Pershing Avenue Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Feb 18, 1952

98 N.L.R.B. 148 (N.L.R.B. 1952)

148 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
supervisors, division supervisors, instructors, collector of revenue,
senior stock clerks, chief dispatcher, assistant chief dispatcher, and all
other supervisors, guards, and professional employees as defined in
the Act.
If a majority of the employees voting in the election cast their ballots
for the Petitioner, they will be taken to have indicated their desire to
be included in the existing operating and maintenance unit and the
Petitioner may bargain for them as a part of that unit. The Regional
Director conducting the election directed herein is instructed to issue
a certificate of results of election to that effect.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this
volume.]
PERSHING AVENUE CORPORATION, IVERS & POND PIANO COMPANY, PAUL
G. MERLIN & SONS AND POOLE PIANO COMPANY and UNITED FURNI-
TURE WORKERS OF AMERICA, CIO, PETITIONER. Case No. 50-RC-
407. February 18,1952
Decision and Direction of Election
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National
Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before J. M. Mitchell, hearing
officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from
prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3 (b) of the Act, the Board has
delegated its powers in connection with this case to a three-member
panel [Members Houston, 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
Act.
2. The labor organizations involved claim to represent certain em-
ployees of the Employer.'
3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the fepresenta-
tion of employees of the Employer within the meaning of Section
9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
4. The Employer consists of four corporations, all wholly owned
subsidiaries of Winter & Co., a New York corporation. These four
corporations occupy one building in Memphis, Tennessee, and carry
on the following endeavors : Pershing Avenue Corporation, real estate
holding and maintenance; Ivers & Pond Piano Company, piano pro-
' Coopers' International Union of North America , AFL, yeas allowed to intervene at the
hearing
98 NLRB No. 30.
PERSHING AVENUE CORPORATION 149
duction; Paul G. Mehlin'& Sons, manufacturer of piano supplies, spe-
cifically sounding boards and backboards; Poole Piano Company,
manufacturer of piano supplies, specifically hammers. Although each
corporation has a separate bank account and the salaries of its em-
ployees are chargeable to it, personnel matters for all four are handled
by one office, as is purchasing. The privileges, benefits, and working
conditions of all employees are uniform and wages "practically" so.
We find these four corporations to be one Employer for purposes of
the Act.
The parties are agreed upon the appropriateness of a unit of all
production and maintenance employees, but the Employer urges the
dismissal of the petition because the unit is expanding.
At the time of the hearing on January 9, 1952, the Employer was
assembling 50 pianos a month in the Ivers,&, Pond operation with 18
to 20 employees. By June 1952 it expected to turn out 150 to 200
pianos a month, adding 20 employees to existing classifications.2 It
also stated that in February it expected to start a new operation of
cabinetmaking within the Ivers & Pond operation, which would in-
volve new classifications with 30 to 50 additional employees. Most of
the machinery for this new operation was then installed and some
supplies had been ordered.
The Employer had no expansion plans for the Mehlin operation,
with only 2 employees. The Poole operation with 11 employees was
expected to double, and perhaps add 2 for a type of work then being
done by a supervisor. Except for the latter problematical 2, these
new employees will all be in existing classifications . It also had no
plans for increasing the 3 maintenance employees of the Pershing
Avenue Corporation.
As an entirely new venture, but possibly to be handled by an existing
corporation, the Employer also expected to start in February the
manufacture of piano actions and keys. This operation will be car-
ried on at the same location and most of the employees will have simi-
lar skills to those of employees already in the hire of the Employer,
although some may be more skilled because the new operation is more
complex. Ten employees will be hired to start this operation, for
which machinery had been procured at the time of the hearing. The
potential employee complement is estimated at 150, but no definite
date when this may be expected appears because it is dependent in part
upon the rate of learning of the first employees and the skills of the
supervisor in training them.
2 There is some confusion in the record whether the Employer 's round number estimate of
75 employees in this division by June 1952 includes anticipated cabinet work . We conclude
that it does by reason of the break -down of existing classifications in the record giving
current employees and expected employees in each . The wording of the Employer 's brief
confirms this interpretation.
998666-vol . 98-53-11
150 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Thus it appears that, in those classifications which were in existence
at the time of the hearing, the Employer had a substantial and repre-
sentative segment of the working force it contemplated within the
ensuing 6-month period.3 In those classifications which it contem-
plated establishing the Employer's own testimony indicates that hiring
will take place within the current month. On this record there is no
reason to suppose that all classifications will not be represented when
the election directed herein takes place, in sufficient quantity to be
representative of the working force actually contemplated for the
next 6 months. In these circumstances we shall not dismiss the peti-
tion, as the Employer requests, but shall direct an immediate election
in accord with our usual policy.
We find that the following employees of the Employer constitute
a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within
the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act: All production and mainte-
nance employees of the Employer at its operations located at 2718
Pershing Avenue, Memphis, Tennessee , excluding office and clerical
employees, professional employees, technical employees, watchmen,
guards, and supervisors as defined in the Act.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this
volume.]
3 The complement anticipated with some degree of certainty for June 1952 appears to be
approximately 112 ; real estate maintenance 3 ; piano assembly and cabinet 75 ; sounding
boards 2; hammers 22-4 ; action and keys 10. Thirty -five production and maintenance
employees were employed at the time of the hearing. The record indicates that February
hirings would bring this 35 to at least 55.
4 Bell Aircraft Corporation, 96 NLRB 1211 ; It. P. Scherer Corporation, Hypospray
Division, 95 NLRB 1426.
PETCO CORPORATION-NEW ORLEANS DIVISION 1 and OIL WORKERS
INTERNATIONAL UNION, CIO, PETITIONER . Case No. 15-RC-515.
February 18,1952
Decision and Direction of Election
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, a hearing was held before J. M. Mitchell, hearing officer.
The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from prej-
udicial error and are hereby affirmed.2
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the Act.
I The name of the Employer appears as amended at the hearing.
2 Independent Oil Workers Union of Jefferson was permitted to intervene in this proceed-
ing upon a proper showing of interest.
98 NLRB No. 28.