Morey La Rue Supply Service, Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

May 31, 1967

165 N.L.R.B. 148 (N.L.R.B. 1967)

148 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Morey La Rue Supply Service, Inc., and
Morey La Rue Laundry Company' and
Local 284 , Laundry and Dry Cleaning
International Union , AFL-CIO, Petitioner.
Case 22-RC-3419
May 31,1967
DECISION ON REVIEW AND DIRECTION OF
ELECTION
BY CHAIRMAN MCCULLOCH AND MEMBERS BROWN
AND JENKINS
On October 18, 1966, the Regional Director for
Region 22 issued a Decision and Order in which he
dismissed the instant petition on the ground that the
unit petitioned for was inappropriate. Thereafter, in
accordance with Section 102.67 of the National
Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations,
Series 8, as amended, the Petitioner filed a timely
request for review of the Regional Director's
Decision on the ground that the Regional Director
departed from officially reported Board precedent
and policy.
On January 9, 1967, the National Labor Relations
Board by telegraphic order granted the request for
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
powers in connection with this case to a three-
member panel.
The Board has considered the entire record in the
case with respect to the issues under review,
including the positions of the parties, and makes the
following findings:
The Petitioner seeks to represent a unit of
production employees employed by Morey La Rue
Supply Service, Inc., herein called Supply
Company, at its Linden, New Jersey, plant,
excluding watchmen, truckdrivers, maintenance
employees, office clerical employees, and
professional employees, guards, and supervisors as
defined in the Act. The Employer contends that the
only appropriate unit must include all production
employees of both Supply Company and Morey La
Rue Laundry Company, herein called Laundry
Company, at its Linden and Morristown, New
Jersey , plants, together with all employees at
Laundry Company's retail stores, package units, and
'The name of the Employer appears as amended at the
hearing.
2 The Regional Director found that Laundry Company and
Supply Company constitute a single employer The Petitioner has
not requested review of this finding.
3 Laundry Company has a laundering and drycleaning plant at
Morristown , New Jersey , which has 33 employees performing
essentially the same work as that of the Laundry Company
employees at its Linden plant In addition , Laundry Company has
package units at Somerville , Eatontown , Madison, and Brick
depots located in northern New Jersey and eastern
Pennsylvania, cafeteria employees, and relay and
tractor-trailer drivers, but excluding office clerical
employees, route salesmen, and professional
employees, guards, and supervisors as defined in the
Act. The Regional Director found that a unit limited
to the employees of Supply Company was too narrow
in scope to be appropriate.
Supply Company is engaged in the business of
supplying uniforms to industrial concerns, primarily
on a rental basis. Laundry Company provides family
laundry services through retail outlets and home
delivery and pickup services. Laundry Company
also does all the laundering and cleaning of uniforms
for Supply Company.2
Supply Company's only plant is located in a
separate building on the same tract of land in
Linden, New Jersey, as Laundry Company's
laundering and drycleaning plants, administrative
offices, and cafeteria.3 The building that houses
Supply Company also has Laundry Company's
supply stockroom where processing material such as
drycleaning hangers and garment bags are stored,
but there is no indication in the record that any
Laundry Company employee works in the
stockroom.
Uniforms rented from Supply Company or owned
by its industrial accounts are sorted, inspected,
identified, repaired, folded, and packaged by Supply
Company's 15 employees. The uniforms are then
loaded onto trucks by Supply Company's five route
drivers who are, at present, represented by Local
No. 37 affiliated with the International Brotherhood
of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and
Helpers of America, herein called Local 37. The
drivers make deliveries and also pick up soiled
uniforms which they bring to Laundry Company's
loading docks. After the uniforms are cleaned by
Laundry Company employees, they are brought by
Laundry Company employees to Supply Company,
thereby completing the cycle. With the exception of
those instances where Laundry Company employees
bring them laundered uniforms, Supply Company
employees apparently have little or no contact with
Laundry Company employees while both groups are
at work.
Although none of the jobs performed by
employees of both companies requires more than a
few hours' training, the work of each of the
approximately 210 Laundry Company production
employees is more specialized than that of the
Township, all in New Jersey, each of which combines a retail
store with laundry and drycleaning facilities These units
altogether have 19 employees performing laundering and
drycleaning work Laundry Company also has 36 retail stores in
northern New Jersey and in the vicinity of Easton, Pennsylvania,
employing altogether 73 sales girls , and distribution depots for
these stores in Neptune , New Jersey, and Easton, Pennsylvania
Eleven relay drivers transport family laundry items among the
laundry plants , the distribution depots, the retail stores , and the
packaging units.
165 NLRB No. 13
MOREY LA RUE SUPPLY SERVICE
Supply Company employees. Thus, Laundry
Company employees generally spend all their time
working on one operation such as shirt pressing,
folding, or identification. Supply Company
employees each day may perform a variety of duties
including sorting, inspecting , and folding. The
greater degree of specialization and larger volume of
business at Laundry Company is reflected in the
wages of the employees of each company. Although
the base wage rate for most employees of both
companies is the same, many employees of Laundry
Company are on an incentive wage system and thus
may earn more than employees at Supply Company,
none of whom works under an incentive program.
