Pacific Mills

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Feb 6, 1945

60 N.L.R.B. 467 (N.L.R.B. 1945)

In the Matter of PACIFIC MILLS and DEPARTMENT or WOOLEN AND
WORSTED WORKERS OF AMERICA OF THE U. T. W. A.-AFL
Case No. 1-R-198.-Decided February 6, 19415
Miss Mary Taccone, of Lawrence, Mass., for the AFL.
Messrs. John T. Noonan and Henry L. Mason, Jr., of Boston, Mass.;
for the Company.
Mr. Gaston LeBlanc, of Lawrence, Mass., for the CIO.
Mr. Paul R. Foisy, of Lowell, Mass., for the Association.
Mr. Bernard Goldberg, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
STATEMENT OF TIIE CASE
Upon an amended petition duly filed by the Department of Woolen
and Worsted Workers of America of the U. T. W. A.-AFL, herein
called the AFL, alleging that a question affecting commerce had arisen
concerning the representation of employees of Pacific Mills, Lawrence,
Massachusetts, herein called the Company, the National Labor Rela-
tions Board provided for an appropriate hearing upon due notice be-
fore Robert E. Greene, Trial Examiner. Said hearing was held at
Lawrence, Massachusetts, on January 2, 1945. The Company, the
AFL, the Textile Workers Union of America (CIO), herein called
the CIO, and the Pacific Mills Worsted Division Employees' Associa-
tion, herein called the Association, appeared and participated. All
parties were afforded "full opportunity to be heard, to examine and
cross-examine witnesses, and to introduce evidence bearing on the.
issues. The Trial Examiner's rulings made at the hearing are free
from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed. All parties were af-
forded an opportunity to file briefs with the Board.
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following:
FINDINGS OF FACT
I. THE.BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
Pacific Mills, a Massachusetts corporation, is engaged in the manu-
facture of cotton, woolen, and worsted goods. In addition to cotton
60 N. L. R. B., No. 90.
467
468 - DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
mills in Columbia and Lyman, South Carolina, the Company operates
a woolen and worsted, manufactory in Lawrence, Massachusetts, with
which this proceeding is concerned. The Company maintains branch
selling offices in the principal cities of the United States. During the
year 1942, which is considered representative of operations in 1944, the
Company used at its Lawrence plant raw materials valued in excess
of $3,000,000, over 95 percent of which was shipped to the plant from
points outside the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. During the same
period, the Company produced at the same plant finished goods valued
in excess of $20,000,000, more than 95 percent of which was shipped
to points outside the Commonwealth. ,
We find that the Company is engaged in commerce within the mean-
ing of the National Labor Relations Act.
II. THE ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED
Department of Wollen and Worsted Workers of America of the
U. T. W. A., affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, is a
labor organization admitting to membership employees of the
Company.
Textile Workers Union of America, affiliated with the Congress of
Industrial Organizations, is a labor organization admitting to mem-
bership employees of the Company.
Pacific Mills Worsted Division Employees' Association, unaffiliated,
is a labor organization admitting to membership employees of the
Company.
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
The Company contends that a request for recognition by the peti-
tioner and a refusal to bargain by the Company is a condition precedent
to a question concerning representation, and since, allegedly, neither
a formal request for recognition nor a refusal to bargain occurred prior
to the filing of the petition, the said petition should be dismissed. We
find no merit in this contention. It is sufficient, in a proceeding of this
kind that, as of the date of the hearing, the petitioner's status as bar-
gaining- representative is disputed by the Company and that recog-
nition depends upon certification by the Board.'
A statement of the Trial Examiner at the hearing indicates that the
AFL represents a substantial number of employees in the unit herein-
after found appropriate.
2 Matter of Jeffrey Manufacturing Company, 58 N. L R B . i129 ; Matter of Columbus
Iron Works Company, 47 N. L. R. B. 430; Matter of Gilbert & Bennett Manufacturing
• Company, 45 N. L. R. B. 1223.
