General Shoe Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

May 22, 1957

117 N.L.R.B. 1704 (N.L.R.B. 1957)

1704 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
General Shoe Corporation and Boot & Shoe Workers ' Union,
AFL-CIO, Petitioner. Case No. 10-RC-3396. May 292,1957
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 Edwin R. Hancock, hearing
officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free
from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed except as noted below.'
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 certain em-
ployees of the Employer z
3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the representa-
tion 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 a unit of all production and maintenance
employees at the Employer's Trinity Lane Plant (also known as
Southern Sole) which is located on the outskirts of the city of Nash-
ville, Tennessee. The Employer contends that, because of integrated
operations and centralized control, the appropriate unit should con-
sist of the production and maintenance employees in all the shoe manu-
facturing plants, processing terminals, and supply sections of its
Southern Shoe Manufacturing Division, located in five States, of
which the Trinity Lane plant is a part. In the alternative, the Em-
ployer maintains that the 10 plants in the Nashville areas possess a
degree of integration and centralized control which preclude the
1 At the hearing, the Employer challenged the Petitioner's compliance with Section
9 (h) of the Act and moved to dismiss the petition on the ground that under the
Petitioner 's constitution general auditors are designated as officers and that such auditors
had not filed the required non-Communist affidavits The hearing officer permitted the
parties to adduce evidence with respect to this matter, and referred to the Board the
Employer's motion to dismiss the petition We find that the hearing officer erred in
permitting the parties to litigate the fact of the Petitioner's compliance in this proceeding
as there was no issue before the hearing officer which involved the interpretation of
statutory language Desaulniers and Company, 115 NLRB 1025 . A party seeking to
challenge the fact of compliance of a labor organization may do so only by filing a motion
for an administrative determination of compliance completely separate and apart from a
representation or complaint case On receipt of such a motion the Board decides whether
the facts therein alleged warrant a hearing or a redetermination of a labor organization's
compliance status in the administrative proceeding Standard Cigar Company, 117
NLRB 852; Shoe Corporation of America, 117 NLRB 1208. Accordingly, we deny
the Employer 's motion to dismiss the petition
2 As it is undisputed the Petitioner is an organization which admits employees to
membership and exists for the purpose of dealing with employers concerning wages, rates
of pay, hours of employment , and other conditions of work , we find, contrary to the
Employer 's contention , that the Petitioner is a labor organization within the meaning of
Section 2 of the Act . General Shoe Corporation , 113 NLRB 905
3 These plants are : Trinity Lane, 63d Ave , 56th Ave ., Broad St., Craighead Ave.,
Chemical , Woodland St, Charlotte Ave, Main St , and Die and Last Storage.
117 NLRB No. 212.
GENERAL SHOE CORPORATION 1705
establishment of any unit smaller than a unit of all the Nashville area
plants.
Except for current contract negotiations between the Petitioner and
the Employer affecting the production and maintenance employees at
the Employer's Cowan, Tennessee, plant,4 there is no history of collec-
tive bargaining for the employees ,at any of the plants in the Nashville
area or Southern Shoe Manufacturing Division. However, a sub-
stantial number of representation cases in which the Petitioner sought
collective-bargaining rights for production and maintenance em-
ployees in single plants of the Employer, including the Trinity Lane
plant here in question, resulted in Board decisions finding such single
plant units appropriate.'
The Southern Shoe Manufacturing Division is comprised of about
30 plants, employing some 8,500 employees, located in the States of
Tennessee , Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, and Virginia. The 10
plants in the Nashville area, which organizationally are part of the
Southern Shoe Manufacturing Division, are all located within a radius
of 5 miles from the Central Office Building. The Nashville area plants
employ some 2,000 employees.
The record in the present proceeding, as well as the records in prior
proceedings, establish that all the plants in the Southern Shoe Manu-
facturing Division are under centralized control both as to production
and industrial relations. Thus, it is shown that ultimate control rests
with a central administrative committee which promulgates policies
with respect to production requirements, allocations of products and
wages, hours and conditions of employment, and other labor relations
matters. Policies which are thus formulated and approved by the
central committee are applied to the entire Southern Shoe Manufactur-
ing Division, including the Nashville area plants. Communication of
such policies and their implementation are the function of certain
subordinate committees and departments, running from the industrial
relations director and his staff to divisional managers and personnel
directors. Centrally established policies cannot be changed at local
levels. These facts indicate that a division-wide unit may be appro-
priate. However, they do not necessarily establish that a single plant
unit may not also be ,appropriate, as the Board has held in previous
cases involving this company.
The Trinity Lane plant, which has been in operation for approxi-
mately 8 years, produces the soles and other items that go into the
• The Petitioner was certified as the bargaining representative of the production and
maintenance employees at the Employer's Cowan, Tennessee , plant. See General Shoe
Corporation, 113 NLRB 905.
6 General Shoe Corporation , 114 NLRB 381 , 113 NLRB 905 , 109 NLRB 618 . Case No.
10-RC-41 ( Southern Sole ) ; Case No . 10-RC-1572 ( Southern Sole) ; Case No. 10-RC-3065
( McMinnville , Tennessee ) Case No 10-RC-3125 ( Tullahoma , Tennessee ) ; and Case No.
