The May Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Aug 4, 1949

85 N.L.R.B. 550 (N.L.R.B. 1949)

In the Matter of MAY DEPARTMENT STORES COMPANY D/B/A TILE
MAY COMPANY, HOWARD AND LEXINGTON STREETS, BALTIMORE,
MARYLAND, EMPLOYER and TRUCK DRIVERS AND HELPERS LOCAL '
#355, INTERNATIONAL BROTIIERII.OOD OF TEAMSTERS, CI:IAUFFEURS,
WAREHOUSEMEN AND HELPERS OF ADIERICA, A. F. L.,1 PETITIONER
Case No. 5-RC-320.-Decided August 4, 1949
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before Charles B.
Slaughter, hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the
hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed. The
request of the Employer for oral argument is hereby denied as the
record and the Employer's brief adequately present the positions of
the parties?
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 [Chairman Herzog and Members
Houston and Murdock].
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 organization involved claims to represent employees,
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 appropriate unit :
The Petitioner seeks a unit of all the truckdrivers, helpers, and,
garage employees at the Employer's Baltimore, Maryland, depart-
ment store, excluding all other employees, guards, and supervisors..
The Employer contends that only a store-wide unit is appropriate.
1 The names of the parties appear as amended at the hearing.
Z The Employer's motion to dismiss the petition herein on the ground that the unit sought.
is inappropriate is denied for the reasons set forth below.
85 N. L. R. B., No. 97.
550
THE MAY COMPANY - 551
The unit sought by the Petitioner comprises the package drivers,
the furniture drivers and their helpers, the shuttle truck drivers, and
their helpers and an employee in the drapery department who has
a truck assigned to his use in connection with his work, the garage
mechanics, and the car washer. Of this group, . the package and
furniture drivers and their helpers, one shuttle truck driver, the garage
mechanics, and the car washer are part of the delivery department,
which is under the direct supervision of the delivery department fore-
man. The function of the delivery department is to route and deliver
merchandise purchased by customers of the Employer. The routing
function is performed by inspectors, belt boys, and sheet writers, who
sort and record merchandise to be loaded on trucks covering appro-
priate routes. The Petitioner does not seek to represent these routing
employees.
The package and furniture drivers. After merchandise has been
sorted and routed, it is loaded by the package drivers onto their trucks
and delivered. Upon completion of his deliveries, the package truck
driver checks in at the delivery department, turns over to the cashier
any cash and checks he may have collected in payment for packages,
and spends what time is left of his day working on the belt or sheet
Writing. It was estimated at the hearing that a package truck driver
spends about 2 hours a day loading his truck, 5 hours making deliveries,
and almost 1 hour checking in. As all truck drivers work an 8-hour
day, their work on the belt and sheet writing is largely overtime work,
in which the package truck drivers engage with some frequency. The
work of the furniture truck drivers is substantially the same except
that the furniture truck drivers have the additional duties of inspect-
ing merchandise in the warehouse before loading it, and of setting up
the furniture which they have delivered.
The shuttle truck drivers. Two of the three shuttle truck drivers
and their two helpers work in the Employer's warehouses under the
:supervision of the warehouse supervisor, and the third driver works in
the delivery department under the supervision of the delivery depart=
ment foreman. The warehouse shuttle truck drivers and their helpers
:spend only about an hour a day working on their shuttle trucks trans-
porting merchandise between the. store and the warehouses, the rest
of their time being spent in the warehouses and on the selling floors a
The shuttle truck driver assigned to the delivery department drives
.a truck carrying parcel post packages from the Employer's store to
the United States Post Office. Occasionally he substitutes for a pack-
7 One of the shuttle truck helpers tends the furnace during the winter.
552 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
age driver. However, the majority of his time is spent working on-
stock in the delivery department, alongside the belt boys and sheet
writers.
The garage employees. The garage mechanics work at the Employ--
er's Paca Street garage, where they keep the Employer's trucks in
running order. The car washer washes the Employer's trucks at
night in the basement of the Employer's store, where the trucks are-
kept.
The drapery department employee. The employee of the drapery
department whom the Petitioner seeks to represent works under the
supervision of the head of that department. He spends the majority
of his time making drapes for the Employer's customers, and uses-
the truck assigned to him only when delivering draperies which re-
quire hanging and adjustment on the customer's premises.
As the package and furniture truck drivers and their helpers, the-
garage mechanics, and the car washer spend the major part of their-
time operating or maintaining the trucks of the Employer's store, it
is evident that they are essentially engaged in the function of trans-
portation, as distinguished from the merchandising function of the
Employer's other employees. In the performance of this function
they spend a majority of their time outside the store, and therefore.
have interests different from those of the employees working inside-
the store.4 The transportation function at the Employer's store is.
performed in part by an independent delivery service, which delivers
packages to customers of the Employer located in outlying districts.-
Little merit, therefore, can be attached to the Employer's argument
that the employees engaged in transporting goods to the Employer's-
customers are so closely integrated with those engaged in merchan-
dising that they cannot be established in a separate bargaining unit..
On the contrary, it appears that the truck drivers and garage em-
ployees constitute a homogeneous, identifiable group who, particu-
larly in the absence of collective bargaining history to the contrary,5
may be represented in a separate unit if they so desire .6
It appears, however, that the shuttle truck drivers, their helpers,.
and the employee in the drapery department are engaged in perform-
ing warehousing, stockkeeping, and selling -functions, to which the
operation of a truck is merely incidental and requires little of their
time. Also, except for one of the shuttle truck drivers, all these indi-
4 Matter of American News Company, 71 N. L. R. B. 30.
5In 1946, American Federation of Labor and Affiliated Organizations lost a consent
election .(5-R-2385) covering a. store-wide unit of the Employer's employees,-including the
employees now sought by the Petitioner.
6 Matter of National Automotive Fibres, Inc., Findlay Division, 81 N. L. R. B. 191
Matter of Ohio Rubber Company, 74 N. L. R. B. 1269.
THE MAY COMPANY 553
viduals work in departments other than the delivery department and
under separate supervision. We shall therefore exclude them from
the unit hereinafter found appropriate.
Accordingly, we find that all package and furniture truck drivers
and their helpers, car mechanics, and the car washer at the Employer's
Baltimore, Maryland, department store, excluding shuttle truck driv-
ers and their helpers, employees of the drapery department, guards,
all other employees, and supervisors, constitute a unit appropriate
for the purposes of collective bargaining, within the meaning of
Section 9 (b) of the Act.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the
purposes 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 super-
vision 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 during the pay-roll period immediately preceding the date
of this Direction 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 discharged for cause and have not been rehired or rein-
stated prior to the date of the election, and also excluding employees
on strike who are not entitled to reinstatement, to determine whether
or not they desire to be represented, for purposes of collective bargain-
ing, by Truck Drivers and Helpers Local #355, International
Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of
America, A. F. L.