Saticoy Lemon Association

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

May 25, 1942

41 N.L.R.B. 243 (N.L.R.B. 1942)

In the Matter of SATICOY LEMON ASSOCIATION and AGRICULTURAL &
CITRUS 'WORKERS UNION, LOCAL No. 22342, A. F. L.
Case No. R-3364.-Decided May 25, 1942
Jurisdiction : citrus fruit pickers held "agricultural laborers" and, therefore, not
subject to the Act.
Practice and Procedure : petition dismissed
Mr. Ivan G. McDaniel, by Mr. George C. Lyon, of Los Angeles,
Calif., for the Company. 11
Mr. A. H. Petersen and Mr. Jonathan. H. Rowell, of San Fran-
cisco, Calif., for the Union. -
Mr. Raymond J. Heilman, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
ORDER
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon petition duly filed by Agricultural & -,Citrus Workers Union,
Local No. 22342, affiliated with the American Federation of Labor,
herein called the Union, alleging that a question affecting commerce
had arisen concerning the representation of employees of Saticoy
Lemon Association, Saticoy, California, herein' called the Company,
the National Labor Relations Board provided for an appropriate
hearing upon due notice before Richard A. Perkins, Trial Examiner.
Said hearing was held at Los Angeles, California, on November 27
and 28 and December 5, 1941. The Company and the Union ap-
peared, participated, and were afforded full opportunity to be heard,
to examine aid cross-examine witnesses, and to introduce evidence
bearing on the issues. The Trial Examiner's rulings made at the
hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following:,
FINDINGS OF FACT
I
I. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY -
Saticoy Lemon Association is a non-profit corporation, organized
tinder the Cooperative Marketing Association Laws of the State
41 N L. R. B., No. 54
243
244 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
of California and having its principal office at Saticoy, Ventura
County, California. Its membership consists of 80 lemon growers.
of Ventura County.
The Company, together with other similar local associations, is a
member of the Ventura County Citrus Exchange, Jierein called the
Ventura District Exchange, 1 of 25 district exchanges throughout
California, each of which is a non-profit corporation organized under
the Cooperative Marketing Association Laws of that State, with its
board of directors made up of 1 representative from every member
association. All district exchanges, including that of ' which the
Company is a member, are in turn affiliated with the California
Fruit Growers Exchange, herein called the Central Exchange, a non-
profit corporation also organized under the Cooperative Marketing
Association Laws of the State of California. Pursuant to a contract
of the Company and the Ventura District Exchange, and between
the latter and the Central Exchange, all the fruit controlled by the
Company is marketed through the Ventura District Exchange and
the Central Exchange. The fruit grown by individual members of
the Company is delivered by them to the Company's, packing house.
The Company packs the fruit for shipment and loads it into railroad
cars. All shipments are made in the name of the Central Exchange
as both consignor and consignee and the bills of lading are delivered
to the Central Exchange. The Central Exchange has its principal
office in Los Angeles, California, 55 district -offices in the United
States and Canada, and offices in London, England, Honolulu,
Hawaii, and Manila, Philippine Islands.
For the crop season 1938-39, the Company received for marketing
from growers 14,580 tons of lemons, of which 7,671.32 tons were
shipped outside California and to foreign countries. The quantity
of lemons received by the Company and marketed in domestic and
foreign commerce in the crop seasons of 1939-40 and 1940-41 were
substantially the same as in 1938-39.
This proceeding is concerned with those employees of the Company
,ivho are engaged in picking lemons.
Lemon growers who are members of the Company employ their
own help to irrigate, fertilize, and cultivate their orchards, but de-
pend upon the Company to conduct the work of picking.' The
grower-member arranges with the Company in advance at what
time the picking of the lemon' crop shall'-be done, and at the time
fixed the necessary pickers are furnished at the orchard by the Com-
' By special permission of the Company a small percentage of the shareholders of
the Company (less than 5 percent) handle their picking themselves These generally
are large growers, who hue their own picking crews, or small growers, who require
little or no outside help Pickers also are furnished by the Company for non -member
growers who have contracted to deliver lemons to it.
