Columbia Market Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Aug 27, 1952

100 N.L.R.B. 828 (N.L.R.B. 1952)

"$28 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
yeast workers and drivers and helpers; 4 (2) all maintenance em-
ployees.5 We shall make no final unit determination at this time, but
shall first ascertain the desires of the employees themselves. If a ma-
jority in both voting groups vote for the Petitioner, they will be taken
to have indicated a preference for one over-all production and main-
tenance unit, and the Board, under the circumstances finds such a unit
to be appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining. In the
event that a majority is established in voting group (1) alone, by
either the Petitioner or the Intervenor Local 333, the Board finds the
existing production unit to be separately appropriate. Finally, in
the event the Petitioner or the Intervenor Operating Engineers estab-
lishes a majority in voting group (2) alone, the Board finds the exist-
ing maintenance unit to be separately appropriate. The Regional
Director is instructed to issue a certification of representatives con-
sistent herewith to the bargaining agent or agents selected for such
unit or units.
[Text of Direction of Elections omitted from publication in this
volume.]
This group includes the following employees : pressroom employees, drivers and
helpers, yeast room packers, fermenting scrubbers, fermenting titrators, fermenting first
men, separator first men, mixers, yeast room employees, yeast room first men, and packers.
5 This group includes the following employees : assistant engineers, maintenance men,
machinists, and firemen.
COLUMBIA MARKET CORP. and LOCAL 385, AMALGAMATED MEAT CUTTERS
AND BUTCHER WORKMEN OF NORTH AMERICA, AFL, PETITIONER.
Case No. 1-RC-2793. August °27, 1952
Decision and Order
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National
Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before Leo J. Halloran,
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-member
panel [Chairman Herzog and Members Murdock and Peterson].
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds;
1. The Employer, which contests the jurisdiction of this Board,
operates a supermarket in Lewiston, Maine, where it is engaged in the
retail sale of meats, fish, fruits, and vegetables. The Employer
leases a portion of its premises to Elm Farm Foods Company, an
entirely separate corporation, which is engaged in the retail sale of
groceries and dairy products. All employees in the store, however,
are the employees of the Employer.
100 NLRB No. 123.
HIGGINS, INC. 829
All sales of the supermarket are made locally. For the 12-month
period ending June 30, 1952, the Employer purchased approximately
$28,000 worth of fruits and vegetables outside the State of Maine.
During the same period, the lessee shipped to Lewiston from its
Boston, Massachusetts, warehouse products valued at approximately
$290,000.1 Direct out-of-State purchases, therefore, amount to
$318,000, or 63.6 percent of the minimum amount of $500,000 necessary
for the assumption by this Board of jurisdiction over the Employer's
enterprise.2
The Employer purchased $234,000 worth of meats and poultry dur-
ing the above 12-month period. All these purchases were made
locally, although most of the products had an out-of-State origin.3
These purchases constitute 23.4 percent of the minimum jurisdictional
amount of $1,000,000 established by the Board in indirect inflow cases .4
Inasmuch as the direct and indirect out-of-State purchases for
this supermarket, either alone or in combination, do not meet the
minimum jurisdictional standards adopted by the Board,2 we find
that it would not effectuate the policies of the Act to assert juridic-
tion over the Employer herein. Accordingly, we shall dismiss the
petition.
Order
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the petition filed herein be, and it hereby
is, dismissed.
1 For the purposes of this decision only, we shall take into account the out-of-State
purchases of the lessee in determining whether to assume jurisdiction over the Employer.
2 Federal Dairy Co., Inc., 91 NLRB 638.
8 The record discloses that a "substantial" amount of the meats and poultry had a local
origin. For the purposes of this decision, however, we shall assume that all of these local
purchases had an out-of-State origin.
4 Dorn's House of Miracles, Inc., 91 NLRB 632.
0 See MacFarlane's Candies, 91 NLRB 1264, and cases cited in footnotes 2 and 4, supra.
HIGGINS, INC. and MARINE SHOP AND SHIPYARD LABORERS , LOCAL 821,
AFL, PETITIONER
HIGGINS, INC. and LOCAL 1244, BROTHERHOOD OF PAINTERS , DECORATORS
AND PAPERHANGERS, AFL, PETITIONER . Cases Nos. 16-RC-700 and
15-RC-705. August 227,1952
Decision and Order
On July 3, 1952, Acting Regional Director Paul A. Cassady issued
his report on objections, a copy of which is attached hereto, sustaining
the election objections filed by the two Unions here involved, and
recommending that the elections be set aside . Thereafter, the Em-
ployer filed exceptions to the report on objections.
100 NLRB No. 134.