The Lawson Milk Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Aug 9, 1956

116 N.L.R.B. 549 (N.L.R.B. 1956)

THE LAWSON, MILK COMPANY ' 549
The Lawson Milk Company and Iriteriiational Brotherhood of
Teamsters , Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of Amer-
ica, Milk and Ice Cream, Drivers and' Dairy Employees Union,
Local 336, AFL--CIO, Petitioner. Case No. 8-RC-.700. August
9. 11956
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 Nora Friel, hearing
officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from
prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds:
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce- within the meaning of
the Act.
2. The labor organization involved claiiiis 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 of all truckdrivers and as an alternate
position requests all the employees of the shipping departments which
would include the truckdrivers, dockmeii, and cooler men. The Em-
ployer contends that the appropriate unit should include all the
employees of the Cuyahoga Fails and Stow plants in the milk process-
ing department, milk bottling department, ice cream department; milk
and ice cream shipping department, and bakery, egg, and candy ship-
ping department, which shipping departments include cooler men and
dockmen, but exclude maintenance employees and laboratory tech-
nicians in the milk processing department.
The Employer at its milk plants located at Cuyahoga Falls and
Stow, Ohio (about 3 miles apart), is engaged in preparing milk and
milk products, candy, and baked goods for its various stores which
are the only retail outlets for the Employer's products, located through-
out the Cleveland and Akron areas. Both plants are automatic and
highly mechanized. The shipping facilities for both plaiits operate out
of and are based at the Cuyaloga Falls plant.
For' 3 or 4 Yeats; between 1935 and 1939, the Company was organized
into a plantwide unit comprised of processing employees and truck-
drivers; represented by Local- 497 of the Milk and Ice' Cream Drivers
and Dairy Employees Union. Less than a year ago, on October 13,
1955; an election was held among the bakery and -candy making ein-
116 NLRB No. 73:
550 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
ployees,' but the employees, involved herein were excluded from the
unit which the Board found appropriate.-
Milk received at the plant is pumped into the processing equipment,
consisting of pasteurizers,. homogenizers,, and coolers, and then into
the bottling machines where it is bottled, capped, and placed in crates.
Certain portions of milk not needed to fill current orders are sent to the
drier and ice cream operations.
There are 29 truckdrivers, 8 dockmen, and 3 cooler men in the milk
shipping department; 12 truckdrivers and 2 dockmen in bakery ship-
ping; 2 cooler men in the milk bottling department; and 1 dockman
at the Stow plant. The remaining approximately 45 employees whom
the Employer would include in the appropriate unit are engaged in
processing and bottling milk and making ice cream. As the plant is
highly mechanized, their duties consist of watching the operation to
see that gauges are properly adjusted and conveyor belts run smoothly,
that the bottles are clean when they come from the automatic washer
and are properly filled and capped, preparing the ice cream mixture
according to laboratory formulas, seeing that the ice cream cartons are
filled to the proper level, removing the products from the line, and
cleaning the equipment.
Each department in the plant, milk processing, bottling, ice cream,
candy, milk shipping, bakery shipping, the laboratory, etc., is under
the direction of a supervisor who is 'responsible for that operation, to
the general office. The milk shipping department is separate from the
bakery shipping department. The latter is in a separate building and
has its own dock.
There are 3 types of drivers-the 'semidrivers who make only I
trip each day, the straight drivers who make 2 trips, and the swing
drivers.' With the assistance of 'the dockmen, the drivers load their
trucks each morning and deliver the products to company stores where
they load empty bottles and haul them back to the plant. At times
the cooler men help the dockmen and drivers unload the trucks.
The Employer's president testified that all dockmen are inter-
changeable with truckdrivers, with the exception of 1 or 2 who are
older employees and no longer go out on milk trucks; that all dock-
men are drivers, and that most of the drivers have been dockmen. He
1 Case No. 8-RC-2514 , not reported in printed volumes of Board Decisions and Orders.
The unit found appropriate was : "All production employees in the Bakery Department at
the Employer 's dairy , bakery, and candy plant at Cuyahoga Falls , Ohio, including wrappers,
packers , porters , and pastry order fillers and bread order fillers (otherwise designated 'as
packers or shipping employees ) and all Candy Department employees , but excluding all
Qther plant employees , dairy employees , powerhouse employees , dock men , drivers, office
clerical employees , professional employees , guards, and the bakery supervisor (Jim
Cramer ), the pastry lead man ( Bill Howard ), the candy supervisor ( Bert Rathmell), the
assistant candy supervisor ( Bill Boyd ), the lead man , bakery shipping ( F. Andrews), and
all other supervisors as defined in the Act."
THE LAWSON MILK COMPANY 551
also stated that at times it is necessary to work short on the dock when
another driver is needed, and if a dockman• were absent, a driver might
work part of a day as a driver, make only,one trip, and the remainder
of the day might work on the dock.
The drivers receive a little higher pay than the majority of the in-
side plant employees. Dockmen receive the same pay as a straight
driver, and cooler men who put the, milk into the cooler and fill the
orders from the stores are paid a,little more than the dockmen and the
straight drivers. All the employees share the same company benefits,
viz, vacations and health insurance.
The majority of the inside employees begin work about 6: 30 a. m.
and work until 5 or 5: 30 p. m. Three employees work from 11 p. m.
until 7 or 8 a. m.- However, the drivers stagger their arrivals, coming
in between 6 and 8 a. m., and, depending on how heavy the load for
the day is, work from 61/2 to 71/2 or 8 hours. It takes about 15 minutes
to load a truck and about 10 minutes to unload when the driver re-
turns to the plant. The driver spends the remainder of the day away
from the plant. -
The Employer contends that the petition should be dismissed on
the ground that the truckdrivers are a constituent part of the dairy
operation, and because of the integrated process of the operation. Al-
though the drivers herein share the same supervision as some of the
dockmen and cooler men, work with the former in loading•and unload-
ing the trucks, and on occasion spend time on dock work and may be
replaced when absent by dockmen, the record shows that the duties
of the drivers are materially distinct from those of the inside plant
employees? As drivers, they perform a separate function and are
employees to whom the Board has traditionally granted separate
representation. Under these, circumstances, and on the basis of the
entire record, we believe that the Employer's truckdrivers constitute
an appropriate unit apart from the Employer's other employees. Ac-
cordingly, we find that all truckdrivers, excluding supervisors and
all other employees employed-by the Employer at its Cuyahoga Falls
and Stow, Ohio, plants, constitute an appropriate unit • within the
meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.]
MEMBER MURDOCK took no part in the consideration of the above
Decision and Direction of Election.
z See Jocie Motor Lines Inc., 112 NLRB 1201: Tennessee Egg Company , 110 NLRB
189; Airborne Instruments Laboratory , Incorporated, 104 NLRB 367; Q-P Wholesalers,
Inc, 85 NLRB 582.