Farah Manufacturing Co., Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Sep 22, 1970

185 N.L.R.B. 696 (N.L.R.B. 1970)

696 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Farah Manufacturing Company, Inc. and Amalgamat-
ed Clothing Workers of America , AFL-CIO, Peti-
tioner Case 28-RC-2023
September 22, 1970
DECISION AND ORDER
BY CHAIRMAN MILLER AND MEMBERS FANNING
AND BROWN
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9(c) of
the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, a
hearing was held before Hearing Officer Robert E.
Harding. Following the hearing and pursuant to Sec-
tion 102.67 of the National Labor Relations Board
Rules and Regulations and Statements of Procedure,
Series 8, as amended, and by direction of the Regional
Director for Region 28, this case was transferred
to the National Labor Relations Board for decision.
Both the Employer and the Petitioner have filed
briefs.'
Pursuant 'to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the
National Labor Relations Act, as amended, the
National Labor, , Relations Board has delegated its
powers in connection with this case to a three-member
panel.
The Board has reviewed the Hearing Officer's rul-
ings made at the hearing and finds that they are
free from prejudicial error. They are hereby confirmed.
Upon the entire record in this case, including the
briefs filed herein, the Board finds:
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within
the meaning of the Act and it will effectuate the
policies of the Act to assert jurisdiction herein.
2. The labor organization involved claims to repre-
sent certain employees of the Employer.
3. No question affecting commerce exists concerning
the representation of certain employees of the Employ-
er within the meaning of Section 9(c)(1) and Section
2(6) and (7) of the Act, for the following reason.
4. The Employer is a Texas corporation engaged
in the manufacture and distribution of men's and
boys' trousers. Its operations are conducted at three
locations in El Paso, and one location in San Antonio,
Texas, which is approximately 600 miles from El
Paso. It employs over 6,000 persons, excluding man-
agement and supervisors, professional employees,
guards, and office clerical employees, at its El Paso
I Petitioner has also filed a motion requesting that the Board take
official notice of the entire record in Cases 28-CA-1886 and 28-CA-
1977 Inasmuch as the record adequately sets forth the facts necessary
for the Board to make a determination of the unit issue in this representa-
tion proceeding , we deny the motion
locations.2 Petitioner seeks a unit limited to all full-
time and regular part-time employees employed in
the shipping and warehouse department located in
the Gateway Main building at the Employer's facilities
at 8889 Gateway Boulevard West, El Paso, Texas,
including plant clericals, receiving employees, return
clerks and cleanup men but excluding all office clerical
and professional employees, confidential employees,
interviewers, production and maintenance employees,
machine shop employees, print shop employees,' clinic
employees, cafeteria employees, receiving employees
east of the plant's main corridor, inspectors, over-
the-road truck drivers, local truck drivers, bus drivers,
temporary and casual employees, guards, watchmen,
and supervisors as defined in the Act.'
The Employer contends that such unit limited to
only a segment of its integrated facility is clearly
inappropriate. The Employer further contends that
the Petitioner's desire for the above unit is too restric-
tive in scope and is based solely upon the extent
of organization which, as a controlling factor in the
Board's determination, is prohibited by the Act. Fur-
ther, in view of statements by its counsel made at
the hearing and set forth in its brief, it appears
that the ultimate position of the Employer is that
the only appropnate unit would consist of at least
all of its plants located in El Paso. The Petitioner
states that it will participate in an election among
the employees only in the unit it seeks with some
minor variations which it declined to elaborate upon
for purposes of an alternative unit.
The record shows that at the Gateway facility
out of approximately 3,000 employees about 280-
300 work in jobs which the Petitioner seeks to include
in its unit. As previously indicated, these employees
work in Phase I of three Phases in the main building.
All raw material, principally rolls of cloth, is received
in Phase III at the east end of the main building.
