Standard Brands, Inc.

In the Matter Of STANDARD BRANDS, INCORPORATED, EMPLOYER and THE JOINT LOCAL EXECUTIVE BOARD OF CALIFORNIA, COMPOSED OF LOCALS 884, 888, 893, 896, AND 203, OF THE INTERNATIONAL BROTHER- HOOD OF TEAMSTERS, CHAUFFEURS, WAREHOUSEMEN AND HELPERS OF AMERICA, A. F. of L. and INTERNATIONAL UNION OF UNITED BREW- ERY, FLOUR, CEREAL, SOFT DRINK AND DISTILLERY WORKERS OF AMERICA, BREWERS AND MALTSTERS LOCAL UNION No. 7, C. I. O. Case No. 2O-RE_- 6.Decided December 44, 19!7 Littler, Coakley, and Lauritzen, by Messrs. Robert Littler and John B. Lauritzen, of San Francisco, Calif., for the Employer. P. H. McCarthy, Jr., and F. Nason O'Hara, by Messrs. P. H. M11c- Carthy, Jr., and F. Nason O'Hara, of San Francisco, Calif., for the Joint Local Executive Board of the Teamsters and for Local No. 893 of the Teamsters. Gladstein, Andersen, Resner, and Sawyer, by Mr. Norman Leonard, of San Francisco, Calif., for Local No. 7 of the Brewery Workers. DECISION AND ORDER Upon a petition 1 duly filed, hearing in this case was held at San Francisco, California, on March 25, 26, and 31, and on April 1, 3, 21, and 22, 1947, before Robert E. Tillman, hearing officer. Prior to the hearing, at the hearing, and in its brief, Local No. 7 of the Brewery Workers moved to dismiss the petition, alleging, in substance, (1) that the petition was defective in that it failed, as re- quired by the Rules and Regulations, to contain a description of the appropriate unit or units and to state whether the Employer had con- tracts with any labor organizations and, if so, the expiration dates thereof; (2) that a contract between Local No. 7 of the Brewery Workers and the Employer is a bar to this proceeding; and (3) that the unit proposed by Local No. 893 of the Teamsters is inappropriate 1 The petition and other formal papers were amended at the hearing to disclose the cor- rect name of the competing labor organizations. 75 N. L. R. B, No. 49. 394 STANDARD BRANDS , INCORPORATED 395 for bargaining purposes. Inasmuch as Local No. 7 of the Brewery Workers was fully apprised by the Board's Regional Director con- cerning the conflicting claims respecting the scope of the alleged appropriate unit and as to the contracts and the expiration dates thereof, we find that the defects alleged to exist in the petition were not prejudicial to the interests of any parties herein. For reasons discussed in Section 3, infra, however, the motion to dismiss is hereby granted. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed. Upon the entire record in the case, the National Labor Relations Board makes the following : FINDINGS OF FACT I. THE BUSINESS OF THE EMPLOYER Standard Brands, Incorperated, a Delaware corporation with its principal office at New York City, is engaged in the manufacture, proc- essing and distribution of food products on a Nation-wide basis. The Employer's manufacturing operations are divided into its Shefford Division, its Chase & Sanborn Division, its Lowdon-Bowman Divi- sion, and its Fleishmann Manufacturing Division, the last of which is concerned in these proceedings. Through its Fleishmann Manufacturing Division the Employer operates plants for the manufacture of yeast and vinegar at Langdon, District of Columbia; Peekskill, New York; Pekin and Chicago, Illi- nois; Sumner, Washington; Dallas, Texas; Montgomery, Alabama; and Oakland, California. It also operates a plant for the manufacture of malt and malt syrups at Cincinnati, Ohio, and a trucking facility at Baltimore, Maryland. During the year 1946, for use at its Oakland, California, yeast plant, the only plant directly involved in this proceeding, the Employer pur- chased raw materials, consisting principally of molasses, phosphates, and ammonia, valued in excess of $50,000, of which 5 percent was shipped from points outside California. During the same period, the Employer shipped products manufactured at its Oakland yeast plant, valued in excess of $50,000, to points outside California. The Employer admits, and we find, that it is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act. II. THE ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED The Joint Local Executive Board of California, composed of Locals 884, 888, 893, 896, and 203, of the International Brotherhood of Team- 396 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD sters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America, and Brew- ers, Maltsters, and Yeast Workers, Local No. 893, collectively called the Teamsters herein, are labor organizations affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, claiming to represent employees of the Em- ployer. International Union of United Brewery, Flour, Cereal, Soft Drink and Distillery Workers of America,2 Brewers and Maltsters Local Union No. 7, herein called Local No. 7 of the Brewery Workers, is a labor organization affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organi- zations, claiming to represent employees of the Employer. III. THE ALLEGED APPROPRIATE