Sears, Roebuck and Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Nov 24, 1971

194 N.L.R.B. 321 (N.L.R.B. 1971)

SEARS, ROEBUCK AND CO. 321
Sears, Roebuck and Co. and Local Union 880, Sign
Display and Allied Workers , AFL-CIO, Petitioner.
Case 18-RC-8702
November 24, 1971
DECISION AND ORDER
BY 'MEMBERS FANNING, JENKINS, AND
KENNEDY
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9(c) of the
National Labor Relations Act, as amended, a hearing
was held before Hearing Officer Robert R. Martin-
son. 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 for decision. Briefs
were timely filed by the Employer and Petitioner.
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the
National Labor Relations Act, as amended, the
National Labor Relations Board has delegated its
authority in this case to a three-member panel.
The Board has reviewed the Hearing Officer's
rulings made at the hearing and finds that they are
free from prejudicial error. They are hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in this case, 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 organization involved claims to
represent certain employees of the Employer.
3. No question affecting commerce exists concern-
ing the representation of certain employees of the
Employer within the meaning of Section 9(c)(1) and
Section 2(6) and (7) of the Act
The Employer is a New York corporation engaged
in retail sales of merchandise and services in retail
outlets throughout the United States. Employer's
principal office is located in Chicago, Illinois.
The instant proceeding involves the Employer's
Brookdale Boulevard store located in Minneapolis,
Minnesota. The Employer has approximately 73 full-
time and 155 part-time nonselling employees and
approximately 122 full-time and 272 part-time selling
employees.
The Petitioner seeks to represent all display depart-
ment employees at the above location. There are eight
employees involved; included in this number are five
full-time display employees, one part-time display
employee, one employee designated as a display
helper, and one sign shop employee. These employees
are supervised by the display sales manager located in
the display shop on the second floor of the Brookdale
store.
The Petitioner contends that the employees sought
have a sufficient community of interest to warrant
their inclusion in a separate unit. More specifically,
Petitioner argues that the display employees are
supervised separately; that their work requires certain
artistic ability; that they have no substantial contact
with other employees and that they have different
conditions of employment.
The Employer asserts that sales employees perform
functions similar to those performed by the display
employees. Employer states that the unit sought is an
"arbitrary segmentation of the appropriate unit
because Petitioner has failed to recognize the differ-
ence in the Employer's method of display merchan-
dising from that of more elaborate and artistic
methods used by some other retailers." The Employer
further contends that the display department employ-
ees are not required to have or exercise any specializ-
ed training or artistic skills. Finally, Employer argues
that the display employees are in constant contact
with sales employees as well as department managers
because of the integrated nature of Employer's
operation.
The record shows that in most instances the display
employees use Merchandise Arrangement Guides (M.
A. G. pages) or Spotlight pages to display merchan-
dise. These consist of photographs and diagrams
issued monthly from Employer's national advertising
department in Chicago, and show how merchandise
should be displayed and how departments should be
arranged. Approximately 100 of the guides are
received by all stores each month and they are
intended to give the stores a uniform appearance
throughout the country.
Generally, display employees are assigned to a
particular department and the method of assignment
is as follows: John Cochron, display sales manager,
places the M. A. G. or Spotlight pages on clipboards
in the display office and the display employees
concerned take that information to the manager or
selling employees in the affected department to
discuss how the particular spotlight should be
presented. Sales employees receive a copy of the
assignments and make available ahead of time the
merchandise to be used in the display. Using the
Spotlight or M. A. G. pages, the display man, in
conjunction with sales personnel, arranges the mer-
chandise on an "end cap." The "end cap" is a display
located at the end of an aisle designed to attract the
customer's attention. Additionally, display employees
use the Spotlight pages to build props, racks, lattices,
and shelves needed to display merchandise. If the
display requires accessorizing (items to highlight the
display) the display employee or in some cases a sales
employee will select the items from other departments
and sign for them.
The display employee in the sign shop has facilities
194 NLRB No. 48
322 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
for making only signs that are simple to produce.
However, on those infrequent occasions where the
Spotlight page requires an elaborate sign it would be
sent from Employer's art department in Chicago or
done by an outside contractor. The display employees
also hang all overhead signs, pennants, and decora-
tion in areas requiring the use of a ladder.
The record reveals that the display employees spend
approximately 80 percent of their time in the selling
departments working With 'sales employees to select,
arrange, and accessorize merchandise shown in the
Spotlight and M. A. G. pages. The remaining portion
of the display employees time is spent in the shop
located on the second floor of the store or in receiving
and transporting displays.
During seasonal changes the display employees set
up displays at the three satellite locations of Coon
Rapids (10 miles from the Brookdale store), Golden
Valley (8 miles), and Anoka (15 miles). Here, the
display workers spend about half a day and are paid
11 cents per mile for using their personal vehicles.
The record discloses that all full-time employees
receive identical fringe benefits, including hospitaliza-
tion, insurance, vacations, holidays, jury duty pay,
and profit sharing, and all employees use the same
parking lot, timeclock coffeeshop, and restrooms.
However, while nonselling employees normally work
from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, the
selling employees work from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. 3 days a
week, 12:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. 2 days a week and every
fourth Saturday and Sunday. Finally, the records
further show that during the Christmas rush some
display employees are assigned to selling depart-
ments.
In view of the integrated functional and operational
nature of the Employer's operation, the continuous
contact with and interrelationship of work duties
between the display employees and sales employees
and the, sharing of common conditions of employ-
ment, including common intermediate and ultimate
supervision, we are persuaded that any separate
community of interest which the display employees
might enjoy has been submerged into a broader
community of interest which those employees share
with other sales employees.
Under all these circumstances, .and as the display
department employees neither constitute a traditional
bargaining group nor appear to be sufficiently skilled
to constitute a craft group, we find that the unit
sought by the Petitioner is inappropriate. According-
ly, we shall dismiss the petition.
ORDER
It is hereby ordered that the petition filed herein be,
and it hereby is, dismissed.