SATICOY LEMON ASSOCIATION 245
pany until the work is completed. The Company operates trucks,
in which it transports the pickers to and from the orchards .2 ]a
-the orchards the pickers are supervised by foremen, all of whom
are employees of the Company. A field foreman, who is in full
charge, has under him a number of "picker foremen," each-of whore
works with and supervises a crew of from 20 to 50 pickers.3 The
crew foreman assigns each picker to a row or a group of trees. The
picker carries a picking bag on one shoulder, a ring in one hand,
and a clipper -in the, other. Lemons which can be passed through
the ring are not picked, in the absence of special instructions to the
-contrary. The picker, beginning at the ,lowest branch, and using a,
ladder when clipping -near the top of the tree, clips the stems of
the lemons and places the lemons in the bag. When the bag is
filled it is emptied by the picker into a field box. Thereafter, the
boxes containing lemons are transported to the Company's packing
house by the grower or someone he has engaged for this purpose.
The lemon crop is somewhat seasonal. March and April usually
are the heaviest months, and October, November, and December are
the lightest. The number of pickers employed by the Company
reaches a maximum of about 250 and falls to a minimum of 23.
The Company contends that the employees engaged in picking
lemons are "agricultural laborers" within the meaning of Section 2
(3), of the National Labor Relations Act and are, therefore, exempt
from the operation of the Act. The Union contends, on the other,
hand, that these employees of the Company are not "agricultural la-'
'borers" within the meaning of the Act because their work, like that
.of persons employed by the Company at its packing house, is' more
closely allied with the process of industrialized marketing, in which
the Company and the organizations with which it is affiliated are
engaged, than with that of growing and cultivation, in which the
individual grower is engaged. The Union urges, therefore, that
our decision in Matter of North Whittier Heights Citrus Association
and Citrus Packing House Workers Union, Local No. 21091,4 is here
applicable. In support of its contention, the Union points out that
under the contracts which the Company has with its grower-members
the Company acquires complete control and dominion over the lemon
'Since 1927 the Company has maintained a camp in which houses are rented to
some but not all of its pickers . A majority of them live in the camp. The pickers
are provided by the Company ' with equipment and tools , which they retain in their
possession until the close of the period of their employment.
3 Although the grower frequently is present in the orchard and suggestions or criti-
cisms which he may make to a field foreman or picker foreman generally are followed,
it is apparent from the record that this is done as a matter of courtesy and accommodation.
410 N L R B , 1269 , enforced in , North Whittier Heights Citrus Association v National
Labor Relations Board, 109 F. ( 2d) 76 ( C. C. A. 9 , 1940 ) cert den. 310 U S . 632 (1940)
reh den 311 U S. 724 (1940).
246 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
crop before the picking begins- and thereafter; "that the pickers are
employed and supervised by the Company, not by the growers in
whose orchards they work; and that the Company and its grower-
members recognize that picking, like subsequent processes, is. inci-
dental to marketing ° The Union argues further that under the, test
of the absence or presence of the need for collective bargaining laid
clown by the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in
North Whittier Heights Citrus Association v. National Labor Rela-
tions Board,7 the employees of the Company are not "agricultural
laborers" within the meaning of the Act, since the need of these
employees for collective bargaining is fully as great as that of the
packing house employees held covered by the Act in that case.
The exclusions of certain groups in Section 2 (3) of the Act are
occupational exclusions, dependent upon the nature of the work
performed by the employees involved. In construing the term "agri-
cultural laborer" in Section 2 (3) we have found that the exclusion did
not cover persons employed as lettuce packers who performed no
work in the fields," persons who were employed solely as fruit packers
in a packing house operated by a cooperative fruit growers associa-
tion,9 or employees in a walnut shelling plant who had no contact with
the grower or with the farms on which the walnuts were grown.10
We found, in these cases, that the employees involved were engaged
The contracts ,' called "Growers' Agreements ," provide that the grower "sells and
conveys and agrees to deliver " and the Company "agrees to purchase for the account
of and as the common agent of its Growers , all of the lemons now grown, and to be
hereinafter grown" The . contracts also provide that "Inasmuch as" the Company "may
undertake to do and arrange to have done the fumigating , spraying , pruning, picking.
