California Packing Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Mar 9, 1943

48 N.L.R.B. 693 (N.L.R.B. 1943)

In the Matter of CALIFORNIA PACKING CORPORATION and UNITED
CANNERY, AGRICULTURAL PACKING & ALLIED WORKERS OF AMERICA,
C. I. O.
Case No. R-4^9/ f.-Decided March 9, 19.13
Jurisdiction : canning industry.
Investigation and Certification of Representatives : existence of question • re-
fusal to recognize the union until ce:tified by the Board, election necessary
Units Appropriate for Collective Bargaining : (1) all plant and warehouse
employees at three of the company's plants, including specifically named em-
ployees, and other regular plant and warehouse employees who acquire super-
visory fuhctions dniIng the packing season, but excluding seasonal workers
employed only dining the packing season, office and clerical employees, guards
and watchmen, and employees who are superintendents, assistant superintend-
ents, foremen and assistant foremen throughout the year; (2) all guards and
watchmen, when company desired their exclusion from the industrial unit and
the union desired a separate election among them in the event they should
not be included in the unit.
Mr. Henry E. Seyf arch,,, of Chicago, Ill., for the Company.
Mr. Jack J. Fox, of Chicago, Ill., for the Union.
Miss Meuriel,J. Levor, of counsel to the Board..
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon an amended petition duly filed by-United Cannery, Agricul-
tural Packing and Allied Workers of America, C. I. 0.,1 herein called
the Union, alleging that a question affecting commerce had arisen
concerning the representation of employees of the California Pack-'
ing Corporation, Rochelle "and De Kalb, Illinois, herein called the
Company, the National Labor Relations Board provided for an,appro-
priate hearing upon due notice before Lester Asher, Trial Examiner.
Said hearing was held at Rochelle, Illinois, on February 24 and 26,
1943. The Company and the Union appeared, participated, and were
afforded full opportunity to be heard, to examine and cross-examine
I A motion iNas made and granted to strike "Local 18" from the name of the Union and
to amend the petition and pleadings to set forth the name of the Union , as above.
48 N. L. R B., No. 87.
694 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR. RELATIONS BOARD
witnesses, and to introduce evidence bearing•on the issues. The Trial
Examiner's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error
and are hereby affirmed. The Company filed a brief which the Board
has considered.
Upon the entire record in the case,2 the Board makes the following :
FINDINGS OF FACT
I. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
California Packing Corporation, a New York corporation with its
principal office at San Francisco, California, is engaged in the can-
ning of various agricultural products. Its Midwest Division oper-
ates six plants: of the three which are alone involved in this proceed-
ing two are located at Rochelle, Illinois, and one at De Kalb, Illinois.
The Company rents farms in the territory adjacent to the two Rochelle
canneries (Plants Nos. 109 and 110) and the De Kalb cannery (Plant
No: 111), called collectively the Canneries herein, on which it grows
peas, lima beans, and corn.' These vegetables are subsequently packed
at the Canneries in sealed containers and stored there until shipping
instructions are received. During the year 1942 the products of the
Canneries amounted in value to approximately $7,000,000, about. 90
percent of which was shipped from the Canneries to points outside the
State of Illinois. During the same period the value of canned goods
purchased from other concerns and transferred from other plants of
the Company, all from points outside the State of Illinois, was ap-
proximately $1,000,000.
H. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED
United Cannery, Agricultural Packing and, Allied Workers of
America is a labor, organization affiliated with the Congress of In-
dustrial Organizations, admitting to membership employees of the
Company.
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
The Union requested the Company to confer for the purposes of
collective bargaining. The Company refused unless and until the
Board certifies the Union as representing a majority of its employees
in an appropriate unit.
A stipulation entered into by the parties providing for the correction of certain errors
in the transcript is hereby made a part of the record and the transcript is ordered corrected
eccordm;ly
f' r% ' `CALIFORNIA. PACKING CORPORATION '695
A statement of the Regional Director, introduced into evidence at
the hearing, indicates that the Union represents a substantial number
of employees in the units hereinafter found appropriate.3
We find that a question affecting commerce has arisen concerning
the representation of employees of the Company within the meaning
of Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNITS
The -parties agree that the regular year-round permanent employees
of the three canning plants located at Rochelle and De Kalb, Illinois,
excluding supervisory and clerical employees and the seasonal em-
ployees hired during the summer packing season, constitute a single
appropriate unit. These three canneries are within 18 miles of each
other, while the Company's other canneries are much further away.
