Alaska Salmon Industry, Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Apr 17, 1952

98 N.L.R.B. 1213 (N.L.R.B. 1952)

ALASKA SALMON INDUSTRY, INC. 1213
tween the Employer and the Intervenor "on behalf" of Local 2816.
It is significant that during this period, although the language used
clearly indicated that the international was acting as the agent of
Local 2816, it apparently was the practice for both international and
Local 2816 officers to sign the contracts.
The contracts subsequent to 1948, including the one urged in bar
in this case, changed the introductory language so as to make the agree-
ment one between the Employer and "The United Steel Workers of
America and its Local #2816." However, I cannot attach the signifi-
cance to this modification that my colleagues apparently do. The
change is unexplained and there is nothing in the record to suggest
that after 1948 it was intended that the international should no longer
be the primary contracting party for the Union, as its constitution
continues to require, acting essentially as the agent of the local.
Nothing in the contract specifies that it is not effective until signed
both by international and local officers. Nor is the fact that provision
is made for signature by local officers of any real significance; for,
as I have pointed out above, similar provision was made during the
period of time when the contract specifically indicated that the inter-
national was acting on behalf of the local.
The parties to the November 14, 1951, agreement considered that
they had executed a binding, effective agreement. In view of the
constitutional authority of the Intervenor, and in the absence of any
provision in the agreement suspending its effectiveness until approved
by the local, I would not go behind the intention of the parties and
upset the stability that contract was designed to achieve. Such a
view is, in my opinion, far more consistent with the position the Board
has in the past taken in comparable cases 6 than that adopted by my
colleagues here.
MEMBER PETERSON took no part in the consideration of the above
Decision and Direction of Election.
6 See Montgomery Ward & Co. Inc., 68 NLRB 369; Electro Metallurgical Company, 72
NLRB 1396 ; C. Hager & Sons Hinge Manufacturing Company, 80 NLRB 163, footnote 3.
ALASKA SALMON INDUSTRY, INC. and BERING SEA FISHERMEN'S UNION,
PETITIONER . Case No. 19-RC-746. April 17, 1950
Supplemental Decision , Order, and Amended Direction of
Election
On June 15, 1951, the Board issued a Decision and'Direction of Elec-
tion in this proceeding,' finding appropriate a unit of resident and
nonresident fishermen, set netters, beachmen, net tenders, boat crews
1 94 NLRB 1211.
98 NLRB No. 179.
1214 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
(including cooks on tenders and tally scows), mess house employees,
tally men, and utility men employed by the Employer in the Bristol
Bay area in Alaska, excluding office clerical employees, machinists,
carpenters, radio operators, doctors and nurses, timekeepers, store-
keepers, resident and nonresident inside cannery workers, mess house
employees serving nonresident inside cannery workers, guards, other
employees, and supervisors, thereby rejecting the Petitioner's primary
claim that a unit 'restricted to resident workers in these categories was
appropriate for bargaining purposes. Because of pending unfair
labor practice charges, no election was held within the time provided.
On July 12, 1951, the original direction of election was amended to
provide that the election be conducted at a time in the discretion of the
Regional Director when there was peak employment and no unfair
labor practice charges pending.
On February 29,1952, the Petitioner filed a motion for reconsidera-
tion of the unit, seeking to reopen the record for this purpose. The
Employer and Alaska Fishermen's Union, the Intervenor herein, op-
pose the motion. For reasons which hereinafter appear, the Board has
decided, on the basis of the instant record, to grant the motion in part
and modify its decision on the unit issue. The request to reopen the
record is therefore denied.
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board makes the following :
Supplemental Findings of Fact -
As noted in the original decision, the Employer is a nonprofit cor-
poration composed of member companies who are engaged in the
catching and canning of salmon in Alaska. Since 1902 the Employer
has bargained with the Intervenor and its predecessor for fishermen,
set netters, beachmen, and net tenders operating in the Employer's
Bristol Bay area. In 1937 the Employer recognized the Intervenor
as bargaining representative for its boat crews, mess house employees,
tally men, and utility men employed in the same area. The Employer
and the Intervenor thereupon entered into a supplemental agreement,
setting up scales for wage payments covering these new categories and
making the master contract covering fishermen and other related cate-
gories applicable to the new categories and an integral part of the
supplemental contract. Since that time, the parties have continued to
make their master contract applicable to employees in all categories
represented by the Intervenor and have continued to set forth in a
separately executed document, expressly incorporating the master
agreement, provisions for the compensation of boat crews, mess house
employees, tally men, and utility men. All these contracts have cov-
ered employees in the categories named without regard to residence.
ALASKA SALMON INDUSTRY, INC. 1215
Cannery workers of the Employer, on the other hand, for reasons set
forth in an earlier decision,2 have traditionally bargained in separate
units of resident and nonresident employees, respectively.
In view of this bargaining history for resident and nonresident
fishermen and related categories in a single bargaining unit, the Board
originally rejected the primary contention of the Petitioner for a
separate unit of resident workers. On a reexamination of the record
and the different working conditions which presently appear to obtain
among these employees on the basis of their residence, we are in-
clined to modify our finding and set up a separate unit for resident
fishermen if they so desire.
Boat fishermen traditionally work in pairs, and their work is
hazardous . Nonresidents and residents are never paired in the same
boats. They do not bunk together. Fishermen live on the boats
during continuous fishing days. Residents are inclined to eat inde-
pendently and not at the Employer's mess. A cleavage on a resident
basis thus obtains in these essential living and working conditions.
