Montgomery Ward & Co., Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Dec 13, 1943

53 N.L.R.B. 1300 (N.L.R.B. 1943)

In the Matter Of MONTGOMERY WARD & CO., INCORPORATED and INTER-
NATIONAL UNION OF OPERATING ENGINEERS, FIREMEN AND OILERS,
LOCAL No. 6, AFFILIATED WITH THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR
In the Matter Of MONTGOMERY WARD & CO., INCORPORATED and UNITED
MAIL ORDER, WAREHOUSE-& RETAIL EMPLOYEES UNION, LOCAL 131,
AFFILIATED WITH UNITED RETAIL, WHOLESALE AND DEPARTMENT STORE
EMPLOYEES OF AMERICA, CIO
Cases Nos. 17-R-6692 and 17-R-723, respectively.Decided
December 13, 1943
Mr. D. M: Norton, of Chicago, Ill., for the Company.
Mr. Cecil F. Liles, of Kansas City, Mo., for the Engineers.
Messrs. Harry C. Clark and Edward Chevlin, of Kansas City, Mo.,
for the C. I. O.
Messrs. Clif Langsdale, John J. Manning, and James 0. Mack, all
of Kansas City, Mo., for the Council.
Mr. Robert Silagi, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
1
Upon petitions duly filed by International Union of Operating En-
gineers, Firemen and Oilers, Local No. 6, affiliated with the American
Federation of Labor, herein called the Engineers, and United Mail
Order, Warehouse & Retail Employees Union, Local 131, affiliated
with United Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Employees of
America, C. I. 0., herein called the CIO, each alleging that a question
affecting commerce had arisen concerning the representation of em-
ployees of Montgomery Ward & Co., Incorporated, Kansas City,
Missouri, herein called the Company, the National Labor Relations
Board consolidated the cases and provided for an appropriate hearing
upon due notice before John A. Weiss, Trial Examiner. Said hear-
ing was held at Kansas City, Missouri, on October 13 and 14, 1943.
The Company, the Engineers, the CIO, and Building and Construc-
53 N. L. R. B., No. 237. -
1300
MONTGOMERY SWARD & CO., INCORPORATED 1301
tion Trades Council of Greater Kansas City, herein called the Council,
appeared and participated. All parties were afforded full oppor-
tunity 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 2
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following:
FINDINGS OF FACT
1. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
Montgomery Ward & Co., Incorporated, is an Illinois corporation
maintaining its principal office and place of business in Chicago,
Illinois. The Company is engaged in the sale and distribution of
clothing, home furnishings and supplies, hardware, building equip-
ment, jewelry, musical instruments, electrical supplies, books, sta-
tionery, automobile accessories, cosmetics, sporting goods, and other
items of merchandise. The Company operates 9 mail order houses and
more than 500 retail stores located throughout the United States. This
proceeding is concerned solely with the mail order house and retail
store operated by the Company in Kansas City, Missouri. The mail
order house serves an area extending into 6 States and makes approxi-
mately 60 percent of its sales to purchasers in States other than the
State of Missouri. Total purchases for the mail order house for the
fiscal year ending January 31,1943, amounted to more than.$18,000,000,
of which more than 90 percent was shipped to Kansas City from points
outside the State of Missouri. Sales for the same period exceeded
$25,000,000, about-75 percent of which represents shipments of mer-
chandise to points outside the State of Missouri. With respect to the
operations of the retail store, approximately $3,500,000 worth of me]--'
chandise was purchased during the fiscal year ending January 31, 1943,
about 80 percent of which represents articles purchased in States other
than Missouri. The sales of the retail store amount to about $3,300,000
about 6 percent of which was made to purchasers located outside the
State of Missouri.-
The Company concedes and we find that, with respect to its mail
order house and retail store in Kansas City, Missouri, it is engaged in
commerce within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act.
I The CIO submitted a waiver of its right to object to an election , if ordered , based upon
certain charges of unfair labor practices it had previously filed against the Company.
2 Following the hearing , the Company submitted certain proposed changes to correct the
record , the majority of which are agreeable to all parties Insofar as the parties stipulated
to adopt the changes, we hereby approve said stipulation and order the corrections to be
incorporated in the official transcript.
1302 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
II. THE ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED
International Union of Operating Engineers, Firemen and Oilers,
Local No. 6, and Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater
Kansas City, are labor organizations affiliated with the American
Federation of Labor, and admit to membership employees of the
Company.