2 The Trial Examiner reported that the AFL submitted 1,396 application for membership
cards ; that there are approximately 4,350 employees in the appropriate unit ; that a spot
check of the names on 297 of the cards against a list of the Company's employees as of
December 30, 1944, showed 293 of the names on the aforesaid list. The Trial Examiner
fuither reported that the CIO submitted 400 application for membership cards ; that the
PACIFIC MILLS 469
We find that a question affecting commerce has arisen concerning
the representation of employees of the Company, within the meaning
of Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT
The AFL seeks a unit of all production and maintenance employees,
including hourly paid clerks in the overseers' offices, watchmen, tool
makers, and employees of the steam and hydro-electric generating
plants, but excluding salaried clerical employees, hourly paid clerks in
the superintendents' offices, messengers, expediters, dispatchers, execu-
tives, superintendents, overseers, second hand, yardmen, warehouse-
men (including truckers and laborers engaged at all five storage
depots), truck drivers, and truck drivers' helpers. The area of dis-
agreement among the parties is indicated in the discussion below of
the disputed categories of employees.
Yardmen, wr°ehousemen (including truckers and laborers engaged
at all Jive storage depots), truck drivers, and truck-drivers' helpers:
The AFL urges the exclusion of all of these employees; the Company
and the Association contend that they ought to be included; while the
CIO desires the inclusion of all except the truck drivers and their
helpers. In a prior proceeding involving the same plant of the Com-
pany, the Board found that a unit of the employees under discussion
was appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining.3 Follow-
ing an election, the Board certified the International Brotherhood of
Teamsters as the bargaining representative for the unit.4 No suffi-
cient reason has been advanced for reversing our previous determina-
tion. Accordingly, we shall exclude yardmen, warehousemen (includ-
ing truckers and laborers engaged at all five storage depots), truck
drivers, and truck drivers' helpers from the unit.
Clerks: All the unions would include the hourly paid clerks in the
overseers' offices, whereas the Company would exclude them. The
duties of the hourly paid clerks in the overseers' offices are analogous to
those of similar clerks in the superintendents' offices, and to salaried
clerks generally, whom all parties agreed to exclude from the unit.
The weekly earnings of these hourly paid clerks are approximately the
same as those of the clerks paid on a salary basis. We shall exclude
these employees from the unit. However, the evidence indicates that
scattered throughout the plant are- checkers and ticketers who perform
clerical work in connection with the production processes; we shall
include them in the Unit .5
names on 84 of, the cards were checked against the afore-mentioned employees' list ; and
that the names on 39 oaf the 84 cards also appeared on the said list. The Association did
not submit any evidence of representation but relies upon its recent contracts with the
Company to establish its interest.
Matter of Pacific Mills, 48 N. L. R. B. 844.
Matter of Pacific Mills, 51 N. L. R. B. 168.
Matter of Chicago Rawhide Manufacturing Company, 59 N. L. R. B 1234.
470 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Watchmen: The plant employs some uniformed, unmilitarized, un-
armed, and non-deputized watchmen whom the Company would ex-
clude and the unions include in the unit. Some of the watchmen act
as fire watchers, while others are stationed at the main gate of the
plant checking incoming and outgoing employees and motor vehicles.
We shall, in accordance with our usual practice, include the watchmen
in the unit.°
Messengers: All of the parties except the Association agree to the
exclusion of the messengers who work out of the main office and carry,
.messages and mail to executives and high-ranking supervisory per-
sonnel throughout the numerous buildings comprising the plant. The
messengers have no interests in common with production and main-
tenance employees and we shall, therefore, exclude them from the
7.init.7
Tool makers: The Company employs four or five tool makers whom
it is desirous of excluding from the unit, whereas all of the unions
seek to include them. The tool makers are highly skilled mechanics
who divide their time between repairing plant machinery, and mak-
ing machinery for experimental purposes under the direction of the
research director. The fact that some of the tool makers' work is in aid
of research being carried on by the Company and that by virtue of
their close association with research workers they may acquire knowl-
edge of business secrets, is not, as the Company contends, sufficient to
deprive them of the protection accorded by the Act; it is only where
an employee's duties afford him the opportunity to acquire knowledge
of confidential information respecting labor relations matters, as a
part of his normal work, that such employee is properly excluded from
the unit. We shall include the tool makers in the unit.
