The Interstate Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jul 18, 1957

118 N.L.R.B. 746 (N.L.R.B. 1957)

746 DECISIONS . OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
The Interstate Company 1 and Hotel & Restaurant Employees
and Bartenders International Union , AFL-CIO, Petitioner.
Case No. 9-RC-f979. July 18,1957
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, a hearing was held before Rosemary S. Macke and
Harold V. Williams, hearing officers. The hearing officers' rulings
made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby
affirmed.2
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 Murdock, Rodgers, and
Bean].
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the National Labor Relations Act.
2. The labor organization involved claims to represent certain em-
ployees of t1ie 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 to represent a unit of all full-time and all
regular part-time employees at the Employer's Beckley Glass House
Restaurant and the Bluestone and Morton snack bars 3 on the West
Virginia Turnpike, excluding on-call employees, guards, the book-
keeper, the musician, the Beckley assistant manager, the Bluestone
and Morton managers, the night managers at the three establishments,
the overall manager, and all other supervisors as defined in the Act.
In the event the Board finds this unit inappropriate, the Petitioner's
first alternative request is for separate Beckley, Bluestone, and Mor-
ton units . As its second alternative, the Petitioner would accept a
single unit that would add the Employer's Charleston, West Virgina,
Airport Restaurant, herein called Charleston, to its three Turnpike
establishments4 The Employer contends that all four West Virginia
1 The name of the Employer appears as amended at the hearing.
2 The Petitioner, which sought by two subpoenas duces tecum to have the Employer pro-
duce its wage records, objects in its brief to their revocation by one of the hearing officers
on the ground that one subpena was unaccompanied by a tender of witness fees and mileage
and the other required the production of records that were not limited to the 4 restaurants
involved in the instant case. However , the Petitioner states that the record as it stands
is sufficient for a determination of the unit issues herein without remanding the case. As
we agree with the Petitioner that sufficient evidence has already been adduced upon which
to base our unit findings , we do not deem it necessary to pass upon the Petitioner's con-
tentions concerning the rev oxation of the subpenas.
3 Herein called Beckley, Bluestone, and ;Horton.
i The Petitioner would exclude the manager - trainee at Charleston as a supervisor within
the meaning of the Act.
118 NLRB No. 90.
THE INTERSTATE COMPANY 747
establishments are closely integrated and therefore constitute the
only appropriate unit. The Employer , which stipulated to the ex-
clusion of the musician , the bookkeeper , and the overall manager,
would include on -call employees and all managers other than the
latter on the ground that they are not supervisors within the meaning
of the Act.
The Employer operates the 4 West Virginia restaurants under
the direction of the overall manager, Mrs . Natalie Austin , who main-
tains her office at Beckley, which provides the other 3 establish-
ments with their menus and a large part of their food and other
supplies .5 In addition to frequent telephone calls and visits from
those in immediate charge of the four restaurants, Austin at least once
a month holds management meetings at Beckley or Charleston where
labor costs , overtime , treatment of employees, and operational prob-
lems are discussed . She also regularly makes the rounds of the other
establishments which are 24 to 58 miles from Beckley .6 Employee and
payroll records for the 4 establishments are kept at the Beckley office
by the bookkeeper who spends time at the other 3 restaurants, par-
ticularly Charleston . It appears that wage rates are the same for all
the establishments , except Charleston where they are on a somewhat
,different level as they are based on the rates prevailing in that area.
Of the 4 establishments , only Charleston , which is closed at night, does
not operate on a 24-hour basis. The Employer 's vacation , insurance,
and profit -sharing plans apply to all the employees involved herein.
Seniority credit is given in connection with the transfers and frequent
employee interchange which occur for the most part between Beckley
and Charleston.
In view of the foregoing , especially the uniform employee benefits,
the seniority policy, frequent interchange , common supervision, and
centralized control of personnel , we find that the four restaurants are
so highly integrated as to warrant a finding that only a single overall
unit is appropriate.''
There remains for consideration the unit placement of part-time
employees and the supervisory status of certain disputed classifica-
tions.
The record discloses that the 4 restaurants have 13 part-time
employees , 11 of whom are regularly scheduled and work 1 to 5 or 6
days a week. The other two, namely a Beckley porter and a Morton
6Austin is in turn under the general supervision of Lynn H . Moore who , from the Em-
ployer's main office in Chicago , Illinois , heads the Employer 's Turnpike Division which
covers the Kentucky and Indiana Turnpikes as well as the four establishments in west
Virginia . The record shows that the Charleston restaurant is administered as part of
the Turnpike Division because of its proximity to the three establishments on the west
Virginia Turnpike.
6 The Employer 's establishment nearest to those in west Virginia is one located about
300 miles away in Richmond , Virginia.
