Tell City Furniture Co., Inc.

In the Matter of TELL CITY FURNITURE COMPANY, INC., EMPLOYER and UNITED FURNITURE WORKERS OF AMERICA, C. I. 0., PETITIONER Case No. 35-RC-299.-Decided January 04, 1950 DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before William A. McGowan, 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 National Labor Relations Act, the Board has delegated its powers in connection with this case to a three-member panel [Chairman Herzog and Members Houston and Reynolds]. Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds : 1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act. 2. The labor organizations involved claim 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 Petitioner seeks to represent a unit of the Employer's pro- duction and maintenance employees, including firemen, truck drivers, leadmen, and general inspectors, but excluding office and clerical employees, salesmen, professional employees, watchmen, guards, and supervisors. The Intervenor 1 and the Employer agree with the com- position of the proposed unit, except that the Employer would exclude three over-the-road truck drivers and four general inspectors. The Employer employs three over-the-road drivers and four local drivers. The latter drive only in the city in which the Employer's plant is located. The three over-the-road truck drivers drive trailer trucks delivering products manufactured by the Employer to pur- chasers located throughout the United States. The parties agree that 'Furniture Workers Union of America, Local No. 335, United Paper Workers of America, CIO. 88 NLRB No. 71. 284 TELL CITY FURNITURE COMPANY, INC. 285 the local drivers should be included in the unit, but, as stated above, the Employer would exclude the over-the-road drivers. We have frequently held that over-the-road truck drivers comprise a skilled and well-defined group, who may constitute a separate unit. But where, as here, no union seeks to represent them in such a 1.init, they may appropriately be included in a unit of production and main- tenance employees? We shall therefore include over-the-road truck drivers in the unit. There are about 34 inspectors employed in the plant. Of these, 30 are regular inspectors who work in a specific department, under the supervision of the department foreman, inspecting the work of the production employees in that department. Their duties are generally of a routine nature. The parties agree that regular inspectors should be included in the unit. In addition to the 30 regular inspectors, there are 4 general inspectors, who, under the supervision of the plant superintendent, work throughout the plant, making spot checks of finished and semi-finished products, and reporting on the work of both rank-and-file employees and foremen to the plant superintendent. They consider and suggest changes in production methods, and in gen- eral work in close association with higher management. It seems clear that the interests of these 4 general inspectors are different from those of production and maintenance employees. Accordingly, we shall exclude theirs from the unit. We find that all production and maintenance employees at the Employer's plant in Tell City, Indiana, including firemen, local and over-the-road truck drivers, and leadmen, but excluding general in- spectors, office and clerical employees, salesmen, professional employ- ees, watchmen, guards, and supervisors, as defined in the Act, constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act. DIRECTION OF ELECTION As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the purposes of collective bargaining with the Employer, an election by secret ballot shall be conducted as early as possible, but not later than 30 days from the date of this Direction, under the direction and supervision of the Regional Director for the Region in which this case was heard, and subject to Sections 203.61 and 203.62 of National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations, among the employees in the unit found appropriate in paragraph numbered 4, above, who were employed during the payroll period immediately preceding the a Stokely Foods, Inc., 83 NLRB 795; Glazer Steel Corporation, 81 NLRB 530; Wasatch Oil Refining Company, 76 NLRB 417. 286 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD date of this Direction of Election, including employees who did not work during said payroll period because they were ill or on vacation or temporarily laid off, but excluding those employees who have since quit or been discharged for cause and have not been rehired or rein- stated prior to the date of the election, and also excluding employees on strike who are not entitled to reinstatement, to determine whether they desire to be represented, for purposes of collective bargaining, by United Furniture Workers of America, C. 1. 0., or by Furniture Work- ers Union of America, Local No. 335, United Paper Workers of America, C. I. 0., or by neither.