Moulton Ladder Manufacturing Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

May 8, 1941

31 N.L.R.B. 665 (N.L.R.B. 1941)

In the Matter of MOULTON LADDER MANUFACTURING COMPANY and
UNITED FURNITURE WORKERS OF AMERICA, LOCAL 136-B (C. I. 0.)
Case No. R-2J47.Decided May 8, 1941
Jurisdiction : ladder, clothes dryer, and rigging manufacturing industry.
Investigation and Certification of Representatives : existence of question: re-
fusal to accord union recognition ; persons hired during strike and retained
as permanent employees after strike settled and strikers reinstated, entitled
to vote in election ; election necessary. -
Unit Appropriate for Collective Bargaining : production and maintenance em-
ployees, including shipping employees, blacksmiths, watchmen, engineers, and
yardmen, and excluding executives, supervisory employees, clerical em-
ployees salesmen, truck drivers, and Worcester Division employees.
Mr. Edward Schneider, for the Board.
Mr. George A. McLaughlin, of Boston, Mass., for the Company.
Mr. Sidney S. Grant, of Boston, Mass., for the Union'.
Mr. Sidney L. Davis, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OR ELECTION
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
On March 3, 1941, United Furniture Workers of America, Local
136-B (C. I. 0.), herein called the Union, filed with the Regional
Director for the First Region (Boston, Massachusetts) a petition,
and on March 10, 1941, an amended petition alleging that a question
affecting commerce had arisen concerning the representation of em-
ployees of Moulton Ladder Manufacturing Company, herein called
the Company, at, its plant at Somerville, Massachusetts, and re-
questing an investigation and certification of representatives pursuant
to Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act, 49 Stat. 449,
herein called the Act. On March 26, 1941, the National Labor Re-
lations Board, herein called the Board, acting pursuant to Section
9 (c) of the Act and Article III, Section 3, of National Labor
Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 2, as amended, or-
dered an investigation and ,authorized the Regional Director to con-
duct it and to provide for an appropriate hearing upon due notice.
31 N. L. R. B., No. 108.
- 665
666 DECISIONS OF,NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
On March 27, 1941, the Regional Director issued a notice of hear-
ing, copies of which were duly served upon the Company and the
Union. Pursuant to notice, a hearing was held on April 3, 1941,
at Boston, Massachusetts, before Gustaf B. Erickson, the Trial Ex-
aminer duly designated by the Chief Trial Examiner. The Board,
the Company, and the Union were represented by counsel and par-
ticipated in the' hearing.,' Full opportunity to be heard, to examine
and cross examine witnesses, and to introduce evidence bearing on
the issues was afforded all parties. At the close of the hearing, the
Company moved to dismiss the petition.. Ruling thereon was referred
to the Board. The motion is hereby denied. During the course of
the hearing, the Trial Examiner made various rulings on other mo-
tions and on objections to the admission of evidence. The Board
has reviewed the rulings of the Trial Examiner and finds that no
prejudicial errors were committed. The rulings are hereby affirmed.
After the hearing, the Company and 'the Union submitted briefs
which the Board has considered.
On April 22, 1941, upon request of the Company, and pursuant to
notice duly served upon the parties, a hearing for the purpose of
oral argument was held before the Board at Washington, D. C. The
Company and the Union appeared, presented oral argument, and
otherwise participated in the hearing.
Upon the entire record in the case the Board makes the following :
FINDINGS OF FACT
I. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
Moulton Ladder Manufacturing Company, a Massachusetts cor-
poration with its principal office and plant at Somerville, Massa-
chusetts, is engaged in the, manufacture, sale, and distribution of
ladders, ladder products, clothes driers, casters, and rigging. It has
a small branch at Worcester, Massachusetts, and an affiliate in New
York City.
In 1939 the Company purchased materials and supplies in the
amount of $185,000, 94 per cent of which were purchased and received
from outside the State of Massachusetts. The total value of finished
products during that year was $384,000, of which 57 per cent were
shipped to places outside the State of Massachusetts. At the hearing,
the Company stipulated that at the present time its business and op-
erations, including its purchases and sales within and without the State
of Massachusetts, are substantially the same as they were during
1939. i
MOULTON LADDER MANUFACTURING CO.
H. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED
667
United Furniture Workers of America, Local 136-B (C. I. 0.)
is a labor organization affiliated with United Furniture Workers
of America, which is in turn affiliated with the Congress of Industrial
Organizations. It admits to membership employees of the Company
at its plant at Somerville, Massachusetts.
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
On August,31, 1940, the Board directed an election among the
employees of the Company to determine whether or not they desired
representation by the Union.- Upon the basis of the results of that
election, the Board, on November 29, 1940, dismissed the petition filed
by the Union.2 Thereafter the Union attempted to secure additional
members, and on March 1, 1941, it notified the Company by letter that
it represented a majority of its employees and requested a conference
for the purpose of negotiating an agreement and settling a strike
which had been called by the Union on February 26 and was then in
progress. The Company did not reply to ,this letter. -Thereafter the
Union filed its petition and amended petition herein.
'There was introduced in evidence a report prepared by the Field
Examiner for the Board showing that the Union represents a sub-
stantial number of employees in the unit found below to be ap-
