Mott's Super Markets, Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Mar 12, 1969

174 N.L.R.B. 1116 (N.L.R.B. 1969)

1116 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Mott's Shop-Rite of Meriden , Inc., a subsidiary of
Mott ' s Super Markets , Inc.' and Food Handlers
Union Local 371 a/w Amalgamated Meat Cutters
and Butcher Workmen of North America,
AFL-CIO.' Case I-RC-9917
March 12, 1969
DECISION AND ORDER
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9(c) of
the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, a
hearing was held before Orlando Rodio, Hearing
Officer Following the hearing, this case was
transferred to the National Labor Relations Board
in Washington, D.C , pursuant to Section 102.67 of
the National Labor Relations Board Rules and
Regulations and Statements of Procedure, Series 8,
as amended. Thereafter, the Employer filed a
motion to reopen hearing.' the Petitioner filed an
opposition to this motion, and both the Petitioner
and the Employer filed briefs, which have been duly
considered.
The Board has reviewed the Hearing Officer's
rulings made at the hearing and finds that no
prejudicial error was committed. The rulings are
hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board
finds.
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within
the meaning of the Act, and it will effectuate the
purposes of the Act to assert jurisdiction herein.
2. The labor organization involved claims to
represent certain employees of the Employer
3. No question affecting commerce exists
concerning the representation 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 seeks a unit of meat department
employees at the Employer's Meriden, Connecticut,
retail food products store The Employer contends
that such unit is inappropriate.
The Employer operates a chain of 12 separately
incorporated retail food stores in Connecticut and
western Massachusetts. All stores are within a
radius of 34 miles from the Employer's central
office in East Hartford, Connecticut The Meriden
store is about 22 miles from the central office; the
store nearest Meriden is about 7 1/2 miles distant.
At the time the hearing commenced herein there
were approximately 225 full-time and 520 part-time
employees in the I I stores then operating." Of these,
113 full-time and part-time employees were
The name of the Employer appears as amended at the hearing
'The name of the Petitioner appears as amended at the hearing
'In view of our decision herein , we find it unnecessary to pass upon the
Employer ' s motion to reopen hearing
employed in the various meat departments Meriden
had a total complement of 75 employees, including
7 full-time and 3 part-time employees in its meat
department. During 1967, there were 264 permanent
transfers of employees and 702 temporary transfers
of employees between all of the stores in the
Employer's chain. 20 permanent transfers and 173
temporary transfers were to and from the Meriden
store
Policy decisions involving administrative,
operational, and maintenance functions are made by
the Employer's Administrative Committee 5 The
Committee usually meets weekly to discuss payroll
and inventory matters, personnel policies, public
relations, and like subjects Merchandise
procurement contracts are negotiated, and all
merchandise is purchased, by the central office All
stores are stocked from a central warehouse Where
necessary, inventory adjustments are made between
stores, as directed by the central office, by the
interchange of merchandise between the various
stores 6 Personnel and payroll records for all stores
are maintained by the central office and all
paychecks are issued from there The central office
establishes job classifications and wage rates,
coordinates vacation schedules among all employees,
and administers fringe benefits uniformly in all
stores
Some of the central office executives, known as
"specialists" are assigned responsibilities for specific
categories of merchandise such as meat, groceries,
and produce. These responsibilities, which are
shared with the Vice Presidents in charge of the
various categories of merchandise, include selection
and purchase of merchandise, setting and revising
pricing policies, and establishing space allocation for
merchandise within the stores Two of these
specialists are also designated District Supervisors
with overall responsibility for the operation of
specific stores in the chain Meat and dairy
specialist Bert Burchard is District Supervisor over
approximately one-half of the stores and grocery
specialist Joseph Kasulis is district supervisor
responsible for the remainder of the stores.
Burchard and Kasulis, as well as the other
specialists, report to the vice president in charge of
supermarket operations, John Scott, and, along with
Vice President Scott, spend as much as 90 percent
of their time in the various stores checking such
day-to-day operational details as employee
The record indicates that the Employer' s store in Willimantic,
Connecticut , commenced operations on or about April I, 1968, after the
hearing began in this case
'The Administrative Committee is composed of the Employer's
president , executive vice president and general manager , controller , director
of personnel , senior vice president and treasurer , and the vice presidents in
charge of supermarket operations, meat-dairy -appetizers, produce and
frozen foods, real estate and development, and customer relations
'For example , from November 1967 through January 1968,
approximately 88,913 pounds of meat were transferred between the stores,
including approximately 12,094 pounds transferred between the Meriden
store and the other stores
174 NLRB No. 157
MOTT'S SHOP-RITE OF MERIDEN, INC.
performance, displays of merchandise, posted price,,
and weights of merchandise; attending to various
personnel problems as they arise from time to time;
and, shifting inventories between stores as necessary
to compensate for imbalances in inventory resulting
from unexpected variations in business volume.'
