M. T. Stevens & Sons Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Mar 27, 1951

93 N.L.R.B. 994 (N.L.R.B. 1951)

994 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
bership in [the Petitioner] as a condition of employment," the Em-
ployer's conduct could very well have been the cause of the small
number of votes cast at the union-authorization election. Thus, the
employees, having been informed by the Employer, without qualifi-
cation, that he would not agree to any union-security contract pro-
visions, may have considered it a futile act to vote at the election.
We believe that the Employer, by the conduct set forth above,
made improbable a free and untrammeled choice by the employees
as to whether or not they wished the Petitioner to enter into an agree-
ment with the Employer which requires membership in the Petitioner
as a condition of continued employment. We therefore find that the
Employer interfered with the election, and that the employees were
prevented from exercising a free choice in the election 2
Accordingly, we shall sustain the Petitioner's objection in this re-
spect, and shall set the election aside.3 When the Regional Direc-
tor advises the Board that the circumstances permit a free choice by
the employees, we shall direct that a new election be held among the
employees at the Employer's Compton, California, store.
Order
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the election held on November 30, 1950,
among the employees of F. W. Woolworth Co., at its Compton, Cali-
fornia, store , be, and it hereby is , set aside.
CHAIRMAN HERZOG took no part in the consideration of the above
Decision and Order.
2 Cf. Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, 90 NLRB 935, where the Board found that
the employer 's announcement that it would not bargain with the union because it was not
in compliance with the Act , "was reasonably calculated to impress upon the employees the
futility of voting for [the union ]," and interfered with the election.
3 As we regard the above -noted incident sufficient to warrant setting aside the election,
we find it unnecessary to pass upon the other objections treated by the Regional Director.
(PEACE DALE MILLS ) M. T. STEVENS & SONS COMPANY and DANIEL
PIICELLA, PETITIONER and TExTILE WORKERS UNION OF AMERICA,
LOCAL 288, CIO. Case No. 1-RD-77. March 27, 1951
Decision and Direction of Election
Upon a decertification petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of
the National Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before Joseph
Lepie, hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hear-
ing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
93 NLRB No. 150.
PEACE DALE MILLS 995
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 [Chairman Herzog and Members Murdock 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 Petitioner, an employee of the Employer, asserts that the
Union is no longer the representative of the Employer's employees as
defined in Section 9 (a) of the Act.
The Union, a labor organization, is the currently recognized rep-
resentative of the Employer's employees.
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 appropriate unit :
The Petitioner seeks to decertify the Union as the bargaining rep-
resentative of a unit comprising all production and maintenance em-
ployees at the Employer's Peace Dale Mills. However, the Union
contends that the only appropriate unit includes not only the produc-
tion and maintenance employees employed at the Peace Dale Mills,
but also those employed at the Employer's Hockanum Division, which
consists of six mills located in Rockville, Connecticut, and those em-
ployed at Pentucket Mills, a single mill located in Haverhill, Massa-
chusetts.
The Employer, a Delaware corporation engaged in the manufac-
ture of textiles, operates a total of 35 mills located throughout the
United States. Finished material from several of its New Hampshire
and Massachusetts mills, including Pentucket Mills, is sent to Peace
Dale Mills for sponging. Peace Dale Mills is located approximately
100 miles from the Hockanum Division and more than 120 miles from
Pentucket Mills. Peace Dale Mills is under separate supervision and
there is no interchange among its employees and those of the Hocka-
num and Pentucket mills.
The history of collective bargaining reveals that the Union was
certified to represent the production and maintenance employees at
the Peace Dale Mills in July 1941. The following month Local 58,
a sister local, was certified to represent the employees at the Hocka-
num Division. Another sister local was also certified at that time to
represent the employees at the Employer's Stow Mill, Stow, Massa-
chusetts, a mill that was sold by the Employer in 1946. From 1941
until 1944 the three locals and their international, Textile Workers
Union of America, CIO, bargained jointly with the Employer under
a contract covering the three plants in as a unit. In July 1944 the
Textile Workers Union was certified to represent the employees at
996 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
the Pentucket Mills. Thereafter, the employees at the Pentucket
Mills were also incorporated in the established unit and were covered
by the subsequent contracts. The last contract between the parties
expired on January 31, 1951. The contracts contained general pro-
visions applicable to all of the plants included in the negotiations.
