J. C. Penney Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jan 12, 1951

92 N.L.R.B. 1286 (N.L.R.B. 1951)

In the Matter of J. C. PENNEY COMPANY, EMPLOYER and LOCAL No. 3y
INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF ELECTRICAL - WORKERS, AFL,
PETITIONER
Case No. 2-RC-2300.-Decided January 12, 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 Oscar Geltman, hearing-
officer. The hearing officer's rulings made it 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 [Members Houston, 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 representa-
tion of employees of the Employer. within the meaning of Section 9,
(c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
4. The Petitioner seeks to represent maintenance electricians and
electrical elevator mechanics working at the Employer's main office
building, urging that these employees constitute a craft group which
may bargain as a separate unit apart from other building maintenance
employees. The Employer contends that the employees designated
by the Petitioner are not craftsmen and that they do not alone consti-
tute a separate department of its operations, and that, therefore, these
employees may not, under Board precedent, constitute a separate unit.
apart from other building maintenance employees.
The Employer is engaged in the retail selling of wearing apparel,
operating 3 warehouses and over 1,600 retail stores in various parts
of the United States. The instant proceeding concerns building
maintenance employees at the Employer's main office building at 330
W. Thirty-fourth Street, New York City, an 18-story building with
approximately 567,000 square feet of floor space. A small part of
92 NLRB No. 189.
1286
J. C. PENNEY COMPANY 1287
the building is used for a retail store and the remainder is devoted to
sample rooms and the housing of the Employer's business adminis
trators and their staffs. All major construction work for the build-
ing is let out to outside contractors. For building maintenance opera-
tions, the Employer has a regular staff of approximately 88 building:
service employees. These employees fall into 2 principal groups: (1).
Elevator operators, porters, and matrons, all under 1 supervisor; and
(2) a window cleaner, a paper baler, 8 watchmen, and a miscellaneous
group of 17 workers listed and inclusively described by the Employer
as "handy men," all of whom work under the immediate supervision
of the chief engineer and his assistant.'
The 7 employees whom the Petitioner desires to include in a sepa-
rate electrical craft unit are among the 17 workers designated as
handy men by the Employer. They spend varying portions of their
time in electrical work of different kinds. An experienced elevator
mechanic spends practically all his time in the repair and maintenance
of electrical elevators in the building; 1 worker spends approximately
80 percent of his time as helper to the elevator mechanic; and a third
employee spends substantially all of his time replacing burnt out
electric light bulbs throughout the building. Two of the remaining
four employees sought by the Petitioner spend approximately half of
their combined time on installation and repairs to telephone equip-
ment; and the remaining 2 spend less than half their time on general
electrical work, such as removing and replacing electrical fixtures,
buzzers, switches, fuses, cables, and other low tension work involving
equivalent knowledge and ability. No other handy men appear to
do electrical work. All the above employees spend the balance of
their time working in crews on building maintenance, plumbing,
and carpentry jobs, and other miscellaneous chores. Of the 10 re-
maining handy men, whom the Petitioner would exclude from its pro,
posed unit, 2 serve principally as firemen in the steam heating plant;
3 do general cleanup work, serve as mechanics' helpers, and move sup-
plies about the building; and the others principally repair and refinish
office furniture, walls, locks, and door closers and do general carpentry
and painting work.
All handy men work throughout the building and in the combined
carpentry-painting-electrical shop, as the occasion requires. For a
considerable portion of their time they work in teams, all under the
direction of the chief engineer or his assistant, who instructs them so
1 All building maintenance employees in the Employer 's main office building and ware-
houses are under the general charge of the Employer's building superintendent . The chief
engineer works under his over-all supervision.
1288 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
far as they need special instruction for the particular job, and super-
vises the assigned work.
But for the elevator mechanic and one handy man who devotes
appnoxiniately 50 percent of his time to the maintenance of telephonic
equipment, none of the employees sought by the Petitioner had any
special training for electrical work before their present employment.
None of them are journeymen electricians in the sense of having
completed a regular apprentice program over a comprehensive train-
ing period. The Employer has no apprentice or regular training
program. The chief engineer,.who is the only licensed electrician at
.the plant, and his assistant give all necessary instruction and super-
4ision to all handy men so far as their variously assigned maintenance
jobs require. Except in the case of the elevator mechanic, the Em-
ployer apparently did not demand specialized training in any par-
ticular field before the handy men were hired. All applicants are
questioned as to their various experience in general utility and repair
work. To some extent, work assignments among the handy men are
made to utilize their previous experience.
The Employer's handy men constitute an integrated operating group
of maintenance workers under common supervision, without demarca-
tion along strictly craft lines. The seven employees sought by the
Petitioner are not highly skilled electrical workers, nor do they as a
group devote all their time to electrical work under separate super-
vision. For this reason, we find that the unit sought by the Petitioner
is not an appropriate craft unit.' All except the elevator mechanic
devote substantial portions of their time to nonelectrical works The
majority of the panel 4 believe, however, that the handy men, working
as a team under a common supervisor, constitute a homogeneous,
readily identifiable and functionally coherent group of maintenance
employees who may, in the absence of bargaining history on a broader
basis, constitute a departmental unit of general maintenance men,
such as we have found appropriate in other representation proceed-
ings.-5 The paper baler and the window cleaner under the same super-
vision will be included in the unit; guards and watchmen will be
excluded from the unit.
2 Armstrong Cork Company, 89 NLRB 296, and cases cited therein.
7 The Petitioner asks that, in the alternative, the elevator mechanic, with his helper, be
found to constitute an appropriate bargaining unit. The helper, however, spends a sub-
stantial part of his time in general utility work. We are precluded from setting up a
bargaining unit for one employee. Moreover, the common association and interests among
all employees in the department cannot be ignored. Continental Oil Company, 88 NLRB
1302 ; Robertshaw-Fulton Controls Company, 88 NLRB 1508.
4 Board Member Reynolds agrees that the unit sought by the Petitioner is inappropriate,
but, inasmuch as the Petitioner has given no indication that it desires any other than its
traditional craft unit, he would dismiss the petition.
General Electric Company, 89 NLRB 949.
. J. C. PENNEY COMPANY 1289
We find that all handy men serving as building maintenance em-
ployees under the chief engineer at the Employer's main office building
at 330 W. Thirty-fourth Street, New York -City, including the paper
baler and the window cleaner, but excluding guards, watchmen, and
supervisors, constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of col-
lective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
5. Because the Petitioner has made a substantial showing of interest
among the employees in the unit found appropriate above, we shall
direct an election among them. If the Petitioner, however, does not
desire to participate in an election among these employees at this time,
it may withdraw its petition on notice to the Regional Director within
10 days from the date of the issuance of this Decision and Direction of
Election.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this
volume.]
929979-51-vol. 92-83