Walla Walla Mills, Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

May 25, 1967

164 N.L.R.B. 1070 (N.L.R.B. 1967)

1070 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Walla Walla Mills, Inc. and Laborers Union of
North America , Local No. 349 , Laborers
International Union of North America,
AFL-CIO, Petitioner . Case 19-RC-4001.
May 25,1967
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9(c) of the
National Labor Relations Act, as amended, a
hearing was held before Hearing Officer Gilbert L.
Penrose. The Hearing Officer's rulings made at the
hearing are free from prejudicial error and are
hereby affirmed. I Following the hearing, pursuant to
Section 102.67(h) of the National Labor Relations
Board Rules and Regulations, and Section 101.21 of
the Statements of Procedure, Series 8, as amended,
the Regional Director for Region 19 transferred this
case to the National Labor Relations Board for
decision.
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 organizations involved claim to
represent certain employees of the Employer.
3. A question affecting commerce exists
concerning the representation of employees of the
Employer within the meaning of Sections 9(c)(1) and
2(6) and (7) of the Act.
4. The Petitioner seeks to represent a single unit,
more specifically designated below, of all production
and maintenance employees at the Employer's
lumber mills at Walla Walla and Huntsville,
Washington, excluding employees in the woods
crews. The Employer and United Brotherhood of
Carpenters and Joiners of America, AFL-CIO, the
Intervenor herein, propose an overall unit which
would include the woods crews.
The Employer' s main office is located at Walla
Walla, Washington, where there are centralized
bookkeeping and payrolls, and a single individual
holds the title of general manager, has a seat on the
board of directors, and supervises the Employer's
total operations. In addition, the Walla Walla mill
has three supervisors, one in charge of the sawmill,
one in charge of the planer mill, loading, and dry kiln
operation, and one in charge of all trucks. One
supervisor is solely in charge of the Employer's mill
at Huntsville, Washington, and another supervisor,
headquartered at Walla Walla , is in charge of all
heavy equipment in the woods and in charge of the
woods crews.
The two mills are located approximately 25 miles
apart, and the area over which the Employer
conducts his logging operations is about 90 miles
across by highway. Transportation distances from
the logging areas to the mills vary, but average about
50 to 60 miles. The Huntsville mill processes green
pine and spruce logs while the Walla Walla mill
processes mixed species logs. Daily shipments of
rough green lumber are sent from Huntsville to
Walla Walla. All sales and shipments of finished
products are made at Walla Walla. The only product
transported to customers by the Employer is
woodchips which are trucked to pulpmills at
Wallula, Washington, and Pilot Rock, Oregon. The
other products are shipped by common carrier.
The Employer maintains centralized uniform
control over all matters concerning personnel. There
is no personnel manager as such as all policy is
formulated by the board of directors which meets
almost daily. Any labor relations problems which
may arise are handled by the general manager or by
the directors. Employees in the same job
classification are paid the same wage scale
regardless of the location of their employment.
Fringe benefits, hours, and conditions of
employment are the same for all employees, though
the woods crews may work longer shifts on occasion.
The Walla Walla mill employees operate a
sawmill, a dry kiln, a lumber stacker, a machine
shop, a planing mill, a log yard, a log pond, and a dry
lumber shed. The Huntsville mill employees operate
a sawmill, a log pond, and a log yard. The woods
crew employees fell, trim, skid, and load logs in
cutting areas remote from the mill areas, and
operate heavy mobile equipment in the course of
their work. Their job classifications are entirely
different from those of the mill employees.
Interchange of employees between mills, or between
either mill and the woods crews, is rare, and very
little has occurred in the past.
The Employer contracts out approximately 90
percent of all its logging operation, and its own
woods crew employees account for the remaining 10
percent of the logs delivered to the mills. One mill
shift operates at Huntsville and two shifts at Walla
Walla; there is one woods crew shift. About 25
percent of the total employees work at Huntsville,
about 10 to 15 percent in the woods operation, and
the remainder at the Walla Walla mill.
There is no history of collective bargaining in the
Employer's operations.
In view of the high degree of integration of the
Employer's Walla Walla and Huntsville mills, as
evidenced by the centralized control of their
operations and labor policies on an almost daily
basis by the board of directors, the commingling of
their products, and their identity of wages and
working conditions, we find that a single two-mill
unit is appropriate. We shall, however, exclude the
' The Employer' s name appears as amended at the heanng.
164 NLRB No. 146
WALLA WALLS
woods crews, in accord with the Petitioner's request,
in view of the substantial differences in their
location, functions, and conditions of employment.2
Accordingly, we find that all production and
maintenance employees at the Employer's lumber
mills at Walla Walla and Huntsville, Washington,
including log stacker operators, pond men,
mechanics, saw filers, millwrights, lumber carrier
drivers, graders, tally girls, hourly paid truckdrivers
2 Cf Malltnckrodt Chemical Works, Uranium Division, 162
NLRB 387, fn 17, E I Dupont de Nemours and Company (May
Plant, Camden, South Carolina), 162 NLRB 413
6 An election eligibility list, containing the names and
addresses of all the eligible voters, must be filed by the Employer
with the Regional Director for Region 19 within 7 days after the
MILLS, INC. 1071
other than log truckdrivers, and sawmill, planer, and
shipping department employees; but excluding
office employees and loading crews, log
truckdrivers, skidders, lumber jacks, and all other
woods crew employees, and all supervisors as
defined in the Act, constitute a unit appropriate for
the purposes of collective bargaining within the
meaning of Section 9(b) of the Act.
[Direction of Election3 omitted from publication.]
date of this Decision and Direction of Election . The Regional
Director shall make the list available to all parties to the election.
No extension of time to file this list shall be granted by the
Regional Director except in extraordinary circumstances Failure
to comply with this requirement shall be grounds for setting aside
the election whenever proper objections are filed . Excelsior
Underwear Inc., 156 NLRB 1236.