UNIT; THE ALLEGED QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION The Teamsters contends that employees at the Employer's Oakland, California, yeast and vinegar plant constitute a unit appropriate for bargaining purposes. Local No. 7 of the Brewery Workers contends that the bargaining history between the Employer and its employees on a multi-plant basis makes the proposed unit inappropriate. The Employer takes no position as to the scope of the bargaining unit. The Employer's operations are, for administrative purposes, divided functionally into divisions. The manufacturing division, headed by a vice president in charge of manufacturing, includes, in addition to its operating units, each of which manufactures a different line of products, a purchasing division for the purchase of all raw materials used in the Employer's various plants.' The operating unit with which we are alone concerned is the Fleishmann Manufacturing Di - vision, through which are administered the yeast, vinegar and malt plants which the Employer acquired in 1929 from the Fleishmani Company when the latter discontinued operations as a manufacturing concern. The yeast and vinegar plants presently operated by the Employer's Fleishmann Manufacturing Division are located at Langdon, District of Columbia; Peekskill, New York; Pekin and Chicago, Illinois; Sumner, Washington; Dallas, Texas; Montgomery, Alabama; and Oakland, California. The operations of the Fleishmann Manufacturing Division are supervised by a general production manager located in New York City. Each of its yeast and vinegar plants is in the charge of a plant manager, who, subject to the ratification of the general office, may 2 The name of this labor organization also appears in the record as Inteinational Union of United Brewery , Flour. Cereal and Soft Drink Woikeis of America. The change of name occurred in September 1946. 3 Approximately 5 percent of the raw materials used , consisting of minor items , are pur- chased locally at the respective plants as needed. STANDARD BRANDS, INCORPORATED 397 negotiate and sign local collective bargaining agreements, and may exercise some discretion in labor relations matters. All hiring and discharge of production and maintenance employees is done at the individual plants, where complete personnel files for such employees are kept. There is no exchange of employees among plants. The geographical separation of the Employer's yeast and vinegar plants, the lack of interchange of rank and file personnel, and the other circumstances set forth above, indicate that, despite the inte- grated nature of the Employer's administration of the yeast and vinegar plants of its Fleishmann Manufacturing Division, the opera- tion of the Oakland plant is relatively autonomous and employees at the plant might constitute a separate bargaining unit. Local No. 7 of the Brewery Workers, however, contends that the past bargaining history between the Employer and the Brewery Workers precludes the establishment of a separate bargaining group for employees at the Oakland plant at this time. Between 1918 and 1929, Fleishmann Company, the Employer's predecessor in the operation of the yeast and vinegar plants with which we are concerned herein, had collective bargaining agreements with International Union of United Brewery, Flour, Cereal and Soft Drink Workers of America, called the Brewery Workers herein. The agree- ments consisted of one collective bargaining contract for all the yeast and vinegar plants, additional local agreements covering conditions of employment not touched upon in the national agreement, and a separate agreement for the Cincinnati, Ohio, malt plant. Beginning in 1929, when it absorbed Fleishmann Company, the Em- ployer continued the Fleishmann Company's contractual relations with the Brewery Workers with respect to both the national agreement and the several supplementary local agreements covering all yeast and vinegar plants of its Fleishmann Manufacturing Division. The na- tional agreements included provisions covering union security, prefer- ential hiring, arbitration, working hours, and causes for discharge, and a further clause providing that local agreements as to wage scales for the various plants covered should be entered into and "become part of this agreement." The local agreements entered into pursuant to this clause 4 provided for wages, vacations, seniority, reinstatement after military service, and similar matters. Pursuant to custom, and to a clause in the national agreement of August 1945, between the Employer and the Brewery Workers, an agreement for the Oakland yeast plant was executed by the Employer and Brewers and Maltsters Local Union 4 Other local agreements with various craft unions were executed in the Employer's name by plant managers of particular plants, including the Oakland plant, for craft employees within their respective jurisdictions. 