Montgomery Ward & Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jun 22, 1977

230 N.L.R.B. 366 (N.L.R.B. 1977)

DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Montgomery Ward & Co. Incorporated and Team-
sters Union Local 348, affiliated with International
Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Ware-
housemen and Helpers of America, Petitioner.
Case 8-RC-10441
June 22, 1977
DECISION ON REVIEW
BY CHAIRMAN FANNING AND MEMBERS
JENKINS AND MURPHY
On June 23, 1976, the Regional Director for
Region 8 issued a Decision and Direction of
Election 1 in the above-entitled proceeding in which
he found appropriate the Petitioner's requested unit
of warehouse employees, including retail bargain
store employees, but excluding employees in the
central repair service and drapery departments, all
located at the Employer's Gilchrist Road, Akron,
Ohio, facility. Thereafter, in accordance with Section
102.67 of the National Labor Relations Board Rules
and Regulations, Series 8, as amended, the Employer
filed a timely request for review of the Regional
Director's decision on the ground, inter alia, that he
erred in failing to find that the only appropriate unit
comprises all employees at the Gilchrist Road
facility.
By telegraphic order dated July 26, 1976, the
request for review was granted and the election
stayed pending decision on review.
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the
National Labor Relations Act, as amended, the
National Labor Relations Board has delegated its
authority in this proceeding to a three-member panel.
The Board has considered the entire record in this
case with respect to the issues under review and
hereby affirms the Regional Director for the follow-
ing reasons:
The Employer contends that in finding appropriate
the requested unit of warehouse and retail bargain
store employees the Regional Director minimized the
community of interest shared by all employees at the
facility, particularly the high degree of functional
integration of the operations there carried on, and
that on the facts herein only a facilitywide unit is
appropriate. We disagree.
The Gilchrist Road facility serves the Employer's
five retail stores in the vicinity of Akron and Canton,
Ohio, and handles mainly "big-ticket" merchandise,
such as furniture, lawn and garden equipment,
campers, and major appliances. The facility is
functionally divided into three principal depart-
' The relevant portion thereof is attached hereto as an appendix.
2 There are separate shops for refrigeration, TV, laundry and range, and
lawn mower repairs.
230 NLRB No. 33
ments: the warehouse operation, the central repair
service, and the drapery workroom, each having its
own manager who reports directly to the district
manager. The Regional Director found, and the
record shows, that each department has its own
budget and that its manager has final authority over
hiring for his department.
The facility is divided into two sections by a fire
wall running east-west. The north section, which is
much the larger of the two sections, houses the
warehouse storage area, shipping and receiving
docks, and the delivery office. The south section
contains the warehouse office, the repair service
areas,2 the service parts department, the service
office, furniture refinishing room, the drapery work-
room, the retail bargain store, restrooms, and the
employees' lunchroom.
The warehouse, which is under the supervision of
Warehouse Manager Clark, has approximately 19
employees classified as warehousemen, order pickers,
dockmen, delivery clerks, in-stock control clerks,
invoice records clerks, and furniture refinishers; it
performs such general warehouse functions as
ordering, receiving, and shipping merchandise, and
processing the accompanying paperwork. The vari-
ous clerical functions, such as inventory control and
bookkeeping, are performed in the warehouse office
which is adjacent to the repair service area. Furniture
refinishing is performed by two employees working
in a room which is also adjacent to the repair service
area. Such work involves the repairing of scratched
merchandise, such as TV and stereo equipment
having wood cabinets, attaching hardware, and
polishing furniture prior to delivery.
The retail bargain store, located in the southwest
corner of the facility, is administratively part of the
warehouse operation under Clark's supervision.
Damaged and overstocked items, as well as drapery
remnants and rejected custommade draperies, are
sold there.