We therefore find that the three Canneries together form a suitable
unit. The record shows that very few of the seasonal employees, who
are employed from about June to September, return to work the
following year and there is a more than 100 percent turn-over during
the packing season. The seasonal employees have been principally
recruited from among college students and housewives. It is expected
that this coming season most of them will be housewives who have
never before worked outside of their homes. Under these circum- i
stances we conclude, in agreement 'with the parties, that the seasonal
canning employees should be excluded from the unit 4 The parties
further agreed that the employees of the farms operated by the Com-
pany in the vicinity of the` three Canneries should- also be excluded.
Since these employees are engaged in agricultural labor we find that
they should be excluded.
There are, however, diverse contentions as to whether or not certain
categories of employees and certain specified employees should be in-
cluded in the unit. ,
-
Seed Department: There are about 30 persons employed in the Seed
Department, located in 1 of the Rochelle plants (Plant No. 109), which
processes the seeds for the adjacent farms. From October to March
the seeds are dried, shelled, hand-picked, cleaned, stored, and then
redistributed. The employees of the Seed Department are carried by
the Company on the farm pay roll. The Company assumes that the
Seed Department is agricultural, claims that its work occupies more
than half the working time of the employees therein, and that its
9 The Regional Director reported that the Union submitted 100 designations of which 95,
all bearing apparently genuine original signatures , correspond with names on the Company's
pay roll of December 31, 1942, containing 224 names.
4 Matter of Ladoga Canning Company and Cannery Workers Local Union No 22961, A. F. L.,
41 N. L. It. B. 51.
t
696 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL.LABOR'_RE;LAMONB BOARa
employees should'be excluded as agricultural laborers. The Union is
-willing to exclude-such employees as do not appear on the Company's
cannery pay. roll on the date which the Board decides shall be used to
determine eligibility.
The male employees of the Seed Department, of whom there are
about 12, go back to the farms when the Seed Department shuts down
in March and work in the fields until it resumes operations. Since
these men are carried on the farm pay roll all year there is no contest
concerning them and they will be accordingly excluded.
However, there are also 19 women who work in the Seed Depart-
ment. This has been the first season that the Company has employed
women. It plans to find work for them about the cannery at the close
of the Seed Department season, until the packing season commences,
when they will be employed in canning. The Company then expects
to carry them on the regular cannery pay rolls. As these women may
be on the pay roll which determines eligibility, an issue has arisen in
regard to them. The unit desired by both parties is composed of the
regular all year round experienced workers who do maintenance and
warehouse work in the winter. The record does not show at what
kind of work, if any, these women will be employed between the seed
and packing seasons and it appears that during the canning season
they will be employed in the same manner as the seasonal employees
who have been excluded: Under these circumstances we. conclude that
the female employees of the Seed Department should not be included
within the unit of regular canning employees.
Seasonal foremen and assistant foremen. The parties agree that
certain specified individuals 5 are supervisory and should be excluded.
However, a controversy has Rrisen concerning other employees whom
the' Company desires to exclude as supervisory and whom the Union
desires to include, although it concedes they assume supervisory duties
during the packing season. Some further information as to the Com-
pany's operations is necessary to understand thejstatus of these con-
tested employees. The principal crops packed at the Canneries are
peas, beans, and corn, and the canning season extends from June 10
to September 28. During this period the Company employs from
approximately 1300, for the pea-pack, to approximately 3000 addi-
tional employees, for the corn-pack, all of whom are excluded by agree-
ment of the parties. The experience and knowledge of the regular
all year round employees who number about 220, is utilized during
the packing season when, it appears, they all become key men having
some supervisory functions over the inexperienced seasonal workers.
