BASF Wyandotte Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Feb 2, 1976

222 N.L.R.B. 712 (N.L.R.B. 1976)

712 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
BASF Systems Division of BASF Wyandotte Corpo-
ration I and Teamsters Local Union #49, a/w Inter-
national Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs,
Warehousemen and Helpers of America , Petitioner.
Case 1-RC-13961
February 2, 1976
DECISION AND ORDER
BY CHAIRMAN MURPHY AND MEMBERS FANNING
AND PENELLO
Upon a petition duly filed on August 5, 1975, un-
der Section 9(c) of the National Labor Relations Act,
as amended, a hearing was held on September 12,
1975, before Hearing Officer Marvin Bernstein of the
National Labor Relations Board. Following the close
of the hearing, the Regional Director for Region 1
transferred this case to the Board for decision. There-
after, the Employer and the Petitioner filed briefs
with the Board.
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the
National Labor Relations Act, as amended, the Na-
tional Labor Relations Board has delegated its au-
thority in this proceeding to a three-member panel.
The Board has reviewed the Hearing Officer's rul-
ings made at the hearing and finds that they are free
from prejudicial error. They are hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in this proceeding, the
Board finds:
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within
the meaning of the Act.
2. The Petitioner is a labor organization as defined
in the Act claiming to represent certain employees of
the Employer.
3. No question affecting commerce exists concern-
ing the representation of employees of the Employer
within the meaning of Section 2(6) and (7) of the Act,
for the following reasons.
The Petitioner seeks to represent a unit of ware-
housemen, drivers, and shipping-receiving employees
among others employed at the Employer's distribu-
tion center 2 The Employer contends that the unit
sought is inappropriate because it is a fragmentation
of the only appropriate unit, i.e., an overall produc-
tion and maintenance unit including the employees
in the unit petitioned for by Petitioner; it is predicat-
ed upon the extent of organization; and the proposed
i Name of the Employer appears as amended at the hearing
2 The unit described in the petition is as follows:
All warehousemen, returned material clerks, truck drivers, incoming
inspectors, fork lift drivers, shippers, receivers, and warehouse clericals,
but excluding office clericals, professionals, guards and supervisors as
defined in the Act
unit does not constitute a homogenous grouping of
employees having a separate community of interest.
The Employer is engaged in the manufacture and
sale of cassette and eight-track tapes, and tapes for
computer operations. Its Bedford, Massachusetts,
complex consists of two production buildings (la-
beled the Main Building and the Middlesex Turnpike
Building) and the distribution center. The three
buildings are connected by access roads and parking
lots. The distance between the Main Building and the
Middlesex Turnpike Building is one-quarter mile.
The distribution center is located approximately 40
yards from the Main Building and approximately
440 yards from the Middlesex Turnpike Building.
At the beginning of the production process the dis-
tribution center receives the raw materials used in the
manufacturing process; incoming merchandise, in-
cluding machinery and equipment used by mainte-
nance employees; and supplies. Distribution center
employees unload the merchandise and either convey
it to storage sheds adjacent to the center or notify the
appropriate departments of its receipt. They then de-
liver the materials to the plants, as needed, going into
the production areas to make these deliveries.
The production process begins at the Main Build-
ing. There, production employees load raw materials,
consisting generally of large butt rolls of tape, into
machines which coat them with various chemicals to
add magnetic properties. The rolls of tape next are
placed on a slitting machine. When this process is
completed, the rolls of tape are transported to the
Middlesex Turnpike Building, where they are insert-
ed into cassettes or eight-track cartridges.
At the end of the manufacturing process, produc-
tion employees in the packaging department package
and stack the finished product in staging areas. Dis-
tribution center employees pick up the finished prod-
uct from these staging areas several times a day,
transporting it to the distribution center for storage
until it is shipped to customers or other BASF distri-
bution centers by common carrier.' In carrying out
these functions, distribution center employees utilize
forklifts, a walking electric truck, a propane operated
industrial truck with pneumatic tires, two gasoline
driven vans, and a 45-foot trailer and tractor.
The Employer has 350 employees in the overall
unit it claims would be appropriate. Of these employ-
ees, approximately 17 work in the distribution center.
Eleven of the distribution center employees are clas-
sified as warehousemen I and II. They perform the
traditional warehouse functions of loading, unload-
ing, storing, delivering, and shipping. The remaining
s There is a reference in the record to distribution center employees mak-
ing deliveries of the finished product to local customers There is nothing to
indicate that this function is any more than a minor part of their duties
222 NLRB No. 112
BASF SYSTEMS DIVISION
distribution center employees include a returned
merchandise authorization clerk who processes the
documentation required when merchandise is re-
turned by a customer or other distribution facility; a
traffic coordinator who screens and routes shipping
and work orders and anayizes rates for the most eco-
nomic and efficient transportation of the Employer's
product; a clerk typist; a leadman who conveys di-
rections and orders to the warehouse loading person-
nel; an incoming inspector who checks products pur-
chased from outside vendors for proper tolerance
and calibration;4 and a receiving clerk who checks
incoming merchandise against the purchase order
and notifies the appropriate department of its re-
ceipt. All distribution center employees, with the ex-
ception of the clerk typist, are able to, and in fact do,
perform all of the various warehousing duties at
times.
No manufacturing functions are performed by dis-
tribution center employees. However, incoming in-
spectors are assigned to the quality control depart-
ment which is generally regarded as a production
department. Production employees occasionally as-
sist distribution center employees in the delivery and
pickup of materials in the production areas. At times,
production employees also go to the distribution cen-
ter to pick up materials. Distribution center employ-
ees, on the other hand, perform certain maintenance
functions, e.g., sweeping the dock area and taking
trash to the dumpster.
The operation of the distribution center is general-
ly supervised by the warehouse and traffic manager.
Employees in the distribution center are under his
direct supervision, with the exception of the incom-
ing inspectors who are under the supervision of the
director of quality control.
Any employee, irrespective of department, can ap-
4 A second employee was hired as an incoming inspector immediately
prior to the hearing.
713
ply for overtime work in any department. Thus, pro-
duction employees have worked on an overtime basis
in the distribution center. Furthermore, employees
can bid on job openings, in any department; and
there have been transfers and promotions into and
out of the distribution center.
Employer's personnel practices, working condi-
tions, and fringe benefits are uniform with a few mi-
nor exceptions, such as distribution center employees
being required to wear safety helmets and wearing
tan uniforms rather than the blue smocks worn by
production employees. Other minor differences are
that production facilities are operated on a 24-hour
basis while the distribution center is operated from
midnight until 4 p.m.,5 and distribution center em-
ployees usually eat in their work areas or the canteen
in the distribution center, although they have cafete-
ria privileges at the cafeterias located in the Main
Building and the Middlesex Turnpike Building.
In' view of the foregoing, especially the close prox-
imity of the distribution center to the production ar-
eas, the degree of integration of the shipping and re-
ceiving functions with other functions performed in
the production areas, and the frequent contact be-
tween the majority of the distribution center employ-
ees and the production employees, we conclude that
the requested group does not possess that degree of
functional distinctness and autonomy which would
warrant a finding that they have a separate commu-
nity of interest .6 Accordingly, as the Petitioner does
not seek an election in a broader appropriate unit, we
shall dismiss the petition herein.
ORDER
It is hereby ordered that the petition filed herein
be, and it hereby is, dismissed.
5 Until recently the distribution center was only open from 7 a.m. until 4
pm
6 See, e.g, Riker Laboratories, a Division of Rexall Drug and Chemical Co,
156 NLRB 1099 (1966)