Garrett Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jun 19, 1967

165 N.L.R.B. 561 (N.L.R.B. 1967)

GARRETT SUPPLY COMPANY
Garrett Supply Company, A Division of
Garrett Corporation ' and Chauffeurs,
Salesdrivers and Helpers , Local 572,
International Brotherhood of Teamsters,
Chauffeurs , Warehousemen and Helpers of
America, Petitioner . Case 21-RC-10307.
June 19,1967
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION
BY CHAIRMAN MCCULLOCH AND MEMBERS FANNING
AND ZAGORIA
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9(c) of the
National Labor Relations Act, as amended, a
hearing was held before Hearing Officer Michael B.
Cavallo of the National Labor Relations Board. The
Hearing Officer's rulings made at the hearing are
free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
The Employer and the Petitioner filed briefs with
the Board.
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.
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 employees of the Employer.
3. A question affecting commerce exists
concerning 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 Petitioner seeks a unit of all merchandise
department, or warehouse, employees at the
Employer's City of Commerce, California, supply
house, including merchandise clerks, checkers,
packers, shipping clerks, and truckdrivers, but
excluding all other employees. The Employer
contends that the unit should also include inside
salesclerks, sales trainees, inventory control clerks,
customer service clerks, and claims and adjustment
clerks. There appears to be no bargaining history for
the employees involved herein.
The Employer purchases industrial tools and
supplies from manufacturers throughout the United
States and sells them primarily to commercial
customers engaged in aviation, aerospace, and
defense, as well as general industry, in southern
California and Arizona. The Employer currently
maintains an inventory of more than 70,000 separate
items in its warehouse. Early in 1966, the Employer
renamed the "warehouse" the "merchandise
department." The Employer receives approximately
90 percent of its orders by telephone; the remainder
of its orders are obtained by outside salesmen who
' The name of the Employer appears as amended at the
hearing.
561
work constantly in the field away from the supply
house and are not involved herein.
The following employees, who are sought by the
Petitioner, work in the warehouse or merchandise
department under the separate supervision of the
merchandise department foreman. Approximately
24 employees are classified as merchandise clerks -
6 of these merchandise clerks function as receiving
clerks who receive and stock merchandise as it
arrives in the department; 15 function as order fillers
who take the orders as they are received in the
department, fill them from available stocks, and
place the orders on the checkers' stand; and 3
function as checkers who make certain that orders
have been properly filled before they are delivered to
the packing bench where they are prepared for
shipment to the customer. In addition, there are four
employees in the warehouse classified as packer-
light, and three classified as packer-heavy, who pack
the merchandise for shipment before it is finally
delivered to the shipping area . The two shipping
clerks in the department process the orders
according to the carrier designated and the
destination of the shipment. The Employer also
employs two truckdrivers who drive light trucks
which are primarily used to pick up merchandise
from manufacturers and warehouses in the
immediate vicinity. On occasion they also deliver
orders to customers in the immediate vicinity.
All of the employees whom the Petitioner would
exclude, and the Employer would include, except 5
of the approximately 15 sales trainees , work in
different departments. Thus, employees classified
as inside salesclerks or inside salesmen, and
performing the functions of order takers, order
processors, customer service clerks, and claims and
adjustment clerks, work in the inside sales
department. Some of them were formerly warehouse
employees. The order takers receive the initial order
over the telephone and prepare a worksheet or a
document known as a "shipper." The order
processors type the orders from worksheets prepared
by the order takers, and make appropriate entries in
an order registry book. Customer service clerks
receive inquiries from customers as to the status of
their orders, and if necessary, search for documents
pertaining to orders, and answer customer inquiries.