Employee recruitment is carried out by the central
office Full-time employees are hired only with
central office approval, part-time help is usually
hired by the local store manager, subject, however,
to quotas established by the district supervisor.
Virtually all discharging, disciplinary and otherwise,
of employees is done by the district supervisor
While the store manager may, as a disciplinary
measure, suspend a lull-time employee for a period
not to exceed 24 hours, he has no authority to
discharge such employee without first submitting the
matter for the consideration and approval of the
administrative committee.
The Employer's meat departments are under the
overall charge of vice president of
meat-dairy-appetizer. He along with meat specialist
Burt Burchard and the appropriate district
supervisor, buys all of the meat handled by the
Employer, establishes prices, both regular and sale
prices, and dictates the manner of display and the
advertising of the meats sold. These departments are
staffed by a meat manager, head meatcutter,
meatcutters, wrappers, and apprentices Meat
department employees are hired in the same manner
as other employees. An applicant for a job in the
meat department, after approval by the central
office, is sent to one of the stores for a tryout, and,
if he is acceptable he is then assigned to that store
or one of the other stores.
The Employer operates an apprentice program on
a companywide basis This program was established
by the central office and applicants are recruited
and selected by officials at the central office An
applicant applying at one of the stores is referred to
the central office If he is selected for training, the
apprentice is assigned to one of the stores where he
learns, under the direction of the meat manager or
the head meatcutter, the normal meatcutting skills,
and is also instructed in the proper receiving of
merchandise and securit} problems involved in
receiving merchandise. During the training period,
which normally covers 2 years, the trainee's progress
is evaluated at 3-month intervals by the meat
manager, the District Supervisor and the central
office meat specialist. If progress is satisfactory, and
the District Supervisor and the meat specialist
approve, the apprentice is given an increase in
wages. Upon completion of the training period, the
employee is designated as a meatcutter and paid at
the prevailing scale for meatcutters.
'A large part of the day-to-day operations involving the stores is
conducted from the central office by telephone During 1967 there were
some 3 ,350 toll calls, and about twice as many non-toll calls made
from the central office to the stores
1117
There is no evidence in the record to show to
what extent, if any, the meat department manager
exercises authority and control over the day-to-day
problems which may arise in that department. The
only evidence in the record relating to local control
exercised at the store concerns that of the store
manager. The record shows that the store manager
may recommend an employee for a merit increase
or for management training, but that such increase
or training must be approved by the central office.
The store manager cannot deny an employee an
increase in pay when such increase becomes due, at
most he can only withhold such in for a
maximum of 30 days. While the store manager may
discharge part-time employees, he does not have
authority to discharge full-time employees, although
he can suspend a full-time employee for 24 hours
In light of the foregoing, it is apparent to us that
the considerations which would dictate our finding
the appropriateness of a separate unit of meat
department employees,8 or for that matter a
single-store unit are not present here' We have
recently reiterated that we will adhere to our policy
of finding a single store to be presumptively
appropriate but stated that such presumption may
be overcome when certain factors are present which
tend to weaken the separate community of interests
among the employees of a single store in a chain.1e
Among the factors which we consider are
geographic proximity, common supervision, absence
of local authority and frequent interchange of
employees." Taking all these l actors into account,
and considering particularly the substantial
interchange among the stores of meat department as
well as other employees, the minimal amount of
local control over employees and their day-to-day
problems that is exercised by the store manager, and
the relative location of the Meriden store with
respect to others in the chain, we are persuaded here
that the presumptive appropriateness of a
single-store unit has been rebutted in this case and
that a unit of meat department employees confined
to the Meriden store is inappropriate. Accordingly,
and as the Petitioner has made no alternative unit
request, we shall dismiss the petition
ORDER
It is hereby ordered that the petition filed herein
be, and it hereby is, dismissed
'The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company , Inc. 130 NLRB 226,
Weis Markets , Inc, 142 NLRB 708, Mock Road Super Duper , Inc, 156
NLR.B983, enfd 393 F 2d 432
'Compare Shop 'n Save Co , Inc, 174 NLRB No 156
"Haag Drug Company , Inc, 169 NLRB No I I I
"Pep Boys, 172 NLRB No 23, Star Market Co, 172 NLRB No 130