Cobbs and Mitchell Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jan 15, 1946

65 N.L.R.B. 488 (N.L.R.B. 1946)

In the Matter Of COBBS AND MITCHELL COMPANY 1 and INTERNATIONAL
WOODWORKERS OF AMERICA, LOCAL 5-92, CIO
Case No. 19-R-1545.-Decided January 15,1946
Mr. C. L. Starr, of Portland, Oreg., for the Company.
Mr. Harvey R. Nelson, of Portland, Oreg., and Mr. Earle -C. Harper,
of Willamina, Oreg., for the CIO.
Messrs. Doyle Pearson and Harold McKenzie, both of Portland,
Oreg., and Mr. W. 0. Kelsay, of Eugene, Oreg., for the AFL.
Mr. Glenn L. Moller, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon a petition duly filed by International Woodworkers of Amer-
ica, Local 5-92, CIO, herein called ithe CIO, alleging that a question
affecting commerce had arisen concerning the representation of em-
ployees of Cobbs and Mitchell Company, Valsetz, Oregon, herein
called the 'Company, the National Labor Relations Board provided
for an appropriate hearing upon due notice before Erwin A. Peterson,
Trial Examiner. The hearing was held at Dallas, Oregon, on July
5, 1945. The Company, the CIO, and Lumber R Sawmill Workers
Local Union 2692, A. F. L., herein called the AFL, 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
Cobbs and Mitchell Company, an Oregon corporation, has its prin-
cipal office and place of business at Valsetz, Oregon. The Company
1 The pleadings were amended at the bearing to correctly name the employer as shown
above
65 N. L. R. B., No. 82.
488
COBBS AND MITCHELL COMPANY 489
is engaged in the manufacture and sale of lumber and lumber prod-
ucts. During the year 1944 the Company processed approximately
40 million board feet of lumber, of which more than 90 percent was
shipped from the Company's Valsetz plant to points outside the State
of Oregon.
We find that the Company is engaged in commerce within the
meaning of the National Labor Relations Act.
II. THE ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED
International Woodworkers of America, Local 5-92, affiliated with
the Congress of Industrial Organizations, is a labor organization
admitting to membership employees of the Company.
Lumber and Sawmill Workers Local Union 2692, chartered by the
United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, affiliated
with the American Federation of Labor, is a labor organization ad-
mitting to membership employees of the Company.
M. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
The Company has refused to grant recognition to the CIO as the
exclusive bargaining representative of the employees at the Com-
pany's logging operations until the CIO has been certified by the
Board in an appropriate unit.
Subsequent to the request of the CIO, the Company and the AFL
had agreed upon a renewal contract covering the employees sought
to be represented by the CIO, but the parties understood that such
contract was subject to termination in the event of certification of
another labor organization. At the time of the hearing the AFL had
not yet signed the contract. Neither the Company nor the AFL urges
the contract as a bar to this proceeding.
A statement of a Board agent, introduced into evidence at the hear-
ing, indicates that the CIO represents a substantial number of em-
ployees in the unit hereinafter found appropriate.2
We find that a question affecting commerce has arisen concerning
the representation of employees of the Company, within the mean-
ing of Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT
The CIO contends that the appropriate unit should consist of all
production, maintenance, construction and transportation employees
2 The Field Examiner reported that the CIO submitted petitions designating the CIO.
as bargaining agent, bearing apuarently genuine signatures of 56 persons listed on the
Company's pay roll . The AFL relies upon Its contract as evidence of Its Interest.
There are approximately 64 employees in the appropriate unit.
490 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
at the Company's logging operations, excluding clerical and super-
visory employees. The Company agreed with the CIO except that it
would exclude the transportation employees at the Company's logging
operations, who, it asserts, are employees of an independent con-
tractor. The AFL seeks to include in the appropriate unit the em-
ployees at the Company's sawmill.
In 1943, upon petitions filed by the CIO, the Board found appro-
priate separate units of sawmill and logging operations employees.3
The AFL participated in that proceeding and subsequently won the
elections in both units. As pointed out in our Decision in the previous
case,' collective bargaining had been conducted by the AFL and its
sister local No. 2636 on behalf of the woods and mill employees, respec-
tively, in separate units, and the parties had all stipulated at the hear-
ing in that proceeding that such separate units were appropriate. The
only contention which the AFL now advances in support of its altered
position is that for the past 2 years the two locals have attempted to
keep the contracts covering the two units as uniform as possible and
that some of the contract negotiations have been conducted simul-
taneously. There has been no attempt, however, to write one contract
covering both operations. The locals each draft their own proposals
for changes in their contracts, negotiate them separately and approve
,or disapprove them separately. We find that the separate units estab-
lished by the history of collective bargaining and already approved
by this Board are appropriate for the purposes of collective
bargaining.4
The CIO seeks to include in the unit several truck drivers who are
admittedly in the employ of an independent contractor. The Com-
pany does not hire or discharge them and exercises no control over
them. We shall exclude them from the unit.
The CIO seeks to include in the unit the bull buck and hook tenders
even though they may be supervisory employees within the Board's
customary definition. The Company -takes no position and the AFL,
although stating that it has not represented the bull buck in the past,
has no objection to the inclusion of these classifications. For the rea-
sons set forth in the majority decision in Matter of Coos Bay Lumber
Cornpany,5 we shall include the bull buck and hook tenders in the
appropriate unit.
We find that all production, construction, and maintenance em-
ployees of the Company's logging operations at Valsetz, Oregon, in-
eluding the bull buck and hook tenders, but excluding all clerical
employees, all employees of the trucking contractor, the camp foreman
951 N L R B 320
a Matter of Weyerhaeuser Timber Company , 62 N h4. R B 1166.
6 62 N L R B 93.
COBBS AND MITCHELL COMPANY 491
and all or any other supervisory employees above the rank of camp
foreman, constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective
bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
V. THE, DETER1IIINATION 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 Election
herein, subject to the limitations and additions set forth in the Direc-
tion.
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 Rela-
tions Board Rules and Regulations-Series 3, as amended, it is hereby
DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation to ascertain representa-
tives for the purposes of collective bargaining with Cobbs and Mitchell
Company, Valsetz, Oregon, an election by secret ballot shall be con-
ducted as early as possible, but not later than thirty (30) days from
the date of this Direction, under the direction, and supervision of
the Regional Director for the Nineteenth Region, acting in this mat-
ter as agent for the National Labor Relations Board, and subject to
Article III, Sections 10 and 11, of said Rules and Regulations, among
the employees in the unit found appropriate in Section IV, above,
who were employed during the pay-roll period immediately preced-
ing the date of this Direction, including employees who did not 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 they desire to be represented by Inter-
national Woodworkers of America, affiliated with the Congress of
Industrial Organizations, or by Lumber & Sawmill Workers Local
Union 2692, affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, for
the purposes of collective bargaining, or by neither. -
MR. GERARD D. REILLY, dissenting:
For the reasons stated in my dissenting opinion in ,Matter of Coos
Bay Lumber Company,'; I disagree with the inclusion of supervisory
employees within the unit of rank and file maintenance and produc-
tion employees.
0
6 62 N. L. R B. 93.