Expediters: All parties, except the Association, would exclude these
employees; they expedite orders through the mills to prevent lagging
and side-tracking. They are hourly paid and work under the super-
vision of the overseers of their respective departments. Inside ex-
pediters, such as those involved herein, are not, as contended by the
Company, representatives of management. They may, therefore,
properly be included in a unit with production and maintenance em-
ployees; we shall include them.8
Steam and hydro-electric generating plant employees: All the unions
would include, while the Company would exclude, the employees in
the steam and hydro-electric generating plants operated by the Com-
panyto furnish the power and light needed in the mill. Since no other
8 Matter of Chicago Rawhide Manufacturing Company, supra.
7 Matter of Chicago Rawhide Manufacturing Company, supra.
8 Matter of Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation, 58 N L . It. B. 300 ; Matter of Ed-
ward G. Budd Manufacturing Co., 57 N . L. It. B. 1577 ; Matter of Worthington Pump and
Machinery Corporation, 44 N. L. It. B. 779.
PACIFIC MILLS 471
union is seeking to organize the powerhouse employees as a group, we
are of the opinion that such employees have interests sufficiently akin
to those of production and maintenance employees to be properly
included with the latter in a single unit. We shall include them.9
We shall, however, exclude shift engineers and assistant shift engineers
in the steam plants since they enjoy a supervisory status.
Foremen, assistant foremen, working foremen, f oreladies, shift su-
pervisors, and dispatchers: The Company seeks to exclude these em-
ployees as supervisors, whereas the unions would include them. It
appears from the uncontradicted evidence that all of these employees
have the power to make effective recommendations respecting the
status of their subordinates. We find them to be supervisory employ-
ees within the Board's customary definition and we shall exclude them
from the unit.
We find that all production and maintenance employees of the Com-
pany's Lawrence, Massachusetts, plant, including checkers, ticketers,
watchmen, tool makers, expediters; and employees of the steam and
hydro-electric generating plants, but excluding salaried clerical em-
ployees, hourly paid clerical employees in the offices of the superin-
tendents and overseers, messengers, yardmen, warehousemen (includ-
ing truckers and laborers engaged at all five storage depots),"" truck
drivers, truck drivers' helpers, executives, superintendents, overseers,
second hands, shift supervisors, foremen, assistant foremen, working
foremen, foreladies, dispatchers, shift engineers and assistant shift
engineers in steam generating plants, and all other supervisory em-
ployees with authority to hire, promote, discharge, discipline, or other-
wise effect changes in the status of employees, or effectively recommend
such action, constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collec-
tive bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
V. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
We shall direct that the question concerning representation which
has arisen be resolved by an election by secret ballot among the em-
ployees in the appropriate unit who were employed during the pays
roll period immediately preceding the date of the Direction of Elec-
tion herein, subject to the limitations and additions set forth in the
Direction.
9 Matter of Cramp Shipbuilding Company, 37 N. L. R. B . 146 ; Matter of Pullman-Stand-
ard Car Manufacturing Company,29 N. L. R. B. 600.
19 Only one of the five buildings used for storage purposes at the time of the previous
hearing is so used today . The other four buildings are used as receiving depots exclusively.
Nevertheless , there are still truckers employed at these depots who remain within this
exclusion.
472 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
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, and pursuant to Article III, Section 9, of National Labor Rela-
tions Board Rules and Regulations-Series 3, as amended, it is hereby
DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation to ascertain representa-
tives for the purposes of collective bargaining with Pacific Mills,
Lawrence , Massachusetts , an election by secret ballot shall be con-
ducted 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 First Region, acting in this matter as
agent for the National Labor Relations Board, and subject to Article
III, Sections 10 and 11, of said Rules and Regulations, among the
employees in the unit found appropriate in Section IV, above, who
were employed during the pay-roll period immediately preceding the
date of this Direction , 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
any who have since quit or been discharged for cause and have not
been rehired or reinstated prior to the date of the election , to determine
whether they desire to, be represented by Department of Woolen and
Worsted Workers of America of the U . T. W. A.-AFL, or by Textile
Workers Union of America ( CIO), or by Pacific Mills Worsted Di-
vision Employees' Association , for the purposes of collective bar-
gaining, or by none.