California Vegetable Concentrates, Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jul 31, 1962

137 N.L.R.B. 1779 (N.L.R.B. 1962)

CALIFORNIA VEGETABLE CONCENTRATES, INC. 1779
California Vegetable Concentrates , Inc. and Packinghouse Em-
ployees and Warehousemen , Local 698, International Brother-
hood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs , Warehousemen and Helpers
of America and International Union of Operating Engineers,
Stationary Local 39, AFL-CIO, Joint-Petitioners . Case No.
20-RC-474,4. July 31, 1962
DECISION ON REVIEW AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION
On November 16, 1961, the Regional Director for the Twentieth
Region issued a Decision and Direction of Election in the above-
entitled proceeding. Thereafter, Packinghouse Employees and Ware-
housemen, Local 698, International Brotherhood of Teamsters,
Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America, one of the Joint-
Petitioners herein, in accordance with Section 102.67 of the Board's
Rules and Regulations, Series 8, as amended, filed with the Board a
timely request for review of such Decision and Direction of Election
on the ground that the Regional Director had improperly excluded
certain employees classified as "casuals" from a unit of production and
maintenance employees that he had found appropriate at the Em-
ployer's vegetable processing operation. The Board, by telegraphic
order dated December 20, 1961, granted the request for review and
stayed the election. Thereafter, the Petitioner filed a brief urging
that casuals be included and the Employer filed a brief opposing their
inclusion.
The Board has considered the entire record in the case with respect
to the Regional Director's determination under review together with
the briefs of the parties and makes the following findings :
The Employer operates two plants in Modesto, California, at which
it processes vegetables grown by independent growers and employs
both permanent year-round and seasonal, or so-called "casual," em-
ployees. The Joint-Petitioners, on September 7, 1961, filed a petition
seeking to represent all the Employer's production and maintenance
employees, including the seasonals. The Regional Director found
that a unit of the Employer's permanent employees was appropriate,
excluding the seasonals therefrom because of a 1956 Board decision,'
involving this same operation, in which the Board had excluded the
seasonals, who were then classified as "recurrent" and "casual" em-
ployees. In that decision, the Board found, on the basis of the record
then before it, that those seasonals lacked a sufficient community of
interest with the permanent employees to justify their inclusion. In
the instant proceeding, the Regional Director found that changed
circumstances at this operation since that decision were not sufficient
' California Vegetables Concentrates , Inc, 120 NLRB 266.
137 NLRB No. 10.
1780 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
to warrant a result different from that reached in the earlier proceeding
with respect to the seasonals. The Petitioner contends that, irrespec-
tive of the earlier decision, the instant record shows that the seasonals
share a sufficient community of interest with the permanent employees
to warrant their inclusion.
The Employer conducts its Modesto operation on a year-round basis
with a permanent complement of between 240 and 290 employees.
However, due to variable factors such as increased demands and
weather conditions, it experiences cyclical upswings in its business
during the year at which times it hires seasonal employees to supple-
ment its permanent work force. In addition to these fluctuating de-
mands for seasonals, which in the earlier proceeding appeared to be
the only occasions when seasonals were employed, the Employer now
regularly employs seasonals each year for a period extending from
about August to November. The peak employment of such employees
occurs during this period, usually in October. In 1960, out of a total
of 660 seasonals hired during the year, 330 were employed in October
alone.
These seasonal employees, who are mostly women who also work
in canneries and other processing plants in the area, are employed like
the permanent production employees as laborers, vegetable trimmers,
and sorters, and work with, and under the same supervision as, the
nonseasonal permanent employees. The starting wage for seasonals
is the same as that of the nonseasonal permanents performing the
same work but only the latter are eligible for fringe benefits.
Although the Employer does not maintain a recall list of seasonals,
it does give hiring preference to former seasonals who are known to
be reliable workers, and between 20 and 50 seasonals become permanent
employees each year. Of 275 seasonals on the September 1961 payroll,
which was the last available before the hearing conducted herein,
over 50 percent had worked during the August to November period in
1960 and about 75 percent of these employees had worked at least 2
months while some had worked for as long as 5 months. In the earlier
proceeding, this information concerning the recurrence of seasonals
from year to year and their length of employment was either unknown
or not indicated.
In view of certain changes in the Employer's operation and the more
complete record now before us concerning the seasonal employees,
we are of the opinion that the earlier proceeding is not controlling
with respect to the unit placement of the seasonals. We further
believe, for the reasons set forth below, that the seasonals should be
included in the unit with the year-round permanent employees.
CALIFORNIA VEGETABLE CONCENTRATES, INC. 1781
As indicated above, the Employer's operation concerns the process-
ing of vegetables. Thus, as an operation dealing in agricultural prod-
ucts, it is similar in this respect to those seasonal-type industries
where the Board has included seasonal employees in units with per-
manent employees notwithstanding the fact that such enterprises, as
here, are also conducted on a year-round basis.2 Moreover, as in the
so-called "true" seasonal industries, the regular employment here of
seasonals at approximately the same 3- or 4-month period each year
indicates the existence of a relatively stabilized demand for, and
dependence on, such employees by the Employer and, likewise, a
reliance on such employment by a substantial number of employees in
the labor market who return to the Employer's operation each year.
In view of these circumstances, and the further fact that the seasonals
work with, and under the same supervision as, the permanent em-
ployees, we find that the "casuals" are seasonal employees who share
a sufficient community of interest with the year-round employees and
possess a substantial interest in employment conditions to warrant
their inclusion in the same unit with the year-round employees. Ac-
cordingly, we shall include the seasonals in the following unit which
we find to be appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining
within the meaning of Section 9(b) of the Act:
All production and maintenance employees at the Employer's
Modesto, California, operation, including all seasonal employees, but
'excluding office clerical employees, laboratory technicians and helpers,
fieldmen, plant superintendent, quality control man, head floorlady,
foremen, guards, and all other supervisors as defined in the Act.
In accordance with the usual practice in operations of this kind, the
Board will direct that the election he held at or about the approximate
seasonal peak, on a date to be determined by the Regional Director,
among the employees in the appropriate unit who are employed during
the payroll period immediately preceding the date of the issuance of
the notice of election by the Regional Director.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.]
MEMBER LEEDOM took no part in the consideration of the above
Decision on Review and Direction of Election.
2 E g., Knouse Foods Co-operative, Inc, 131 NLRB 801 ; Imperial Rice Mills, Inc.,
Louisiana Rice Growers , Inc, 110 NLRB 612; Oregon Frozen Foods Company and Ore-
Ida Potato Products, 108 NLRB 1668