Diamond Bros. Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Nov 13, 1951

96 N.L.R.B. 1420 (N.L.R.B. 1951)

1420 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
month and are not thereafter reemployed. There are two sales clerks
who were hired by the Employer on a temporary basis and who did not
intend to remain in the Employer's employ. We shall include the
seasonal employees and the temporary sales clerks in the unit, but find,
in view of their temporary and limited employment, that they are
ineligible to vote in the election herein directed.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this
volume.]
DIAMOND BROS. COMPANY and THE FURNITURE, BEDDING AND ALLIED
TRADES WORKERS UNION, LOCAL 92, AFFILIATED wrrH THE UNITED
FURNITURE WORKERS OF AMERICA, CIO, PETITIONER. Case No.
4-RC-1096. November 13, 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 Howard Kowal, 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-
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 appropriate unit :
The parties agree that the appropriate unit should comprise all
production, maintenance, and shipping employees, excluding truck
drivers and their helpers, clerical employees, and supervisors as de-
fined in the Act. They are in dispute, however, as to the supervisory
status of group leaders and assistant group leaders.
The Employer is engaged in the manufacture of upholstered living
room furniture at its Trenton, New Jersey, plant, which is located in
a single, 1-story building. It employs approximately 230 employees.
The president of the Employer and the plant manager exercise general
1 Upholsterers ' International Union of North America, AFL, which intervened during
the course of the hearing , subsequently indicated its desire for and is hereby granted per-
mission to withdraw from this proceeding.
96 NLRB No. 201.
DIAMOND BROS. COMPANY 1421
supervision over the entire plant. The general foreman is in charge
of the upholstering floor and together with 2 foremen supervises 8
production lines. Some of these lines contain no.more than 2 employ-
ees while others may have as many as 14. The 2 foremen move from
line to line checking on the production process. Another foreman
supervises the cutting room and sewing room where a total of about
52 employees are employed. In addition, the record reveals that 5
brothers of the Employer's president exercise supervisory authority in
the plant.
The Employer would exclude 19 group leaders and 8 assistant
group leaders as supervisors. The Petitioner contends that these
individuals are not supervisors within the meaning of the amended
Act and should be included.
Group leaders: They are each in charge of one of the various sec-
tions or groups of employees engaged in the Employer's manufac-
turing operations. Thus, there is a group leader in the frame receiv-
ing room, the material room, cutting room, sewing room, material
distribution section, springing room, spray room, cushion room, and
button room. Each of the production lines is directed by a group leader
and there are 2 group leaders in the shipping room. The group lead-
ers in charge of the production lines and those in charge of the cutting
and sewing rooms work under the immediate direction of the 3 fore-
men. The other group leaders report to management officials exer-
cising general supervision in the plant. The number of employees in
these various sections ranges from 3 to 32. The group leaders, with
one exception, are paid at an hourly rate substantially higher than
that of the employees working under their direction. The group
leader in the material room is paid a salary. All of the group leaders
are responsible for maintaining discipline, assigning work, and con-
trolling the flow and quality of production in their respective sections.
The group leader in the frame receiving room has special authority to
hire employees. Generally, however, employees are hired through the
personnel department. A group leader's recommendation that an
employee should be discharged is usually followed by the Employer
unless it appears that the recommendation is based on factors other
than the group leader's objective estimate of the employee's ability.
All of the group leaders may affect the basic rate of pay of the em-
ployees working under them. Generally, increases at the Employer's
plant are granted automatically at the end of a 3-month period during
the initial stages of employment. However, if a group leader believes
that an employee does not merit an increase, he can effectively recom-
mend that the increase be withheld. On the other hand, a group leader
may secure an increase for an outstanding employee before the
3-month period has elapsed. Moreover, in several sections operating
on an incentive earnings plan the group leaders have final authority to
1422 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
determine individual efficiency rates. On the basis of this determi-
nation of the group leader, employees may receive a greater or lesser
share of the incentive sum paid to each group.
In view of the foregoing we find that the group leaders are super-
visors within the meaning of the amended Act and we shall therefore
exclude them.2
Assistant group leaders: They are the most experienced and best
qualified workers under the group leaders. Their duties are pri-
marily those of instruction and material allocation. They assist in
training new employees and in training old employees on new models.
Although they attend meetings with the group leaders and the gen-
eral foreman, their authority over the employees in the various sec-
tions appears to be of a limited nature. The plant manager testified
that they may make recommendations to the group leaders concerning
the discharge of employees. However, each group leader is himself
directly responsible for the work of the employees in the several sec-
tions and it does not appear from the record that the recommenda-
tions of the assistant group leaders are necessarily effective. The
evidence indicates that the assistant group leaders assume the duties
of group leaders only during the rare absences of the latter. Inas-
much as the assistant group leaders act in a supervisory capacity
only sporadically and irregularly, we find that they are not super-
visors within the meaning of the amended Act. We shall therefore
include them in the unit .3
We find that all production, maintenance, and shipping employees
at the Employer's plant at Trenton, New Jersey, including assistant
group leaders, but excluding truck drivers and their helpers, clerical
employees, guards, professional employees, 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.
5. Determination of representatives :
Approximately a month before the hearing, the Employer's supply
of materials was curtailed because of the national defense emergency,
necessitating the discharge of about 60 employees. The record reveals
that the prospect of their reemployment in the near future is indefinite
and speculative. We find therefore, contrary to the Petitioner's con-
tention, that they are ineligible to vote .4
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this
volume.]
2 The Wichita Water Company, 93 NLRB 895; United States Gypsum Company, 93
NLRB 101; Grand Rapids Plaster Company, 92 NLRB No. 226.
$ The Ann Arbor Press, 85 NLRB 946; W. R Wrape Stove Company, Inc., 90 NLRB
No. 150.
1 See Beaver Machine & Toot Co„ Inc., 90 NLRB 529.