5 Jacob Vogeler, Thompson, Phelps. Harris, Erbes, Hayes, Halsey. Alexander. Zimmerman,
Maiden, Drain, Rasmussen, Geiald Diaper, Owen Lamb, IIeltness, Sherwood, Arnold Draper,
Calhoun, Adair, Haka, Poss, and Donald Dodge
'CALIFORNIA PACKING CORPORATION 697
No supervisory employees are obtained from among the seasonal
workers. -
The controversy concerns 20 of the regular year-round employees 6
most of whom it is conceded become foremen or assistant foremen
during the packing season. The Union contends, however, that these
employees have no supervisory authority during the rest of the year.
The Company claims that they have some supervisory duties through=
out the year. The record establishes that some of these contested em-
ployees are paid on a salary basis while others are paid by an hourly
rate. The work of these employees during the off-season falls into 2
categories. During the week or 2 to 2 months that it takes to get the
machinery, ready before the packing season and to dismantle it after
the season, 19 of these contested employees continue to have super-
visory duties which they do not retain. The time varies but 2 weeks
is probably average; when longer periods are required it is for the
overhauling jobs required every few years for the maintenance of the
various types of machinery. Many of these seasonal foremen and
assistant foremen are specialists on certain types of machines and
supervise the preparation, di mantling and repairing in the manner of
straavbosses, except that whereas a man may be a leader over a few
men on 1 job, he may follow on others. During the rest of the off-
season these men usually do maintenance work involving no super-
visory authority except for about 5 percent of their time when they
may also act as strawbosses on repair jobs for which they are special-
ists. Other seasonal foremen and assistant foremen work in the ware-
house the rest of the year.
The non-canning season work of the contested employees may be
thus lumped together except for certain specified employees whose
work is hereinafter described and except for Olsen, a millwright,
whose work is somewhat different from the others as he does main-
tenance work throughout the year with from one to four helpers. - We
find the supervisory authority which these contested employees acquire
during the packing season is for the most part over employees excluded
from the unit, and that throughout the rest of the year except during
the preparations for and the dismantling operations after the canning,
season, they have substantially no supervisory duties. As the unit
is composed of permanent year-round employees who also become key
men during the pack, and since the Union desires to include them, we
shall include them within the appropriate unit.
The specified employees whose status is contested are as follows:
Averill. The Union contends that Averill is a supervisory employee
who should be excluded from the appropriate unit, while the Company
°wm Vogeler, Baitkus, Win Peters , 'Mowry, Evensen , Stroyan , Ben and Chester La Hue,
Davenport , Keeling, Danekas, Daub , Stioud , Carter , Nelson , Caspeis, Olsen, Averill , Royalty,
and Votaw.
698 ' DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR , RELATIONS BOARD
contends that he is not supervisory and should , therefore , be included.
Averill was hired by the Company during March 1941, and has worked
as a warehouse worker. During the 1942 packing season he was put in
charge of the outside warehouse gangs. Since that time he has been
.a regular warehouse worker and has occasionally acted as a leader of
car loading gangs. He is paid on-an hourly basis . The Company does
not know whether it will have any outside warehousing during the
1943 pack and does not know whether Averill will act as a supervisor,
in which capacity he has had less experience than most of the other
contested employees . We shall include him in the unit.
Royalty. The Union claims that Royalty is a production man while
the Company claims that he is a guard and as such should be ex-
cluded, from the unit. Royalty supervises during the pack and the
rest of the time does warehouse work, although since December 1942
,he has performed guard duties for one 10-hour shift each week. He
has not been sworn in as an auxiliary to the Military Police. We
shall include him in the unit of plant and warehouse employees.
Votaw. The Company contends that Votaw should be excluded as
being a watchman or guard while the Union contends that Votaw
is a warehouse employee. Votaw has been employed by the Company
as a warehouse worker during the last three packing seasons and for
some periods during the non-operating seasons. In December 1942
he was given the job of watchman at two buildings away from the
Company premises which were rented as warehouses . Votaw takes
care of the fires and boilers in these outside warehouses . He does not
carry arms , has not taken . any military oath, and the Company's
superintendent stated that Votaw will not take such an oath in the
future and will not carry arms. The Company further stated that
it does not know how long these outside warehouses will- be main-
tained; if they are closed Votaw will return to his position of ware-
house worker . We find that Votaw is only temporarily doing
watchman work and that he should be included within the unit of
plant and warehouse employees.
