Beco Industries, Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jun 29, 1972

197 N.L.R.B. 1105 (N.L.R.B. 1972)

THE GRAND 1105
The Grand, a division of Beco Stores of Delaware,
Inc., a subsidiary of Beco Industries , Inc. and Retail
and Department Stores Employees, Amalgamated
Clothing Workers of America , AFL-CIO, Petition-
er. Case 30-RC-1532
June 29, 1972
DECISION ON REVIEW AND ORDER
BY CHAIRMAN MILLER AND MEMBERS JENKINS
AND KENNEDY
On October 7, 1971, the Acting Regional Director
for Region 30 issued a Decision and Direction of
Election in the above-entitled proceeding in which he
found appropriate the Petitioner's requested unit of
nonselling employees at the Employer's retail depart-
ment store on Mitchell Street in Milwaukee, Wiscon-
sin, excluding alteration and display employees,
rejecting the Employer's alternative contentions that
the scope of the unit should be broadened to include
branch stores in the Milwaukee area, that the unit
must include all selling and nonselling employees at
the Mitchell Street store, and that the unit must
include the alteration and display employees. There-
after, in accordance with the National Labor
Relations Board Rules and Regulations, the Employ-
er filed a timely request for review of the Acting
Regional Director's Decision on the grounds, inter
alia, that there are compelling reasons for the Board
to reconsider its policy with respect to units of
nonselling employees in retail department store
cases. After the scheduled election was postponed
indefinitely, the Employer submitted a memorandum
in support of its request for review.
On January 18, 1972, the National Labor Relations
Board by telegraphic order denied the Employer's
request for review insofar as it related to the
geographic scope of the unit and granted it in all
other respects.
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the
National Labor Relations Act, as amended, the
National Labor Relations Board has delegated its
authority in this proceeding to a three-member panel.
The Board has considered the entire record in this
case with respect to the issues under review, and
makes the following findings:
The Employer's main store and five branch stores
in and around Milwaukee, alone involved in this
proceeding, are engaged in the retail sale of women's
and children's ready-to-wear. There is no history of
collective bargaining for any of the employees at
these stores. The Petitioner seeks a unit of about 120
nonselling employees at the main store which has a
total complement of 250 employees. The Acting
Regional Director concluded that, inasmuch as
selling employees have a separate community of
interest, under the rationale of Stern's, Paramas,i a
unit of nonselling employees is appropriate herein.
Resolving unit placement disputes contrary to the
positions taken by the Employer, he included unit
control, will-call, and stock employees, and he
excluded alteration and display employees. The
Employer contends that the cases of Lord & Taylor,2
Stern's, Paramus, and Arnold Constable3 are not
controlling as the different groups of nonselling
employees sought herein have diverse skills and
duties and do not share a sufficiently distinct
community of interest apart from other store
employees. We find merit in this contention.
The main store building has basement, main floor,
and second floor levels and a mezzanine balcony.
Selling departments are located on the main floor
and portions of the basement. Administrative offices
for all of the Employer's Milwaukee area stores are
located on the second floor and the mezzanine
balcony. All merchandise is received at the main
store and transshipped to the branch stores. As
storage facilities at the branch stores are limited,
merchandise is freely exchanged among them as
needed. All records are maintained at the main store.
Among the employees sought to be represented
separately by the Petitioner are the following groups
engaged in distinctly nonselling functions:
Shipping and receiving department. About 25 such
employees work in an area in the basement under
separate supervision. They receive, check, mark, and
transfer merchandise.
Maintenance department. Ten maintenance employ-
ees, under separate supervision, are responsible for
all housekeeping in the store.
A truckdriver, supervised directly by the general
manager in charge of operations and personnel,
spends about half his time transporting merchandise
and payroll checks to the various branch stores.
A printer, directly under the general manager,
prints signs and forms on a multilith machine for use
by the stores.
There are 10 customer service department employees
located on the balcony who assist customers in
opening charge accounts and make credit checks.
They are supervised by department head Flessas.
Also on the balcony and supervised by Flessas are
seven authorizers and filers, who handle salespersons'
telephone requests for customer charge purchase
authorizations and file charge statements; two adders
and sorters, who sort and film customer charge
transactions and payments; three cashiers who
I Allied Stores of New York, Inc, d/b/a Stern's, Paramus, 150 NLRB 799 NLRB 812
2 Lord & Taylor, a Division of Associated Dry Goods Corporation, 150 ' Arnold Constable Corporation, 150 NLRB 788.
197 NLRB No. 156
1106 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
receive cash payments on charge accounts, record
mail payments, and make cash transactions with
sales employees; and a credit typist, who sends out
notices to delinquent accounts and acknowledge-
ments to new accounts.