These provisions covered such matters as recognition, union security,
and vacations. Wage rates, however, were left for determination on
a plant level, and some of the plants were given different holidays.
Seniority was made departmental and grievances were handled sepa-
rately by a grievance committee at each plant.
Although the record does not disclose the location of most of the
Employer's mills, it does disclose the fact that several of them, ap-
parently engaged in the same operations as Pentucket Mills, which
the Union contends should be included in the same unit with Peace
Dale Mills, are located much closer to Pentucket Mills than is Peace
Dale Mills. For example, Merrimack Mills, near Dracut or Lowell,
Massachusetts, is only approximately 23 miles from Pentucket Mills,.
and Marland Mills, in Andover, Massachusetts, is only approximately
14 miles from Pentucket Mills. The Union does not claim to represent
the employees at any of the Employer's other mills. It therefore
appears that the Union, its international, and its sister locals have
merely, at random, extended representation to several widely sepa-
rated plants which form no administrative sector of the Employer's
operations and which employ only a fraction of the employees-of the
Employer. These plants do not together constitute an appropriate,
unit, such as to supersede that in which the Petitioner now seeks-de-
certification. The latter unit, which the Union already has been cer-
tified to represent, consists of the employees of a separately supervised
and separately operated entity. It is therefore an appropriate unit
for purposes of a decertification election' .
We find that all of the production and maintenance employees of
the Employer at its Peace Dale, Rhode Island mills, excluding exec-
utives, managers, superintendents, second hands, submanagers, over-
seers, assistant overseers, main office workers, clerical workers engaged
exclusively in clerical work for department heads, and supervisors as.
defined in the Act, constitute a unit appropriate for purposes of col-
lective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
5. The Employer has recently concentrated its Peace Dale Mills:
on sponging operations, thus forcing the layoff of employees in the
mending and burling departments and in the finishing and dyeing de-
partments. The parties all agree that the employees in the hurling
and mending departments have been only temporarily laid off and that
they should be eligible to vote in any election which the Board might
direct herein. However, the parties disagree as to the eligibility of
I Cf. Lone Star G as Company, 90 NLRB 2189.
HORACE F. WOOD AUTO LIVERY COMPANY 997
the employees laid off in the dyeing and finishing departments. The
Union contends that these employees have been only temporarily laid
off because at the time of the hearing most of them were carried on
the Employer's quarterly master payroll sheet and were allowed to
continue their group hospitalization benefits. The Union's contention
is also based on the fact that none of the employees have been notified
that they have been finally terminated. It appears, however, that
the Employer has ceased its dyeing and finishing operations at Peace
Dale Mills and does not plan to rehire any employees in that depart-
ment. It appears further that the Employer has a general policy of
carrying all laid-off employees on its payroll sheets for several months.
The superintendent of Peace Dale Mills testified that the. dyeing and
finishing employees might be recalled in the event openings developed
in the sponging department. There is no evidence that any such open-
ings are expected in the immediate future.
Under the circumstances, even assuming that the laid-off employees
in the dyeing and finishing departments will be recalled to any vacan-
cies which should occur, we are of the opinion that they have no rea-
sonable expectancy of reemployment in the near future. Accordingly,
we find them ineligible to vote in the election hereinafter directed.2
In accordance with the agreement of the parties we find that the
employees in the hurling and mending departments who were laid off
in November 1950, were only temporarily laid off and therefore have
a reasonable expectancy of'future employment with the Employer.
We therefore find them eligible to vote in the election hereinafter
directed.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this
volume.]
2 The Fuller Automobile Company d/b/a The Fuller Automobile Company and Fuller
Manufacturing & Supply Company, 88 NLRB 1452.
HORACE F . WOOD AUTO LIVERY COMPANY 1 and BAKERY, LAUNDRY,
D 1IRY EMPLOYEES AND SALES DRIVERS LOCAL UNION 188, AFFILIATED
WITH THE INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS , CHAUF-
FEURS, WAREHOUSEMEN & HELPERS OF AMERICA , AFL,2 PETITIONER.
Case No. 35-RC-445. Mardi 27, 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 Harold V. Carey,
1 The correct name of the Employer appears as amended at the hearing.
s The correct name of the Petitioner appears as amended at the hearing.
93 NLRB 160.