Metropolitan Life Insurance Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Oct 22, 1945

64 N.L.R.B. 396 (N.L.R.B. 1945)

In the Matter Of METROPOLITAN LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY and INTER-
NATIONAL UNION OP LIFE INSURANCE AGENTS
Case No. 18-R-1298.Decided October 22, 1945
11r. Harry D. Gutt/zrie, of New York City, for the Company.
11r. Ray T. McCann, of Milwaukee, Wis., for the Independent.
Mr. Joe Moran, of Chicago, Ill., for the CIO.
Mr. Glenn L. Moller, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon a petition duly filed by International Union Life Insurance
Agents, herein called the Independent, alleging that a question af-
fecting commerce had arisen concerning the representation of em-
ployees of Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, New York City,
herein called the Company, the National Labor Relations Board
provided for an appropriate hearing upon due notice before Clarence
A. Meter, Trial Examiner. The hearing was held at Des Moines,
Iowa, on July 18, 1945. The Company, the Independent, and United
Office & Professional Workers of America, CIO, herein called the
CIO, appeared and participated. All parties were afforded full op-
portunity 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 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
Metropolitan Life Insurance Company is a New York corporation
having its home office in New York City. The Company is engaged
in insuring the lives and health of its policyholders. On December
31, 1944, the Company had approximately 41,500,000 policies in force
64 N. L. R. B., No. 72.
396
METROPOLITAN LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY 397
with a total face value of approximately $30,700 ,000,000. Of these
policies 328,000, having a face value of approximately $149,000,000,
were serviced in the Company 's District Offices in the State of Iowa.
It had approximately 31,060,000 policyholders residing in 48 States
of the United States , the District of Columbia , and Canada. On
December 31, 1944, the Company's assets totaled $6,995,450,571, con-
sisting of cash, Government bonds , stocks , mortgages on real estate,
real estate and policy loans and notes . All securities purchased by
the Company are delivered to its home office in New York. The Coin-
pany owns its home office property in New York City, and other
properties used in the administration of its business throughout the
United States and Canada . The Company manages its real estate
through 89 real estate agents in 17 States of the United States and
in Canada . During the 5-year period from 1940 to 1944, the Company
annually invested in bonds, stocks , and mortgages approximately
'51,063,300,000.
During 1944 the Company purchased approximately $87,185 worth
of furniture , fixtures , and mechanical equipment for use in its busi-
ness, of which equipment more was shipped to the Company or one
of its offices from the State of New York than from any other State,
and approximately 5 percent of the equipment was shipped from the
State of New York to other States. During 1944, the Company pur-
chased approximately $1,050,946 worth of stationery supplies and
paper, substantial portions of which were shipped to the Company's
offices from States other than the States of their destination . During
the year 1944 the Company spent approximately $2,606 ,398 for post-
age, telephone , telegraph , and express services. In the same period it
spent $2,864,702 for traveling expenses.
On December 31, 1944, there were 7 District Offices located in the
State of Iowa and 132 agents attached to those offices.
We find that the widespread business and financial activities of
the Company have a direct and substantial effect upon interstate coin
coerce and that the Company is engaged in commerce within the mean-
ing of the Act.
II. THE ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED
International Union of Life Insurance Agents is an unaffiliated
labor organization, admitting to membership employees of the Com-
pany.
United Office & Professional Workers of America, affiliated with
the Congress of Industrial Organizations, is a labor organization
admitting to membership employees of the Company.
398 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
The Company has refused to grant recognition to the Independent
as the exclusive representative of the agents attached to•its Iowa Dis-
trict Offices until the Independent has been certified by the Board in
an appropriate unit.
A statement of a Board agent, introduced into evidence at the hear-
ing, indicates that the' Independent 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 employees of the Company, within the meaning
of Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
IV. TIER APPROPRIATE UNIT
The parties agree that the State-wide unit hereinafter described is
appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining. We have fre-
quently found appropriate, absent self-organization on a broader
basis, State-wide units such as the one here proposed and we find that
such a unit is appropriate in the instant proceeding?
NATe find that all agents of the Company who sell industrial life
insurance and who are attached to and work out of district or detached
offices in the State of Iowa, including canvassing, regular, office ac-
count and detached agents, but excluding independent and retired
agents, managers, assistant managers, clerks, cashiers, secretaries and
all other employees, 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 an election by secret ballot among the em-
ployees 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,
'The Field Examiner reported that the Independent submitted 47 authorization cards,
40 of which bore the names of persons listed on the Company 's pay roll of June 2, 1945,
which contained the names of 128 employees in the appropriate unit.
The CIO submitted 20 application cards, all of which bore the names of persons listed
on the aforesaid pay roll.
2 Matter of The Prudential Insurance Company of America, 47 N. L. R. B. 1103, 49
N. L R B . 450, 50 N. L. It . B. 689, and cases cited therein.
METROPOLITAN LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY 399
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-
tiv-es for the purposes of collective bargaining with Metropolitan
Life Insurance Company, New York City, 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 super-
vision of the Regional Director for the Eighteenth 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 Regula-
tions, 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 Direction, including employees who did not
work during said pay-roll period because they were ill or on vacation
of temporarily laid off, and including employees in the armed forces
of the United States who present themselves in person at the polls,
but excluding those employees 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 they desire to be represented by
International Union of Life Insurance Agents, or by United Office &
Professional Workers of America, affiliated with the Congress of In-
dustrial Organizations, for the purposes of collective bargaining, or
by neither.
MR. GERARD D. REILLY took no part in the consideration of the above
Decision and Direction of Election.