General Motors Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jun 23, 1947

74 N.L.R.B. 359 (N.L.R.B. 1947)

In the Matter Of GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION, UNITED MOTORS
SERVICE DIVISION, KANSAS CITY, KANSAS, BRANCH, EMPLOYER and
INTERNATIONAL UNION, UNITED AUTOMOBILE WORKERS OF AMERICA,
LOCAL UNION No. 447, A. F. OF L.,1 PETITIONER
Case No. 17-B-1761.-Decided June 23, 1947
Mr. Henry M. Hogan, of Detroit, Mich., for the Employer.
Messrs. James R. Stufebeam and TV. M. Ashworth, both of Kansas
City, Mo., for the Petitioner.
Messrs. Harry C. Clark and John Rinkenbaugh, both of Kansas City,
Mo., for the Intervenor.
Mr. Gerald P. Leicht, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed, hearing in this case was held at Kansas
City, Missouri, on April 22, 1947, before Robert S. Fousek, hearing
officer. At the hearing, the Intervenor moved to dismiss the petition on
the ground that bars exist to the present proceeding by virtue of its
1945 certification by the Board and its current contract with the Em-
ployer. For reasons set forth in Section III, infra, the motion is
hereby denied. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are
free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in the case, the National Labor Relations
Board makes the following :
FINDINGS OF FACT
I. THE BUSINESS OF THE EMPLOYER
General Motors Corporation is a Delaware corporation that main-
tains its principal business offices in New York City and Detroit,
Michigan. For business reasons, General Motors Corporation func-
tions through several unincorporated divisions, one of which is the
United Motors Service Division. The United Motors Service Division
I The name of the Petitioner appears in the caption as amended at the hearing.
74 N. L. R B., No. 61. 359
360 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
maintains and operates a branch at Kansas City, Kansas, at which
the employees involved in this case are employed. In excess of 50
percent in value of the goods and products delivered to or stored at
the Kansas City branch of United Motors Service Division comes from
sources outside the State of Kansas ; in excess of 50 percent in value
of the goods sold or distributed from the Kansas City branch of the
United Motors Service Division eventually reaches points outside the
State of Kansas.
The Employer admits and we find that it is engaged in commerce
within the meaning of the National Labor 11elations Act.
II. THE ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED
The Petitioner is a labor organization affiliated with the American
Federation of Labor, claiming to represent employees of the Em-
ployer.
International Union, United Automobile, Aircraft and Agricul-
tural Implement Workers of America, Local 710, herein called the
Intervenor, is a labor organization affiliated with the Congress of In-
dustrial Organizations, claiming to represent employees of the Em-
ployer.
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
The Employer refuses to recognize the Petitioner as the exclusive
bargaining representative of employees of the Employer until the
Petitioner has been certified by the Board in an appropriate unit.
Following a consent election held under Board auspices in 1945,
the Intervenor was certified that year by the Board as bargaining rep-
resentative of the employees involved herein 2 Thereafter, on April
9, 1946, the Intervenor and the Employer executed a collective bar-
gaining agreement providing, inter alia, as follows :
This Agreement shall continue in full force and effect until
April 9, 1947. If either party desires to modify or change this
agreement it shall, sixty days prior to April 9, 1947 give written
notice of the proposed change or modification. The other party,
within ten days after receipt of said notice, shall either accept or
reject the proposal or request a conference to negotiate the pro-
posal. If neither party shall give notice to terminate or to change
or modify this Agreement as provided above, this Agreement
shall continue in effect after April 9, 1947 subject to termination
or modification thereafter by either party upon sixty days' writ-
ten notice.
2 Case No 17-R-1280
GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION 361
Neither party to the contract gave notice prior to April 9, 1947,
that it desired to modify or change the agreement, nor has any notice
to terminate or modify the agreement been given since April 9, 1947.
On February 24, 1947, the Petitioner filed the petition in this pro-
ceeding.
The 1945 certification, now more than 1 year old, cannot preclude
it current determination of representatives.3 And inasmuch as the
1946 agreement is at present terminable at the will of either party
upon sixty (60) days' notice given at any time, we also find that it
does not constitute a bar to the present proceeding.4
We find that a question affecting commerce has arisen concerning
the representation of employees of the Employer, within the meaning
of Section 9 (c), and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT
In substantial accordance with the agreement of the parties, we find
that all hourly rated employees in the Parts Department of the Em-
ployer at its Kansas City, Kansas, Branch, including receiving check-
ers, receiving handlers, order pickers, shippers, shipping checker-
packers, warranty claims checkers, warranty claims handlers, exchange
unit checkers, exchange unit handlers, miscellaneous stock handlers,
and janitors, but excluding salesmen, clerical employees, general office
employees, all employees in the rebuilding operations department, or-
der editors, the manager, the assistant manager, the operating mana-
ger, the warehouse parts manager, the assistant warehouse parts man-
ager, general foremen, foremen, assistant foremen, the rebuilding
operations manager, the assistant rebuilding operations manager, the
zone service manager, and all other supervisory employees with au-
thority to hire, promote, discharge, discipline, or otherwise effect
changes in the status of employees, or effectively recommend such ac-
tion, constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bar-
gaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION 5
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the
purposes of collective bargaining with General Motors Corporation,
United Motor Service Division, Kansas City, Kansas, Branch, an elec-
tion by secret ballot shall be conducted as early as possible, but not
'See Matter of Standard Oil Company of New Jeisey (Louisiana Division), 72
N. L. R B 1389
4 Matter of Ionia Desk Company, 59 N L R B 1 322. See also Matter of The Beach
Company, 72 N L R B 510 , and cases cited therein.
5 Any participant in the election herein may , upon its prompt request to and approval
thereof by the Regional Duector, have its name removed fiom the ballot
362 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
later than thirty ( 30) days from the date of this Direction , under the
direction and supervision of the Regional Director for the Seventeenth
Region, acting in this matter as agent for the National Labor Rela-
tions Board, and subject to Sections 203.55 and 203.56, of National
Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 4, among the
employees in the unit 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 em-
ployees who have since quit or been discharged fox cause and have
not been rehired or reinstated prior to the date of the election, to
determine whether they desire to be represented by International
Union, United Automobile Workers of America, Local Union No. 447,
A. F. of L., or by International Union, United Automobile, Aircraft
and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, Local 710, C. I. 0.,
for the purposes of collective bargaining , or by neither.