Jacob Brothers, Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jan 20, 1942

38 N.L.R.B. 424 (N.L.R.B. 1942)

In the Matter of'JACOBS BROTHERS , INCORPORATED and INTERNATIONAL
LADIES' GARMENT WORKERS UNION A. F. OF L.)
Case No. R-3302.Decided January 00, 1942
Jurisdiction : nurses' and maids' uniform manufacturing industry.
Practice and Procedure : petition dismissed where no appropriate unit within the
scope of the petition , separate unit consisting of pressers whose work is
closely coordinated with and dependent upon operations of other employees
at plant held to be inappropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining.
Mr. Robert W. Knadler and Mr. Elgin Hardin, for the Board.
Niles, Barton, Morrow ct Yost, by Mr. Carlyle Barton, and Mr.
Joseph Allen, of Baltimore, Md., for the Company.
Mr. Jacob J. Edelnnan, of Baltimore , Md., for the Union.
Mr. Milton A. Kallis, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
ORDER
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
On October 25, 1941, International Ladies' Garment Workers
Union, affiliated with American Federation of Labor, herein called
the Union, filed with the Regional Director for the Fifth Region
(Baltimore, Maryland) a petition alleging that a question affecting
commerce had arisen concerning the representation of employees
of Jacobs Brothers, Incorporated, Baltimore, Maryland, herein called
the Company, and requesting an investigation and certification of
representatives pursuant to Section 9 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, 49 Stat. 449, herein called the Act. On November 7,
1941, the National Labor Relations Board, herein called the Board,
acting pursuant to Section 9 (c) of the Act and Article III, Section
3, of National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series
2, as amended, ordered an investigation and authorized the Regional
Director to conduct it and to provide for an appropriate hearing
upon due notice.
38 N L R B, No. 86.
424
JACOBS BROTHERS, INCORP'ORATEI) 425
On November 10, 1941, 'the Regional Director issued a notice of
hearing,.copies of which were duly served upon the Company and
the Union. Pursuant to notice a hearing was held at Baltimore,
Maryland, on November 17, 1941, before,Samuel Edes, the Trial
Examiner duly designated by the Chief Trial Examiner. The
Board, the Company and the Union were represented by counsel and
participated in the hearing. Full opportunity to be heard, to ex-
amine and cross-examine witnesses, and to introduce evidence bear-
ing on the issues was afforded all parties. During the course of the
hearing the Trial Examiner made several rulings on motions and
on objections to the admission of evidence. The Board has re-
iewed the rulings of the Trial Examiner and finds that no preju-
dicial errors were committed. The rulings are hereby affirmed. '
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following :
FINDINGS OF FACT
1. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
Jacobs Brothers, Incorporated, is a Maryland corporation engaged
in the manufacture and sale of nurses' and maids' uniforms. The
Company maintains offices and two plants in Baltimore, Maryland,
and'plants at Hancock and Manchester, Maryland; Littlestown, Penn-
sylvania; Delmar, Delaware, and St. Paul, Virginia. The 2 Balti-
more plants are known as the Charles Street and the Guilford Ave-
nue plants, respectively. This proceeding involves only employees of
the Guilford Avenue plant. During 1940, 100 percent of the raw
materials used by the Company were obtained from points outside
the States in which its operations occur, and 99 percent of its pro-
ducts were shipped to.points outside Maryland. The total value of
its finished products during 1940 was over $1,000,000.
H. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED
International Ladies' Garment Workers Union is a labor organ-
ization affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, admitting to
membership employees of the Company.
III. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT
The Company employs 91 persons at its Guilford Avenue plant.
The Union contends that 41 of them, employed as pressers, consti-
tute a separate appropriate unit. The Company opposes the separa-
tion of the pressers, urging that all the employees at the plant,
excluding only the 16 office employees, constitute,an appropriate unit.
426 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
The • plant does not -manufacture. It' performs the functions of
receiving, pressing, folding, cleaning, repairing, and shipping to
customers completed garments manufactured at other of the Com-
pany's plants. Upon arrival, the completed uniforms are distributed
to the pressers who press them by hand with small irons. Garments
which are found to be soiled are cleaned and pressed by the cleaners.
Repairers make such repairs as may be necessary. After they are
pressed the uniforms -go to the folders who fold them. Folding is
necessarily done very soon after the pressing takes place and at a
location near that of the' pressing operation.' Thereafter the gar=
merits are packed in bags by the packer, and the pick-up boys take
them into the stock department or into the shipping department for
shipment.
All these, operations take place in a single room at series of work
tables occupied, in order, by the pressers, cleaners, repairers, folders,
packer, and shippers,' the garments moving from one set of tables
to the other. All these employees have the same working hours.
The 41 pressers,-alone of the employees of the plant, are paid on a
piece-work basis. Pressing requires some skill which, in turn, re-
quires a period of training.. The Union contends that the pressers
are members of a recognized craft.
It appears, however, that with the exception of the office employees,
the operations of each class of employees at the plant. are coordinated
with the dependent upon the operations of each other class, so that
the employees constitute a functionally unified group. Moreover, the
history of organization in the industry indicates that pressers are
not usually organized separately., Under all the circumstances of
the case, we find that a unit restricted to pressers is not appropriate
for the purposes of collective bargaining.'
IV. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
Since, as stated in Section III above, the bargaining unit sought
to be established by the petition is not appropriate, we find that no
, The foreman of the pressers testified that the folding must take place within,an hour
from the time of the pressing because after the pressed garments are allowed to lay there
any time it [sic] loses its press It may become dirty , may fall on the concrete floor, any-
thing might happen ." The vice president of the Union testified that "if the pressers are
there, naturally the folding has got to be theie too"
2 In addition to the 41 pressers and the 16 office employees , the plant employs 1 distrib-
utor, 3 cleaners , 3 repairers , 11 folders , 11 pick-up boys , 4 shippers , and 1 porter and
packer -
3 There are 6 concerns in Baltimore which manufacture garments similar to those pro-
duced by the Company The Union has 2,000 members among their employees The
pressers among them ate not organized separately The Union's vice president for the area
embracing Baltimore testified that of 85 contracts between the Union and manufacturers of
waists and blouses only one covets pressers alone Ile further testified that of 8 , 500 collec-
tive agieements which the ,Union had negotiated he knein of only two which covered
pmessers separately
4 See Matter of Kohen -Ligon-Folz, Inc, and Inter national Ladies ' f. arnient Workers'
union, Local No 387, 36 N . L. R B. 808.
JACOBS, BROTHERS, INCORPORATED 427
question has arisen concerning the representation of employees of the
Company in an appropriate bargaining unit.
On the basis of the above findings of fact and upon the entire
record in the case, the Board makes the following:
CONCLUSION OF LAW
No question concerning the representation of employees of Jacobs
Brothers, Incorporated, Baltimore, Maryland, has arisen in a unit
appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the
meaning of Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act.
ORDER
Upon the basis of the foregoing findings of fact and conclusion
of law, the National Labor Relations Board hereby orders that -the
petition for investigation and certification of representatives of em-
ployees of Jacobs Brothers, Incorporated, Baltimore, Maryland, filed
by International Ladies' Garment Workers Union, affiliated with
American Federation of Labor be, and it hereby is, dismissed.