Wickes Furniture

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Apr 2, 1981

255 N.L.R.B. 545 (N.L.R.B. 1981)

WICKES FURNITURE 545
Wickes Furniture, a Division of the Wickes Corpora-
tion and Local Union No. 243, International
Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Ware-
housemen and Helpers of America, Petitioner.
Case 7-RC-15832
April 2, 1981
DECISION ON REVIEW
On May 30, 1980, the Regional Director for
Region 21 issued a Decision and Direction of Elec-
tion in the above-entitled proceeding in which he
found appropriate for the purposes of collective
bargaining a unit consisting of all full-time and reg-
ular part-time warehouse employees and refinishing
employees employed by the Employer at its Li-
vonia, Michigan, facility. Thereafter, the Employer
filed a request for review of the Regional Direc-
tor's Decision and Direction of Election, on the
ground, inter alia, that a unit limited to those em-
ployees is inappropriate. By telegraphic order
dated July 7, 1980, the Board granted the request
for review with respect to that issue.
The Board has considered the entire record in
this case with respect to the issue under review and
hereby adopts the findings2 and conclusions of the
Regional Director, with respect to that issue, as set
forth in the portion of his Decision and Direction
of Election attached hereto.3
' The parties filed briefs on review; amicus curiae statements were sub-
mitted by Levitz Furniture Corporation and Thrifty Drug and Discount
Stores.
2 We do not adopt the Regional Director's finding that warehouse em-
ployees "generally spend about 85 to 90 percent of their time in the
warehouse area of the store," because that finding involves a credibility
determination as to the various estimates given by witnesses whom the
Regional Director did not observe. However, because the record shows
that the warehousemen generally spend no less than 60 to 70 percent of
their time in the warehouse, and that some warehousemen spend an even
greater portion of their time there, we are satisfied that the Regional Di-
rector's conclusion with regard to the warehousemen's community of in-
terest is supported by the factor of their primary, separate work location.
Similarly, while there is some conflict as to the percentage of the time
the refinishers spend in the "shop," it is undisputed that they work pre-
ponderantly in the "shop" and warehouse areas, and that they have sub-
stantial, daily work contact with the warehouse employees.
We affirm the Regional Director's exclusion of the four will-call cleri-
cals from the warehouse unit. They have frequent contact with and their
duties appear to be closely related to those of other nonunit personnel;
namely, sales, office clerical, and data -processing employees. Although
will-call employees also deal with warehouse employees, such contacts
take place primarily in the office of the former, and they spend no more
than a minimal amount of time in the warehouse when they return items
of merchandise thereto. We therefore conclude in agreement with the
Regional Director that the will-call employees should be excluded from
the unit because their interests are more closely related to those of other
nonunit employees than to those of the warehouse employees.
3 We find no merit in the contention that the Regional Director's con-
clusions regarding the appropriateness of a warehouse and refinishing
unit is in conflict with decisions of other regional directors with which
we have been presented, notably, Wickes Furniture, a Division of The
Wickes Corporation, Case 31-RC-4580 (1979), and Levitz Furniture Com-
pony of the Pacific Inc., 31-RC-4547 (1979). In Wickes Furniture. a Divi-
sion of The Wickes Corporation, 231 NLRB 154 (1977), the Board found
insufficient evidence of operational integration of the entire Rochester,
New York, facility to warrant a finding that only an overall unit was ap-
255 NLRB No. 80
Accordingly, as we have affirmed the Regional
Director, we shall, and hereby do, remand this pro-
ceeding to him in order that he may open and
count the ballots in the election held herein and for
further appropriate action.