10-RC-3280 ( Gallatin , Tennessee) not reported in printed volumes of Board Decisions and
Orders.
1706 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
bottom part of the shoe.' The fabrication of these items involves a
diversity of operations. Leather and other materials, from which the
items are fashioned, are cut, skived, split, buffed, graded, sorted, de-
fleshed, and degrained. Normally, the plant receives most of its raw
materials from the 63d Avenue plant, which is the central warehous-
ing and processing terminal for the entire Company. After proc-
essing, the fabricated items are returned to the terminal. There they
are consolidated and shipped by company truck to the various shoe
assembly plants of the Company. The items produced by Trinity
Lane are incorporated at the shoe assembly plants in the final shoe
assembly.
Trinity Lane employs some 205 production and maintenance em-
ployees. It is the only plant whose entire production facilities are used
in the manufacture of the shoe soles and related items. It is practically
the only source of supply of these items' for all of the shoe assembly
plants of the entire Company, including those in the Southern Shoe
Manufacturing Division and the Nashville area. Trinity Lane has
its own plant superintendent who has complete charge of the entire
plant and is responsible for its successful functioning. He has the
authority to hire, lay off, recall, and discipline employees or to recom-
mend such action to the board of directors. Supervisory authority is
also exercised by an assistant plant manager, who also performs cer-
tain personnel functions, and by a department manager who is re-
sponsible for employee training and work performance.
Like other plants of the Employer, Trinity Lane has a separate
plant seniority system for some purposes., Grievances can be settled
at plant level. Trinity Lane has a "round table" committee of em-
ployees whose function it is to discuss employee grievances with the
superintendent. A job training, or security, program, which enables
an employee to train for a lower rated job in the event of a decrease
in employment, is limited to transfers within the plant. Similarly,
promotions are not subject to bidding by outside employees. Trinity
Lane also has its own sick benefit plan. Most employees at Trinity
-Lane are paid on a piece-rate basis and, in Trinity Lane as in other
plants, piece rates are in a large measure determined by conditions in
a particular plant.
In view of the foregoing facts, particularly the large measure of
autonomy existing at Trinity Lane, the absence of any bargaining
e The following are some of the items produced : fiber insoles , laminated insoles, cushion
insoles, sblcca insoles, texon insoles, leather outsoles , leather insoles , rubber soles, last in-
creasers , cookies or arch supporters , flexible splits , midsoles , box toes, dutchmen , tucks,
platforms , wedges and shanks, and rubber top lifts.
I Small quantities of soles and other component parts are also ' processed in some of the
shoe assembly plants in the Nashville area. The 56th Avenue plant cuts certain large sizes
of soles which are then shipped to Trinity Lane for further processing . The Main Street
plant processes some cookies and the 57th Avenue plant some box toes . Sbicca soles,
which have been cut at Trinity Lane, are sent to the Charlotte Avenue plant for split-
ting , and part of the sole is returned to Trinity Lane for further processing.
GENERAL SHOE CORPORATION 1707
history of a multiplant nature, and the absence of a union seeking a
unit of larger geographical scope, it appears that a unit of production
and maintenance employees at Trinity Lane is appropriate," unless,
as contended by the Employer, there exists a degree of integration
among the Nashville area plants which precludes the establishment
of a single plant unit.
In our opinion, there is little evidence in the record to support this
contention. For one thing, the plants in the Nashville area do not
constitute either an administrative or operational unit. Operation-
ally, the Southern Shoe Manufacturing Division contains three sub-
divisions known as Circle, Pyramid, and Triangle, each subdivision
incorporating within its administrative orbit a certain number of
plants producing a particular type of shoe.9 A fourth division, of
which Trinity Lane is a part and which also includes the chemical
plant and the 56th Avenue shoe assembly plant, is known as the Supply
Division. The remaining plants in the Nashville area, that is, the
,63d Avenue warehouse and processing terminal, the Broad Street
and Craighead Avenue shipping terminals, the Woodland Street com-
missary plant, and the die and last storage plant apparently belong to
no particular subdivision. Each subdivision, has its own divisional
general manager and personnel director, although, to a certain extent,
Nashville area plant community activities are coordinated by a per-
sonnel director appointed for the Nashville area, but whose respon-
sibility is not exclusive in some of the Nashville area plants. Further-
more, contrary to the Employer's contention, there is little evidence
of a present substantial interchange or transfer of operations and
employees 10 between Trinity Lane and the other Nashville area in-
stallations as to obliterate their separate, identities.
Accordingly, we find that a unit of production and maintenance
employees at the Trinity Lane plant is appropriate.
