Mountain Ice and Fuel Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Oct 3, 1946

71 N.L.R.B. 180 (N.L.R.B. 1946)

In the Matter Of MOUNTAIN ICE AND FUEL CORPORATION, EMPLOYER
and UNITED PACKINGHOUSE WORKERS OF AMERICA, C. I. 0.,
PETITIONER
Cases Nos. 2-X6373 and 2-R-6374.-Decided October 3, 1946
Mr. Harold L. Luxemburg, of New York City, for the Employer.
Mr. Lemuel Ward, of New York City, for the Petitioner.
Mr. Jacob Friedland, of Jersey City, N. J., for the Teamsters.
Mr. A. Sumner Lawrence, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
Upon a petition duly filed, hearing in these cases was held at Jersey
City, New Jersey, on July 17, 1946, before William T. Little, hearing
officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from
prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in the case, the National Labor Relations
Board makes the following :
FINDINGS OF FACT
I. THE BUSINESS OF TIIE EMPLOYER
Mountain Ice and Fuel Corporation, a New Jersey corporation,
is engaged in the purchase, sale, and distribution of coal and fuel oil,
and in the manufacture and sale of ice, for which it maintains 10
operating plants and 7 warehouses located at various points in northern
New Jersey. In connection with its coal and fuel oil business, the
Employer purchases annually coal and fuel oil valued in excess of
$500,000, of which more than 60 percent is shipped to the Employer's
New Jersey plants from points outside the State of New Jersey. In the
operation of its ice business, the Employer produces annually ice
valued in excess of $300,000, of which total approximately $42,000,
worth of ice is sold and delivered by the Employer within the State
of New Jersey to railroads, steamships, and express companies, en-
gaged in the transportation of passengers and freight in interstate and
foreign commerce. Approximately $28,000 worth of the ice manu-
71 N. L. R. B., No. 23.
180
MOUNTAIN ICE AND FUEL CORPORATION 181
factured by the Employer at its New Jersey plants is sold and delivered
by the Employer to 3 industrial enterprises primarily engaged in the
manufacture of industrial chemicals for shipment to points outside
the State of New Jersey. The ice purchased by such industrial con-
cerns is used as an integral and necessary part in the manufacture
of chemicals.
The Employer admits and we find that it is engaged in commerce
within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act.
IL THE ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED
The Petitioner is a labor organization affiliated with the Congress
of Industrial Organizations, claiming to represent employees of the
Employer.
Local No. 617, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs,
Warehousemen & Helpers of America, herein called the Teamsters,
is a labor organization affiliated with the American Federation of
Labor, claiming to represent employees of the Employer.'
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
The Employer refuses to recognize the Petitioner as the exclusive
bargaining representative of employees of the Employer until the
Petitioner has been certified by the Board in an appropriate unit.
We find that a question affecting commerce has arisen concerning
the representation of employees of the Employer, within the meaning
of Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNITS
Both the Petitioner and the Teamsters contend that the production
and maintenance employees of each of two of the Employer's -ice
manufacturing plants, located at Central Avenue, Jersey City, and
at Lafayette Street, Paterson, New Jersey, respectively, constitute
appropriate units. The Employer takes the position that, due to the
integration of its operations and personnel, only a single unit includ-
ing the employees of all plants and warehouses of the Employer is
appropriate. In addition thereto, the Employer objects to the inclu-
sion within the proposed units of certain employees hereinafter dis-
cussed.
The Employer has no history of collective bargaining. As regards
the Employer's contention that the integration of its operations and
personnel requires that the unit be Employer-wide in scope, the record
discloses that, although the various plants and warehouses of the
1 The Teamsters intervened only with respect to Case No . 2-R-6373 involving the
Employer's plant at Jersey City, New Jersey.
