Bond Stores, Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jun 27, 1952

99 N.L.R.B. 1029 (N.L.R.B. 1952)

BOND STORES, INCORPORATED 1029
BOND STORES , INCORPORATED and RETAIL , WHOLESALE & DEPARTMENT
STORE UNION, CIO, PETITIONER and LOCAL 1506, RETAIL CLERKS
INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION, AFL. Cases Nos. O-RC-434 1 and
2-RC-4342. June 27,190
Decision and Direction of Elections
Upon petitions duly filed, a consolidated hearing was held before
Harold L. Richman, 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 National Labor
Relations Act, the Board has delegated its powers in connection with
this case to a three-member panel [Chairman Herzog and Members,
Styles and Peterson].
Upon the entire record in these cases the Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the
National Labor Relations Act.
2. The labor organizations involved claim 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 Petitioner seeks a unit of all selling and nonselling employees
employed at the Employer's Albany and Schenectady retail clothing
stores, excluding tailor shop employees, the credit manager, and the
store'manager. The above are the only stores of the Employer involved
in this proceeding. The Intervenor and the Employer contend that a
two-store unit confined to the selling employees is appropriate. The
Intervenor does not desire to represent the nonselling employees, and
takes no position concerning the appropriateness of a unit confined to
tlieni, which the Petitioner, in the alternative, desires to represent.
The Albany and Schenectady stores, located approximately 25 miles
apart, are engaged in identical retailing operations, receiving their
merchandise from the Employer's factories, and their advertising copy
from the Employer's New York office. The latter office sets all labor
relations policy. Although, except for the window trimmer, there is
no employee interchange, employees of both stores work identical
hours, have similar skills, job classifications, and working conditions.
The Intervenor has represented the selling employees of the Albany
store since 1942. In 1946, the Schenectady selling employees were
added to the unit, and the Intervenor represented the selling employees
of both stores as a two-store unit until the most recent contract expired
in January of 1952.
99 NLRB No. 152.
215233-53-66
1030 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
On the basis of these facts, including a bargaining history on a two-
store basis, we find that a unit composed of employees of both stores is
appropriate for purposes of collective bargaining.'
The only disputed issue is whether the selling and nonselling em-
ployees of both stores shall constitute a single unit, or whether there
shall be separate units of selling employees and nonselling employees,
respectively.
The record shows that the nonselling employees in both stores con-
sist of service desk clerks, stock or receiving clerks, porters, and office
clerical employees who act as cashiers, handle credit, prepare inven-
tory and sales records, do filing, and keep accounts-receivable records.
While the salesmen are paid a base salary plus commission, all other
employees are paid on a straight salary basis and are, in addition, given
proportionate adjustments for overtime. Salesmen are accorded va-
cations on the basis of base pay plus part of average commissions;
vacation pay for nonselling employees is based on their fixed salary.
Stock clerks are permitted to handle accommodation sales and are paid
commissions on such sales. There is virtually no interchange between
selling and nonselling employees.
Although there is a bargaining history between the Employer and
the Intervenor since 1942 with respect to the selling employees, there
is no history of collective bargaining insofar as the nonselling em-
ployees are concerned. As indicated above, the most recent contract
between the Employer and the Intervenor covering only the selling
employees of both stores expired in January 1952.
The Board has frequently, in retail store cases where only one
labor organization was involved, approved a unit of both selling and
nonselling employees.2 Here, however, there is a bargaining history
between the Employer and the Intervenor with respect to the selling
employees whom the Intervenor seeks to continue to represent in a
separate unit. We believe that either an over-all unit of both selling
and nonselling employees or separate units of each may be appropri-
ate, depending on the desires of the employees as expressed in the
elections hereinafter directed.
Accordingly, we shall direct elections in the following voting
groups:
Group 1. All selling employees employed at the Employer's Albany
and Schenectady stores, including the window trimmer,3 and all super-
visors as defined in the Act.
Group 2. All nonselling employees employed at the Albany and
Manhattan Sponging Works, 90 NLRB 13.
Spiegel Fashion Shops, 85 NLRB 437. See , also, Maas Brothers , Inc., 88 NLRB 129.
'The window trimmer normally assists on the selling floor 1 night each week and has
been included in the existing unit of selling employees represented by the Intervenor.
BROWN AND ROOT, INC. 1031
Schenectady stores, excluding the head cashier,4 tailor shop em-
ployees,5 and all other employees, and supervisors as defined in the
Act.
If a majority of the employees in both voting groups select the
Petitioner, they will be taken to have indicated their desire for a single
bargaining unit, and the Regional Director conducting the elections
directed herein is instructed to issue a certification of representatives
to the Petitioner for such unit which the Board in that event finds to be
appropriate for purposes of collective bargaining. In the event that
a majority of the employees in voting group 1 select the Intervenor
and a majority of the employees in voting group 2 select the Petitioner,
the employees in each will be taken to have indicated their preference
for a separate bargaining unit, and the Regional Director is instructed
to issue a certification of representatives to the Petitioner or Inter-
venor, as the case may be, for the separate unit which the Board finds
in such circumstances to be appropriate for purposes of collective bar-
gaining.
[Text of Direction of Elections omitted from publication in this
volume.]
' We find, in accordance with the Employer 's contention , that the office employee classi-
fied as head cashier in each store should be excluded from the unit as a confidential employee.
The record shows that only this employee has access to all confidential memoranda sent
to the store manager concerning labor relations policy and al other Instructions, concerning
employment conditions and rates of pay. See B. F. Goodrich Co., 92 NLRB 575. '
a The parties have stipulated to exclude the tailor shop employees.
BROWN AND ROOT, INC., WUNDERLICH CONTRACTING COMPANY, PETER
KIEWIT SONS COMPANY, WINSTON BROS. COMPANY, DAVID G. GOR-
DON, CONDON-CUNNINGHAM CO., MORRISON-KNUDSON COMPANY, INC.,
J. C. MAGUIRE & COMPANY, AND CHAS.'H. TOMPKINS CO., DOING BUSI-
NESS AS JOINT VENTURERS UNDER THE NAMES OF OZARK DAM CON-
STRUCTORS AND FLIPPIN MATERIALS Co. and FORT SMITH, LITTLE
ROCK & SPRINGFIELD JOINT COUNCIL, A. F. L. Case No. 32-CA-111.
June V, 1952
Decision and Order
On August 15, 1951, Trial Examiner David F. Doyle issued his In-
termediate Report in the above-entitled proceeding finding that the
Respondents 1 had engaged in and were engaging in certain unfair
labor practices in violation of Section 8 (a) (1) and (3) of the Act and
' As used herein, Ozark Is Respondent Ozark Dam Constructors ; Flippin Is Respondent
Flippin Materials Co.; Respondents are Flippin and Ozark , jointly, and severally; Joint
Council Is Fort Smith , Little Rock & Springfield Join Council , A. F. L.; and IAM is Inter-
national Association of Machinists.
99 NLRB No. 153.