Eastern Sugar Associates

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Nov 1, 1948

80 N.L.R.B. 73 (N.L.R.B. 1948)

In the Matter of EASTERN SUGAR ASSOCIATES , EMPLOYER and UNION
DE MECANICOS , MAQUINISTAS , Y AUXILIARES DE LA CENTRAL SANTA
JUANA ( FLT), PETITIONER
In the Matter of EASTERN SUGAR ASSOCIATES , EMPLOYER and UNION
DE FACTORIA , VIAS Y OBRAS DE LA CENTRAL JUNCOS (FLT),
PETITIONER
Cases Nos. 38-RC-4 and 38-RC--5, respectively .Decided
November 1, 1948
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
Upon petitions duly filed, a consolidated hearing was held before a
hearing officer of the National Labor Relations Board. The hearing
officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error
and are hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board finds :
1. Eastern Sugar Associates, with its principal office at Caguas,
Puerto Rico, is a business trust engaged in the production of raw sugar
at four sugar mills or "centrals" known as Central Santa Juana,
Central Juncos, Central Pasto Viejo, and Central Cayey. At Central
Santa Juana the Employer also operates a refinery. The Santa Juana
and Juncos operations are the only ones involved in this proceeding.
The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the,
National Labor Relations Act.
2. The Petitioners, affiliated with Federacion Libre de Los Trabaja-
dores (hereinafter called FLT), which is in turn affiliated with the
American Federation of Labor, and the Intervenor, Sindicato de
Trabajadores de la Industria Azucarera, affiliated with Confederacion
General de Trabajadores de Puerto Rico, Inc.,' claim to represent
employees of the Employer.
3. Questions affecting commerce exist 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.
I Hereinafter called C . G. T., Inc.
80 N. L. R. B., No. 19. 73
74 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
The appropriate units
The Petitioner in 38-RC-4 seeks a unit of all production and main-
tenance employees at the Employer's Santa Juana mill and refinery,
including "railroad and maintenance of way employees," but exclud-
ing professional sugar boilers, office and clerical employees, guards,
professional employees, and all supervisors.
The Petitioner in 38-RC-5 seeks a unit composed of the same cate-
gories of employees at the Employer's Juncos mill.
The Employer and Intervenor do not object to the specific compo-
sition of the units sought by the Petitioners, but contend that the
appropriate unit is a multiple-employer unit consisting of the em-
ployees in all the sugar mills operated by members of the Sugar
Producers Association of Puerto Rico,2 to which the Employer belongs.
In the event that the Board does not find such a unit to be appropriate,
the Employer and Intervenor request that the Board find appropriate
a unit of the employees of all four sugar mills operated by the Em-
ployer.
The same issue as is involved in this case was presented to the
Board in 1943 in Matter of Wii'sling & Compania, S. En. C.,a where
the Petitioner 4 requested severance of two plant-wide units from the
Association-wide unit then in effect. The Board in that case reviewed
the history of collective bargaining in the Puerto Rico sugar industry.
and its findings in this regard may be summarized briefly as follows :
The first effective labor organization in the industry was FLT.
For several years prior to 1933, it obtained contracts with individual
producers on a plant-wide basis. However, no appreciable gains
were obtained for the sugar employees until, in 1933, a system of col-
lective bargaining on an insular basis was instituted between FLT and
the Association, to which most of the sugar mill owners on the island
belonged. This system consisted of periodic negotiations between
representatives of the Association and of FLT culminating in a master
contract, which was submitted for approval to the individual members
of the Association and to the FLT locals. Each member of the Asso-
ciation was free to accept or reject this master contract. The master
contract, on the other hand, was binding on all the FLT locals if
accepted by a majority of such locals.-'
' Hereinafter called the Association.
a 49 N. L R B 1273.
4 Both the petitions in that case were filed by Confederation General de Trabajadores de
Puerto Rico , hereinafter called C G. T , which was the predecessor of C. G. T., Inc, the
parent body of the Intervenor in the instant case.
6 The parties to the instant case stipulated that at the time of the Wirshing decision
three or four members of the Association had rejected the 1942 FLT master contract,
executing separate agreements with C. G T. locals.
