Mary Carter Paint Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jul 28, 1964

148 N.L.R.B. 46 (N.L.R.B. 1964)

46 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Employees may communicate directly with the Board's Regional
Office, 745 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York, Telephone No.
Plaza 1-5500, if they have any question concerning this notice or
compliance with its provisions.
Mary Carter Paint Co., Victor Paint Co. Division , Petitioner and
'Retail Store Employees, Local Union No. 876, Retail Clerks
International Association , AFL-CIO, Petitioner and Amalga-
mated Clothing Workers of America , Retail and Department
Store Employees, AFL-CIO, Petitioner. Cases Nos. 7-RM-475,
7-RC-6129, 7-RC-6133, and 7-RC-6134. July 28, 1964
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon separate petitions duly filed under Section 9(c) of the Na-
tional Labor Relations Act, a consolidated hearing was held in De-
troit, Michigan, before Hearing Office Ruth Greenberg. The Hear-
ing Officer's rulings made at 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 these cases to a three-
member panel [Chairman McCulloch and Members Fanning and
Jenkins].
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the Act and it will effectuate the purposes of the Act to assert juris-
diction herein.
2. The labor organizations involved claim to represent certain em-
ployees of the Employer.
3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the representa-
tion of certain employees of the Employer within the meaning of
Section 9(c) (1) and Section 2(6) and (7) of the Act.
4. Retail Store Employees, Local Union No. 876, Retail Clerks
International Association, AFL-CIO (Retail Clerks), seeks a unit of
May -Carter Paint Co., Victor Paint Co. Division (Employer) em-
ployees at the 14 Detroit and Pontiac, Michigan, stores. The unit
sought would include the warehouse manager, store managers, assist-
ant store' managers, and sales employees and would exclude the wall-
paper sales manager, the divisional sales manager, and the area sales
manager, Sidney Fields. The Amalgamated Clothing Workers of
America, Retail and Department Store Employees, AFL-CIO
(Amalgamated), seeks two multistore units, one consisting of the
above specified employees at the Employer's Detroit and Pontiac
148 NLRB No. 6.
t
MARY CARTER PAINT CO., VICTOR PAINT CO. DIVISION 47
stores and the other consisting of employees at the Employer's three
Flint, Michigan, stores. The Employer filed a petition alleging rep-
resentation demands from the Retail Clerks and the Amalgamated.
The Employer contends that only a single unit consisting of all its
stores in Detroit, Pontiac, and Flint which excludes store managers
and both sales managers is appropriate. It asserts that store man-
agers are supervisory, managerial, and confidential, and hence ex-
cluded by the Act, and that Area Sales Manager Buszke has duties
no different from those of Area Sales Manager Fields, whom both
Unions would exclude and that, therefore, Buszke should also be
excluded.
The Employer operates 14 stores in Detroit and Pontiac and 3
stores in Flint, approximately 60 miles from the Detroit area. These
stores are primarily -retail sales outlets for the Mary Carter Paint
Co. They are administered as a single divisional unit, with mer-
chandise being transferred from store to store, advertising materials
and programs centrally prepared for all stores, and the same group
hospitalization and insurance plan applicable to all stores. The divi-
sional sales manager, Joseph Weeks, is in charge of all the stores in
the Victor Paint Co. Division. He is assisted in this function by two
area sales managers who service and supervise the individual stores
on a periodic basis.' The store managers are responsible to the divi-
sional sales manager. Policy changes are communicated to the in-
dividual stores by frequent divisional sales meetings which all the
store managers are required to attend and during the periodic visits
by the area sales managers. There appears to be no essential distinc-
tion between the stores in Detroit and Pontiac and those in Flint.
Accordingly, we find that a divisionwide unit consisting of all the
Employer's stores in Detroit, Pontiac, and Flint is appropriate?
Of the 17 stores in the division, 8 have only 1 employee-the store
manager. These store managers are charged with the maintenance
of the individual stores. Approximately 90 percent of their time is
spent selling paint. Their management duties are limited to adher-
ing to a procedure formulated by the central office; they have no
authority to -hire or fire or to handle anything more than routine
matters without clearance from the central office. We find that the
managers of the one-man stores are not supervisory and include them
in the unit. Eastern Camera and Photo Corp., 140 NLRB 569. The
remaining nine stores have employees in addition to the store man-
The Unions have agreed that Area Sales Manager Fields should be excluded from the"
unit. As the functions performed by Buszke are essentially the same as those of Fields;
we shall also exclude him from the unit.
s Since the Board has found that a single unit composed of Employer 's stores in Detroit,
Pontiac, and Flint is appropriate , the Amalgamated 's motion challenging the interven-
tion of the Retail Clerks is denied.
48 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
ager, ranging in number from one employee, shared by two store
managers, to five employees. We find that these store managers ex-
ercise supervisory authority over employees under them and hence
shall exclude them from the unit.'
Accordingly, we find that the following unit is appropriate for the
purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b)
of the Act :
All regular full-time and all regular part-time employees of Mary
Carter Paint Co., Victor Paint Co. Division, employed at the Detroit,
Pontiac, and Flint, Michigan, stores, including the warehouse man-
ager, store managers in stores having no employees working under the
direction of a manager, and sales employees, but excluding the wall-
paper sales manager, the divisional sales manager, the area sales
managers, the store managers of multiemployee stores, the secretary,
confidential employees, guards, and professional employees, as de-
fined in the Act.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.]
s in Eastern Camera Photo Corp., supra , cited by the Amalgamated, the employees were
temporary ; here they are permanent.
Amarillo Hardware Company, Inc., and Building and Mechani-
cal Supply Company, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of
Amarillo Hardware Company, Inc.' and Lodge 1255, Interna-
tional Association of Machinists , AFL-CIO, Petitioner. Case
No. 16-110-3493. July 28, 1964
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9(c) of the National
Labor Relations Act, as amended, a hearing was held before Hearing
Officer Leon E. Kahn. The Hearing Officer's rulings made at the
hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
Pursuant to Section 3(b) of the Act, the Board has delegated its
powers in connection with this case to a three-member panel [Mem-
bers Fanning, Brown, and Jenkins].
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds:
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the Act and it will effectuate the purposes of the Act to assert juris-
diction herein.
'The parties agree that the two companies constitute a single employer , and together
they will be referred to herein as the Employer.
148 NLRB No. 9.