Jacob Ash Co., Inc

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

May 24, 1976

224 N.L.R.B. 74 (N.L.R.B. 1976)

74 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Jacob Ash Co , Inc and General Warehousemen and
Employees Union Local 636, a /w International
Brotherhood of Teamsters , Chauffeurs , Warehouse-
men and Helpers of America, Petitioner. Case 6-
RC-7304
May 24, 1976
DECISION ON REVIEW
BY CHAIRMAN MURPHY AND MEMBERS FANNING
AND JENKINS
On December 16, 1975, the Regional Director for
Region 6 issued a Decision and Direction of Election
in the above-entitled proceeding in which he found
appropriate the Petitioner's requested unit of all
warehousemen/order pickers (hereinafter ware-
housemen) employed by the Employer at its Pitts-
burgh, Pennsylvania, facility Thereafter, in accor-
dance with Section 102 67 of the National Labor
Relations Board Rules and Regulations, Series 8, as
amended, the Employer filed a timely request for re-
view of the Regional Director's decision on the
grounds, inter alga, that in excluding the warehouse
clerical employees (hereinafter clerical employees)
from the unit found appropriate he made findings of
fact which are clearly erroneous and departed from
officially reported Board precedent
On January 19, 1976, the National Labor Rela-
tions Board, by telegraphic order, granted the
Employer's request for review with respect to the
aforementioned clerical employees and stayed the
election pending decision on review I
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the
National Labor Relations Act, as amended, the Na-
tional Labor Relations Board has delegated its au-
thority in this proceeding to a three-member panel
The Board has reviewed the entire record in this
proceeding with respect to the issue under review and
makes the following findings
The Employer is a Pennsylvania corporation en-
gaged in the wholesale distribution of gloves, hats,
boots, rainwear, candy, and other items At the
Employer's Pittsburgh warehouse facility, involved
herein, orders for stored items are received and filled,
and merchandise is packed for shipment to custom-
ers 2 Employed at the warehouse are, among others,
four full-time and six regular part-time warehouse-
men and the three clerical employees whose unit
placement is here in dispute There is no history of
collective bargaining for any of the employees in-
volved herein
The warehouse facility consists of a three-story
building with a basement The first floor is essentially
one large room comprised of an office area, a sepa-
rate office for the Employer's president, Alfred Ash,
and a warehouse area primarily used for preparing
orders There is a 5-foot-high partition screening the
public from the employees in the warehouse There is
also a restroom located at the rear of the first floor
which is used by all the employees The basement
and second and third floors of the warehouse contain
stockroom areas
Alfred Ash, his sister, and his mother together own
approximately 35 percent, 25 percent, and 40 percent
of the Employer's stock, respectively Ash is respon-
sible for the overall and immediate day-to-day super-
vision of the Employer's operation
The sole issue presented herein is the unit place-
ment of the three clerical employees The Regional
Director found that these employees do not possess
such a community of interest with employees in the
requested unit as to require their inclusion therein
Essentially, the Employer contends the disputed em-
ployees are plant clerical employees and should,
therefore, be included in the requested unit of ware-
housemen For the following reasons, we find merit
in the Employer's contention
The record reveals that the three disputed clerical
employees work in an open office area of the first
floor of the warehouse They are primarily responsi-
ble for receiving incoming mail and telephone orders
for the Employer's products 3 When an order is re-
ceived, the clerical receiving the order first checks the
Employer's inventory control book to determine
whether the Employer has the necessary amount of
merchandise in stock If so, the clerical checks the
customer's credit to insure that the account is cur-
rent, enters the order in the inventory control book,
prepares an invoice for the ordered merchandise, and
places it in a box located at the rear of the office
area A warehouseman then picks up the invoice, ob-
tains the merchandise, and prepares it for shipment
The record discloses that in the course of perform-
ing their duties, the clericals have regular contact
with the warehousemen Thus, the clerical employees
give warehousemen invoices for merchandise in the
office area itself or, often, in the warehouse area of
the first floor of the Employer's facility Further, on a
daily basis, clerical employees and warehousemen re-
solve questions which arise regarding customers' or-
ders Warehousemen also frequently use a voicebox,
i The request for review was denied in all other respects 3 Orders for the Employers merchandise are received by telephone or
2 The Employer also maintains a small auxiliary warehouse for storage mail through two salesmen employed by the Employer and from customers
purposes However, no employees permanently work there coming into the warehouse
224 NLRB No 15
JACOB ASH CO
located in the office area, to communicate with em-
ployees in other areas of the warehouse In addition,
at the end of the day, the clerical employees pick up
certain invoices from the warehouse area of the first
floor of the Employer's facility
The record further discloses that the most senior
clerical employee, Louise Good, has picked orders
and put them together on a "fairly regular" basis
Additionally, there is testimony indicating that three
or four times per week she checks to insure that or-
ders have been properly filled by the warehousemen
before they are packed for shipment and that she
delivers orders to customers through the use of the
Employer's station wagon Another clerical has pre-
pared light orders for customers walking into the
Employer's warehouse
Regarding wages and fringe benefits received by
employees in the warehouse, the record discloses that
the three clerical employees earn $2 50, $3 25, and
$4 37 per hour, respectively The hourly rate for full-
time warehousemen order pickers is from $2 20 to
$2 60 per hour All employees have the same holidays
and are eligible for the Employer's profit-sharing
pension plan
On the basis of the foregoing and the record as a
whole, we find that the clerical employees perform
tasks which are more closely akin to those performed
by plant clerical than those performed by office cleri-
cal employees Thus, the clerical employees have reg-
ular contact with warehousemen in various areas of
the first floor of the warehouse, work in an area
which is proximate to the areas utilized by them, and
75
share common immediate supervision with the em-
ployees in the unit requested by the Petitioner 4 We
also note that two of the clerical employees prepare
orders for customers, and one of the clerical employ-
ees checks orders prepared by warehousemen, albeit
to a limited extent In these circumstances, we find,
contrary to the Regional Director, that the appropri-
ate unit herein should include the clerical employ-
ees 5
Accordingly, as the Petitioner indicated a willing-
ness to proceed to an election in any unit found ap-
propriate,' the case is remanded to the Regional Di-
rector for the purpose of conducting an election
pursuant to his Decision and Direction of Election,
as modified herein, except that the payroll period for
determining eligibility shall be that ending immedi-
ately preceding the issuance date of this Decision on
Review [Excelsior footnote omitted from publica-
tion ]
4 The Regional Director did not rule on the supervisory status of two
coordinator checkers at the warehouse finding the record to be silent as to
whether or not certain instructions rendered by them required the use of
independent judgment, or were merely activities of individuals with greater
experience and tenure than possessed by other employees in the unit We
agree that the record is insufficient to enable the Board to determine wheth
er the coordinator checkers are supervisors as defined in the Act according
ly we shall permit them to Note subject to challenge Member Jenkins views
the assertion regarding the supervisory status of these two individuals as
conclusions rather than facts and would include them in the unit
5 See Sears, Roebuck and Co 222 NLRB 476 (1976) and Sears Roebuck
and Co, 220 NLRB 1224 (1975)
6 As the unit found appropriate is broader than that originally requested
by the Petitioner the Regional Director shall determine whether Petitioner s
showing of interest is sufficient before proceeding with the election