Safeway Stores, Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Sep 15, 1969

178 N.L.R.B. 412 (N.L.R.B. 1969)

412 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Safeway Stores, Incorporated ' and Bakery and
Confectionery Workers International Union of
America , Local 345, International Brotherhood of
Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and
Helpers of America,' Petitioner . Case 31-RC-928
September 15, 1969
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF
ELECTION
BY CHAIRMAN MCCULLOCH AND MEMBERS
FANNING AND JENKINS
On September 20, 1968, Bakery and
Confectionery Workers International Union of
America, Local 345, International Brotherhood of
Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers
of America, herein called the Petitioner, filed with
Region 31 of the National Labor Relations Board a
Petition for Certification of Representatives
pursuant to Section 9(c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, as amended. Subsequently, a hearing
was held before Norman H. Greer, Hearing Officer,
for the purpose of taking testimony with respect to
the issues raised by the petition. Following the
hearing and pursuant to Section 102.67 of the
National Labor Relations Board Rules and
Regulations and Statements of Procedure, Series 8,
as amended, this case was transferred to the
National Labor Relations Board in Washington,
D.C., for decision Briefs have been timely filed by
the Employer, the Petitioner, and the Intervenor.'
Pursuant to Section 3(b) of the National Labor
Relations Act, as amended, the National Labor
Relations Board has delegated its powers in
connection with this case to a three-member panel.
The Board has reviewed the Hearing Officer's
rulings made at the hearing and finds they are free
from prejudicial error. The rulings are hereby
affirmed
Upon the entire record in this case, including the
briefs of the parties. the Board finds:
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within
the meaning of the Act and it will effectuate the
purposes of the Act to assert jurisdiction herein.
2. The labor organizations involved claim to
represent certain employees of the Employer.
3. A question affecting commerce exists
concerning representation of certain employees of
the Employer within the meaning of Sections 9(c)(1)
and 2(6) and (7) of the Act for the following
reasons:
The Petitioner seeks a craft severance election for
all experienced and inexperienced bakers employed
by the in-store bakeries maintained by the Employer
in four of its supermarkets located in the Las Vegas.
Nevada, area. At the time of the hearing herein,
there were about seven such bakers being sought by
the Petitioner for its prospective bargaining unit.; As
already stated, these bakers are currently
representated by the Intervenor under the terms of a
labor agreement effective from December 1, 1965,
until November 30, 1970.° This contract also covers
bakery clerks, and employees in the grocery,
produce, and liquor departments, and snackbar. The
meat department employees are separately
represented by the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and
Butcher Workmen of North America, AFL-CIO,
which is not a party to this proceeding.
The Petitioner contends that the bakers in
question are journeymen bakers whom it
traditionally represents and who perform skilled
duties and constitute a craft unit entitled to
severance under the criteria set forth in
Mallinckrodt Chemical Works, Uranium Division,
162 NLRB 387. The Employer and the Intervenor
urge, inter alia, that a proper construction of our
Mallinckrodt decision dictates the dismissal of this
petition because the bakers sought do not have
special interests which separate them from the
interests of other employees represented by the
Intervenor, are now being effectively represented by
the Retail Clerks, and the severance of the bakers
would seriously affect the stability of the existing
pattern of industrial relations. For the reasons
discussed below, we agree with the Petitioner that
the in-store bakers constitute an appropriate craft
unit and that the petition for their severance from
the existing unit represented by the Intervenor may
be properly entertained under the Mallinckrodt
criteria.
The in-store bakers sought to be represented by
the Petitioner work in retail food supermarkets
which are part of the Employer's district
organization comprising 7 stores in Nevada and 2
stores in California. This district is one of the 17
districts within the Employer's Southern California
Division, which comprises over 231 retail food
markets. Within each of the above stores the
Employer generally has a grocery department, a
produce department, snackbar, liquor department,
in-store bakery. and meat department, all under the
supervision of the store manager.
