Montgomery Ward & Co., Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Sep 21, 1950

91 N.L.R.B. 366 (N.L.R.B. 1950)

In the Matter of MONTGOMERY WARD & CO., INC., EMPLOYER and GEN-
ERAL WAREHOUSEMEN'S UNION, LOCAL 852, AFFILIATED WITH INTER-
NATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS, CHAUFFEURS, WAREHOUSE-
MEN AND HELPERS OF AMERICA, AFL, PETITIONER
Case No. 2-RC-2240.Decided September 21, 1950
DECISION AND ORDER
Upon a petition duly 'filed under Section 9 (c) of the National
Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before Jerome I. Macht,
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 [Members Houston, Reynolds, and Styles].
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 employees
of the Employer. .
3. No question affecting commerce exists concerning the repre-
sentation of employees of the Employer within the meaning of Sec-
tion 9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act, for the following
reasons:
The Petitioner seeks a unit of all employees in the supply and
sample departments, and all employees in the retail fashion distribu-
tion unit in the merchandise handling pools in the Employer's New
York place of business, excluding employees in the stock control and
I. B. M. stock control departments, guards, and supervisors.' The
Employer contends that the appropriate' unit should consist of all
employees of the Employer at 75 Varick Street, New York City office
and warehouse, excluding professional employees, guards, watchmen,
and supervisors. There is no history of collective bargaining for
' The Petitioner seeks those employees who physically handle the mechandise in connec-
tion with warehousing activities, and those clerical employees who work together with and
under the same supervision as the warehouse employees.
91 NLRB No. 62.
366
MONTGOMERY WARD & C'o., INC. 367
any of these employees, and there is no request by any labor organiza-
tion to represent a unit of employees such as proposed by the Em-
ployer.
The Employer has offices and warehouse space in a building at 75
Varick Street, New York City. This office is the Employer's chief
distribution center for soft line merchandise to its various retail stores
and mail order houses located throughout the United States. There
are approximately 1,200 employees on the time-card payroll who work
in 21 different departments? Substantially all these employees,
except those in the merchandise handling unit of the retail fashion
distribution department, and in the sample room and supply depart-
ment, are engaged in clerical, technical, and professional work, and
do no manual labor .3
The buying office purchases soft line merchandise for the retail
stores and mail order houses of the entire Montgomery Ward chain
from information supplied by the stock control and the I. B. M.
stock control departments. These departments furnish the merchan-
disers in the buying office with all the information necessary to pur-
chase and replenish store stock with merchandise. The employees
in the merchandise handling unit receive the merchandise from the
manufacturers, examine, tag, and stock it, pick assortments, list or bill
it, and pack and ship the merchandise to the various stores in the
chain.
The retail fashion distribution department consists of three,separate
departments 4 the merchandise handling unit,5 the stock control and the
I. B. M. stock control departments. All three departments are under
the over-all supervision of the retail distribution manager. Under
him are four separate pool managers, each in charge of a merchandise
pool. They supervise the employees who do the physical handling
of the merchandise, and those who do the clerical work in connection
with the physical handling of the merchandise. They have nothing to
2 These departments are the buying office, stock control department, advertising and sales
department, comptroller's office, law department, regional office, central printing and steno-
graphic department, mail room, sample room, building service and maintenance depart.
ment, basic list unit, retail order unit, laboratory and examination standards unit, mer-
chandise literature and packaging unit, merchandise service audit unit, medical depart-
ment, catalogue office, telephone unit, supply department, purchasing department, and
retail fashion distribution department.
2 Employees in the building service and maintenance department do painting and repair
work, and clean up in all departments. Employees in the testing and inspection department
test merchandise from. the merchandise handling department and sample room.
4 The employees in each of the three departments are on separate payrolls.
6 The merchandise handling unit is located on four different floors , each of which is
known as a merchandise pool. The merchandise which is handled in these pools is for the
Employer's retail stores.
368 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
do with the stock control or I. B. M. stock control departments, which
are under separate immediate supervision.
In each merchandise pool there are 4 supervisors responsible to
the pool manager on their floor. The receiving and stock supervisor
is responsible for the receiving of all merchandise delivered to a given
pool floor, and the subsequent stocking of that merchandise on the per-
manent bars. The examining and tagging supervisor is responsible
for the examination and tagging of all merchandise delivered to a
given pool floor. The picking and listing supervisor is responsible
for the picking of orders and the listing (the chargeout to the stores)
of the merchandise that has been picked. The packing and shipping
supervisor is responsible for the packing and shipping of the merchan-
dise to the retail stores in the chain. There are approximately 321 em-
ployees in the merchandise handling unit classified as order pickers,
packers, helpers, shipping and receiving clerks, examiners, taggers,
tag makers, stockmen, listing clerks, accounting clerks, return goods
clerks, irregularity clerks, secretary, department timekeepers, and er-
ror correction clerks. About 23 of these are clerical employees who
work on the floor under the same supervision as the other employees
in the pool. The work of about 18 of these clericals involves some
physical handling of the merchandise.
