Canton, Carp's, Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Nov 30, 1959

125 N.L.R.B. 483 (N.L.R.B. 1959)

CANTON, CARP'S, INC. 483
Canton, Carp 's, Inc. ' and Retail Clerks International Associa-
tion, Local No. 536, AFL-CIO, Petitioner . Case No. 13-RC-
6732. November 30, 1959
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, a hearing was held before John C. Sheerin, hearing
officer. 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 Act, the Board
has delegated its powers in connection with this case to a three-member
panel [Members Rodgers, Bean, and Fanning].
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. At the hearing and in its brief, the Employer urged that the
petition be dismissed on the ground that its gross volume of business
does not meet the Board's jurisdictional standards. The Employer,
an Illinois corporation, owns and operates a single retail store located
in Canton, Illinois. Its gross sales during the fiscal year ending
January 31, 1959, were slightly in excess of $300,000. Thus, the
Employer, on the basis of its own sales fails to meet our current juris-
dictional standard for retail establishments 2
However, the Petitioner contends that the Employer and other
corporations are affiliated enterprises constituting a single employer
for jurisdictional purposes. Bernard Carp, president of Employer,
together with other members of his family, who are also corporate offi-
cers of the Employer, own 90 percent of its stock. Carp is also the
president of 24 other corporations which are engaged in similar retail
businesses in various Illinois and Missouri towns. He and members
of his family own varying amounts of stock in each of the 25 Carp
stores. All of these corporations use the name "Carp" as part of the
corporate name. He is also president of Carp's, Inc., in St. Louis,
Missouri, which acts as the wholesaling and warehousing part of the
Carp merchandising operations. At least 80 percent of the business
of Carp's, Inc., consists of sales to the Employer and the other 24
corporations bearing the Carp name. The Employer purchases
approximately 80 percent of its merchandise from Carp's, Inc.
All managers and assistant managers of the various separately
incorporated stores are hired and fired and assigned and reassigned a
by Carp personally. The manager of the Employer, Gunn, owns the
remaining 10 percent of the stock in the store, although there is some
indication in the record that his stock ownership depends on his tenure
1 The name of the Employer appears as corrected at the hearing.
z Carolina Supplie8 and Cement Co., 122 NLRB 88.
' The present manager of the Employer, for instance , has been assistant manager of
Mount Vernon Carp' s, and manager of Sullivan Carp's and California Carp 's since 1953.
125 NLRB No. 55.
484 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
as manager . Like the other 24 store managers, Gunn individually
determines his employees' rates of pay, hours of work, vacations, holi-
days, and working conditions generally. He also has exclusive control
over hiring and discharging the store employees, and over purchasing.
Mr. Carp makes his headquarters at the offices of Carp's, Inc., in,
St. Louis. From this office, advertising material is disseminated to
the store managers which may or may not be utilized, depending upon
the manager's individual determination. In addition to this service,
Carp's, Inc., keeps and audits the books of the 25 stores and also pre-
pares and transmits the managers' individual paychecks. Occasion-
ally, Mr. Carp will call a meeting of the store managers for the
purpose of selecting merchandise from Carp's, Inc., for their respec-
tive stores.
Whenever a new Carp store is established, it attempts to negotiate
its own lease in the name of the new corporation. However, if the
lessor desires (in the words of Carp) "somebody responsible," then
the lessor may elect to have "the parent, . . . Carp's, Inc.," sign the
lease, which is then assigned to the new corporation.
The Employer asserts that the Board should not find that the vari-
ous Carp enterprises constitute a single employer as the record is de-
void of any evidence that would establish a common labor relations
policy among the stores.' Contrary to the belief of the Employer, the
presence or absence of a common labor relations policy is not con-
clusive in determining whether separate legal entities constitute a
"single employer" for jurisdictional purposes. The fact that the
record does not show that Carp or any official of Carp's, Inc., per-
sonally intervenes in labor relations matters of the 25 corporations
is relevant, but not decisive. The Board has on several occasions
made a finding of a single employer status in the absence of evidence
of a common labor relations policy,' and has found two corporations
to be single employer even though it was affirmatively shown that each
corporation established its own labor relations policy.' Thus, to ac-
cord less weight, as the Employer would have us do, to other evidence
establishing close control through common ownership and manage-
ment is not only contrary to Board policy, but would also ignore the
realities of commercial organization.
The control which Carp can assert over individual store managers
by his right of appointment and transfer, the right of Carp's, Inc., to
audit the stores' books, the fact that most purchases are made through
4 In support of its argument the Employer has cited Park Plaza Amusement Company,
124 NLRB 428; Clark Concrete Construction Corporation, 116 NLRB 321 ; Electronic
Circuits, Inc., 115 NLRB 940; and Central Dairy Products Co., Stefen's Branch, 114
NLRB 1189, in which -tlie Board relied, in part, on the absence of a common labor rela-
tions policy in finding that separate businesses did not constitute a single employer.
5 Duval Jewelry Company, 122 NLRB 1425 ; Levitz Service Company, 121 NLRB 205.
Orkin Exterminating Company, Inc. (of Kentucky), 115 NLI2.B 622.
Youngstown Tent and Awning Company, 110 NLRB 835.
WALTON MANUFACTURING COMPANY 485
an affiliated organization, and the leasing arrangements,' all establish
that Carp's, Inc., and the 25 separately incorporated stores constitute
a chain merchandising operation which is integrated and centrally
controlled. In these circumstances, we find that the Employer and
the other Carp corporations constitute a single employer for jurisdic-
tional purposes. The record reveals that Carp's, Inc., ships goods
outside the State, and has a gross volume of business well in excess
of the Board's standards for either wholesale or retail establishments.
Without regard, therefore, as to whether the combined Carp mer-
chandising operations are to be regarded as a wholesale or retail en-
terprise, we find that it will effectuate the policies of the Act to assert
jurisdiction over the Employer. Accordingly, we deny its motion to
dismiss.
2. The labor organization involved claims to represent certain
employees of the Employer.
3. A 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.
4. The Petitioner is seeking a unit of "all full-time and all part-
time employees in the Canton, Illinois store." The Employer con-
tends that the petition should be dismissed on the ground that the
unit description is vague and indefinite. As the Employer has failed
to indicate any specific employee categories which it believes should
be excluded, and as we have often held that units of full-time and
part-time employees in retail stores are appropriate,8 we, accordingly,
deny the Employer's motion to dismiss.
We find that the following employees constitute a unit appropriate
for the purpose of collective bargaining within the means of Section
9(b) of the Act: All regular full-time and part-time employees em-
ployed at the Employer's Canton, Illinois, store, excluding all guards
and supervisors as defined in the Act.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.]
7 See Duane's Miami Corporation , 119 NLRB 1331.
BF. W. Woolworth Company, 119 NLRB 480; J. J. Moreau & Son, Inc ., 107 NLRB 999.
Walton Manufacturing Company and Amalgamated Clothing
Workers of America, AFL -CIO. Case No. 10-CA-399244. De-
cember 1, 1959
DECISION AND ORDER
On August 18, 1959, Trial Examiner Lee J. Best issued his Inter-
mediate Report in the above-entitled proceeding, finding that the
125 NLRB No. 51.
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