R. L. Polk & Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Sep 25, 1950

91 N.L.R.B. 443 (N.L.R.B. 1950)

In the Matter of R. L. POLK. & Co., EMPLOYER and OFFICE EMPLOYEES
INTERNATIONAL UNION, LOCAL 227, AFL, PETITIONER
Case No. 9-RC-880.-Decided September 05, 1950
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 Seymour Goldstein, 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, Murdock, 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 certain
employees 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 appropriate unit :
The Petitioner seeks, primarily, a broad unit composed of all em-
ployees employed at the Employer's direct mail division at 400 Pike
Street, Cincinnati, Ohio, excluding homeworkers, guards, professional
and confidential employees, and supervisors. Alternatively, the Peti-
tioner requests separate units of the so-called production and mainte-
nance employees, excluding homeworkers, and of the general office
employees. The Employer contends that a unit of production and
maintenance employees is appropriate, but would include all home-
workers in the unit. As to the general office employees, the Employer
asserts that these employees should be excluded from any unit found
appropriate principally on the ground that they are confidential
employees.
91 NLRB No. 75.
443
444 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Scope of Unit
The Employer is engaged in the business of direct mail advertising
and publishing of city directories, maintaining branches in large cities
in various parts of the country. The Cincinnati direct mail division,
the only one involved herein, is engaged in the compilation of sta-
tistical lists relating to sales and ownership of automobiles. These
lists are used mainly by other branches of the Employer in its direct
mail advertising. There has been no history of collective bargaining
concerning the employees involved in this proceeding.'
The personnel employed at the Cincinnati division is composed of
approximately 500 employees in the motor statistical and motor list
departments, referred to in the record as production workers, 4 or 5
janitorial employees, and about 23 general office employees.
The production employees are paid on a piecework basis with a
guaranteed minimum hourly rate. They perform the business ma-
chine operations, typing, and clerical work necessary to edit and collate
information pertaining to automobile registrations received from
points throughout the country ; they also transcribe such information
on the cards and lists utilized by the Employer in its direct mail
advertising. The janitorial employees are engaged in the usual build-
ing and maintenance duties.
The general office employees, consisting of accounting and personnel
employees, switchboard operators, and clerical assistants to depart-
ment heads,' are concerned with the over-all administration of the di-
vision. The general office employees, except for the clerical assistants
to the department heads whose status will be separately discussed in
detail hereinafter, are paid on a salary basis, receiving wages higher
than those of the production employees.3 They are located in a sepa-
rate partitioned area, serve under separate immediate supervision, and
perform work substantially different from that of the production
group. There is no interchange of employees between the general office
and production employees.
Under all the circumstances, we are of the opinion that the general
office employees lack a sufficient community of interest with the pro-
duction and maintenance employees to warrant the inclusion of both
these groups of employees in a single unit., We find, therefore, con-
trary to the Petitioner's primary contention, that only separate units
The Employer has collective bargaining agreements at other branches where the oper-
ations differ from those of the Cincinnati division.
2 The general office group also includes four private secretaries to managerial employees,
whom the parties agree should be excluded as confidential employees.
a The general office employees are paid by check from the Employer 's main office in Detroit,
whereas the production and maintenance employees receive their wages from the Cincinnati
branch.
4 Cf. Continental Oil Company, 74 NLRB 597.
R. L. POLK & CO. 445
of the production and maintenance employees and of the general office
employees are appropriate. While the Petitioner has requested, in the
alternative, that such separate units be established, it has made an
adequate showing of interest only among the production and mainte-
nance employees. Accordingly, we shall consider only the composition
of the production and maintenance unit.5
Composition of Unit
Homeworkers: The Employer presently employs about 350 home-
workers whom it contends should be included in the production and
maintenance unit. These individuals perform typing and clerical
work at home, similar to that of the production employees, occasionally
utilizing company equipment in such work. They determine their own
work schedules, but when assigned work must complete a minimum
of 20 hours per week. Some homeworkers were previously employed
as regular production employees at the Cincinnati branch.
