Swift & Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Feb 19, 1957

117 N.L.R.B. 399 (N.L.R.B. 1957)

PLANKINTON PACKING COMPANY 399
In view of the foregoing, we find that the contract effective from
January 1, 1955, was one of unreasonable duration and that the peti-
tion herein was filed timely with respect to the expiration of that
contract's reasonable first 2-year period. It does not therefore bar
this proceeding. Further, we find that the contract executed on July
9, 1956, is a premature extension, having been executed before the ex-
piration of the first 2 years of the initial contract. Accordingly this
latter agreement may not bar an election.
4. The following employees of the Employer constitute a unit ap-
propriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning
of Section 9 (b) of the Act :
All production and maintenance employees, including railway and
maintenance-of-way employees and all shop employees employed by
the Employer at its sugar mill in Vega Baja, Puerto Rico, but exclud-
ing hotel and hospital workers, managers, department heads, and their
assistants, laboratory technicians, warehouse clericals, office clericals,
timekeepers , telephone operators, sugar boilers, cane weighers with
permanent work during the grinding season, guards , executives, and
all supervisors as defined in the Act.'°
5. The Employer's operations are seasonal, beginning in January
and ending in June of each year. Inasmuch as the current season has
already begun and peak seasonal employment will occur within our
usual time for holding elections, we shall direct an immediate election
in this case.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.]
the Board has recognized the necessity for contractual changes because of fluctuating-
economic conditions , the Board has carefully preserved the rights of employees to change
their bargaining representative at predictable and reasonable intervals ." Cf. Sefton
Fibre Can Company, 109 NLRB 360.
° The unit described is in accord with the stipulation of the parties.
Plankinton Packing Company (Division of Swift & Co.) and Office
Employees International Union , Local No. 9, AFL-CIO, Peti-
tioner. Case No. 13-RC-4897. February 19, 1957
SUPPLEMENTAL DECISION, CERTIFICATION OF RE-
SULTS OF ELECTION, AND DIRECTION
Pursuant to a Board Decision and Direction of Elections,' separate
elections by' secret ballot were conducted under the direction and
supervision of the Regional Director for the Thirteenth Region
among the Employer's employees in the two units found appropriate :
(a) a unit of office clerical employees; and (b) a unit of plant clerical
employees. Thereafter, a tally of ballots in each election was fur-
1116 NLRB 1225.
117 NLRB No. 52.
400 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
nished• to the parties. The tally in the election for office clerical
employees (unit a) shows that, of approximately 68 eligible voters,
20 cast valid ballots for the Petitioner, 25 cast valid ballots against
the Petitioner, and 19 cast ballots that were challenged. The tally
of ballots in the election for plant clerical employees (unit b) shows
that, of approximately 42 eligible voters, 15 cast valid ballots for the
Petitioner, 24 cast valid ballots against the Petitioner, and 18 cast
ballots that were challenged.2 Challenges are, therefore, sufficient
in number to affect the results of each election.
In accordance with the Board's Rules and Regulations, the Re-
gional Director conducted an investigation of the challenges, and, on
November 27, 1956, issued his report on challenged ballots. The
Regional Director recommended that: (1) The ballots of 9 employees
in the standards department,3 4 employees in the time office,4 and 2
employees in the employment office,' all of whom cast ballots in both
elections and were challenged in both by the Employer on the ground
that they should have voted only in the election for plant clerical
employees, be opened and counted in the election for office clerical
employees (unit a), and that the challenges to their ballots in the
election for plant clerical employees (unit b) be sustained; (2) that
the ballots of 3 weight takers,6 all of whom also voted in both elections
and were challenged in both by the Employer on the ground that they
should have voted only in the election for office clerical employees,
should be opened and counted in the election for plant clerical em-
ployees, and that the challenges to their ballots in the office clerical
unit be sustained; and (3) that revised tallies of ballots be issued for
both elections. The Regional Director made no recommendation con-
cerning the ballot of Walter Flagg, who voted under challenge by
the Petitioner in the election for office clerical employees, on the
ground that a conclusive result would probably be obtained in each
election by the disposition of the other challenged ballots. There-
after, the Employer filed timely exceptions to the Regional Director's
report on challenged ballots. The Employer excepted to the Re-
gional Director's recommendations concerning the challenges to the
ballots of the 9 employees in the standards department, the 6 employees
in the time and employment offices, and the 3 weight takers, and
also excepted to the Regional Director's failure to recommend that
the challenges to the ballots of these employees in both elections be
sustained . No other exceptions were filed.
8 With one exception , the challenged ballots are the same in each election.
a Dorothy Tank, Wilma McHugh, Joyce Michalek , and Mary Haro , comptometer oper-
ators ; Joseph Farago , Anna Strunk , and Gerald Helwig, clerks ; and Lorene Keenan and
Delores Eichman , stenographers.