398 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD No. 7 of the Brewery Workers, effective January 1, 1946, which by its term expires August 15, 1947. The last national agreement executed by the Employer and the Brewery Workers by its terms expires August 1947.5 From 1887 until 1941, when it was suspended, the Brewery Workers was affiliated with the American Federation of Labor. It remained unaffiliated for the next 5 years. In the spring of 1946, however, the Brewery Workers determined to submit to its membership the question of whether it should affiliate with the Congress of Industrial Organi- zations. Although the majority of the membership as a whole voted for such affiliation, the membership of its four California locals, in- cluding Local No. 7, among whose members were employees at the Employer's Oakland plant, indicated their opposition. The affiliation of the Brewery Workers With the Congress of Industrial Organiza- tions was accomplished on July 18, 1946. On July 25, 1946, never- theless, the officers of the four California locals, which had acted jointly for many years as the Joint Local Executive Board of Cali- fornia, executed an affiliation agreement with the International Broth- erhood of Teamsters, Chaffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America, which thereupon chartered the Brewers, Maltsters and Yeast Workers, Local No. 893, of the Teamsters, for the dissident members of Local No. 7.6 Thus Local No. 893 of the Teamsters seeks the establish- ment of a separate unit for employees at the Oakland plant, which Local No. 7 of the Brewery Workers opposes. In the absence of bargaining history among employees of the Em- ployer, it would appear that employees at the Oakland plant might properly constitute a bargaining unit apart from the employees at the other plants of the Employer. From the facts set forth above, how- ever, it is clear that collective bargaining has been carried on for a long term of years in a unit consisting of the employees of all the yeast and vinegar plants. The local agreements between local labor organizations 7 and the Employer on local plant issues are not incon- sistent with bargaining on the more comprehensive and Nation-wide 5In listing the particular plants coveted, this national agreement omits the Oakland plant but contains the following clause concerning it "the signing of this agreement shall not affect that supplementary agreement signed by San Francisco Local Union No. 7 and the manager of the Oakland, California plant, which expnes August 14, 1947 " 6 The dissident members of the other three California locals received charters as Local Nos 884 , 888, 896 and 203 ( the membership of one local received two charters) and as constituent locals of the Joint Local Executive Board of the Teamsters, are parties to this proceeding 7 It is true that local agreements for the different groups of craftsmen excluded from the production and maintenance units of the various plants covered by the contracts with the Brcwei y Workers have been executed with craft unions However, such local variations respecting fringe classification are not material . Matter of Bethlehem -Fairchild Shipyard, Incorporated, 58 N. L. R . B. 579. STANDARD BRANDS, INCORPORATED 399 basis. Manifestly, it would be unrealistic for the parties to attempt to make uniform national provisions on all subjects with no allowance for variation to take into account purely local conditions. Inasmuch as we have frequently held that where, as here, there has been a long continued bargaining history 8 among employees at like plants 9 on the basis of a multi-plant unit a unit limited to employees of one of such plants is not appropriate for purposes of collective bar- gaining 10 we are of the opinion that a unit limited to employees of the Oakland yeast plant is inappropriate. Accordingly, we find that no question affecting commerce has arisen concerning the representation of the employees of the Employer in a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining. ORDER Upon the basis of the above findings of fact and the entire record in the case, it is hereby ordered that the petition for investigation and certification of representatives of employees of Standard Brands, In- corporated, Oakland, California, filed by Standard Brands, Incorpo- rated, be, and it hereby is, dismissed. MEMBERS MURDOCK and GRAY, took no part in the consideration of the above Decision and Order. 8 As noted in a recent case, « e do not consider multi-plant bargaining a controlling factor in the determination of the unit where such bargaining was for a short period of time and was preceded by years of bargaining on a single plant basis. Matter of Lever Brothers Company, 74 N. L. R. B 628. ° Cf. Matter of Standard Brands, Incorporated, Baltimore Trucking Operation of The Fleishmann Manufacturing Division , 72 N. L. R. B. 181. 10 Matter of Western Electric Company, Incorporated , 47 N. L. R. B 1457 ; Matter of Clarksburg Paper Company, 64 N. L. R. B. 1319 ; and Matter of Spencer Cardinal Corpora- tion, 74 N. L. R. B. 528.