United Mail Order, Warehouse & Retail Employees Union, Local
131, affiliated with United Retail, Wholesale and Department Store
Employees of America, affiliated with the Congress of Industrial
Organizations, is a labor organization admitting to membership
employees of the Company.
III. THE QUESTIONS CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
On April 12, 1943, the Engineers notified the Company that it repre-
sented a majority of the engineers, firemen and oilers working in the
heating and boiler plant of the Company at Kansas City. On August
25,1943, the CIO informed the Company that it represented a majority
of the production and maintenance employees in the Company's mail-
order house and retail store in Kansas City. The Company has refused
all requests to bargain, maintaining that it will not bargain with either
of the unions until it is certified by the Board in an appropriate unit.
A statement of a Board agent, introduced into evidence at the
hearing, indicates that each union represents a number of employees
in the units alleged to be appropriate.'
We find that questions affecting commerce have arisen concerning
the representation of employees of the Company, within the meaning
of Section 9 (c) and Sectiop_ 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNITS
The Company and the CIO, in substantial agreement, request the
establishment of two units , embracing all employees in the Company's
mail order house and retail store, respectively. The Engineers seeks
the establishment of a separate unit for employees in the heating and
power plant, and the Council desires to represent certain employees,
members of various crafts , who are employed in the maintenance
department.
s The Company ' s pay roll was received too late to make an accurate check against the
designations submitted by the unions . The Field Examiner reported that the CIO submitted
731 authorization and application for membership cards, variously dated between May 1937
and September 1943, 693 of which bore apparently genuine original signatures The
Engineers submitted 8 authorization cards , all dated as of July 15, 1943 . Seven of the cards'
submitted bore apparently genuine original signatures and also bole the names of persons
listed on the Company 's pay roll of July 9 , 1943 The Council submitted 20 application foi
membership cards , all of which bore apparently genuine original signatures , 14 of which
were dated in August 1943, and the remainder were undated
MONTGOMERY WARD & CO., INCORPORATED 1303
The Kansas City operations of the Company consist of two busi-
nesses, the mail order house and the retail store, which function inde-
dendently of each other. Although housed together in a single build-
ing, and extending the same insurance and employee benefits to their
employees, each business is separately managed, maintains its own
pay roll, wage and job classifications, merchandise purchasing depart-
ment, and personnel department. The manager of each is responsible
to separate regional heads, who are in turn responsible to the execu-
tive officers of the Company in Chicago, the Company's home office.
The employees of the two are not interchangeable. In Kansas City
there is no person or group of persons authorized to handle labor
relations for both enterprises. There is no history of collective bar-
gaining either in the mail order house or in the retail store, although
from time to time since 1937, the CIO has presented to and consulted
with the managements on individual or group grievances. For these
reasons the Company desires to preserve the identity of each business
by establishing separate units for the employees thereof. In its peti-
tion the CIO requested a single over-all unit; however, at the Bearing
it acquiesced in the Company's position. We see no reason to depart
from the agreement of the parties in this respect.
The physical plant of the Company consists of a large building,
the lower floors' of which are occupied by the retail store and the
upper floors by the mail order house. The mail order house is con-
sidered the lessor of the building and the retail store the tenant.
Accordingly, the mail order house heats and keeps the building in
repair. To perform these functions the mail order house has a,build-
ing operating and maintenance department. Four engineers and four
firemen, under the direction of a supervisory engineer, perform the
work in the building's boiler room. It is these employees, excluding
the supervisory engineer, whom the Engineers seeks to represent.
The Company and the CIO oppose the carving out of any craft unit
from the industrial units which they seek to establish. The engi-
neers and the firemen work exclusively in the boiler room in the base-
ment of the building, have no contact with the other employees of
the Company, and are paid on a separate wage scale, which is higher
than that normally paid in the mail-order house. By municipal
ordinance the engineers are required to be licensed and the firemen
must also pass certain examinations before they are permitted to
work with the high pressure apparatus.
