Roux Feed Mills, Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Nov 9, 1949

86 N.L.R.B. 1324 (N.L.R.B. 1949)

In the Matter of Roux FEED MILLS, INC., EMPLOYER and GENERAL
TEAMSTERS, CHAUFFEURS, WAREHOUSEMEN AND HELPERS, LOCAL
No. 261, AFFILIATED WITH INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAM-
STERS, CHAUFFEURS, WAREHOUSEMEN AND HELPERS OF AMERICA,
AFL, PETITIONER
Case No. 6-RC-406.-Decided November 9, 1949
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before W. G. Stuart
Sherman, 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 [Members Reynolds, Murdock 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 Petitioner seeks a unit composed exclusively of driver-sales-
men at the Employer's Sharon, Pennsylvania, plant.1 The Employer
contends that the unit should include all the employees at its Sharon
plant, together with four employees at its Dock Street retail store.2
The Employer, a Pennsylvania corporation with its only office and
plant at Sharon, Pennsylvania, is engaged in the manufacture and
distribution of livestock feeds. It owns and operates 4 retail stores,
'At the time of the hearing the unit sought consisted of 11 driver-salesmen.
2 It appears that the Employer' s sole reason for seeking the inclusion of the employees
at the Dock Street store is the fact that this store is located a half-mile from the Sharon
plant. The store employees are not responsible to the plant, but are under the super-
vision of the store manager. They are miscellaneous workers who spend the majority of
their worktime loading and unloading grain. Neither of them is a driver-salesman. In
view of our findings herein, we deem it unnecessary to pass upon the question of whether
these store employees should be grouped with the plant employees in an over-all unit.
86 N. L. R. B., No. 153.
1324
ROUX FEED MILLS, INC. 1325
3 of which are located in Pennsylvania, and 1 in Ohio.3 There are
about 35 employees at the Employer's Sharon plant and, as already
noted, there are 11 employees in the unit sought. There is no previous
history of collective bargaining.
The record discloses that driver-salesmen perform the major por-
tion of their work separate and apart from plant employees. They
have no duties or functions in common with plant employees. They
are under separate supervision.' Their rate of pay and hours of work
differ from those of plant employees, and they attend special sales
meetings limited to driver-salesmen. We believe that these and other
factors, appearing in the record, establish that driver-salesmen con-
stitute a homogeneous group with work interests divergent from those
of other employees at the Employer's plant. Accordingly, we find
that a unit limited to driver-salesmen is appropriate for collective
bargaining purposes.5
We find that all driver-salesmen at the Employer's Sharon, Penn-
sylvania,.plant, excluding driver-foremen, and all other employees,
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 super-
vision of the Regional Director for the Region in which this case was
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 reinstated
prior to the date of the election, and also excluding employees on strike
who are not entitled to reinstatement, to determine whether or not they
desire to be represented for purposes of collective bargaining, by Gen-
eral Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers, Local No.
261, affiliated with International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauf-
feurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America, AFL.
3 The only retail store involved in this proceeding the Dock Street store, mentioned in
footnote 2, supra.
' Driver-salesmen are supervised by two driver -foremen , whom the record establishes are
supervisors within the meaning of the Act.
5 Deep Rock, Inc., 83 N . L. R. B. 694 , and cases cited therein.