S & L Co. of Pipestone

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Nov 13, 1951

96 N.L.R.B. 1418 (N.L.R.B. 1951)

1418 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
employees with the repair employees without affording to the former
group an opportunity, by means of a separate election, to express its
desire on the question.5 However, as the Petitioner has failed to es-
tablish the necessary showing of interest among the parts and service-
departments employees whom it seeks to merge with its present unit
of repair department employees, and in view of its apparent lack of
desire for an election confined to the latter group alone, we shall
dismiss the petition without prejudice to filing a new petition at such
time as the required showing of representation can be made.
Order
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the petition herein be, and it hereby is,
dismissed without prejudice.
Iiitnois Cities Water Company, 87 NLRB 109.
S & L CO. OF PIPESTONE 1 and AMALGAMATED MEAT CUTTERS AND,
BUTCHER WORKMEN OF NORTH AMERICA , AFL, PETITIONER. C"6
No. 18-RC-1202. 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 Erwin A. Peterson,
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 [Members Houston, Murdock, and Styles].
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer owns and operates two retail dry goods and
apparel stores in Minnesota, the Fergus Falls store herein involved
and a store at Pipestone. The Employer is a wholly owned sub-
sidiary of Salkin & Linoff, Incorporated, a Delaware corporation
with principal offices in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Two of the Em-
ployer's 3 directors are also directors of the parent corporation. In
addition to ownership and direct operation of a retail store in
Wyoming, Salkin & Linoff wholly owns 36 or 37 separately incor-
porated retail stores located in several States. The volume of retail
sales for the last fiscal year by the Fergus Falls store was approxi-
mately $268,000 and by the Pipestone store approximately $214,000.
All but approximately 1 percent of these sales was to local customers.
The cost of the products sold by these stores amounted to 35 or 40
I The Employer's name is amended to conform to the record.
96 NLRB No. 214.
S & L CO. OF PIPESTONE 1419
percent less than the total sales. During the foregoing fiscal period
the volume of retail sales for all stores operated by Salkin & Linoff
and by its wholly owned subsidiaries exceeded $13,000,000, and the cost
of these goods amounted to 35 or 40 percent less than the total sales.
Goods purchased by the Employer as well as by the parent corpora-
tion's other subsidiaries are procured from the Salkin & Linoff ware-
house in Minneapolis. More than 50 percent of these goods is shipped
to this warehouse from other States. From these facts we find that
the Employer, although it is a separate corporate entity, is an integral
part of a multistate enterprise comprising the operations of Salkin &
Linoff, Incorporated, and its wholly owned subsidiary corporations.
Accordingly, we find, contrary to the Employer's contention, that the
Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the Act, and
that it will effectuate the policies of the Act to assert jurisdiction in
this case.2
2. The labor organization involved claims to represent employees
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 parties are in general agreement as to the propriety of a
store-wide unit of employees at the Employer's Fergus Falls store.
The Employer, however, would exclude the store's clerical staff, con-
sisting of a cashier and one or two clerks, as confidential employees,
and the assistant manager as a supervisor. The Employer asserts that
if, in the future, there is any confidential labor relations correspond-
ence between the Fergus Falls store and the parent corporation, all of
the foregoing clerks will handle it. As these employees presently have
no contact with such matters, and because their future duties in these
respects are highly speculative, we shall not accord them the status
of confidential employees and shall include them in the unit. As to the
assistant manager, the record shows that this position is now vacant
but shortly to be filled. We shall, therefore, make no present deter-
mination regarding the supervisory status of the future incumbent of
this position. If, upon the filling of this position, the assistant r tan-
ager is vested with the authority of a supervisor as defined in the Act,
he shall be excluded from the unit.
We find that all employees of the Employer's Fergus Falls, Minne-
sota, store, including clerical employees, but excluding the manager
and all other supervisors as defined in the Act, constitute a unit appro-
priate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of
Section 9 (b) of the Act.
5. The Employer seasonally employs temporary sales personnel,
usually public school students, who work for periods of less than a
2 Belk'8 Department Store of Savannah, Ga., Inc., 93 NLRB 729.
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 WITH 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
' 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.