The purpose and nature of the work of the stock control and the
I. B. M. stock control departments is the same. The chief difference
between these two departments is that the employees in the I. B. M.
department use business machines, whereas the stock control depart-
ment is a manual operation. There are approximately 63 employees
in the I. B. Al. department, and about 91 in the stock control depart-
ment. They are clerical employees and business machine operators.
They keep records of sales and inventory of both the merchandise
handling unit and store inventories. They also process sales from
stores. These employees do not physically handle any merchandise.
There are approximately 16 employees in the sample room who have
'substantially the same job classifications as the employees in the mer-
chandise handling unit, and who do work similar to that of those
employees. In this department the employees handle individual
items, while in the merchandise handling unit they handle large quan-
tities of the same item.' The sample room employees are under the
separate supervision of a supervisor who reports to the New York of-
fice operating manager.
There are two receiving clerks and three supply clerks in the sup-
ply department. Their work is also similar to that of the employees
° The chief difference is that the sample room receives and ships samples instead of mer-
chandise in quantity.
MONTGOMERY WARD & C'0., INIC. 369
in the merchandise handling unit, except that they handle supplies in-
stead of merchandise. They distribute supplies needed to carry on
operations of the New York office, including the merchandise handling
unit. With the exception of tags for marking garments, the supply
department employees do not handle any merchandise which is
purchased from manufacturers and sold through the retail stores.
This department is under the separate supervision of a supervisor who
reports to the New York office operating manager.
During the past year there have been a number of temporary trans-
fers from the merchandise handling unit to departments other than
the sample room and supply department,' and from other depart-
ments into the merchandise handling unit. A substantial number of
these transfers were of clerical. employees. The temporary transfers
occur during peak seasons and when employees are absent. There
have also been permanent transfers both to and from the merchandise
handling unit. Per ianent transfers are made in order to secure
promotions.
Identical personnel policies are applied to all employees, and the
Employer has a uniform wage-rate system and job evaluation plan
for all employees. All employees have the same working conditions,
and the same employee benefits such as vacations, insurance, medical
services, discounts, and loan system.
The employees sought by the Petitioner are essentially all the Em-
ployer's warehousing and stock handling employees at the New York
operations. With the exception of a few clerical employees, no other
employees at the New York office regularly perform work comparable
to that done by the employees in the proposed unit.' The Board has
held that a unit is not inappropriate because it comprises employees in
different departments having different immediate supervision.9 On
the basis of those facts, and on the entire record in the case, including
the lack of interest in common of these employees with those of the
general office employees, and the absence of any bargaining history,
we believe that a unit limited to the warehouse employees is
appropriate.10
' The majority of the temporary transfers out of the merchandise handling unit were to
other divisions of the merchandise handling unit , and to the sample room and supply
department.
8 The record shows that the only employees in other departments whose job classifications
are identical to those of employees in the unit sought by the Petitioner , are accounting
clerks, departmental timekeepers , and secretaries.
9 The Rollman d Sons Company , 90 NLRB No . 1; Texas-Empire Pipe Line Company, 88
NLRB 631.
10 It is well settled that warehouse employees , including warehouse clerks , may consti-
tute a separate appropriate unit. Cf. Montgomery Ward d Co., Incorporated , 89 NLRB
1370 ; Cohn-Hall-Marx Company, 86 NLRB 101 ; S. S. Pierce Co., 82 NLRB 1260;
Jordan Marsh Company, 78 NLRB 1031.
370 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
We find that all employees in the merchandise handling unit, the
sample room and the supply department at the Employer's New York
City office and warehouse, excluding professional employees, guards,
and supervisors, constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of col-
lective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
As the Petitioner has, however, failed to establish the necessary
showing of interest among the employees in the unit we have found
appropriate, we shall dismiss the petition, without prejudice to filing
a new timely petition at such, time as the required showing of repre-
sentation can be made.
ORDER
Upon the basis of the entire record in this case, the National Labor
Relations Board hereby orders that the petition filed herein be, and it
hereby is, dismissed.