Hours of work also may differ. All Supply Company
and many Laundry Company employees work
during the day, but Laundry Company employees
engaged in separating industrial uniforms from a
complete washer load and in pressing the uniforms
regularly work on a night shift. Supply Company
employees also wear different colored uniforms from
those worn by Laundry Company. Employees of
both companies use the same employee facilities,
have identical fringe benefits, and punch the same
timeclock.
There is no regular employee interchange
between the two companies. In emergency
situations , when Supply Company employees are ill
or otherwise absent from work, Laundry Company
employees may be temporarily transferred to Supply
Company for the duration of the emergency. Supply
Company employees are never temporarily
transferred to Laundry Company.
Payroll records for both companies are kept at the
Laundry Company main office and certain
bookkeeping work for both companies is performed
there. A single personnel director interviews
applicants for jobs and then directs them to either a
Laundry Company department or Supply
Company-wherever they are' needed. However,
Supply Company has its own manager who occupies
an office in the Supply Company building and has a
clerical employee working for him. The manager has
the authority to discipline or discharge employees
and, along with a floorlady, directs the work of the
Supply Company employees.
There is no bargaining history for the requested
employees. However, in 1966, in Case 22-RC-3336,4
the Regional Director directed an election in a unit
limited to the five Supply Company route drivers.
Contrary to the position taken by the employer in
that case, the Regional Director excluded, inter alia,
67 route drivers of Laundry Company who operated
the same type of vehicle as, and had overall earnings
comparable to, the Supply Company route drivers.
The Regional Director relied, inter alia, on the
4 Not published in NLRB volumes.
s The Black and Decker Manufacturing Company, 147 NLRB
825,828 See also Welsh Co , 146 NLRB 713, 715.
6 Black and Decker Mfg Co , supra.
149
differences in the mode of payment for the two
groups of drivers, their separate supervision, and the
lack of evidence of employee interchange, and
concluded that "the route drivers employed by
Supply Company have a sufficiently distinguishable
community of interest ... to warrant their separate
representation. . . ." No party filed a request for
review of the Regional Director's Decision. On
September 20, 1966, after an election among the
Supply Company drivers, Local 37 was certified as
their collective-bargaining representative; the
drivers are currently represented by Local 37.
Relying primarily on the "integrated nature" of
the Supply Company and Laundry Company
production operations, the Regional Director here
concluded that a unit limited to the Supply Company
production employees was not appropriate.
We do not agree. The Board has held that "a
single-plant unit is presumptively appropriate absent
a bargaining history in a more comprehensive unit or
a functional integration so severe as to negate the
identity of a single-plant unit."' Thus, even where
there was considerable product integration between
two plants, the Board held that one of the two plants
could constitute a separate appropriate unit if the
requested plant retained a substantial degree of
autonomy.fi Here, too, the facts do not reveal such a
degree of integration of the Laundry Company and
Supply Company operations as would warrant our
rejection of the requested Supply Company
production unit .7 The Supply Company employees:
(1) are separately supervised by a manager who may
discipline and discharge them; (2) have a different
wage system or hours of work from a substantial
number of the Laundry Company employees; (3) do
not interchange with Laundry Company employees
and have little or no contact with them while both
groups are at work; (4) generally do work which is
not as specialized as that of each Laundry Company
employee; and (5) work in a building which is
separate from the buildings where Laundry
Company employees work. Furthermore, we note
that there is no bargaining history in a broader unit
and that the only represented employees of either
company are in a unit limited to the Supply
Company. We note, also, that no labor organization
is seeking to represent a more comprehensive unit.
In view of the foregoing, we find that a unit limited to
the production employees of Supply Company is
appropriate.
Accordingly, we find, contrary to the Regional
Director, that a question affecting commerce exists
concerning the representation of certain employees
of the Employer within the meaning of Section 9(c)(1)
and Section 2(6) and (7) of the Act, and that the
following employees of the Employer constitute a
r In Case 22-RC-3336, discussed supra, the Regional Director
likewise found sufficient basis for separating the Supply
Company route drivers from their counterparts at Laundry
Company.
299-352 0-70-11
150 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
unit appropriate for the purposes of collective
bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the
Act:
All production employees of Morey La Rue Supply
Service, Inc., at its Linden , New Jersey , plant,
excluding watchmen , route drivers, maintenance
9 An election eligibility list , containing the names and
addresses of all the eligible voters, must be filed by the Employer
with the Regional Director for Region 22 within 7 days after the
date of this Decision on Review and Direction of Election The
Regional Director shall make the list available to all parties to the
employees, office clerical employees, and
professional employees, guards, and supervisors as
defined in the Act.
[Text of Direction of Election" omitted from
publication.]
election No extension of time to file this list shall be granted by
the Regional Director except in extraordinary circumstances.
Failure to comply with this requirement shall be grounds for
setting aside the election whenever proper objections are filed.
Excelsior Underwear Inc , 156 NLRB 1236.