Home Furniture Co., Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Apr 17, 1970

182 N.L.R.B. 14 (N.L.R.B. 1970)

14 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Home Furniture Co , Inc and Local 3, Allied Woodwork-
ers Union of America, Inc
Local 467, Upholsterers ' International Union of North
America, AFL-CIO and Local 3, Allied Woodworkers
Union of America, Inc Cases 4-CA-4532 and
4-CB-1474
April 17, 1970
SUPPLEMENTAL DECISION
BY CHAIRMAN MCCULLOCH AND MEMBERS FANNING
AND BROWN
On February 26, 1969, the National Labor Relations
Board issued its Decision and Order in the above-entitled
proceeding,' finding that Respondent Home had engaged
in and was engaging in unfair labor practices in violation
of Section 8(a)(1), (2), and (5) of the National Labor
Relations Act, as amended, and that Respondent Uphol-
sterers had engaged in and was engaging in unfair labor
practices in violation of Section 8(b)(1)(A) and (2) of
the Act Each Respondent was ordered to cease and
desist from such violations and to take certain affirmative
action to remedy its unfair labor practices Thereafter,
on December 15, 1969, the United States Court of
Appeals for the Third Circuit remanded the proceeding
to the Board for additional factual findings and articula-
tion of the reasoning behind the bargaining unit determi-
nation
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the
National Labor Relations Act, as amended, the National
Labor Relations Board has delegated its powers in con-
nection with this remand proceeding to a three-member
panel
The Board found in its original Decision that the
production and maintenance employees at Home's newly
acquired plant in Red Lion, Pennsylvania, constituted
an appropriate bargaining unit, and concluded that the
Respondents violated the Act when Home revoked its
prior recognition of Allied as the bargaining representa-
tive for these employees and entered into a contract
with the Upholsterers covering these same employees
Upon reexamination of the record in light of the court's
remand, we continue to believe, for the reasons herein-
after set forth, that our unit finding was a proper one
Home had been in contractual relations with the
Upholsterers covering a bargaining unit of about 300
employees at its two York, Pennsylvania, plants, where
it is engaged in the manufacture of wooden institutional
furniture In September 1967, Home entered into an
agreement with Bethlehem Furniture Manufacturing Cor-
poration to purchase the latter's operations at Red Lion,
located about 10 miles from York The sale, consisting
of Bethlehem's land, buildings, and approximately two-
thirds of the machinery, was consummated on December
15, 1967 On this date, Home assumed full management
of the Red Lion plant, retained all of the approximately
' 174 NLRB No 113
40 former Bethlehem employees, and notified Allied,
which was party to a collective-bargaining contract with
Bethlehem covering the Red Lion employees,2 that Home
"adopts the contract in its present form and fully intends
to honor it and you may assure your members that
we plan to retain the bargaining unit personnel "3 Home
continued to recognize Allied and honor the contract
covering the Red Lion employees until January 25,
1968, when Home wrote Allied that its prior recognition
as bargaining representative for these employees was
revoked
Home's rejection of Allied was prompted by the
Upholsterers demand, during its negotiations with Home
for a new contract concerning Home's two-plant unit
of employees in York, for the inclusion of the Red
Lion employees in its bargaining unit The Upholsterers
engaged in a strike to enforce this demand Shortly
thereafter, Home and the Upholsterers entered into a
new contract, effective February 26, by which Home
recognized the Upholsterers as the exclusive bargaining
representative of all Home employees, including those
at the Red Lion plant
Home's and the Upholsterers defense to the complaint
herein is that the Red Lion employees were an accretion
to the bargaining unit of York employees As indicated
above, our original Decision rejected this contention
In determining whether a newly acquired plant of
an employer constitutes a separate unit or is an accretion
to an existing unit of other employees of the same
employer, all the relevant facts must be taken into
account, including such matters as the geographical prox-
imity of the plants, the extent of functional integration
and the job skills involved, the extent of control relating
to the plant management and labor relations policies,
the extent of employee interchange, and the history
of collective bargaining "
In this case, apart from the presumptive appropriate-
ness of the Red Lion plant by reason of its status
as a separate, single plant,5 additional support for holding
the employees of this plant to be an appropriate bargain-
ing unit is found in the relevant bargaining history,
which supports only a separate unit of Red Lion employ-
ees If, at any critical time herein, Red Lion ceased
to exist as a separate bargaining unit, it would have
to be because, as urged by Respondents, the Red Lion
employees, by operation of law, and without any voice
2 On April 9 1956 while the Red Lion plant was operated by a
predecessor to Bethlehem Allied was certified as the exclusive bargaining
representative of the production and maintenance employees at that
plant following a Board conducted election Ebert Furniture Company
Case 4-RC-2968 (unpublished in NLRB volumes)
3 During October 1967 officials of Home addressed all of Bethlehem s
employees advising them of the impending purchase and assuring them
that there would be no layoffs The employees were also told that
the Red Lion plant would be operated as a separate plant possibly
manufacturing library furniture which the York plants did not make
and that Home would recognize Allied and would abide by the bargaining
agreement Allied had with Bethlehem
, The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Co 150 NLRB 1010 1011
1021 Spartan Atlantic Dept Stores Spartan s Industries Inc 169
NLRB 309 enfd 406 F 2d 1002 1005 (C A 5)
Western and Southern Life Insurance Company 163 NLRB 138
139 enfd 391 F 2d 119 123 (C A 3) cert denied 393 U S 978
182 NLRB No 8
HOME FURNITURE CO , INC
in the matter, lost their separate identity, and representa-
tion by Allied, and were merged into or accreted to
the existing unit of Home's other employees, represented
by the Upholsterers
There are some factors which favor the Respondents'
accretion argument Thus, the job skills required in
the manufacture of wooden furniture are generally simi-
lar And there are centralized shipping operations and
common administrative and labor relations policies for
all of Home's plants However, the Red Lion plant
is 10 miles distant from the York operations It has
its own superintendent, who is directly responsible for
production at that plant Management has not abandoned
its initial plan for the production of library furniture
at Red Lion, the equipment required for such production
has been retained, and Home expects to expand its
sales of library furniture, the manufacture of which
is presently subcontracted by Home A separate product
line of its own, known as the "211" line, is also produced
at Red Lion There has been no significant interchange
of employees between the Red Lion and York plants e
15
In these circumstances, we find that the positive accre-
tion factors fall far short of outweighing the negative
factors and justifying a finding that the separate integrity
of the Red Lion unit was ever destroyed The employees
at Red Lion accordingly continued to constitute a sepa-
rate bargaining unit who were entitled to continued
representation by Allied, upon its recognition by Home
When, therefore, the Respondents later acted to impose
the Upholsterers upon the Red Lion employees as their
bargaining agent and as part of a broader unit, they
violated the Act as we have heretofore found
Accordingly, we reaffirm the unfair labor practice
findings made in the Decision and Order of February
26, 1969
8 Of the approximately 40 employees at Red Lion when Home acquired
the plant in December 1967 a nucleus of 24 was still employed there
as of June 1968 the week before the hearing herein 14 had quit
and 2 had been transferred to York The complement of 61 employees
at Red Lion in June 1968 included in addition to the 24 employees
retained 12 permanent transfers from York and 25 newly hired employ
ees