The material is there inspected and cut at which
time it is shipped to other El Paso facilities (Gateway
Main, Third Street, or Paisano) or to San Antonio,
These El Paso plants include the Third Street plant where 1,300
are employed , the Paisano plant , 2,000 employees, and its Gateway
facility, which consists of three buildings, northwest building, machine
shop and Gateway Main, in which buildings approximately 3,000 are
employed
The parties stipulate that these employees should be excluded
The Gateway Main building is approximately 2,000 feet long and
400 feet wide , and consists of three sections , Phase I which was an
existing structure into which the Employer moved part of its operations
in 1965, Phase II was an additional section built onto Phase I in 1966-
67, the two Phases are separated by a 20 foot corridor Phase III was
built in 1968 All three sections or phases, as they are referred to
in the record, are under the same roof The employees sought in the
petition work in Phase I of Gateway Main It is noted that there are
employees , other than those in Phase I, who are performing shipping
and warehouse functions who are permanently assigned to Phase III
whom the Petitioner would not include in the unit sought
185 NLRB No. 92
FARAH MANUFACTURING COMPANY
for the completion of sewing operations. The sewn
garments from all plants are then returned to the
Gateway Main building for final processing. These
goods reenter Gateway Main at the shipping and
receiving area in Phase III from which they leave
and are then transported to a floor storage area
in Phase II where they await the next operations,
pressing and oven-curing. When the goods come out
of the ovens they are once again separated by style
and numbers in order to ease and speed the work
of attaching labels. After labeling, the finished goods
are moved, either by Phase I or Phase II employees
into Phase I for another counting, and separation,
by size, color, and style, preparatory to storing. They
are then taken by stockers to a storage area in Phase
I where they are stored on shelves until there is
a customer order calling for them. Customer orders,
which specify size, color, style, and quality, are given
to order pullers who go into the shelves and select
the trousers designated for movement to another work
distribution area . From the work-distribution area
the goods are assigned to various packing tables where
they are hand separated by style and color. A final
visual inspection is made, loose threads are clipped
off and defective merchandise removed. The trousers
are checked against the customer order and and
packed in cartons. The cartons are then sent to a
shipping area where they are stenciled, and bills of
lading and truck manifests are prepared and attached
to the cartons. The cartons are then loaded onto
trucks and shipped out.
From the time the employees in the petitioned-
for group enter the premises they follow the same
routine as other Gateway Main employees. They
punch a timeclock used by other employees, and
their work area is regularly shared with the print
shop employees and some office employees and is
frequently entered by employees and supervisors from
Phases II and III. A number of the requested employ-
ees, as part of their normal duties, travel into Phases
II and III for goods, supplies and materials, and
others are temporarily assigned there or even to other
buildings. All employees use the same health, rest,
and cafeteria facilities.
The record further shows that there are employees
both outside and inside the Petitioner's requested
unit who regularly and as part of their permanently
assigned jobs perform traditional receiving, warehous-
ing, and shipping duties. Phase III employees receive
and store rolls of cloth just as Phase I employees
receive and store finished goods. They select rolls
of cloth for cutting orders just as Phase I employees
select finished goods for customer orders. During
the annual inventory they count rolls of cloth at
the same time the finished goods are being counted
697
in Phase I. They also ship rolls of cloth following
the same packing, weighing, and stenciling procedures
that Phase I employees follow in shipping finished
goods. The separation processes performed in Phase
I when finished goods are received from Phase II
are paralleled by the separation processes performed
by Phase II employees prior to shipment for selling
and preparatory to the label-attaching operation.
Phase II sewing employees operate the machine that
bags white pants in the plastic in which they are
stored and shipped. This function is closely akin
to the packaging functions performed by Phase I
employees and was formerly performed by Phase
I employees.
Aside from the similarities of duties also performed
by employees outside the unit sought, the record
further shows that at various times during the year
employees are pooled from all of the Employer's
facilities for such purposes as inventory, sample work,
label-changing operations for irregulars, price changes,
and major painting or maintenance work.
In addition to the interchange and similarity of
duties performed by employees in other than the
petitioned-for Unit, the record shows that on occasion
there have been permanent transfers into and out
of Phase I. In the 15-month period from January
1, 1969, through March 31, 1970, there were 21
permanent transfers of employees into, and 9 out
of, the petitioned-for group.'
Further, although the Petitioner basically seeks a
unit of all shipping and receiving employees in Phase
I of the Gateway Main building, it also would include
some employees-store-returns clerks, some label
printers, "clean-up men", label attachers-whose
duties cannot be identified as receiving, warehousing,
or shipping functions; while excluding Phase III ship-
ping and receiving employees, Phase III order pullers,
and Phase II baggers and loaders, shippers, separaters,
and checkers throughout all facilities of the Employer
who perform similar duties in receiving, warehousing
and shipping.
In view of the foregoing, and all the facts as
disclosed in the record, we are persuaded that the
requested group does not possess a degree of functional
distinctness and autonomy which would warrant a
finding that they have a separate community of interest
apart from the other employees. We find, therefore,
that the unit sought is too narrow in scope to be
' During the hearing the Petitioner alleged that the evidence as to
permanent transfers should be ignored as such transfers were effectuated
in an effort to defeat the present unit claim The Petitioner adduced
no evidence in support of this allegation However, we note that the
number of transfers substantially increased after the advent of union
activity
698 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
appropriate.6 Accordingly, as the Petitioner does not ORDER
seek and has specifically excluded from consideration
whether certain employees should be included in a It is hereby ordered that the petition in Case 28-
broader appropriate unit, we shall dismiss the petition RC-2023 be, and it hereby is, dismissed.
herein.
Compare Riker Laboratories, 156 NLRB 1099