Sterchi Bros. Stores, Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jul 8, 1952

100 N.L.R.B. 70 (N.L.R.B. 1952)

70 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARL
The Petitioner would exclude two part-time drivers who work 7 or
8 hours a day for other employers and 2 or 3 hours daily for the
Employer. • As they are regular part-time employees we shall, in
accordance with our usual practice, include them in the unit.-
We find that the following employees of the Employer constitute
a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within
the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
All bus drivers, including part-time drivers and driver mechanics,
but excluding all other employees and all supervisors as defined in
the Act.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this
volume.]
le Evening News Publishing Company, 93 NLRB 1355.
STERCHI BROS. STORES, INC. and CHAUFFEURS AND SALES DRIVERS,
LOCAL UNION No. 402, INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS,
CHAUFFEURS, WAREHOUSEMEN AND HELPERS. OF AMERICA, A. F. OF L.,
PETITIONER . Case No. 10-RC-1824. July 8, 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 Paul L. Harper, 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 [Chairman Herzog and Members Styles and Peterson].
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 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.
' The Employer 's motion to dismiss the petition for lack of jurisdiction was referred by
the hearing officer to the Board . The Employer is a multistate enterprise , operating retail
stores in Georgia , Alabama, Florida , North Carolina , and Kentucky . It was stipulated
that during 1950 and 1951 out -of-State purchases for the Alabama stores approximated
$178,500 in value. We find , therefore , that the Employer is engaged in commerce and
that it will effectuate the policies of the Act to assert jurisdiction in this case. The
Borden Co., 89 NLRB 227.
100 NLRB No. 15.
STERCHI BROS. STORES, INC. 71
4. The Petitioner seeks to a unit consisting of warehousemen, truck
drivers, and helpers employed in connection with the Employer's
operations at Florence and Sheffield, Alabama, excluding sales clerks,
the shipping clerks, repairmen, office and clerical employees, maids,
professional employees, guards, and supervisors. The Employer con-
tends that a unit comprising all the employees engaged in its Sheffield
and Florence operations is alone appropriate.
The Employer operates one retail store at Florence, Alabama, and
another at Sheffield, Alabama, 4 miles distant. About 2 miles from
the Florence store the Employer maintains an auxiliary warehouse,
where some of its merchandise is stored and from which deliveries are
made to customers or to the stores. Merchandise is also warehoused
at, and delivered from, the retail stores. Deliveries from the auxili-
ary warehouse and the stores are made principally by three truck
drivers and their three helpers. However, certain store employees,
such as the collector, the furniture repairman, and the appliance
serviceman, help occasionally in making truck deliveries from the
stores. The store salesmen also make some deliveries in their cars.
When not engaged in delivery work, the truck drivers and helpers
spend a substantial part of their time at the stores in cleanup work
and in moving and assembling of furniture. Cleanup work at the
stores is also done by the maid; assembling and moving of furniture
is done by the furniture repairman as well.
The warehouseman is stationed at the auxiliary warehouse, where
he receives and assembles merchandise and helps to load it on the
trucks. The shipping clerk, who spends most of his time at the
Florence store, directs the work of the warehouseman and the truck
drivers and their helpers, and is responsible for seeing that deliveries
are properly made. We find that he responsibly directs the work of
these employees and is, therefore, a supervisor within the meaning of
the Act.
As the employees in the proposed unit work under separate immedi-
ate supervision, and are principally engaged in the ordinary duties of
warehouse and delivery employees, we find that they constitute an
appropriate unit for collective bargaining within the meaning of Sec-
tion 9 (b) of the Act.2
'While, as already indicated , some of the store employees assist the warehouseman,
drivers, and helpers in the performance of their duties , such assistance is merely sporadic
and incidental to the principal duties of such other employees . Upon the entire record,
we find , contrary to the Employer 's contentions , that there is not sufficient integration
between the duties of the employees in the proposed unit and of the other employees to
preclude a finding that the proposed unit is appropriate . Montgomery Ward & Co ., Inc.,
89 NLRB 528. Cf . Marshall Field & Co., 90 NLRB 1, where, in finding inappropriate a
unit of warehouse employees , the Board stressed the absence of separate immediate super-
vision for all the employees in the requested unit, and the fact that the unit did not include
all the employer 's warehouse employees . Those objections do not apply here.
72 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
We find, therefore, that the warehouseman, truck drivers, and helpers
employed in connection with the Employer's operations at Florence
and Sheffield, Alabama, excluding sales clerks, the shipping clerk,
repairmen, office and clerical employees, maids, professional employees,
guards, and supervisors, constitute a unit appropriate for collective
bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this
volume.]
CHAIRMAN HERZOG, dissenting :
I question the appropriateness of the warehouse unit found appro-
priate by my colleagues, and would therefore dismiss the petition.
The Marshall Field precedent (90 NLRB 1) seems to me more perti-
nent than the earlier Montgomery Ward cited by the majority. Here
the record shows considerable interchange of functions between the
employees included and those omitted. Not only do the store em-
ployees sometimes assist in the work performed by employees in the
unit sought, but also-and more significantly-the latter spend a sub-
stantial portion of their own time working in the stores.
GENERAL DYESTUFF CORPORATION and UNITED GAS, COKE AND CHEMICAL
WORKERS OF AMERICA, CIO, PETITIONER . Case No. 2-RC-4344.
July 8,195
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 I. L. Broadwin, 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 this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the Act.
2. The labor organizations involved claim to represent certain
employees of the Employer.
3. The Employer and the Intervenor, Allied Trades Council,
AFL, contend that an existing agreement is a bar to this proceeding.
The Intervenor has been recognized as the bargaining representa-
tive of the Employer's warehouse employees for a number of years.
The most recent agreement covering these employees, dated December
17, 1951, extends, for a 2-year period, the term of a 1-year agreement
that expired on December 1, 1951, and also continues in effect all the
provisions of the latter contract, with an additional proviso that the
100 NLRB No. 6.