Meier & Frank Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Oct 12, 1949

86 N.L.R.B. 517 (N.L.R.B. 1949)

In the Matter Of MEIER & FRANK COMPANY, EMPLOYER and OFFICE.
EMPLOYEES INTERNATIONAL UNION, LOCAL No. 11, AFL, PETITIONER
Case No. 36-RC-082.-Decided October 120, 1949
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before R. J. Wiener,
hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are
free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.!
Upon the entire record in this case, the National Labor Relations,
Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of^
the National Labor Relations Act.
2. The labor organization involved claims to represent employees
of the Employer.
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 Employer, engaged in retail merchandising, operates a de-
partment store in Portland, Oregon. The Petitioner seeks a unit of
office clerical employees at the Employer's store, excluding sales and
confidential employees and supervisors. The Employer contends,
among other things, that a single unit of office clerical and sales
employees is the only appropriate unit.
The Employer's department store contains 16 floors and a basement,
of which the basement and the first 10 floors are sales floors, the 12th,
13th, and 14th, are office floors, and the remainder are storage and
locker-room floors. Its 2,750 employees include approximately 1,050
sales employees and 400 office clerical employees. Most of the office
clerical employees work principally on the separate office floors, but
' Subsequent to the bearing, the Petitioner moved for oral argument and Office Em-
ployees International Union moved to file a brief in behalf of the Petitioner. The first
motion is denied, as in our opinion the issues are sufficiently developed in the record
and the briefs in this proceeding ; the second motion is granted and the brief submitted
has been considered.
86 N. L. R. B., No. 71.
867351-50-vol. 86-34 517
-518 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
,some are also stationed in selling and non-selling departments
throughout the store. There are, for example, in office clerical classi-
fications, 22 stenographers and 10 unit control clerks, all in selling
departments; there are also 13 typists and 125 office clerks, in selling
and non-selling departments throughout the store, 14 tube room
cashiers, who work in the basement, 3 comptometer operators, who on
occasion work in the selling departments, and 2 messengers, who work
in and out of offices throughout the store. There are also 30 to 35
cashier wrappers who work in sales departments, wrapping merchan-
dise and making change for customers, functions performed in other
departments by sales personnel. All these employees are under the
immediate supervision of the managers of the several departments
where they are employed. Those who work in selling departments
are under the same immediate supervision as sales employees. Office
clerical employees in the store floors have contacts of varying fre-
quency with selling employees and customers.
Permanent transfers between sales and office personnel occur, and
there are frequent temporary interchanges during major sales events,
busy seasons, and office rush periods. Salaries for office clerical and
sales employees are comparable and are computed on a monthly basis,
but selling employees receive a commission, in addition to a basic
salary. General conditions of employment are the same for both
groups. The Employer's personnel department handles hirings, dis-
charges, promotions, transfers and other labor relations matters for
all departments in the store.
In earlier cases in which this Board has been asked to determine
appropriate units for sales employees in retail stores, in which no
union has sought to represent office employees as a separate group, we
have included office employees in units of sales employees,' much as,
in an analogous line of decisions, we have included in production and
maintenance units crafts and other fringe groups who otherwise
would have been unrepresented.3 This Employer's office clerical em-
ployees, however, constitute a large homogeneous identifiable group,
most of whom work separately from: sales employees. We have fre-
quently found that office clerical employees may constitute a separate
bargaining unit apart from other categories of employment.' In the
instant case, were a second labor organization seeking to represent the
office clerical and sales employees in a single unit, we would not have
hesitated to direct a separate election among the office clerical em-
ployees to determine whether they desire to be represented in the
2 Matter of Spiegel, Inc. d/b/a Spiegel Fashion Shops , 85 N. L. R. B. 437, and cases cited
therein.
' Matter of S. S. Pierce Co., 82 N . L. R. B. 1260.
4 Matter of Chrysler Corporation , 58 N. L . R. B. 239 ; 76 N. L. R. B. 55.
MEIER & FRANK COMPANY 519
store-wide unit or in an office clerical unit. Because the sales em-
ployees of the Employer are not represented,5 and the Petitioner seeks
to represent only the office clerical employees, we see no reason to bar
the establishment of the office clerical unit sought by the Petitioner.
Because, however, cashier wrappers in considerable measure perform
the functions of sales personnel, and we shall exclude them from the
requested office clerical unit.
We find that office clerical employees 6 at the Employer's Portland,
Oregon, retail store, excluding sales employees, confidential secre-
taries, cashier wrappers, and supervisors, constitute a unit appro-
priate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning
of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the pur-
poses of collective bargaining with the Employer, an election by secret
ballot shall be conducted as early as possible, but not later than 30
days from the date of this Direction, under the direction and super-
vision of the Regional Director for the Region in which this case was
heard, and subject to Sections 203.61 and 203.62 of National Labor
Relations Board Rules and Regulations, among the employees in the
unit found appropriate in paragraph numbered 4, above, who were
employed during the pay-roll period immediately preceding the date
of this Direction of Election, including employees who did not work
during said pay-roll period because they were ill or on vacation or
temporarily laid off, but excluding those employees who have since
quit or been discharged for cause and have not been rehired or re-
instated prior to the date of the election, and also excluding employees
on strike who are not entitled to reinstatement, to determine whether
or not they desire to be represented, for purposes of collective bargain-
ing, by Office Employees International. Union, Local No. 11, AFL.
MEMBER REYNOLDS took no part in the consideration of the above
Decision and Direction of Election.
5 Testimony was introduced at the hearing that the Retail Clerks International Associa-
tion, AFL, had been engaged in organizing the Employer's sales employees since January
1949.
' These employees fall within the following categories : timekeepers , credit men , credit
interviewers , unit control clerks, proofreaders, post -office clerks , credit reporters , credit
tube girls , messengers , secretaries , key punch operators , tabulating machine operators,
stenographers , cashiers , bookkeeping machine operators , telephone operators, comptometer
operators, junior comptometer operators, addressograph operators, typists, file clerks, office
clerks, and apprentice clerks.