Central Rufina

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jan 23, 1951

92 N.L.R.B. 1509 (N.L.R.B. 1951)

In the Matter of MARio MERCADO E HIJos, D/B/A CENTRAL RUFINA,'
EMPLOYER and LocAL 1674, INTERNATIONAL LONGSHOREMEN 'S Asso-
CIATION, DISTRICT COUNCIL No. 1, AFL, PETITIONER
. Case No. 24-RC-85.Decided January 23,1951
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National
Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before George L. Weasler,
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 Act, the Board
has delegated its powers in connection with this case to a three-member
panel [Members Houston, Murdock, and Styles].
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in. commerce within the meaning of
the Act.
2. The labor organization involved claims to represent certain em-
ployers 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 a unit composed of all checkers of the Employer
employed aboard ship and ashore. The Employer objects to such a
unit on the grounds that some of the employees involved are perma-
nent employees of the Employer, usually engaged in some other
activity, that the remaining checkers are temporary employees having
no community of interest with the permanent employees or with one
another, and that all the checkers act as guards and supervisors. We
find no merit in any of these contentions.
The employees sought by the Petitioner count the number of sugar
bags delivered by the Employer to a ship being loaded, and prepare
tally sheets of the count. As not more than 9 ships are loaded in the
course of a year, the work is intermittent, and provides employment
for only about 20 to 30 days a year. However, the Employer cus-
1 The name of the Employer appears as amended at the hearing.
92 NLRB No. 222. 1509
1510 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
tomarily calls the same people when a ship is in port to be loaded,
and several of the Employer's 20 to 25 checkers have been performing
this type of work for the Employer over a period of years. Under
these circumstances, we find that the checkers are regular part-time
employees entitled to choose a collective bargaining representative to
deal with the Employer.2
The checkers are hired at the docks and they work at the docks and
aboard ships in the harbor of Guayanilla, Puerto Rico, in contrast
with other employees of the Employer, who work at the Employer's
plant in Guayanilla and at its business office in Ponce, Puerto Rico.
The employment of the checkers, unlike that of. other employees of
the Employer, is limited to such times as ships are ready to be loaded
in the harbor. In view of the fact that the interests and working
conditions of the checkers differ so distinctly from those of all the
other employees of the Employer, we find that the checkers may con-
stitute a separate appropriate unit.
While some of the checkers have regular jobs with the Employer,
it appears that they do the checking work to earn extra money, and
are not transferred to this work from their regular occupations. No
other labor organization represents or claims to represent these or any
other employees of the Employer. Under these conditions, we are
reluctant to deprive these employees of representation during the time
they are employed as checkers. Therefore, we shall place them in the
unit for the time they are performing checking work.3
While the checkers count sugar bags on behalf of management and,
on occasion, tell the sewers to sew up a torn bag, such activity clearly
does not make them supervisors or guards within the meaning of the
Act.
Accordingly, we find that all checkers aboard and ashore, employed
by the Employer at Guayanilla, Puerto Rico, excluding all other em-
ployees, watchmen, guards, timekeepers, and supervisors 4 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.
5. The determination of representatives:'
In view of the intermittent nature of the employment of the check-
ers, we have modified our usual direction of election to provide that all
checkers whose names appeared on three or more payrolls of the
Employer in the 8 months preceding this Direction shall be eligible
to vote.
2 Fajardo Development Company, 76 NLRB 956; Tamphon Trading Company , Inc., 88
NLRB 597.
8 Delaware Broadcasting Company , 82 NLRB 727.
4It is not clear from the record whether the two head checkers are supervisors within
the meaning of the Act. If they are supervisors they are deemed excluded from the unit ;
otherwise they shall be included.
CENTRAL RUFINA
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
1511
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 super-
vision of the Regional Director for the Region in which this case was
heard, and subject to Sections 102.61 and 102.62 of National Labor
Relations Board Rules and Regulations, among the employees in the
unit found appropriate in paragraph numbered 4, above, who are
named as checkers on three or more different payrolls within the period
commencing May 1, 1950, and ending with the payroll immediately
preceding the date of this Direction of Election, including employees
in the military services of the United States who appear in person at
the polls, 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 reinstatement, to determine whether or not they
desire to be represented, for purposes of collective bargaining, by Local
1674, International Longshoremen'E Association, District Council No.
1, AFL.