Spack Shoe Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Oct 21, 1949

86 N.L.R.B. 701 (N.L.R.B. 1949)

In the Matter of SPACK SHOE COMPANY, EMPLOYER and UNITED SHOE
WORKERS OF AMERICA, CIO, PETITIONER
Case No. 1-RC-1113.-Decided October 21, 1949
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before Albert Allen,
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 National Labor
Relations Act, the Board has delegated its powers in connection with
this case to a three-member panel [Members Reynolds, Murdock, and
Gray].
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is enaged in commerce within the meaning of
the National Labor Relations Act.
2. The labor organization involved claims 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 Petitioner seeks a unit confined to production employees,
excluding maintenance employees.' The Employer contends that
only an over-all unit of production and maintenance employees is
appropriate.
Among the classifications which the Petitioner would exclude are
shippers, packers, table workers, and an odd job and general work
employee.2 The Petitioner contends that the unit should be confined
to those employees engaged in the routine operation of shoemaking,
and that it has never represented maintenance employees because it
felt that it could not "do anything for them." 3 We find no merit in
1 The employees whom the petitioner would exclude as maintenance employees spend
at least 50 percent of their time in the performance of production work , such as cementing
soles, tacking , staining and polishing shoes, and applying buckles.
2 Lewis Saunders occupies this position.
3 The Petitioner stated that another organization of the CIO represents this classifica-
tion of employees. However, we note that in many other cases the Petitioner has repre-
sented over-all production and maintenance units. Matter of International Shoe Oom-
86 N. L. R. B., No . 103. 701
702 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
either of the Petitioner's contentions; moreover, the record is devoid
of any evidence to support such contentions. It does not appear that
the claimed employees are readily identifiable apart from maintenance
employees in the plant by reason of their skills, duties, functional inde-
pendence, separate supervision, separate work location, rate or manner
of pay, or general working conditions. In view of the foregoing, we
perceive no valid reason for departing from our usual policy of in-
cluding maintenance employees within the same unit as production
employees.-'
We find that all production and maintenance employees at the Em-
ployer's Roxbury, Massachusetts, plant, excluding guards, profes-
sional employees, and supervisors, constitute a unit appropriate for
the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Sec-
tion 9 (b) of the Act.
As the unit found appropriate is broader than the unit sought by
the Petitioner, the Petitioner may, if it desires, withdraw its petition
in this proceeding, provided that it notify the Regional Director for
the First Region to that effect within ten (10) days from the date of
issuance of this Decision and Direction of Election.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for 'the
purposes of collective bargaining with the Employer, an election by
secret ballot shall be conducted as early as possible, but not later than
30 days from the date of this Direction, under the direction and super-
vision of the Regional Director for the Region in which this case was
heard, and subject to Sections 203.61 and 203.62 of National Labor
Relations Board Rules and Regulations, among the employees in the
unit found appropriate in paragraph numbered 4, above, who were
employed during the pay-roll period immediately preceding the date
of this Direction of Election, including employees who did not work
during said pay-roll period because they were ill or on vacation. or
temporarily laid off, but excluding those employees who have since
quit 'or been discharged for cause and have not been rehired or rein-
stated prior to the date of the election, and also excluding employees
on strike who are not entitled to reinstatement, to determine whether
or not they desire to be represented, for purposes of collective bar-
gaining, by United Shoe Workers of America, CIO.
pang, 83 N. L. R. B. 386; Matter or Belle-Moo, Inc., 81 N. L. R. B 6; Matter of Dover
Shoe Company, 80 N. L. It. B. 139; Matter of Prosper Sheveneil.t Son, Inc., 81 N. L. It. B.
1303.
4 Matter of Overhead Door Company of Pennsylvania, Inc., 86 N. L. It. B., No. 14;
Matter of McKamie Gas Cleaning Company, 80 N. L. It. B. 1447; Matter of Goodall Com-
pany, 80 N. L . It. B. 562.