S. S. Pierce Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Apr 14, 1949

82 N.L.R.B. 1260 (N.L.R.B. 1949)

In the Matter of S. S. PIERCE CO., EMPLOYER and DRIVERS AND CHAUF-
FEURS, WAREHOUSEMEN AND HELPERS UNION, LOCAL 829, OF THE
INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS, CHAUFFEURS, WARE-
HOUSEMEN AND HELPERS, A. F. OF L., PETITIONER
Case No.1-RC--780.Decided April 14,1949
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before a hearing
officer of the National Labor Relations Board. 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-man panel.*
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 1
2. The labor organization named below in the Direction of Election
claims to represent employees of the Employer.2
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 :
In its petition, the Petitioner sought to represent a unit of all ware-
house employees, including drivers, but excluding office employees, re-
tail sales employees, watchmen, bakery and cafeteria employees, and
* Chairman Herzog and Members Houston and Gray.
'Matter of May Department Stores Company , 71 N. L. R. B. 1214. The Employer is
engaged in the wholesale and retail sale of food , liquor, tobacco products , perfumes, and
other commodities . In addition to its six stores and warehouse in Boston , Massachusetts,
it has outlets throughout the United States and in certain foreign countries . The Employer
admits it is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the Act.
2 Although Food Service Sales Drivers, Ch4uffeurs , Helpers , and Food Service Ware-
housemen , Local 646, A F. of L., which is affiliated with the same International as the
Petitioner, intervened and participated in the hearing , it has, subsequent to the hearing,
requested the Board for permission to withdraw from this proceeding. This request is
hereby granted.
82 N. L. R. B., No. 147.
1260
S. S. PIERCE CO. 1261
supervisors. At the hearing, the Petitioner requested that another
group of employees, viz, the Operating Order Control group, be ex-
cluded from the unit. The Employer, however, would include the
bakery and cafeteria employees, and the employees in the Operating
Order Control group.
The Employer operates a warehouse and six retail stores in Boston,
Massachusetts. Only the warehouse employees and drivers who work
out of the warehouse are involved in this proceeding. The warehouse
is a seven-story building devoted to operations such as wine assembling
and bottling, tea and coffee packaging and roasting, grocery and con-
fectionery assembling, in addition to the usual warehouse operations
which include shipping, sorting, checking, and general clerical work
in connection with the receipt and shipment of orders. All warehouse
employees are under common supervision. There is no history of col-
lective bargaining between the parties.
The Operating Order Control department is comprised of a number
of classifications : dispatchers, strip sorters, wholesale pricers and
billers, C. O. D. verifiers, duplicators, pinners, numberers, cutters,
stickers, staplers, wholesale editor, typists who also run adding ma-
chines and work as pinners and dispatchers, and messengers. Their
functions are to regulate the flow of orders to the various departments,
check and verify them, sort sales slips, affix labels, and other miscel-
laneous clerical work. The Petitioner contends that these employees
should be excluded as office clerical employees. According to the rec-
ord, these employees have duties similar to those of employees in other
departments whom the Petitioner would include, i. e., employees in
retail and wholesale shipping, receiving, and supply. There is an
over-all intergration between this and the other departments, and a
mutuality of interest among these and the other warehouse employees,
including duties involving comparable skills, comparable pay rates,
and frequent contacts. The Board has frequently included clerks who
work in close contact with other warehouse employees in a unit of ware-
house employees.3 We shall include the Operating Order Control
group employees in the unit.
The next category of employees in dispute are the bakery employees.
The bakery is located on the sixth floor of the warehouse. There are
56 employees in this department, comprising cake bakers, pastry cooks,
bread bakers, cake decorators, food kitchen employees, porters, clean-
ers, washers, and general helpers. The Petitioner would exclude these
employees on the ground that it is under instructions from its Interna-
tional not to organize or represent them because they are allegedly
s Matter of The Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, 73 N. L. R. B . 246; Matter of
Liggett Drug Co., Inc., 73 N. L. R. B. 312.
1262 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
under the jurisdiction of the International Bakers' and Confectionery
Workers Union of America, A. F. L. The record shows that the bak-
ery workers share common supervision, comparable pay rates, and sim-
ilar working conditions with the other warehouse employees. Like the
employees in the wine assembling, tea blending, coffee roasting, and
spirits rectifying departments, they are engaged in a production opera-
tion comparable to the production operations in the other departments
of the warehouse which the Petitioner would include. It does not ap-
pear that any labor organization is presently seeking to organize or
represent the bakery employees, nor does it appear that any labor
organization has ever sought to organize or represent them. The ques-
tion concerning jurisdiction evidently has been confined to the alleged
instructions from the Petitioner's International. The Board has held
that the jurisdictional inability of a union to represent certain em-
ployees is no ground for excluding them if their inclusion in the unit
would otherwise be appropriate, and if no other union is seeking to
organize or represent them.4 We shall include the bakery department
employees in the unit.
The third category of employees in dispute are the cafeteria em-
ployees. The cafeteria at the warehouse is operated solely for the Em-
ployer's warehouse employees. The Petitioner's reason for excluding
them is that "they are not warehousemen or production workers as
such." The record shows that the cafeteria workers share common
supervision and working conditions with the other warehouse employ-
ees, and that there is considerable interchange and physical contact
between them and the employees of the other warehouse departments.
Accordingly, we shall include the cafeteria employees in the unit.
We, therefore, find that all employees employed at the Employer's
Boston, Massachusetts, warehouse, including drivers, bakery em-
ployees, cafeteria employees, and employees in the Operating Order
Control group, but excluding office employees, retail sales employees,
watchmen and guards, and supervisors, 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 pur-
poses 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 was heard,
and subject to Sections 203.61 and 203.62 of National Labor Relations
4 Matter of Montgomery Ward k Co., 70 N. L. R. B. 1302.
S. S. PIERCE CO. 1263
Board Rules and Regulations-Series 5, as amended, among the em-
ployees 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 em-
ployees on strike who are not entitled to reinstatement, to determine
whether or not they desire to be represented, for purposes of collective
bargaining, by Drivers and Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers
Union, Local 829, of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters,
Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers, A. F. of L.