92 N.L.R.B. 862 (N.L.R.B. 1950)

Coberly-West Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board DecisionsDec 20, 1950

92 N.L.R.B. 862 (N.L.R.B. 1950)

In the Matter of COBERLY-WEST COMPANY, EMPLOYER and NATIONAL FARM LABOR UNION, LOCAL 218, AFL, PETITIONER Case No. 21-RC-1641.-Decided December 00, 1950 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 Ben Grodsky, hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from preju- dicial 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-mem- ber panel [Chairman Herzog and Members Houston and Reynolds]. 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 organization involved claims to represent certain em- ployees 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 Petitioner seeks a unit of employees at the Employer's two cotton gins at Wheeler Ridge, California, excluding office and clerical employees, professional employees, guards, and supervisors. The em- ployer contends that the only appropriate unit would include the employees at its other seven gins. The Employer is engaged in Kern and Tulare Counties, California, in ginning cotton which it grows or buys from other growers. Its only office is at Shafter, California. It operates nine gins in the lower San Joaquin Valley, extending from Wheeler Ridge, which is farthest south, to Visalia, approximately 80 miles to the north. Wheeler Ridge is 12 miles from the next nearest gin of the Employer. Generally, working conditions are uniform for all its gins, and are established by the management at Shafter. At Wheeler Ridge, the Employer operates two gins as a single plant, and under a single manager. Each plant has its own manager, who hires and discharges em- ployees at his particular plant. Toward the end of a season in late 92 NLRB No. 139. 862 COBERLY-WEST COMPANY 863 December, crews are sometimes transferred from one plant to another, and during the season an individual employee may be temporarily transferred between plants. In addition, the unskilled help used for sacking and storing cotton seed, although stationed at Wheeler Ridge, are also transferred to the other 2 plants where this work is likewise done. But, except for these interchanges of employees, each plant operates as a separate and distinct entity, with its own crews,.on its own schedules, and without direct contact with any other plant. There are approximately 30 employees in the unit requested by Petitioner, and a total of approximately 75 employees at the other gins. The Employer contends that a pattern of collective bargaining on a multiplant basis has already been established for cotton gins of other employers in the San Joaquin Valley, and urges that we follow the pattern here. There are two other such companies in the area, and both are presently bargaining with another union on a multiplant basis. The scope of these units was fixed by consent-election agree- ments. Although we do not regard so limited a course of collective bargaining as establishing an industry pattern which we are obligated to follow, it would appear that a unit consisting of employees at all the plants operated by the Employer would not be inappropriate. Such factors, however, as the distance between the plants, the independent character of the operations of each establishment, and the fact that the employees at each gin are separately supervised, lead us to the conclu- sion that a unit confined to the employees at Wheeler Ridge is also appropriate., We shall therefore direct an election in the unit re- quested by the Petitioner. We find that all employees at the Employer's plant at Wheeler Ridge, California, excluding office and clerical employees, professional employees, guards, and 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. [Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this volume.] ' Union Asbestos and Rubber Company, 86 NLRB 321; Norfolk Coca-Cola Bottling Works, Inc., 86 NLRB 462.