Bryant Finishing Co., Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Nov 19, 1952

101 N.L.R.B. 422 (N.L.R.B. 1952)

422 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
their desire to be included in the production and maintenance unit
currently represented by the Petitioner, and the Regional Director
shall issue a certification of results of election to that effect.
[Text of Direction of Election 3 omitted from publication in this
volume..]
MEMBERS STYLES and PETERSON took no part in the consideration of
the above Supplemental Decision and Direction of Election.
We hereby direct the Regional Director not to .proceed with the election herein directed
until he shall have first determined that the Petitioner has a sufficient showing of interest.
In this group . Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, 99 NLRB 1500.
BRYANT FINISHING CO., INC. and UNITED TEXTILE WORKERS OF
AMERICA, AFL, PETITIONER
THE PAWTUXET VALLEY DYEING Co., INC. and UNITED TEXTILE
WORKERS or AMERICA, AFL, PETITIONER
TRIES DYEING MILLS, INC. and UI^ITED TEXTILE WORKERS OF
AMERICA, AFL, PETITIONER
GEORGE E. MOUSLEY COMPANY, INC., AND MILLBURN MILLS, INC. and
UNITED TEXTILE WORKERS OF AMERICA, AFL, PETITIONER. Cases
Nos. 1-RC-° 835,1-RC-2836,1-RC-2837, and 1-RC-2840. Novem-
ber 19,1952
Decision and Direction of Elections
Upon petitions duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, a consolidated hearing was held before Sidney A. Co-
ven, 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 these cases to a three-mem-
ber panel [Members Houston, Murdock, and Styles].
Upon the entire record in these cases, the Board finds :
1. The Employers are engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the Act.
2. The labor organizations involved claim a represent certain em-
ployees of the Employers?
3. The Intervenor contends that its collective bargaining contracts
with the Employers should bar the instant petitions. The Petitioner
I These cases were consolidated by order of the Regional Director on July 2, 1952.
a Textile Workers Union of America , CIO, herein termed the Intervenor, was granted
intervention at the hearing.
101 NLRB No. 95.
BRYANT FINTSAING CO ., INC. 423
asserts that the contracts are not bars because a schism has occurred
in the Intervenor's Local 422 creating a doubt as to the identity of the
representative of these employees.
The Intervenor's Local 422 is an amalgamated local consisting of
the employees at the plants of the Employers as well as those of the
Kenyon Piece Dye Company.' Employees of the Kenyon plant com-
prise about half the membership of the amalgamated. Bargaining
between the Employers and Local 422 has resulted in separate col-
lective bargaining contracts for individual plant units at each of the
Employer's facilities.' The present contract at Bryant Finishing was
executed on June 12,1950, and, pursuant to a stipulation dated Novem-
ber 3, 1951, will expire on September 30, 1953. The contract at Paw-
tuxet Valley was executed on March 15, 1951, for a term of 1 year,
and was automatically renewed for a period ending March 15, 1953.
The contract between the Intervenor and the Mousley Company and
Millburn Mills was executed March 13,1952, and expires on March 15,
1953. The last contract between the Intervenor and Thies Dyeing
expired, pursuant to its terms, on notice from the Intervenor, on Sep-
tember 30, 1951, after which the parties orally agreed to continue its
provisions in effect until a new agreement was signed. Each of these
contracts is in the name of the Intervenor's International rather than
that of Local 422.
It is apparent, on long-standing Board precedent, that the expired
contract between the Intervenor and Thies Dyeing Mills and the oral
continuance of that agreement cannot bar a determination of rep-
resentatives at this time. Each of the other contracts, however, is
clearly a valid agreement which will not expire for some time. The
contention of the Petitioner that a schism in the ranks of the Inter-
venor has occurred therefore becomes pertinent.
Following the Intervenor's 1952 convention in Cleveland, Ohio,
which ended early in May, the delegates to that convention from Local
422 returned and reported to both the executive board and the member-
ship of the Local. They expressed some discontent with the events
of the convention and the Local passed a resolution protesting the
discharge of officials of the Intervenor. On May 20, the South County
Joint Board, with which Local 422 was affiliated, notified the president
of Local 422, R. D. Petrarca, to appear before it on charges of dual
unionism and conduct detrimental to the welfare of the Intervenor.
On May 25, Petrarca, who was also a business agent of the Joint
Board, appeared before the board and was told either to resign his
' The local has included employees of other employers in the past but now consists of
the Kenyon employees and those of the Employers named in these petitions.
' The sole exception is in the case of employees of Mousley and of Millburn. These
employees constitute a single bargaining unit due to, among other things, the sharing of
facilities by those Employers.
