General Foods Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Dec 11, 1941

37 N.L.R.B. 481 (N.L.R.B. 1941)

In the Matter of DIAMOND CRYSTAL SALT DIvisION OF GENERAL FOODS
CORPORATION and LOCAL 12272, DISTRICT 50, GAS, COKE AND CHEAiI-
CAL DIVISION, UNITED MINE WORKERS Or AMERICA, AFFILIATED WITH
THE C. 1.0.
Case No. R-3216. Decided December 11, 1941
Jurisdiction : salt manufacturing industry.
Investigation and Certification of Representatives ': existence of question : refusal
of Company to accord union recognition until certified by the Board ; prior
certification of another union by the Board more • than three years before,
no bar to ; union previously certified by the Board, but no appearing at the
hearing, to be permitted to have its name placed on the ballot upon filing
request within five days; election necessary.
Unit Appropriate for Collective Bargaining : all hourly paid regular employees
of the Company, excluding supervisory, office, and clerical employees; watch-
men included notwithstanding contention of the Company that they have access
to confidential information and should be excluded, where they are paid on
an hourly basis and receive pay comparable to that of other employees, and.
since their admitted function is to protect, and not to possess, the Company's
confidential records
Mr. G. S. Herr, of New York City, for the Company. -
Mr. Stanley Dobry, of Detroit, Mich., and Mr. Marvin Arnold, of
St. Clair, Mich., for the U. M. W.
Mr. Robert R. Hendricks, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
On August 21, 1941, Local 12272, District 50, Gas, Coke and Chemi-
cal Division, United Mine Workers of America, affiliated with the
C. I. 0.,1 herein called the U. M. W., filed with the Regional Director
for the Seventh Region (Detroit, Michigan) a petition alleging that.
i Incoriectly named in the petition and other formal papers as District 50, United Aline
Workers of America, affiliated with the C I 0 At the hearing the petition and other
formal papers were amended to designate the petitioning union as Local 12272, District 50,
Gas, Coke and Chemical Division, United Aline workeis of America, affiliated with the
C I O
37 N. L R. B., No 79.
481
r
482 - DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS, BOARD
a question affecting commerce had arisen concerning the representation
of employees of the Diamond Crystal Salt Division of General Foods
Corporation, St. Clair, Michigan, herein called the Company, and
requesting an investigation and certification of representatives pur-
suant to Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act, 49 Stat.
449, herein called the Act. On October 10, 1941, the National Labor
Relations Board, herein called the Board, acting pursuant to Section
9 (c) of the Act, and Article III, Section 3, of National Labor Rela-
tions Board Rules and Regulations-Series 2, as amended, ordered an
investigation and authorized the Regional Director to conduct it and
to provide for an appropriate hearing upon due notice.
On October 16, 1941, the Regional Director issued a notice of
hearing, copies of which were duly served upon the Company, the
Ti. M. W., and Salt Workers Union No. 19567, affiliated with the
A. F. of L.,2 a labor organization affected by the investigation. Pur-
suant to notice, a hearing was held on October 27, 1941, at Detroit,
Michigan, before Woodrow J. Sandler, the Trial Examiner duly desig-
nated by the Chief Trial Examiner. The Company and the U. M. W.
were represented and participated in the hearing. Full opportunity
to be heard, to examine and cross-examine witnesses, and to introduce
evidence -bearing on the issues was afforded all parties. During the
course of the hearing, the Trial Examiner made various rulings on
motions and on objections to the admission of evidence. The Board
has reviewed the rulings of the Trial Examiner and finds that no
prejudicial errors were committed. The rulings are hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following:
FINDINGS OF FACT
I. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
Diamond Crystal Salt Division, a manufacturing unit of the Gen-
eral Foods Corporation, a Delaware corporation, is engaged in the,
manufacture of salt at St. Clair, Michigan. The Company sells all
of the salt manufactured at the St. Clair plant of the Diamond
Crystal Salt Division to the Diamond Crystal Salt Co., Inc., a sales
corporation wholly owned by the Company. During the year ending
July 1, 1941, all of the chemicals and approximately 86 per cent
of the raw salt used by the Company in its manufacture of salt at
the St. Clair plant were purchased at points outside the State of-
Michigan. During, the same year, the Diamond Crystal Salt Co.,
Inc., sold, without the State of Michigan, approximately 90 per cent
of the salt produced by the Diamond Crystal Salt Division of the
Company.
