Armour and Co.

In the Matter of ARMOUR AND COMPANY and PACKINGHOUSE WORKZ RS ORGANIZING COMMITTEE, LOCAL No. 15, AFFILIATED WITH THE CiON- GRESS OF INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS Case No. R-5131.-Decided May 10, 1943 Mr. Paul E. Blanchard, of Chicago, Ill., for the, Company. Messrs. H. C. Fremm ng and Ralph Baker, both of Kansas City, Mo., for the P. W. O. C. 'Mr. David V. Easton, of ebunsel to the Board. DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION STATEMENT OF THE CASE Upon petition duly filed by Packinghouse Workers Organizing Committee, District No. 4,1 affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations, herein called the P. W.` O. C., alleging that a question affecting commerce had arisen concerning the representation of em- ployees of Armour and Company, Kansas City, Kansas; herein called the Company, the National Labor Relations Board consolidated the, petition herein with a petition filed by the P. W. O. C. covering other employees of the Company, and provided for an appropriate hearing upon due notice before John A. Weiss, Trial Examiner. Said hearing was held at -Kansas City, Missouri, on April 7, 1943. The Company and the P. W. O. C. appeared, participated, and were afforded full opportunity to be heard, to examine and cross -examine witnesses, and to introduce evidence bearing on the issues. The P. W. O. C. moved, without objection, that the instant proceeding be severed from Case No. R-5132 in order that.the,Board might pro- ceed with the issuance of a decision in that -case. The Trial Exam- iner referred the motion to the Board. Said motion was granted 1 By motion granted at the hearing, Local No. 15 was substituted for District No. 4. 49 N L. R. B., No. 101. 688 -ARMOUR AND COMPANY 689 and the proceedings severed.2 The Trial Examiner's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and' are hereby af- firmed. The Company filed a brief which the Board has considered. Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following : FINDINGS OF FACT 1. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY 'Armour and Company, an Illinois corporation with its,principal office and place of business in Chicago, Illinois, is engaged in the slaughtering, processing, and packing of livestock products. Since June 1917,'it-has been qualified to do business in the State of Kan- sas, and maintains a plant at Kansas City, Kansas, which is engaged in the slaughtering, processing; and packing of livestock products. We are concerned herein with the operations of the Kansas City plant.. All of the livestock slaughtered in the Kansas City plant are purchased in stockyards located in Kansas City, Missouri. The total production of products of livestock slaughtered at the Kansas City plant during the year of 1942 was in excess of 500,000,000 pounds, hav- ing a total value in excess of- $45,000,000, of which more than 75 per- cent was distributed to points outside the State ,of Kansas. The Company admits that it is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act. II. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED Packinghouse Workers Organizing Committee, Local No. 15,• is a labor organization affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organ- izations, admitting to membership employees of the Company. III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION On or about December 2, 1942, the P. W. O. C. notified the Com- pany that it represented a majority of the plant clerks at the Kansas City plant. The Company replied that it was unwilling to bargain with the P. W. O. C. with regard to these employees until it has been certified by the Board. A statement of a Field Examiner of the Board, introduced into evidence at the hearing, indicates that the P. W. O. C. represents a substantial number of plant clerks .3 2 Matter of Armour and Company and Packinghouse Workers Organizing Committee Local No. 15, affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations, 49 N L R B 195. 3 The Field Examiner reported that the P. W. O. C submitted 11 membership cards, of which 10 bore apparently genuine original signatures , 7 of the 10 cards bearing appar- ently genuine original signatures contained the names of persons appearing on the Com- pany 's pay roll of January 23, 1943, which pay roll listed 17 employees in the appropriate unit 690 -, DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD We find that a question affecting commerce has arisen concerning the representation of employees of the Company, within the meaning of Section.9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act. IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT The P. W. 0. C. now has a contract with the Company covering all production and maintenance employees in the Kansas City plant, but excluding foremen, assistant foremen, clerical workers, employees in the wholesale market, plant police, and the machinists and machin- ists' helpers.