Since the employees of the boiler room are in effect a division
separate and apart from all other employees of the Company,4 we
find that all engineers and firemen of the Company, but excluding
' See Matter of Montgomery TVa,d d Co, 29 N L. R B 1120; also Matter of Montgomery
Ward cC Co , Incorporated, 44 N L R B 694,
1304 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
0
the supervisory engineer, and any other supervisory employee with
authority to hire, promote, 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 bar-
gaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
The Council which consists of a number of craft unions, not includ-
ing the Engineers, seeks to represent the carpenters, painters, plumbers,
electricians, millwrights, cabinet makers, and, glaziers employed by the
Company, in a separate unit. Here, too,the Company and the CIO
oppose the establishment of any craft unit, giving as their reason the
similarity of conditions of work between these and other employees of
the Company. These craftsmen, between 30 and 40 in number, are
almost all employed in the maintenance department of the mail order
house, which includes porters, elevator operators, matrons, and janitors,
the latter groups, however, not being sought by the Council. Like
the engineers and firemen, the maintenance craftsmen enjoy a wage
scale which is generally higher than that of other employees of the
Company. In addition, they have undergone apprenticeships and
possess skills which set them apart from the other employees. Main-
tenance employees, unlike the engineers and firemen, who are con-
fined to the boiler room, work throughout the entire building making
repairs to the premises of both the mail order house and the retail
store, thus coming in contact with other employees of the Company.
When they work in the space occupied by the retail store their activ-
ities are restricted to repairing and replacing of work on the building
itself.
Under all the circumstances we are of the opinion that the main-
tenance craftsmen may properly constitute a separate bargaining
unit, or may equally achieve the full benefit of their right to self-
organization for collective bargaining as part of the mail order house
industrial unit. In this situation we shall permit the scope of the
bargaining units to be determined in part by the desires of the em-
ployees themselves to be expressed in a separate election. The retail
store has its own staff of one carpenter and two painters whom it
employs to repair and paint its displays and movable fixtures. The
Council seeks to include the retail store carpenter and painters in its
unit of maintenance craftsmen. Being on separate pay rolls, the
carpenter and painters employed by the retail store have no contact
with the maintenance employees of the mail order house. They are
separately supervised and maintain quarters in different parts of the
building. The record contains no indication that the Council has
attempted to organize the three employees in question. In view of
their wholly different functions and our previous determination that
MONTGOMERY WARD & CO., INCORPORATED 1305
the employees of the mail order house and the retail store shall be
kept apart, we shall exclude the retail store carpenter and painters
from the voting group of maintenance craftsmen. The parties agree
that the supervisor of the maintenance department should be excluded
but disagree with respect to the carpenter, plumber, electrician, and
painter foremen. The evidence in respect to the duties and functions
of the latter employees is meagre. A representative of the Council
testified that the carpenter foreman, who apparently is typical of
the foremen in question, is the kind of employee who is customarily
included in units of carpenters working on construction jobs in Kansas
City, because of the impermanence of his supervisory status. On one
such job a carpenter may work as a foreman and a short time there-
after on another job, he may work as a journeyman. No attempt,
however, was made to show that the craft foremen employed by the
Company are subject to such variable conditions. In view of the
nature of the duties and authority inherent in the title of foreman,
we shall exclude the carpenter, plumber, electrician, and painter f ore-
men from the voting group.
As indicated above, the Company and the CIO are in accord as to
the general composition of the separate industrial units for the mail
order house and retail store. By its petition the CIO seeks the ex-
clusion of "managers, nerchandisers, buyers, rebuyers, department
heads, section heads, supervisors, part-time employees, personnel de-
partment employees, confidential employees, timekeepers, and house
protection employees." The parties agree that managers or execu-
tives of the Company, merchandisers, and "confidential" employees
should be excluded from the unit; there is disagreement, however,
with respect to the following classifications, all of whom the Company
would include and the CIO would exclude.
Mail Order House
1. Regular part-time employees. As of the date of hearing there
were over 300 regular part-time employees employed in the mail order
house. The CIO contends that no employee working less than 40
hours a week, or who holds employment elsewhere, should be included
in the voting group; however, it accepts part-time employees into
membership and has some members among them. Part-time em-
ployees occupy positions in nearly all classifications and work along-
side the regular full-time employees. They are subject to the same,
supervision and wage rates, and have available for their use the same
recreational facilities, eating accommodations, employee benefit plan,
and discount privileges. In similar situations, the Board has in-
cluded part-time employees in the same voting group with full-time
1306 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
employees.5 We shall do so here. The parties agree however, and
we shall exclude all temporary employees, i. e., all employees who are
hired to complete a specific job, or to work only for a specified length
of time.