2 Salt Workers Union No. 19567 did not appear or participate in the hearing
DIAMOND CRYSTAL "SIALT ,
IT., THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED
483
Local 12272, District 50, Gas, Coke and Chemical Division, United
Mine Workers of America, is a labor organization affiliated with the
Congress of Industrial Organizations. It admits to membership em-
ployees of the Diamond Crystal Salt Division of the Company.
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
On 'August 19, 1941, a committee composed of members of the
petitioning union informed the Company, by letter, that the U. M. W.
claimed to represent a majority of the employees of the Diamond
Crystal Salt Division and requested a meeting with the Company
for the purpose of obtaining recognition by the Company as the
exclusive collective bargaining representative of its employees. The
Company, in reply, informed the U. M. W. that Salt Workers Union
No. 19567, affiliated with the A. F. of L., had been certified by the
Board on May 31, 1938, as the sole collective bargaining agent for
all production and maintenance employees of the Company at, its
St. Clair plant,3 and refused to recognize the U. M. W. until such
time as it had been certified by the Board. As noted above, Salt
Workers Union No. 19567'neither appeared or participated in the
hearing, nor did it snake any claim herein presently to represent,
for the purposes of collective bargaining, any of the employees
involved in this proceeding. The Board's certification 'of Salt
Workers Union No. 19567 on May 31, 1938, more than three years
ago, is no bar to a present determination of representatives.'
A statement of the Regional Director introduced into evidence at
the hearing discloses that the U. M. W. represents a substantial
number of employees in the unit alleged as appropriate.°
We find that a question has arisen, concerning the representation
of employees of the Company.
IV. THE EFFECT OF THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION UPON
COMMERCE
We find that the question concerning representation which has
arisen, occurring in connection with the operations of, the Company
3 See Matter of Diamond Ci ystal Salt Division, Gene) at Foods Corporation and Salt
lVorl„eis union No 19567, 7 N L It B 563
' See -11atter o/ La Plant-Choate Manufacturing Co, Inc and nUited Farm Equipment
1Vorl ers Organi inq Committee, Local 116, affiliated with the C 1 0 , 29 N L R B, No 7;
Matter of 1l'ilcon it Co, Inc and International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs,
Stablemen and helpers of America, Local #202, of Bated with the A F of L , 25 N L
R B 938 -
,The Regional Di!ector repotted that the U AT W submitted 166 applications for mem-
bership, that all of the applications bore the apparently genuine signatures of persons
whose names appeared on the Company's pay roll of August 23, 1941 ; and that the pay
roll of August 23, 1941, listed 317 employees in the unit alleged as appropriate
484 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
described in Section I above, has a close, intimate, and substantial
relation to trade, traffic, and commerce among the several States
and tends to lead to labor disputes burdening and obstructing com-
merce and the free flow of commerce.
V. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT
The U. M. W. contends that the appopriate unit consists of "all
hourly-paid regular employees of the Company at its St. Clair, Mich-
igan, plant, excluding supervisory and office and clerical employees."
The Company agrees that such unit is appropriate except insofar
as it purports to include watchmen employed at the St. Clair plant.
The U. M. W. asks that the watchmen be included in the unit.
The ;watchmen, of whom there were six regularly employed in the
St. Clair plant at the date of hearing, patrol the Company's premises,
in shifts, on a daily 24-hour basis. Several of them are members
of the U. M. W. Certain other regular employees are, upon occa-
sion, temporarily assigned to work as watchmen. Like the regular
production and maintenance employees of the Company, the watch-
men work eight hours a day and are paid on an hourly basis. The
rate of pay which they receive compares with that received by other
hourly paid employees of the plant. They were not excluded from
the unit found appropriate in the prior proceeding.,'
The Company contends that the watchmen should be excluded
from the unit on the ground that the watchmen are specially selected
employees who, in their nightly rounds of inspection have the oppor-
tunity to gain access to the Company's unlocked files and records
which contain not only labor and personnel data, but also other
valuable trade information. We find no merit in this contention.
