Michigan Mushroom Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jul 5, 1950

90 N.L.R.B. 774 (N.L.R.B. 1950)

In the Matter of MICHIGAN MuSHROO31 COMPANY, EMPLOYER and
CONGRESS OF INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS, PETITIONER
Case No. 7-RC-848.-Decided July 5, 1950
DECISION AND ORDER
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, a hearing was held before Cecil Pearl, hearing officer.
The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from prej-
udicial 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 this case to a three-member
panel [Chairman Herzog and Members Houston 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 labor organization involved claims to represent employees
of the Employer.
3. No 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, for the following
reasons:
The Petitioner contends that all production and maintenance em-
ployees at the Employer's Niles, Michigan, operations, excluding office
and clerical employees, truck drivers, professional employees, the
spawner, and supervisors, constitute an appropriate bargaining unit.
The Employer contends that the employees sought by the Petitioner in
this proceeding are "agricultural laborers" within the meaning of
Section 2 (3) of the Act, and are, therefore, not to be included in any
bargaining unit found appropriate by the Board.
The Employer is primarily engaged in the growing and sale of
mushrooms in an area known as The Michigan Mushroom Farms, just
outside the city limits of Niles, Michigan. Its properties consist of 46
acres of land, on which mushrooms are grown, packed, and canned;
and a "dirt farm," approximately 2 miles distant.' Mushrooms are
1 On this dirt farm , the Employer has raised straw for its own use.
90 NLRB No. 119.
774
MICHIGAN MUSHROOM COMPANY 775'
not grown in this area out of doors for commercial purposes, but only
where temperature and moisture can be controlled. The Employer's
mushrooms are not a seasonal crop, but are grown the year around..
Its 40 growing houses, made of tile and wood, are artificially heated in
winter and artificially cooled in summer. Fresh mushrooms can nor-
mally be transported with proper refrigeration in a marketable condi-
tion within a radius of 100 miles 2 During the summer months, how-
ever, because heat brings discoloration and easy spoilage, the Em-
ployer's principal customers, such as chain stores and hotels, stop or
cut down on their orders for fresh mushrooms.
Manure is the principal growing medium for mushrooms. It is,
brought to the area of the Employer's growing houses by truck and rail-
road. Employees, classified by the Employer as farm laborers, pre-
pare a compost made of manure, earth, straw, fertilizer, and gypsum,.
which they place on a concrete slab 8 to 10 inches thick, located about
500 feet from the growing houses. They bring the compost, when
properly matured, a process which takes from 3 to 23 days, to the grow-
ing houses by truck. There are about 8 tiers of benches or trays, 40 by
80 to 100 feet long, on each side of the center aisle of a growing house.
These benches serve as the growing beds for mushrooms. Employees
spread the compost evenly in the benches to a depth of 6 inches. As
the decomposition of the compost advances, its temperature decreases
from between 130 and 145 degrees to about 80 degrees. The compost
is then sown with mushroom spawn made by the Employer from cul-
tures. After a period of 10 to 20 days, a layer of dirt brought from
the dirt farm is placed and spread on top of the compost. The beds
are watered and aired, and cooled or heated as the season requires.
Mushrooms appear in the form of pin points in from 7 to 21 days.
During the growing season, the beds are inspected and watered.
Fungicides, sprays, and mechanical devices are used to combat the at-
tacks of insects, pests, diseases, worms, flies, moles, etc., to which the
mushroom crop is generally subject. As the mushrooms mature, they
are picked by hand. Periodic flushes of mushrooms are harvested
every 6 or 8 days. A mushroom bed continues to bear from 2 to 4
months. The exhausted compost and dirt is then shoveled out from
the benches and carried off by truck to a dumping area on the premises.
The benches are refilled with new compost, and the growing processes
are repeated, each new cycle covering approximately 100 to 120 days.
Mushrooms are picked, sorted, and packed by hand. Certain types
of mushrooms and parts cannot be sold fresh. Mushrooms that are
2 Because of the Employer 's location , Its fresh mushroom market Includes the area of
Chicago.
776 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
white, large , and well shaped are selected and packed in baskets and
cartons for marketing as fresh mushrooms . During the year ending
October 31, 1949, the Employer grew on its premises over 1,000,000
pounds of mushrooms. Its total sales during this period amounted
to $1,173,000. Over the year period , fresh mushrooms furnished ap-
proximately 25 percent of the Employer 's total sales.
To prevent the immediate spoilage of mushrooms which cannot be
sold fresh , and as a means to reach more distant markets, the Employer
cans mushrooms which it cannot sell fresh, and soft mushrooms, fully
opened mushrooms , mushrooms defective in size and shape, and mush-
room parts and stems . Canning with only water added is the usual
treatment for buttons , sliced buttons, and mushroom pieces and stems.