EASTERN SUGAR ASSOCIATES 75,
This system of Association-wide bargaining continued for 10 years,
from 1933 to the date of the decision in the Wirshing case; and as a
result of this system of bargaining, the working conditions of the
sugar workers improved and their understanding of, and participation
in, collective bargaining increased.
In view of this history, our predecessors concluded in the Wirshirng
case :
We are convinced that the full benefit of collective bargaining
cannot be insured to the employees by breaking up the collec-
tive bargaining unit which has been established by a long history
of contractual relations between the Association on behalf of the
sugar producers, and the FLT on behalf of the sugar workers of
the Island (p. 1282).
The Board, accordingly, found that the type of unit sought by the
Petitioner in the Wirshing case was not appropriate for the purposes
of collective bargaining and dismissed the petitions.
After that ruling, C. G. T. on April 12, 1944, filed a petition with
the Insular Labor Relations Board for certification as representative
of all factory, railroad, and agricultural workers on the Island whose
employers were members of the Association. In its decision of De-
cember 23, 1944, the Insular Board, relying on the Wirshing case,
found such a unit to be appropriate and ordered an election. The
election, held on January 30, 1945, was won by C. G. T., and it was
certified as the exclusive representative of the employees in the unit
found appropriate.
Claiming to have succeeded to the foregoing certification, C. G. T.,
Inc.," acting through the Executive Committee of the Intervenor,
negotiated master contracts with the Association in the years 1945,
1946, 1947, and 1948, following substantially the same procedure as
had been established by FLT, except that in connection with the
execution of the contracts the parties stipulated in effect that when-
ever the majority of the employees at a mill of a member of the Asso-
ciation are represented by a union not affiliated with the Intervenor,
such member will not be required to adopt the master contract.'
6 In 1945, C. G T was split into C. G. T, Inc., and C G T Autentica. The latter organi-
zation afterwards suffered the defection of a group known as Union General de Trabajadores
de Puerto Rico, hereinafter referred to as U. G. T.
4 The stipulations are silent as to the means to be used by employers to ascertain the
majority status of a union of their employees for the purposes of this provision These
stipulations were in the form of letters from an officer of the Association to an officer of
the Intervenor , except that in 1948 a provision similar in tenor to these letters was in-
corporated in the master contract itself.
Under the language of these stipulations the locals of the Intervenor are required to
adopt the master contracts . Whether, as in the case of the FLT contracts , approval of
the master contract by a majority of the locals is a condition precedent of this require-
ment, is not clear fiom the record.
76 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Since 1945, about 90 percent of the owners of sugar mills on the
island have belonged to the Association. During that period from
60 to 70 percent of these members have actually executed with locals
of the Intervenor contracts embodying the terms of the master con-
tract. The balance of these members have signed contracts with FLT
locals and with other unions. Employers who are not members of
the Association have signed contracts, in part with locals of the
Intervenor, and in part with locals of FLT and other unions. Thus,
while the bulk of the industry has since the Wirshing case continued
to adhere to the master contracts, a substantial minority of the mills
have rejected them.'
The foregoing developments since the Wirshing decision cast doubt
on the applicability of that decision to the present-day situation as
disclosed by this record. By adopting the "escape clause," mentioned
above, in connection with their master contracts, the Employer and
the Intervenor have in effect themselves indicated their willingness
that in each of the Employer's plants, including those involved in
this case, the majority of the employees shall determine whether bar-
gaining shall be on an Association-wide or single-plant basis. The
Employer and the Intervenor have thus, by their own conduct and
agreements, accepted the principle of self-determination as the solo
basis for selecting the appropriate unit for collective bargaining : the
voluntary application of this principle throughout the industry has,
as already noted, resulted in a marked resurgence of single-plant
bargaining.
It would merely be a logical implementation of this principle for
the Board to direct self-determination elections in the instant cases,
permitting a choice by the employees in each plant between the Asso-
ciation-wide and the single-plant unit. In so doing, the Board would
simply be giving effect to the afore-mentioned agreement of the
Employer and the Intervenor to abide by the wishes of the majority
of the employees in each plant, except that the ascertainment of the
employees' wishes would not be left, as it now is, to informal investiga-
tion by the Employer. It would be determined by an election under
statutory safeguards.
