R. L. Polk and Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Sep 27, 1957

118 N.L.R.B. 1454 (N.L.R.B. 1957)

1454 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
taken to have indicated their desire to be unrepresented by any labor
organization appearing on the ballot, and the Regional Director will
issue a certification of results of election to that effect.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.]
R. L. Polk and Company and Office Employees International
Union , AFL-CIO, Petitioner . Case No. 9-RC-3149. September
27,1957
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 Harry D. Campodonico,
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, [Chairman Leedom and Members Murdock and Rodgers].
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 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 Petitioner seeks a unit confined to employees at the Em-
ployer's plant at 400 Pike Street, Cincinnati, Ohio.
The Intervenor contends that the unit sought is too limited in scope
and that the only appropriate unit must also include the employees of
the Williams Directory Company, located in the same city.2
The Employer is engaged in the business of direct mail advertising,
sales and market analysis, compilation of mailing lists, and publish-
ing of city directories, maintaining branches in various cities. Its op-
erations are divided into five divisions : bankers' directory, motor list,,
motor statistical, direct mail advertising, and the directory divisions.
At the Pike Street plant the Employer maintains a motor list division
i The Intervenor , Cincinnati Printing Specialties and Paper Products Union No, 624,.'
International Printing Pressmen and Assistants ' Union of North America , AFL-CIO, which,
we find on the record is a labor organization within the meaning of the Act, was per
mitted to intervene at the hearing upon a showing of interest.
'The Intervenor does not seek to represent the larger unit, but contends that the peti
tion should be dismissed on the ground that it is based upon extent of organization alone.
However, it wishes to participate in the election if the Board should find appropriate the_
unit sought by the Petitioner.
118 NLRB No. 196.
R. L. POLK AND COMPANY 1455
and a motor statistical division, which compile statistical lists that
are used by other divisions of the Employer and are also sold to other
companies.
In 1950, the Board directed an election in a unit of employees at the
Pike Street plant; 3 no bargaining history resulted from that election.
Subsequent to that election, the Employer established Williams Di-
rectory Company, a wholly owned subsidiary having the same officers.
A common labor relations policy is maintained by the Employer for
both the Williams and Pike Street plants as well as its other plants,
and the terms and working conditions of the employees at the Pike
Street plant and Williams are the same. However, Williams is a
part of the Employer's directory division, publishing city telephone
directories, an entirely different operation. The 2 divisions at the
Pike Street plant and the Williams division have their own separate
local managers who report to company headquarters in Detroit, Mich-
igan; the employees at the 2 plants are separately supervised and
there is no interchange, or contact, among the employees of the 2 plants.
Since the prior decision, the nature of the work at the Pike Street plant
has remained unchanged, and no one seeks to represent the larger
two-plant unit. In view of the foregoing, and the record as a whole,
we find that a unit limited to the Pike Street plant is appropriate.
There remains for disposition the unit placement of the "home-
workers," whom the Petitioner would exclude while the Employer and
the Intervenor take no position on this issue. These employees per-
form the same work as the other employees in the unit, but work at
home, reporting at the plant about once a week to hand in their finished
work and receive new assignments. Although they receive the same
rate of pay as the other employees, they do not receive holiday, vaca-
tion, insurance, and other benefits accorded the regular employees.
In the previous case involving the instant plant,4 the Board excluded
the homeworkers because their interests and conditions of employment
were diverse from those of the other employees. Since that time there
has been no change in the status of the homeworkers. We shall there-
fore adhere to the Board's previous decision and exclude them from
the unit.
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 employees at the Employer's 400 Pike Street, Cincinnati, Ohio,
plant, excluding homeworkers, general office employees, professional
and confidential employees, guards, and supervisors as defined in the
Act.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.]
See R. L. Polk & Co., 91 NLRB 443.
s Id. at 445.