The Employer recognized the Intervenor as the
collective-bargaining agent for the bakers sought
herein when it opened its first in-store bakery in the
Las Vegas area in 1961. This was done on the basis
of a card check. As the three other in-store bakeries
were later opened, the bakers were covered by the
existing contract. When the in-store bakeries were
first established, they were designed to produce
baked goods from frozen doughs shipped from the
'Names appear as corrected at the hearing
'Retail Clerks International Association , Local No 1536 , AFLCIO,
herein referred to as Intervenor or Retail Clerks, was permitted to
intervene at the hearing on the basis its bargaining agreement with the
Employer covers the employees sought in the petition.
'The parties stipulated that bakery department managers, also
sometimes called head bakers, be excluded from the unit as supervisors
'The parties stipulated that this agreement does not constitute a bar to
the petition.
178 NLRBNo.64
SAFEWAY STORES. INC
Employer's wholesale bakery plant. As the Board
majority noted in Safeway Stores, Incorporated, 137
NLRB 1741, involving stores in the Los Angeles
area, the in-store bakers in 1961 did not exercise the
"full gamut of skills usually associated with the
bakers' trade, generally did not work from recipes,
and did not measure and mix the basic ingredients."
In addition to their baking functions, and as part of
their regular duties, the in-store bakers also spent
about 25 percent of their time in selling areas of the
bakery department and had regular contacts with
customers. Furthermore, all store employees worked
under direct supervision of the store manager.
Accordingly, the Board majority found that the
bakers in question at that time neither were skilled
craftsmen, nor did they otherwise enjoy a separate
community of interests from other store employees.`
In 1963, the Employer converted its in-store
bakeries to full-fledged hand bake shops capable of
producing about 95 percent of their vendible items
from primary ingredients. and the duties and skill
requirements of bakers have markedly changed. The
in-store bakers now are required to be able to, and
do, mix and bake ingredients. according to recipes
prepared by the Employer to produce breads,pastrics
and other baked goods: work from raw products
to produce finished materials: decorate cakes, etc.
Among the some 70 different types of products
baked are bread, cake, doughnuts, Danish pastry,
candies. sweet buns, cookies, and cupcakes.
Although the bakers generally use the Employer's
formulas, which must be carefully followed as to
control and quality, some products, such as salt-free
bread, have been devised by the bakers from their
own knowledge. No frozen dough is any longer
supplied or used. The bakers work at ovens, mixers,
and fryers, and use rolling pins, bench scrapers.
spatulas, spoons, decorating bags and tubes, and
other tools of skilled journeymen bakers. Testimony
adduced at the hearing indicated that a fully trained
baker requires several years on-the-lob training. The
Employer has an established apprenticeship training
program for bakers which last 2 years. At the end
of the 2-year training period, the inexperienced
bakers are advanced to the experienced baker
classification.
Each of the in-store bakeries is headed by a
bakery department manager who supervises bakers
and the bakery sales clerks who sell the baked
goods.' In each store the bakeshop is part of the
back store area not frequented by the public. The
bakery sales area is part of the supermarket open to
the public and is adjacent to the bakeshop area. The
bakery sales clerks wrap, package and box the
various products baked, as an adjunct to displaying
and selling it in the sales area. While the record
shows that the bakery clerks spend considerable
time in the bakery shop area. the bakery clerks
`Member fanning dissented in his view, the experience and job duties of
that group of bakers made them appropriate as a craft unit, a
departmental unit, or, in that case, a residual unit
413
perform no baking functions and their work is
entirely related to sales. Similarly, the bakers have
only rare contact with customers. When no bakery
sales clerks are on duty, sales counters are serviced
by snackbar or other sales clerks from other
departments.
Although the bakers receive the same fringe
benefits provided other employees in the
Intervenor's bargaining unit , the bakers perform
their duties at unusual hours, including the very
early morning hours while the sales part of the
market is closed at most of the stores Bakers and
other store employees have separate and distinct
lines of seniority.
From the above, and on the basis of the entire
record, we are satisfied that the bakers sought
herein by the Petitioner are skilled journeymen
performing the skills of their craft and have a
community of interest sufficiently separate and
distinct from that of other employees to constitute
them a separate appropriate unit, if they so desire.