424 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
position as business agent or be discharged from that position. On
June 3, the executive board of Local 422 with Petrarca presiding,,
met and decided that a general membership meeting of the Local
should be held on June 8 to determine whether or not the Local would
remain 'affiliated with the Intervenor. The meeting was announced
by means of notices posted in the individual plants and by newspaper
,advertisements r, Approximately 175 members attended' including
about 25 to 35 employees of the Kenyon plant. Those present voted-
144 to 19 to disaffiliate from the Intervenor with 6 votes held void.
The resolution of disaffiliation contained statements concerning the
Local's dispute over rebates with the Joint Board and the discharge
of Petrarca but did not mention the Cleveland convention or issues
arising directly therefrom.6 The meeting then adjourned and recon-
vened immediately to elect its former officers to like positions and to,
instruct them to take the necessary steps to affiliate the Local with the
Petitioner. On June 9, the Intervenor appointed an administrator
for Local 422 and its membership. Shortly thereafter, the Employers
were notified of the disaffiliation action and on June 26, 1952, the Peti-
tioner issued a charter to these employees to form an amalgamated
local. The employees at the Kenyon plant indicated after the June &
meeting that they desired to remain affiliated with the Intervenor and
the Petitioner has not claimed recognition at that plant. The Em-
ployers, while not recognizing the Petitioner as representative of their
employees, have impounded checkoff receipts which were received af-
ter the disaffiliation because of doubts as to the identity of the bargain-
ing representative. While minor grievances have been adjusted at a
number of the plants, the employees' representatives concerned in
their adjustments did not appear to act as representatives of either the
Petitioner or the Intervenor.
Upon the entire record, the Board finds that as the result of a schism
in the ranks of the Intervenor directly affecting these employees,
serious confusion has arisen in the bargaining relationship between
the Employers and the representative of their employees. We find no,
merit in the contention of the Intervenor that because the Petitioner
is not seeking representation of employees at all plants previously
included in Local 422, the schism is incomplete and ineffective. In the
instant case the entire amalgamated local formally disaffiliated from
the Intervenor, and the membership which so voted included em-
5 The plant notices were posted on June 4 and stated the time, place, and purpose of
the meeting. The newspaper notices were inserted in the June 6 and 7 issues and con-
tained the same information except for a statement of the purpose of the meeting.
There were an undisclosed number of members of the Local who were in a layoff status
at the time who would , presumably , not see the plant notices.
8 The quarrel over the amount of money to be retained by the Local from the dues receipts
had commenced some years before and had recently been brought into issue by the Joint
Board's notice to the Local that the -rebate question was to be reopened.
UNITED MINE WORKERS OF AMERICA 425
ployees from all plants which the amalgamated represented. The
fact that the Petitioner now chooses, in the face of the broad disaffilia-
tion, to limit its representation claim to all but one of these plants,
does not lessen the effect of the disaffiliation. Accordingly, we find
that the Intervenor's contracts with the Employers do not bar the
instant petitions and that a question affecting commerce exists con-
cerning the representation of employees of the Employer within the
meaning of Section 9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.'
4. The following employees of the Employers constitute units appro-
priate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning
of Section 9 (b) of the Act:
All production and maintenance employees of the Bryant Finishing
Co., Inc., Coventry, Rhode Island, excluding executives, office and
clerical employees, guards, professional employees, and all super-
visors as defined in the amended Act.
All production and maintenance employees of the Pawtuxet Valley
Dyeing Co., Inc., West Warwick, Rhode Island, excluding executives,
office and clerical employees, guards, professional employees, and all
supervisors as defined in the amended Act.
All production and maintenance employees of the Thies Dyeing
Mills, Inc., West Warwick, Rhode Island, including receiving and
shipping clerks but excluding general office help, foremen, heads of
departments, guards, and all supervisors as defined in the amended
Act.
All production and maintenance employees of the George E.
Mousley Company, Inc., and Millburn Mills, Inc., West Warwick,
Rhode Island, excluding executives, supervisors, office clerical em-
ployees, professional employees, and all supervisors as defined in the
amended Act.
[Text of Direction of Elections omitted from publication in this
volume.]
UNITED MINE WORKERS OF AMERICA, LOCAL UNION 12050, DISTRICT 50
and EQUITABLE GAS COMPANY . Case No. 6-CD-15. November 19,
.1952
Decision and Determination of Dispute
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
This proceeding arises under Section 10 (k) of the Act, as amended
by the Labor Management Relations Act, 1947, which provides that
7 See Wade Manufacturing Company, 100 NLRB 1135, and cases cited therein. Cf.
J. J. Tourek Manufacturing Co., 90 NLRB 5; Barker and Williamson , Inc., 97 NLRB 562;
Telex, Inc., 90 NLRB 202; Trio Industries, Inc., 97 NLRB 1146.
101 NLRB No. 99.