The repair service department is engaged both in
preparing certain types of merchandise for sale and
in repairing merchandise sold by the five area retail
stores. The repair work is performed both in the
warehouse and in customers' homes. Approximately
half of the 54 repair service employees comprise the
field crew. Field crew employees spend about half of
their working time visiting customers' homes to effect
repairs. The other repair service employees work at
the facility: some make shop repairs on merchandise
which is returned for service both by customers3 and
by the retail stores; some, in the parts department,
provide parts to the service employees and make
3 The field crew also brings to the shops those items which cannot be
repaired in customers' homes.
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MONTGOMERY WARD & CO.
parts sales to customers; some perform service
clerical functions; and a few part-time employees sell
service contracts to customers by telephone. The
Regional Director found, and the record confirms,
that repair service department employees punch a
separate timeclock and are paid on the basis of a
different wage scale and method of wage computa-
tion from other employees at the facility.
The drapery workroom, which is situated adjacent
to the retail bargain store and service department
office, has nine employees who are engaged primarily
in making draperies pursuant to the specifications of
customers, through the Employer's interior decora-
tors at the retail stores. Drapery workroom employ-
ees also perform some upholstery work, such as
making throw pillows and other similar items. An
installer, who is part of the drapery workroom
operation, delivers and hangs the finished draperies
in customers' homes.
The Regional Director found, and the record
establishes, that the respective work stations of repair
service department employees and drapery work-
room employees are physically separate from the
warehouse operation and that these employees
perform distinctly different job functions and use
different skills from those of employees engaged in
warehousing functions. Contrary to the Employer's
contention, the record establishes that contact
between the warehouse and store employees on the
one hand, and repair service and drapery employees
on the other, is limited primarily to the routine
movement of merchandise between the various
departments within the facility. The record also
supports the Regional Director's finding that the
degree of interchange between the departments is
minimal. Thus, there have been at most three
permanent transfers between the repair service
department and the warehouse operation, one of
which involved a supervisory promotion. There have
been no permanent transfers into or out of the
drapery workroom. 4
In the circumstances of this case, we conclude, in
accord with the Regional Director, that the ware-
house and retail bargain store employees share a
sufficiently distinct community of interest apart from
other employees at the Gilchrist Road facility to
warrant their representation in a separate unit.5 In
reaching our conclusion, we rely particularly upon
the lack of interchange between the employees in the
requested warehouse unit and the repair service and
drapery workroom employees, the separate supervi-
sion for each group, the different work locations, lack
of significant contacts between the groups, and the
different work skills.6 While the record reveals a
small degree of functional overlap between the duties
of warehousemen and service employees, 7 it is, in our
opinion, insufficient to negate the separate communi-
ty of interest shared by warehouse and retail bargain
store employees. Also, no union is seeking to
represent the employees herein on a broader basis.
In view of the above, we find the following unit
appropriate for collective bargaining within the
meaning of Section 9(b) of the Act:
All warehouse employees, including retail bargain
store employees, furniture refinishers, and the
maintenance man8 employed by the Employer at
its warehouse located at 3081 Gilchrist Road,
Akron, Ohio, but excluding all drapery depart-
ment and central repair service department
employees, office clerical employees and profes-
sional employees, guards and supervisors as
defined in the Act.
Accordingly, as we have affirmed the Regional
Director's unit finding, we shall remand the case to
him in order that he may conduct the election
pursuant to his Decision and Direction of Election,
except that the payroll period for determining
eligibility shall be that ending immediately before the
date of this Decision on Review. [Excelsior footnote
omitted from publication.]
4 The only instance of temporary transfer at the facility involved the
drapery installer who apparently works in the warehouse for I to 3 weeks
during the Christmas season and briefly at other times when the warehouse
workload is high.
5 See H. P. Wasson Company, 153 NLRB 1499 (1965).
6 The Board has found appropriate units of employees of the type
excluded herein. Thus, in Sears, Roebuck and Co., 160 NLRB 1435 (1966), a
unit of service employees at a warehouse facility similar to the one herein
involved was found appropriate; and seeJ. L Hudson Company, 103 NLRB
1378, 1382-84 (1953), where separate upholstery workroom and drapery
workroom units were found appropriate.
