Chesty Foods, Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Apr 14, 1952

98 N.L.R.B. 1185 (N.L.R.B. 1952)

CHESTY FOODS, INC. 1185
but excluding mowers, rakers, choppers, field maintenance men, office
and clerical employees, watchmen, guards, and supervisors 8
5. The Employer operates its mill on a year-round basis, its greatest
activity occurring between November and May of the following year.
From time to time, as weather and other conditions require, the Em-
ployer furnishes work in its mill to persons regularly employed as
agricultural laborers in the fields. The record, however, does not dis-
close that these persons spend any appreciable portion of their regular
time working in the mill. Although, while engaged in mill work,
they properly come within the appropriate unit and may be bargained
for with other employees in the unit for such mill work, they do not
appear to have sufficient interests in their employment as mill workers
to justify their eligibility to vote in the election directed among mill
employees.9 For this reason, we find them ineligible to vote in the
election.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this
volume.]
6 Because the Employer has no employees in the categories of engineer or leadman
operator and shipping and receiving clerks, we make no unit finding for these categories.
Archer-Daniels -Midland Company, W. J. Small Company Division, supra; The Ocala
Star Banner, 97 NLRB 384; L . Maxcey, Inc., 78 NLRB 525.
CHESTY FOODS , INC. and TEAMSTERS UNION, LOCAL 144, INTERNA-
TIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS, CHAUFFEURS, WAREHOUSEMEN
& HELPERS OF AMERICA, AFL, PETITIONEB. Case No. 35-RC-653.
April 14, 1952
Decision and Direction of Election
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National
Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before Joseph A. Butler,
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 Houston and Murdock].
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 organization involved claims 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.
98 NLRB No. l7R
1186 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
4. The Petitioner seeks a single unit composed of all over-the-road
drivers and the driver-salesmen who are based at the Employer's
plant in Terre Haute, Indiana. As an alternative, the Petitioner
would accept these two groups in separate units. The Employer con-
tends (1) that its over-the-road drivers should not be joined with
its driver-salesmen, and (2) that the only appropriate unit for the
latter would be one comprising all the driver-salesmen in its employ,
regardless of whether or not they operate from the Terre Haute plant.
The Employer is engaged in the manufacture of potato chips and
related products. It employs 5 over-the-road semitrailer drivers,
who transport these commodities to certain redistribution points in
Indiana and Illinois. It employs 36 driver-salesmen, who sell and
deliver products to retailers. Of these driver-salesmen, 5 work di-
rectly from the Terre Haute plant, serving local routes in and around
that city; 4 operate from a branch warehouse in Evansville, Indiana;
9 from a similar warehouse in Indianapolis; and the others from in-
dividual redistribution points.
All driver-salesmen work on a commission basis with a guaranteed
minimum. They are expected to stimulate business with old cus-
tomers and to acquire new customers. The amount of time which
they devote to such efforts is of their own choosing. Selected largely
for their selling experience, talking ability, and good appearance,
they do not interchange with the over-the-road drivers. They have
no union representation.
The over-the-road drivers, who are paid on an hourly basis, do
no selling whatever. Unlike the driver-salesmen, whose work is di-
rected by supervisors responsible to the route sales manager, they
are supervised by the plant manager. Also unlike the driver-sales-
men, they exercise virtually no independent judgment as to their
hours of work. Since 1946 the Petitioner has represented them,
although on an informal basis without a contract.
The driver-salesmen are essentially salesmen 1 The differences be-
tween their interests and conditions of work and those of over-the-
road drivers outweigh the partial similarity of function resulting
from the fact that both handle motor vehicles. Absent any agree-
ment by the parties to merge these two distinct groups,2 we find that
they may not jointly constitute a unit appropriate for collective bar-
gaining.3 We are of the opinion, however, that the over-the-road
drivers constitute a separate appropriate Unit .4
1 See Liberty Laundry Company, 62 NLRB 1235; Flint Oil Company, 88 NLRB 634.
z Cf. Lyons Auto Supply , 86 NLRB 633; Caskey Baking Company, 80 NLRB 374;
Fairmont Creamery Company, 58 NLRB 39.
, Jas, Beer Company of Houston, 89 NLRB 1233; Rockford Coca-Cola Bottling Company,
81 NLRB 579 ; National Brands, Inc., 81 NLRB 1163.
A Omaha Cold Storage Co., 73 NLRB 406.
NEW JERSEY OYSTER PLANTERS AND PACKERS ASSN., INC. 1187
A problem remains whether the 5 local route salesmen alone, ex-
cluding the remaining 31 driver-salesmen, constitute a separate ap-
propriate unit. The Employer's sales organization operates as an
integrated whole. The 4 supervisors who exercise authority over
driver-salesmen throughout the entire distribution area are all based
at Terre Haute. When new driver-salesmen are recruited for service
in outlying areas, they must be interviewed by the route sales man-
ager, who is located at Terre Haute .5 From time to time the out-
lying driver-salesmen attend general meetings at the Terre Haute
plant. Moreover, the distances separating the Employer's different
sales areas are similar to those in other cases in which the Board
has combined central city and outlying salesmen or driver- salesmen
into a single unite We find, therefore, that any unit which includes
the local route driver-salesmen must, to be appropriate, include also
the remaining driver- salesmen.
At the hearing the Petitioner expressed itself as not desirous of
representing any such over-all unit of driver-salesmen. For this
reason, as well as because the Petitioner has made no sufficient show-
ing of interest in such a unit, we will direct no election for the driver-
salesmen.
On the entire record, the Board finds that all over-the-road truck
drivers working from the Employer's plant in Terre Haute, Indiana,
excluding all driver-salesmen and all supervisors as defined in the
Act, constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bar-
gaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act 7
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this
volume.]
5 So far as the record indicates , the branch managers at Evansville and Indianapolis
do not themselves hire any driver -salesmen.
6 National Brands, Inc ., 81 NLRB 1163 ; American Bakeries Company, 74 NLRB 399.
See also, Kraft Foods Company, 91 NLRB 525, and John F. Trommer, 90 NLRB 1200,
involving advance-order salesmen.
7 Although the Employer is currently recognizing the Petitioner as the representative
of the over-the-road drivers , that fact does not prevent the Petitioner from obtaining an
election among these employees if it desires to have its representative status formalized
by Board certification . General Box Company, 82 NLRB 678.
NEW JERSEY OYSTER PLANTERS AND PACKERS ASSOCIATION, INC. and
UNITED PACKINGHOUSE WORKERS OF AMERICA, CIO, PETITIONER.
Case No..l RC-1413. April 15, 1952
Decision and Order
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National
Labor Relations Act, a, hearing was held before Harold X. Summers,
98 NLRB No. 174.