182 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Employer have certain functional interrelations and are subject to
over-all management policies,2 each of the plants- herein concerned
constitutes essentially a separate department under primarily local
supervision with substantial independent authority. Each plant is
under the local supervision of a chief engineer who supervises the work
of the plant engineers, and of a sales manager who supervises the
remaining employees in the plant. The evidence further discloses
that the chief engineer has authority to recommend effectively the hire
and discharge of engineers and that the sales manager has authority
to hire and discharge all other employees in the plant. At each of
its plants, the Employer maintains separate time sheets, pay rolls, and
cost accounts with respect to the product manufactured therein. Not-
withstanding a limited amount of interchange of employees between
these plants and the remaining plants of the Employer,' the great
majority of the employees of each plant normally remain in the plant
to which they are regularly assigned.
In view of the foregoing facts, and in the absence of a history of
collective bargaining among the employees of the Employer, we are
of the opinion that the Jersey City and Paterson, New Jersey, plants
of the Employer may now constitute separate units appropriate for
the purposes of collective bargaining.'
There remains for consideration the disposition of certain chauf-
feurs whose work is not confined to any specific plant and whose
names are listed on an over-all pay roll known as "various pay roll."
The Employer opposes the contention of the Petitioner and Teamsters
that such employees be included within a unit limited to the employees
of a single plant. The record discloses that while some of the chauf-
feurs, for the sake of convenience, report to the sales manager at the
Jersey City plant, their usual duties as truck drivers are for the most
part performed, away from such plant and consist of trucking ice
between the various plants and warehouses of the Employer. Under
the circumstances, we are of the opinion that the chauffeurs have in-
sufficient interests in common with the employees in either of the
units hereinafter found appropriate to warrant their inclusion
therein. Accordingly, we shall exclude them from such units.
We find that all production and maintenance employees employed
at the Employer's Central Avenue, Jersey City plant, and at the
Employer's Lafayette Street, Paterson plant, respectively, including
2 Among the over-all management policies are those establishing uniform wage rates
and Employer-wide seniority for all employees
3 The record discloses that , aside from transfers arising at the beginning or end of
seasonal operations , employment at the several plants is relatively stable with only occa-
sional transfers occurring during periods of normal plant activity.
4 See Matter of May, McJlwen Kaiser Company-May Full Fashion Division , 66 N L R B.
1,141 : Matter of Salant cC Salant, Inc , 69 N L R B 84 ; Matter of Hershey Machine and
Foundry Company , 69 N. L Ii B. 1308.
MOUNTAIN ICE AND FUEL CORPORATION 183
watch engineers, ice pullers, boxmen, laborers, platform men, mainte-
nance mechanics, and watchmen, but excluding chauffeurs, sales man-
agers, office employees, supervising engineers, chief engineers, and all
or 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, constitute separate
units' appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within
the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the
purposes of collective bargaining with Mountain Ice and Fuel Cor-
poration, Jersey City and Paterson, New Jersey, 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
supervision of the Regional Director for the Second Region, acting
in this matter as agent for the National Labor Relations Board, and
subject to Sections 203.55 and 203.56, of National Labor Relations
Board Rules and Regulations-Series 4, among the employees in the
unit found appropriate in Section IV, above, who were employed dur-
ing the pay-roll period immediately preceding the date of this Direc-
tion, 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 em-
ployees who have since quit or been discharged for cause and have not
been rehired or reinstated prior to the date of the elections, to deter-
mine in the case of the Jersey City plant whether they desire to be
represented by United Packinghouse Workers of America, C. I. 0.,
or by Local 617, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs,
Warehousemen & Helpers of America, A. F. L., for the purposes of
collective bargaining, or by neither; and in the case of the Paterson
plant, whether or not they desire to be represented by United Pack-
inghouse Workers of America, C. I. 0., for the purposes of collective
bargaining s
5Included as eligible under this provision in accord with the agreement of the parties,
are employees who at the date of the election have been laid off because of a seasonal
decline in operations, subject to recall upon the basis of seniority. See Matter of Noblitt-
Sparks Industries Inc , 64 N L. R B. 1501.
See footnote 1, supra.