Ed White Junior Shoe Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jul 27, 1948

78 N.L.R.B. 530 (N.L.R.B. 1948)

In the Matter of ED WHITE JUNIOR SHOE COMPANY, EMPLOYER and
UNITED SHOE WORKERS OF AMERICA, C. I. 0., PETITIONER
Case No. 32-RC-21.-Decided July 27,1948
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed, a 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.
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3 (b) of the National Labor
Relations Act, the Board has delegated its powers in connection with
this case to a three-man panel consisting of the undersigned Board
Members. *
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the
National Labor Relations Act.
2. The labor organization named below claims 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 following employees of the Employer constitute a unit appro-
priate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning
of Section 9 (b) of the Act:
All production and maintenance employees of the Employer at its
Paragould, Arkansas, plant, excluding office and clerical employees
and supervisors.
5. The Employer seeks to postpone the election until January 1949
when it alleges that it will have an expanded and more stable com-
plement of employees. There were 167 employees in the unit as of
the hearing date with an estimated average efficiency of 60 percent.
* Chairman Herzog and Members Reynolds and Murdock.
78 N. L. R. B., No. 66.
530
ED WHITE JUNIOR SHOE COMPANY 531
The Employer presently has the space, machinery, and equipment to
produce 6,000 pairs of shoes a day which it asserts as its production
goal. Although it indicated that the present complement at ultimate
efficiency is capable of producing half of this amount, the Employer
estimates that 500 employees in the unit will be needed to achieve
its production goal. However, any expansion of the present comple-
ment of employees is dependent entirely upon business conditions and
ability to procure orders which, the Employer admitted, cannot be
predicted with any degree of certainty. In view of the speculative
character-of the anticipated expansion and the fact that there is a
substantial and representative working force currently employed in
the production of finished products, we shall direct an immediate
election.'
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the pur-
poses of collective bargaining with the Employer, an election by secret
ballot shall be conducted as early as possible, but not later than 30
days from the date of this Direction, under the direction and super-
vision of the Regional Director for the Region in which this case was
heard, and subject to Sections 203.61 and 203.62 of National Labor
Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 5, among the em-
ployees in the unit found appropriate in paragraph numbered 4, above,
who were employed during the pay-roll period immediately preceding
the date of this Direction of Election, 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 em-
ployees on strike who are not entitled to reinstatement, to determine
whether or not they desire to be represented, for purposes of collective
bargaining, by United Shoe Workers of America, C. I. O.
'Matter of Western Electric Company Tneorporated, 76 N. L R. B. 400; Matter of Inter-
national Harvester Company, 71 IN L. it. B. 680.