Glosser Bros., Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Apr 12, 1951

93 N.L.R.B. 1343 (N.L.R.B. 1951)

GLOSSER BROS., INC. 1343
unit-' Under these circumstances, we shall make no final unit de-
termination at this time, but shall be guided in part by the desires of
the employees as expressed in the elections hereinafter directed. Ac-
cordingly, we shall direct that separate elections be held among each
of the following groups of the Employer's employees, excluding from
each group office and clerical employees, guards, watchmen, pro-
fessional employees, and all supervisors as defined in the Act :
Group 1. All production and maintenance employees employed
at the Employer's plant located on 2701 South Fourth Street, St.
Louis, Missouri.
Group 2. All production and maintenance employees employed
at the Employer's plant located at Parks Metropolitan Airport, East
St. Louis, Illinois.
[Text of Direction of Elections omitted from publication in this
volume.]
5 Owens-Illinois Glass Company, 82 NLRB 205 ; Lowell Industrial Development Company,
80 NLRB 1695 . The union -security clause in the current contract between the Employer
and the Intervenor has not been authorized by an election under Section 9 (e) of the Act.
But this does not, we find, affect the weight to be accorded the bargaining history as a
factor in the Board ' s unit determination , because no finding has been made that the
Intervenor is an organization supported or dominated within the meaning of Section 8
(a) (2) of the Act. Cf. Albert's Incorporated, 91 NLRB 522.
Member Murdock believes it to be immaterial whether or not a formal finding has
been made that such a clause is violative of Section 8 (a) (2). In his judgment, in
neither case should the existence of an illegal union-security clause for a brief period
be permitted to affect the weight to be accorded a long history of otherwise lawful
bargaining in determining the appropriate unit. Member Murdock thus does not agree
with the Albert's case , but accepting that case as law he perceives no valid distinction
to be made between patently illegal union -security clauses and those which, fortuitously,
have been the subject of a formal 8 (a) (2) finding.
GLOSSER BROS., INC. and AMALGAMATED MEAT CUTTERS AND BUTCHER
WORKMEN OF NORTH AMERICA, LOCAL 268, AFL, PETITIONER. Case
No. 6-RC-638. April 12, 1951
Decision and Order
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before W. G. Stuart
Sherman, 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-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 Act.
93 NLRB No. 242.
1344 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
2. The Petitioner and Retail Clerks International Association,
AFL, the Intervenor, are labor organizations claiming to represent
employees of the Employer.
3. No question affecting commerce exists concerning the represen-
tation of employees of the Employer within the meaning of Section
9 (c) (1) and Section 2, (6) and (7) of the Act for the following rea-
Sons:
The Petitioner seeks to represent a unit consisting of only the
grocery, butter and egg, and produce department employees at the
Employer's department store. The Employer contends that the unit
requested by the Petitioner is inappropriate, and that only a unit em-
bracing the selling and nonselling employees of all its store depart-
ments would be appropriate. The Intervenor takes the same position
as the Employer.'
The Employer operates a ]arge department store which is divided
into approximately 40 sale and 20 service departments. All the de-
partments are housed in 1 five-story building and basement.
The grocery, butter and egg, and produce departments, together
designated as the "market," are located in the basement. The Em-
ployer's meat department 2 is located on the first floor of the building,
separated by a barricade and entered through a turnstile. As the cus-
tomer passes the turnstile there is to his left a stairway to the base-
inent where the grocery, butter and egg, produce, and a part of the
candy 3 departments are located. Customers of the market mostly
serve themselves by picking their own merchandise, after which they
Ni alk up the stairs and go through aisles where cashiers check and
wrap the merchandise, and receive payment for it.
The department store as a whole has a single management with a
unified policy as to buying and selling of merchandise and of labor
relations. Under the authority of the store's board of directors and
subject to its ultimate control, three men, the general manager, the
general merchandise manager, and the controller, jointly operate the
store and exercise general supervision over all the store departments.
Directly under this over-all management there is an advertising man-
ager who is in charge of sales promotion and who, in cooperation with
the various department managers, determines the kind and the amount
of advertising to be used. A single bookkeeping department presided
over by the controller serves the entire store. One employment office
has charge of the hiring and discharging of employees for all the
store's departments, except for the meat department, the employees
1 Neither the Petitioner nor the Intervenor, however, has at this time made a sufficient
showing of interest to participate in a store-wide election.