8In 1948, the distribution was fairly typical. Of the 36 mills on the island, 32 belonged
to the Association. Of these, 19 signed contracts with locals of the Intervenor, adopting
the master contract, 5 signed with FLT, 5 signed with independent unions , 2 with C. G. T.
Autentica and 1 with UGT. Of the 4 mills not belonging to the Association, 1 signed with
a local of the Intervenor, 1 with FLT, 1 with an independent, and 1 with UGT.
Included in the foregoing enumeration are the contracts signed by the Employer as a
member of the Association with the locals in its four plants At Santa Juana , Juncos, and
Cayey the master contract was adopted . At Pasto Viejo the Employer signed a different
contract with an independent union. The instant petitions having been timely filed, no
Issue of contract bar is presented with respect to the Santa Juana and Juncos contracts.
EASTERN SUGAR ASSOCIATES 77
In view of these considerations, including the fact that collective
bargaining in the Puerto Rican Sugar industry has been effectively
and extensively conducted since the Wirshing case on the basis of a
single-plant, as well as an Association-wide, unit, we find that either
unit may now be appropriate, depending on the desires of the em-
ployees.9 We shall, however, make no final unit determinations at
this time, but shall first ascertain the desires of the employees as
expressed in the elections hereinafter directed. If a majority in each
election vote for the Petitioner, they will be taken to have indicated
their desire to constitute a separate unit; if a majority vote for the
Intervenor they will be taken to have indicated their desire to remain
part of the existing Association-wide unit.
Composition of unit
As already noted, the Petitioner in Case No. 38-RC-4, with the
concurrence of the Employer and Intervenor, wishes to include the
refining employees at Santa Juana in the same unit with the mill
employees. The refinery is housed in a separate building adjacent
to the mill and processes raw sugar produced at the mill. Both the
refinery and the mill have the same over-all supervision. Most of
the operations and job classifications in both plants are similar. While
the refinery employees, unlike the mill employees, have not heretofore
been covered by any collective bargaining contract, we find that there
is a sufficient community of interest between both group of employees
to warrant their inclusion in the same unit.
We shall, accordingly, direct elections by secret ballot among the
the employees in the following voting groups :
1. All production and maintenance employees at the Employer's
Santa Juana mill and refinery, including railroad and maintenance
of way employees, but excluding professional sugar boilers, office
and clerical employees, guards, professional employees, and all
supervisors.
2. All production and maintenance employees at the Employer's
Juncos mill, including railroad and maintenance of way employees,
but excluding professional sugar boilers, office and clerical employees,
guards, professional employees, and all supervisors.
The date of the elections
All the parties agree that, in view of the seasonal nature of the
Employer's operations, any election in this case should be conducted
In view of the Employer's own history of bargaining since 1947 on less than an em-
ployer-wide basis (see preceding footnote), we do not accept the Employer' s alternative
proposal that we find appropriate an employer-wide unit.
78 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
on a date in the months of March, April, or May, as these months con-
stitute the peak of the grinding season. We shall so provide in our
direction of elections.
DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the
purposes of collective bargaining with the Employer, elections by
secret ballot shall be conducted as early as possible in the months of
March, April, or May, 1949, on a date to be determined by the Re-
gional Director for the Region in which this case was heard, under the
supervision and direction of said Regional Director, and subject to
Sections 203.61 and 203.62 of National Labor Relations Board Rules
and Regulations-Series 5, as amended, among the employees in the
voting groups described above, who were employed during the pay-
roll period immediately preceding the date of the applicable elec-
tion, including employees who did not work during said pay-roll
period because they were ill or on vacation or temporarily laid off, 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, and also excluding employees on strike who are not entitled
to reinstatement, to determine whether they desire to be represented,
for purposes of collective bargaining, (1) in Case No. 38-RC-4, by
Union de Mecanicos, Maquinistas y Auxiliares de la Central Santa
Juana (FLT), or by Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Industria Azu-
carera (C. G. T., Inc.), or by neither; and (2) in Case No. 38-RC-5,
by Union de Fractoria, Vias y Obras de la Central Juncos, or by Sin-
dicato de Trabajadores de la Industria Azucarera (C. G. T., Inc.),
or by neither.