May, McEwen, Kaiser Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Mar 28, 1946

66 N.L.R.B. 1341 (N.L.R.B. 1946)

In the Matter Of MAY, MCEWEN, KAISER COMPANY-MAY FULL
FASI3ION DIVISION and AMERICAN FEDERATION OF HOSIERY WORKERS,
C. I. O.
Case No. 5-R-21/7.--Decided March 28, 1946
Cooper, Sanders t Holt, by Messrs. Thomas D. Cooper and E. 7'.
Sanders , of Burlington , N. C., and Brooks, McLendon , Brim &
Ilolderness , by Mr. L. P. McLendon, of Greensboro , N. C., for the
Company.
Mr. H. G. B. King , of Chattanooga , Tenn ., and Mr . Raymond
Adams, of Burlington , N. C., for the Union.
Mr. Seymour Cohen, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon a petition duly filed by American Federation of Hosiery
Workers, C. I. 0., herein called the Union, alleging that a question
affecting commerce had arisen concerning the representation of em-
ployees of May, McEwen, Kaiser Company-May Full Fashion Divi-
sion, Burlington, North Carolina, herein called the Company, the
National Labor Relations Board provided for an appropriate hear-
ing upon due notice before Sidney J. Barban, Trial Examiner. The
hearing was held at Burlington, North Carolina, on February 1,
1946. The Company and the Union appeared and participated. All
parties 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. All parties were
afforded 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
May, McEwen, Kaiser Company is a North Carolina corporation
with its principal office in Burlington, North Carolina, and with
66 N. L. R. B., No. 161.
1341
1342 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
sales offices in New York City, Chicago, Illinois, and Los Angeles,
California. The Company operates in Burlington, North Carolina,
a number of plants engaged in knitting and finishing ladies' rayon
and nylon stockings, including its May Full Fashion Division, with
which we are here solely concerned. In this Division, the Company
annually uses raw materials valued in excess of $250,000, of which at
least 15 percent is shipped from points outside the State of North
Carolina. Annual production by this Division of finished goods is
valued in excess of $250,000, of which at least 50 percent is shipped
to points outside the State of North Carolina.
The Company admits that it is engaged in commerce within the
meaning of the National Labor Relations Act.
II. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED
American Federation of Hosiery Workers is a labor organization
affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations , admitting to
membership employees of the Company.
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
The Company has refused to grant recognition to the Union as
the exclusive bargaining representative of the production and main-
tenance workers employed in its knitting plant until the Union has
been certified by the Board in an appropriate unit.
A statement of a Board agent, introduced into evidence at the
hearing, indicates that the Union represents a substantial number
of employees in the unit hereinafter found appropriate.'
We find that a question affecting commerce has arisen concerning
the representation of employes 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 unit composed of all production and mainte-
nance workers employed by the Company in the knitting plant of its
May Full Fashion Division, excluding office, clerical, and super-
visory personnel, and also excluding watchmen, firemen, machine
fixers, and machine shop employees. The Company makes no con-
tention as to the scope of the unit, but desires the Board to consider
the appropriateness of a unit composed of the production and main-
tenance employees of both the knitting and finishing plants, which
together make up the Company's May Full Fashion Division. Should
i The Field Examiner reported that the Union submitted 180 authorization cards. There
are approximately 464 employees in the unit petitioned for.
MAY, McEWEN , KAISER COMPANY 1343
the Board , however, find that the employees of the knitting plant
alone constitute an appropriate unit, the Company would agree to its
composition as sought by the Union except that it would include
the watchmen , firemen , and a utility worker whom the Union con-
siders a clerical employee.2
The Company's May Full Fashion Division is composed of a
knitting plant and a finishing plant. The plants are housed in two
separate buildings located across the street from each other. In the
knitting plant , raw materials consisting of rayons, cottons, and nylon
are processed through various operations such as knitting, looping,
seaming and inspecting, to be made into stockings. The stockings
are then carted over to the finishing plant where they are dyed,
packed, and shipped. But the finishing plant finishes stockings for
other knitting plants operated by the Company and for so-called
"commission" knitting mills. The knitting plant of the May Full
Fashion Division provides only about 25 percent of the goods handled
by the finishing plant. Laced stockings, which are originally made
in the finishing plant, are carried over to the knitting plant for in-
specting and mending and are then taken back to the finishing plant.
Stockings sent in by other knitting plants for finishing are also fre-
quently brought to the knitting plant here concerned to be put through
a steam process called the Dunn System, and are then returned to the
finishing plant.
We deem it significant , however, that there is no interchange of
employees between the knitting plant and the finishing plant, and
each plant has its own supervisory staff. Moreover, separate produc-
tion and cost accounting records are kept for the two plants, and
separate pay rolls are kept for each department in each plant. We
also note that average earnings of employees in the knitting plant
are higher than those in the finishing plant because of the generally
higher skills required . Seniority, furthermore, is on a departmental
basis.
The record indicates that the Union's organizing activities were
at first directed to both the knitting and finishing plants. While
these efforts met with some success in the knitting plant, the Union
was completely unsuccessful insofar as the finishing plant is con-
cerned .8 It has presently abandoned its organizing efforts in the
finishing plant.
