Piel Brothers

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Aug 19, 1954

109 N.L.R.B. 894 (N.L.R.B. 1954)

894 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
CONCLUSIONS OF LAW
1. The operations of the Respondent occur in commerce within the meaning of
Section 2 (6) of the Act.
2. United Steel Workers of America , CIO, is a labor organization within the
meaning of Section 2 (5) of the Act.
3. The Respondent has not engaged in unfair labor practices , as alleged in the
complaint , within the meaning of Section 8 ( a) (1), (3), and (4) of the Act.
[Recommendations omitted from publication.]
PIEL BROTHERS and POWER PLANT AND REFRIGERATION OPERATORS,
MAINTENANCE MECHANICS AND HELPERS , LOCAL UNION # 56, INTER-
NATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF FIREMEN , OILERS AND MAINTENANCE
MECHANICS , AFL, PETITIONER
PIEL BROTHERS and BREWERS UNION, LOCAL #8, INTERNATIONAL
BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS, CHAUFFEURS, WAREHOUSEMEN AND
HELPERS OF AMERICA, AFL , PETITIONER . Cases Nos. 2-RC-6691
and O-RC-6785. August 19,1954
Decision, Order, and Direction of Election
Upon separate petitions filed under Section 9 (c) of the National
Labor Relations Act, separate hearings were held before Herman Gel-
band and Louis Aronin, hearing officers. The hearing officers' rulings
made at the hearings are free from prejudicial error and are hereby
affirmed.
As the two cases involve the same Employer and the same issues,
they are hereby consolidated for purposes of decision.
Upon the entire record in these cases, 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. 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. The Employer operates three breweries in the New York City
area. Two of these breweries located in Brooklyn, one on Liberty
Avenue and the other on Bushwick Avenue, operate under the name of
Piel Brothers. The third brewery, located at Stapleton, Staten Is-
land, operates under the name of Piels, Incorporated 2
1 The Petitioner in Case No 2-RC-6691 intervened in Case No . 2-RC-6785 on the basis
of a showing of interest.
2 These breweries are referred to herein as the Liberty plant, the Bushwick plant, and
the Stapleton plant . All three plants produce beer and ship directly to wholesalers and
retailers The record Indicates common ownership and single management of both these
corporations . Although the accounting department keeps separate accounts on the Staple-
109 NLRB No. 142.
PIEL BROTHERS 895
• Brewers Union, Local #8, International Brotherhood of Teamsters,
Chaffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America, AFL, herein called
Local #8, seeks a multiplant unit of all the employees in the receiv-
ing section of the Employer's financial department , consisting of 5
stock clerks and a receiving clerk at the Liberty Plant, 2 stock clerks
at the Bushwick plant, 2 stock clerks at the Stapleton plant, and 2
intercompany drivers. Power Plant and Refrigeration Operators,
Maintenance Mechanics and Helpers, Local Union #56, International
Brotherhood of Firemen, Oilers, and Maintenance Mechanics, AFL,
herein called Local #56, seeks a single-plant unit of the 5 stock clerks
at the Liberty plant. The Employer contends that a multiplant unit of
all receiving section employees and office clerical personnel in the fi-
nancial department, a group comprising approximately 150 employees,
is alone appropriate.
The Scope of the Unit
The Employer has between 1,200 and 1,300 employees located at
its three plants. Its production and maintenance employees and sales-
men are covered by nine contracts. Six of these contracts were ne-
gotiated by the Brewers Board of Trade; 3 the remaining three were
negotiated by the Employer on an individual basis; ' of these, the con-
tract with Local #56 covering the porters applies to the two plants
located in Brooklyn, the remaining contracts covering all three of the
Employer's plants. There is, however, no history of collective bar-
gaining for any of the employees involved in these petitions.
