Springfield Rendering Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

May 28, 1957

117 N.L.R.B. 1784 (N.L.R.B. 1957)

1784 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
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. In accordance with the parties' stipulation , we find that the'
following employees constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes
of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the
Act: All employees of Empire Milling Company, employed at its
103 A. Broadway , Hannibal, Missouri , establishment , excluding
guards, watchmen , professional employees , and supervisors as defined
in the Act.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.]
Consolidated Rendering Company, d/b/a Springfield Rendering
Company and Harold E. Childs, Petitioner and Local #33,
Amalgamated Meat Cutters & Butcher Workmen of North
America, AFL-CIO
Consolidated Rendering Company, d/b/a Springfield Rendering
Company and Local #602, International Union of Operating
Engineers, AFL-CIO, Petitioner
Consolidated Rendering Company, d/b/a Springfield Rendering
Company and Chauffeurs, Teamsters & Helpers Local #404
International Brotherhood of Teamsters , Chauffeurs, Ware-
housemen & Helpers of America, AFL-CIO, Petitioner . Cases—
Nos. 1-RD-243,1 RC-48.0, and 1-RC-4839. May,08,1957
DECISION AND ORDER
Upon separate petitions 1 duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the Na-
tional Labor Relations Act, a consolidated hearing was held before
William I. Shooer, 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
these cases to a three-member panel [Chairman Leedom and Members
Murdock and Rodgers].
Upon the entire record in these cases, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the Act.
z The petitions filed in Cases Nos. 1-RC-4839 and 1-RD-243 sought an election in the
existing production and maintenance unit . After the hearing in this proceeding, the Pe-
titioners in these two eases requested that the Board grant them permission to with-
draw their petitions . As none of the other parties herein oppose these requests , we shall
grant them , with prejudice to the filing of new petitions by these parties for a period of
6 .months from the date of this decision . ,Sears, Roebuck & Company, 107 NLRB 716.
Cf. Carpenter Baking Company, Inc., 112 NLRB 288.
117 NLRB No. 242.
SPRINGFIELD RENDERING COMPANY 1785
2. The labor organizations involved herein are labor `organizations
within the meaning of Section 2 (5) of the Act and claim to represent
certain employees of the Employer.
3. The Employer, a Maine corporation with its principal offices lo-
cated in Boston, Massachusetts, operates plants in the six New Eng-
land States and in New York State. Its Chicopee, Massachusetts,
plant, the only plant involved in this proceeding, is engaged in the
manufacture, sale, and distribution of tallow.
The Employer and Local #33 agree that an overall unit composed
of all production and maintenance employees, excluding office clerical
and plant clerical employees, professional employees, guards, execu-
tives, and supervisors is a unit appropriate for the purposes of col-
lective bargaining. Local #602, however, seeks to sever a group of
all firemen and engineers" from the existing unit. Local #33 op-
poses, and the Employer takes no position as to, the severance of these
employees.
The group which Local #602 seeks to sever consists of 4 firemen
and 1 engineer.2 These employees receive the same benefits, punch
the same time clock, and share the same working conditions as the
other production and maintenance employees. The record shows that,
for approximately Ti months each year, the firemen act as watchmen
on weekends and that, at such times, they make rounds of the Em-
ployer's premises with a watch clock and key. When so acting as
watchmen, the firemen are the only employees on the Employer's
premises and are charged with the dual function of watching for fire
hazards and of protecting the Employer's property. When these em-
ployees are hired they are classified as firemen, but a condition of their
employment is that they, will act as combination firemen-watchmen to
the extent that they will be assigned duties as watchmen on weekends
during the 7 so-called summer months. In these circumstances, we
find that the firemen are guards within the meaning of Section 9 (b)
(3) of the Act' and cannot, therefore, be included in any unit with
rank-and-file employees. Nor may Local #602 be certified as the
representative of the firemen, as it admits to membership employees
other than guards. As there is only 1 other employee in the unit
sought to be severed, and as a unit limited to 1 employee may not be
appropriate for bargaining purposes, we find that the unit sought
to be severed by Local #602 is inappropriate for bargaining purposes
and we shall, therefore, dismiss the petition filed by it in Case No.
1-RC-4820.
3 The Employer employs approximately 95 employees at its Chicopee plant. Of this
number, approximately 80 employees are in the L equested production and maintenance unit.
S Leonard Valve Company, 115 NLRB 1044 ; Kolcast Industries , Inc., 114 NLRB 1311.
1786 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Accordingly, we find that no question affecting commerce exists con-
cerning the representation of employees of the Employer within the
meaning of Section 9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
[The Board dismissed the petition filed in Case No. 1-RC-4820 and
ordered that the requests of the Petitioners in Cases Nos. 1-RC-4839
and 1-RD-243 to withdraw their petitions be, and they hereby are,
granted with prejudice to their filing new petitions for a period of 6
months from the date of this Order, unless good cause is shown why
the Board should entertain a new petition filed by either Petitioner
prior to the expiration of such period.]
Mid-South Manufacturing Company, Inc. and Amalgamated
Clothing Workers of America , AFL-CIO, Petitioner. Case No.
15-RC-1426. May 08,1957
SUPPLEMENTAL DECISION, ORDER, AND SECOND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Pursuant to a Decision and Direction of Election 1 dated September
4, 1956, an election by secret ballot was conducted in the above proceed-
ing on October 3, 1956. The results of the election were as follows :
Out of approximately 74 eligible voters, 73 ballots were cast, 31 for
the Petitioner and 42 against the Petitioner. No ballots were
challenged.
On October 5, 1956, the Petitioner filed timely objections to conduct
affecting the results of the election, a copy of which was duly served
upon the Employer. The objections were as follows:
1. Permitting, with full knowledge, and without repudiation of
his activities, Henry Jones, a local businessman and Perry County
supervisor, to represent himself as an agent and, as such, to
threaten employees with the loss of jobs and with the closing of
the plant if petitioning union won election.
2. Permitting said Henry Jones to enter the plant and address
the employees during working time on the day of the election and
within five hours of the election, and permitting him, without
repudiation, to threaten the jobs of the employees during said
speech.
3. Distributing in the plant on the morning of October 3, 1956,
just prior to the election, a leaflet designed to coerce and intimi-
date the employees in the exercise of their rights guaranteed in
Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act.
In accordance with the Rules and Regulations of the Board, the
Regional Director conducted an investigation of the objections and,,
1 Not reported in printed volumes of Board Decisions and Orders
117 NLRB No. 239.