Claims and adjustment clerks receive and adjust
claims on orders which have been improperly filled;
they have desks in the inside sales area, and there is
also an area assigned to them in the warehouse
where they spend a part of their time opening and
inspecting returned merchandise. Individual inside
salesmen are occasionally detailed to help out in the
warehouse. Inventory control clerks work in the
accounting department where they enter each order,
as it is received, on inventory control records. If the
165 NLRB No. 90
562 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
ordered merchandise is available in the warehouse,
the order is then transmitted directly to the
warehouse for filling. If the merchandise is not
available, the order is set aside for filling as soon as
the merchandise is received from the manufacturer
or supplier.
The Employer presently has approximately 15
inside sales trainees who are hired for the purpose of
becoming inside salesmen after an indeterminate
period of training which lasts from 90 days to 2
years, depending on individual performance. During
their training they are assigned to learn, by
performing, various jobs throughout the supply
house. If they are not successful as sales trainees,
however, they are terminated and not retained in any
other capacity. Ten of the sales trainees are located
in the inside sales department and perform such
functions as order taking, claims and adjustment,
order status checking, and customer service. Three
of the sales trainees are now functioning as order
fillers, and two are assigned to the will-call counter,
in the merchandise department. Here they fill orders
which will be picked up by the customer, and make
cash sales to persons who visit the will-call counter
for that purpose.
The employees in the Employer's warehouse or
merchandise department are engaged in the
ordinary duties of warehouse employees. The usual
type of job classifications are employed in the
warehouse, such as order fillers, checkers, packers,
shipping and receiving clerks, and truckdrivers.
They are separately located and supervised, and
punch a separate timeclock. They never leave the
warehouse to perform tasks in other parts of the
building. Although, as described above, some
employees from other departments work in the
warehouse from time to time, such visits are
relatively infrequent, irregular, and temporary; and
the work performed in the warehouse is only
incidental to the performance of their primary
function elsewhere. In these circumstances,
including their separate location, functions, and
2 SeeAmarillo Hardware Company, Inc., 148 NLRB 48.
3 Rish Equipment Company, 150 NLRB 1185, 1202; Cherokee
Textile Mills, Inc, 117 NLRB 350,351
An election eligibility list, containing the names and
addresses of all the eligible voters, must be filed by the Employer
with the Regional Director for Region 21 within 7 days after the
date of this Decision and Direction of Election The Regional
supervision, and the absence of bargaining history,
we find that the employees regularly and
permanently assigned to the merchandise
department, herein sought to be represented by the
Petitioner, have interests sufficiently different from
those employees whom the Employer would also
include in the unit, to constitute a separate
warehouse unit appropriate for collective bargaining
within the meaning of Section 9(b) of the Act.2
With respect to the five sales trainees who
presently work in the warehouse, they were hired as
sales trainees and are paid approximately 12
percent more than the beginning rate for warehouse
employees. Under certain circumstances they
receive extra bonuses for which warehouse
employees are not eligible, and they are not required
to punch the warehouse timeclock. They are
assigned to the warehouse temporarily for training
only. If successful as sales trainees, they will
become inside salesmen; if unsuccessful, they will
be terminated. Under no circumstances will they
become permanent warehouse employees. We
therefore find that the sales trainees have interests
different from those of the warehouse employees,
and we shall exclude them from the unit.3
We find that the following employees constitute a
unit appropriate for the purposes of collective
bargaining within the meaning of Section 9(b) of the
Act:
All merchandise department or warehouse
employees at the Employer's City of Commerce,
California, supply house, including merchandise
clerks, order fillers, receiving clerks, checkers,
packers, shipping clerks, and truckdrivers; but
excluding sales trainees, inside salesclerks,
inventory control clerks, customer service clerks,
claims and adjustment clerks, office clerical
employees, all other employees, and guards and
supervisors as defined in the Act.
[Direction of Election 4 omitted from publication.]
Director shall make the list available to all parties to the election
No extension of time to file this list shall be granted by the
Regional Director except in extraordinary circumstances Failure
to comply with this requirement shall be grounds for setting aside
the election whenever proper objections are filed Excelsior
Underwear Inc , 156 NLRB 1236