Mount Shasta Pine Mfg. Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Dec 29, 1950

92 N.L.R.B. 1138 (N.L.R.B. 1950)

In the Matter Of MOUNT SHASTA PINE MFG. CO., EMPLOYER and THE
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA PINE WORKERS ASSOCIATION,1 PETITIONER
Case No. 00-RC-1067.-Decided December 29, 1950
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before Benjamin B.
Law, hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hear-
ing are free from prejudicial error 'and are. hereby affirmed.2
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3 (b) of the National Labor
Relations Act, the Board has delegated its powers in connection with
this case to a three-member panel [Chairman Herzog and Members
Murdock and Styles].
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the
National Labor Relations Act.
2. The labor organizations 'involved claim to represent certain
employees of the Employer.
3. The IIiVA contends that a contract, dated September 13, 1949,
between it and the Employer, constitutes a bar to a present determi-
nation of representatives. The Employer and the Petitioner take
the contrary view that it is not a bar.
The contract contains, as Article XXII thereof, the following termi-
nation provisions :
This agreement shall remain in full force and effect until April
1, 1950, and shall be automatically renewed thereafter from year
to year unless, on or before January 26th, either party serves
upon the other a written notice of cancellation in which event
the agreement shall terminate upon said anniversary date.
In the event that either party desires to amend rather than can-
cel this agreement, said party shall serve upon the other party, on
or before January 26th, a written notice of its desire to amend
this agreement. Thereafter, and on or before January 31st, either
The name of the Petitioner appears as amended at the hearing.
International Woodworkers of America, Local 6-76, CIO, herein called the IWA, was
permitted to intervene on the basis of contractual interest.
92 NLRB No. 83.
1138
MOUNT SHASTA PINE MFG. CO. 1139
party desiring to amend shall submit its proposed amendments
in writing to the other party. Negotiations shall thereafter com-
mence at any time mutually agreeable to the parties but not later
than forty-five (45) days prior to the anniversary date and shall
continue until the amendments have been agreed to or until the
parties, or either of them, recognize that they are unable to agree
on the proposed amendments, in which case either party may then
serve upon the other a sixty (60) day notice of termination of
this agreement.
On January 20,1950, the IWA advised the Employer in writing that
it desired the following "revisions and amendments" in the contract :
certain paid holidays and a health and welfare program. The parties
met once in late March or early April 1950 to discuss the IWA's pro-
posals but no agreement was reached. On May 9, 1950, the Employer
wrote that, in view of a decertification petition filed after that meeting
asserting that the IWA no longer represented the Employer's em-
ployees, it was not in a position to deal with the IWA or any other
labor organization until the Board determined the bargaining agent .3
The IWA's notice. of January 20, 1950, indicated its desire to make
substantial amendments and revisions in the contract here involved.
Whether the notice specified a desire to modify or to terminate, we
construe such notice, filed before the automatic renewal date of the
'contract,' as intended to prevent the agreement from automatically
becoming effective for another year.' The provision in.the contract
that negotiations following notice to amend should continue until an
agreement was reached, or failing agreement, until either party served
a termination notice, at best transformed the contract into one termi-
nable at will, which cannot preclude this proceeding.6 Accordingly,
we find that no contract bar exists to a present determination of
representatives.
We find that a 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.
4. In accordance with the stipulation of the parties ' we find that
the following employees of the Employer constitute a unit appropriate
8 This decertification petition, which was filed by one Thomas W. Driver on May 3, 1950,
was withdrawn on May 16, 1950 , and the certification petition herein was filed on June
29, 1950.
d The contract provided elsewhere than in the termination article for general wage
revision during the contract term.
8 See Worthy Paper Company Association, 80 NLRB 19 ; E. I. DuPont de Nemours cE
Company, Inc., 73 NLRB 439; Duquesne Light Company, 71 NLRB 336.
8 See Springfield Mill Company , 88 NLRB 24.
7 The transcript incorrectly sets forth the stipulated unit . The corrected description as
approved by the parties appears herein.
1
1140 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
for purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section
9 (b) of the Act:
All production, maintenance, and transportation employees includ-
ing truck drivers and road. maintenance crews, employed by the
Company at its operations at and near Mount Shasta, California, ex-
cluding office and clerical employees, guards, professional employees,
and supervisors. as defined in the Act.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this
volume.]