Encinitas Floral Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Dec 11, 1975

221 N.L.R.B. 1118 (N.L.R.B. 1975)

1118 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Encinitas Floral Company , Robert R. Hall, Inc., H-M
Flowers, Inc., and Manatee Company and United
Farm Workers of America , AFL-CIO. Case AO-
175
December 11, 1975
ADVISORY OPINION
BY CHAIRMAN MILLER AND MEMBERS
FANNING, JENKINS, AND PENELLO
This petition for advisory opinion, with exhibits
attached, was filed on October 3', 1975, by Encinitas
Floral Company, Robert R. Hall, Inc., H-M Flowers,
Inc., and Manatee Company, herein called Petition-
ers, pursuant to Sections 102.98 and 102.99 of the
National Labor.Relations Board's Rules and Regula-
tions, Series 8, as amended, for a determination
whether the Board would assert jurisdiction over one
of the Petitioners herein, H-M Flowers, Inc.
In pertinent part, the petition, with exhibits
attached, alleges as follows:
1. There is pending before the Agricultural Labor
Relations Board of the State of California, herein
called State Agricultural Board, a petition filed by
United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO, herein
called Farm Workers, docketed as 75-RC-20-R,
seeking certification of all agricultural employees of
Petitioners.'
2. Petitioners are all corporations duly organized
and existing under, and by virtue of, the laws of the
State • of California with their principal places of
business located in the county of San Diego, State of
California. Petitioners share a commonality of
ownership by various citizens of the State of
California. Petitioner, H-M Flowers, Inc., is engaged
in the business of purchasing, packaging, shipping,
I The Petitioners filed a petition for stay of proceedings with the State
Agricultural Board requesting that the said Board stay the filing of the
petition for certification or, in the alternative, stay the proceedings pending
an advisory opinion of the National Labor Relations Board.
2 Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board (George Junior Republic), 215
and selling cut flowers to flower wholesalers, which it
purchases from the other Petitioners herein, and
from approximately 17 unrelated growers, with
whom there is no ownership relationship. During the
period form May 1, 1974, to April 30, 1975, H-M
Flowers, Inc., had a total volume of sales in excess of
$1 million, all of which sales represented shipments
outside the State of California.
3. The above commerce data has been neither
admitted nor denied by the Farm Workers, nor has
the State Agricultural Board made any findings in
connection therewith.
4. There is no representation or unfair labor
practice proceeding involving H-M Flowers, Inc., or
the Farm Workers pending before this Board.
5. Although served with a copy of the petition for
advisory opinion, no response, as provided by the
Board's Rules and Regulations, has been filed by any
party.
The Board has duly considered the allegations of
the petition. The Board's advisory opinion proceed-
ings are designed primarily to determine questions of
jurisdiction by application of the Board's discretion-
ary standards to the "commerce" operations of an
employer.2 The basic issue presented herein is
whether the employees of one Petitioner herein, H-M
Flowers, Inc., are agricultural laborers and, there-
fore, not employees within the meaning of Section
2(3) of the National Labor Relations Act. As this
issue does not fall within the intendment of the
Board's advisory opinion rules, we shall dismiss the
petition herein.3
Accordingly, it is hereby ordered that, for the
reasons set forth above, the petition for an advisory
opinion herein be, and it hereby is, dismissed.
NLRB No. 55 (1974); Robert C. Coleman, et a!, 180 NLRB 529 (1969);
International Air Service, Inc of San Juan, Puerto Rico, 165 NLRB 584
(1967)
3 Ibid
221 NLRB No. 177