- In the instant proceeding, it seeks to represent all plant clerks at the Kansas City plant. The Company contends that' plant clerks should not be included within a unit, consisting of pro- duction and maintenance employees, basing this contention upon the ground that their duties place them in a confidential position with regard to management;, it made no contention as to whether or not plant clerks constitute a separate and distinct appropriate unit. The record discloses that plant clerks are under the supervision of the chief of the office force, whereas all other plant employees are under the supervision of the plant executive. However, the immedi- ate supervisors of the plant clerks are the foremen of the departments in which they work. The plant clerks perform 'no manual or pro- duction labor' but do the same type of work usually done by office workers. They are engaged in • collecting, checking, and tabulating data. They do not participate in the determination of company policy or the handling of labor disputes' other than to prepare information, if requested, on the amount of work performed in a department or by an individual in the department. They are not concerned with personnel or administrative records, but are confined to keeping rec- ords and maintaining reports and statistics within the department to which they are assigned. They have access to information' available only to supervisory employees. The Company argues that this places the plant clerks in the position of confidential employees and supports this by pointing to the fact that plant clerks have been uniformly ex- cluded from units which were the subject of past bargaining agree- ments with the Company.4 _ However, the record does not disclose that the information accessible to these 'employees deals with questions of labor policy or other matters which we have heretofore determined to be of a confidential nature. We find that the information to which these employees have acceses is not of such character as to warrant' denying them the rights guaranteed in the Act. However, their duties are different from those of production and maintenance employees +Matter of Armour and Company and Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Walk- men of North America, Local 377, affiliated withI the American Federation of Labor, 43 N. L R B 307, at 310. ARMOUR AND CON1PINT 691 and we shall not include them in the broader unit. Accordingly we find that the plant clerks constitute a separate appropriate unit. The possibility that the same labor organization which presently represents the production and maintenance employees may also rep- resent the plant clerks is not enough, in our opinion, to preclude these employees from the right to bargain collectively in an appropriate unit through whatever bargaining agent they may desire to represent them. We see no necessity, for any conflict between self-organization for the purposes of collective bargaining and the faithful performance of duty. In any event the remedy for inefficiency or willful disregard or neglect.of duty on the part of these employees lies implicitly in the power of the Company to discipline or discharge them. We see no reason, therefore, why the same labor organization may not, if chosen by these employees, represent both them and the production and maintenance employees. At the time of the hearing, the Company employed 30 plant clerks, 13 of whom were compensated on a weekly basis and 17 on an hourly basis. The latter group consists of new or temporary clerks who are employed by the Company on a probationary status. The record does not disclose any reason why there should be any differentiation in treatment between these 2 groups, and accordingly, we shall include both groups within the appropriate unit. Two of the plant clerks are considered, to be senior clerks and oc- casionally act as substitutes for the supervisory employees of their departments, but neither has the power to hire or discharge. While on occasion they may be consulted with regard to the quality of work performed by the other clerks, there is no evidence to show that these employees are vested with authority to make recommendations with respect to hire, discharge, or discipline. They, too, are under the direct supervision of the foremen of the department in which they work. We find that the two senior clerks are not supervisory em- ployees. We shall, therefore, include them within the unit herein after found appropriate. - Accordingly, we find that all plant clerks employed at the Kansas City plant of,the Company constitute a unit appropriate for the pur- poses of collective bargaining, within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act. V. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES We shall direct that the question concerning representation which has arisen be resolved by an election by secret ballot among the em- ployees in the appropriate unit who were employed during the pay- roll period immediately preceding the date of the Direction of Election herein, subject to the limitations and additions set forth in the Direction. 531647-43-vol. 49-45 r- , 692 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD DIRECTION OF ELECTION By virtue of and pursuant to the power vested in the National Labor Relations Board by Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act, and pursuant to Article III, Section 9, of National Labor Relations 'Board Rules and Regulations-Series 2, as amended, it is hereby DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation to ascertain representa- tives for the purposes of collective bargaining with Armour and Com- pany, Kansas City, Kansas, an election by secret ballot shall be con- ducted 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 Seventeenth Region, acting in.this matter as agent for the National Labor Relations Board,. and 'subject -to Article III, Section 10, of said Rules and Regulations, among the em- ployees 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 including employees in the armed forces of the United States who present themselves in person at the polls, but excluding those employees who have since quit, or been discharged for cause, to determine whether or not they desire to be represented by Packing- house- Workers Organizing Committee, Local No. 15, affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations, for the purposes of collec- tive bargaining.