• The Company acquiesces in the Union's contention that the machine fixers be excluded
from the unit , admitting that there is no distinction between the fixers here involved and
those excluded by the Board in Matter of Tower Hosier] Mills, Inc , 64 N L R. B. 1245
The Company also agrees to the exclusion of the machine shop employees in the event
the Board establishes a knitting plant unit, inasmuch as these employees are on the
finishing plant's pay roll and under the supervision of that plant's superintendent
• The Union, throughout 3 months of organizing activity, was unable to obtain any
members from among the employees of the finishing plant or to interest any of them in
attending union meetings
1344 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
In view of the foregoing facts, and in the absence of a history of
collective bargaining among the employees of the May Full Fashion
Division, we believe the employees of the Company's knitting plant
alone may comprise a unit suitable for the purposes of collective
bargaining. We perceive no valid reason why these employees should
be denied the right to bargain collectively merely because the em-
ployees of the finishing plant apparently do not desire a collective
bargaining representative at this time.
There remains for consideration disposition of the watchmen, fire-
men, and utility worker.
Watchmen: The Company employs two watchmen who are neither
deputized nor armed. They guard both plants at night and during
the day when the plants are not operating. Although they spend
about 60 percent of their time in the knitting plant, they are carried
on the finishing plant pay roll and are under the supervision of the
superintendent of the finishing plant. We shall, therefore, exclude
them.
Firemen : The Company employs three firemen who work in the
boiler room. This boiler room is located in the knitting plant build-
ing but serves both plants. The firemen are carried on the finishing
plant pay roll and are directly under the supervision of the finishing
plant superintendent, although the knitting plant superintendent
may give them instructions as to the temperature to be maintained in
the knitting plant. We shall also exclude them.
Utility worker: The Company employs one utility worker. She
spends about 20 percent of her time in the office of the superintendent
of the knitting plant, which is apart from the general clerical office.
There she tabulates production figures for piece-rate workers and time
slips for hourly workers. The remainder of her time she spends in
the stockroom where she receives and checks in stockings and allocates
them to various bins. She is on the knitting plant pay roll as an
hourly-paid worker, and is under the immediate supervision of the
knitting plant's day production foreman. Although the Union con-
tends that she should be excluded as a clerical office worker who is
close to management, the record shows that she performs no work
in the superintendent's office of a secretarial or confidential nature
Consequently, we shall include her.'
Accordingly, we find that all production and maintenance workers
employed by the Company in the knitting plant of its May Full
Fashion Division, including the utility worker. but excluding watch-
men, firemen, machine fixers, machine shop employees, office clerical
employees, and all supervisory employees with authority to hire, pro-
' See Matter of Hudson Knittinq Mills . Inc , 56 N L R. $ 1250: Rev also Matter of
Richmond Hosiery Mills, 62 N. L. R. 13 1481.
5 See Matter of The General Pireprooflnq Company, 58 N. L R 13 1609.
MAY, McEWEN, KAISER COMPANY 1345
mote, 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
The Company requests that those employees in the appropriate
unit who are now in the armed forces of the United States be allowed
to participate in the election by mail ballots, if necessary .6 The
Union does not object to such use of mail ballots. We are of the
opinion that the facts in the case do not substantially differ from
those in Matter of South West Pennsylvania Pipe Lines .7 Accord-
ingly, we shall provide for the mail balloting of employees in the
armed forces who fall within the appropriate unit, subject to the
conditions hereinafter mentioned.
We shall direct that the question concerning representation be re-
solved by an election by secret ballot among employees in the appro-
priate unit who were employed during the pay-roll period immedi-
ately preceding the date of the Direction of Election herein, subject
to the limitations and additions set forth in the Direction. The
Regional Director shall mail ballots to employees within the appro-
priate unit on military leave, provided one or more of the parties
hereto, within seven (7) days after receipt of the Direction of Elec-
tion, files with the Regional Director a list containing the names, most
recent addresses, and work classifications of such employees. The
Regional Director shall open and count the ballots cast by mail by
employees on military leave, provided that such ballots must be re-
turned to and received by the Regional Office within thirty (30) days
from the date they were mailed to such employees by the Regional
Di rector.8
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 Rela-
"There are 21 knitting plant emplo }ees in the armed forces
7 64 N. L. R. B. 1384.
8 A free interchange between the interested pas ties of information on the addresses
and work categories of the employees to be voted by mail will be necessary , in order to
avoid challenges and post -election objections . Accordingly, the Board will make available
to all interested parties any information of this nature furnished It by any other party
In the event that the parties should send the absentee voters information or literature
bearing directly or indirectly on the pending election, copies of all such documents should
he simultaneously filed with the Regional Office for inspection by or transmittal to the
other parties . However , acceptance of transmittal of such literature by the Board's office
is not to be construed as conferring immunity on tie filing pal t^ in the event that objcc
bons are later interposed concerning it, content The usual principles will apply
686572-46-86
1346 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
tions Act, and pursuant to Article III, Section 9, of National Labor
Relations 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 May, McEwen,
Kaiser Company-May Full Fashion Division, Burlington, North
Carolina, an election by secret ballot shall be conducted as early as
possible, but not later than forty-five (45) days from the date of
this Direction, under the direction and supervision of the Regional
Director for the Fifth 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 employees in the
unit found appropriate in Section IV, above, who were employed
during the pay-roll period immediately preceding the date of this
Direction, 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, but excluding those employees who may 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 American Federation of Hosiery Workers.
C. I. 0., for the purposes of collective bargaining.
CHAIRMAN HERZOG took no part in the consideration of the above
Decision and Direction of Election.