The 12 employees sought by Local #8 are the only employees super-
vised by the receiving section supervisor. He is responsible to the
assistant treasurer of the Employer, who is in charge of the financial
department. At all three plants, the receiving section is located in
buildings where no production activities are carried on. There is
a certain amount of interchange among the plants of stock clerks
when any of them are ill or on vacation. All the employees in this
section are paid on a salary basis, and carried on financial depart-
ment payrolls. All of them share with the other salaried clericals
ton plant foi purposes of cost accounting, it appeals that the maintenance and service
departments carry on their functions under the same supervisors and department heads
in all tluee plants It is clear from the record that these two corporations constitute a
single Employer within the meaning of Section 2 (2) of the Act. South Georgia Pecan
Shelling Company, 85 NLRB 591.
3The Brewers Board of Trade negotiated contracts with (1) the Brewers, Bottlers and
Drivers Union, covering all brewers, brewery workers, bottling shop employees, and drivers ;
and (2) Local #56, covering firemen, oilers, and maintenance mechanics. The remaining
four contracts negotiated by the Bresers Board of Trade are with the international Asso-
ciation of Machinists, the Operating Engineers, the International Brotherhood of Elec-
tricians, and the Block Tin Plumbers Union The record does not develop the classifica-
tions coveted by the latter four contracts with these unions
4The Employer separately negotiated contracts with (1) Local #56, covering porters;
(2) Beer Drivers Local #323, covering checkers, and (3) Office Employees International
Union, covering salesmen.
896 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
in the department certain rights and privileges different from those
accorded other employees, also receiving annual bonuses and sick leave
benefits not granted other employees, and coming under different va-
cation and pension plans. In view of these facts, and also taking into
consideration the past bargaining history as regards other employee
units already established, we find that the appropriate unit should be
multiplant in scope.' Accordingly, we shall dismiss the petition filed
by Local #56 in Case No. 2-RC-6691.
The Composition of the Unit
The Employer contends that the employees sought herein are in fact
office clericals, and should be included in a broader unit of all financial
department employees. We find no merit in this contention. The work
of the stock clerks consists of receiving, inspecting, and storing mate-
rials received at the stockroom, checking and recording materials re-
ceived directly at other departments, recording the weights of malt,
grits, and hops received at the Employer's silos, assembling advertis-
ing and other material and writing up labels, and working on physi-
cal inventories whenever time permits e Their clerical duties include
the use of 8 or 9 types of forms, but involves the use of no machines
associated with office clericals. One third of their time is spent in do-
ing actual physical work, and they are in contact with other production
and maintenance employees from 20 to 25 percent of their working
time. The fact that they receive certain benefits which are the same
as those received by the white collar workers and which are not shared
by the rest of the production and maintenance employees does not
alone make them office clericals. On the contrary, in view of the other
factors detailed above including the nature of their work, the extent
of their contact with production and maintenance employees, and their
separate immediate supervision from that of office clericals, we find
that these stock clerks are plant clerical employees.? We further find
that the receiving clerk located in the supervisor's office at the Lib-
erty plant, whose main function is to maintain the perpetual inventory
records, is also a plant clerical."
5 Helms Motor Ecrpress, Inc , 107 NLRB 132.
6 One stock clerk at the Liberty plant makes two trips a week to get checks certified at
a bank , to purchase revenue stamps , and to deliver coolers to taverns where needed. Also,
one of the stock clerks at the Stapleton plant works approximately half the time as a
messenger for the assistant to the president of the Employer . All the parties agree to the
inclusion of these two employees in any unit found appropriate which embraces the plants
at which they work.
7 Western Gear Works, Mission Plant, 104 NLRB No. 76 at page 3 (not reported in printed
volumes of Board Decisions and Orders ) ; Kennecott Copper Corp ., 92 NLRB 1786, 1790;
Phillips Chemical Co, 83 NLRB 612, 613 . Cf. Anheuser-Busch, Inc , 102 NLRB 800, 813.
8 Palmer Manufacturing Co., 103 NLRB 336, 338; Western Gear Works, 98 NLRB 80, 83.
PIEL BROTHERS 897
The two intercompany drivers report to the receiving section su-
pervisor at the Liberty plant each morning. They wear special uni-
forms while on duty. One driver makes hourly trips between the Lib-
erty and Bushwick plants, while the other driver makes daily trips
between the Liberty and Stapleton plants. They are in no way en-
gaged in transporting or handling the products of the Employer.
