Hamburg Knitting Mills Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jan 5, 1979

239 N.L.R.B. 1231 (N.L.R.B. 1979)

HAMBURG KNITTING MILLS COMPANY
Hamburg Knitting Mills Company and International
Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, AFLCIO, Local
93, Petitioner. Case 4-RC-13213
January 5, 1979
DECISION ON REVIEW
BY CHAIRMAN FANNING AND MEMBERS PENELLO
AND TRUESDALE
On July 28, 1978, the Regional Director for Region
4 issued a Decision and Direction of Election in the
above-entitled proceeding in which he found inap-
propriate the Petitioner's requested unit of knitters
and material handlers at the Employer's Windsor.
Pennsylvania, facility and directed an election in a
broader unit of production and maintenance em-
ployees at both the Windsor facility and the
Employer's main plant at Hamburg, Pennsylvania,
conditioned upon the Petitioner's submission of an
adequate showing of interest therein. Thereafter, in
accordance with Section 102.67 of the National La-
bor Relations Board Rules and Regulations, Series 8,
as amended, the Petitioner filed a timely request for
review of the Regional Director's decision on the
ground, inter alia, that in finding the requested unit
inappropriate the Regional Director departed from
precedent.
The National Labor Relations Board, by tele-
graphic order dated August 30, 1978, granted the re-
quest 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 with
respect to the issues under review and makes the fol-
lowing findings:
The Petitioner contends that the record facts sup-
port a finding that the unit of employees it seeks to
represent at the Windsor facility constitutes an ap-
propriate unit. We agree.
The Employer manufactures knit T-shirts at its
main facility on Pine Street in Hamburg from fabric
knitted at its knitting department facility in Windsor.
located approximately 1-1/4 miles away. The knit-
ting department was located in the main facility until
1964, when the Employer's predecessor expanded be-
yond the capacity of that facility. The T-shirts are
made in five steps: (I) yarn is made into circular
tubes of varying sizes in the knitting department: (2)
these tubes are bleached and dyed: (3) pattern pieces
are cut from the tubes; (4) the T-shirts are sewn from
the pattern pieces; and (5) the T-shirts are folded and
packed. The Employer's operations are divided into
five departments, each corresponding to one of the
five steps. Each department has a supervisor who re-
ports directly to General Manager Thomas B. Work.
This entire production process is controlled by Exec-
utive Vice President I. Russell Burkey who, along
with Work, visits the Windsor plant on a daily basis.
Yarn and other supplies are ordered and stored at
the Pine Street facility and brought when needed to
the knitting department by the Employer's truck. The
knitting department is the T-shirt plant's only source
of supply and it uses approximately one-half of the
knitting department's production. The remainder of
the knit cloth is sold to outside customers, two-thirds
of it being shipped from the Windsor facility and
one-third from the Pine Street facility.
The Employer hires inexperienced employees and
gives them on-the-job training by assigning them to
work with experienced knitters for about 2 months. It
takes a knitter 4 to 8 months to become proficient
enough to operate five machines, the minimum re-
quired for being on incentive pay. Eventually a knit-
ter may operate up to nine machines at a time. Knit-
ters as a group are the highest paid employees.
earning up to $7 per hour, while sewers and folders
may earn up to $5 per hour. There is no interchange
and virtually no contact between knitting depart-
ment employees and the employees at the main
plant. The classifications and skills of the production
employees in the knitting department are widely di-
verse from those in the main plant, except for the
material handlers. The Windsor facility operates on a
3-shift 5-day-week basis, and occasionally a shift is
asked to work overtime. The Pine Street facility oper-
ates on a one-shift basis, and only a few sewers are
occasionally asked to work overtime.
As noted. Executive Vice President Burkey and
General Manager Work have overall authority over
both facilities. However, Knitting Department Sup-
ervisor Pierce Turner and two shift supervisors exer-
cise day-to-day authority over the knitting depart-
ment employees. Turner accepts employment
applications, interviews applicants, and, after notify-
ing Burkey or Work, may hire them. He also assigns
work, decides when to change knitting machines
from one type of work to another, and handles the
complaints and problems of plant employees.
Turner, as well as the shift supervisors, is authorized
to discipline employees b) sending them home and
may allow an employee to leave work early. Turner
determines the amount of pay that each knitter on
incentive is to receive. lie is also in charge of training
new knitting department employees and decides
when to take the employee off trainee status. Turnei
participates with Burkey or Work in all major deci-
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DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
sions involving the knitting department employees,
including the setting of wage rates for knitters,
changing their working hours, and deciding whether
layoffs are necessary. Because of his qualifications,
his extra responsibilities, and the size of the knitting
department, Turner is paid approximately 10 percent
more than the Employer's other department super-
visors.
The foregoing facts demonstrate that the immedi-
ate supervision and day-to-day concerns of employ-
ees at the Windsor plant are separate and autono-
mous from those at the main plant. Thus, the
employees at Windsor "perform their day-to-day
work under the immediate supervision of one who is
involved in rating their performance and in affecting
their job status and who is personally involved with
the daily matters which make up their grievances and
routine problems." ' Moreover, in addition to sepa-
rate immediate supervision, there is general diversity
between the skills and classifications utilized at the
Windsor plant and those used at the main plant.
Coupled with this is a total lack of interchange and a
near absence of interaction between employees at the
plants. Consideration must also be given to the dif-
ference in training, pay, and number of shifts re-
quired to be worked at each plant. These facts, in our
view, compel the conclusion that the employees at
the Windsor plant constitute a unit appropriate for
collective bargaining, that the interests and identity
of those employees have not merged with those of
Renzeli's Food Market. Inc., 238 NLRB No. 23 (1978)
employees at the main plant, and, contrary to the
Regional Director, that the presumptive appropriate-
ness of the single plant unit has not been rebutted.
Accordingly, for the reasons set forth above and in
view of the absence of any bargaining history among
the unit employees and the fact that no labor organi-
zation seeks to represent the employees on a broader
basis, we find that the requested unit is appropriate.2
We find, therefore, that the following employees of
the Employer at Windsor Township, Pennsylvania,
constitute a unit appropriate for the purpose of col-
lective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9(b)
of the Act:
All knitters and material handlers employed
at the Employer's Windsor, Pennsylvania, facil-
ity, excluding the production and maintenance
employees at Hamburg, the truckdriver, office
clericals, guards and supervisors within the
meaning of the Act.
Accordingly, we shall remand this case to the Re-
gional Director for the purpose of conducting an
election pursuant to his Decision and Direction of
Election as modified herein, except that the payroll
period for determining eligibility shall be for that
ending immediately before the date of issuance of
this Decision on Review. [Excelsior footnote omitted
from publication.]
2 Puritan (arribbhean. Inc, 180 NLtRB 995 (1970). Member Penello is of
the view that Il/-Rana-Wash Frocsks. Inc, 203 NLRB 174 (1973), relied on
by the Regional Director in finding the requested unit to be inappropriate,
is factually distinguishable, In that case, unlike here, there was evidence of
frequent interchange of equipment and some interchange of personnel. In
addition, the degree of autohnorn vested in the department manager with
respect to lah)r relations matters is significantly greater in the instant situa-
tion.
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