Tyee Plywood Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Feb 27, 1950

88 N.L.R.B. 858 (N.L.R.B. 1950)

In the Matter of TYED PLYWOOD COMPANY, EMPLOYER and PUGET
SOUND DISTRICT COUNCIL, LUMBER AND SAWMILL WORKERS UNION,
AFL, PETITIONER
. Case No. 19-RC-430.-Decided February 27,1950
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before Howard A.
McIntyre, hearing 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 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 Reynolds].
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer, a corporation of the State of Washington, is
engaged at Tyee, Washington, in the manufacturing of plywood from
lumber secured within the State through its own logging operations.
Monthly sales of plywood during full production periods are about
$100,000. All of the Employer's products are shipped out of the
State. Heavy machinery used in the Employer's business, valued at
approximately $100,000, was purchased outside the State. We find
that the Employer is engaged in interstate commerce within the
meaning of the National Labor Relations Act.
2. The Petitioner and the Intervenor are labor organizations within
the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act.
3. The Intervenor contends that its contract with the.Employer
executed in September 1948, with a termination date of April 1, 1950,
' The hearing officer reserved for the Board's ruling the motion of the Intervenor, Local
9-53, Plywood and Veneer Workers Union, International Woodworkers of America, C'. I. 0.,
to dismiss the petition on the grounds (a) that a majority of the Employer's employees
are members of the Intervenor, and (b) the Intervenor's current contract with the Employer
is a bar to this proceeding. As to ground (a), the motion is denied because the desires of
the employees as to representation are best determined by a secret election. The motion
is denied as to ground ( b), for the reasons stated in paragraph 3, infra.
88 NLRB No. 158,
858
TYEE PLYWOOD COMPANY 859
is a bar to this proceeding. The Petitioner opposes this contention on
the ground that the contract contains an unlawful union-shop clause.2
Article XII of the contract contains the following provision :
UNION SHOP
In the event -the Company hires an employee not a member
of the Union, such employee shall after thirty (30) days' em-
ployment, if satisfactory to the Company, be required to become
a member of the Union. If for any reason such employee fails
to become a member of the Union, the Company agrees on written
request of the Union to release said employee from employment.
All employees who are now, or shall hereafter become, members
of the Union, shall maintain continuous membership in the
Union.
No union-authorization election pursuant to Section 9 (e) (1) of
the Act has been held. The foregoing union-shop provision, there-
fore, contravenes Section 8 (a) (3) of the Act and prevents the con-
tract from operating as a bar to this proceeding.3 We find no merit
in the Intervenor's contentions that the contract is saved because the
union-shop provision has never been enforced, that a 9 (e) (1) election
was unavoidably delayed because the Employer had temporarily
closed its plant, and that, in any event, this provision is severable from
the rest of the contract. We have frequently held that the mere
existence of such a provision in a contract acts as a restraint upon
those desiring to refrain from union activities within the meaning
of Section 7 of the Act.' Under these circumstances,' and as, more-
over, there now remains only about 1 month of the contract's term,
we find that the contract is not a bar to a present determination of
representatives.
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. We find, in accord with the agreement of the parties, that all
production and maintenance employees at the Employer's Tyee, Wash-
ington, plant, excluding office employees, the superintendent, foremen,
'The Petitioner also asserts that the contract is not a bar because the Intervenor is
defunct. We find that although the Intervenor conducted no union activities for several
months in 1949, at a time when the Employer's plant was temporarily closed, no action was
eve" taken to terminate its existence and it is presently a functioning, going organization.
., Reading Tube Corporation, 8. NLRB 550.
4 Hygrade Food Products Corporation, 85 NLRB 841 ; Unique Art Manufacturing Co., 83
NLRB 1250 ; Lykens Hosiery Mills, Inc., 82 NLRB 981 ; C. Hager & Sons Hinge Manufac-
turing Company, 80 NLRB 163.
5 Empire Zinc Division, The New Jersey Zinc Compann. 86 NLRB 685, and cases cited
therein.
860 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
and all other supervisors as defined in the Act, constitute a unit appro-
priate 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 payroll period immediately preceeding the
date of this Direction of Election, including employees who did not
work during said payroll 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
they desire to be represented, for purposes of collective bargaining,
by Puget Sound District Council, Lumber and Sawmill Workers
Union, AFL, or by Local 9-53, Plywood and Veneer Workers Union,
International Woodworkers of America, C. I. 0., or by neither.