Permaneer Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jun 22, 1970

183 N.L.R.B. 881 (N.L.R.B. 1970)

WRIGHT CITY DISPLAY MFG. COMPANY
Wright City Display Manufacturing ' Company, A
Subsidiary of Permaneer Corporation (Delaware)
and Miscellaneous Drivers and Helpers Union,
Local 610, Affiliated with International Brother-
hood of Teamsters , Chauffeurs, Warehousemen
and Helpers of America, Petitioner. Case
14-RC-6173
June 22, 1970
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION
BY MEMBERS FANNING, MCCULLOCH, AND JENKINS
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9(c) of
the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, a
hearing was held before Hearing Officer Karl A.
Sauber. Following the hearing, this case was trans-
ferred to the National Labor Relations Board in
Washington, D.C., for decision, pursuant to Section
102.67 of the National Labor Relations Board
Rules and Regulations and Statements of
Procedure, Series 8, as amended. Thereafter, the
Petitioner, the Employer, and the Intervenor2 filed
briefs. On July 1, 1969, the Board granted the Em-
ployer and Petitioner motions to correct the official
record in certain respects.
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the
National Labor Relations Act, as amended, the Na-
tional Labor Relations Board has delegated its
powers in connection with this case to a three-
member panel.
The Hearing Officer's rulings made at the hearing
are free from prejudicial error and are hereby af-
firmed.
Upon the entire record in this case, including the
briefs, 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 organizations involved claim to
represent certain employees of the Employer.
3. A question affecting commerce exists concern-
ing the representation of employees of the Em-
ployer within the meaning of Sections 9(c)(1) and
2(6) and (7) of the Act.
4. The Petitioner seeks to sever from the existing
production and maintenance unit, currently
represented by the Intervenor, a unit of all local
The name of the Employer appears as amended at the hearing
' Carpenters District Council of St Louis and Vicinity, affiliated with the
United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America , AFL-CIO,
herein called the Intervenor, was permitted to intervene on the basis of a
current contract between it and the Employer There is no claim that this
contract constitutes a bar
2 Wright City Permaneer Company manufactures vinyl laminated wall
paneling and industrial materials Wrightson Company , Incorporated,
881
and over-the-road truckdrivers of the Employer.
The Employer and the Intervenor oppose the
requested severance on the grounds , in sum, that
the evidence presented does not warrant the
severance of the truckdrivers from the historical
overall bargaining unit.
One local and nine over -the-road drivers are at-
tached administratively to the Employer , one of a
number of subsidiaries of a parent corporation
called Permaneer Corporation . The Employer,
located in Wright City , Missouri , manufactures
store fixtures and decorative bathroom cabinets.
Permaneer Corporation has two additional sub-
sidiaries in Wright City;3 some four in Union, Mis-
souri, which is 35 miles from Wright City ; at least
one subsidiary in St . Louis , Missouri , which is 50
miles from Wright City; and several in California
and Oregon . Except for railroads and independent
truck lines , the over-the-road drivers perform the
distance hauling for the entire Permaneer complex.
The nine over-the-road drivers haul finished
products from the Wright City and Union , Missou-
ri, plants to customers and sister subsidiaries in
California and Oregon, and bring back materials
from subsidiaries in Oregon and California.4 They
also deliver finished products to customers on the
east coast , including such locations as New Jersey,
New York, and Boston . For west coast trips, a crew
of two over-the-road drivers drive one of the Em-
ployer 's tandem axle tractor -trailers. Trips to the
east coast are made in the Employer 's three single-
axle tractor-trailers , which require one man each.
West coast trips usually require about 5 days. In the
case of east coast trips , in 1 week a driver may
make two medium length trips , or one long trip and
one short trip. The latter may include a trip to one
of the subsidiaries in Missouri . The local driver
makes two to four trips a day , hauling to and from
various subsidiaries in Union and Wright City, and
also to the truck terminals and railroad yards in St.
Louis, Missouri , and East St . Louis, Illinois.
The over-the-road drivers do no plant work and
do not load their trailers . They unload only to the
extent that they pull the merchandise from the back
of the trailer to the tailgate. There is no evidence
that the local driver does any plant work or loading
of his truck. However , it does appear that on occa-
sion the local driver may help in unloading the
truck at the Union City locations.
manufactures bookcases and record cabinets
' It thus appears that the drivers assigned to the California hauls usually
return from the port of San Diego. California, with vinyl film which they
deliver to Union Permaneer at Union, Missouri Similarly, after delivering
printed vinyl film from a plant in Union, Missouri, to a subsidiary in Dillard,
Oregon, the driver will return with a load of flake board for Wright City
Permaneer Company at Wright City
183 NLRB No. 86
882 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Over-the-road drivers work about 60 hours a
week. When the trucks of the over-the-road drivers
are loaded to go, the drivers receive a phone call to
this effect at home and they leave when their trucks
are ready. This may be several hours after the
beginning of the first shift at the plant or at noon.
