Great Day, Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Mar 17, 1980

248 N.L.R.B. 527 (N.L.R.B. 1980)

GREAT DAY, INC. 527
Great Day, Inc. and Retail Store Employees Union,
Local No. 20, United Food And Commerical
Workers International Union, AFL-CIO,' Peti-
tioner. Case 7-RC-15332
March 17, 1980
DECISION ON REVIEW
BY CHAIRMAN FANNING AND MEMBERS
JENKINS AND PENELLO
On April 24, 1979, the Regional Director for
Region 7 issued a Decision and Direction of Elec-
tion in the above-entitled proceeding in which he
found appropriate a storewide unit at the Employ-
er's retail grocery store, but excluding the meat de-
partment employees.
Thereafter, in accordance with Section 102.67 of
the National Labor Relations Board Rules and
Regulations, Series 8, as amended, the Employer
timely filed a request for review of the Regional
Director's decision with respect to his exclusion of
full-time 2 meat department employees. By tele-
graphic order dated May 22, 1979, the Board
granted the Employer's request for review.
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the
National Labor Relations Act, as amended, the Na-
tional Labor Relations Board has delegated its au-
thority in this proceeding to a three-member panel.
The Board has considered the entire record in
this case, including the Employer's brief on review,
and makes the following findings:
The Employer is a Michigan corporation en-
gaged in the operation of two retail food markets,
including the market in the summer resort commu-
nity of Cedar Springs, Michigan, which is involved
in this proceeding. There is no bargaining history.
As found by the Regional Director, the subject
store employs approximately 70 employees in 6 de-
partments. He found the individuals designated as
"department heads" to be employees and eligible
voters, inasmuch as the Employer's president and
its store manager together oversee the operations
of the entire store and retain full supervisory au-
thority to hire, fire, grant increases, and schedule
work hours and vacations over all store employees.
All of the hourly rated employees occupy one of
five job and wage classifications, have identical
benefits, are subject to the same work rules, and
I On June 7, 1979, the Retail Clerks International Union and the Amal-
gamated Meatcutters and Butcher Workmen of North America merged
to form the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union,
AFL-CIO The name of the Petitioner hereint formerly Retail Store Em-
ployees Union. Local No. 20. Retail Clerks International Union, AFL
CIO, has been amended to reflect this change
2 The Regional Director included in the unit two dual-function em-
ployees who work approximately 25 percent of their hours in the meat
department.
248 NLRB No. 79
share common lunch and break periods and facili-
ties.
The meat department is physically situated in the
center of the rear wall of the store between the
produce and dairy departments and adjacent to a
portion of the grocery department. It is staffed
with a department head, a lead journeyman clerk,
two journeyman clerks, and the dual-function em-
ployees, classified as journeyman clerk and general
store clerk, respectively. Only the department head
has had any prior meat department experience; at
least three others were transferred into the depart-
ment from cashier or store cleanup type jobs. All
inexperienced department employees receive ap-
proximately I month of on-the-job training in their
meat department duties.
To a large extent, such duties consist of weigh-
ing, cutting, and packaging meat, some of which
arrives as "boxed beef' which is already in primal
cuts and needs only to be sawed into smaller cuts
for individual sales.3
Meat department employees give assistance to,
and receive the same from, employees in other de-
partments during especially busy periods. 4 The
grocery department lead journeyman clerk regular-
ly fills the meat cases and cuts meat for customers
during certain store hours when no meat depart-
ment employees are scheduled to work. Additional-
ly, meat department and dairy department employ-
ees work together in unloading freezer truck de-
liveries one or more times a week. Further, the job
descriptions of general store clerk, journeyman
clerk, and lead journeyman clerk require a degree
of familiarity with all departments and those em-
ployees are in fact rotated into every department in
accordance with the job description requirements.
