The Wickes Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Feb 5, 1973

201 N.L.R.B. 610 (N.L.R.B. 1973)

610 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Wickes Furniture, a Division of The Wickes Corpora-
tion and Truck Drivers , Chauffeurs and Helpers
Local Union No. 100 , an affiliate of the Interna-
tional Brotherhood of Teamsters , Chauffeurs,
Warehousemen and Helpers of America , Petition-
er. Case 9-RC-9607
February 5, 1973
DECISION AND ORDER
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9(c) of the
National Labor Relations Act, as amended, a
hearing was held before Hearing Officer William C.
Mittendorf of the National Labor Relations Board.
Following the close of the hearing the Regional
Director for Region 9 transferred this case to the
Board for decision. The Petitioner filed a brief.
The Board has reviewed the Hearing Officer's
rulings made at the hearing and finds that they are
free from prejudicial error. They 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, and it will effectuate the
purposes of the Act to assert jurisdiction herein.
2. The labor organization involved claims to
represent certain employees of the Employer.
3. A question affecting commerce exists concern-
ing the representation of certain 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 warehousemen,
truckdrivers, and refinishers at the Employer's
Sharonville, Ohio, retail furniture store. Alternative-
ly, the Petitioner is willing to add warehouse clerical
employees to this requested unit. The Employer
contends that the Petitioner's unit is inappropriate
and that the only appropriate unit is a storewide unit
which includes all selling and nonselling employees.
The Employer's store is housed in a single one-
story building, of which the front two-thirds is a
warehouse and the rear one-third is a showroom,
separated from the warehouse by a firewall. Custom-
ers proceed some 200 feet through the warehouse
area, which includes a "will-call" office, a customer
lounge, a refinishing department, a customer pickup
area , and a shipping area, to the showroom, where
the furniture is displayed and sold. On the left side of
the showroom is a general office area for the
managerial and bookkeeping staffs and for office
clerical employees who assist in completing sales. On
the right side of the showroom is an accessory
department and a "cut and dent" room containing
damaged merchandise. The remaining showroom
area encompasses some 250 displays of room
settings, separated by aisles.
The 10 warehousemen receive, load for shipping,
unload, and store merchandise, bring it into the
showroom, pick items for customers, help customers
load their cars, and occasionally assist drivers in
loading trucks. In performing their duties, they work
with truckdrivers, showroom personnel, the sales
manager, and occasionally with salesmen , as when
they move merchandise into the showroom or move
a sold item from the showroom floor. Salesmen,
when not busy selling, may assist warehousemen tn,
locating goods in a particular display. The ware-
housemen visit the showroom daily and assist the
display personnel in the same manner as the
salesmen . Both the salesmen and the display employ-
ees may assist warehousemen in moving furniture.
The warehousemen also contact the locators in the
showroom area in order to obtain a substitute item
whenever the original is not in its proper location
-an almost daily occurrence.
The two refinishers, situated in the refinishing
room in the warehouse area, repair furniture in the
shop in the showroom area at a salesman's request if
a showroom item needs a minor repair. Using their
own van, they also repair furniture at customers'
homes on request, pursuant to customer work
schedules arranged for them by warehouse clerical
employees. They assist display employees in setting
up displays in the showroom area.
The four truckdrivers deliver merchandise, in the
course of which they load, unload, and drive three
trucks. They spend the majority of their time away
from the store and the remainder, comprising 10 to
15 percent of their time, at the store. They deliver
C.O.D. receipts to the cashier in the showroom area
or to a warehouse clerical employee. They rarely
work in the warehouse. They alone drive the trucks,
although warehousemen may occasionally go out on
their trucks as assistants.
The 22 warehouse clerical employees, situated in
the "will-call" office in the warehouse area, handle
the paperwork involved in receiving, scheduling, and
storing deliveries and work with both the customers
and warehousemen in scheduling the pulling of
goods for the customer. They have some daily work
contacts with office clerical employees, locator
employees, and salesmen. The warehousemen are
unable to perform their work tasks without the
services of the warehouse clerical employees.
