Hollywood Maxwell Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Nov 20, 1951

97 N.L.R.B. 70 (N.L.R.B. 1951)

70 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
crew of the research laboratory and the light cleaning crew, but ex-
cluding mail register, file, stored records, and all other clerks, recep-
tionists, mail sorters, typists, night service board operator, steno-
grapher, secretary, personnel director, auditors, telephone operators,
and all other office and clerical employees, cigar stand attendants,
watchmen, professional employees, confidential employees, mainte-
nance foremen, operations foremen, day service foremen, carpenter
shop foremen, warehouse foremen, elevator operator foremen, electri-
cal supervisor, shipping supervisor, office supervisor, mail section
supervisor, the housekeeper, assistant manager, and manager at the
hotel, janitor foremen, combination foremen, and all other super-
visors as defined in the amended 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 in this
volume.]
HOLLYWOOD MAXWELL Co. and INTERNATIONAL LADIES' GARMENT
WORKERS' UNION, AFL, PETITIONER . Case No. 17-1?C-1122.
November 20,1951
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 Harry Irwig, hearing officer.
The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from
prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3 (b) of the Act, the Board
has delegated its powers in connection with this case to a three-member
panel [Chairman Herzog and Members Reynolds and Styles].
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.
3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the represen-
tation of employees of the Employer within the meaning of Section
9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
4. The appropriate unit :
The Petitioner seeks to represent a unit of production and shipping
department employees at the Employer's Topeka, Kansas, plant, ex-
cluding maintenance men, designers, office and clerical employees,
guards, watchmen, and supervisors as defined in the Act.
97 NLRB No. 13.
HOLLYWOOD MAXWELL CO. 71
Except for the Petitioner's proposed exclusion of the maintenance
men, the parties are in agreement concerning the composition of the
unit. The Employer employs only one maintenance man. As the
Petitioner has given no reason for excluding this employee, whose
interests are clearly related to those of the production employees,
and as he would otherwise be unrepresented, we shall include him in
the unit.
We therefore find that all production, maintenance, and shipping
employees at the Employer's Topeka, Kansas, plant including the
inspectors and the janitor, but excluding designers, office and clerical
employees, guards, watchmen, 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.
5. The Employer contends that the petition is premature because
of the contemplated expansion in the size of the Topeka operations,
whereby the present employee complement of 95 will be increased to an
expected complement of 250 employees. The Petitioner requests an
immediate election.
The Employer began operations in Topeka on April 13, 1950, with
50 employees, and moved into the new location for expanded oper-
ations during December 1950. The Employer then planned, and it
apparently still intends, to increase its complement to approximately
250 employees. At the end of June 1951, the Employer had 140
employees but laid off about 40 employees shortly thereafter due to
its inability to train employees in large numbers. During the month
preceding the instant hearing, the Employer hired 15 new employees
but 14 employees left its employment during that time, leaving approx-
imately 95 employees on the payroll as of the time of the hearing.
The Employer has procured the needed machinery for the expansion
and has installed about 90 percent of it. The largest contemplated
expansion will result from the proposed addition of a cutting depart-
ment. However, although the 2 cutting machines have been installed
in the cutting department for over 5 months the Employer has failed
to hire any employees for that department. The Employer has made
arrangements for hiring a cutting department foreman, but he is not
presently on the Employer's payroll and it is entirely speculative as
to when he will be hired. The cutting department employees will
perform production work which is unlike the sewing work now being
done but the Employer does not contend, nor is there any basis for
a contention, that these new employees cannot be properly placed in
a production and maintenance unit.
As the Employer does not offer any concrete plan of expansion and
cannot say definitely when the full complement of employees will be
achieved, it is clear that timely achievement of the Employer's pro-
72 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
posed expansion is speculative. In these circumstances and because
the record discloses that the present complement is a substantial and
representative segment of the working force which will eventually be
employed, we shall direct an immediate election.,
The Petitioner requests that eligibility to vote in the election di-
rected herein be determined by the payroll period next preceding
August 6, 1951, the date of filing the petition herein. We see no
compelling reason to depart in this case from our usual procedure of
utilizing the payroll period immediately preceding the direction of
election and the Petitioner's request is hereby denied 2
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this
volume.]
i Electrical Reactance Corporation , 92 NLRB 1256.
2 Greater Erie Broadcasting Company ( Radio Station WWOL), 92 NLRB 270.
LUNTZ IRON & STEEL COMPANY and UNITED STEELWORKERS OF AMERICA,
CIO, PETITIONER. Case No. 8-RC-1308. November 00, 1951
Decision and Certification of Representatives
On July 24, 1951, pursuant to a "Stipulation for Certification upon
Consent Election," an election by secret ballot was conducted under
the direction and supervision of the Regional Director for the Eighth
Region, among the employees in the stipulated unit. Upon the com-
pletion of the election, a tally of ballots was furnished the parties.
The tally reveals that of approximately 66 eligible voters, 56 cast valid
ballots, of which 28 were for, and 28 were against, the Petitioner.
Two void ballots were cast and there were no challenged ballots.
On July 27,1951, and July 30,1951, the Petitioner and the Employer,
respectively, filed objections to the election. The Petitioner alleged
that (1) certain activities of the Employer and its agents interfered
with the employees' free choice of a bargaining representative; (2)
the Board agent conducting the election erred in ruling void a ballot
marked in a manner resembling a "no" under the "Yes" box, asserting
that this ballot should have been counted for the Petitioner; and (3)
the agent also erred in ruling valid a ballot marked with a red pen-
ciled "X" in the "No" box, which was identified by the Employer's
observer as having been cast by him. The Petitioner requested that
the Board agent's determination concerning these two ballots be over-
ruled and that it be certified or, in the alternative, that the election be
set aside on the basis of its first objection. The Employer alleged in
its first and second objections that the Petitioner and its agents en-
97 NLRB No. 11.