Western Condensing Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jul 1, 1946

69 N.L.R.B. 220 (N.L.R.B. 1946)

In the Matter of WESTERN CONDENSING COMPANY and INDUSTRIAL
LOCAL UNION No. 1361, CIO
Cage No. 19-R-1612.-Decided July 1, 194
Messrs. Richard R. Morris and John G. Guerin, both of Portland,
Oreg., for the Company.
Mr. A. F. Hartung, of Portland, Oreg., for the CIO.
Messrs. Edwin D. Hicks and William O'Connell, both of Portland,
Oreg., for the AFL.
Mr. David V. Easton, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon a petition duly filed by Industrial Local Union No. 1361,
CIO, hereinafter called the CIO, alleging that a question affecting
commerce had arisen concerning the representation of employees of
Western Condensing Company, Tillamook, Oregon, herein called the
Company, the National Labor Relations Board provided for an appro-
priate hearing upon due notice before Erwin A. Peterson, Trial
Examiner. The hearing was held at Tillamook, Oregon, on Septem-
ber 25, 1945. The Company, the CIO, and International Brotherhood
of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America,
affiliated with the A. F. of L., herein called the AFL, appeared and
participated. All parties were afforded full opportunity to be heard,
to examine and cross-examine witnesses, and to introduce evidence
bearing on the issues. The Trial Examiner's rulings made at the hear-
ing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed. All
parties were afforded opportunity to file briefs with the Board.
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following:
FINDINGS OF FACT
1. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
Western Condensing Company is a California corporation with
its principal office and place of business at San Francisco, California.
69 N. L . R. B., No. 21.
220
WESTERN CONDENSING COMPANY 221
It operates factories and branch offices in the States of California,
Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wisconsin, Ohio, and New
York. We are concerned herein solely with the Company's Tillamook,
Oregon, plant. The Tillamook plant is engaged in the processing and
manufacture of whey powder, milk sugar, ribolac and other milk by-
products from fluid whey. The principal raw material used at this
plant is fluid whey. During the past year the Company purchased
fluid whey for use at the Tillamook plant valued in excess of $200,000,
all of which was purchased from points within the State of Oregon.
Sales of the Tillamook plant during this period exceeded $200,000
in value, approximately 80 percent of which was made to purchasers
located outside the State of Oregon.
We find that the Company is engaged in commerce within the mean-
ing of the National Labor Relations Act.
II. THE ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED
Industrial Local Union No. 1361, affiliated with the Congress of
Industrial Organizations, is a labor organization admitting to mem-
bership employees of the Company.
International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehouse-
men and Helpers of America, affiliated with the American Federation
of Labor, is a labor organization admitting to membership employees
of the Company.
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
The Company has refused to grant recognition to the CIO as the
exclusive bargaining representative of certain employees, engaged
at its Tillamook plant until it has been certified as such by the Board.
A statement of a Board agent, introduced into evidence at the
hearing, and a statement of the Trial Examiner made at the hearing,
indicate that the CIO and the AFL each represents a substantial num-
ber of employees in the unit hereinafter found appropriate.'
We find that a question affecting commerce has arisen concerning
the representation of employees of the Company, within the meaning
of Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT
The CIO seeks a unit comprised of all production and maintenance
employees at the Company's Tillamook plant, excluding office and
3 The Field Examiner reported that the CIO submitted 11 designations containing the
names of persons appearing upon the Company 's pay roll of August 13, 1945. This pay roll
indicated that the appropriate unit contained 11 employees.
The Trial Examiner reported that the AFL submitted 7 designations , of which 6 con-
tained the names of persons appearing upon the Company 's pay roll of July 28 , 1945. Thia
pay roll indicated that the appropriate unit as of that date contained 13 employees.
222 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
supervisory employees. The AFL contends that the appropriate unit
should include not only such employees engaged at the Tillamook
plant, but also those engaged at the Company's Portland and Coquille,
Oregon, plants. The Company takes no position as to the appropriate
unit or units.
The record indicates that the Company and the AFL have been
engaged in contractual relations since 1937, pursuant to a series of
collective bargaining agreements. The last of these, dated June 1,
1944, is a 1-year agreement which was automatically renewed in 1945
and, apparently, again in 1946, inasmuch as no notice to the contrary
appears to have been given by either party to the other pursuant to
its terms. Although this contract is not asserted herein as a bar to
a current determination of representatives, the AFL urges that it be
considered as clearly evidencing a collective bargaining relationship
between the Company and itself covering in a single unit all em-
ployees of the Company engaged in the Oregon plants.
We do not agree. The recognition clause in the 1944 agreement
does not expressly designate what employees it purports to cover
but merely recites that "This agreement is executed by the [AFL ]
for and in behalf of itself and its constituent local unions and shall
be binding upon them, and is executed by the employer as a group
or association of employers and shall be binding upon them and all
of their employees coming under the jurisdiction of the local union."
The record unmistakably indicates, moreover, that the terms of the
agreement were applied only to the Company's employees engaged
at its Portland plant, and that none of the contracts between the Com-
pany and the AFL have ever been applied by the parties to the em-
ployees of the Tillamook plant. Under these circumstances we find
no merit in the AFL's contention that its collective bargaining with
the Company has been conducted on the basis of a three-plant unit.
Geographically, the Tillamook plant is located 77 miles from the
Portland plant and approximately 198 miles from the Coquille plant.
Furthermore, no evidence was introduced indicating any substantial
interchange of employees among the three plants.'
Consequently, in view of the lack of a persuasive collective bargain-
ing history upon a multiple plant basis, the segregation of the Tilla-
mook plant from the others, and the absence of evidence showing sub-
stantial interchange of employees among the three plants, we are
of the opinion that the employees of the Tillamook plant may prop-
erly comprise a separate appropriate collective bargaining unit.
We find that all production and maintenance employees of the
Company's Tillamook plant, excluding all office employees, and all
supervisory employees with authority to hire, promote. discharge,
discipline, or otherwise effect changes in the status of employees, or
WESTERN CONDENSING COMPANY 223
effectively recommend such action, constitute a unit appropriate for
the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section
9 (b) of the Act.
V. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
We shall direct that the question concerning representation which
has arisen be resolved by an election by secret ballot among employees
in the appropriate unit who were employed during the pay-roll period
immediately preceding the date of the Direction of Election herein,
subject to the limitations and additions set forth in the Direction.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
By virtue of and pursuant to the power vested in the National
Labor Relations Board by Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Rela-
tions Act, and pursuant to Article III, Section 9, of National Labor
Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 3, as amended, it is
hereby
DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation to ascertain representa-
tives for the purposes of collective bargaining with Western Con-
densing Company, Tillamook, Oregon, an election by secret ballot
shall be conducted as early as possible, but not later than sixty (60)
days from the date of this Direction, under the direction and super-
vision of the Regional Director for the Nineteenth Region, acting in
this matter as agent for the National Labor Relations Board, and
subject to Article III, Sections 10 and 11, of said Rules and Regula-
tions, among the employees in the unit found appropriate in Section
IV, above, who were employed during the pay-roll period immedi-
ately preceding the date of this Direction, including employees who
did not work during said pay-roll period because they were ill or on
vacation ortemporarily laid off, and including employees in the armed
forces of the United States who present themselves in person at the
polls, but excluding any who have since quit or been discharged for
cause and have not been rehired or reinstated prior to the date of the
election, to determine whether they desire to be represented by Indus-
trial Local Union No. 1361, CIO, or by International Brotherhood of
Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America, affili-
ated with the A. F. of L., for the purposes of collective bargaining,
or by neither.