Seeley, Spenser , and Jagle. These three employees worked at the
farms throughout the 1942 season and work was found for them at the
canning plants ` during the winter months so that it would not be
necessary to lay them off. The Union desires to have them included
in the unit if they are on the Canneries ' pay roll at the time of the
eligibility pay roll, and the Company contends they should be excluded
as agricultural laborers. Jagle has been working on the farms since
January 1943 , where he was working at the time of the hearing, and
the Company stated that he would continue to be so employed . Seeley
and Spencer will be put back at agricultural work when farm opera-
CALIFORNIA PACKING CORPORATION 699
tions recommence in April. We find that Jagle, Seeley, and Spencer
should be excluded from the unit.
The watchmen and guards. There is a further dispute about the
guards and watchmen whom the Union desires to include and, the
Company to exclude from the unit. The Company calls those plant-
protection employees who work outdoors guards, and those who work
indoors watchmen, but their duties and status are essentially the same.
There are approximately 25 such employees of whom about 22 have
been sworn in as Auxiliary Military Police and the rest are about to
be. All of these employees either carry arms or will do so after they
have completed a course of training. The Union stated that in the
event the, Board found that guards and- watchmen should not be in-
cluded in the unit of plant and warehouse employees, it desired a
separate election among the guards and watchmen. It is our usual
practice to establish separate units for such employees, where, as here,
they perform the customary duties of authorized plant-protection em-
ployees and have been sworn in as auxiliaries of the military police.
Accordingly, we find that all guards and watchmen at the Company's
Plants 109, 110, and 111, located at Rochelle and De Kalb, Illinois,
excluding Votaw, Royalty, and any supervisory guards or watchmen,
constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining
within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
We find that all plant and warehouse employees of the `Company
at its Plants 109, 110,'and 111, located at Rochelle and De Kalb, Illinois,
including Olsen, Royalty, Averill, and Votaw, and other regular plant
and warehouse employees who acquire supervisory functions during
the packing season ,° but excluding seasonal workers employed only
during the packing season, office and clerical employees, guards and
watchmen, and employees who are superintendents, assistant superin-
tendents, foremen and assistant - foremen- throughout the year,8 em-
ployees of the Seed Department, and Seeley, Spencer, and Jagie, con-
stitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining
within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
V. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
We shall direct that the question concerning representation which
has arisen be resolved by elections by secret ballot among the employees
in the appropriate units who were employed during the pay-roll period
immediately preceding the date of our Direction of Elections, subject
to the limitations and additions set forth therein.
See footnote 6, supra.
8 See footnote 5, supra.
700 DECISIONS OF, NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
DIRECTIONS OF ELECTIONS
By virtue of and pursuant to the power vested in the National Labor
'Relations Board by Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act,
and pursuant to Article III, Section 9, of National Labor Relations
Board Rules and Regulations-Series 2, as amended , it is hereby
DIRECTED , that, as part of the investigation to ascertain represent a-
•tives for the purposes of collective bargaining with California Pack-
ing Corporation , Rochelle and De Kalb, Illinois, separate elections
by secret ballot shall be conducted as early as possible, but not later
than thirty (30) days from the date of this Direction, under the direc-
tion and supervision of the Regional Director for the Thirteenth
Region, acting in this matter as agent for the National Labor Relations
Board, and subject to Article III, Section 10, of said Rules and-Regu-
lations, among the employees in the units found appropriate in Section,
IV, above, who were employed during the pay-roll,period immediately
preceding the date of this Direction, including employees who did not
work during said pay-roll period because they were ill or on vacation
or temporarily laid off, and including employees in the armed forces
of the United States who present themselves in person at the polls, but
excluding'those employees who have since quit or been discharged- for
cause, to determine ( 1) whether or not the employees in the plant and
warehouse unit desire to be represented by United Cannery ; Agricul-
tural Packing and Allied Workers of America, affiliated with the Con-
gress of Industrial Organizations, for the purposes of collective bar-
gaining; and ( 2) whether or not those in the guard and watchman unit
desire to be represented by United Cannery; Agricultural Packing and
Allied Workers of America, affiliated with the Congress of Industrial
Orgaizations , for the purposes of collective bargaining:
MR. JOHN M. HousTON took no part in the consideration of the
above Decision and Direction of Election.
1