This type of canning represents 50 percent of the Employer 's total
sales for the year. Other mushrooms and parts , which cannot be thus
utilized , are mixed with other ingredients and made into sauces and
soups. Canned sauces and soups represent approximately 22.5 percent
of the Employer's yearly sales . In addition to these mushroom prod-
ucts, the Employer cans asparagus furnished by local growers, and the
sale of this canned asparagus represents 2.5 percent of the Employer's
sales during the year.
The Employer grows, packs , cans, and stores its mushrooms on its
own premises . Approximately half of the 102 employees whom the
Petitioner seeks to represent are the employees classified by the Em-
ployer as "farm laborers ," who prepare the compost , fill and tend the
mushroom beds , plant the spawn and cultivate its growth , and pick
and sort the fresh mushrooms . Designated as fillers, casers , emptiers,
grubbers , and pickers and general farm laborers , according to their
principal work , they interchange with one another as the varying de-
mands on their time require. Other employees on the Employer's
farm properties include a crane operator, who, inter alia, moves and
lifts the compost and dirt for the growing houses; and certain main-
tenance, warehouse , and cannery employees . The maintenance em-
ployees, 13 in number , include the carpenter who makes and maintains
the wooden benches that constitute the mushroom beds and repairs the
growing houses and other buildings on the Employer 's properties; and
the various mechanical workers, who keep in running operation the
trucks, crane, and other machines ; maintain the air -conditioning
system for heating and cooling the growing houses ; and operate the
boiler and the powerhouse for the Employer 's general use. In addition
to these maintenance employees , there are approximately 31 employees
who work in the cannery and 7 who are warehouse employees.
In the Great Western Mushroom Company case ,3 we found that
s Great Western Mushroom Company, 27 NLRB 352 , 358, and cases cited therein. Cf.
Knaust Brothers, Inc., 36 NLRB 915; Indiana Mushroom Corp., 60 NLRB 1065.
MICHIGAN MUSHROOM COMPANY 777
employees engaged in the cultivation of mushrooms in growing houses
under artificial conditions, such as the employees generally classified
by the Employer herein as "farm laborers," were not "agricultural
laborers" within the meaning of Section 2 (3) of the Act. When this
case was decided in 1940, however, the definition of "agricultural
laborers" set forth in the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 had not
been incorporated by reference into the National Labor Relations Act.4
That definition, however, under the rider to the Board's current appro-
priation act, is now controlling on the question of whether particular
employees are "agricultural laborers" within the meaning of Section
2 (3) of the Act. We have held, since that rider was adopted, that
employees performing functions similar to those performed by those
of the Employer's employees who grow and cultivate the mushrooms
are "agricultural laborers." 5 Such a result is consistent with the
interpretation of the definition which has been made by the agency
administering the Fair Labor Standards Acts We therefore find
that employees of the Employer engaged in the growing and cultiva-
tion of mushrooms on its properties at Niles, Michigan, are "agricul-
tural laborers" within the meaning of Section 2 (3) of the Act.
These employees, as noted above, constitute a very large proportion
of the employees in the over-all and only unit sought by the Petitioner
herein.7 As they are agricultural laborers within the meaning of the
Act and may not be included in any unit of employees found appro-
priate by the Board, we find that the proposed unit is not appropriate
for bargaining purposes. For this reason, we shall dismiss the petition
filed herein.
ORDER
IT IS HEREBY ORDERLD that the petition herein be, and it hereby is,
dismissed.
' This definition in Section 3 (f) of the Fair Labor Standards Act, insofar as applicable
here, reads as follows :
"Agriculture " includes farming in all its branches and among other things includes
. . . the production , cultivation , growing, and harvesting of any agricultural or
horticultural commodities . . . and any practices . . . performed by a farmer or on
a farm including preparation for market , delivery to storage or to market or to carriers
for transportation to market.
William H. Elliot & Sons Company, 78 NLRB 1078 , and cases cited therein.
6Interpretive Bulletin No . 14 of the Wage and Hour Division of the United States De-
partment of Labor , in construing Section 3 ( f) of the Fair Labor Standards Act, provides in
part as follows :
5 (d) Some commodities , such as , mushrooms , flowers, and seeds , instead of being
grown in open fields, are frequently grown in enclosed houses, greenhouses, or hot
beds . As long as the commodities are agricultural or horticultural , their produc-
tion, cultivation , growing , and harvesting fall within the exemption , whether they
are grown in enclosed houses or in the open field.
' The Petitioner in this proceeding indicated at the hearing that it does not seek to
represent the cannery and warehouse employees separately from those we have found are
"agricultural laborers ." We make no finding herein as to whether the cannery or ware.
house employees are "agricultural laborers."