International Shoe Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jun 9, 1947

74 N.L.R.B. 464 (N.L.R.B. 1947)

In the Matter of INTERNATIONAL SI-IOE COMPANY. (POPLAR BLUFF),
EMPLOYER and UNITED SHOE WORKERS OF AMERICA, CIO,
PETITIONER
Case No. 14-R-1708.-Decided June 9, 1917
Messrs . Richard 0. Ruiner and L . B. Brown , of St. Louis, Mo., for
the Employer.
Mr. Dave Wilson , of St. Louis, Mo., and Mr. Ellis Baker , of Cape
Girardeau , Mo., for the Petitioner.
Mr. Bernard L. Balicer , of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed, hearing in this case was held at St.
Louis, Missouri, on May 13, 1947, before Charles K. Hackler, hearing
officer. 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
1. THE BUSINESS OF THE EMPLOYER
The Employer is a Delaware corporation with its principal office in
St. Louis, Missouri, engaged in the manufacture of shoes, leather, and
related supplies. It operates more than 50 plants located in Missouri,
Illinois, Kentucky, New Hampshire, and other States of the United
States. The plant located at Poplar Bluff, Missouri, is the only plant
of the Employer involved in this proceeding. During the year 1946
the Employer purchased raw materials, consisting principally of
leather, valued in excess of $500,000, a substantial amount of which was
received from points outside the State of Missouri. During the same
period the Employer sold finished products exceeding $100,000 in
74 N L R B ., No. 84.
464
INTERNATIONAL SHOE COMPANY 465
value, a substantial amount of which was shipped to points outside the
State of Missouri.
The Employer admits and we find that it is engaged in commerce
within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act.
II. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED
The Petitioner is a labor organization affiliated with the Congress
of Industrial Organizations, claiming to represent employees of the
Employer.
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
The Employer refuses to recognize the Petitioner as the exclusive
bargaining representative of employees of the Employer until the Peti-
tioner has been certified, by the Board in an appropriate unit.
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.
TV. TIIE APPROPRIATE UNIT
The Petitioner seeks a unit comprising all cutting department em-
ployees of the Employer at its Poplar Bluff plant, excluding super-
visors and all other employees. The Employer contends that only a
plant-wide unit is appropriate.
The Employer's operations at its Poplar Bluff plant are organized
into 10 departments, 1 of which is the cutting department under the
supervision of its own foreman. Of the 35 employees in the depart-
ment, all but a few are directly engaged in the cutting operation. The
remainder are less skilled employees such as stock clerks, sorters, and
casers, performing tasks closely connected with the cutting operation.
The cutters perform skilled work requiring experience and training
varying from 3 to 6 months for the cutting of leather linings and an
additional training period for the cutting of shoe uppers. There is
very little interchange or transfer of employees between the cutting
department and the remainder of the plant, inasmuch as experience
gained in other departments is of little benefit in the cutting depart-
ment because of the differences in skills and techniques. The process of
making shoes is a continuous one until the finished shoes are packed in
boxes, the various departments being interdependent in their relation
to one another. Almost all work is on a piece-rate basis. The em-
ployees in all departments work the same hours, have the same holi-
days and participate in the same vacation and group insurance plans.
466 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Although the employees herein have not heretofore had a collective
bargaining representative under the plant's present ownership, the
Employer alleges that its bargaining relations with the Petitioner in
its other plants and the bargaining history of the shoe industry in the
St. Louis area have been on a plant-wide basis. However, the record
shows that the history of collective bargaining in the industry, par-
ticularly in the St. Louis area, also contains instances of bargaining
on the basis of craft units.
The Board has found that cutters, together with the less skilled
employees in the cutting department who work in close association
with them, are a clearly defined group of employees with sufficiently
similar interests to function effectively either as a separate bargaining
unit, or as part of a plant-wide unit.' Accordingly, inasmuch as no
labor organization is seeking to represent the employees of the cutting
department in a plant-wide unit, we are the opinion that, they may
bargain as a separate unit.
We find that all cutting department employees of the Employer
at its Poplar Bluff plant, excluding the foreman, the assistant foreman,
and all other supervisory employees with authority to hire, promote,
discharge, discipline or otherwise effect changes in the status of em-
ployees, or effectively recommend such action, now constitute a unit
.appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the mean-
ing of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the
purposes of 'collective bargaining with International Shoe Company,
Poplar Bluff, Missouri, an election by secret ballot shall be conducted
as early as possible, but not later than thirty (30) days from the
date of this Direction, under the direction and supervision of the
Regional Director for the Fourteenth Region, acting in this matter
as agent for the National Labor Relations Board, and subject to Sec-
tions 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 in-
cluding employees in the armed forces of the United States who present
themselves in person at the polls, but excluding those employees who
I Matter of Boyd-Welsh, Inc., 59 N. L. R B. 1442 ; Matter of Paramount Shoe Company,
46 N. L R B 587.
INTERNATIONAL SHOE COMPANY 467
have since quit or been discharged for cause and have not been rehired
or reinstated prior to the date of the election, to determine whether
or not they desire to be represented by United Shoe Workers of
America, CIO, for the purposes of collective bargaining.
CI-IAIRMAN HERZOG took no part in the consideration of the above
Decision and Direction of Election.