7 There is evidence, for example, that furniture refinishers in the
warehouse operation occasionally engage in prepping certain types of
merchandise, together with repair service employees.
s The Employer viewed the Regional Director's unit placement of the
furniture refinishers and the maintenance man as ambiguous. Be that as it
may, we conclude on the basis of their common supervision, and integrated
functions, that they are properly included in the unit found appropriate.
APPENDIX
The unit sought by the Petitioner includes all
warehouse employees including retail bargain store
employees, employed by the Employer at the
Gilchrist Road warehouse, excluding drapery depart-
ment employees and central repair service depart-
ment employees. The Employer asserts that the unit
sought by the Petitioner is inappropriate and that the
smallest appropriate unit must consist of all of the
approximately 84 employees employed by it at the
Gilchrist Road warehouse.
The Gilchrist Road warehouse serves the Employ-
er's retail bargain store located at the warehouse in
addition to the five retail stores that are operated by
the Employer in the greater Akron-Canton area. The
Gilchrist Road warehouse operation is divided into
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DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
four basic functions which include the warehouse
operation, the drapery department, the retail bargain
store and the central repair service department. The
warehouse is divided into a north area and a south
area by a fire wall which runs from the east side of
the warehouse to the west side of the warehouse.
There are approximately 23 employees and six
supervisors, including the warehouse manager, work-
ing in the warehouse operation. The employees
working in the warehouse operation are variously
classified as warehousemen, order pickers, dockmen,
in-stock control clerks, invoice record clerks, delivery
clerks and furniture refinishers. The warehousemen,
order pickers, dockmen and delivery clerks perform
their work in the northern area of the warehouse
which is referred to as the warehouse storage area.
The in-stock control clerks and the invoice record
clerks work in the general warehouse office located
in the southern area of the warehouse. The furniture
refinishers perform their duties in the furniture
refinishing room located in the southern area of the
warehouse. The furniture refinishers prepare wood
items from the warehouse before they are delivered
and repair damage to wood merchandise. The
employees in the warehouse operation are under the
direct supervision of the warehouse manager, Bernie
Clark. Clark, who also supervises the two employees
that work in the bargain store and the one mainte-
nance man employed at the warehouse, reports to C.
E. Hall, one of the Employer's district managers.
There are approximately 54 employees, 3 supervi-
sors and a manager working in the central repair
service department located in the southern area of
the warehouse adjacent to the furniture refinishing
room and the general warehouse office. The service
department provides customer repair services for the
merchandise sold by the Employer in its Akron-
Canton stores. Within the service department is a
parts department which sells replacement parts
directly to customers as well as provides parts to the
service department personnel. Approximately one
half of the service department employees are regular-
ly engaged in servicing merchandise at the homes of
customers. The remaining employees, excluding
approximately 4 to 5 part-time service employees,
service items at the warehouse which cannot be
repaired at a customer's home. The 4 to 5 part-time
employees call customers to solicit service contracts
on merchandise which has been sold by the Employ-
er. The manager of the service department reports
directly to district manager Hall rather than to
warehouse manager Clark. The service department
occupies its own location in the southern area of the
warehouse which is physically separated from other
warehouse operations.
The service department also has its own budget.
The service department employees use a separate
timeclock which is located within the service depart-
ment. All of the other warehouse employees, except
the bargain store employees who do not regularly use
a timeclock, use a second timeclock located at the
employees' entrance to the warehouse. The record
reflects that there is no significant interchange of
employees between the service department and the
other warehouse operations. One of the two occa-
sions when transfers into the service department have
occurred involved the promotion of an employee to a
supervisory position. There have been no temporary
transfers into or out of the service department. The
record discloses that the wage scale and method of
wage computation used for the service department
employees is different from that used for the other
employees in the warehouse. Because they are
engaged in repairing merchandise, the service depart-
ment employees utilize skills different from those
possessed by the other warehouse employees. The
day-to-day contact between the service department
and the warehouse is limited to the movement of
merchandise into and out of the service department
by employees working in the warehouse operation.