propriate, holding instead that a unit of selling employees was appropri-
ate there. In Case 31-RC-4580, the Regional Director for Region 31 dis-
tinguished the operation at the Wickes store in Woodland Hills, Califor-
nia, from the operations of the Rochester store and found, in essence, that
pursuant to recent management policies promulgated by the Wickes Cor-
poration and implemented gradually at Woodland Hills, the operating
parts of that store were much more highly integrated than were the cor-
responding parts of the Rochester store. While the Employer claims in
the instant case that the same new policies affect the Livonia, Michigan,
store involved here, the evidence does not establish that, as of the date of
the hearing, the Livonia store had in fact become significantly more inte-
grated than the Rochester store. Moreover, Leviz Furniture Company of
the Pacific, Inc., supra, on which the Employer relies, is distinguishable in
that the facts there more closely resembled those found in the Employer's
Woodland Hills operation and in other Levitz Furniture cases than those
found in the Rochester Wickes case. We therefore conclude that our deci-
sion in 231 NLRB 154 with respect to distinct communities of interest is
dispositive here. Accordingly, we find, in agreement with the Regional
Director, that a separate warehouse unit located in a single facility com-
bining warehouse and nonwarehouse functions is an appropriate unit for
collective bargaining. See Welsech Lumber and Supply. Inc.. d/b/a Big
Buck Lumber, 241 NLRB 639 (1979), and Sears Roebuck and Co.. supra,
235 NLRB at 678-680. Further because the refinishers share a close com-
munity of interest with the warehouse employees in this case, the Region-
al Director appropriately included them in the unit.
APPENDIX
The Employer operates three combined retail furniture
stores and warehouses in the Detroit Metropolitan area
located in Livonia, Warren, and Riverview, Michigan.
The petitioned-for Livonia store is twenty-five miles dis-
tant from both the Warren and Riverview stores, while
thirty-seven miles separate the Warren and Riverview
stores. There is no history of collective bargaining at any
of the three stores.
The Livonia store occupies a single 97,000 square foot
building. Approximately one half of the building is a
warehousing area with the remaining portion containing
several customer display sites and a central office. The
customer entrance, located at the center of the west side
of the building, opens onto a long main corridor which
extends nearly to the back of the building; the corridor
contains a variety of furniture displays. To the right of
the customer as he enters is the warehouse area, which is
separated from the main aisle by a 10 foot high wall. Ad-
jacent to the customer entrance are swinging doors lead-
ing into the loading dock area and warehouse. Addition-
ally, the right hand wall has several windows and fire
doors leading into the warehouse. On the left hand side
of the main corridor is a center island containing a will-
call or warehouse office, a customer lounge, and res-
trooms and a front office area housing managerial of-
fices, a cash register area, and the locator. Just past the
front office area and near the entrance to the main sales
room floor is the "point" where sales consultants meet
the customers.
The warehouse area contains 22 aisles of furniture.
The front or west wall of the warehouse area has nine
doors for the loading and receiving of merchandise with
WICKES FURNITURE
546 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
the two doors closest to the main customer entrance
being reserved for customer loading. The seven doors
farthest from the customer entrance contain truck wells
where incoming merchandise is received. At the far end
of the main corridor is an enclosed repair shop. The
main entrance of the repair shop opens into the ware-
house and it also has a door leading into the main sales
floor area. Adjacent to the repair shop on the warehouse
floor is an area reserved for furniture that has been re-
paired. The main sales floor is located to the left of the
center aisle and the island of offices; it is separated from
the center aisle and warehouse by a wall that extends to
the ceiling of the building. The customer entrance to the
main sales room is adjacent to the front office area.
There is also a partial second floor to the building above
the island area which contains an employee lounge and a
vending machine room, electric data processing room
(EDP), a conference room, and a clearance loft.
Approximately 68 employees are employed at the Li-
vonia store, who fall into the following six job areas or
classifications: sixteen warehouse employees, three refin-
ishers, twenty-one clericals, three electronic data
processing employees, two display employees, and
twenty-three sales consultants. In addition there is a
complex manager, a sales manager and an operations
manager.
Pay rates differ among classifications but fringe bene-
fits are uniform except that they differ between full-time
and part-time employees. Wage rates are as follows:
Warehouse employees range from $3.40 to $6.40 per
hour with an average of $6.00. Refinishers start at $6.85
per hour, and the starting rate for clericals is $3.10 an
hour. Salesmen are paid by commission based on 4.5% of
their sales volume, and receive a draw against commis-
sion of $150 per week, with the top salesman earning
$1600 a month. The wage rates of the other employees is
not set forth on the record. All employees in the six job
areas eat in the same lunch room, sign time sheets, gener-
ally work eight hour shifts, attend store-wide parties
sponsored by the Employer, and participate in the incen-
tive program and in contests sponsored by the Employer.
