J. W. Knapp Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Nov 23, 1976

226 N.L.R.B. 1120 (N.L.R.B. 1976)

1120 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
J. W. Knapp Company and Local 580 , International
Brotherhood of Teamsters , Chauffeurs , Warehouse-
men and Helpers of America, Petitioner . Case 7-
RC-13511
November 23, 1976
DECISION ON REVIEW
BY MEMBERS JENKINS, PENELLO AND WALTHER
On May 13, 1976, the Regional Director for Re-
gion 7 issued a Decision and Direction of Election in
the above-entitled proceeding in which he found ap-
propriate the Petitioner's requested unit of ware-
house employees employed at the Employer's 700
East South Street, Lansing, Michigan, service center,
excluding, among others, upholstery and electrical
workroom employees.' Thereafter, in accordance
with Section 102.67 of the National Labor Relations
Board Rules and Regulations, Series 8, as amended,
the Employer filed a timely request for review of the
Regional Director's Decision on the ground, inter
alia, that in failing to find that only an overall unit of
service center employees is appropriate he made
findings of fact and law which are clearly erroneous.
By telegraphic order dated June 8, 1976, the Board
granted the request for review with respect to the
scope of the unit and stayed the election pending
decision on review.
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the
National Labor Relations Act, as amended, the Na-
tional Labor Relations Board has delegated its au-
thority in this proceeding to a three-member panel.
The Board has considered the entire record in this
proceeding with respect to the issue under review and
makes the following findings:
The Employer is a Michigan corporation engaged
in retail sales at various Michigan locations. At its
Lansing, Michigan, service center, hard and soft line
merchandise 2 is received and distributed from there
to the Employer's retail stores 3 or directly to custom-
ers. In addition, the documents which accompany
the merchandise are processed at the center. The ser-
vice center also receives items from customers for
repair and prepares new items for shipment to the
i The unit found appropriate by the Regional Director is as follows All
full-time and regular part-time employees including drivers , dockmen, cus-
todians, warehouse employees , plant clerical employees , and invoice pro-
cessing employees , but excluding electrical workroom employees , uphol-
stery workroom employees , picture framers , confidential employees,
technical employees , office clerical employees, guards and supervisors with-
in the meaning of the Act2
Hard line merchandise includes items such as appliances and furniture,
soft line merchandise includes items such as clothing , drapery, and carpets
3 The service center also serves four other retail stores not owned by the
Employer
retail stores or to customers. There are approximately
110 employees at the center, including the 7-10 up-
holstery workroom employees and the 14-17 electri-
cal workroom employees whose unit placement is
here in dispute.
The service center is a two-story building which
contains warehouse space, a merchandise processing
area, a transfer dock, an invoice processing area, and
the electrical workroom on the first floor. The second
floor of the facility contains the upholstery work-
room, as well as picture framing and storage areas. A
lunchroom and two restrooms, which are utilized by
all the employees, are also located on the second
floor.
The Employer's vice president of operations and
systems, Gary Johnson, has the overall responsibility
for the service center. Reporting to him are, among
others, the service center manager, Tim Berg; the in-
voice processing manager, Terri Maki; the data pro-
cessing manager, Bob Schmidt;' and the workroom
manager, Jim Welton. There is also a supervisor of
the upholstery workroom, William Kisor, who re-
ports to Welton.
The parties do not dispute the appropriateness of a
unit limited in scope to the service center. The only
issue herein is the inclusion or exclusion of the
above-mentioned electrical and upholstery work-
room employees. The Petitioner asserts that they do
not share such a close community of interest with the
warehouse employees sought to be represented as to
require their inclusion in the unit. The Regional Di-
rector, in accord with the Petitioner's position, ex-
cluded the workroom employees from the unit, find-
ing that their principal functions are essentially to
repair or service a particular line of merchandise, as
distinguished from the duties of the other service
center employees, who are engaged in the receipt,
warehousing, and shipment of merchandise. The Em-
ployer contends that an overall unit is appropriate as
its operations are integrated and all the employees
perform duties which are directly related to the func-
tional operation of the service center. We agree with
the Employer.
The 14-17 electrical workroom employees perform
repairs on appliances, such as washing machines and
refrigerators, and electronic equipment, such as ra-
dios and televisions. These duties are normally per-
formed in the electrical workroom; however, some of
the electrical workroom employees perform repair
duties in customers' homes, spending most of their
time away from the service center in such activity.'
The invoice processing manager and the data processing manager also
repsort to the store controller , Henri Francius
Also employed in the electrical workroom is a parts clerk , whose func-
tions include checking and marking merchandise for the electrical work-
room In addition , there are three or four electrical appliance clerks who are
226 NLRB No. 169
J W KNAPP CO.