The warehousemen, the refinishers , the truckdriv-
ers, and the warehouse clerical employees are all
under the single immediate supervision of the
warehouse supervisor and do not transfer to other
201 NLRB No. 62
WICKES FURNITURE
departments. On the other hand, all of the Employ-
er's employees work inside a single one-story
building, work the same hours, punch the same
timeclock, use the same lounge, have the same
benefits,' and make daily contacts with nonware-
house employees, including salesmen , display em-
ployees, and office clerical employees. Salesmen and
warehousemen together participate in occasional
dock sales, in which the Employer moves large
quantities of distressed or damaged goods. There is
no bargaining history for the employees at the
Employer's store.
The store involved in this proceeding and its
operation is similar to the stores considered in
Wickes Furniture, a Division of The Wickes Corpora-
tion, 201 NLRB No. 60, and 201 NLRB No. 61, in
which we found the unit sought (selling employees)
to be inappropriate and the appropriate unit in this
type of store and operation to be the storewide unit.
While in the instant case the unit sought is on the
basis of a warehouse unit, we similarly conclude that
the fragmentation of employees into a separate unit
on such basis is not warranted under the circum-
stances shown. In our view, the proposed unit does
not meet the standards for a separate warehouse unit
enunciated by the Board in A. Harris & Co., 116
NLRB 1628, since the employees sought are not
geographically separated from the retail store opera-
tions and are engaged in activities substantially
integrated with other store functions.2
Accordingly, we conclude as in the Wickes cases,
supra, that the appropriate unit is the storewide unit.
As no labor organization seeks to represent this unit,
we shall dismiss the petition.
ORDER
It is hereby ordered that the petition herein be, and
hereby is, dismissed.
I The salesmen alone receive a commission.
2 See also Levitz Furniture Company of Santa Clara, Inc., 192 NLRB No.
13; Sears Roebuck and Company, 191 NLRB No. 84; Consolidated Supply
Company, Inc., 192 NLRB No. 134.
3 Dolnick's Furniture Co., 198 NLRB No. 105; J. W. Robinson Co., 153
NLRB 989; Joseph Loveman and Loeb Division of City Stores Company, 153
611
MEMBERS FANNING and JENKINS , dissenting:
We conclude that the facts of the instant case do
not reveal such a degree of integration of operations
as would require the dismissal of the Petitioner's
request for a separate unit of the employees in the
Employer's warehouse operation. All of the employ-
ees in the proposed warehouse unit, including the
warehousemen, the truckdrivers, the refinishers, and
the warehouse clerical employees alternatively
sought, are under the sole, immediate, and exclusive
supervision of the warehouse supervisor. Except for
the tz uckdrivers, who operate out of the warehouse
and spend most of their time driving, and the
refinishers who may repair furniture at customers'
houses, using their own vans, the warehouse employ-
ees regularly work in the warehouse area and are
exclusively engaged in warehouse-type operations,
including the operation of a hyster and a paper baler,
furniture repair work, the moving and storage of
merchandise in the warehouse, and the preparation
of warehouse clerical forms. Warehouse employees
are distinctively uniformed and, except for the
warehouse clerical employees, perform heavy manual
labor, unlike the showroom area employees. Al-
though they have some contacts with showroom
personnel, including salesmen, display employees,
and office clerical employees, there is no interchange
of their essential warehouse functions with the basic
sales functions of those employees, nor have there
been any employee transfers between the warehouse
and other areas, or vice versa. The warehouse
personnel have their own weekly warehouse meet-
ings.
In these circumstances, we would find appropriate,
and direct an election in, the Petitioner's alternative-
ly requested unit of warehousemen, warehouse
clerical employees, refinishers, and truckdrivers.3
NLRB 719; Sears, Roebuck & Co., 151 NLRB 1356; Wayside Furniture
Company, Incorporated, 166 NLRB 758 ; Stern 's Paramus, 150 NLRB 799,
Levitz Furniture Company of Santa Clara, Inc., supra, relied on by the Board
majority, is clearly distinguishable , in view of the extensive interdepartmen-
tal interchange and transfers which therein pertained.