Hood Bay Salmon Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

May 17, 1949

83 N.L.R.B. 656 (N.L.R.B. 1949)

In the Matter of NEW ENGLAND FISH COMPANY , PYRAMID FISHERIES
Co., NAKAT PACKING CORP., LIBBY , MCNEILL & LIBBY , PACIFIC AMER-
ICAN FISHERIES , ICY STRAITS SALMON Co., ANGOON COMMUNITI
ASSOCIATION , D/B/A HOOD BAY SALMON COMPANY,1 SUPERIOR PACK-
ING Co., TODD PACKING CO., WEST COAST SALMON COMPANY, INC.,
NORTH PACIFIC CANNING CO ., INC., EMPLOYERS and UNITED ALASKA
FISHERMEN AND CANNERY WORKERS UNION7 LOCAL 24359, AFL,
PETITIONER
In the Matter of LIBBY, MCNEILL & LIBBY , EMPLOYER and FISHERMEN
AND CANNERY WORKERS UNION , LOCAL 24366 , AFL, PETITIONER
Cases Nos. 19-RC-133; 19-RC-134; 19-RC-184 ; 19-RC-185; 19-RC-
p73; 19-RC-215; 19-RC-257 through 19-RC-260; 19-RC-288
19-RC-d83; and 19-RC-266, respectively .Decided May 17 , 1949
DECISION
AND
ORDER
- Upon petitions duly filed, a consolidated hearing was held before
Hubert J. Merrick, hearing officer of the National Labor Relations
Board. The hearing officer permitted interrogation of witnesses with
respect to a strike that was called at the cannery of West Coast Salmon
Company, Inc. The Employers moved to strike all testimony relating
to the matter on the ground that it involved an unfair labor practice.
This motion was referred to the Board. In accordance with well-es-
tablished practice of excluding from representation proceedings mat-
ters relating to unfair labor practices, all testimony with respect to
the strike is hereby stricken from the record 2 The hearing officer's
other rulings are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board 3 finds :
1 This Company is not a member of Alaska Salmon Industry, Inc, and has not participated
with that association in collective bargaining negotiations . The Company has entered
into a "Stipulation for Certification upon Consent Election" after the filing of the instant
petition The petition in Case No. 19-RC-258 is accordingly hereby remanded to the
Regional Director for the Nineteenth Region for further action in accordance with the
aforementioned stipulation.
2 Matter of Jell-Well Dessert Company , 82 N. L R B. 101.
B Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3 (b) of the National Labor Relations Act, the
National Labor Relations Board has delegated its powers in connection with this case to a
three-member panel [Chairman Herzog and Members Houston and Murdock].
83 N. L. R. B., No. 96.
656
HOOD BAY SALMON COMPANY 657
1. The Employers are engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the National Labor Relations Act .4
2. The Petitioners are labor,gi ganizations affiliated with the Ameri-
can Federation of Labor. The Intervenor, International Union,
Food, Tobacco, Agricultural and Allied Workers of America, CIO,
is a labor organization affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Or-
ganizations 5
3. No question affecting commerce exists concerning the representa-
tion of employees of the Employers within the meaning of Section
9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act for the following
reasons:
The Petitioners contend that the resident cannery workers at each
of the individual canneries named in the petitions constitute appro-
priate units.6 In the alternative, the Petitioners request a multi-
employer unit composed of the employees of those canneries in which
the workers designate the Petitioners as their collective bargaining
agent. These petitions involve the same employees whom the Board
found in its 1945 decision 7 constituted a multi-employer unit, in-
cluding the resident cannery employees of all members of ASI in the
southeastern district of Alaska. The Petitioners urge that changed
circumstances make this broader unit no longer appropriate. The
Employers and the Intervenor oppose the units requested by the Pe-
titioners, contending that the present district-wide unit is still ap-
propriate.
The Petitioners are the successors of the Alaska Marine Workers
Union, affiliate of the Seafarers International Union, AFL, which was
formed in 1945, assuming the collective bargaining functions of the
Alaska Native Brotherhood and Alaska Native Sisterhood. Several
of the officers of ANB became officers of the Marine Workers Union.
For the 1946 canning season ASI signed "members only" contracts
with both the Marine Workers and the Intervenor. After the issuance
of the Board's certification of the Intervenor for all resident cannery
workers of members of ASI in southeastern Alaska in January 1947,