A mailroom employee, under the supervision of the
general manager and the personnel manager, work-
ing in the mailroom on the second floor, is responsi-
ble for the receipt and delivery of mail, preparation
of outgoing mail, package delivery, and parcel post.
Under the personnel manager are three personnel
department employees, who maintain personnel re-
cords for all the stores; six switchboard and service
department employees, who work the switchboard on
the second floor and relieve cashiers, authorizers,
and the mailroom employee; and lounge employees
who prepare food and serve employees in the lounge
on the second floor and maintain its cleanliness.
Under an office manager are 3 payroll department
employees who work on the balcony and 12 audit
department employees on the second floor.
Under the comptroller and his assistant are three
accounts payable department employees on the second
floor, three billers on the balcony, and a deposit clerk
who prepares the daily cash deposit for the bank.
An addressograph operator operates addressograph
and stuffing machines which respectively address,
insert monthly statements, and seal envelopes for
mailing to charge customers.
Also sought to be included in the requested unit are
the following groups of employees who work closely
with sales employees:
In the unit control department are 19 employees,
about half of whom work in the basement adjacent
to the children's department selling area and the
remainder on the main floor in the various selling
departments. Under the supervision of buyers for
their respective selling departments, the unit control
employees maintain records of receipts, sales, and
transfers of merchandise, assist sales employees in
locating merchandise in or out of the main store,
prepare inventory and summations for buyers, and
assist in packaging merchandise on the selling floor
during special sales.
There are two stock girls who work in selling
departments throughout the store. Under the direc-
tion of the various department heads, they transfer
merchandise from stockrooms to the selling floor,
and they return to the stockrooms merchandise left
on counters and in fitting rooms.
Under separate supervision, on the second floor,
are three will-call employees who store goods pur-
chased on a layaway plan and maintain records
relating thereto, and who are responsible for fur
storage and related record maintenance.
The Petitioner does not seek to include in its
requested unit two other categories of nonselling
employees. There are 13 alteration department em-
ployees working on the second floor under separate
supervision. They fit, measure, pin, and shorten hems
by sewing. There are three display department
employees headquartered on the second floor. They
construct and assemble display materials for win-
dows and interiors of the area stores.
Both selling and nonselling employees utilize
common locker rooms, restaurant, parking lot, and
lounge facilities, and they share the same benefits,
are hourly paid, and punch a timeclock.
The Regional Director, relying on the distinctions
drawn by the Board between sales employees and
other retail department store personnel in the Stern's,
Paramus, case, concluded that a unit of nonselling
employees herein, excluding the alteration depart-
ment and display department employees, is appropri-
ate. The Employer, pointing to his exclusion of the
alteration department and display department em-
ployees because they "are characteristically organ-
ized on a separate basis from other departments of
clothing store personnel," asserts that the Regional
Director ignored its argument that the requested unit
of nonselling employees is already made up of
employees with different duties and skills, such as
shipping and receiving, office clerical, janitors or
maintenance, restaurant or lounge employees.
In agreement with the Employer, we see no basis
for finding that the various categories of nonsellmg
employees described above, sought to be combined
by the Petitioner, share among themselves a suffi-
ciently distinct community of interest apart from
other store employees to warrant their establishment
as a separate appropriate unit. The claim that the
unit is appropriate is based, ultimately, on the single
negative characteristic that none of the included
employees performs any selling functions. That
single element of common interest does not, in our
judgment, supply a sufficient bond to overcome the
diversity of interests among employees in this
otherwise random grouping of heterogeneous classifi-
cations. It appears, for example, that the shipping
and receiving employees have virtually no work
contacts, and virtually no job related concerns in
common, with the nonselling employees on the
mezzanine balcony or second floor. Indeed, employ-
ees in many of the included classifications, such as
unit control, will-call, and stock clerk, have a much
stronger community of interest with the employees
THE GRAND 1107
engaged in selling than with employees in other ORDER -
included classifications. We conclude, in the circum-
stances of this case, that the requested unit is
inappropriate for the purposes of collective bargain- It is hereby ordered that the petition filed herein
ing. Accordingly, we shall dismiss the petition herein. be, and it hereby is, dismissed.