Wolverine Shoe and Tanning Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Dec 18, 1951

97 N.L.R.B. 592 (N.L.R.B. 1951)

592 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
concerted refusals in the course of their employment to perform any services
for their respective employers, objects thereof being (a) to force and require
A. R. Abrams, Inc., Ira H. Hardin Company, and Wesley and Company to cease
doing business with Acousti Engineering Company, and (b) to force and require
Acousti Engineering Company to recognize and bargain with Respondent as the
representative of certain of their employees although Respondent had not been
certified by the Board as the representative of such employees under the pro-
visions of Section 9 of the Act.
3. The aforesaid unfair labor practices are unfair labor practices affecting
commerce within the meaning of Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
[Recommended Order omitted from publication in this volume.]
WOLVERINE SHOE AND TANNING CORPORATION and UNITED SHOE WORK-
ERS OF AMERICA, LOCAL 75, CIO, PETITIONER. Case No. 7-RC-1501.
December 18, 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 Emil C. Farkas, hearing
officer.' The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free
from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed .2
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 Reynolds 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
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 Petitioner seeks a single unit of production and maintenance
employees at the Employer's Rockford, Michigan, plants, including
employees at its shoe factory, tannery, warehouse, and powerhouse, or,
in the alternative, a separate unit of employees at each of these plants.
The Employer contends that only separate units are appropriate for
' The Employer's name appears herein as amended at the hearing.
a At the hearing , the hearing officer properly granted the Petitioner's motions to delete
the name of Local 75-A from the petition herein, and to set forth therein the categories
which the Petitioner sought to exclude from its proposed unit. The Board has upheld
the right of a petitioner to amend its petition at the hearing where, as here , no prejudice
resulted to a party from the amendment . Cf. Smith Rice Mill, Inc. and DeWitt Bonded
Warehouse Company, 83 NLRB 380, and cases cited therein.
97 NLRB No. 83.
WOLVERINE, SHOE AND TANNING CORPORATION 593
bargaining purposes at the shoe factory, the tannery, and the ware-
house, respectively, and would exclude employees at the powerhouse
from any units that the Board may now establish.
To determine the appropriate unit or units for employees at the
Rockford plants, we shall examine our earlier unit determination with
respect to these employees, the history of bargaining, and the Em-
ployer's operations at this time.
At several locations in the United States, the Employer is engaged
in the tanning of leather, the sale of leather and byproducts, and the
manufacture and sale of shoes and gloves. At Rockford, Michigan,
the only location immediately involved in this proceeding, the Em-
ployer, under the over-all supervision of its executive board,3 operates
an office or administrative building, and a shoe factory, a tannery, a
warehouse, and a powerhouse, each in a separate building, under a
manager or superintendent. The warehouse manager and the power-
house manager 4 work under the supervision of the sales and merchan-
dising manager and of the tannery manager, respectively. The Em-
ployer's president serves as manager of the shoe factory.
At its Rockford plants, the Employer has, in all, approximately
500 employees, including 295, 155, 20, and 9, at the shoe factory, the
tannery, the warehouse, and the powerhouse, respectively. These
workers have the usual skills and perform the usual duties of em-
ployees in their respective and usual classifications.
. On December 12, 1942, following an election held pursuant to a
Decision and Direction of Election,5 the Board certified the Peti-
tioner's international union as the exclusive bargaining representative
of production, maintenance, and warehouse employees at the Em-
ployer's Rockford shoe plants, excluding tannery and powerhouse
employees. Thereafter, and until 1949, the Employer and the Peti-
tioner entered into collective bargaining agreements covering em-
ployees in this unit.
On August 11, 1949, following a consent election in Case No.
7-RM-27, the Regional Director certified the Petitioner as the collec-
tive bargaining representative of employees at the Employer's Rock-
ford tanning and shoe manufacturing plants and warehouse. About
November 28, 1949, the Employer and the Petitioner entered into a
single collective bargaining agreement, effective until August 28, 1951,
and thereafter from year to year in the absence of a 60-day notice,
covering production, maintenance, and warehouse employees at the
Employer's shoe plants,' tannery, and powerhouse. This contract
3 The executive board includes the Employer 's president, chairman of the board of
directors , and sales and merchandising, shoe sales , and tannery managers.
Otherwise called the maintenance superintendent.