Further, although they have heretofore been
included in a broader unit there has been only a
short bargaining history and when the Employer
changed its method of baking operations in 1963
their separate community of interest distinguishing
them from other employees in the bargaining unit
became substantial and apparent.'
Moreover, we find insufficient basis to support the
contentions of the Employer and the Intervenor that
a severance of the proposed unit of in-store bakers
would be disruptive of the pattern of bargaining or
otherwise seriously affect the stability of industrial
relations. The Petitioner is a labor organization
which has traditionally represented units of
journey men bakers and, in fact. currently represents
the in-store bakers of another employer in 3 stores
in this same Las Vegas area. Moreover, the record
further shows that retail supermarkets of other
employers in Southern California have contracts
with affiliates of the Petitioner covering in-store
bakers. and that the Petitioner's affiliates also
represents in-store bakers in some of the Employer's
stores located in cities in Northern California and in
certain instances in Oregon. Significantly, we note
that the Employer's meat department employees are
separately represented, and that the parties make no
contention that such separate representation has
been disruptne of the stability of labor relations.
In view of the foregoing. we conclude that the
Petitioner's proposed unit constitutes an identifiable
group of craft bakers who are engaged in the skills
of their trade and who perform functions that arc
different from and not integrated with those of other
in-store employees. We further conclude that the
bargaining history of their inclusion in the broader
unit does not militate against their severance,
particularly in view of the recent changes in the
The Petitioner is not seeking to represent the bakery sales clerks
'See Jay Kay Metal Specialities Corp. 163 Ni RB 719. Buddy L
Corp , 167 NLRB No 113, cf Pervel Industries 163 NLRB 1037
414 DECISIONS OF NATION AL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Employer's method of baking and the changed job
requirements. Additionally, it appears to us that the
history and pattern of collective bargaining in the
industry is inconclusive, favoring neither the
Petitioner' s nor the Intervenors position herein, and
that it cannot be found that the establishment of a
separate unit of in-store bakers would disturb
industrial stability insofar as the Employer's labor
relations are concerned. In the circumstances, we
conclude that the experienced and inexperienced
bakers employed by the in-store bakeries maintained
by the Employer in four of its supermarkets located
in the Las Vegas, Nevada, area may constitute a
separate unit appropriate for purposes of collective
bargaining within the meaning of Section 9(b) of the
Act, if they so desire, and that an election among
the employees in this voting group should be held to
determine their wishes.
Accordingly, we shall make no final unit finding,
at this time, but, as provided below, shall direct an
election among those in the following voting group:
All experienced bakers and inexperienced
bakers employed
by
the Employer in its
operations in Las Vegas and Henderson, Nevada;
excluding all other employees and all supervisors
as defined in the Act.
If a majority of the employees in the voting group
vote in favor of Bakery and Confectionery Workers
International Union of America, Local 345,
International Brotherhood of Teamsters,
Chauffeurs. Warehousemen and Helpers of
America, they will constitute an appropriate unit
and an appropriate certification will issue. If they
vote in favor of Retail Clerks International
Association, Local No. 1536, AFL-CIO, they will
remain part of the existing unit and a Certification
of Results will issue.
[Direction of Elections omitted from publication.
in order to assure that all eligible voters may have the opportunity to
be informed of the issues in the exercise of their statutory right to vote, all
parties to the election should have access to a list of voters and their
addresses which may be used to communicate with them Excelsior
Underwear Inc, 156 NLRB 1236, N L R B v Wyman-Gordon
Company. 394 U S 759 Accordingly , it is hereby directed that an election
eligibility list , containing the names and addresses of all the eligible voters,
must be filed by the hmployer with the Regional Director for Region 31
within 7 days of the date of this Decision and Direction of Election. The
Regional Director shall make the list available to all parties to the
election No extension of time to file this list shall be granted by the
Regional Director except in extraordinary circumstances Failure to
comply with this requirement shall be grounds for setting aside the election
whenever proper objections are filed