Q-F Wholesalers, Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Aug 8, 1949

85 N.L.R.B. 582 (N.L.R.B. 1949)

In the Matter of Q.-F WHOLESALERS, INC.,. EMPLOYER AND PETITIONER
and INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS, CHAUFFEURS,
WAREHOUSEMEN AND HELPERS OF AMERICA, LOCAL No. 676,
A. F. or L., UNION
Case No. 4-R31-38.-Decided August 8,19419
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before John H.
Garver, 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 National Labor
Relations Act, the Board has delegated its powers in connection with
this case to a three-member panel [Chairman Herzog and Members
Houston and Gray].
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the
National Labor Relations Act.
2. The labor organization involved claims to represent certain em-
ployees of the Employer.
3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the representa-
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 requests a unit of all employees at its Camden,
New Jersey, warehouse, excluding supervisors., International
Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers
of America, Local No. 676, A. F. of L., herein called the Teamsters,
contends that the unit should be limited to all truck drivers and relief
truck drivers at the Camden warehouse, excluding supervisors. There
has been no past bargaining history with respect to the Employer's
Camden operations.
' The Fmpoyer is engaged in the operation of warehouses in New Jersey , Pennsylvania,
Massachusetts , Maryland, and Rhode Island . Only the warehouse at Camden, New Jersey,
is involved in this proceeding. The operations in Camden were transferred from Phila-
delphia in October 1948.
85 N. L. R. B., No. 105.
582
Q-F WHOLESALERS, INC. 583
The Employer operates a warehouse and distribution point for
frozen foods. Its organization is divided into sales, office, and ware-
house departments. There are approximately 21 non-supervisory
employees in the warehouse department, 11 of whom are truck drivers
who distribute the frozen foods to retail stores in New Jersey, Penn-
sylvania, and Delaware.2 The remainder of the warehouse employees
work inside the cold storage warehouse.
The inside warehouse employees pack, assemble, and check customer
orders, and load the delivery trucks, under the supervision of the
assistant warehouse manager. They work from 4 p. m. until about
1 a. m. on Monday and Friday, and from 11 p. m. until 7 a. m. on Tues-
day through Thursday. During the winter, when the trucks are
housed in a garage over the week ends, the inside men go to the garage
on their way to work on Monday, and drive the trucks to the ware-
house. During the summer, the trucks remain in the vicinity of the
-warehouse.
The truck drivers work under the supervision of the warehouse
manager.3 Their workweek starts on Tuesday and ends on Saturday.
They work from 7 or 7: 30 a. m., until they finish delivering the
merchandise. The drivers pick up the trucks, which are already
loaded, in the morning at the warehouse loading platform. They
return to the warehouse, usually between 4 and 5 p. m., where they
check in, and turn in the money collected and the signed receipts.4 The
drivers are responsible for the merchandise on the trucks and for the
money collected. Each driver covers a specific geographical area as-
signed by the Employer.5 Although the drivers generally do not sell'
merchandise, they are asked to call on stores along their route to try to
dispose of any orders which have not been accepted by customers.
All warehouse employees are covered by identical fidelity bonds, and
all have the same vacation privileges, sick leave, and the right to
participate in the group insurance and retirement plans.
The Board has frequently held that a group of truck drivers may
constitute a separate appropriate units The question in the instant
8 The truck drivers are referred to as "outside" employees in the record, and the ware-
house employees who work inside the warehouse are called "inside" employees.
8 The assistant warehouse manager takes over the duties of the warehouse manager during
the latter's absences.
4 When the drivers return too late to turn the money into the office, they deposit it in
specified night depositaries. They are supplied with deposit slips and keys to the night
depositaries for this purpose.
8 Deliveries of about 3 percent of the orders, those to outlying areas, are made by common
carriers.
Matter of Royal Tallow k Soap Co., Inc., 78 N. L. R. B. 834'; Matter of Colonial Stores,
Inc., 78 N. L. It. B. 1254; Matter of New England. Dressed Meat and Wool Company, 81
N. L.' R.' B. 186 ; Matter of National Automatic Fibres, Inc., Findlay Division, 81
N. L. R. B. 1232. Cf. Matter of Deep Rock, Inc., 83 N. L. It. B., No 108.
584 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
case is whether the extent of interchange, alleged by the Employer
to exist between the inside warehouse employees and the drivers, de-
stroys the identity of the truck drivers as a separate bargaining unit.
Although the record reveals that there has been some interchange of
work between these two groups, the amount of interchange has been
insubstantial.` Accordingly, we find that it.is not sufficiently great
to affect the identity of the truck drivers as a separate group.8
We find that all truck drivers and relief truck drivers employed at
the Employer's Camden, New Jersey, warehouse, excluding super-
visors,s' constitute a unit appropriate for'the purposes of collective
bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the
purposes of collective bargaining with the Employer, an election by
secret ballot shall be conducted' as early as possible, but not later
than 30 days from the date of this Direction, under the direction and
supervision of the Regional Director for the Region in which this
case'-*as,"heard,.and subject to Sections 203:61 and 203.62 of National
Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations, among the employees
in the unit found appropriate in paragraph numbered 4, above, who
were employed during the pay-roll period immediately preceding the
date of this Direction of Election, including employees who did not
work during said pay-roll period because they were ill or on vacation
or temporarily laid off, but excluding those employees who have since
quit or been discharged for cause and have not been rehired or rein-
stated prior to the date of the election, and also excluding employees
° The Employer contends that because of vacation periods to be taken by the employees
during the summer, there will be some interchange of employees. The summer, however, is a
slack season, so that it appears improbable that there will be many occasions when drivers
will hade.to.assist in-'the'warehouse. 'The Employer has, hired an eextra,dirter to act as a
relief manfor those drivers on vacation. The Employer's Camden warehouse manager testi-
fied that from September 1948 to June 1949, inside warehousemen have driven trucks about
12 times. The"testimony of the Employer's witnesses as to the actual amount of inter-
change of employees is conflicting. Moreover, it appears that most of the instances. of inter-
change occurred shortly after the Employer moved its. operations from Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, to Camden, when work,in the warehouse was not at peak capacity. When
an extra driver is needed, and the warehouse is operated to full capacity, the Employer
hires a temporary driver to make the deliveries.
8 We have included truck drivers in. a general warehouse unit where the parties have
agreed on this unit, or where no labor organization sought to represent the drivers in a
separate unit. See Matter of Westinghouse Electric Supply Company, 83 N. L. R. B.. No.
19; Matter of Hooper. Machine Works„83,N. L. R. B., No. 143. Matter of Astor Packing
Company, 80 N. L. It. B. 302, cited by the Employer in its brief as support for its position,
is clearly distinguishable•from the instant case. The, truck drivers in. that case regularly
spent 50 percent of their ,fime on. inside,-work. ,
The parties, agree, and..the.record shows, that the warehouse manager and the assistant
,.warehouse manager are supervisors,-and should be excluded from , the unit.
Q-F WHOLESALERS, INC. 585
on strike who are not entitled to reinstatement, to determine whether
or not they desire to be represented, for purposes of collective bar-
gaining, by International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs,
Warehousemen and Helpers of America, Local No. 676, A. F. of L.