The record discloses that the electrical workroom
employees come into frequent contact with other ser-
vice center employees. Thus, the workroom manager
testified that the electrical workroom employees per-
form duties on the delivery dock area of the service
center on an average of two to three times per week,
for 1 to 2 hours at a time. These duties include in-
stalling panels on dishwashers, installing icemakers
in refrigerators, and repairing damaged merchandise.
While working in the delivery dock area, an electrical
workroom employee may call on a warehouse em-
ployee to assist him in moving merchandise. In addi-
tion, the electrical workroom employees regularly
unpack crated merchandise with the assistance of
warehouse employees to obtain parts which are need-
ed to repair certain new appliances. Warehouse em-
ployees also transfer merchandise from the delivery
dock to the electrical workroom; when repairs have
been completed, electrical workroom employees fre-
quently wheel or carry the merchandise back to the
warehouse area.' There is no formal training or ap-
prenticeship program for the electrical workroom
employees;' rather, employees who lack the requisite
experience or background obtain training on the job.
Nor does the Employer require its electrical work-
room employees to be licensed.'
The 7-10 upholstery workroom employees repair
and retouch new merchandise as well as items from
customers' homes. These employees are classified as
touchup repairmen, seamstress, upholstery cutter,
upholsterer, and finish upholsterer. There is also a
picture framer who works under the supervision of
the workroom manager. Normally, the reupholster-
ing and refinishing duties of the upholstery work-
room employees are performed in the upholstery
workroom.' Nonetheless, the record reveals that one
upholstery workroom employee is regularly assigned
located at the employee and customer entrance to the service center, which
is adjacent to the electrical workroom Among other duties, the appliance
clerks receive telephone calls fi „ customers and act as receptionists for the
service center Like the other e ical workroom employees , including the
parts clerk , the electrical appliance clerks are supervised by the workroom
manager
6 The record also discloses that the parts clerk in the electrical workroom
has regular contact with the receiving dock employees , as the latter individ-
uals receive merchandise destined for the electrical workroom and prepare
the documents which are transmitted with it
7 The Employer attempts to hire individuals for the electrical workroom
who have some prior experience The workroom manger testified that all of
the electronic equipment repairmen have "some type of formal school train-
ing" However , the record discloses that the Employer also prefers to hire
employees with previous experience for other positions at the service center,
including dock employees and truckdrivers
s
The record shows that one of the electrical workroom employees, Paul
Roman , has an FCC license which enables him to perform repair duties on
Citizens Band radios Such repair duties occupy a small percentage of his
time
9 The record indicates that there is one touchup repairman who takes care
of outside service calls , however , the record does not disclose the amount of
time he spends performing such duties
1121
the responsibility of touching up and repairing mer-
chandise in the delivery dock area; on occasion, he
spends as much as 5-7 hours per day there. The other
upholstery workroom employees also perform repairs
to damaged merchandise in various areas of the ser-
vice center on an as-needed basis. The upholstery
workroom supervisor testified that this occurs on an
average of two times per week.10
As in the electrical workroom, the Employer pre-
fers to hire upholstery workroom employees who
have prior experience. However, there is no specific
training or apprenticeship program for upholstery
workroom employees, nor are any licenses or train-
ing required by the Employer."
There has been some interchange of employees
from one department to another throughout the ser-
vice center. An upholstery workroom employee and
an electrical workroom employee have been transfer-
red to the dock and then returned to their previous
positions.12 In addition, a receptionist presently em-
ployed in the electrical workroom formerly worked
in the marking room, and a former electrical work-
room clerical presently works in the marking room.
All service center employees are hourly paid and
work similar hours. Electrical workroom employees
receive from $2.30 to $5.95 per hour; upholstery
workroom employees receive from $3 to $5.10 per
hour; transfer dock employees receive from $2.30 to
$5 per hour. The Employer has uniform labor rela-
tions and personnel policies and fringe benefits are
the same for all service center employees.
