Safeway Stores, Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Mar 21, 1950

88 N.L.R.B. 1335 (N.L.R.B. 1950)

In the Matter of SAFEWAY STORES , INC., EMPLOYER and RETAIL CLERKS
UNION, LOCAL No. 1612, AFL, PETITIONER
Case No. 36-RC-373.-Decided March 01, 1950
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before R. J. Wiener,
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 Styles].
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
2. The labor organizations involved claim to represent certain
employees of the Employer.
3. Questions affecting commerce exist concerning the representation
of employees of the Employer within the meaning of Section 9 (c) (1)
and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.3
4. The Petitioner seeks a single unit of all retail store employees at
the Employer's Pendleton and Hermiston, Oregon, grocery stores,
' The Petitioner opposed the request of International Brotherhood of Teamsters , Chauf-
feurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America, Local 900 , A. F. of L., to intervene in this
proceeding, challenging the showing of the Intervenor. We have frequently held that the
showing of interest is an administrative matter for determination by the Board and is not
subject to collateral attack. Penick & Ford ., Inc., 86 NLRB ; 659 Stokely Foods,
Inc., 78 NLRB 842.
7 In its motion to dismiss , the Intervenor contends that the Employer is not engaged in
commerce within the meaning of the Act, or if it is, that it would not effectuate the policy
of the Act to exercise jurisdiction because its relationship to commerce is remote. We do
not agree . Where an employer operates branches on a multi-State basis, even though its
business is local in character , the Board has, in order best to effectuate the purposes of the
Act, taken jurisdiction in cases involving either its operations as a whole or any appro-
priate administrative section thereof . Mills Automatic Merchanding Corp ., 86 NLRB
1096; The Davey Tree Expert Company, Inc ., 81 NLRB 1161 . We have in the past exer-
cised jurisdiction over the Employer , Safeway Stores , Inc., 81 NLRB 387.
3 The timely notice of the Intervenor ' s desire to open its contract covering the Pendleton
store employees prevented the automatic renewal of that contract . The Intervenor has no,
contract with the Employer covering the Hermiston store employees.
88 NLRB No. 228.
1335
1336 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
excluding meatcutters,4 truck drivers,5 office and clerical employees,
guards, managers, and other supervisors. The Intervenor contends
that the unit proposed is inappropriate, alleging the existence of a
multiemployer unit composed of all retail food store employers in
the Pendleton area, and identical contracts with the Pendleton area
employers. We find no evidence to support the Intervenor's conten-
tions.s The Employer takes no position.
The Employer's district in which Pendleton and Hermiston are
located comprises several stores in Oregon and one in Washington.
The next nearest store to Pendleton or Hermiston in the same district
is located at La Grande, Oregon, 55 miles from Pendleton and 83 miles
from Hermiston. Hermiston and Pendleton are 28 miles apart. There
are infrequent temporary transfers of employees between the Hermis-
ton and Pendleton stores. These assignments range in time from 1 day
to 1 week. During the last year there have been two permanent
transfers from the Hermiston store to the Pendleton store and two
from the Pendleton store to the Hermiston store.
The two stores sought by the Petitioner do not comprise a complete
geographical or administrative subdivision of the Employer's opera-
tions, nor do they appear to delineate an appropriate bargaining unit
on any other basis.' We do find, however, that the employees in each
store may constitute a separate appropriate unit.
We find that all retail store employees at the Employer's Pendleton
and Hermiston, Oregon, grocery stores, respectively, excluding meat-
cutters, truck drivers, office and clerical employees, guards, managers,
and other supervisors, constitute separate units appropriate for the
purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b)
of the Act.
DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the pur-
poses of collective bargaining with the Employer, separate elections
by secret ballot shall be conducted as early as possible, but not later
• * The meatcutters are presently represented by Amalgamated Meatcutters and Butcher
Workmen of North America, AFL. A single contract includes the Employer's meatcutters
at both the Hermiston and Pendleton stores.
6 The truck drivers are presently represented by Joint Council of Teamsters No. 37,
International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America,
AFL.
8In the case of C. H. Sigman, L. V. Sigman, B. F. Sigman, J. 0. Crane, If. F. Cunning-
ham, and C. if. Chambers, d/b/a Sigman Food Stores, 88 NLRB 1332, a parallel case
issued on this date, a comparison of the contracts held by the two employers showed that
the contracts were not identical.
' The petitioner presently represents the employees at some, but not all, of the Employer's
stores within the District. A single contract with a local of the Petitioner's _International
covers both the Bend and Redmond, Oregon, stores.
8 American Stores Company, 82 NLRB 882 ; Koppers Stores, 73 NLRB 504.
SAFEWAY STORES, INC. 1337
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 Board Rules and Regulations, among the employees in the
units described below, who were employed during the payroll period
immediately preceding the date of this Direction of Elections, in-
cluding employees who did not work during said payroll period be-
cause 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 elections,
and also excluding employees on strike who are not entitled to rein-
statement, to determine :
(a) Whether Pendleton store employees in the unit found appro-
priate in paragraph 4, above, desire to be represented, for the purposes
of collective bargaining, by Retail Clerks Union, Local No. 1612, AFL,
or by International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Ware-
housemen and Helpers of America, Local 900, A. F. of L., or by
neither; and
(b) Whether or not Hermiston store employees in the unit found
appropriate in paragraph 4, above, desire to be represented, for the
purposes of collective bargaining, by Retail Clerks Union, Local No.
1612, AFL.9
9 No provision is made for the participation of Local 900, International Brotherhood of
Teamsters , Chauffeurs , Warehousemen and Helpers of America, AFL, in the election directed
among employees at the Hermiston store because this organization has never represented the
employees at the Hermiston store, nor did it submit any showing of representation among
them.