Farmers Insurance Group

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Apr 28, 1967

164 N.L.R.B. 233 (N.L.R.B. 1967)

FARMERS INSURANCE GROUP
Farmers Insurance Group and Insurance
Workers International Union , AFL-CIO,
Petitioner . Case 36-RC-2221.
April 28, 1967
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION
BY CHAIRMAN MCCULLOCH AND MEMBERS FANNING
AND ZAGORIA
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9(c) of the
National Labor Relations Act, as amended, a
hearing was held before Hearing Officer Dale B.
Cubbison, of the National Labor Relations Board.
The Hearing Officer's rulings made at the hearing
are free from prejudicial error and are hereby
affirmed. After the close of the hearing, the
Petitioner filed a brief with the Board.
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the
Act, the Board has delegated its powers in
connection with this case to a three-member panel.
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board
finds:
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within
the meaning of the Act and it will effectuate the
purposes of the Act to assert jurisdiction herein.
2. The labor organization involved claims to
represent certain employees of the Employer.
3. A question affecting commerce exists
concerning the representation of certain employees
of the Employer within the meaning of Section 9(c)(1)
and Section 2(6) and (7) of the Act.
4. The Petitioner seeks to represent a unit limited
to the approximately 24 underwriters working in the
Employer's Portland, Oregon, regional office. The
underwriters sought by the Petitioner are classified
as underwriter, senior underwriter, and multiple line
underwriter. The Employer contends that the
requested unit is inappropriate, but declined to take
a position as to what it considers to be an
appropriate unit. There is no history of collective
bargaining for these employees, and no union seeks
to represent a more comprehensive unit.
The Employer's operations are divided into a
number of departments, including the major
i Cf State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, 158
NLRB 925, where the Board found appropriate separate units of
field claim specialists and field claim representatives in the
employer's claims sections See also Metropolitan Life Insurance
Company (Woonsocket, R 1.), 156 NLRB 1408, and cases cited
therein.
2 The record shows that the underwriting clerks are clerical
employees whose work and interests are dissimilar from those of
the underwriters Cf North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance
Company, 109 NLRB 625,627
233
departments of underwriting and administrative
services, each headed by its own manager. Until 2
weeks prior to the hearing, the Employer required a
college degree or equivalent insurance or related
business experience for applicants for underwriters'
jobs. There is no similar educational requirement for
jobs in the administrative services department.
Approximately one-half of the present underwriters
have college degrees. Underwriters are among the
highest-salaried employees, and usually are the most
experienced of the Employer's employees. They
possess highly specialized skills that are mastered
only after approximately 1 year on the job,
irrespective of the underwriter's previous
experience or educational background. The
underwriters are separately supervised from the
employees in the other departments, and there is no
employee interchange between them and employees
in such departments. While there have been
permanent transfers into the underwriting
department from other departments, the transferred
employees were experienced employees from the
same or similar salary grade levels. All employees,
including underwriters, are governed by the same
personnel policies, and all have the same employee
fringe benefits.
Upon these facts, and the record as a whole, we
find that the employees in the underwriting
department, sought by the Petitioner, comprise a
homogeneous, identifiable, and distinct group with a
community of interests sufficiently distinct from that
of other employees of the Employer to warrant their
separate representation.'
Accordingly, we find that the following employees
of the Employer constitute a unit appropriate for
collective bargaining purposes within the meaning of
Section 9(b) of the Act:
All underwriters, senior underwriters, and
multiple underwriters employed by the Employer at
its Portland, Oregon, regional office, excluding all
other employees, underwriting clerks,2 supervisors,
and guards as defined in the Act.
[Text of Direction of Election3 omitted from
publication. ]
s An election eligibility list, containing the names and
addresses of all the eligible voters, must be filed by the Employer
with the Regional Director for Region 36 within 7 days after the
date of this Decision and Direction of Election. The Regional
Director shall make the list available to all parties to the election
No extension of time to file this list shall be granted by the
Regional Director except in extraordinary circumstances . Failure
to comply with this requirement shall be grounds for setting aside
the election whenever proper objections are filed . Excelsior
Underwear Inc., 156 NLRB 1236
164 NLRB No. 24