Banco Popular de Puerto Rico

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Apr 21, 1945

61 N.L.R.B. 676 (N.L.R.B. 1945)

In the Matter of BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO (SANTURCE BRANCH)
and UNION DE E-_nPI,EADOS Di: BANCOS DE PUERTO Rico, (C. G. T.)
Case No. 211-R-7 .Decided April 21, 19/5
Mr. Gabriel de la Haba, of San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Mr. Rafael
Carrion, Jr., of Santurce, Puerto Rico, for the Company.
Mr. Antonio Martorelli, of San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Mr. Helion
Cruz Ginorio, of Santurce, Puerto Rico, for the Union.
Iliiss Aida Casana^, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Up r on a petition duly filed by Union de Empleados de Bancos de
Puerto Rico (C. G. T.), herein called the Union, alleging that a ques-
tion affecting commerce had arisen concerning the representation of
employees of Banco Popular de Puerto Rico (Santurce Branch), San-
turce, Puerto Rico, herein called the Company, the National Labor
Relations Board provided for an appropriate hearing upon due notice
before Earl S. Bellman, Trial Examiner. Said hearing was held at
San Juan, Puerto Rico, on March 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. The Trial Examiner's
rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are
hereby affirmed. All parties were afforded an 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
Banco Popular de Puerto Rico is a company having its principal
office and bank in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and five branch banks in
different cities of the Island, including Santurce, Puerto Rico, which
61 N. L. R. B, No. 107.
676
BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO 677
is the only branch involved in this proceeding. It carries on a general
banking business including transactions that not only involve the
Island of Puerto Rico, but also commerce between Puerto Rico and
the Continental United States ; and also commerce with various for-
eign countries. The Company's capitalization is $1,000,000; its, sur-
plus is $2,000,000; and its deposits are approximately $45,000,000.
The Company admits that it is engaged in commerce within the
meaning of the National Labor Relations Act.
II. TIIE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED
Union de Empleados de Bancos de Puerto Rico, affiliated with the
Confederation General de Trabajadores, is a labor organization ad-
mitting to membership employees of the Company.
III. TIIE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
The Union, by letter dated October 17, 1944, addressed to the Com-
pany's Santurce branch, requested axclusive recognition as the bargain-
ing representative of the employees of that branch. On October 24,
1944, the Union sent a second letter to the Company's head office at
San Juan, and enclosed a copy of its first letter of October 17. The
Company answered the foregoing letters of the Union by a letter dated
October 30, 1944, in which it questioned,the appropriateness of the unit
sought and the Union's majority status therein.
A statement of a Board agent, introduced into evidence at the hear-
ing, indicates that the Union represents a substantial number of
employees in the unit hereinafter found appropriate.'
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
Banco Popular de Puerto Rico is a Company operating branch banks
all through he island and having its principal office in San Juan,
Puerto Rico. The following table sets out the various branches of the
Company, the number of employees in each branch (exclusive of di-
rectors, executives, and supervisory employees), and the distance be-
tween San Juan and each branch.
1 The Regional Director reported that the Union submitted 23 applications for member-
ship , that there are 30 employees in the unit petitioned for, after excluding the 5 super-
visory employees , that the applications were dated between July 29 and August 10, 1944.
678 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Approximate
distance
Branch or Department : employees from San Juan(miles)
Principal Office ----------------------- 94 0
Maintenance Dept --------------------- 24 0
Santurce branch_______________________ 30 3
Rio Piedras branch____________________ 18 6
Caguas branch ------------------------ 14 is
Aguadilla branch______________________ 17 62
Manati branch ------------------------ 8 32
The Union requests a unit of the Company's employees in the San-
turce branch, which operates at two locations about 3 blocks apart, and
about 3 miles from the central office and bank in San Juan. The
Company contends that an island-wide unit comprising the main
office and all its branches in the island is appropriate, or in the alter-
native, a unit including only the employees of the Metropolitan Area,
that is, San Juan and Santurce, because their operations are closely
integrated.
The Company's control is-centralized in San Juan. Each bank
has a manager who is responsible for public relations, under the di-
rection of a committee in San Juan. No new credits may be estab-
lished without authority from the main office. All the internal affairs
of each branch, including personnel, are handled by an assistant man-
ager who is responsible to a committee of three in San Juan, one of
whom is the personnel director. Matters concerning personnel, such
as hiring, discharging, and promoting, must receive the approval of
San Juan, but have their origin, generally, in the recommendations of
the branch assistant managers. Since Santurce is the nearest branch
to San Juan, the personnel director is in close touch with its per-
sonnel matters. While a complete personnel file is kept in San Juan,
each branch has also its own personnel records. When employees are
needed for temporary assignments, such temporary personnel is usually