On these facts, the Regional Director concluded
that the meat department employees have a suffi-
ciently separate community of interest from gro-
cery employees to warrant their separate represen-
tation, relying essentially on his findings that meat
department employees work in a separate area per-
forming tasks relating to preparation and sale of
I Although not set forth in the Regional Director's decision, the
record evidence reveals that about 75 percent of meat department duties
do not involve traditional meatcutting skills, and consist of unloading
trucks and unpacking cases of meat products; stocking display cases with
prepackaged and prepriced chickens and coldcuts; traying, weighing,
pricing, and wrapping of such items as bologna and sausage which arrive
in bulk form, and feeding meat into the patty-making machine hich
grinds and stamps out meat patties.
4 The Regional Director failed to note the record testimony indicating
that, during the busy summer tourist season, the two dual-function em-
ployees worked expanded hours in the meat department, and that a third
individual named Mary divided her summer work hours between the
meat and produce departments
Similarly, the record contains references to other regular and recurring
personnel shortages, including acations and sick days, in the meat and
other departments and to the specific individuals who were regularly
called upon to fill in during such times
GREAT DAY, NC. 527
528 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
meat under the separate direction of the meat de-
partment head, and they do not interchange with
other employees except in emergencies. According-
ly, he found this case to be like those in which the
Board has excluded meat departments from gro-
cery store units where only grocery employees are
sought. 5 We disagree.
Contrary to the Regional Director, the evidence
with respect to meat department employee duties
does not show them to possess or exercise tradi-
tional meatcutting skills which would distinguish
them from grocery employees, as was the case in
R-N Market, Inc., where the employer's meat de-
partment was on a "cut-to-order basis" rather than
using prepackaged meats.Likewise, the Regional
Director's conclusion that employee interchange
occurred primarily during emergencies is not sup-
ported by the record which, as previously noted,
describes numerous incidents of regular and recur-
ring interchange, particularly during the busy
summer season, in addition to the Employer's
normal rotational training program built in to three
different job classification descriptions. Such inter-
change as shown on this record appears to be quite
substantial, unlike the small degree of interchange
relied upon by the Board in Big Y Supermarkets
and R-N Market, supra.
Unlike the Regional Director, we do not deem it
significant that meat department employees receive
direction from their department head, in view of
his finding that department heads lack any supervi-
5 R-N Market. Inc., 190 NLRB 292 (1971); Mock Road Super Duper.
Inc., 156 NLRB 983 (1966); Big Y Supermarkets, 161 NLRB 1263 (1966);
Klapp's Packinghouse Market, 226 NLRB 363 (1976).
sory authority and the fact that each of the other
five department heads or lead persons similarly
give separate directions to their department person-
nel.
In view of the foregoing and the evidence that
the meat department employees enjoy the same
uniform job and wage classifications as are applica-
ble in all departments, as well as all other benefits
and working conditions, we find that the meat de-
partment employees do not have a separate com-
munity of interest.6 Therefore, on the facts of this
case, we conclude that a storewide unit, including
the meat department employees, as contended by
the Employer, is appropriate herein.7
We hereby remand this proceeding to the Re-
gional Director for the purpose of opening and
counting the ballots s in the election held herein
and for further appropriate action.
6 See Ashcrafts' Markets, Inc., 246 NLRB No. 68 (1979).
In view of our disposition herein, we find it unnecessary to pass on the
Employer's contention that the merger of the Retail Clerks International
Union with the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen sup-
ports its position for inclusion of the meat department in a storewide unit.
7The unit, as amended herein, is described as follows:
All full-time and regular part-time employees, including meat depart-
ment employees, department heads and lead journeyman clerks em-
ployed by the Employer at its store located at 4175 17-Mile Road,
Cedar Springs, Michigan, but excluding the store manager, guards,
and supervisors as defined in the Act.
s The Petitioner shall be permitted to withdraw its petition without
prejudice upon written notice to the Regional Director for Region 7
within 10 days from the date of this Decision on Review. Independent
Linen Service Company of Mississippi, 122 NLRB 1002 (1959). Further, in-
asmuch as the unit found appropriate herein is larger than the unit sought
by the Petitioner, the opening and counting of the ballots will be condi-
tioned upon a demonstration by the Petitionler, within 10 days from the
date hereof, that it has an adequate showing of interest in the broader
unit found appropriate