General Seat and Back Mfg. Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Apr 17, 1951

93 N.L.R.B. 1511 (N.L.R.B. 1951)

GENERAL SEAT AND BACK MFG. CORP . 1511
GENERAL SEAT AND BACK MFG. CORP. and UNITED RUBBER, CORK,
LINOLEUM AND PLASTIC WORKERS OF AMERICA, CIO, PETITIONER.
Case No. 10-RC-1183. April 17, 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 Clarence D. Musser, 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 National Labor
Relations Act, the Board has delegated its powers in connection with
this case to a three-member panel [Chairman Herzog and Members
Murdock and Styles].
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is a newly organized Georgia corporation having
its office and plant at Atlanta, Georgia. The Employer has been en-
gaged, since October 2, 1950, in the manufacture and sale of plastic'
covered seats and backs for dinette chairs. During the period from
October 2, 1950, to January 1, 1951, the Employer's sales of its finished
product amounted to approximately $10,966.28 of which $1,327.68,
represented sales shipped directly to customers outside the State of
Georgia and the balance of $9,638.60 represented sales to the Gate City
Table Company, a concern situated in Atlanta, Georgia, which is en-
gaged in interstate commerce and annually ships goods valued in
excess of $25,000 directly out-of-State.' During the same period the
Employer purchased for use in its manufacturing processes materials
in the amount of $10,881.30 of which $690.30 represented purchases
made directly from firms out of the State, $5,175.07 purchases from
the afore-mentioned Gate City Table Company and $5,015.93 pur-
chases from firms within the State. During the period from January
1, 1951, to February 1, 1951, the Employer's sales of its finished prod-
uct amounted to approximately $6,256.20 of which $5,485.60 was for
goods shipped directly to customers outside the State of Georgia and
the balance of $770.60 was for goods sold to the afore-mentioned Gate
City Table Company.' Upon these facts, we find that the operations
of the Employer affect commerce within the meaning of the Act.
In recent decisions the Board announced the policy which will serve
as its guide in the future for assuming jurisdiction over industries
engaged in interstate commerce, or over industries whose operations
affect that commerce.2 The policy was expressed in terms of annual
'The Board asserted jurisdiction over the Gate City Table Company in Its Decision
and Direction of Election (unpublished) October 4, 1949, and in its Supplemental Decision
and Certification of Representatives, Gate City Table Company, 87 NLRB 1120.
2 See Fifteenth Annual Report, NLRB page 5, at seq.
93 NLRB No. 246.
1512 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
dollar volume of sales and/or purchases, a year being the customary
period used for accounting purposes. Because the minimum juris-
dictional amounts were expressed in terms of annual sales and/or
purchases, however, it is not to be understood that the Board intends
to refrain from assuming jurisdiction over business concerns for which
financial statements, covering a full year, are not available. Where
on the basis of available financial information and statements, reflect-
ing the volume of a company's sales and purchases for any period of
time, there is a reasonable expectation that the company under con-
sideration will in a period of 12 months attain the minimum juris-
dictional requirements, the Board will assume jurisdiction 3
The financial statements of the General Seat and Back Mfg. Corp.
indicate that the sales for the first 4 months of its business amounted
to approximately $17,222.48 of which $6,813.28 represents products
sold directly to firms out of the State of Georgia and the balance,
$10,409.20, represents products sold to the afore-mentioned Gate City
Table Company. A comparison of the volume of sales for the month
of January 1951 with the volume of sales for the immediately pre-
,ceding 3 months' period indicates an increase in the business activity
of the Employer.
We consider this financial information as representative and indica-
tive of the Employer's business capacity and sufficient to warrant the
expectation that the Employer will, during the following months,
continue to do business at least at the rate established during the first
4 months.4
We find it reasonable, therefore, to project the sales figures for the
first 4 months of business in order to determine the minimum sales
figures for a. period of 12 months. The extrapolation furnishes us
with the following approximate minimum sales figure, $31,227.60 for
sales to a firm within the State which annually ships goods in excess
of $25,000 out-of-State, and $20,489.84 for sales to firms out of the
State of Georgia.
In the past we have found that it will effectuate the purposes of
the Act "to assume jurisdiction over concerns which annually ship
goods valued at $25,000 or more out of a State," 5 or over enterprises
"which affect commerce by virtue of the fact that they furnish goods
or services necessary to the operation of other employers engaged in
commerce, without regard to other factors, where such goods or
services are valued at $50,000 per annum or more, and are sold to:
8 C & A Lumber Company, 91 NLRB 909.
4 A company official, who testified at the hearing, stipulated that the sales figure for
the first 3 months of business was "representative of the Company's probable sales for
the next 6 to 10 months." A comparison of the sales figure for the month of January
with the sales figure of the immediately preceding quarter indicates quite clearly that
the stipulation cannot be relied upon . Cf. New London Mills , Incorporated, 91 NLRB
1003.
See, Stanislaus Implement and Hardware Company, Limated , 91 NLRB 618.
J. P. STEVENS & CO., INC. 1513
(a) Public utilities or transit systems; (b) companies which function
as instrumentalities and channels of interstate and foreign commerce
and their essential links; or (c) enterprises engaged in producing or
handling goods destined for out-of-State shipment, or performing
services out of State, in the value of $25,000 per annum or more." 6
While the reasonably expected volume of sales to be made to firms
out of State does not exceed $25,000 and the volume of sales to firms
within the State which meet the requirements of Section (c) cited
above, does not exceed $50,000, alternative minimum requirements
es€ablished for these categories, the projected sales figures, expressed
as a percentage of the required minimum figures established for each
of the afore-mentioned categories, totals at least 100 percent when
added to each other. Accordingly, we find that it will effectuate the
policies of the Act for the Board to assert jurisdiction over the opera-
tions of this Employer.7
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. We find a unit composed of all production and maintenance
employees employed at the Employer's Atlanta, Georgia, plant, ex-
cluding executive, professional, clerical employees, guards, and super-
visors as defined by the Act, to be the appropriate unit 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.]
° See. Hollow Tree Lumber Company, 91 NLRB 635; Justrite Press, 93 NLRB 786.
The Rutledge Paper Products , Inc., 91 NLRB 625. In view of the fact that the
instant case meets the requirements promulgated in our Rutledge Paper Products decision,
we consider it unnecessary to determine whether or not some other aspect of our announced
policy would also be applicable
J. P. STEVENS & CO., INC., REPUBLIC COTTON MILLS DIVISION and
TEXTILE WORKERS UNION OF AMERICA, CIO, PETITIONER. Case No.
10-RC-884. April 17,1951
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 John C. Carey, Jr., hearing
93 NLRB No. 259.