In a number of decisions, the Board has utilized
broad language indicating that retail warehouse units
should include those employees who perform "typi-
cal" warehouse functions. 13However, as this record
clearly indicates, a meaningful distinction cannot al-
ways be made between those functions performed at
a warehouse which might be denominated as "typi-
cal" (e.g., operation of a forklift), and other functions
which are also customarily performed at warehouses,
10 The upholstery workroom supervisor also stated that on a daily basis
upholstery workroom employees help warehousemen move furniture from
the upholstery workroom to a truck or elevator
11 The Employer's vice president of operations and systems testified that
an individual could be trained to "tear down " furniture for reupholstery in
less than a week, a seamstress could "probably start producing within a day
or two, and probably become proficient within a month or so", and
that learning retouching would involve working with a more experienced
employee for at least a week and "it would be a month or so before he could
really handle all the jobs himself " The record does not reveal the training
periods for the other tasks which are performed in the upholstery work-
room, albeit cutters and upholsterers are more skilled employees than those
discussed, supra
12 It appears that these transfers were effected to avoid layoffs during the
Employer's slow period
i See, eg , A Harris & Co, 116 NLRB 1628 (1956), a case primarily
concerned with setting forth guidelines as to when the Board will find ap-
propriate a separate warehouse unit See also The May Department Stores
Company, d/b/a Famous-Barr Company, 153 NLRB 341 (1965), and H P
Wasson & Company, 153 NLRB 1499 (1965)
1122 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
particularly those warehouses which perform the
broader function of service centers. For example, it is
apparent that, in order to achieve the purposes of the
facility here involved, a variety of tasks must be per-
formed, including the receipt, storage, preparation,
retouching, and shipping of new merchandise, as well
as the repair of used items which are received from
customers' homes. The duties of workroom employ-
ees are not necessarily limited to performing repairs
on customers' merchandise. Rather, their tasks in-
clude the preparing, repairing, and retouching of new
merchandise as well as providing assistance in mov-
ing merchandise at the center. Moreover, these duties
are performed in various areas of the service center,
resulting in frequent and regular contact between the
workroom employees and others. Similarly, the em-
ployees who allegedly perform "typical" warehouse
functions receive and move items which are at the
center merely for repair in the workroom, as well as
new merchandise.
On the basis of the instant record, we find that the
electrical and upholstery workroom employees here
involved share such a community of interest with the
other service center employees as to require their in-
clusion in an overall unit. Thus, while workroom em-
ployees perform some tasks in their respective work-
rooms which are not normally performed by the
other warehouse employees, their duties appear to be
those customarily and traditionally performed in ser-
vice centers, and they are directly related to and inte-
grated with the overall mission of the center. As pre-
viously noted, the workroom employees frequently
work in other areas of the service center on a regular
and continuing basis, and at such times come into
contact with other service center employees. The
warehouse employees assist the workroom employees
in moving and uncrating merchandise to enable the
latter employees to perform their repairing and re-
touching duties, and the workroom employees occa-
sionally assist in moving items at the center. It is also
significant that the workroom employees do not pos-
sess skills sufficient to constitute them a craft or an
otherwise traditionally separate department. In this
regard, the record discloses that the Employer does
not have any training, apprenticeship, or licensing
requirements for its workroom employees, and many
of their skills can be learned on the job, in relatively
short periods of time. The workroom manager re-
ports directly to the vice president of operations and
systems, as do the other managers at the service cen-
ter. Finally, it is clear that fringe benefits, as well as
wages, hours, and other conditions of employment,
are similar for all the service center employees. We
therefore find that only an overall service center unit
is appropriate, and describe the appropriate unit as
follows: 14
All full-time and regular part-time employees
employed by the Employer at its service center
at 700 East South Street, Lansing, Michigan, in-
cluding all drivers, dockmen, custodians, ware-
house employees, electrical workroom employ-
ees, upholstery workroom employees, picture
framers, plant clerical employees, and invoice
processing department employees; but exclud-
ing confidential employees, technical employees,
office clerical employees, guards and supervisors
within the meaning of the Act.'s
As the Petitioner has indicated a willingness to
proceed to an election in any unit found appropriate,
the case is remanded to the Regional Director for the
purpose of conducting an election pursuant to his
Decision and Direction of Election, as modified
herein, except that the payroll period for determining
eligibility shall be that immediately preceding the is-
suance date of this Decision on Review. [Excelsior
footnote omitted from publication.]
14 As the unit found appropriate is broader than that originally requested
by the Petitioner , the Regional Director shall determine whether Petitioner's
showing of interest is sufficient before proceeding with the election
15 Although the Regional Director found that the three "assistant supervi-
sors" possess certain authority regarding the scheduling of merchandise and
the manpower to process it, and are involved in certain personnel decisions
made by the Employer, he did not rule on their supervisory status, as the
record evidence was insufficient for him to render a definite decision as to
whether the judgment exercised by these assistants was independent or rou-
tine in nature We agree that the record is insufficient to enable the Board to
determine whether the "assistant supervisors" are supervisors as defined in
the Act Accordingly, we shall permit them to vote subject to challenge