The local driver, who begins driving at 7 a.m. when
the first of three shifts at the plant begins, generally
works over 40 hours per week. None of the drivers
receives overtime for work over 8 hours a day. The
over-the-road drivers are paid mileage rates plus
unloading and breakdown time plus a motel al-
lowance. When a man is the only driver on a truck
he receives 8.4 cents a mile and $2.76 an hour for
unloading and breakdown time, and two men on a
truck split 10 cents a mile and the rates for unload-
ing and breakdown time remain the same . Single-
axle drivers receive a fuel discount and tandem
drivers do not. The local driver is also paid a mile-
age rate for miles averaged out to 45 per hour, and
for the remaining hours he works he receives an
hourly rate. All drivers have an 8-hour guarantee;
must meet ICC requirements with respect to physi-
cal examinations , keeping logs, and maintaining
safety standards; must have Missouri chauffeurs'
licenses ; and are under the separate and immediate
supervision of a dispatcher, agreed to be a super-
visor, and physically stationed at the Wright City
Permaneer plant. Under the existing contract,
seniority is plantwide, but for driving assignments
seniority among the drivers governs. Of the drivers
presently employed, one, who had 11 years' ex-
perience as a driver, transferred from plant work to
driving, and another one was employed as a driver
and thereafter transferred to plant work but sub-
sequently returned as a driver.
Pursuant to voluntary recognition, the Inter-
venor, since 1948, has represented the employees
of the Wright City Display plant, which became a
subsidiary of Permaneer Corporation in 1960. The
first driver was hired in 1961-62, and drivers were
added at the rate of about one a year until they
reached the present complement. The contract in
effect at the time of the hearing, which ran from
1966 to 1969, covered the employees of both the
Wright City Display plant and also the Wright City
Permaneer plant, which had been established as a
separate subsidiary from Wright City Display dur-
ing the term of this contract. It is undisputed on the
record that the contract covered both plants, with
the same benefits for the total of 90 employees, and
' It would appear that the drivers may well have as much , or more, con-
tact with the employees of sister subsidiaries than they do with the produc-
tion and maintenance employees of the Employer or Wright City Per-
maneer
that there was interchange of employees between
the two operations. The drivers of Wright City Dis-
play have been represented under a contract cover-
ing all employees with the Carpenters since drivers
were first hired in 1961 or 1962.
We note that the nine over-the-road drivers
spend all of their time driving across the country,
and even the local truckdriver spends all of his time
making runs of considerable distances and only, on
occasion, assists employees of subsidiary companies
in unloading his truck. The drivers do no plant
work. They do not interchange with plant em-
ployees, and plant employees do not interchange
with them. The over-the-road drivers work different
hours from the employees in the plant and are paid
by a different method. Moreover they have virtually
no contact with plant employees, except when oc-
casionally passing through the plant.' The one local
driver is also paid differently from plant employees
and works away from the plant. All drivers have
chauffeurs' licenses and meet the requirements set
forth by the ICC.
In all the circumstances of this case, we find that
the nine over-the-road drivers and the one local
driver constitute a homogeneous, functionally
distinct group such as the Board has traditionally
accorded the right of self-determination, not-
withstanding a history of bargaining on a broader
basis. In addition, the Petitioner is a union which
has historically represented truckdrivers. We find,
therefore, that the Employer's truckdrivers may, if
they so desire, constitute a separate appropriate
unit for the purposes of collective bargaining, and
we shall therefore direct an election among the em-
ployees in the following voting group:'
All truckdrivers of the Employer at its plant
at Wright City, Missouri, including the over-
the-road drivers and the local driver, but ex-
cluding all other employees, the dispatcher,
and all other supervisors as defined by the Act.
We shall make no final unit determination at this
time, but shall be guided in part by the desires of
the employees as expressed in the election
hereinafter directed. If a majority vote for the Peti-
tioner, they will be taken to have indicated their
desire to constitute a separate bargaining unit, and
the Regional Director conducting the election will
issue a Certification of Representatives to the Peti-
tioner for the employees in the group described in
° Kalamazoo Paper Boy Corporation, 136 NLRB 134 Cf Dara-Con-
tainers, Inc , 164 NLRB 293, Consolidated Packaging Corporation, 178
NLRB 564, and Oltnkraft, Inc, 179 NLRB 414
WRIGHT CITY DISPLAY MFG. COMPANY 883
paragraph numbered 4, above, which the Board, in
such circumstances, finds to be appropriate for the
purposes of collective bargaining . In the event that
a majority do not vote for the Petitioner, these em-
ployees shall remain a part of the existing unit and
the Regional Director will issue a Certification of
Results of Election to such effect.
[Direction of Election' omitted from publica-
tion. ]
r In order to assure that all eligible voters may have the opportunity to be
informed of the issues in the exercise of their statutory right to vote, all
parties to the election should have access to a list of voters and their ad-
dresses which may be used to communicate with them Excelsior Un-
deroear Inc, 156 NLRB 1236, N L R B v Wtnian -Gordon Co, 394 U S
759 Accordingly, it is hereby directed that an election eligibility list, con-
taining the names and addresses of all the eligible voters, must be filed by
the Employer with the Regional Director for Region 14 within 7 days of the
date of this Decision and Direction of Election The Regional Director shall
make the list available to all parties to the election No extension of time to
file this list shall be granted by the Regional Director except in extraordina-
ry circumstances Failure to comply with this requirement shall be grounds
for setting aside the election whenever proper objections are filed
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