Home Beneficial Life Insurance Co., Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Apr 13, 1950

89 N.L.R.B. 392 (N.L.R.B. 1950)

In the Matter of HOME BENEFICIAL LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY, INC.,
EMPLOYER and UNITED INSURANCE AGENTS LOCAL INDUSTRIAL
UNION No. 1680, CIO5 PETITIONER
Case No. 10-RC-810.-Decided April 13, 1950
DECISION
AND
ORDER
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before Jerold B.
Sindler, hearing officer of the National Labor Relations Board. 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 National Labor
Relations Act, the Board has delegated its powers in connection with
the case to a three-member panel [Members Houston, Reynolds, and
Murdock].
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds:
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the National Labor Relations Act.
2. The labor organizations involved claim to represent employees
of the Employer.
3. No question affecting commerce exists concerning the representa-
tion of employees of the Employer, within the meaning of Section
9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act, for the following
reasons:
United Insurance Agents Local Industrial Union No. 1680, CIO,
Petitioner herein, requests a unit including all industrial agents in
the Knoxville, Tennessee, and Harriman, Tennessee, districts, but
excluding all managers, assistant managers, superintendents,2 of-
fice employees, and all supervisors as defined in the Act as amended.
The Petitioner takes an alternative position that, if the Board should
so order, it will set up two units at the Knoxville and Harriman dis-
'The hearing officer properly granted the oral motion to intervene of the National Fed-
eration of Insurance Agents Council , AFL, called the Intervenor herein, as this union has
been the recognized bargaining representative since 1943 of the employees covered by the
petition.
' The unit description was amended at the hearing to specifically exclude superintendents.
89 NLRB No. 59.
392
HOME BENEFICIAL LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY, INC. 393
trict offices. National Federation of Insurance Agents Council, AFL,
Intervenor herein, contends that a unit at least State-wide. in scope
is appropriate. The Employer contends that the appropriate unit
should be two separate units at the Harriman and Knoxville,
Tennessee, district offices.
The Employer is engaged in the sale of ordinary and industrial
life, health, and accident insurance. About 1,200 agents, in addition
to managerial, supervisory, and clerical personnel, sell insurance in
the Employer's 43 district offices, located in the District of Columbia,
Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, and Tennessee. Only
the Knoxville and Harriman, Tennessee, districts are requested by the
Petitioner in this proceeding.
The business of the Employer is directed by officers and directors
located at the home office in Richmond. Each individual district is
subject to the control and direction of the home office only and is
completely independent of any other district. The agents employed
in these districts possess similar interests and are subject to uniform
working conditions, including the same rate of commissions, pen-
sion and retirement plans, employment application and surety bond
requirements. All hiring, firing, and promoting is handled by the
individual district office in conjunction with the home office. Nor is
there any interchange of personnel between districts except the occa-
sional performance of work by a superintendent in a district not regu-
larly assigned to him, and then in case of emergency.
In December 1941, the Intervenor and the Employer entered into
a contract covering agents at a number of the Employer's district
offices in the District of Columbia, Virginia, Maryland, and Tennes-
see. The contract provided that the- agents in each additional office
for whom the Intervenor might be certified in the future should be-
come a part of the contract unit. The initial term of this contract
expired December 5, 1942, but by a "gentlemen's agreement" of the
parties, which was not reduced to writing, the contract was continued
in force until October 1943.3 In August 1943, in consent election pro-
ceedings, the Intervenor was certified as bargaining representative of
the agents in the Knoxville district, of which the present Harriman
district was then a part.' In accordance with the terms of the 1941
contract, the Knoxville district agents were thereupon treated as
part of the unit represented by the Intervenor for the purposes
of negotiation.
s The 1941 contract was continued pending negotiations which were initiated in Novem-
ber 1942 and were concluded in October 1943. See also Home Beneficial Life Insurance
Co., Inc ., 69 NLRB 32, for facts regarding the Employer's business and bargaining history.
Case -No. 10-R-924.
394 . DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR • RELATIONS BOARD
Ever since October 1943, until the filing of the present petition, the
Employer has recognized the Intervenor as bargaining representa-
tive of the' Knoxville-Harriman employees in a unit which includes
agents in many other districts in Tennessee and other States.
Although no written contract was reached during this period, there
have been some disputes, including a strike.' As recently as June,
July, and November 1949, the parties held a series of bargaining con-
ferences in which proposals and counterproposals were made, the
Knoxville and Harriman districts always being treated as part of the.
broader unit. In view of this history and the Board's policy with
respect to bargaining units for insurance agents,6 in accordance with
Intervenor's contention, we find that the unit or units requested by
the Petitioner are too narrow, and shall dismiss the petition.
ORDER
Upon the basis of the entire. record in the case, the National Labor
Relations Board hereby orders that the petition filed in the instant
matter be, and it hereby is, dismissed. .
5 Arising out of the October 1944 strike , charges were filed against the Employer. See
Rome Beneficial Life Insurance Co., Inc ., 69 NLRB 32 , 159 F. 2d 280 ( C. A. 4), a case
which was not finally closed until January 30, 1950.
"Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, 56 NLRB 1635 and 1642; Peoples Life Insur-
ance Company, 72 NLRB 1406; John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company, 82
NLRB 179.