4 Joan Busby and Pearl Kranz , comptometer operators ; Tom Powers , a clerk ; and
William Wustrack , a timekeeper
5 Ruth Hankin and Margaret Albert, clerks.
6 Bert Waterstrat , Kenneth Aplin , and John Erdman.
PLANKINTON PACKING COMPANY 401
In its Decision and Direction of Elections, the Board included
•clerical employees in the standards department and in the time and
employment offices in the office clerical unit,' and included weight
takers in the plant clerical unite The Regional Director's recom-
mendations concerning the ballots challenged by the Employer are
therefore in accordance with this Decision. Furthermore, the Em-
ployer admits that there has been no substantial change in the work
duties of the employees whose ballots were thus challenged. We shall
therefore overrule the Employer's exceptions to the Regional Di-
rector's recommendations as to these challenged ballots,9 and we shall
adopt such recommendations to the extent indicated below. We shall
direct that : (1) The ballots of the 9 employees in the standards depart-
ment and the 6 employees in the time and employment offices, which
are now under consideration, be opened and counted in the election
for office clerical employees (unit a) and that the challenges in their
ballots in the election for plant clerical employees (unit b) be sus-
tained; and (2) that the challenges to the ballots of the three weight
takers in the election for office clerical employees be sustained. We
shall not, however, direct that these three ballots be opened and
counted in the election for plant clerical employees, as they could not
affect the results of that election. As the tally of ballots therein now
discloses that the Petitioner lost the electit n 1 n the unit of plant
clerical employees including weight takers (unit b) by more than
three votes, we shall certify the results of the election in this unit.
We make no finding with respect to the challenge to the ballot of
Walter Flagg. If the ballots directed to be opened and counted in the
election for office clerical employees, in which Flagg voted, do not
dispose of this matter in a determinative manner, the Regional Di-
rector shall conduct a further investigation with respect to the chal-
lenge to his ballot, and shall issue and serve upon the parties a supple-
mental report with recommendations to the Board as to the disposition
of the said challenged ballot.
[The Board certified that a majority of the valid ballots was not
cast for Office Employees International Union, Local No. 9, AFL-CIO,
by employees of the Plankinton Packing Plant (Division of Swift
7 The Board 's unit finding as to these employees appears on Appendix C of that Decision
and reads as follows •
Clerical employees in the standards department ( comptometer operators , typist,
secretary to department head, labor distribution clerk, the employee who handles
the plant salary ledger , and the other departmental clerks).
Clerical employees in the time and employment offices (payroll clerks , including
the one who also operates the addressograph machine, comptometer operators,
Margaret Albert , and Miss Flankin).
s See Appendix D of that Decision
9 On October 30, 1956, the Board denied a motion for reconsideration filed by the
Employer , which , inter alia, raised essentially the same issues as those now raised in
its exceptions
423784-57-vol. 117-27
402 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
& Co.) at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in unit b, and that this labor organ-
ization is not the exclusive representative of the employees in this unit.]
[The Board directed that the Regional Director for the Thirteenth
Region shall within ten (10) days from the date of this Direction,
open and count the ballots of the persons whose names appear on the
Appendix, and serve upon the parties a revised tally of ballots.]
MEMBER MURDOCK took no part in the consideration of the above
Supplemental Decision, Certification of Results of Election, and
Direction.
APPENDIX
(Office clerical employees-Unit a)
Dorothy Tank
Wilma McHugh
Joyce Michalek
Mary Haro
Joseph Farago
Anna Strunk
Gerald Helwig
Lorene Keenan
Delores Eichman
Joan Busby
Pearl Krantz
Tom Powers
William Wustrack
Ruth Hankin
Margaret Albert
F. H. Vahlsing , Inc. and Local 424, Packing of Grain, Fertilizers
and Processors of Allied Food Industries , International Broth-
erhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers
of America , AFL-CIO, Petitioner . Case No. 2-RC-7292. Feb-
ruary 19, 1957
THIRD SUPPLEMENTAL DECISION, DIRECTION,
AND ORDER
On September 12, 1956, pursuant to a Second Supplemental De-
cision, Order, and Direction of Third Election issued by the Board
on June 8, 1956,' an election by secret ballot was conducted in the
above-entitled proceeding under the direction and supervision of the
Regional Director for the Second Region in a unit described as "all
employees of the Employer at its Bridgehampton operations in Long
Island, New York, excluding clerical employees, guards, and super-
visors as defined in the Act." 2 At the conclusion of the election, the
parties were furnished a tally of ballots which showed that of ap-
proximately 30 eligible employees, 27 cast ballots, and that all 27,
i Not reported in printed volumes of Board Decisions and Orders
2 Although at the time of the original hearing in this case, the Employer 's Bridgehampton
operations covered 3 separate locations in the State of New Yoi k-Bridgehampton , Matti-
tuck, and Orient Point-it appears that at the time of the third election, operations were
confined to the Si st two locations only.
117 NLRB No. 57.