7 Frank G . Shattuck Company, 106 NLRB 838, 839-840.
748 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
waitress, do not have a regular schedule and work only when they are
called. We find that the 11 regular part-time employees have suffi-
cient interest in common with the full-time employees to warrant their
inclusion in the unit. However, as the record does not indicate how
often the two on-call employees do work, we shall permit them to vote
subject to challenge.'
As indicated above, Austin has overall supervision of the approxi-
mately 129 employees in the 4 establishments : 66 at Beckley, 34 at
Charleston, 15 .at Bluestone, and 14 at Morton. In immediate charge
are the Beckley assistant manager, the Charleston manager-trainee,'
and the Bluestone and Morton managers, all of whom have the re-
sponsibility of seeing to it that their establishments are run properly
and the employees do their work. Besides performing some manual
tasks, they direct employees, prepare work schedules, call in part-time
employees, provide replacements for sick employees, recommend
raises and promotions, handle minor grievances, and discipline em-
ployees for minor infractions of the Employer's rules. Although
major grievances and the more serious disciplinary problems are
settled by Austin, who also has the final say as to work schedules,
promotions, hiring, discharging, and laying off employees, the record
shows that the four officials in question are usually consulted by
Austin on these matters before a decision is made. Moreover, except
for the Charleston manager-trainee, they attend monthly manage-
ment meetings at Beckley or Charleston, where, as already noted,
various personnel problems are discussed and they are held accountable
for bringing labor costs down. Finally, their salaries are greater than
the compensation received by hourly rated employees and, in con-
trast to the latter, they have some discretion as to their own hours
and the length of their workweek. Under all the circumstances, in-
cluding the fact that a contrary conclusion would result in an un-
usually high ratio of 1 supervisor, Austin, to 129 employees, we find
that the Beckley assistant manager, the Charleston manager-trainee,
and the Morton and Bluestone managers responsibly direct the em-
ployees in their respective establishments and are supervisors within
the meaning of the Act.10 We shall therefore exclude them from
the unit.
The night managers at Beckley, Bluestone, and Morton are con-
siderably restricted in their direction of the 2 to 5 employees who
work at night in their respective establishments. Except for the
fact that they are salaried and apparently receive higher earnings than
those of other employees, and see to it that the employees are kept
8 Cf. Jackson Jitney Jangle Stores, Inc., 115 NLRB 374, 378.
° However the authority of the Beckley assistant manager and the Charleston manager-
trainee does not extend to the waitresses.
10 See Meyer Hammerman and Sol Hammerman., Partners, d./b/a Jolly Kid Togs, 117
NLRB 393; Colonial Shirt Corporation , 114 NLRB 1214, 1215.
HECKETT ENGINEERING COMPANY 749
busy in the performance of their duties, the night managers, who
themselves do varying amounts of cooking and other work, have no
indicia of supervisory status. Thus, the record shows that the night
managers are respectively responsible to the Beckley assistant man-
ager and the Bluestone and Morton managers to whom they make
regular reports. Unlike most of the latter officials, the night managers
do not order supplies, do not attend management meetings, do not
make recommendations as to hiring, discharging, or promotions, do
not authorize replacements or extra help, do not apprise employees
.of their benefits, do not grant employees time oft, and do not have
the power to alter their own hours or the 6-day workweek which they
share with full-time employees. Accordingly, we find that the powers
of direction of the night managers are merely routine and that there-
fore they are not supervisors as defined in the Act. We shall therefore
include them in the unit."
We find that the following employees of the Employer constitute a
unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the
meaning of Section 9 (h) of the Act : All full-time, regular part-time,
and on-call employees at the Employer's Beckley, Bluestone, Morton,
and Charleston establishments, including the Beckley, Bluestone,
and Morton night managers , but excluding the bookkeeper, the
musician, guards, the overall manager, the Beckley assistant manager,
the Bluestone manager, the Morton manager, the Charleston manager-
trainee, and all other supervisors as defined in the Act.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.]
11 See Win. R. Whittaker Co., Ltd., 117 NLRB 339; Frank G. Shattuck Company, 106
NLRB 838. 841-844.
Heckett Engineering Company and Operating Engineers, Local
No. 3 of the International Union of Operating Engineers, AFL-
CIO, Petitioner . Case No. 20-RC-39217. July 18,1957
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, a hearing was held before Shirley N. Bingham, hear-
ing 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 Act, the Board
has delegated its powers in connection with this case to a three-member
panel [Members Rodgers, Bean, and Jenkins].
1 In view of our disposition of this case , we do not find it necessary to pass on the hearing
officer's refusal , on the ground of privilege, to compel the production of a letter from the
Employer to its attorney.
118 NLRB No. 92.