Safeway Stores, Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Mar 18, 1953

103 N.L.R.B. 758 (N.L.R.B. 1953)

758 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
employees' freedom of choice, such effect was counteracted by the
subsequent assurances given Shiffermiller and Titsworth by Lankford
and Kleinberg. Moreover, in view of these subsequent assurances,
and upon the entire record, we find, unlike the hearing officer, that the
Employer is not chargeable with any rumors in the plant that the
Petitioner's success in the election might lead to elimination of over-
time, and we find that the Employer did not intend to propagate
such rumors.
Upon the entire record, we find that the statements of Lankford
and Kleinberg do not establish any interference by the Employer
with the employees' freedom of choice in the election. Accordingly,
we will not adopt the recommendation of the hearing officer that the
election be set aside.
As we find no merit in any of the Petitioner's objections, and as
the Petitioner failed to secure a majority of the valid ballots cast,
we shall certify the results of the election.
Certification of Results of Election
IT IS HEREBY CERTIFIED that a majority of the valid ballots has not
been cast for Woodworkers Local Union, No. 530, United Brother-
hood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, AFL, and that said labor
organization is not the exclusive representative of the employees of
the Employer, in the unit heretofore found appropriate, within the
meaning of Section 9 (a) of the National Labor Relations Act.
SAFEWAY STORES, INC. and AMALGAMATED MEAT CUTTERS & BUTCHER
WORKMEN OF NORTH AMERICA, AFL, PETITIONER . Cases Nos. 17-
RC-1485. 17-RC-1490, 17-RC-1491, 17-RC-1492, 17-RC-1493.
March 18,1953
Decision and Direction of Elections
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, a hearing was held before Clyde F. Waers, 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 Herzog and Members Houston and
Murdock].
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the Act.
103 NLRB No. 71.
SAFEWAY STORES, INC. 759
2. The labor organization involved claims to represent certain
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 agree as to the general composition of the units at
the Employer's seven stores in the State of Nebraska. They disagree
as to the supervisory status of certain individuals.
The Employer would exclude as supervisors head produce clerks,
head meatcutters, and a category known as clerks in charge. The
stores at Bayard and Bridgeport do not have separate head produce
clerks. None of the other stores appear to have more than one full-
time clerk, the head produce clerk, working in the produce section,
except the Alliance store which has two employees, including the
head produce clerk, working full time in this section. The Alliance
store and one of the Scottsbluff stores use some additional part-time
help in produce on Saturdays. Among other evidence, the Employer
introduced portions of its Store Operating Manual as demonstrating
that the head produce clerks possess supervisory authority. The rec-
ord, however, discloses that procedures outlined in the manual have not
been uniformly applied in the stores involved in this proceeding. Al-
though a head produce clerk testified that once, when requested to
do so, he selected one of the part-time Saturday employees to help
him in produce, the record contains no evidence of the specific exercise
of authority effectively to recommend hire or discharge, or other
supervisory authority. On the entire record, we are satisfied that the
head produce clerks in the stores involved in this proceeding do not
possess supervisory authority within the meaning of the Act. We
shall include them in the units hereinafter found appropriate.
The head meatcutters are in charge of the meat sections which in
the Chadron, Alliance, and Scottsbluff stores contain from 3 to 5 em-
ployees. The Gering store has 1 head meatcutter and 2 part-time meat-
cutters. In the Bayard and Bridgeport stores there appears to be only
one individual employed in the meat section. The record discloses
two instances in which meatcutters were retained upon the recom-
mendation of the head meatcutter, despite the district manager's orig-
inal decision that they should be discharged. We find that the head
meatcutters who are in charge of other employees are supervisors
within the meaning of the Act and we shall exclude them. We shall,
however, include the head meatcutters in those instances where they
are the sole employees in the meat section.'
The clerks in charge are individuals in the grocery section who are
selected to substitute for the location managers when they are out of
i Sears Roebuck & Co., 91 NLRB 1411.
760 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
the store for short periods, as for lunch or other reasons, and regularly
on the location managers' weekly day off. At Alliance and in one of
the Scottsbluff stores, no one individual is regularly designated as
clerk in charge, but this position is filled from among the grocery
employees on a temporary or rotating basis. The Employer does not
contend that such persons are supervisors or should be excluded. Gen-
erally, however, in the other stores a single individual is permanently
appointed to such position. As in the latter stores, the clerks in
charge regularly substitute for, and exercise the authority of, admitted
supervisors, we find that they are supervisors within the meaning of
the Act and shall exclude them.
We find that units at these stores composed of all employees, includ-
ing grocery clerks, meatcutters, employees in the produce section,
checkers, regular part-time employees,2 head produce clerks, head
meatcutters who have no other employees working under them, and
employees selected to act as clerks in charge on a temporary or rotating
basis, but excluding location managers, head meatcutters who are in
charge of one or more meatcutters, individuals designated as clerks
in charge on a regular or permanent basis, and all other supervisors
as defined in the Act, would be appropriate.
In accord with the agreement of the parties as to the scope of such
units, we find that such employees constitute a single unit appropriate
for purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of. Section
9 (b) of the Act, at (1) the Employer's 2 stores in Scottsbluff and 1
in Gering, Nebraska, and additional separate units at the Employer's
single stores located at (2) Bridgeport, (3) Alliance, (4) Bayard
and (5) Chadron, likewise in the State of Nebraska.
[Text of Direction of Elections omitted from publication in this
volume.]
2 Only those employees who work 20 hours a week or more are, in accordance with the
agreement of the parties, eligible to vote.
UNITED TANNERS, INO. and INTERNATIONAL Frm & LEATHER WORKERS
UNION OF THE U. S. AND CANADA, PETITIONER. Case No. 1-RC-
2956. March 18,1953
Decision and Direction of Election
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, hearings were held before George A. Sweeney, hearing
103 NLRB No. 73.