Schieffelin & Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Dec 15, 1960

129 N.L.R.B. 956 (N.L.R.B. 1960)

`956 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Schieffelin & Co., Wine & Spirit Import Division and Local 1,
Wine, Liquor & Distillery Workers Union of the Distillery Rec-
tifying and Allied Workers International Union of America,
Petitioner
Schieffelin & Co. and Local 815, I .B. of T., Petitioner. Cases
Was. 2-RC-10979 and 2-RC-10998. December 15, 1960
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
Upon petitions duly filed under Section 9(c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, a consolidated hearing was held before I. L. Broadwin,
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 Leedom and Members Fanning and Kimball].
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the
Act.
2. The labor organizations involved claim to represent certain em-
ployees 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 appropriate units :
The Employer is engaged in drug wholesaling, liquor importing,
and pharmaceutical manufacturing. It has four divisions : (1) The
wine and spirit import division, whose employees are engaged solely
in office work connected with the import and sale of alcoholic bever-
ages; (2) the wholesale drug division, whose employees are engaged
solely in office work connected with drug wholesaling; (3) the phar-
maceutical manufacturing division, whose employees are engaged in
both the production and warehousing of pharmaceuticals and also the
attendant office work; and (4) the corporate division, which provides
the other three divisions with services such as bookkeeping, account-
ing, cashier, credit, insurance, and personnel. All the employees are
located at the Employer's New York City plant except some of the
office clericals in the wholesale drug division, who work in a Brooklyn,
New York, plant.
Since 1937, an unaffiliated union, not a party hereto, had represented
in a single unit, all the employees sought in both petitions herein. Its
'Local 804 , International Brotherhood of Teamsters , herein referred to as Local 804,
was permitted to intervene in Case No . 2-RC-10998 on the basis of a showing of interest.
129 NLRB No. 116.
SCHIEFFELIN & CO., WINE & SPIRIT IMPORT DIVISION 957
latest contract, for a 3-year term, has an expiration date of November
30,1960.
The Petitioner in Case No. 2-RC-10979, Local 1, Wine, Liquor and
Distillery Workers Union of the Distillery Rectifying and Allied
Workers International Union of America, herein referred to as Local
1, seeks a unit limited to office clerical employees in the wine and spirit
import division. The Petitioner in Case No. 2-RC-10998, Local 815,
International Brotherhood of Teamsters, herein referred to as Local
815, seeks a single unit of the production, maintenance, and office cler-
ical employees in all four divisions. Local 804 seeks the same overall
unit. At the hearing, the Employer maintained that the overall unit
was appropriate, but, after the hearing notified the Board that it con-
sidered that two units, one of office clericals in the wine and spirit im-
port division, and one of all the other employees, were appropriate.
Local 1 contends that the employees in the wine and spirit import divi-
sion constitute a separate appropriate unit because the wine and spirit
business is subject to State Liquor Authority and Alcoholic Beverage
Control Board regulation. Local 815 and Local 804 contend that the
overall unit is appropriate because of the long bargaining history on
that basis.
The Employer is engaged in both manufacturing and wholesaling
operations. It is Board policy, generally, not to include in a single
unit office clerical and production and maintenance employees in a
manufacturing operation as the interests and working conditions of
the two groups are separate and distinct. This is so whether or not
there is a history of bargaining for both groups if, as here, one of the
parties objects to their inclusion 2 In wholesaling operations, also, it
is customary for the Board to exclude office clerical employees from
wholesale units if any party objects to their inclusion' Local 1 here
seeks a separate office clerical unit. Accordingly, we find that the office
clerical and production and maintenance employees constitute sepa-
rate appropriate units.
It is likewise Board policy to include all of an employer's office
clerical employees in a single unit if they have the same skills, benefits,
and employment interests-" The record shows that the Employer's
office clerical employees in all four divisions possess similar skills and
perform the usual types of office work. They are all hourly paid, re-
ceive the same vacation, sick leave, hospitalization, and other benefits,
and are all hired through a central personnel department. There is
some interchange of employees from one division to another, and there
have been occasional transfers. The wine and spirit import division is
2 Dura Steel Products Company, 109 NLRB 179, 182; The Texas Company, 104
NLRB 197.
a Interstate Supply Company , 117 NLRB 1062, 1064.
Carling Brewing Company, 126 NLRB 347
958 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
in a separate building, but it is next door to the Employer's main
building. Some of the office clerical employees in the wholesale drug
division work in the New York City plant, while others work in the
Brooklyn plant, but this geographical separation does not result in
different employment interests. As the employees in the wine and
spirit import division are merely a segment of the Employer's entire
office force, they do not constitute a separate appropriate unit. We
find, therefore, that a unit of all the office clerical employees in the four
divisions of the Employer is appropriate.
Accordingly, we find that the following groups of employees in the
wine and spirit import, pharmaceutical manufacturing, wholesale
drug, and corporate divisions of the Employer's New York City and
Brooklyn, New York, plants, excluding from each unit warehouse em-
ployees, salesmen,-' watchmen, guards, and all supervisors as defined
in the Act, constitute separate units appropriate for the purpose of
collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act : 8
(a) All office clerical employees; and (b) All production and main-
tenance employees, including doormen.
[Text of Direction of Elections omitted from publication.]
6 Local 815 seeks to exclude warehouse employees and salesmen from the units As no
party objects to such exclusion , and the record indicates that both groups are already
represented , we exclude them.
e At the hearing , Local 1 signified its willingness to participate in an election for any
unit of office employees which the Board finds appropriate . The record , however, is not
clear whether its showing of interest is adequate in the office clerical unit we have found
appropriate , which is larger than the unit it requested Under these circumstances, we
direct the Regional Director to determine whether Local 1 has an adequate showing in
the unit found appropriate.
Local 815 signified its willingness to appear on the ballot in any units the Board finds
appropriate Local 804 , however, expressed a desire to represent the overall unit, but
failed to indicate its desire with regard to participating in elections in two separate units.
Under these circumstances , we shall place the name of Local 804 on the ballots for both
units, subject to its withdrawal , in the event it does not wish to participate in either
election , by notice to the Regional Director within 10 days from the date of this direction.
Local 4, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, AFL-
CIO and The Pulitzer Publishing Company. Case No. 14-CD-
100, December 15, 1960
DECISION AND DETERMINATION OF DISPUTE
This proceeding arises under Section 10(k) of the Act, as amended,
which provides that, "whenever it is charged that any person has
engaged in an unfair labor practice within the meaning of paragraph
4(D) of section 8(b), the Board is empowered and directed to hear
and determine the dispute out of which such unfair labor practice
shall have arisen ....
129 NLRB No. 118.