. testified that 15 out of a
total of 21 machinists and machinist helpers were members of their
organization. They also introduced into evidence 21 authorization
cards signed on December 6 and 7, 1937, by the employees of the
machine shop. It was stipulated 5 by the I. A. Al. and by the United
that the ballots cast by the machinists and machinist helpers in the
election of August 5, 1937, under the instructions set forth in Section
III, supra, should be a part of the record in this case. An examina-
tion by the Board of these ballots shows that of a total of 21 cast,
18 were for the I. A. M., one was for the United, and two were void.
Under these circumstances we find that the I. A. Al. has been desig-
nated and 'selected by a majority of the employees in' the appropriate
unit as their representative for the purposes of collective bargaining.
It is, therefore, the exclusive representative of all the employees in
such unit for the purposes of collective bargaining, and we will so
certify.
Upon the basis of the above findings of fact and upon the entire
record in the case, the Board makes the following :
CONCLUSIONS OF LAW
1. A question affecting commerce has arisen concerning the repre-
sentation of employees of Armour & Company at its Kansas City,
Kansas, plant, within the meaning of Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6)
and (7) of the National Labor Relations Act.
2. The machinists and machinist helpers of the Company consti-
tute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining
' Matter o f The Globe Machine and Stamping Co., and Metal Polishers Union, Local No. 3,
International Association of Machinists, District No. 54. Federal Labor Union 18188, and
United Automobile Workers of America , 3 N. L. R . B. 204; Matter of Allis-Chalmers
Manufacturing Company and International Union , United Automobile Workers of America,
Local 548, 4 N . L. R. B. 159; and Matter of Schick Dry Shaver Company and Lodge
No. 1557, International Association of Machinists, 4 N. L. R . B. 246.
'Board Exhibit No. 2.
540 NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the National Labor-Relations
Act.
3. International Association of Machinists, Local 92, is the exclu-
sive representative of all the employees in such unit for the purposes
of collective bargaining, within the meaning of Section 9 (a) of the
National Labor Relations Act.
CERTIFICATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
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 8, of National Labor
Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 1, as amended,
IT IS HEREBY CERTIFIED that International Association of Machin-
ists, Local 92, has been designated and selected by a majority of the
machinists and machinist helpers of Armour & Company at its Kan-
sas City, Kansas, packing house as their representative for the
purposes of collective bargaining and that, pursuant to the provi-
sions of Section 9 (a) of the Act, International Association of
Machinists, Local 92, is the exclusive representative of all such em-
ployees for the purposes of collective bargaining in respect to rates
of pay, wages, hours of employment, and other conditions of
employment.
EDWIN S. SMITH, dissenting :
I disagree with the finding of the majority of, the Board that the
machinists and machinist helpers constitute an appropriate bargain-
ing unit. I see no reason in the circumstances of this case for im-
perilling the effectiveness of the industrial unit by the severance
from it of an important craft group.
My dissent is based on considerations which I have urged In the
Matter of Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Company and International
Union, United Automobile Workers of America, Local 248, 4 N. L.
R. B. 159, and in other cases.