G. C. Murphy Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Aug 9, 1956

116 N.L.R.B. 546 (N.L.R.B. 1956)

546 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
G.•'C. -Murphy Company and Retail , Wholesale and Department
Store Union, AFL -CIO ,. Petitioner . Case No. 6-RC-1763.
August 9,1956.
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, a hearing was held before Emil E. Narick, hearing of-
ficer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from
prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in this,case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the Act.
2. The labor organization involved 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 parties are in basic agreement as to the appropriateness, for
bargaining purposes, of a plantwide unit of employees, including plant
clerical employees and working. foremen, but excluding ,office clerical
employees, watchmen, the nurse, and part-time, temporary, seasonal,
and vacation-time employees., However, the Petitioner would exclude
and the Employer would include the following categories of employees :
12 warehouse buyers; 2 merchandise managers; the traffic manager
and the assistant' traffic manager; 2 floor foremen; and the general
foreman. The Employer's employees are not currently represented
by any labor organization.'
The Employer is a, Pennsylvania,corporation engaged in the opera-
tion of a chain of retail stores, with its _principal.office and warehouse
located in McKeesport, Pennsylvania. Employees at this warehouse
are the only employees of the,Employer involved in ,this proceeding.
A general manager has, overall supervision of the warehouse, and
is aided by two assistants, the, operations manager and the personnel
manager. The warehouse itself consists of three floors, the bottom
floor or basement being used for production and shipping, the ground
floor being used for production and receiving, and the top floor being
occupied by offices. - ' The primarypurpose of,the,warehouse is to receive
and stock merchandise for reshipment to the Employer's retail stores.
The Petitioner con'te'nds that; the warehouse buyers' should be ex-
cluded because their int'er'ests ' are 'different from those bf the 'other
1 All the above 'disputed employees are salaried . However, the Employer's sole, criteria
for differentiating between salaried and hourly paid.employees is, length of service, and,
except for time off with pay', all salaried and hourly, paid employees receive the same
benefits.
116 NLRB No. 76.
G. C. MURPHY 'COMPANY''' ' 547
employees in the requested unit. The record shows that the ware-
house buyers 'work -under' the direction 'of- the :merchandise ,managers
in the basement, or first floor, of the warehouse. Their duties consist
of keeping inventories of stock on hand in.the warehouse and in order-
ing replacements for such stock from the home office from lists supplied
by the home office. Their title, therefore, is a misnomer,-as they do not
actually purchase merchandise.- These employees are promoted from
production departments, work in the production area of the warehouse,
and do not direct the work of other employees. Neither do they
possess any of the other statutory indicia of supervisors. We find,
therefore, that the warehouse buyers are not supervisors, but -rather,
that they are plant clerical employees. Accordingly, we find that they
have sufficient community of interest with the other employees sought
to warrant their -inclusion in the unit?
The merchandise managers direct the work of the warehouse buyers
in securing information and preparing reports to ,be sent to the home
office, and coordinate the work of these employees. The merchandise
managers are responsible only to the general manager of the ware-
house and to the home office merchandise buyer. They are located in
the main office on the third floor, of the warehouse, and, although they
spend perhaps 25 percent of their time in production departments,
they perform no manual labor. Although the merchandise managers
do not have the authority to hire and discharge, they do have authority
to make work assignments to the warehouse buyers. and to discipline
these employes, and they are members of a committee which anmially
^eviews-the wages of all employees and recommends raises and promo-
tions: -Accordingly, we i find that the, merchandise managers are su-
pervisors, and we shall exclude -them from the unit.'
The traffic manager is responsible directly to the general manager
of the warehouse. He determines the routing of shipments subject
to the approval-of the, hom&•office, and handles claims on goods re-
ceived in' the warehouse and on goods that are shipped from the ware-
house to retail stores of the-Employer. •, He also keeps records of the
tonnage handled by different carriers, and maintains records pertain-
ing to coverages, shortages, and damages. ' He spends 35'percent of his
time in the.production departments. The traffic manager has no au-
thority to hire, discharge; or effectively recomnieiid such action, nor
does he have the authority, to lay off, or recall employees or, to handle
grievances. While he does direct the work of the assistant traffic
manager, it is the type of direction customarily exercised .by experi-
enced employees over those, who are less skilled. We find 'that the
2 Western Electric Company, Incorporated, 100 NLRB 420 . Cf. American Broadcasting
Company, 107 NLRB 74. '
'Safe Harbor Water Power Corporation , 109,NLRB 1365 . Cf. American Litho fold
Corporation, 107 NLRB 1061.
548 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
traffic manager is not a supervisor as defined in the Act, and that he
has sufficient community of interest with the rest of the warehouse
employees to warrant his inclusion in the unit.'
The assistant traffic manager was promoted from the shipping de-
partment. He is located in the main office on the third floor of the
warehouse where he works under the immediate direction of the
traffic manager, but spends approximately 35 percent of his time in
the production departments. The duties of the assistant traffic man-
ager are primarily clerical in nature. We find that lie is a plant cleri-
cal employee, and we shall include him in the unit .5
Each of the floor foremen is in charge of approximately 100 em-
ployees working on their assigned floors. Each has an office, is not
required to do manual work, has the authority to assign work and to
transfer employees on his assigned floor, and is directly responsible
to the general foreman for operations on his floor. Each is also re-
sponsible for keeping stocks of merchandise moving to the shipping
department in sufficient quantities to permit maintenance of shipping
schedules. We find that the floor foremen responsibly direct the
work of other employees and are therefore supervisors within the
meaning of the Act. Accordingly, we shall exclude then.
The general foreman directs and coordinates the work of the floor
foremen. As we have found that the latter are supervisors, we find
that the general foreman is also a supervisor, and we shall likewise
exclude him from the unit.
We find, therefore, that the following employees at the Employer's
warehouse located at 31st Street and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, constitute a unit appropriate for the
purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9
(b) of the Act:
All warehouse employees, including plant. clerical employees, work-
ing foremen,e warehouse buyers, the traffic manager, and the assist
-ant traffic manager, but excludingoffice clerical employees, the nurse,
part-time, temporary , seasonal , and vacation employees, watchmen,
guards, merchandise managers, floor foremen, the general foreman,
and supervisors as defined in the Act.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.]
MEMBER MURDOCK took no part in the consideration of the above
Decision and Direction of Election.
' Piet Brothers , 109 NLRB 894, 897 and cases cited therein.
B A. 0. Smith Corporation, 102 NLRB 1116; H. P. Wasson and Company. 104 NLRB 249.
9 There are approximately 23 employees in the category of working foreman. The record
shows that these employees speedup to 90 percent of their time working with the produc-
tion employees . The parties stipulate , and we find , that the working foremen are not
supervisors within the meaning of the Act.