Central Mercedita, Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Sep 18, 1952

100 N.L.R.B. 1168 (N.L.R.B. 1952)

1168 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
CENTRAL MERCEDITA , INC.1 and UNION DE TRABAJADORES DE OBRA,
DEPOSITO Y TRANSPORTACION DE CENTRAL MERCEDITA, INDEPENDENT,
PETITIONER . Case No. !24-RC-347. September 18, 1952
Decision and Direction of Elections
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, a hearing was held before Robert J. Cannella, 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 this case to a three-mem-
ber panel [Chairman Herzog and Members Murdock and Peterson].
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 organizations involved claim to represent certain em-
ployees of the Employer 2
3. Amalgamated presently represents an industrial unit of em-
ployees in the Employer's sugar refinery and mill, for which unit
Amalgamated was certified as bargaining agent by the Board. Said
unit is currently encompassed by a collective bargaining agreement
between Amalgamated and the Employer. Amalgamated contends
that the employees in the unit sought (consisting of employees en-
gaged in the Employer's garage and warehouse departments and
maintenance of company-owned dwellings) are included in the afore-
said industrial unit, and that its contract is, therefore, a bar to these
proceedings. However, the record conclusively discloses that the
employees in the unit sought are not in any manner represented by
Amalgamated or related to its collective bargaining contract with the
Employer. Furthermore, the record discloses that all determinations,
relating to the instant employees, have been administratively made by
the Employer, and that they are presently unrepresented by any
bargaining agent. We find, therefore, that the Amalgamated's con-
tention is without merit, and that its contract constitutes no bar to,
these proceedings.
We find further that a question affecting commerce exists concern-
ing the representation of employees of the Employer within the
meaning of Section 9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
' The Employer's name appears as amended at the hearing.
s Intervenors in this proceeding are: (a) Union de Traba jadores de Factoria , Refineria
y Ramas Anexas de la Industria , Azucarera , Local 1781, Amalgamated Trade Unions'
Council, ILA-AFL ( hereinafter called Amalgamated ), and (b ) Union Independiente Trafico,-
Vias y Obras Depto. Electrico ( hereinafter called Vias y Obras ), which latter intervenor
has been known heretofore on the Board 's records as Union Independiente de Taller, Vias y
Obras de Central Mercedita . Vias y Obras will appear on the ballot in these proceedings
under its name as changed.
100 NLRB No. 140.
CENTRAL MERCEDITA, INC. 1169
4. The appropriate units :
The Petitioner seeks a unit confined to the production and mainte-
nance employees of the Company's warehouse and garage depart-
ments 3 and such of the maintenance employees of the Company as
are engaged in the maintenance and repair of company-owned em-
ployee dwellings.
The Intervenor Amalgamated contends, in effect, that these em-
ployees should be added to the production and maintenance employees
of the Employer's sugar refinery and mill covered by Amalgamated's
current collective bargaining agreement.
The Intervenor Vias y Obras opposes inclusion of the garage de-
partment employees in the unit sought by the Petitioner. It contends
that such employees should be added to the unit of electrical shop
employees and railroad and maintenance-of-ways employees at the
Employer's mill, for which it was certified as bargaining agent by
the Board on July 20,1951.
The Employer takes a neutral position.
The record shows that the employees sought by the Petitioner, ap-
proximately 100 in number, comprise, in effect, 3 separate departments,
each of which is under separate immediate supervision, but all of
which, together, are under the same ultimate supervision. About
one-half of the employees in the garage department, however, work
under the same supervision as do certain of the maintenance-of-ways
employees represented by the Intervenor Vias y Obras, and apparently
possess similar skills and have the same general working conditions.
The remaining workers involved in the petition (other than the garage
department employees) apparently have interests and skills similar to
certain of the industrial employees represented by the Intervenor
Amalgamated. It thus appears that there are certain factors which
would support the addition of the garage department employees to
the unit represented by Intervenor Vias y Obras, and the addition
of the remaining workers to the unit represented by Intervenor Amal-
gamated.4 The latter union, however, unlike Vias y Obras, has made
no showing of interest among these employees, thus precluding effec-
tive consideration of its request for addition of these workers to the
unit it currently represents.
On the other hand, there are factors herein which support the grant
of the Petitioner's unit request. The employees concerned generally
have separate immediate supervision, and there is no interchange of
employees with the existing represented units. Although the record
shows that the other employees of the Employer are currently covered
by four individual bargaining agreements, none of the unions holding
8 The garage department is composed of two groups of employees, those who maintain
and drive the company-owned - automobiles, and those who maintain and drive the company
trucks. The two groups are administratively consolidated into the one garage department.
, National Oats Company, 93 NLRB 939.
1170 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
such contracts has heretofore represented or bargained for any of thb
employees the Petitioner seeks. Thus, these employees constitute a
residual production and maintenance group which we would establish
as a separate unit, without regard to other factors, so as not to deny
them the opportunity of obtaining the benefits of collective bargaining,
if they so desired.5
However, since the garage department employees may appropriately
be included in the unit currently represented by Vias y Obras, or
in the residual unit sought by the Petitioner, we shall poll the garage
department employees separately in order to determine their desires.
If a majority selects the Intervenor Vias y Obras, these employees
may be added to the unit such union currently represents. If a ma-
jority selects the Petitioner, these employees may be bargained for
as part of the residual unit we have found appropriate herein.
To determine the desires of the employees as to scope of unit, we shall
direct that separate elections by secret ballot be held in the following
voting groups :
Group 1: All production and maintenance employees of the Com-
pany's garage department, but excluding all other employees of the
Employer, office clericals, administrative, executive, and professional
personnel, watchmen, foremen, guards, and supervisors as defined in
the Act.
Group 2: All production and maintenance employees of the Com-
pany's warehouse department and all those employees of the Company
engaged in the maintenance and repair of company-owned dwellings,
but excluding all other employees of the Employer, the carpenter
foremen, draftsmen, land surveyors, "measurers," contractors, ware-
house foremen, the four confidential clerks at the warehouse, admin-
istrative, executive, and professional personnel, guards, and super-
visors as defined in the Act .6
If a majority of the employees in Group 1 select the Intervenor
Vias y Obras, they will be included in the unit of the Employer's
workers presently represented by the said Intervenor. If a majority
of the employees, in Group 2 only, select the Petitioner, the employees
in that voting group will constitute a separate appropriate unit. If
a majority of employees in each group cast their ballots for the Peti-
tioner, they together will constitute a single appropriate unit.
The Regional Director conducting the elections is directed herein to
issue a certificate of representatives or of results of elections in accord
with the foregoing.
[Text of Direction of Elections omitted from publication in this
volume.]
6 Jordan Marsh Company, 85 NLRB 1503; The A . G. Staf ord Company , 96 NLRB No. K.
6 The exclusions in both voting groups were stipulated by the parties at the hearing.