2 The employees in this department are not involved in this proceeding.
3 The Petitioner does not want the candy department employees in its proposed unit.
GLOSSER BROS., INC. 1345
of which, because of their required skill, are hired and discharged by
the meat department manager.
Although each department, including the grocery, butter and egg,
and produce departments, is separately supervised by a department
manager, there is some interchange of employees between the various
departments, and considerable overlapping in the buying of mer-
chandise. Some department managers buy not only for their own
needs but also for other departments.`
All employees, including the market employees, report for work
at the same time in the morning, through the same entrance, punch
the same time clocks,5 work the same number of honrs,6 receive the
salve starting pay and approximately the same salary, and enjoy the
same privileges and benefits, such as store-wide discount privileges,
annual bonus, sick and welfare benefits, and eligibility for member-
ship in the employees' club.
The Petitioner contends that because of the turnstile entrance to
the meat department and, through the latter, to the market in the
basement, a separation has been effected between the market em-
ployees and those of the other departments sufficient to make a separ-
ate unit of the former appropriate. This contention is without merit.
For the test of whether or not a particular group of employees in a
department store is entitled to separate representation is whether
or not that group belongs to a group such as the Board customarily
considers to be entitled to separate representation.? Its location in
the department store or the entrance to its place of work in the store
is of no significance.
Moreover, throughout the entire store there are employees who
possess the same training and experience, exercise the same skills, and
perform the same or similar tasks as do the market employees 8 The
Board does not grant a separate unit to a group of employees that
"Thus, for example, the manages of the house furnishings department buys mason jars
and lids, clothes pins and clothes lines, scrub brushes, aluminum foil, and other articles
foi his own and the grocery department The grocery depaitment manager buys shelf
paper, paper napkins, wax paper, and other articles for his own and the notions
department
G The store has two time clocks One is located on the second floor , for the employees
of the second and first floors and basement, the other is on the fourth floor, for the
employees of the third, fourth, and fifth floors.
6 Except the meat department employees and the drivers Both of these categories
are represented in separate units and are not involved in this proceeding
'Bloomingdale Brothei s, Inc, 81 NLRB 1252 . See also Montgomery Ward Co,
Incorporated, 87 NLRB 254
8 The record is clear that none of the employees throughout the department store,
except the drivers and butchers in the meat depai tment , possess any special skills,
although salespeople acquire familiarity with the particular departments in which they
work Cashiers or checkers, who are employed in a number of other departments as
well as in the market, go through a training period of 2 weeks in the store, after they
are hired and before they are assigned to duty
943732-51-86
1346 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
does not include all the same or similar classifications .9 We believe
that to grant a separate unit for the market employees in this case
would be to accord controlling weight to the extent of the Petitioner's
organization, which we are precluded from doing under the amended
Act. Accordingly, the Board finds that the unit requested by the
Petitioner is inappropriate;'-0
Order
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the petition filed herein be, and it hereby
is, dismissed.
0 Stanolind Oil and Gas Research Section, 81 NLRB 1089 . Cf. General Motors Corpora-
tion, Buick Motor Division , 92 NLRB 1589
10 Montgomery War d, Incorporated, 90 NLRB 609 ; Grossman Department Store, Inc.,
90 NLRB No. 275.
WESTCHESTER BROADCASTING CORPORATION and NEW YORK LOCAL,
AMERICAN FEDERATION OF RADIO ARTISTS, AFFILIATED WITH ASSO-
CIATED ACTORS AND ARTISTES OF AMERICA, AFL, PETITIONER. Case
No. 2-RC-3160. April 10, 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 I. L. Broadwin, hearing offi-
cer. 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 [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 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 to represent a unit of the Employer's special
program and staff announcers. The Employer would limit the unit
to staff announcers. At its Radio Station WFAS, White Plains, New
York, the Employer has five full-time nonsupervisory staff announcers.
Each spends 20 to 30 'hours weekly before the microphone, and the
balance of his working time in preparing material to be broadcast, in
93 NLRB No. 241.