Wilson & Co., Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Feb 8, 1949

81 N.L.R.B. 497 (N.L.R.B. 1949)

In the Matter of WILsoN & Co., INC ., EMPLOYER and UNITED PACKING-
HOUSE WORKERS OF AMERICA, C. I. 0., PETITIONER
In the Matter of WILSON & Co., INC., EMPLOYER and WILLIAM J.
PALMER, PETITIONER and UNITED PACKINGHOUSE WORKERS OF
AMERICA, LOCAL 25, C. I. 0., UNION
Cases Nos. 13-RC-430 and 13-RD-21, respectively.Decided
February 8, 1949
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon separate certification and decertification petitions duly filed,
a consolidated hearing was held before a hearing officer of the National
Labor Relations Board. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hear-
ing 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-man panel consisting of the undersigned Board
Members.*
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 organizations named below claim to represent certain
employees of the Employer.2 The Petitioner in the decertification
case asserts that Local 25 is no longer the representative of the Em-
ployer's employees within the meaning of Section 9 (a) of the Act.
.Houston , Reynolds , and Gray.
' The hearing officer 's ruling permitting intervention in the RC case by United Packing-
house Workers Amalgamated Independent Union is hereby affirmed ; as is his rejection of
evidence by the Employer bearing on the compliance of the United Packinghouse Workers
of America , C. I. 0, with Section 9 ( h) of the Act . Matter of Lion Oil Co., 76 N. L. R. B.
565. The Employer 's motion to dismiss the RC petition on the ground that the Petitioner
has not complied with Section 9 (h) is denied , as the official records of the Board indicate
that such Petitioner has in fact complied. Matter of Lion Oil Co ., supra.
2 United Packinghouse Workers of America, Local 25, C. I . O , hereinafter called Local
25, was certified on January 11, 1943, for the production and maintenance employees at
the Employer 's Chicago , Illinois , plant , with specified inclusions and exclusions, 45
N L. R. B 831. Subsequent contracts appear to have recognized the Petitioner in the
instant certification case , hereinafter called the International , as the representative of such
employees No issue of contract bar was raised at the hearing.
81 N. L. R. B., No . 91. 497
498 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
A question affecting commerce exists concerning the representation
of certain 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 parties are in agreement as to most of the categories of em-
ployees to be included in, and excluded from the unit. These in-
clusions and exclusions are based on the original certification as
amended by the contract between the Employer and the International
and by stipulations of the parties at the hearing. There is disagree-
ment only as to the inclusion of hourly paid checkers, certain hourly
paid scalers, plant commissary employees, and firemen, whom the
Employer would exclude, and the other parties include.
(1) As to the firemen, the Employer contends that they should be
excluded as "guards," notwithstanding that they have heretofore been
included in the contract unit. This contention is rejected, as we are
not satisfied from the record that they spend the major part of their
time in doing the work of "guards" as defined in Section 9 (b) (3)
of the amended Act. Matter of Carbide and Carbon Chemicals Cor-
poration, 79 N. L. R. B. 932.
(2) The plant commissary employees prepare and serve food to all
employees at the plant. The chef, assistant chef, storekeeper, and
the clerical employees have heretofore been excluded from the contract
unit as supervisors or clerks. In the absence of any evidence that they
are not supervisors or clerks, we will exclude them. The remaining
plant commissary employees have since 1945 been included in the con-
tract unit (as similar employees have been in the three other plants
of the Employer which operate plant commissaries). The Board
has frequently included plant restaurant employees in a plant-wide
unit. See Matter of Standard Romper Co., Inc., 77 N. L. R. B. 421,
and cases there cited. We will, accordingly, include the plant com-
missary employees in the instant unit, with the exceptions noted
above.
(3) As to the checkers, their duties consist of making the final
check of the product as to type and weight before shipment. They
work on the Employer's docks. Hourly paid checkers are included
in the production and maintenance units at most, if not all, the other
plants of the Employer. Moreover, the evidence indicates that most
of the checkers work about 75 percent of the time as "gang leaders,"
a category which the parties have agreed to include in the unit. We
will, accordingly, include the hourly paid checkers in the unit.'
3 Although there is no difference between the duties of the hourly paid and weekly paid
checkers , we exclude the latter pursuant to the agreement of the parties and in view of the
fact that they have been consistently excluded from the contract unit since the original
Board certification of Local 25.
WILSON & co., INC. 499
(4) As to the scalers, the Employer would exclude, and the other
parties would include, the hourly paid shrink and yield scalers.
Their job is to weigh products before and after processing to deter-
mine the shrinkage and yield of the Employer's output. Although
not named in the original certification, they have been consistently
included in the contract unit in the instant plant and in the majority
of the Employer's plants. We will include them in the unit.
We find, therefore, that the following employees of the Employer
constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining
within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act :
All production and maintenance employees at the Employer's
Chicago plant, including hourly paid checkers and scalers, gang
leaders, plant commissary employees, plant tractor drivers, carlines,
print shop and stationery department employees, stable employees,
storeroom employees, matrons, and firemen, but excluding weekly
paid scalers and checkers, the chef, the assistant chef, the store-
keeper and the clerks in the plant commissary, chauffeurs, shop fat
drivers, sanitation tractor drivers, bricklayers, office and clerical em-
ployees, general office janitors, general office employees, plant protec-
tion employees, laboratory employees, wholesale market employees,
retail market employees, office restaurant employees, office stationery
employees, superintendents, foremen, assistant foremen, assistant
superintendents, division superintendents, foreladies, sales em-
ployees, plant clerical employees, timekeeping department employees,
medical department employees, planning and methods department
employees, receiving office employees, employment department em-
ployees, koshermen, office janitors, all garage employees (including
chauffeurs, cripple cart drivers, utility chauffeurs, truck helpers, me-
chanics, greasers, washers, mechanic's helpers, truck painters, and
general handy men), brickmasons, and all supervisors.
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 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-Series 5, as amended,
among the employees in the unit found appropriate in paragraph
numbered 4, above, who were employed during the pay-roll period
immediately preceding the date of this Direction of Election, includ-
ing employees who did not work during said pay-roll period because
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500 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
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 reinstated prior to the date of the election,
and also excluding employees on strike who are not entitled to re-
instatement, to determine whether they desire to be represented, for
purposes of collective bargaining, by United Packinghouse Workers
of America, C. I. 0., and its Local 25,4 or by United Packinghouse
Workers Amalgamated Independent Union, or by neither.
+ We place the International and Local 25 on the ballot together as one choice in view
of the following circumstances :
The original certification ran to Local 25. However, all three contracts executed since
that time have been signed by the International alone, so that it is not clear which of
these two unions is the present beneficiary of the certification , and which one is , there-
fore, subject to decertification . Moreover , the decertification case has been consolidated
with a certification case initiated by the International alone and it is desirable to dispose
of the representation questions raised in both cases by a single election.