Hiring for the service department, like that for all of
the other warehouse operations, is initially handled
by a personnel manager at the Employer's Cuyahoga
Falls, Ohio retail store. This personnel manager
maintains the personnel records for all the employees
working at the warehouse. Although the initial
screening of job applicants is performed by the
personnel manager, the manager of the service
department makes the final determination of whether
an applicant will be hired in the service department.
There are approximately 9 employees and a
manager working in the drapery department, located
in the drapery workroom in the southern area of the
warehouse adjacent to the service department. The
drapery department makes custom draperies for
customers of the Employer's regular retail stores.
Like the central repair service department manager,
the drapery department manager reports directly to
district manager Hall rather than to warehouse
manager Clark. Similarly, the drapery department
also has a separate budget. The record reveals no
permanent employee transfers and only one tempo-
rary transfer from the drapery department to ajob in
the warehouse. The single incident of temporary
transfer involved a drapery installer who was
temporarily assigned to the warehouse during a slow
period in the drapery department. The drapery
manager, like the central repair service department
manager, makes the final decision with respect to the
hire of drapery department employees. The skills
possessed by the drapery department employees are
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MONTGOMERY WARD & CO.
also markedly different from those possessed by the
warehouse operation employees. Additionally, aside
from some record keeping assistance provided to the
drapery department clerk by a clerical in the
warehouse operation, there is minimal day-to-day
contact between the drapery department employees
and the employees in the other warehouse opera-
tions.
The retail bargain store is located on the south side
of the fire wall in the south east corner of the
warehouse. In the bargain store, the Employer sells
overstocked or damaged items at reduced prices.
Two employees work in the retail bargain store and,
as noted above, they are supervised by warehouse
manager Clark. The merchandise sold in the retail
bargain store is either delivered by the Employer or
picked up by the customer. Deliveries are scheduled
by the delivery clerks in the warehouse operation.
Customer pick-ups are usually handled by the retail
bargain store employees. However, if an item is
heavy or bulky the retail bargain store employee
receives loading help from employees in the ware-
house operation.
The record reflects that all employees share
identical benefits and are governed by the same work
rules and regulations. All employees use the same
lunch room, parking lot, and rest rooms. Except for
the retail bargain store employees, all employees use
a common entrance to the warehouse. As noted
above, except for the central repair service employees
and the retail bargain store employees, all employees
use a single timeclock located next to the employee
entrance to the warehouse. There is only one central
switchboard for the entire warehouse. The working
hours of all the employees are for the most part 8:30
a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
I find, on the basis of the above and the entire
record, that the employees in the unit requested by
the Petitioner possess a sufficiently separate commu-
nity of employment interest to entitle them to
separate representation notwithstanding the common
conditions of employment noted above. As set forth
above, all the employees, except those in the drapery
department and central repair service department,
share the common supervision of the warehouse
manager, Bernie Clark. The drapery department and
the central repair service department also have
separate budgets. Furthermore, contact between the
drapery department and central repair service de-
partment employees and the employees in the
warehouse operation is limited to the movement of
merchandise and material into or out of the former
departments. In addition there is substantially no
interchange of employees, on either a temporary or
permanent basis, between the drapery department,
the central service department and the remaining
warehouse operation including the retail bargain
store. The job skills possessed by the employees in
the drapery department and the central repair service
department are quite distinct from those possessed
by the employees in the remaining warehouse
operation and retail bargain store. Although adjacent
to the general warehouse office and the furniture
refinishing room, the drapery department and the
central repair department are physically separate
from the warehouse operation. The Employer also
maintains a separate wage scale and method of wage
computation for employees in the central repair
service department. The latter employees also use a
separate timeclock.
In view of the foregoing, I find that the drapery
department and central repair service department are
functionally distinct from the remaining warehouse
operation and retail bargain store. Accordingly, I
find that the unit of all warehouse employees,
including retail bargain store employees, excluding
drapery department and central repair service de-
partment employees sought by the Petitioner is an
appropriate unit for the purposes of collective
bargaining.
369