East Detroit Stevedore Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Nov 18, 1954

110 N.L.R.B. 929 (N.L.R.B. 1954)

EAST DETROIT STEVEDORE CO. 929
EAST DETROIT STEVEDORE CO., NICHOLSON TERMINAL AND DOCK Co.
and INDUSTRIAL UNION OF MARINE AND SHIPBUILDING WORKERS OF
AMERICA, LOCAL #46, CIO, PETITIONER and INTERNATIONAL BROTH-
ERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS , CHAUFFEURS , WAREHOUSEMEN & HELPERS OF
AMERICA, LocAL #299, AFL. Case No. 7-I?C-2350. November
18,1954
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 Robert Pisarski, hearing
officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from
prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The East Detroit Stevedore Co., herein called East Detroit, the
alleged Employer of the employees here involved, was incorporated
in Michigan on January 2, 1953, and is principally engaged in the
business of furnishing dock facilities and related services to steamships
operating on the Great Lakes. The operations of East Detroit, con-
sidered alone, are presently insufficient in extent to warrant the as-
sertion of our jurisdiction.' However, the Petitioner contends that the
interrelationship between East Detroit and the Nicholson Terminal
and Dock Co., herein called Nicholson Terminal, is such as to con-
stitute them a single Employer. Nicholson Terminal is also prin-
cipally engaged in the business of furnishing dock facilities and related
services to steamers operating on the Great Lakes. It is admitted, and
we find, that Nicholson Terminal is engaged in commerce within the
meaning of the Act. Another corporation, the Nicholson Transit Com-
pany, herein called Nicholson Transit, is closely related to both East
Detroit and Nicholson Terminal. Nicholson Transit owns several
lake steamers and operates them between the ports of the various States
bordering the Great Lakes. Nicholson Transit also leases dock facil-
ities in these several States.
East Detroit is a wholly owned subsidiary of Nicholson Terminal,
and East Detroit, Nicholson Terminal and Nicholson Transit all have
the same officers and directors. Joseph Deane is the manager of East
Detroit aiid also the assistant treasurer of all three corporations.
Deane, in addition to spending approximately 44 hours per week at
his position with East Detroit, spends from 12 to 16 hours per week
as a traffic solicitor for Nicholson Transit. Deane's father and great
uncle are president and vice president, respectively, and on the boards
of directors, of all three corporations. Nicholson Terminal employees
IIn view of our holding, hereinafter discussed, that East Detroit and the Nicholson
Terminal and Dock Co constitute a single Employer, it is unnecessary to discuss the
Petitioner 's contention that East Detroit itself is engaged in commerce.
110 NLRB No. 151.
338207- dS-vol ] 10 60
930 DECISIONS. OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
were used extensively in the process of getting East Detroit in readi-
ness for operations, and since then have been used almost exclu-
sively for the installation and maintenance of East Detroit's heavy
equipment.'
Manager Deane testified that East Detroit and Nicholson Terminal
were separately operated; had different payrolls and accounting sys-
tems; and that his was the final word in the functioning of East De-
troit. Deane further testified, and it is East Detroit's basic conten-
tion, that any services performed by Nicholson Terminal for East De-
troit were on a business basis and have been or will be paid for by East
Detroit. East Detroit produced records indicating that bookkeeping
systems are in use whereby the hours of Nicholson Terminal employees
who perform work for the East Detroit operation are carefully
tarulated.
The record, however, does not support East Detroit's contention of
autonomy. At the December 14, 1953, session of the hearing,3 Deane
testified that East Detroit then had over $200,000 worth of equipment
which it was "renting" from Nicholson Terminal, for which no pay-
ment had been made. In June 1954, Deane testified that approximately
$97,000 worth of this equipment-2 diesel locomotive cranes, an elec-
tric crane, and a bulldozer-had been purchased outright on January
1, 1954, by East Detroit from Nicholson Terminal under a new financ-
ing arrangement, but as of that date nothing had been paid on the
transaction. One of the Petitioner's witnesses, who is employed in the
stores' department of Nicholson Terminal, testified that he had been
instructed to see that East Detroit received any material it wanted
from Nicholson Terminal's stores, and, further, that the same strict
requisitioning procedure was not used with East Detroit's requests
as with other companies'. Moreover, at the December 14 session of the
hearing, Deane testified that East Detroit leased the property on which
its operation is located from Nicholson Transit and that, although ac-
cording to the terms of its lease it was then 11 months in arrears in the
rent, it had experienced no trouble from the lessor. No evidence was
later introduced that this rent was ever paid.
In all of these circumstances, especially the close family ties 4 the
similar nature of the East Detroit and the Nicholson Terminal enter-
prises,' the interrelationship, if not actual interchange, of East Detroit
3 Manager Deane testified that during one period Nicholson Terminal trucks were
bringing Nicholson Terminal employees to East Detroit twice daily , and a witness for the
Petitioner testified, without contradiction, sometime in May 1954 a Nicholson Terminal
employee had been used to operate East Detroit 's crane to load a ship. Further, the
Steel King, a steamer owned by Nicholson Transit, was recently docked at East Detroit
and there partially dismantled by employees of Nicholson Terminal.
3 The hearing was held in five separate sessions, the dates as follows : December 14
and 28, 1953, June 4 and 29, 1954, and July 9, 1954.
4 See N. L R B v Stowe Spinning Co., 336 U. S 226, 227; Sanitary Mattress Com-
pany, 109 NLRB 1010.
s See Mutual Newspaper Publishing Company, et at ., 107 NLRB 642.
MT. CLEMENS METAL PRODUCTS COMPANY 931
and Nicholson Terminal employees and services,' we find that East
Detroit and Nicholson Terminal constitute a single Employer within
the meaning of Section 2 (2) of the Act. As such, we further find that
East Detroit is engaged in commerce within the Act's meaning. Ac-
cordingly, we deny the Employer's motion to dismiss the petition be-
cause the activities of East Detroit, considered alone, are insufficient
for the assertion of our jurisdiction.'
2. The labor organizations involved claim to represent 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 parties agree, and we find, that the following employees
of East Detroit constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of col-
lective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act:
All employees employed at East Detroit Stevedore Co.'s Lycaste
Street dock, Detroit, Michigan, but excluding office clerical employ-
ees, guards, confidential employees, and supervisors as defined in the
Act.
The Petitioner requests that if the Board directs an election herein,
and a majority of the East Detroit employees in the unit described
above voting in the election, vote for the Petitioner, that this unit be
consolidated with a unit of Nicholson Terminal dock employees for
which the Petitioner was certified 10 years ago.' However, no evidence
was adduced at the hearing concerning the present composition of the
unit of the Nicholson Terminal employees the Petitioner seeks to so
consolidate with the East Detroit employees. Thus, from the record
presented to us we are not able to find that the two units involved
may be properly consolidated into a single unit and the Petitioner's
request in this respect is denied.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.]
6 See Venus Die Engineering Company, 110 NLRB 336; Rushville Metal Products, Inc.,
107 NLRB 1146.
7 Although it appears from the record that the operations of Nicholson Transit are
to a considerable degree integrated with those of East Detroit and Nicholson Terminal,
it is not necessary for the purposes of this decision for us to make a finding that the
three corporations constitute a single employer within the meaning of the Act.
8 Nicholson Terminal & Dock Co., 49 NLRB 582.
MT. CLEMENS METAL PRODUCTS COMPANY and MT. CLEMENS METAL
PRODUCTS WORKERS' ASSOCIATION ( IND.), PETITIONER . Case No.
7-RC-2561. November 18,1954
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 Robert Pisarski, hearing
110 NLRB No. 152.