Miller & Miller Motor Freight Lines

In the Matter Of MILLER & MILLER MOTOR FREIGHT LINES and INTER- NATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS, CHAUFFEURS, WAREHOUSE- MEN AND HELPERS OF AMERICA, LOCAL 745 In the Matter of MILLER & MILLER MOTOR FREIGHT LINES and INTER- NATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS, CHAUFFEURS, WAREHOUSE- MEN AND HELPERS, LOCAL UNION No. 47, AFL Cases No. 16-R-1027 and 16-R-1036, respectively. Decided November 11, 1944 Mr. Otis E. Nelson, of Wichita Falls, Tex., for the Company. Messrs. J. L. Davis and T. T. Neal, of Dallas, Tex., for Local 745. Mr. W. F. Derden, of Ft. Worth, Tex., for Local 47. Mr. Robert Silagi, of counsel to the Board. DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS STATEMENT OF THE CASE Upon amended petitions duly filed by International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of Alnerica, Local 745, and by International Brotherhood of Teamsters , Chauf- feurs, Warehousemen and Helpers , Local Union No. 47, AFL, herein called, respectively , Local 745 and Local 47, and collectively called the Teamsters, alleging that a question affecting commerce had arisen con- cerning the representation of employees of Miller & Miller Motor Freight Lines, Wichita Falls , Texas, herein called the Company,' the National Labor Relations Board consolidated the petitions and pro- vided for an appropriate hearing upon due notice before Earl Saun- ders, Trial Examiner. Said hearing was held at Ft. Worth, Texas, on September 18, 1944. The Company and the Teamsters appeared and participated . All parties were afforded full opportunity to be heard, to examine and cross-examine witnesses , and to introduce evidence bearing on the issues. The Trial Examiner's rulings made at the I The formal documents were amended at the hearing to show the correct name of the Company as above set forth. 59 N. L. R. B., No. 42. . 203 204 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed. All parties were afforded opportunity to file briefs with the Board. A motion by the Company to reopen the record for a further hearing is hereby denied. Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following: FINDINGS OF FACT I. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY Miller & Miller Motor Freight Lines, a copartnership composed of L. F. Miller and F. D. Miller, maintains its principal office in Wichita Falls, Texas. It is engaged in the hauling and transporting of general commodities in the States of Texas and Oklahoma, operating under the authority of the Interstate Commerce Commission, the Texas Rail- road Commission, and the Oklahoma Corporation Commission. Dur- ing the 6 months next preceding the hearing, the Company' s gross "in- come amounted to more than $300,000, more than $50,000 of which was revenue received for transporting freight in interstate commerce. The Company admits, and we find, that it is engaged in commerce .within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act. H. THE ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED Local Unions Nos. 745 and 47 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America, affil- iated with the American Federation of Labor, are labor organizations admitting to membership employees of the Company. III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION On or about August 16, 1944, Local 745 and Local 47 notified the Company that each represented certain of its employees and requested that the Company negotiate with them as exclusive bargaining rep- resentative of the said employees. The Company refused to negotiate until such time as the majority status of each local had been determined in an appropriate unit. A statement of a Board agent, introduced into evidence at the hearing, indicates that the Teamsters represents a substantial number of employees in the units hereinafter found appropriate.2 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. 2 The Field Examiner reported that Local 745 submitted 19 application blanks, all dated during the month of August 1944. There are approximately 32 employees within the unit petitioned for. Local 47 submitted 3 application blanks dated during August 1944. There are about 7 employees within the unit sought. MILLER & MILLER MOTOR FREIGHT LINES 205 IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNITS Local 745 requests a unit comprised of all over-the-road drivers in the employ of the Company, excluding dockmen, pick-up and deliv- ery drivers,'office and supervisory employees. Local 47 seeks a unit confined to the Company's Ft. Worth pick-up and delivery, drivers, dockmen, and warehousemen but excluding over-the-road drivers, office, and supervisory employees. The Company asserts that only a, unit embracing all of its employees is appropriate. The record establishes that the Company employs approximately 32 over-the-road drivers, who operate over routes from Dallas to Amarillo and Lubbock, Texas. The work of these employees is closely regulated by the Interstate Commerce Commission. Thus, they are subject to special rules governing the