45 NLRB 620.
One of these two plants, a "pilot" or experimental plant, has since been closed by the
Employer.
594 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
provided, among other things, for "operational seniority" among
skilled employees and for seniority based on length of service with
the Employer among other employees; for a common vacation sched-
ule equally applicable to all employees; and for the election by union
members of separate shop committees to handle grievances at the shoe
factories and the warehouse and at the tannery and the powerhouse.
About the time the parties entered into this contract, the Petitioner's
international union established its Local 75-A for employees at the
tannery and the powerhouse. On June 28, 1951, according to its brief,
the Petitioner received a letter from the Employer, giving notice of
its election not to "renew" the contract. On August 16, 1951, the
Petitioner filed the instant petition.
The tannery sells its products to the Rockford factory, other fac-
tories of the Employer, and outside customers. The shoe factory and
the tannery, however, are capable of operating independently of each
other. The warehouse could operate independently of both for a
limited period depending on the size of its inventory.
The shoe factory and the tannery each have separate offices, and
maintain separate purchase and accounting records. Employees in
the sales department keep the warehouse records.7 The shoe factory,
the tannery, and the warehouse maintain separate pay schedules and
job evaluation plans, and have different purchasing agents s All the
plants maintain separate payrolls. Pay checks are printed by the
Employer's printing department and signed by the head paymaster.
Supervisors at each plant meet separately, weekly, or semiweekly.
The Employer has a single employment office, at which all prospective
employees file job applications. The hire and discharge of employees,
however, is done at the plant level. Employees at the shoe factory
and the warehouse, the tannery, and the powerhouse work one, two,
and four shifts per day, respectively .9 Employees at the shoe factory
and the tannery have lunch periods of an hour and half an hour,
respectively, and eat at different cafeterias. Because of the necessity
of completing work processes, hours of work at the tannery differ from
those at the other plants. Other conditions of work at the tannery
are also different.
The Employer transfers employees among the plants only upon
requests for permanent transfers. Such transfers are infrequent.
Production employees do not interchange. Maintenance employees,
including 6 to 10 electricians, carpenters, painters, and janitors, work
primarily at the shoe factory. They may work at the shoe factory
and at the tannery. On rare occasions, one plant temporarily lends
The record does not disclose where the powerhouse records are kept.
s The office manager of the sales department serves as purchasing agent for the
warehouse.
9 Powerhouse employees work 7 days per week.
THE MEDART COMPANY 595
truck drivers or other maintenance employees to the shoe factory and
bills it for their working time. All employees are eligible for mem-
bership in The Wolverine Mutual Benefit Association, conducted
exclusively by employees.
As noted above, the last contract between the parties, under which
they bargained for about 2 years, covered production and maintenance
employees at all the Rockford plants. No other labor organization
seeks to represent any of the employees at any of the plants involved
herein. Although the Employer seeks the exclusion of the power-
house employees from any unit found appropriate herein, the Board
has repeatedly found that powerhouse employees may properly be
included in such a production and maintenance unit 10 Under these
circumstances, we find that the multiplant unit sought by the Peti-
tioner constitutes an appropriate unit 11
We find that the following employees of the Employer constitute a
single unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining
within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act : All production and
maintenance employees at the Employer's Rockford, Michigan, shoe
factory, tannery, warehouse, and powerhouse, excluding office clerical
employees, salesmen and truck drivers, professional employees, watch-
men, guards, and supervisors.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this
volume.]
1O Ford Motor Company, Aircraft Engine Division, 96 NLRB 1075.
11 Oregon Portland Cement Company , 83 NLRB 675.
THE MEDART COMPANY, FRED MEDART DIVISION and DISTRICT No. 9,
INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS , AFL, PETITIONER.
Case No. 14-RC-1428. December 18,1951
Supplemental Decision and Certification of Representatives
On September 13, 1951, pursuant to a Decision and Direction of
Election issued by the Board herein on August 17, 1951,1 an election
by secret ballot was conducted under the direction and supervision of
the Regional Director for the Fourteenth Region, among the em-
ployees in the voting group described in the Decision.
At the conclusion of the election, a tally of ballots was issued and
served upon the parties. The tally shows that there were approxi-
mately 35 eligible voters, and that 34 cast ballots, of which 8 were for
195 NLRB No. 153.
97 NLRB No. 85.