Swift and Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Aug 31, 1949

85 N.L.R.B. 1080 (N.L.R.B. 1949)

In the Matter of IOWA PACKING COMPANY, A DIVISION or SWIFT AND
COMPANY,' EMPLOYER and NATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF PACKING-
HOUSE WORKERS, CUA , PETITIONER
Case No. 18-RC-399.-Decided August 31, 1949
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held in this case at Des
Moines, Iowa, on July 15, 1949, before Erwin A. Peterson, 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 engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the National Labor Relations Act.
2. The labor organizations 2 involved claim to represent certain
employees of the Employer.3
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 unit :
The Petitioner is seeking to represent a unit of steam and power
department employees at the Employer's Des Moines, Iowa, plant.
1 The Employer' s name appears as amended at the hearing.
2 United Packinghouse Workers of America, Local No. 89, CIO, herein called the Inter-
venor, was permitted to intervene at the hearing on the basis of a contract it held covering
the employees concerned.
3 The Employer moved to dismiss the petition on the ground that the Petitioner is an
industrial type union and should not be permitted to represent a craft-like group such as
the powerhouse employees in this case . The motion was referred to the Board and is
hereby denied . We have frequently held that the willingness of a petitioner to represent
the employees in issue is controlling under the Act, not the eligibility of employees to
membership , nor the exact extent of the petitioner ' s constitutional jurisdiction . There has
been no showing that the Petitioner will not adequately represent the steam and power
employees in this case . We are not concerned , therefore, whether the Petitioner is a craft
or an industrial union. See Matter of Chicago Railway Equipment Company, 85 N. L. R. B.
586 ; Matter of Biggs Antique Company, 85 N. L. R. B. 554.
85 N. L . R. B., No. 184.
1080
IOWA PACKING COMPANY
The Employer and the Intervenor contend that the only appropriate
unit is plant-wide, that the unit sought by the Petitioner should not be
severed from the plant-wide unit now represented by the Intervenor,
and that, therefore, the petition should be dismissed. The parties
are in agreement as to the composition of the steam and power unit
should the Board find the smaller unit appropriate.
The Employer is engaged at its Des Moines plant in the slaughtering
and processing of livestock. The 16 nonsupervisory employees of the
steam and power department operate the equipment in the engine and
boiler rooms necessary to furnish steam, hot water, compressed air,
refrigeration, and electric power throughout the plant. These em-
ployees form a separate department in the plant, and are separately
supervised; there is no interchange of employees between this depart-
ment and the production departments. Most of the steam and power
department employees have, however, been recruited from the produc-
tion and maintenance departments.
As a result of prior Board proceedings, both the Petitioner and the
Intervenor have, at different times, served as the bargaining repre-
sentative of the' Employer's production and maintenance employees,
including the steam and power employees, on. a plant-wide basis. The
Intervenor has had a contract with the Employer since 1943; the con-
tract in effect at the time of the hearing expired on August 11, 1949.1
The steam and power department employees in this case are an
identifiable and functionally coherent group such as we have repeatedly
held, despite a collective bargaining history on a more inclusive basis,
may if they desire constitute a separate collective bargaining unit or
remain a part of the production and maintenance unit in which they
have been heretofore included.5 Accordingly, we are of the opinion
that the steam and power department employees may appropriately
constitute a separate 'unit or remain a part of the production and
maintenance unit. We shall not, however, make any unit determina-
tion at this time but shall first ascertain the desires of the employees
as expressed in the election hereinafter directed. If the employees
participating in the election select the Petitioner, they will be taken
to have indicated their desire to constitute a separate bargaining unit;
if they select the Intervenor, they will by such choice have indicated
their desire to remain in the plant-wide production and maintenance
unit.
4 Neither the Employer nor the Intervenor contend that their contract is a bar to this
proceeding.
5 Matter of Mathieson Chemical Corporation , 82 N. L . R. B. 250 ; Matter of Wilson & Co.,
Inc., 80 N . L. R. B. 1466; and Matter of Crocker, Burbank & Company, Ass'n., 80 N. L. R. B.
774..
1082 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
We shall direct that the question concerning representation be re-
solved by an election by secret ballot among all employees in the steam
and power department of the Employer's Des Moines, Iowa, plant,
excluding all other employees and supervisors as defined in the Act.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION 6
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the pur-
poses 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 supervision
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 dur-
ing the pay-roll period immediately preceding the date of this Direc-
tion 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 dis-
charged for cause and have not been rehired or reinstated prior to the
date of the election, and also excluding employees on strike who are not
entitled to reinstatement, to determine whether they desire to be repre-
hented, for purposes of collective bargaining, by National Brotherhood
of Packinghouse Wrorkers, CUA, or by United Packinghouse Workers
of America, Local No. 89, CIO, or by neither.
Any participant in the election herein may, upon its prompt request to, and approval
thereof by , the Regional Director , have its name removed from the ballot.