propriate 3 f
We find that a question has arisen concerning the representation of
employees of the Company. -
IV. THE EFFECT OF THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION UPON
COMMERCE
We find that the question concerning representation, which has
arisen, occuring in connection with the operations of the Company
described in Section I above, has a close, intimate, and substantial
relation to trade, traffic, and commerce among the several States, and
tends to lead to labor disputes burdening and obstructing commerce
and the free flow of commerce.
'Matter of Moulton Ladder Manufacturing Company and United Furniture Workers of
America, Local 136-B ( C. I. 0.), 27 N . L. R. B. 40.,
2Id., 28 N. L. it. B ., No. 35.
The Field Examiner reported that 40 of 70 employees within the appropriate unit on
the Company's pay roll of February 21, 1941 , had signed a petition reaffirming their
membership in the Union.
668 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
V. TAE APPROPRIATE UNIT
The Company and the Union agree that the production and main-
tenance employees, including shipping employees, blacksmiths,
watchmen, engineers, and yardmen, and excluding executives, super-
visory employees, clerical employees, salesmen, truck. drivers, and
Worcester Division employees, constitute a unit appropriate for the
purposes of collective bargaining. The Board found this unit to
be appropriate' in its prior decision involving the same parties 4
We find that the production and maintenance employees of the
Company at its Somerville plant, including shipping employees,
blacksmiths, watchmen, engineers, and yardmen, and excluding execu-
tives, supervisor employees, clerical employees, salesmen, truck driv-
ers, and Worcester Division employees, constitute a unit appropriate
for the purposes of collective bargaining and that said unit will insure
to employees of the Company the full benefit of their right to self-
organization and to collective bargaining and otherwise effectuate
the policies of the Act.
VI. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
We find that the question concerning representation which has
arisen cari best be resolved by the holding of an election by secret
ballot.
As noted above, the Union called a strike on February 26, 1941.
On March 31, while the strike was still in progress, the Company hired
10 additional employees. Upon the termination of the strike on
April 15, the Company reinstated all the strikers, except one who
had been previously discharged for alleged inefficiency. How-
ever, the Company also retained as permanent additions to the staff
the 10 persons hired during the strike.' The Union requests that the
employees hired during the strike should not be allowed to vote, and
that a pay roll immediately preceding the strike be used for deter-
mining eligibility to vote in the election. Considering all the cir-
cumstances, we are of the opinion that the employees hired during the
strike are entitled to participation in the election.5 We' shall use,
as the date for determining the eligibility of employees to vote, the
pay roll next preceding the date of the Direction of Election, subject
to such limitations and additions as are set forth in the Direction.
Upon the basis of the above findings of fact, and upon the entire
record in the case, the Board makes the following:
' See footnote 1, supra.
5 See Matter of National Mineral Company and Chrome Furniture Handlers and Mis-
cellaneous Crafts Union , Local of the Upholsterers' International Union, affiliated with the
Amertoan Federation of Labor, etc ., 25 N. L R. B. 3.
MOULTON LADDER ' MANUFACTURING CO. 669
CONCLUSIONS OF LAW
1. A question affecting commerce has arisen concerning the repre-
sentation of employees at the Somerville plant of Moulton Ladder
Manufacturing Company, Somerville, Massachusetts, within the
meaning of-Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the National
Labor Relations Act.
2. The production and maintenance employees of the Company
at its Somerville plant, including ' shipping employees, blacksmiths,
watchmen, engineers, and yardmen, and excluding executives, super-
visory employees, clerical employees, salesmen, truck drivers, and
Worcester Division employees, constitute a unit appropriate for the
purposes of collective bargaining, within the meaning of Section
9 (b) of the Act.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
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, 49 Stat. 449, and pursuant to Article III, Section
8. of National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations-
Series 2, as amended, it is hereby
DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation authorized by the
Board to ascertain representatives for the purposes of collective
bargaining with Moulton Ladder Manufacturing Company,, Somer-
ville, Massachusetts, an election by secret ballot shall be conducted
as early as possible but not later than thirty (30) days from the
date of this Direction of Election, under the direction and supervi-
sion of the Regional Director' for the First Region, acting in this
matter as agent for the National Labor Relations Board, and sub-
ject to Article III, Section 9, of said Rules and Regulations, among
the production and maintenance employees of the Company at its
Somerville plant, who were employed during the pay-roll period
next preceding the date of this Direction, including shipping em-
ployees, blacksmiths, watchmen, yardmen, engineers,'and employees
who did not work during such pay-roll period because they were
ill or on vacation or in the active military service or training of
the- United States, or temporarily laid off, but excluding employees
who have since quit or been discharged for cause, and also' excluding
executives, supervisory employees, clerical employees, salesmen, truck-
drivers, and Worcester Division employees, to- determine whether
or not such employees desire to be represented by United Furniture
Workers of America, Local 136-B (C. I. 0.), for the purposes of
collective bargaining. -