Tougaw & Olson, Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jul 30, 1948

78 N.L.R.B. 810 (N.L.R.B. 1948)

In the Matter of TOUGAW & OLSON, INC., EMPLOYER AND PETITIONER and
INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS, CHAUFFEURS, WARE-
HOUSEMEN AND HELPERS, LOCAL No. 910, A. F. L. and INTERNATIONAL
WOODWORKERS OF AMERICA LOCAL No. 2-157, C. I. 0..
In the Matter of TOUGAW & OLSON, INC., EMPLOYER and INTERNATIONAL
BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS , CHAUFFEURS , WAREHOUSEMEN AND
HELPERS, LOCAL No. 910, A. F. L., PETITIONER
Cases Nos. 19-RE-31 and 19-R-2154, respectively .Decided
July 30,1948
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon separate petitions duly filed, a consolidated hearing was held
before a hearing officer of the National Labor Relations Board. The
hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudi-
cial error and are hereby affirmed. _
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-man panel consisting of Chairman Herzog and
Members Murdock and Gray.
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 organizations named below claim to represent em-
ployees of the Employer.
3. The question concerning representation :
For several years, International Woodworkers of America, Local
No. 2-157, C. I. 0., herein called the Woodworkers, has represented
employees engaged in the Employer's logging operations in the vicin-
ity of Wilkinson, Washington, and it now claims to represent them.
International Brotherhood of Teamsters claims to represent the log
truck drivers employed in the same operations. Faced with these
conflicting claims with respect to some of its employees, the Employer
78 N. L. R. B., No. 99.
810
TOUGAW & OLSON, INC. 811
refused to recognize either labor organization and filed its petition
in Case No. 19-RE-31. In furtherance of its claim to represent the
drivers, the Teamsters filed its petition in Case No. 19-R-2154.
We find that a question affecting commerce exists concerning the
representation 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 determination of representatives:
The Woodworkers and the Employer contend that all employees en-
gaged in the Employer's logging operations, including the log truck
drivers, but excluding supervisors, constitute an appropriate unit.
The Teamsters opposes the establishment of such an operation-wide
unit, and urges the creation of a separate unit of logging truck drivers,
whom it seeks to represent.
The Employer carries on logging operations from May to Novem-
ber each year. This seasonal enterprise is entirely separate from its
long established year-round general trucking business, in which it
employs a greater number of permanent employees. The employees,
,of the logging operations fall into three general categories : (1) fellers
and buckers, who fell the trees and cut them into log lengths; (2)
.yarders and loaders, who convey the logs by donkey engine and
tractor to cleared yarding areas and there load them on trucks and
-trailers; and (3) truck drivers, who haul the logs to a railroad site
where control of the wood passes to the owner of the timber. In the
1947 operations, the drivers hauled the logs a distance of 11 miles over
mountain roads.
Of the eight truck drivers who hauled logs in the 1947 operations,
four were also employed during the remainder of the year in the
Employer's over-the-road trucking business. Whenever the logging
operations were suspended for any reason, these employees were as-
signed to work in the Employer's general trucking enterprise. They
have enjoyed the benefits of a seniority system covering all the Em-
ployer's general truck drivers. The other four. log drivers owned
their own trucks and were paid on a footage basis, but the Employer
exercised the same authority over all its log drivers. All of them
are hired at the Employer's office in the town of Enumclaw and are
required to be experienced in their work. The remaining logging-
employees are seasonal workers, hired at the logging site; they do•
not regularly return to the Employer from year to year and are not
included in the truck drivers' seniority system. There is no transfer
of employees between the log drivers and the other logging employees.,
The record is not clear as to whether the log drivers have been,
represented by the Woodworkers or by the Teamsters in the Employ-
er's past bargaining history. Previous collective bargaining con-
812 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
tracts with the Woodworkers covered "logging operations" and men-
tioned, among other employees, transportation crews, but did not
specifically include log drivers. The Teamsters has negotiated with
the Employer for raises on behalf of the log drivers, and represented
them before the War Labor Board. The logging superintendent
testified that the Employer always deemed the log drivers excluded
from its contracts with the Woodworkers. For the past 13 years the
Teamsters has represented the truck drivers in the Employer's general
trucking business.
The foregoing facts indicate that the log drivers exercise a definite
skill in their work and have interests differing substantially from
those of the other employees in the logging operations. It appears,
therefore, that they comprise a group sufficiently homogeneous and
skilled to constitute a separate bargaining unit.' It further appears,
however, that the Employer conducts its logging operations as an
integrated enterprise and that an operation-wide unit would also be
feasible. Accordingly, we shall not now make any finding as to the
appropriate unit, but shall determine the desires of the employees
themselves by directing an election among the log truck drivers.
Upon the results of the election will depend, in part, our determina-
tion of the appropriate unit.
The Woodworkers has failed to comply with the filing requirements
of Section 9 (f) and (h) of the amended Act. We shall, therefore,
not direct an election among the remaining employees in the logging
operations, because the Teamsters does not claim or wish to represent
these employees, and because the Woodworkers cannot be placed on
the ballot in a Board-ordered election.2
In accordance with the foregoing, we shall direct that an election
be held among all the log truck drivers employed in the Employer's
logging operations in the vicinity of Wilkinson, Washington, exclud-
ing all supervisors within the meaning of the Act. If, in this elec-
tion, the employees select the Teamsters, they will be considered to
have indicated their desire to constitute a separate bargaining unit.
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
3 Matter of Setzer Box Company, 64 N. L. R. B. 605.
2 Matter of Rite-Form Corset Company, Inc., 75 N. L. R . B. 174 ; Matter of Herman
Loewenstein, Inc., 75 N L. R B 377.
TOUGAW & OLSON, INC. 813
supervision of the Regional Director for the Nineteenth Region, and
subject to Sections 203.61 and 203.62 of National Labor Relations
Board Rules and Regulations-Series 5, among the employees in the
voting group described 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 ex-
cluding those employees who have since quit or been discharged for
cause and have not been rehired or reinstated 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 the purposes of collective bargaining , by Inter-
national Brotherhood of Teamsters , Chauffeurs , Warehousemen and
Helpers, Local No. 910 , A. F. L.
MEMBER GRAY took no part in the consideration of the above
Decision and Direction of Election.