Montgomery Ward & Co., Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Oct 3, 1952

100 N.L.R.B. 1351 (N.L.R.B. 1952)

MONTGOMERY WARD & COMPANY, INC. 1351
MONTGOMERY WARD & COMPANY , INC. and OFFICE EMPLoYEEs INTER-
NATIONAL UNION, LOCAL No. 288, AFL, PETITIONER . Case No.
19-RC-1164. October 3,1952
Decision and Direction of Election
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, a hearing was held before Orville W. Turnbaugh, hear-
ing 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, Styles and Peterson].
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer 1 is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the Act.
2. The labor organizations involved claim to represent certain em-
ployees of the Employer.
3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the representa-
tion 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 office clerical employees in the
Employer's Pocatello, Idaho, store. The Employer and Retail Clerks
International Association, Local No. 560, AFL, herein called the Inter-
venor, contend that the employees sought do not constitute an appro-
priate unit and that only a broad unit of all selling and nonselling
employees in the store is appropriate 2
The Employer is engaged in the selling of merchandise at retail in
stores and mail order houses located throughout the United States.
We are here concerned with its retail store operations in Pocatello,
Idaho, which are conducted in four separate buildings. There is a
main store, consisting of a one-story building with a mezzanine; a tire
service building; a one-story warehouse, located across an alley from
the main store; and the top floor of the consolidated warehouse, about
6 blocks from the store, which is used as a storage warehouse.
There are approximately 60 to 65 employees regularly employed in
the Pocatello operations, of whom 1 works in the warehouse, 1 in the
tire service building, and the remainder in the main store. The opera-
tions are divided into 17 selling and 7 nonselling departments. The
approximately 16 employees sought by the Petitioner are virtually all
I The name of the Employer appears in the caption as amended at the hearing.
2 The Intervenor does not seek an election in the more comprehensive unit which it
contends is alone appropriate.
100 NLRB No. 224.
1352 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
employed in the nonselling departments.3 These employees have some
contact with sales employees and customers. There have also been
some permanent transfers between office clerical and sales employees
and, during rush periods, office clericals and sales employees may assist
each other. Furthermore, all employees in the store report for work
at the same time each morning, punch the same time clock, work the
same number of hours each week, enjoy the same privileges, are sub-
ject to substantially the same conditions of employment, and are under
the general supervision of the store manager and assistant manager
who do all the hiring, promoting, and discharging in the store.
However, the office clerical employees are classified and perform
functions generally typical of those in the operations of a retail de-
partment store. They work in sections of the store physically sepa-
rated from the sales department by a rail or partition. Like other
nonselling employees, the office clericals are paid on a different basis
from the sales employees 4 and receive merit increases computed on a
different basis. There is no controlling history of collective bargain-
ing in this store.5
The Board has recognized that office clerical employees in depart-
ment stores have interests which are distinct from those of other em-
ployees, and has held that they may be established in separate bargain-
ing units, absent a bargaining history on a broader basis.6 We find,
therefore, that the "35" store clerk,' and all employees in the cashier,
time payment," unit control,9 and invoice records departments consti-
tute a homogeneous group of office clerical employees who may be es-
tablished in a separate bargaining unit."'
3 The nonselling departments are cashier , time payment , unit control , Invoice records,
service , shipping and receiving, and catalogue.
4 Office clerical employees are paid on a salary basis whereas sales employees are paid
a salary plus commission.
E Although the Employer, after a card check in 1945 , recognized the Intervenor as
collective bargaining agent of all the employees in the store , no contracts were ever
executed and no effective bargaining history resulted therefrom . See Sears Roebuck &
Company, 91 NLRB 1411, 1412.
6 Albert's Incorpot ated, 91 NLRB 522; Maas Brothers, Inc., 88 NLRB 129; Meier &
Frank Company , 86 NLRB 517.
1 This employee analyzes statistical reports on sales and inventories from 35 of the
Employer 's other stores, using the same records used in the unit control department. She
also sends out mail and operates the switchboard.
8 The record is not clear whether the Petitioner would include the collector in the time
'payment department . This employee confers with time payment clerks, works on the
ledgers , and is used as a part-time sales clerk . He spends approximately one-half of
his time away from the store contacting delinquent accounts . His interests and working
conditions appear to be closely allied to those of the other employees in the time payment
department . We shall therefore include him in the unit.
9 Employees in this department keep a perpetual inventory of all merchandise by units,
using counts of merchandise made by the sales department heads ; determine from their
records the quantity of merchandise sold ; write up orders for merchandise , keep records
of incoming merchandise ; and prepare statistical information for use in advance buying
`of seasonal- goods . Only In the event of a discrepancy does a unit control clerk check the
accuracy of the count with the sales department head. We are of the opinion that their
interests are akin to those of the other office clericals and shall include them in the unit.
Meter & Frank Company, supra ; cf. Maas Brothers, Inc., supra.
10 See cases cited in footnote 6, supra.
LEWIS ENGINEERING & MANUFACTURING COMPANY 1353
A question remains, however, as to the placement of certain clericals
sought by the Petitioner, namely the clerk in each of the following
departments : service, shipping and receiving, and catalogue. The
service clerk in the service department works in the same department
and in the salve- area with three service personnel. She takes phone
requests for service on appliances, prepares work orders and reports,
orders parts, handles cash, and makes over-the-counter sales of parts.
The pro-register clerk works in the shipping and receiving department
with a shipping and receiving clerk, a warehouseman, and two
markers. She counts and keeps records of all incoming merchandise,
prepares all documents for goods shipped out, prepares trip sheets,
and makes out claims for damages to merchandise in transit. The
bookkeeper in the catalogue department works along with the head
of the department whose primary function is selling . The bookkeeper
keeps records of mail order sales and spends one-half of her time sell-
ing. We are of the opinion that the duties of the service clerk, pro-
register clerk, and bookkeeper in the catalogue department are more
closely related to those of the other employees in their departments
who are excluded from the unit and we shall therefore exclude those
categories from the unit."
We find that all office clerical employees 12 at the Employer's Poca-
tello, Idaho, store, excluding sales employees, service clerk, pro-
register clerk, bookkeeper in the catalogue department, all other em-
ployees, and supervisors as defined in the Act, constitute a unit ap-
propriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning
of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this
volume.]
'- Maas Brothers, Inc., supra.
12 This includes the "35" store clerk and all employees in the cashier, time payment,
unit control , and invoice records departments.
LEWIS ENGINEERING & MANUFACTURING COMPANY amd INTERNATIONAL
BROTHERHOOD OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS, AFL, PETITIONER. Case
No. 8-RC-17'15. October 3,1952
Decision and Direction of Election
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, a hearing was held before Charles A. Fleming, hearing
officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free
from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
100 NLRB No. 203.