Because they are paid by commission, sales consultants
accumulate points at a lesser rate under the incentive
program than do other employees. Certain contests, in
which the company awards trips and prizes, are only
open to the sales consultants and management.
Warehouse employees generally spend about 85 to
90% of their time in the warehouse area of the store
with the remainder being spent in the will-call area, the
repair shop, and the sales floor. The warehouse employ-
ees are divided into the following functional sub-groups:
Warehousemen, who generally drive hi-lo's, pull mer-
chandise from stock, and take to and obtain merchandise
from the repair shop; Dockmen, who generally load fur-
niture into customer's cars and unload and check mer-
chandise delivered at the receiving area; and the Deluxer,
who works in the receiving area inspecting furniture,
performing minor repairs and assembly and otherwise
preparing furniture for delivery. One warehouse employ-
ee, however, spends about 75% of his time on the sales
floor aiding display employees in the placement of furni-
ture.
According to the Employer, this employee reports to
Sales Assistant Joseph Smalcuga and reports to Oper-
ations Assistant Keith Nelson when working in the ware-
house.
Once a month when major changes are made on the
furniture displays certain warehousemen assist in moving
the furniture; this is often done before normal store hours
when sales employees are not present. Furthermore,
about once a week a number of warehousemen also assist
in the moving of merchandise on the display floor. Addi-
tionally, about once a week warehousemen may be asked
by sales assistants to move furniture to or from the clear-
ance loft.
Except for loading customers' cars warehouse employ-
ees have little contact with customers. All paper work
from the warehouse to the will-call office, EDP, and the
front office area is routed through Senior Warehouseman
Richard Dorf.
The refinishers spend 70% of their time repairing fur-
niture in the shop with the remainder being expended
fixing furniture in the receiving area and on the display
floor. Generally, the warehousemen take the furniture
that needs to be repaired to the shop; occasionally a sales
consultant or display employee will bring damaged mer-
chandise into the shop. Refinishers also help inspect fur-
niture prior to delivery. One refinisher spends 95% of his
time repairing furniture in customer's homes. Once the
furniture is repaired, the refinishers return the furniture
to the area in the warehouse outside of the shop, and
from there warehousemen return it to stock.
Sales consultants are primarily responsible for sales of
furniture, accessories, and credit insurance. Nearly 60%
of their time is spent on the selling floor, with the re-
mainder in the clerical areas. A sales consultant may, on
occasion, go into the customer loading area to inspect
furniture if there is a problem raised by a customer or to
show a customer furniture that is not on display. Sales
consultants do not generally help load automobiles with
furniture. However, they will carry to the customers'
cars accessories, such as lamps or pictures which would
otherwise be performed by the customer. Salesmen occa-
sionally deliver furniture to a customer's home in a com-
pany van, but the vast majority of the deliveries are per-
formed by an outside contractor.
When a salesman effects a sale, he takes the customer
to the cashier in the front office area, writes up the sales
ticket, and gives it to the front office clerical. One or the
other of the two then requests the locator clerical for the
warehouse location of the purchased items. The sales
ticket and merchandise location information is then trans-
mitted to the will-call or warehouse office by means of a
pneumatic tube.
Display and merchandising employees' primary re-
sponsibilities are to arrange the furniture displays on the
sales floor and to provide decorating assistance to cus-
tomers. The vast majority of their time is spent arranging
furniture and preparing sales floor displays. They also
visit customers homes and do occasionally take damaged
merchandise to the repair shop. They also enter the
warehouse in order to obtain or return accessories used
in connection with their display work.
WICKES FURNITURE 547
The clericals work in two different areas: the will-call
office and the front office area. Will-call clericals are as-
signed to the areas of receiving, customer service, and
deliveries, where they share an office with Senior Ware-
houseman Richard Dorf. After merchandise had been re-
ceived and tagged by the warehousemen, a receiving
clerical checks the information against purchase orders
and bills of lading. After a sale has been made, the sales
ticket along with location information, is sent to the will-
call office from the front office. For take-with merchan-
dise the delivery clerical in the will-call office pages the
warehouseman, who is to pull the merchandise, set out
the merchandise order and location information for him.