2. St. Joseph employees. The Company has recently opened a
wartime branch of its mail-order house in St. Joseph, Missouri, about
50 miles from Kansas City, wherein are employed 18 people in 4 or
5 different departments. All except. 5 employees, who were loaned
by the Kansas City house to the St. Joseph branch, are residents of
St. Joseph. The Company contemplates expanding the St. Joseph
mail-order house to about 250 or 300 employees. Because of the dis-
tance from the Kansas City operation, the CIO has made no attempt
to organize these employees. We shall exclude all employees of the
Company employed at its St. Joseph branch.
3. Stenographers do the work of record clerks, timekeepers, and
also take some dictation. The confidential work that they perform
in respect to labor relations is extremely limited. We shall include
the stenographers.
4. Timekeepers perform purely clerical work on the time cards. We
shall include them.
5. Auditors investigate and correct conditions in various production,
departments, such as checking on correspondence and quality. They
perform no supervisory functions and we shall, therefore, include
them.
6.' Special attention clerks give special or preferred attention to
unusual or particularly expensive orders, requests or adjustments. We
shall include them.
7. Switchboard operators perform routine duties on the telephone
switchboard. The CIO would include teletype operators who handle
practically the same information as do the telephone operators. We
shall include both categories of employees.
8. Cashiers make up pay rolls, put money in envelopes, get them
ready for distribution on pay days, balance the cash, make up balance
sheets, prepare the bank deposit sheets and handle all checks. Their
duties involve no exercise of supervision. They report to a chief
cashier. We shall include the cashiers but exclude the chief cashier.
9. Secretaries. There are four confidential secretaries who work
for the house manager, house operating manager, house merchandising
manager, and house comptroller, executives of the Company who,
8 See Matter of Montgomery Ward & Co , Incorporated, 41 N L. R B 122 ; Matter of the
May Department Stores Company, d/b/a The May Company,.39 N. L R B 471 ; Matter of
the May Depat tment Stores Company , d/b/a Famous -Barr Company, 46 N. L . R. B. 305, and
Matter of Max Kaplan and Jacob Kaplan, copartners , d/b/a Kaplan Brothers, 46 N L R. B.
1057
MONTGOMERY WARD & CO., INCORPORATED 1307
among their other duties, are also concerned with labor relations. The
Company appare7itly agrees to the exclusion of the confidential secre-
taries, but desires the inclusion of the remaining six or seven general
secretaries. The general secretaries perform routine work and have
very limited contact with confidential matters relating to labor matters.
We shall, therefore, include the general secretaries, but exclude the
confidential secretaries.
10. Nurses. There are several nurses in the medical unit, who ad-
minister first aid and assist the physician in the examination and treat-
ment of medical cases. Since these individuals are registered nurses,
we shall exclude them as professional employees.
11. Production control clericals determine or assist in determining
the amount of work each employee within a given group can do with
acceptable accuracy. They also see that the work thus provided
reaches the employees at regular intervals. In addition, they main-
tain output and accuracy records. The Company admits that their
duties are in part supervisory in nature. We shall, therefore, exclude
theln.
12. Personnel department: employment pre-interviewers, and wage
administration auditor. All these employees are personnel depart-
ment employees whom the CIO would exclude as a group. Employ-
ment pre-interviewers conduct preliminary interviews among
applicants for jobs. It is their job to weed out individuals who are
patently undesirable. Employment test supervisors administer tests
to applicants for jobs. The wage administration auditor reviews the
wages paid in the mail-order house to determine whether the Com-
pany's wage plan is properly administered. He also checks to see that
the provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act are complied with.
We shall follow our normal practice in this respect and exclude all per-
sonnel department employees.6
13. Protection service department: Employees in this department,
including the doorman, watchman, and investigator guard the Com-
pany's property, prevent shop lifting, and exercise some degree of
surveillance over the other employees. Accordingly, we shall exclude
i lie entire protection service department.
14. Assistant division merchandisers observe the records reflecting
the condition of the merchandise in the mail order house and reorder
against existing contracts to replenish the stock. They make their
reports to the merchandisers.7 The record does not indicate that as-
sistant division merchandisers have or exercise any supervisory au-
thority. We shall, therefore, include them in the voting group.
0 See Matter of Montgomery Ward & Co., Incorporated, 41 N. L. R B. 122
'The record indicates that the "buyers" or "rebuyers" mentioned in the CIO's petition
are synonymous with "merchandisers " who are excluded by agreement.
1308 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Retail store
1. Cashiers, timekeepers, typists, stenographers and secretaries.
These employees in the retail store perform the same duties and func-
tions as their counterparts in the mail order house. We shall, there-
fore, include them, but exclude any confidential secretaries to execu-
tives of the Company.