By law, all set netters, which comprise approximately 600 of the
approximately 1,600 fishermen working in 1950, were all residents.
Of the remaining boat fishermen in 1950, approximately 300 were
residents, as against 600 nonresident fishermen. Residents are almost
entirely dependent on the fishing season for their livelihood .3 Less
than 5 percent of residents in any one year go "out," and most resi-
dents never go out of Alaska. Their entire interests center in de-
veloping homes, schools, and community services in the Bering Sea
area. Nonresident fishermen, on the other hand, have opportunity to
fish along the Pacific Coast from Washington down to South America,
moving as the fishing season moves, or they easily. find other varied
employment. They live in the Alaska area only for about a month
and entirely on company property. They have no essential interest
in developing Alaska as a desirable place for a year-round living. In
fact, their employment in the industry year after year is entirely
dependent on the continuance of the shortage of labor supply in
Alaska to meet the high demand for seasonal workers. At the pres-
ent time, there are admittedly not enough resident fishermen to supply
cannery needs. Only residents are primarily interested in local
conditions.
Bargaining for fishermen began in 1902 when residents were natives
of Alaska and at that time not skilled fishermen for cannery purposes.
Before 1935, "residents" included, however, not only natives, but
1
2 Alaska Salmon Industry, Inc., 61 NLRB 1508.
There is no profitable trapping available in the Bering Sea area, and employment in
logging camps has terminated . Because no money is available to start the operations of
gold, silver , and tin mines, mining jobs are not available.
1216 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Scandinavians and others drawn to Alaska by depression and need.
With opportunities, natives improved their skill and learned new
methods. Based on their previous low averages, they were, however,
granted poor fishing sites and allotted inferior boats and used nets
by the Employer. They could not obtain a high catch of fish and
improve their fishing averages with this equipment.
In 1935, to better their conditions, residents formed a local union,
and for 2 years, from 1935 to 1937, negotiated with the Employer
for resident workers, receiving to some extent the benefits which the
Intervenor secured for its adherents under its formal written contracts
with the Employer. Residents bought a hall for their union meet-
ings, which they have since retained as a community hall. In 1937,
on the promise of fair treatment, residents abandoned their local union
and joined the Intervenor. From 1947 to date, bargaining has been
on a single unit basis for resident and nonresident fishermen and con-
ducted by the Intervenor at its headquarters in Seattle.
Resident and nonresident cannery workers have admittedly bar-
gained on a resident basis for a number of years. Nonresident can-
nery workers, originally Chinese, insisted on separate sleeping
accommodations and a separate mess. Chinese were later replaced
by Japanese, and Japanese later by Filipinos. Of resident cannery
workers, 95 percent are natives. Resident and nonresident cannery
workers are now freely interchangeable and work under common
supervision. Bargaining, however, has continued on a resident basis
even though the original reason no longer exists. A greater diver-
gence of living and work conditions apparently exists today between
resident and nonresident boat fishermen than has existed in recent
years among cannery workers.
Reviewing the entire record herein, we believe that the working in-
terests of resident fishermen are sufficiently divergent from those of
nonresident fishermen to justify a separate unit for resident fishermen
and related categories if they so desire. We therefore find that all
resident fishermen, set netters, beachmen, net tenders, boat crews
(including cooks on tenders and tally scows), mess house employees,
tally men, and utility men employed by the Employer in the Bristol
Bay area in Alaska, excluding office clerical employees, machinists,
carpenters, radio operators, doctors and nurses, timekeepers, store-
keepers, resident and nonresident inside cannery workers, mess house
'employees serving nonresident inside cannery workers, guards, other
employees, and supervisors within the meaning of the Act, may con-
,stitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining
within Section 9 (b) of the Act.
MAGNOLIA PETROLEUM COMPANY 1217
We shall direct an election among these employees to be held during:
the peak of the next fishing season at a time to be selected by the Re-
gional Director, when there is peak employment and a representative
number of persons in the proposed unit may be employed, subject;
to the limitations set forth in the amended direction of election. If a
majority of those voting select the Petitioner, they will be taken to
have expressed their desire to constitute a separate appropriate unit
represented by the Petitioner. We will not direct that an election be
held among nonresident fishermen and related workers in these cate-
gories inasmuch as the Petitioner does not seek to represent nonresi-
dents apart from residents, and no question appears to exist concerning
their separate representation at this time.
Order
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the Decision and Direction of Election in
the instant proceeding, issued by the Board on June 15, 1951, and
amended on July 12, 1951, be, and it hereby is, vacated and set aside
insofar as it is inconsistent with this Supplemental Decision and
Amended Direction of Election.
[Text of Amended Direction of Election omitted from publication
in this volume.]
MAGNOLIA PETROLEUM COMPANY and OIL WORKERS INTERNATIONAL
UNION, CIO. Case No. 16-CA-348. April 21, 1952
Decision and Order
On September 14, 1951, Trial Examiner Louis Plost issued his In-
termediate Report in the above-entitled proceeding, finding that the
Respondent had engaged in and was engaging in certain unfair labor
practices and recommending that it cease and desist therefrom and
take certain affirmative action, as set forth in the copy of the Inter-
mediate Report attached hereto. Thereafter, the Respondent filed
exceptions to the Intermediate Report and a brief.
The Board 1 has reviewed the rulings of the Trial Examiner made
at the hearing and finds that no prejudicial error was committed. The
A Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3 (b) of the National Labor Relations Act, the
Board has delegated its powers in connection with this proceeding to a three-member panel
[Chairman Herzog and Members Murdock and Styles].
98 NLRB No. 190.