John P. Squire Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jan 14, 1946

65 N.L.R.B. 423 (N.L.R.B. 1946)

In the Matter of SWIFT AND COMPANY, DOING BUSINESS AS JOHN P.
SQUIRE COMPANY and UNITED PACKINGHOUSE WORKERS OF AMERICA,
C. I. O.
Case No. 1-R-2556.Decided January 14,1946
Mr. William F. Joy, of Boston, Mass., and Messrs. W. N. Strack and
J. P. Staley, of Chicago, Ill., for the Company.
Mr. John C. Mitchell, of Boston, Mass., for the Union.
Mr. Jack Mantel, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon petition duly filed by United Packinghouse Workers of
America, affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations,
herein called the Union, alleging that a question concerning represen-
tation of employees of Swift and Company, doing business as John P.
Squire Company, Cambridge, Massachusetts, herein called the Com-
pany, the National Labor Relations Board provided for an appropriate
hearing upon due notice before Robert E. Greene, Trial Examiner.
Said hearing was held at Boston, Massachusetts, on October 1, 1945.
The Company and the Union appeared, participated, and were afforded
full opportunity to be heard, to examine and cross-examine witnesses,
and to introduce evidence bearing on the issues. The Trial Examiner's
rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are
hereby affirmed. At the close of the hearing, the Company moved that
the petition be dismissed on the ground that the unit sought herein is
not appropriate. For reasons hereinafter set forth, said motion is
hereby denied. All parties were afforded an opportunity to file briefs
with the Board.
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following :
FINDINGS OF FACT
1. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
Swift and Company, doing business as John P. Squire Company, is
an Illinois corporation which maintains a plant and offices at Cam-
65 N. L R B., No. 76
423
424 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
bridge, Massachusetts, where it is engaged in processing of pork prod-
ucts and the manufacture of soaps. Approximately 90 percent of the
raw materials used at the Cambridge plant, consisting principally of
live hogs, is purchased and transported to the Cambridge plant from
points outside of the, Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The value of
the raw materials so purchased and transported during the calendar
year 1944 exceeded $23,000,000. Finished products of a value in excess
of $10,000,000 and representing in excess of 40 percent of the products
manufactured and processed are shipped outside the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts.
The Company concedes that it is engaged in commerce within the
meaning of the National Labor Relations Act.
II. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED
United Packinghouse Workers of America, affiliated with the Con-
gress of Industrial Organizations, is a labor organization admitting to
membership employees of the Company.
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
The Company has refused to grant the Union's request for recogni-
tion as the exclusive bargaining agent of certain of its employees.
A statement of a Board agent, introduced into evidence at the hear-
ing, indicates that the Union represents a substantial number of em-
ployees in the unit hereinafter found appropriate.'
We find that a question affecting commerce has arisen concerning
the representation of employees of the Company within the meaning
of Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT
The Union seeks a bargaining unit comprising all standards check-
ers of the Company, excluding all supervisory employees. The Com-
pany contends that the unit sought is inappropriate on the ground
that the standards checkers are not employees within the meaning of
the Act in that they occupy a supervisory and managerial status; and
on the further ground that these employees should not be represented
by the same labor organization that represents the production and
maintenance employees.2
1 The Board agent reported that the Union submitted five membership cards and that as
of August 8, 1945, there were eight employees in the unit alleged to be appropriate.
2 United Packinghouse Workers of America, Local 165, is currently the collective bar-
gaining representative for all of the Company ' s production and maintenance employees.
The Board has frequently held that clerical employees, although generally excluded from
units of production and maintenance workers, may constitute separate appropriate units
and may be represented therein by whatever bargaining agency they choose See Matter of
Walter Kadde d Company, Inc, 64 N. L. R. B. 1050, and cases cited therein.
SWIFT AND COMPANY 425
The Company employs eight standards checkers, all of whom are
under the direct supervision of the division superintendent of the
Standards Department. These employees record the production and
time of the production workers throughout the plant; they have no
employees under their supervision. They observe the production op-
erations and check the amount of work performed by applying the
standards set by time-study employees. However, they have no au-
thority to change such standards. The Company contends that the
standards checkers exercise judgment or discretion in observing and
checking various production operations, that the amount of incentive
pay to which production workers are entitled depends on their reports,
and that because of these duties they are managerial employees. Nev-
ertheless, it does not appear that the standards checkers are super-
visory employees, and we are of the opinion that the exercise of such
duties does not make them representatives of management. The mere
fact that the objective of the duties performed by the standards check-
ers is to increase plant efficiency and benefit the employer, does not
exclude them from the benefits of the Act.3
We find that all standards checkers employed by the Company at its
Cambridge, Massachusetts, plant, excluding all supervisory employees
with authority to hire, promote, discharge, discipline, or otherwise
effect changes in the status of employees or effectively recommend
such action, constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective
bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
V. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
We shall direct that the question concerning representation which
has arisen be resolved by means of an election by secret ballot among
the employees in the appropriate unit who were employed during the
pay-roll period immediately preceding the date of the Direction of
Election herein, subject to the limitations and additions set forth in
the Direction.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
By virtue of and pursuant to the power vested in the National Labor
Relations Board by Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations
Act, and pursuant to Article III, Section 9, of National Labor Rela-
tions Board Rules and Regulations-Series 3, as amended, it is hereby
DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation to ascertain representa-
tives for the purposes of collective bargaining with Swift and Com-
pany, doing business as John P. Squire Company, Cambridge, Massa-
3 See N. L. R. B. v. Armour and Company, decided November 5, 1945 (C C A 10), 17
L. It. R 372 ; and Matter of Swift and Company, 56 N. L R B 147.
426 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
chusetts , an election by secret ballot shall be conducted as early as
possible , but not later than thirty (30) days from the date of this
Direction , under the direction and supervision of the Regional Direc-
tor for the First Region, acting in this matter as agent for the National
Labor Relations Board, and subject to Article III, Sections 10 and 11,
of said Rules and Regulations , among the employees in the unit
found appropriate in Section IV, above, who, were employed during
the pay-roll period immediately preceding the date of this Direc-
tion, including employees who did not work during said pay-roll
period because they were ill or on vacation or temporarily laid off, and
including employees in the armed forces of the United States who pre-
sent themselves in person at the polls , but excluding any who have
since quit or been discharged for cause and have not been rehired or
reinstated prior to the date of the election , to determine whether or
not they desire to be represented by United Packinghouse Workers of
America, C. I. 0., for the purposes of collective bargaining.