't'heir main function is to deliver interplant communications and such
other materials as office supplies, stationery, invoices, and other mate-
rials that might be needed at the other receiving rooms, including ad-
vertising material for distributors' trucks. They have the same sepa-
rate supervision as the other receiving section employees, and are clear-
ly not office clerical employees. In all the circumstances, and as all
the employees sought herein are the only remaining unrepresented
employees among the production and maintenance employees, we find
that they constitute a residual unit which is appropriate for purposes
of collective bargaining.9
A question concerning the supervisory status of two of the stock
clerks remains for determination. The Employer and Local #56 con-
tend that there is an assistant supervisor at both the Bushwick and
Stapleton plants who should be excluded from any unit found appro-
priate, while Local #8 contends that these individuals are merely
more experienced stock clerks, and are not supervisors as defined in the
Act. Each of these stock clerks allegedly supervises one other stock
clerk, although the assistant supervisor at the Stapleton plant works
alone approximately half the time.10 The record shows that these in-
dividuals do not have authority to hire, discharge, or effectively recom-
mend such action, nor do they have the authority to lay off or recall
employees or to handle grievances. While they do direct the work of
other employees, it is the type of direction customarily exercised by
experienced employees over those who are less skilled. Accordingly,
we find that the Employer's "assistant supervisors" are not super-
visors as defined in the Act, and may properly be included in the unit
hereinafter found to be appropriate.11
We find that all stock clerks in the receiving section of the Employ-
er's Liberty, Bushwick, and Stapleton plants in the New York City
area, including the receiving clerk, the intercompany drivers, and the
assistant supervisors, but excluding all office clerical employees, pro-
fessional employees, technical employees, guards, watchmen, and su-
pervisors as defined in the Act, constitute a unit appropriate for pur-
0 Lee Brothers Foundry, Inc., 106 NLRB 212 ; California Cornice Steel and Supply Corp ,
104 NLRB 787.
10 See footnote 6, supra.
11 Cinch Manufacturing Co., 98 NLRB 781; Continental Carbon Inc., 94 NLRB 1026.
898 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
poses of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b)
of the Act.
[The Board dismissed the petition in Case No. 2-RC-6691.]
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.]
MEMBERS MURDOCK and RODGERS took no part in the consideration
of the above Decision, Order, and Direction of Election.
THOMASON PLYWOOD CORPORATION and UNITED BROTHERHOOD OF CAR-
PENTERS AND JOINERS OF AMERICA, AFL . Case No. 11-CA -545.
August 00, 1954
Decision and Order
On July 30 , 1953, Trial Examiner Howard Myers issued his Inter-
mediate Report in the above -entitled proceeding , finding that the Re-
spondent had engaged in and was engaging in certain unfair labor
practices and recommending that it cease and desist therefrom and
take certain affirmative action, as set forth in the copy of the Inter-
mediate Report attached hereto. The Trial Examiner also found that
the Respondent had not engaged in certain other alleged unfair labor
practices and recommended dismissal of these allegations of the com-
plaint. Thereafter , the General Counsel filed exceptions and a brief,
and the Respondent filed a brief and a reply brief.
The Respondent 's request for oral argument is denied as the record,
including the exceptions and briefs , adequately sets forth the positions
of the parties.
The Board has reviewed the rulings of the Trial Examiner made
at the hearing and finds that no prejudicial error was committed.
The rulings are hereby affirmed. The Board has considered the Inter-
mediate Report , the exceptions and briefs , and the entire record in
this case, and hereby adopts the findings , conclusions , and recommen-
dations of the Trial Examiner with the following additions and
modifications.
1. The Trial Examiner found that the Respondent had violated
Section 8 ( a) (1) of the Act by James Albert's statements to Sutton
and by Perry Tyndall's questioning of Earmon McNeil and two other
employees and Tyndall 's remarks to those employees upon receiving
no reply. The Trial Examiner also found that the Respondent was
not relieved of responsibility for the conduct of its supervisors by issu-
ing to its foremen on November 4 , 1952, instructions not to interfere
with union activity , as there was no showing that the instructions
were communicated to the employees . With these findings of the
Trial Examiner the Board agrees.
109 NLRB No. 132.