supplied to the various branches from San Juan.
The Santurce branch is operated at two locations known as Stop 2
17 and 20, respectively. Both are under the same manager and assist-
ant manager, who are stationed at Stop 17. There are 24 employees at
Stop 17. The staff of 11 employees at Stop 20 includes a supervisor
who is responsible in public relations to the manager at Stop 17 and
in internal relations, including personnel, to the assistant manager at
Stop 17. All of the bookkeeping for both stops is done at Stop 17,
and one of the messengers spends his time, generally, going between
the two stops. On occasions, the janitors at these two stops perform
their work together. Stop 20 was established when business expanded
so much at Stop 17 that space could not be obtained there to accom-
2 The term Stop refers to the area around a numbered trolley stop.
BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO 679
modate the operations. It is evident that Stop 17 and Stop 20 operate
as a single branch.
The Company has never recognized a labor organization. The
Union has sought recognition only at the Santurce branch,, which is
petitioned for herein.3 The Union has never sought an island-wide'
unit nor a multi-branch unit of any banking firm. While there have
been no Board-directed elections in any bank in Puerto Rico, there
have been three consent elections conducted by the Board's Regional
Office since August 1944, involving the Union and other banks. Sepa-
rate elections were held, respectively, at the Santurce branch and at
the San Juan branch of Credito y Ahorro Ponceno, which has seven
branches, the main one being at Ponce, some 80 miles from San Juan.
'The Union lost the election at the San Juan branch, but won at the
Santurce branch and has entered into a contract covering that branch.
This is the only contract covering bank employees in Puerto Rico.
The third consent election was conducted in the San Juan branch of
the National City Bank of New York, which has five other branches.
The Union won that election, but no contract has yet been signed.
As we have seen, self-organization among bank employees in Puerto
Rico has been on the basis of separate units for bank branches. The
Union has organized only the Santurce branch of the Company to such
an extent that it has requested recognition. Although the Company's
centralization of control is such that an employer-wide unit might be
appropriate at a later stage of self-organization among the employees
involved, there is clearly sufficient demarcation among the branches to
make each a feasible unit for bargaining purposes. The evidence does
not disclose, either, that the Santurce branch is so integrated with the
San Juan operations as to require the inclusion of both in a single
unit. We find, at the present time, that a bargaining unit limited to
the employees at the Santurce branch is appropriate' This finding
does not preclude a later determination in favor of a larger unit in
the event of an extension of organization to include employees in all
the island.
The parties agree, and we find, that the five employees listed on the
pay roll as "officers" at the Santurce branch should be excluded as
managerial and supervisory employees. They include the manager,
the assistant manager, two assistants to the manager, and the super-
visor at Stop 20. The Company disagrees with the Union's request
for the exclusion of Andres A. Vissepo. The Company calls Vissepo
a head bookkeeper and considers him in charge of the department at
However, the Union has carried on some organizational work in the San Juan and
Aguadilla branches of the Company.
4 First National Stores, Inc., 55 N L. R. B. 1346; The Texas Company, 55 N. L R B 1223,
Westates Petroleum Corporation, 49 N. L. R. B. 1076, Charles H. Bacon Company, 54
N. L. R. B. 703.
680 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Stop 17 which keeps the current accounts of all the customers of the
Santurce branch. There are four other employees in this department.
The Company contends that Vissepo is only an experienced working
leader, whose work is practically all clerical. The Union would ex-
clude Vissepo on the ground that he has supervisory authority. As
the record does not disclose that Vissepo has the power to hire and
discharge, or the power to recommend hiring, discharging, or the
granting of wage increases, or to enforce discipline, we find that he
is not a supervisory employee, and we shall include him in the bargain-
ing unit.
We find that all employees of the Company at its Santurce branch
(including both Stop 17 and Stop 20), but excluding the officers,' and
all or any other supervisory employees with authority to hire, pro-
mote, discharge, 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.
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 Elec-
tion 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, as amended, it is hereby
DIiuomD that, as part of,the investigation to ascertain representa-
tives for the purposes of collective bargaining with Banco Popular
de Puerto Rico, Santurce, Puerto Rico, an election 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 super-
vision of the Regional Director for the Twenty-fourth 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 Regula-
tions, among the employees 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
5 The five officers include the manager , the assistant manager, two assistants to the
manager , and the supervisor at Stop 20.
BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO 681
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 they desire to be represented by
Union de Empleados de Bancos de Puerto Rico (C. G. T.), for the pur-
poses of collective bargaining.
CHA1RIIAN MtLIs took no part in the consideration of the above
Decision and Direction of Election.
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