The homeworkers personally contact the division office only when
calling for and delivering work, and their work is checked by a special
supervisor. Although they receive the same rate of pay as the pro-
duction employees and have social security and income tax deductions
made in the same manner, they do not receive holiday, vacation, or
insurance benefits accorded the production employees. In view of the
foregoing, and on the entire record, we are of the opinion that the
interest and conditions of employment of the homeworkers are diverse
from those of the production employees, and we shall, therefore, ex-
clude them from the units
Clerical assistants to deportment heads: Of the seven clerical assist-
ants whom the Employer contends should be excluded from the unit,
five are assigned on an individual basis to subdepartment heads who
serve as production supervisors. The remaining two are assigned to
the manager of the motor statistical department. The clerical assist-
ants are hourly paid, keep records of the work in their respective pro-
duction departments, and except for the two assistants to the manager
of the motor statistical department, perform secretarial duties for
their supervisors.' While the record indicates that the subdepart-
ment heads may make recommendations on labor relations matters,
they apparently- do not participate in collective bargaining negotia-
tions, nor do they actually formulate company labor relations policy..
"Western Electric Company, Inc., 85 NLRB 227.
6 A. Rivetz Co., 87 NLRB 1352. Cf. Radiant Lamp Corporation, 74 NLRB 1338.
z The secretarial duties for the manager of the motor statistical department are handled
by a private secretary whom the parties agreed should be excluded as a confidential em-
ployee. The record does not indicate that either of the clerical assistants acts in, the
secretary 's capacity during her absence or has access to confidential files.
446 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Accordingly, as the clerical assistants do not act in a confidential ca-
pacity to persons exercising managerial functions in the field of labor
relations, nor do they have access to general labor relations policy
data, we find that they are not confidential employees.8 Because these
employees have the same working conditions as the production em-
ployees, are in frequent contact with them, and are subject to the same
supervision, we find that their interests are closely allied to those of
the production employees, and we shall include them in the unit of pro-
duction and maintenance employees.'
We find that all production and maintenance employees at the
Employer's direct mail division in Cincinnati, Ohio, including clerical
assistants to department heads, but encluding all other general office
employees, holneworkers, professional and confidential employees,
guards, and supervisors as defined in the Act, constitute a unit appro-
priate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of
Section 9 (b) of the Act.
5. The determination of representatives :
The Employer employs approximately 50 night part-time workers.
The Petitioner asserts that only such employees who worked at least
500 hours during the last year should be eligible to vote. The
Employer contends that its night part-time employees are entitled to
vote, without limitation on the number of hours worked.
The individuals in question work about 4 hours a night, 4 nights a
week, mainly during the peak period of operations from January to
September of each year. During the remainder of the year, only a
small number of these employees work regularly for the Employer.
While the part-time employees d o'not receive all the benefits of the
full-time workers, they perform the same type of work as the regular
production employees at the plant and nearly all of them return from
year to year. Some have worked for the Employer for the last 5
years. Under the circumstances, and in accordance with our usual
practice, we find that all the night part-tine employees have sufficient
interest in the conditions of employment to be eligible to vote in the
electron.i'
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this
volume.]
s Ball Brothers Company, Incorporated, 87 NLRB 34; Singer Sewing Machine Co., 87
NLRB 460; Minneapolis-Moline Company , 85 NLRB 597 ; The Ohio Associated Telephone
Company, 82 NLRB 972.
Hotpoint, Inc., 85 NLRB 485. -
'0 York Band Instrument Company , 87 NLRB 1576 . Cf. J. C. Penney do., Store No.
1518, 86 NLRB 920; Bakers' Shoe Store, 86 NLRB 1305.
We likedise And, in accordance with the agreement of the parties , that the Employer's
summer employees , who are students performing duties similar to those of the regular
employees , under comparable working conditions , and who are offered regular employment
at the end of the summer , are entitled to vote in the election directed hereinafter. Cf.
Foremost Dairies, Inc ., 86 NLRB 585.