2. Department heads or department managers have from 1 to 20
employees under them. The Company asserts that their authority is
limited to noting facts respecting the work of their subordinate em-
ployees which are referred to the store manager for his determination
as to whether an employee should be terminated or demoted. Their
salaries are higher than those of the employees under them and they
direct all work of said employees. Although they allegedly only
narrate facts, their position is such that the facts related might well
be the primary cause resulting in the discharge or discipline of the
employees in their departments. We shall, therefore, exclude them.
3. Protection service department. As in the case of the mail order
house, we shall exclude all protection employees of the retail store.
4.' Priority clerk types and files priority forms. His work is purely
clerical and he performs no confidential work of any kind. We shall
include him in the unit.
5. Personnel department. The personnel trainer' assists in training
new employees. She is the assistant to the personnel 'manager. As
in the case in the mail order house, we shall exclude all personnel
department employees.
6. Front bdr employee performs the same duties as any fountain
or confectionery sales person. We shall, therefore, include that
employee.
7. Advertising manager, display manager, service station manager.
The advertising manager is in charge of all advertising for the retail
store; the display manager is in charge of displays; and the service
station manager is responsible for the records of the automobile serv-
ice station operated by the retail store. Although only the display
manager has one or two employees under him, we shall exclude all
three categories because of their intimateTelationship to management.
8. Regular part-time employees. The retail store employed, as of
the date of the hearing, about 25 part-time employees. They function
in the same manner as do the part-time employees in the mail-order
house. Accordingly, we shall include all part-time employees. As
in the case of the mail order house, the parties agree to exclude all
temporary employees. We shall exclude them from the unit.
Inasmuch as there are no craft groups to be voted in separate elec-
tions in the retail store, we shall make a present unit finding with
respect to the retail store. We therefore find that all employees of the
MONTGOMERY WARD & CO., INCORPORATED 1300
Company's Kansas City retail store, including regular part-time em-
ployees, cashiers, timekeepers, typists, stenographers, general secre-
taries, the priority clerk, and front bar employee, but excluding all
temporary employees, department heads or managers, protection serv-
ice department employees, confidential secretaries to executives, per-
sonnel department employees, advertising manager, display manager,
and service station manager, managers, and all supervisory employees
with authority to hire, promote, discharge, discipline, or otherwise
effect changes in the status of employees or effectively recommend such
action, constitute a separate unit appropriate for the purposes of
collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
On the basis of the entire record and in accordance with the fore-
going, we shall direct elections among the mail-order house em-
ployees of the Company within the groups described below :
(a) All employees in the Company's Kansas City mail order house,
including regular part-time employees, stenographers, timekeepers,
auditors, special attention clerks, switchboard operators, cashiers,
general secretaries, and assistant division merchandisers, but exclud-
ing all St. Joseph branch employees, production control clericals,
temporary employees, managers, merchandisers, personnel depart-
ment employees, protection service department employees, chief
cashier, nurses, confidential secretaries to executives, and all super-
visory employees with authority to hire, promote, discharge, dis-
cipline, or otherwise effect changes in the status of employees, or
effectively recommend such action, engineers, firemen, and the em-
ployees in voting group (b) below, to determine whether or not they
desire to be represented by the CIO for the purposes of collective
bargaining.
(b) All carpenters, painters, plumbers, electricians, millwrights,
cabinet makers, and glaziers employed by the Company, but excluding
the maintenance department head, the carpenter, plumber, painter,
and electrician foremen, and any other supervisory employees with
authority to hire, promote, discharge, discipline or otherwise effect
changes in the status of employees, or effectively recommend such
action, to determine whether they desire to be represented by the
CIO or by the Council for the purposes of collective bargaining, or
by neither.
As stated above, except for the unit found appropriate with respect
to the employees in the boiler room, there will be no final determina-
tion of the appropriate unit or units with respect to the mail order
house pending the results of the elections. If the CIO receives a
majority of the votes cast in the respective voting groups of the mail
order house, the employees in said groups will together constitute a
single appropriate unit.
55901 5-44-vol. 53-84
1310 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
V. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
The Engineers and the Council are agreeable to the established
Board practice of determining eligibility to vote in the elections
by the last pay-roll period preceding, the date of the Direction of
Election. The CIO requests that the eligibility date be September
1, 1943, and the Company wants the pay-roll period immediately
preceding the date of the election to be used. Since there is no ex-
pected expansion in the groups sought to be represented by the En-
gineers and the Council, no problem is raised there. The matter is
quite different, however, with respect to the main body of production
and maintenance employees.