8 See cases cited supra , footnote 5
We do not consider our decision in Case No 10-RC-2513 , involving the 03d Avenue
warehouse and processing terminal , as determinative of the question of the appropriate-
ness of a Trinity Lane plant unit In the earlier case , the petitioner sought only a segment
of a plant unit In the face of evidence showing centralized control and integration
among the Nashville area plants , and the absence of evidence showing the appro-
priateness of a segment of a plant unit, the Board dismissed the petition . However, in
so doing , the Board did not find that the only appropriate unit was a unit consisting
of all Nashville area plants Moreover , the record before the Board in the present case
is more comprehensive on the question of integration , centralized control, and separate
plant autonomy than in the earlier case
9 The Charlotte Avenue plant is part of the Circle Division and the Main Street plant
part of the Triangle Division . The 56th Avenue plant, however , although a shoe as-
sembly plant , is part of the Supply Division.
w Although a substantial number of employees were transferred to Trinity Lane in
1947 and 1952 from other installations of the Employer, such transfers appear to have
been part of a plan to consolidate certain operations at Trinity Lane to achieve more
efficient overall production Indeed, the record shows that during 1955 and 1956 only
about 6 employees have been transferred from other installations within the Nashville
area to Trinity Lane.
1708 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
A question remains, however, with respect to the composition of the
unit. In contrast with the Employer's position, the Petitioner would
exclude standards clerks, plant clerks, ticket sorters, and the quality
control inspector. The Employer urges their inclusion.
There are 2 standard clerks and 8 plant clerks who work under the
supervision of the stockroom supervisor. The stockroom supervisor
also supervises the stock clerks and employees classified as loaders
and receivers who are included in the unit. The ticket sorters work
under the supervision of the casing department manager who also
supervises unit employees. Except for two of the plant clerks, the
standards clerks, the other plant clerks, and the ticket sorters per-
form their work in an area separated from the production floor by a
wire screen partition. All are hourly rated employees, have the same
fringe benefits as the production and maintenance employees, and are
required to punch a time clock as other hourly employees. There are
no prescribed educational requirements for them nor do they undergo
any special training. While there is no interchange between the
plant clerks and ticket sorters on the one hand and the production em-
ployees on the other, there is some interchange among the plant clerks
and ticket sorters themselves.
The duties of the two standards clerks are to figure employee earn-
ings from certain cards and cutting records. The information thus
compiled, together with the cards and other relevant information, is
sent to the central payroll department where it is used in the prepara-
tion of employees' paychecks. The work of the standards clerks
occasion some contact with production workers. Unlike the standards
clerks in other plants of the Employer whose work, the Board found,'t
was performed in office areas under general office supervision, we find
that in the instant case the standards clerks have a greater community
of interest with the production and maintenance employees than with
office clerical employees. We shall, therefore, include the standards
clerks in the unit.
Of the 8 plant clerks, 2 work on the production floor. The general
duties of the two clerks are to schedule production in such manner as
to equalize the work among the production employees. The duties
of the other six plant clerks consist primarily of figuring footage and
allowance on certain types and grades of leather so that the cutters
will have some indication of the number of soles that can be cut from
various types of hides. The information thus computed furnishes
the basis for the work of the plant clerks scheduling the cutting oper-
ations. In view of the foregoing facts, we find that the plant clerks
are clearly plant clerical employees whom the Board customarily
u General Shoe Corporation, 109 NLRB 618,621; 113 NLRB 905, 909.
GENERAL SHOE CORPORATION 1709
includes in units of production and maintenance employees. Accord-
ingly, we shall include the plant clerks in the unit.
As indicated above, the ticket sorters work under the supervision
of The manager of the sole casing department and perform their work
in the same enclosure as do the standards clerks and the plant clerks.
The duties of the ticket sorters are to sort production tickets according
to size, type and weight of leather, colors, pattern, etc. After sorting,
the tickets are turned over to the employees who set up the jobs, and
eventually the tickets are turned over to the cutters. Because of the
nature of their work, ticket sorters are frequently in contact with
production employees. In view of the foregoing, we find that the
ticket sorters are plant clericals whom we shall include in the unit.
There is one employee classified as a quality control inspector. He
works under the supervision of the stockroom supervisor, is an hourly
rated employee, punches a time clock, and enjoys the same benefits as
do the other production employees. His job is to cut soles from certain
types of leather to ascertain whether soles of a given type and desired
quality can be obtained from the leather according to predetermined
standards. In the performance of this work, he uses cutting tools and
a device which measures the weight of the sole. He works on the pro-
duction floor in daily contact with other production employees and on
occasion interchanges with the regular cutters. It is clear from the
foregoing that the quality control inspector is a production employee.
We shall, therefore, include him in the unit.
We find that all production and maintenance employees at the
Employer's Trinity Lane plant in Nashville, Tennessee, including
standards clerks, plant clerks, ticket sorters, and the quality control
inspector, but excluding office clerical employees, professional em-
ployees, watchmen, guards, and supervisors as defined in the Act
constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining
within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.]
MEMBER RODGERS, dissenting :
In Case No. 10-RC-2513 (not reported in printed volumes of Board
Decisions and Orders) the Board dismissed a petition for a single-
plant unit among the same group of plants involved herein. The
Board's action was based upon the integration that existed among
the plants, the similarity of functions at the several plants, and the
centralized control of all of the plants. As no facts have been shown
in this record to indicate that the situation has in any way changed
with respect to the Employer's Nashville operations since the date of
our previous determination, I would dismiss this petition for the
reasons previously assigned by the Board.