S & L Co. of PipestoneDownload PDFNational Labor Relations Board - Board DecisionsNov 13, 195196 N.L.R.B. 1418 (N.L.R.B. 1951) Copy Citation 1418 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD employees with the repair employees without affording to the former group an opportunity, by means of a separate election, to express its desire on the question.5 However, as the Petitioner has failed to es- tablish the necessary showing of interest among the parts and service- departments employees whom it seeks to merge with its present unit of repair department employees, and in view of its apparent lack of desire for an election confined to the latter group alone, we shall dismiss the petition without prejudice to filing a new petition at such time as the required showing of representation can be made. Order IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the petition herein be, and it hereby is, dismissed without prejudice. Iiitnois Cities Water Company, 87 NLRB 109. S & L CO. OF PIPESTONE 1 and AMALGAMATED MEAT CUTTERS AND, BUTCHER WORKMEN OF NORTH AMERICA , AFL, PETITIONER. C"6 No. 18-RC-1202. November 13, 1951 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 Erwin A. Peterson, 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-mem- ber panel [Members Houston, Murdock, and Styles]. Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds : 1. The Employer owns and operates two retail dry goods and apparel stores in Minnesota, the Fergus Falls store herein involved and a store at Pipestone. The Employer is a wholly owned sub- sidiary of Salkin & Linoff, Incorporated, a Delaware corporation with principal offices in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Two of the Em- ployer's 3 directors are also directors of the parent corporation. In addition to ownership and direct operation of a retail store in Wyoming, Salkin & Linoff wholly owns 36 or 37 separately incor- porated retail stores located in several States. The volume of retail sales for the last fiscal year by the Fergus Falls store was approxi- mately $268,000 and by the Pipestone store approximately $214,000. All but approximately 1 percent of these sales was to local customers. The cost of the products sold by these stores amounted to 35 or 40 I The Employer's name is amended to conform to the record. 96 NLRB No. 214. S & L CO. OF PIPESTONE 1419 percent less than the total sales. During the foregoing fiscal period the volume of retail sales for all stores operated by Salkin & Linoff and by its wholly owned subsidiaries exceeded $13,000,000, and the cost of these goods amounted to 35 or 40 percent less than the total sales. Goods purchased by the Employer as well as by the parent corpora- tion's other subsidiaries are procured from the Salkin & Linoff ware- house in Minneapolis. More than 50 percent of these goods is shipped to this warehouse from other States. From these facts we find that the Employer, although it is a separate corporate entity, is an integral part of a multistate enterprise comprising the operations of Salkin & Linoff, Incorporated, and its wholly owned subsidiary corporations. Accordingly, we find, contrary to the Employer's contention, that the Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the Act, and that it will effectuate the policies of the Act to assert jurisdiction in this case.2 2. The labor organization involved claims to represent employees 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 parties are in general agreement as to the propriety of a store-wide unit of employees at the Employer's Fergus Falls store. The Employer, however, would exclude the store's clerical staff, con- sisting of a cashier and one or two clerks, as confidential employees, and the assistant manager as a supervisor. The Employer asserts that if, in the future, there is any confidential labor relations correspond- ence between the Fergus Falls store and the parent corporation, all of the foregoing clerks will handle it. As these employees presently have no contact with such matters, and because their future duties in these respects are highly speculative, we shall not accord them the status of confidential employees and shall include them in the unit. As to the assistant manager, the record shows that this position is now vacant but shortly to be filled. We shall, therefore, make no present deter- mination regarding the supervisory status of the future incumbent of this position. If, upon the filling of this position, the assistant r tan- ager is vested with the authority of a supervisor as defined in the Act, he shall be excluded from the unit. We find that all employees of the Employer's Fergus Falls, Minne- sota, store, including clerical employees, but excluding the manager and all other supervisors as defined in the Act, constitute a unit appro- priate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act. 5. The Employer seasonally employs temporary sales personnel, usually public school students, who work for periods of less than a 2 Belk'8 Department Store of Savannah, Ga., Inc., 93 NLRB 729. 1420 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD month and are not thereafter reemployed. There are two sales clerks who were hired by the Employer on a temporary basis and who did not intend to remain in the Employer's employ. We shall include the seasonal employees and the temporary sales clerks in the unit, but find, in view of their temporary and limited employment, that they are ineligible to vote in the election herein directed. [Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this volume.] DIAMOND BROS. COMPANY and THE FURNITURE, BEDDING AND ALLIED TRADES WORKERS UNION, LOCAL 92, AFFILIATED WITH THE UNITED FURNITURE WORKERS OF AMERICA, CIO, PETITIONER. Case No. 4-RC-1096. November 13, 1951 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 Howard Kowal, 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 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 appropriate unit : The parties agree that the appropriate unit should comprise all production, maintenance, and shipping employees, excluding truck drivers and their helpers, clerical employees, and supervisors as de- fined in the Act. They are in dispute, however, as to the supervisory status of group leaders and assistant group leaders. The Employer is engaged in the manufacture of upholstered living room furniture at its Trenton, New Jersey, plant, which is located in a single, 1-story building. It employs approximately 230 employees. The president of the Employer and the plant manager exercise general ' Upholsterers ' International Union of North America, AFL , which intervened during the course of the hearing , subsequently indicated its desire for and is hereby granted per- mission to withdraw from this proceeding. 96 NLRB No. 201. Copy with citationCopy as parenthetical citation