In case of merchandise to be delivered, the will-call cler-
icals prepare a delivery schedule and post it in the will-
call office for the warehousemen.
Customer complaints, returns, or exchanges, are re-
ferred to will-call clericals. The customer service clerical
completes the paper work necessary for the transaction,
and where an exchange is involved contacts the locator
clerical to determine the location of the furniture, and
then pages a warehouseman to the will-call office. The
warehouseman will thereupon pull the merchandise from
stock, and direct the customer to the customer loading
area when it is ready. At times, the will-call clericals
may return accessories to the warehouse.
Clericals assigned to the front office area assist in sales
paper work, perform inventory control, perform credit
functions, maintain customer files, complete documents
involving inter-store furniture transfers, prepare inputs
for EDP, and perform other office functions. Ninety-five
per cent of their time is spent in the front office area.
Occasionally these clericals will assist in the sales of
credit insurance and will encourage customers to finance
their purchases.
EDP employees work in the computer room on the
second floor, where they feed information into the com-
puter relating to sales, deliveries, inventory, and location
of furniture. They receive from all job areas data which
is to be placed in the computer.
Interchange between the petitioned-for unit of the
warehousemen and refinishers and the remaining store
employees is minimal. While several warehousemen have
permanently transferred to refinisher positions, no ware-
housemen or refinishers have ever permanently trans-
ferred to any of the clerical or sales positions. No sales
or clerical employees have ever transferred into ware-
house or refinisher positions. Five clericals have trans-
ferred to EDP positions, one customer service clerical
has transferred into a merchandise clerical position, and
one clerical was transferred to a sales consultant position.
Temporary interchange among the job areas is mini-
mal. Warehouse employees occasionally fill in for receiv-
ing clericals in the will-call office. Additionally, in 1979,
16 sales consultants each spent a total of about six hours
in customer service, receiving, credit, and location func-
tions, apparently, as a part of their initial job orientation.
On the other hand, when warehouse employees are hired
they are only given a tour of the warehouse facilities and
they receive no cross training. On December 26, 1979,
there were several transfers between clerical and dis-
play/merchandising positions. All employees participate
in the annual furniture inventory and the semi-annual ac-
cessories inventories. Except as set forth above there is
no cross-training of the employees in the six job areas.
The supervisory hierarchy of the Livonia store is as
follows: At the apex of the managerial hierarchy is Com-
plex Manager Lawrence Gerlach. He is assisted by Oper-
ations Assistant Manager Keith Nelson who is in charge
of the warehouse, refinishing, and the clerical and EDP
employees and Sales Assistant Manager Jospeh Smalcuga
who is in charge of the sales consultants and the display/
merchandising employees. The parties stipulated that
they are supervisors within the meaning of the Act, and
I so find. The record, however, further reveals that the
display/merchandising area is headed by a display man-
ager named Allen Radford and the front office by a
senior clerical or office manager named Cheryl Fronek
whose statuses I need not determine in view of the unit
finding I make below. Additionally, there is also a senior
warehouseman or warehouse supervisor and two ware-
house lead men, whose statuses are in issue. Senior
Warehouseman Richard Dorf is referred to by other
warehousemen as warehouse supervisors.
He assigns and directs the work of warehousemen,
prepares posted work schedules, grants warehouse em-
ployees excused time off, and approves job transfer. Dorf
also interviews job applicants. Although Dorf has never
hired an employee and the Employer denies that he has
any such authority, the previous senior warehousemen
hired employees during Lawrence Gerlach's tenure as
complex manager. Moreover, unlike other warehouse-
men, Richard Dorf has a desk in the warehouse office,
performs little if any manual work, wears a suit and tie,
earns a substantially higher pay, is payed bi-weekly, re-
ceives no overtime pay, and does not sign in and out for
work. Based on the foregoing, I conclude that Richard
Dorf, senior warehouseman or warehouse supervisor, is a
supervisor within the meaning of Section 2(11) of the
Act. Butter-Johnson Corporation, 237 NLRB 688.