number of consecutive hours which they may work each day, the number of hours they may work per week, the periods of rest that must be observed and other working conditions. Over-the-road drivers are paid on a mileage basis plus an extra sum for local pick-ups and deliveries based upon the length of their routes. Local cartage employees, i. e., dockmen, warehousemen, and city drivers, on the other hand, are either confined to work at the terminals used by the Company, or operate within the immediate vicinity of the cities in which they are located. These employees, unlike the over-the-road drivers, are not subject to the same regula- tions of the Interstate Commerce Commission, nor are they paid upon a mileage basis, but by hourly wage rates. Similarly, the supervision of over-the-road drivers is handled differently from that of local cartage employees. The former are under the direct control of the Company's operating manager at its home office in Wichita Falls. He receives recommendations as to the hiring and discharge of over-the- road drivers from the Company's agents, each one of whom is in charge of one of its terminals. Dockmen and city drivers, however, may be directly hired and discharged by the agents and dock foremen without prior reference to the operating manager. While there is a certain' amount of duplication of work between the two categories of em- ployees, it is clear that the major proportion of any employee's work week is spent in either one or the other, so that a delineation of units consonant with this usage is a practicable one. In view of these facts and the pattern of organization established by the Teamsters in Texas, and by other locals of the International Brotherhood elsewhere in the country, we are of the opinion that over-the-road drivers constitute a clearly defined homogeneous group capable of collective bargaining within the unit petitioned for by Local 745. We further believe that all local cartage employees of the Company in Ft. Worth may bargain collectively as a separate appropriate unit. 206 , DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD We find that the following units are appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act: (1) All over-the-road drivers employed by the Company , excluding dockmen, warehousemen , pick-up and delivery drivers, office em- ployees , and all supervisory employees with authority to hire, pro- mote, discharge, discipline, or otherwise effect changes in the status ,of employees , or effectively recommend such action; (2) All pick-up and delivery drivers, dockmen, and warehousemen employed by the Company in the city of Ft. Worth, Texas, excluding all over-the -road drivers , office employees, and all supervisory em- ployees with authority to hire, promote , discharge, discipline, or other- wise effect changes in the status of employees , or effectively recommend -such action. 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 units who were employed during the pay- roll period immediately preceding the date of the Direction of Elec- tions herein, subject to the limitations and additions set forth in the Direction. Due to the difficulty in balloting drivers on duty at distant points, and in order to avoid delay in the successful completion of the balloting, the parties request the use of mail ballots. The Regional 'Director is hereby specifically authorized to use the mail for balloting purposes whenever, in his discretion, expediency will be served thereby. DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS 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 3, as amended, it is hereby DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation to ascertain representa- tives for the purposes of collective bargaining with Miller & Miller Motor Freight Lines, Wichita Falls, Texas, separate elections by secret ballot shall be conducted 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 Sixteenth Region, acting in this matter as agent for the National Labor Relations Board, and subject to,Article III, Sections 10 and 11, of said Rules and Regula- tions, among the employees in the units found appropriate in Section IV, above, who were employed during the pay-roll period imme- diately preceding the date of this Direction, including employees who did not work during the said pay-roll period because they were ill or on vacation or temporarily laid off, and including employees in the MILLER & MILLER MOTOR FREIGHT LINES 207 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 and have not been rehired or reinstated prior to the date of the elections, (1) to determine whether or not the employees in the over-the-road drivers unit desire to be represented by International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehouse- men and Helpers of America, Local 745, and (2) to determine whether or not the employees in the Ft. Worth unit desire to be represented by International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehouse- men and Helpers, Local Union No. 47, AFL, for the purposes of col- lective bargaining. 618683-45-vol. 59-15