Waldensian Hosiery Mills, Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Aug 19, 1949

85 N.L.R.B. 758 (N.L.R.B. 1949)

In the Matter of WALDENSIAN HOSIERY MILLS, INC., EMPLOYER and
AMERICAN FEDERATION OF HOSIERY WORKERS, PETITIONER
Case No. 34-RC-139.-Decided August 19,1949
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before Miles J. Mc-
Cormick, 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 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 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 appropriate unit :
The Petitioner seeks two separate bargaining units 1 consisting of
(1) all employees in the Employer's finishing plant and (2) all em-
ployees in the Employer's box plant. In both cases the Petitioner
would exclude clerical employees and supervisors. In the alternative,
the Petitioner would represent both groups in a single unit. The
Employer, however, contends that the appropriate unit should include
all production and maintenance employees in its several operations.
The Employer is engaged in the manufacture of ladies' and men's
full-fashioned and seamless hosiery. Its operations consist of a seam-
less knitting mill, a full-fashioned knitting mill, a finishing plant, and
a box plant, all located at Valdese, North Carolina, and a seamless
knitting mill at Lenoir, North Carolina. Hosiery knit at the three
' As amended at the hearing.
85 N. L. It. B., No. 136.
758
WALDENSIAN HOSIERY MILLS, INC. 759
knitting mills is sent to the finishing plant where it is dyed, stamped,
paired, boarded, boxed, and packed for shipment. The finishing
plant, however, also processes seamless hosiery purchased by the Em-
ployer from other manufacturers. The box plant manufactures the
boxes in which the Employer's products are packed and also produces
a substantial number of boxes for other hosiery companies. The fin-
ishing and box plants are located in adjacent buildings connected by
a covered ramp. The two knitting mills in Valdese are separately
located about three-fourths of a mile from the finishing and box
plants; the knitting mill in Lenoir is 16 miles from Valdese. Al-
though the Employer's entire operations are under the supervision
of a general superintendent, there is a separate superintendent in
immediate charge of each plant.
In two earlier decisions involving these plants,' we recognized the
fact that while there is some functional relationship between the op-
erations of the several plants described above, each plant performs
an operation which is substantially independent of that performed in
the other plants; each plant utilizes different skills and is separately
supervised; and there is no interchange of personnel between the
various plants. Upon such facts, in the earlier cases, we rejected
the Employer's contention that only a unit embracing the employees
of the several plants is appropriate. The Employer here contends
that since those decisions it has effected changes in its administrative
operations which militate in favor of a multiple-plant unit. Thus it
points to the fact that plant supervisors no longer have the authority
to hire or discharge employees, or to order materials and parts for
their individual plants. Personnel actions are now processed by the
personnel director, and materials and parts are obtained, upon requisi-
tion, by a central purchasing agency in the Employer's administrative
office.
We do not regard these administrative changes as sufficient to war-
rant reaching a different result at this time. No changes have been
made in the actual operations or the skills employed in the various
plants. The employees in the finishing plant and the box plant, the
two units here sought, still perform functions and utilize skills which
are different from those of employees in the other plants, and there
is still no interchange of employees between these and other plants.-
2 Matter of Waldensian Hosiery Mills , Inc., 74 N. L . R. B. 35 ( 1947 ) ; and 83 N. L. R. B.
742 (1949 ). In the first of these cases we found appropriate a unit confined to the
finishing plant employees . The Petitioner , however, was unsuccessful in the election. The
petition in the second case, in which we found appropriate a unit confined to one of the
knitting mills, was withdrawn before the election was conducted.
760 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
In these circumstances, we shall adhere to the result reached in our
earlier decisions and shall direct an election in each of the two plants
sought by the Petitioner.
We find therefore that the following employees of the Employer,
excluding office and clerical employees and all supervisors as defined
in the Act, constitute separate units appropriate for the purposes of
collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the
Act:
1. All employees in the finishing plant.3
2. All employees in the box plant.
DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the pur-
poses of collective bargaining with the Employer, elections 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 supervision
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 units found
appropriate in paragraph numbered 4, above, who were employed
during the pay-roll period immediately preceding the date of this
Direction of Elections, 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 dis-
charged 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 purposes of collective bargaining, by American
Federation of Hosiery Workers.
3 There are employed in the finishing plant , three watchmen -firemen who work separate
8-hour shifts . The principal function of these employees is to fire the boilers and main-
tain proper steam pressure . In addition they spend less than 10 minutes of each hour
in watchmen ' s duties. They are not armed or deputized . As these employees devote
only an insubstantial portion of their time to guard duties, we find that they are not
guards as defined in the Act and shall include them in the unit. Matter of waldensiaa
Hosiery Mills, Inc., 83 N. L. R. B. 742, and Hatter of Radio Corporation of America
,(R. C. A. Victor Division), 76 N. L. R. B. 826.