ASI and the Intervenor entered into a master agreement covering the
employees in this unit. This agreement was renewed for the 1948
canning season and expires Aril 30, 1949.
'Alaska Salmon Industry , Inc., hereinafter called ASI , was permitted to intervene on
behalf of the Employers except Angoon Community Association (as to which see ftn. 1,
above ) because all of said Employers are members of this association , which has as one of
its purposes the handling of all labor relations of its members . See Matter of Alaska
Salmon Industry, Inc., 61 N . L. R. B. 1508.
R The Intervenor , though not in compliance with Section 9 (f), (g), and ( h), was allowed
to intervene on the basis of its current contract with the Employers.
Local 24366 confined its request to Libby, McNeill & Libby at Yakutat . Local 24359
requested representation at each of the other Employers.
T Matter of Alaska Salmon Industry, ino., cited in footnote 4, supra.
658 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
- The parties agreed that the operations of all the canneries in the
southeastern area have remained substantially the same as described
in our 1945 decision. It was also conceded at the hearing that the
Employers' relationship with ASI has remained unchanged since
that time and that ASI negotiates labor relations matters for all
member companies .8
The Petitioners' position as set forth in their belief appears to be
essentially that the resident cannery workers at the Employers' can-
neries have not received adequate representation under the district-
wide unit and that such a unit is therefore no longer appropriate.
It is evident, however, on the basis of the record, that in the payment
of wages, determination of working conditions, and settlement of
grievances the terms of the master agreement executed by ASI and
the Intervenor have been followed. And this has been true even in
canneries in which the petitioners have been able to secure a check-off
of union dues from a majority of the employees. Nor does the rec-
ord establish that the Intervenor has in fact abandoned its represen-
tation at any of the canneries in any other respect. It had delegates
during 1948 at at least five of the canneries petitioned for herein and
created another local at the Libby cannery at Craig. The Intervenor
also maintains an office for this area and a business agent who is con-
tinually in contract with these canneries.
In these circumstances we perceive no basis'for departing from the
1945 determination that the resident cannery workers of all the mem-
bers of ASI in southeastern Alaska constitute a single appropriate
unit. Accordingly, and for the reasons fully set forth in our earlier
decision, we find the units requested by the Petitioners inappropriate
and we shall therefore dismiss the petitions.9
'The West Coast Salmon Company is the successor to West Coast Packing Company
which, in turn ,' succeeded R. J. Peratrovich & Son Packing Co. This latter company was
erroneously excluded in our order in Matter of Alaska Salmon Industry, Inc., ftn . 4, supra,
on the ground that it was not a member of ASI. All of these companies are or have been
members of ASI.
9 In their brief the Petitioners rely on the Eastern Sugar Associates case ( 80 N. L. R. B.
73), in which the Board found that in the light of changed circumstances the employees of
individual members of the Association involved could constitute an appropriate unit despite
the Board's earlier finding that a single unit of all the members was appropriate . In that
case, however , a substantial number of employers had rejected the master contract and
negotiated on an individual basis, thus indicating that they no longer wished to be bound
by the master contract . No such situation exists here, for the Employers state they are
bound by the ASI-FTA master contract and in fact have abided by its terms in their day-
to-day relations.
Matter of Shipowners Association of the Pacific Coast, 32 N. L. R. B. 668 , also relied
upon by the Petitioners , is equally distinguishable . There the controlling consideration
in permitting the severance of the so -called "exception" ports from area -wide unit was the
fact that the area-wide agreement had not been effectively administered with respect to
these ports. As found above , the contrary prevails in the instant case.
HOOD BAY SALMON COMPANY
ORDER
659
IT Is HEREBY ORDERED that the petitions herein 10 be, and they hereby
are, dismissed.
. i0 This excludes the petition filed in case No. 19-RC-258.