and other orchard work ," the Company "will not be liable for any damage" thereby
occasioned "or by failure to get [the ] crop of fruit at any particular time ," and further
that in case the grower "shall fail, refuse, or delay to pick and deliver . fruit" to the
Company "within 5 days atter demand therefor," the Company "shall have the right; at
its option , at any time . to enter into the possession of his said promises and to pick,
his said fruit . . . and pack , sell, and market the same
0 The "Growers' Agreements" provide that the " picking , packing,- grading , classifying,
handling, selling, and marketing " are to be done in accordance with whatever regulations
the Company has adopted or may adopt , that the Company is expressly authorized "to
incur all necessary and proper expenses incident to the picking , receiving, packing, and
marketing , to' be charged against the growers , and that " in the term `packing ' is included
any charge for picking ." The Company in letters to its grower -members has maintained
that it has the right of "control of the fruit as the agent of the grower, including the
right to pick, receive, wash , grade, and pack the same."
i See footnote 4, supra, 109 F ( 2d) at 80.
8 Matter of American Fruit Growers, Inc, et al and Fruit & Vegetable Workers Sub-
Local of #191 , UCAP,AWA, C. 1 0, 10 N. L R B 316; Matter of Grower -Shipper Vege-
table Association of Central California, and Fruit and Vegetable Workers; Union of Cal-
ifornia, No 18211, 'et al , 15 N L R B 322, enf 'd in N. L R B v Grower -Shipper Vege-
table Ass'n of Central California, et al, 122 F ( 2d) 368 (C'. C A. 9).
9 Matter of North Whittier Heights Citrus Association and Citrus Packing House Workers
Union, Local No. 21090, 10 N. L. R. B. 1269, enf 'd in North, Whittier Heights Citrus Ass'n V.
N. L R B., 109 F (2d) 76 (C. C. A. 9)
10 Matter of California Walnut Growers Association and Walnut Workers Union, Local 92•
of United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing and Allied Workers of America, 18 N. L. R B.
493
i
SATICOY LEMON' ASSOCIATION 247
in clearly commercial or industrial work, despite the fact that the
business of some of the employers was in part agricultural.
We are now confronted with the question whether employees of
an agricultural marketing association, engaged in the picking of
lemons as described above, fall within the definition of "agricultural
laborers." As the facts recited above disclose, the lemon pickers are
engaged at the growers` orchards in the harvesting of lemons still on
the trees. We are of the opinion that while the Company is gen-
erally engaged in both commercial and agricultural operations, the
employees here involved are agricultural laborers within the meaning
of the Act.
We recognize that the employees here involved are in serious need
of collective bargaining,11 and that, in view of the large-scale opera-
tions of the respondent, a labor dispute will burden and obstruct
commerce. The provisions of Section 2 (3) of the Act are plain,
however, that the exclusions therein are employee exclusions.. We
are of the opinion, moreover, that the controlling fact in construing
the term "agricultural laborer" is the essential character of the work
performed, which, as we have stated, is here primarily connected with
the harvesting of lemon crops .12 We are accordingly constrained to
find that the exclusion of "agricultural laborers" in Section 2 (3)
of the Act applies to the employees here involved and that the Board,
therefore, is without jurisdiction to entertain the petition filed in
this proceeding.13 -
ORDER
Upon the basis of the above findings of fact and pursuant to Sec-
tion 2 (3) and 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act, the National
Labor Relations Board hereby orders that the petition for investiga-
tion and certification of representatives of employees of Saticoy
Lemon Association, Saticoy, California, filed by Agricultural & Citrus
Workers Union, Local No. 22342, be, and it hereby is, dismissed.
n See Repoit of U. S. Senate Committee on Education and Labor ( No 1150 ) pp 7, 14,
33, 37-38
12 It is to be noted that the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in disposing
of the North Whtittser Heights case, indicated clearly that its decision was concerned solely
with packing house-employees and was not to be construed as applicable to those engaged
in picking In this connection , the Court stated ( Supra, footnote 4, 109 F. (2d) at 81),
"It should " ) * * be understood that this proceeding concerns packing house workers
and packing house work solely and that there are here no facts as to picking the fruit
nor as to any treatment of the orchard It appears from the stipulation of facts that
petitioner to some extent does handle the picking , spraying , fertilizing , etc., and that
some of the workers in the packing house are at times employed by the petitioner to do
such work However, the employment for packing house work and for orchard work
are separate and apart"
14 For the same reasons as herein stated , the Board in Matter of Stark Brothers Nur-
series and Orchards Company and Local Industrial Union, No 1129, affiliated with the
C 1 0, 40 N L. R B 1243, held ceitam nursery workers to be "agricultural laborers"