The admitted function of the watchmen is to protect, not to possess,
the Company's property and confidential records. We shall include
the watchmen in the unit.
We find that all hourly paid regular employees of the Company at
the St. Clair, Michigan, plant of its Diamond Crystal Salt Division,
excluding supervisory, office, and clerical employees, but including
watchmen, constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collec-
tive bargaining, and that said unit will insure to employees of the
Diamond Crystal Salt Division of the Company the full benefit of
their right to self-organization and to collective bargaining and other-
wise will effectuate the policies of the Act.
7 N L R B 563 In that proceeding the parties stipulated, and we found therein,
that the production and maintenance employees of the Company at its St Clair plant,
exclusive of clerical, supervisory, and temporary employees," constituted an appropriate
unit
DIAMOND CRY STAL SALT
VI. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
485.
We find that the question concerning representation which has,
arisen can best be ' resolved by the holding of an election by secret
ballot. In view of the fact that Salt Workers Union No. 19567 did not
appear at the hearing and present evidence that it represents, at the
present time, any of the employees in the unit found to be appropriate,,
we shall not provide a place for it on the ballot. We shall, however,,
grant permission to Salt Workers Union No. 19567 to have its name
placed upon the ballot if it so desires and if it so notifies, in writing, the
Regional Director for the Seventh Region within five (5) days from
the date of this Decision and Direction of Election. In accordance
with our usual practice, we shall direct that the employees at' the
St. Clan, Michigan, plant of the Diamond Crystal Salt Division of the
Company eligible to vote in the election shall be those in the appro-
priate unit who were employed during the pay-roll period immediately
preceding the date of the Direction of Election herein, subject to the
limitations and additions set forth in the Direction.
Upon the basis of the above findings of fact and upon the entire
record in the case, the Board makes the following:
CONCLUSIONS OF LAW
1. A question affecting commerce has arisen concerning the, repre-
sentation of employees at the St. Clair, Michigan, plant of the Dia-
mond Crystal Salt Division of General Foods Corporation, within the
meaning of Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
2. All hourly paid regular employees of the Company at the St.
Clair, Michigan , plant of its Diamond Crystal Salt Division , excluding
supervisory , office, and clerical employees , but including watchmen,
constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining
within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
By virtue of and pursuant to the power vested in the National
Labor Relations Board by Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Rela-
tions Act, and pursuant to Article III, Section 8, of National Labor
Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 2, as amended, it is.
hereby
DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation authorized by the Board
to ascertain representatives for the purposes of collective bargaining
with Diamond Cyrstal Salt Division of General Foods Corporation,,
St. Clair, Michigan, an election by secret ballot shall be,conducted as
early as possible, but not later than thirty (30) days from the date of
433257-42-vOL.37 32
486 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS, BOARD
this Direction, under the direction and supervision of the Regional
Director for the Seventh Region, acting in this matter as agent for the
National Labor Relations Board, and subject to Article III, Section 9,
of said Rules and Regulations, among all hourly paid regular em-
ployees of the Company at the St. Clair, Michigan, plant of its Dia-
mond Crystal Salt Division who were employed during the pay-roll
period immediately preceding the date of this Direction of Election,
including watchmen and employees who did not work during such
pay-roll period because they were ill or on vacation or in the active
military service or training of the United States, or temporarily laid
off, but excluding supervisory, office, and clerical employees, and em-
ployees who have since quit or been discharged for cause, to determine
%i Nether or not they desire to be represented by Local 12272, District
50, Gas, Coke and Chemical Division, United Mine Workers of Amer-
ica, affiliated with the C. 1. 0., for the purposes of collective bargaining.