Astor Packing Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Nov 15, 1948

80 N.L.R.B. 302 (N.L.R.B. 1948)

In the Matter of ASTOR PACKING COMPANY, EMPLOYER and TRUCK
DRIVERS AND CHAUFFEURS UNION, LOCAL 478, INTERNATIONAL
BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS, CHAUFFEURS, WAREHOUSEMEN AND
HELPERS , AFL, PETITIONER
Case No. 2-RC-336.-Decided November 15, 1948
DECISION
AND
ORDER
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before a hearing officer
of the National Labor Relations Board. 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-man panel consisting of the undersigned Board
Members.*
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the National Labor Relations Act.
2. The labor organizations involved claim to represent employees
of the Employer.
3. No question affecting commerce exists concerning the representa-
tion of employees of the Employer, within the meaning of Section
9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act, for the following
reasons:
The Petitioner seeks to represent a unit composed of the truck
drivers employed by the Employer. The Employer and the Inter-
venor, Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North
America, AFL, Local 640, claim that the proposed unit is inappro-
priate, the only appropriate unit being the over-all unit represented
by the Intervenor since 1939 in contracts made with the Employer
or its predecessors.,,
* Chairman Herzog and Members Reynolds and Gray.
3 The Intervenor contends that the contract dated May 1, 1947 , was automatically re-
newed on April 1 , 1948, and is a bar to this proceeding . In view of our disposition of this
case, we do not decide the point.
$0 N. L. R. B., No. 63.
302
ASTOR PACKING COMPANY 303
The Employer is an affiliate of Emmett Packing Company. The
same persons own and control both companies which, although they
are separate corporate entities, constitute one operation. There is but
one office for both, where all clerical and administrative operations
are conducted. Emmett Packing Company owns 75 retail stores in
New York and New Jersey. The Employer, Astor Packing Company,
owns meat coolers and a grocery warehouse. There is considerable
integration of operations between the two, and frequent interchange
of employees.
The Employer employs eight truck drivers who deliver meat and
other foods to the Emmett stores. The drivers spend approximately
50 percent of their time doing "inside work," i. e., the work of Tuggers,
boxmen, warehousemen, and meat cutters. The drivers are required
to know the various cuts and grades of meat both for purposes of
making correct deliveries and because, on the days on which they do
not deliver, they work in the plant doing the work of cutters, luggers,
boxmen, and warehousemen. All the employees are under the same
supervision and have the same working hours. The record clearly
discloses that the truck drivers work in close proximity with the other
employees 2 and that they form an integral part of the production
process.
In view of the foregoing facts, and of the history of collective bar-
gaining on the basis of an over-all unit, we find that the proposed unit
of truck drivers is inappropriate. Accordingly, we shall dismiss the
petition.
ORDER
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the petition filed herein be, and it hereby
is, dismissed.
S Matter of Orleans Materials and Equipment Company, 76 N. L. R. B. 351.