Up until recently, the Board found warehouse employ-
ee units to be appropriate in retail operations only where,
(I) such employees came under separate supervision, (2)
such employees performed substantially all their work in
buildings geographically separated from those whereat
the other employees worked, and (3) such employees'
duties were not substantially integrated with those of
other employees. A. Harris & Co., 116 NLRB 1628;
Levitz Furniture of Santa Clara, 192 NLRB 61. In apply-
ing this doctrine to the Employer's facilities, the Board
concluded initially that only wall-to-wall units would be
appropriate. Wickes Furniture a Division of the Wickes
Corporation, 201 NLRB 606; Wickes Furniture a Division
of the Wickes Corporation, 201 NLRB 608; Wickes Furni-
ture a Division of the Wickes Corporation, 201 NLRB 610.
However, more recently, the Board found less than a
store-wide unit to be appropriate where the employee
group had a separate and identifiable community of inter-
WCKES FURNITURE 7
548 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
est. Thus, in Wickes Furniture, 231 NLRB 154, the Board
demarcated a unit delimited to sales employees in a store
similar to that in the present case where the sales em-
ployees were under separate supervision, spent the large
majority of time on the salesroom floor, and had minimal
contacts with warehouse employees. More significantly,
in a factual context that closely parallels the one in the
instant case, the Board has recently found as appropriate
a unit limited to warehouse employees in a combined
wholesale and retail operation. Welsch Lumber and
Supply, Inc. d/b/a Big Buck Lumber, 241 NLRB 639.
More specifically, the Board there found as appropriate a
bargaining unit limited to yard men (i.e. warehousemen)
and drivers but excluding loaders, gate checkers, sales-
men, inventory control employees, cashiers and front
office clerical, even though there was common overall
supervision, some overlapping of job duties, some func-
tional integration, common working conditions and bene-
fits and a warehousing area which was not geographical-
ly separate from the sales operation, in the sense applied
under A. Harris, supra, that is, physical apartness, not
merely separation. The Board in Big Buck Lumber held
that the warehouse employees constituted an appropriate
unit since warehouse employees (with a few exceptions)
worked in a separate area, there was no substantial em-
ployee interchange, the warehouse-yard men came under
separate immediate supervision, and were the only em-
ployees who performed traditional warehouse function.
Similarly, in Sears Roebuck & Co., 235 NLRB 678, the
Board found appropriate a unit limited to warehousemen,
drivers, and helpers in a combined warehouse and serv-
ice center operation. Excluded from the unit found to be
appropriate were clerical, parts department employees
and repairmen, notwithstanding common overall supervi-
sion, common benefits, some functional overlap between
warehouse and non-warehouse employees, and the de-
pendency of warehouse operations in the paper work
generated by the clericals. The Board rested its decision
on the factors of these warehousemen, drivers, and help-
ers performing traditional warehouse work, having sepa-
rate immediate supervision, and occupying a separate
and distinct area of the warehouse.
Applying Big Buck Lumber and other recent cases to
the facts of the instant case, I find the petitioned-for unit
of warehousemen and refinishers to be appropriate in
view of their working in a separate and discrete ware-
house area of the store, their minimal work contacts with
the sales consultants, the display employees, and the cler-
icals, their lack of any significant temporary or perma-
nent interchange with other employees and their being
the only ones performing traditional warehouse work
functions. It is appropriate to include the refinishers in
the unit because they share the same immediate supervi-
sion with the warehousemen, there is substantial function
integration and overlap between the duties of warehouse-
men and refinishers, the repair shop is adjacent to and
opens into the warehouse area, and they otherwise have
similar wages and other working conditions.
The clericals in the warehouse office, particularly
those assigned to delivery and receiving functions, have
some identification with the warehouse employees.-War-
ehousemen have daily contact with such clericals but it
generally takes the form of clericals posting orders for
warehousemen to pull from stock. Ocasionally, a ware-
houseman will temporarily fill in for receiving clericals,
but will-call office clericals also interchange with front
office clericals. Moreover, the will-call office clericals
have more contact with EDP employees and front office
clericals than they do with the warehouse employees.
Based on the foregoing, I conclude that the will-call
office clericals have a greater community of interest with
the front office clericals and EDP employees than they
do with the warehousemen, and for that reason they will
be excluded from the unit. Sears & Roebuck Company,
supra at 680.