The CIO contends that the contemplated hiring of approximately
1,500 additional employees to handle the Christmas shopping rush
constitutes a form of "packing" the pay roll to its detriment. On
the present state of the record we are not persuaded that this is so.
The evidence substantiates the Company's claim that it is doing a
greater volume of business this year and with about 200 fewer emn-
ployees than at the same time 1 year ago. The record also indicates
that the Company has an unusually high turnover rate of approxi-
mately 30 percent per month. Under those circumstances it would
not be unusual for the Company to attempt to replace its employees
who have left its employment. For this reason and in view of the
agreement between the' parties to exclude temporary employees, we
are of the opinion that our normal practice with respect to determi-
nation of eligibility will be most fair to the employees.
We shall direct that elections by secret ballot shall be held among
the employees in each of the appropriate units and voting groups
above defined who were employed during the pay-roll period imme-
diately preceding the date of the' Direction of Election herein, subject
to the limitations and additions set forth in the Direction. The ques-
tions concerning representation which have arisen with respesct to the
employees in the units found appropriate shall be resolved' by sep-
arate elections among the employees in such units. Upon the results
of the elections in the remaining voting groups above defined will
depend, in part, our determination of the appropriate unit or units,
if any, governing employees in such groups.
DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
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, and pursuant to Article III, Section 9, of National Labor Rela-
tions Board Rules and Regulations-Series 3, it is hereby
MONTGOMERY WARD & CO., INCORPORATED 1311
DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation to ascertain representa-
tives for the purposes of collective bargaining with Montgomery Ward
& Co., Incorporated, Kansas City, Missouri, elections 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 Seventeenth Region, acting
in this matter es agent for the National Labor Relations Board, and
subject to Article III, Sections 10 and 11, of said Rules and Regu-
lations, among the following groups of employees 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
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, and
excluding all supervisory employees with authority to hire, promote,
discharge, discipline, or otherwise effect changes in the status of em-
ployees, or effectively recommend such action :
(1) All employees in the Company's Kansas City retail store, in-
cluding regular part-time employees, cashiers, timekeepers, typists,
stenographers general secretaries,, the priority clerk, and front bar
employee, but excluding all temporary employees, department heads
or managers, protection service department employees, confidential
secretaries to executives, personnel department employees, advertising
manager, display manager, service, station manager, and managers, to
determine whether or not they desire to be represented by United
Mail Order, Warehouse & Retail Employees Union, Local 131, affili-
ated with United Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Employees
of America, C. I. 0., for the purposes of collective bargaining.
(2) All employees in the Company's Kansas City mail order house,
including regular part-time employees, stenographers, timekeepers,
auditors, special attention clerks, switchboard operators, cashiers,
general secretaries, and assistant division merchandisers, but exclud-
ing all St. Joseph branch employees, production control clericals,
temporary employees, managers, merchandisers, personnel depart-
ment employees, protection service department chief cashier, nurses,
confidential secretaries to executives, and the employees in voting
groups (3) and (4) below, to determine whether or not they desire to
be represented by United Mail Order, Warehouse & Retail Employees
Union, Local 131, affiliated with United Retail, Wholesale and De-
partment Store Employees of America, C. I. 0., for the purposes of
collective bargaining.
1312 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
(3) All engineers and firemen of the Company, but excluding the
supervisory engineer, to determine whether they desire to be repre-
sented by United Mail Order, Warehouse & Retail Employees Union,
Local 131, affiliated with United Retail, Wholesale and Department
Store Employees of America, C. I. 0., or by International Union of
Operating Engineers, Firemen and Oilers, Local No. 6, A. F. of L.,
for the purposes of collective bargaining, or by neither.
(4) All carpenters painters, plumbers, electricians, millwrights,
cabinet makers, and glaziers employed by the Company, but excluding
the maintenance department head, the carpenter, plumber, painter and
electrician foremen, to determine whether they desire to be repre-
sented by the United Mail Order, Warehouse & Retail Employees
Union, Local 131, affiliated with United Retail, Wholesale and De-
partment Store Employees of America, C. I. 0., or by the Building
and Construction Trades Council of Greater Kansas City, for the
purposes of collective bargaining, or by neither.