Consolidated Packaging Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Sep 22, 1969

178 N.L.R.B. 564 (N.L.R.B. 1969)

564 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Consolidated Packaging Corporation and General
Drivers Union , Local 332, International
Brotherhood of Teamsters , Chauffeurs,
Warehousemen and Helpers of America,
Petitioner . Case 7-RC-9132
September 22, 1969
DECISION ON REVIEW AND ORDER
By CHAIRMAN MCCULLOCH AND MEMBERS
BROWN AND JENKINS
On December 18, 1968, the Regional Director for
Region 7 issued a Decision and Direction of
Election in the above-entitled proceeding, finding, in
accord with the Petitioner's request, that the
Employer's truckdrivers, including driver leadmen,
could he appropriately severed, if they so desired,
from the established production and maintenance
unit represented by the Intervenor, Local Union No.
421, International Union, Allied Industrial Workers
of America, AFL-CIO.'
Thereafter, in accordance with Section 102.67 of
the National Labor Relations Board Rules and
Regulations, Series 8, as amended, the Intervenor
filed a timely request for review of such decision,
alleging, inter alia , that the truckdrivers may not be
severed under existing precedent. The Intervenor
also filed a brief in support of its request. By
telegraphic order dated February 17, 1969, the
Board granted the request for review and stayed the
election pending decision on review.
The Board has considered the entire record in this
case, including the briefs, with respect to the issue
under review, and makes the following findings:
The Employer, a producer and distributor of
corrugated packaging materials, maintains a plant
at Flint. Michigan, and a warehouse at Grand
Blanc, Michigan, about 10 miles away, where it
employs a combined total of about 150 production
and maintenance employees, including 11
truckdrivers and 2 driver leadmen, all of whom have
been continuously represented by the intervenor
since 1956.
The truckdrivers are engaged principally in
delivering the Employer's finished products to the
customers. Normally, the shipping department to
which the truckdrivers are assigned, is headed by a
salaried supervisor. At the time of the hearing
herein, the salaried supervisor had recently resigned
and the shipping department operation was under
the direction of the driver leadman at the main plant
and the driver leadman at the warehouse.' All of the
truckdrivers at the main plant work the first shift,
except one, who works the second shift. The trailers
are generally loaded when the drivers report for
'Intervention was permitted on the basis of the Intervenor ' s contract
with the Employer
work. A driver is assigned to make a specific run
and, after completing that run, he returns to the
plant for additional assignments or to punch out for
the day. Runs are made daily, usually to locations
within the city of Flint, to the warehouse, and to
other locations within a radius of from 100 to 200
miles. Infrequent runs are also made to locations
outside the State of Michigan. When a driver is not
driving, he performs such duties as operating a
forklift truck, sweeping the dock area, and loading
trucks.' The driver leadmen spend practically all of
their present worktime performing nondriving
functions, such as assigning the daily runs, seeing
that trucks are properly loaded, and spotting trailers
at the dock. They drive trucks on rare occasions.
No other employees drive trucks.
All production and maintenance employees,
including the truckdrivers, as well as the driver
leadmen, are hourly paid, punch a timeclock, receive
identical fringe benefits. use the same cafeteria, and
have the same opportunity to bid for jobs and share
in available overtime work in their respective job
classifications. Five of the 11 truckdrivers moved
into their present positions from production jobs by
exercising their plantwide seniority to bid on
truckdriver jobs when they became available. The
Employer has no formalized training program for
truckdrivers. Qualifications for the position of
truckdriver require that an employee knows how to
drive a truck and passes certain State and I.C.C
requirements.
Applying the considerations set forth in
Kalamazoo Paper Box Corporation, 136 NLRB
134, we are unable to conclude that the truckdrivers
herein constitute a functionally distinct group with
special interests sufficiently distinguishable from
those of the Employer's other employees to warrant
severing them from the existing unit. Thus,
truckdrivers spend a significant part of their regular
work time performing work identical to that of
other employees whom the Petitioner does not seek
to represent: they are compensated by the same
method as other unit employees: and they otherwise
enjoy the same fringe and other employment
benefits as the production workers. The truckdrivers
normally have the same supervision as other
shipping department employees whom the Petitioner
has not included in the requested unit. All these
factors point to a lack of separate interests of
truckdrivers and to the very substantial community
of interests they share with other employees, as a
result of their inclusion for a number of years in the
The parties stipulated , and the record shows, that the driver leadmen
are not supervisors within the meaning of the Act
'The record shows that the truckdriver at the main plant on the second
shift spends about 50 percent of his time in driving and the remaining time
working around the plant performing nondriving functions, and that the
other truckdrivers spend about 90 to 95 percent of their time in driving and
the remaining time working around the plant performing nondriving
functions
178NLRBNo 88
CONSOLIDATED PACKAGING 565
overall unit. In these circumstances, we reject the
Petitioner's claim that the truckdrivers are entitled
to separate representation.' Accordingly. we shall
dismiss the petition.5
ORDER
It is hereby ordered that the petition herein be,
and it hereby is, dismissed.
MEMBER FANNING, dissenting:
Unlike my colleagues, I would grant a
self-determination election to these truckdrivers who
spend between 90 and 95 percent of their working
time driving trucks, usually within the State in a
radius up to 200 miles, often working 2 to 4 hours
over the normal work day.
Simply stated, these drivers come to work, climb
in the cab, and go to their destinations. If work is
slow, they are "provided with the hours" on a "fork
truck, cleanup, anything general" which work takes
about 5 percent up to perhaps 10 percent of their
working time. My colleagues translate this into a
"significant part" of their regular work time
performing work "identical to that of other
employees" which surely is a subversion of the
dictionary meaning,' i.e., '`1. . . .full of import,
expressive. . ., 3. Important, momentous." given for
the word "significant." Perhaps, my colleagues are
using - indeed it seems they must be using - the word
in accord with its second definition, i.e., "2.
Suggesting or containing some covert or special
meaning." [Emphasis supplied.]
I would affirm the Regional Director.
See Dura-Containers . Inc. 164 NLRB No. 45; Kalamazoo Paper Box
Corp.. 136 NLRB 134
'In view of our determination herein , we find it unnecessary to pass upon
the other issues raised in the Intervenor 's request for review
•Webster 's New Collegiate Dictionary (1960)