Hollow Tree Lumber Co.

In the Matter of HOLLOW TREE LUMBER COMPANY, EMPLOYER and LUMBER AND SAWMILL WORKERS LOCAL UNION #2975, CHARTERED BY U. B. C. J. A., AFL, PETITIONER Case No. 20-RC-1017.-Decided October 3, 1950 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 Harry V. Bamford, 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, a California corporation, is engaged in the busi- ness of logging and processing lumber. All its operations are car- ried on within the State of California. During the fiscal year ending June 30, 1950, the Employer's purchases of timber, logs, sawmill equipment, and other supplies, totaled $112,097.28. Of these pur- chases, 6 percent was shipped directly to the Employer's plant from places outside the State of California; another 7 percent originated outside the State of California but was purchased from companies engaged in business within the State. During the same period of time, the Employer's sales totaled $686,346.85. All sales were made to companies engaged in business within the State of California and no shipments were made by the Employer outside the State. The sales to the Employer's principal customer, Rockport Redwood Company,' amounted to approximately $450,000. The lumber which Rockport Redwood Company purchased from the Employer was com mingled with lumber obtained from other sources and was further processed by Rockport or its contractors. In the calendar year 1949, Rockport's sales of lumber totaled approximately $830,000, of which approximately $220,000 was shipped outside the State of California. An additional $33,000 of the Employer's total sales during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1950„ was made to Masonite Corporation, a building supplies manufacturer engaged in interstate commerce, for 1 Heretofore, the Board has found that that company is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the Act. Rockport Redwood Company, 60 NLRB 900. 91 NLRB No. 113. 635 636 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD stock piling at Masonite's mill at Ukiah, California, which is pres- ently under construction.' The Employer contends that it would not effectuate the purposes of the Act for the Board to exercise jurisdiction over its operations. We do not agree. The Board has long been of the opinion that it would better effectuate the purposes of the Act, and promote the prompt handling of major cases, not to exercise its jurisdiction to the fullest extent possible under the authority delegated to it by Congress, but to limit that exercise to enterprises whose operations have, or at which labor disputes would have, a pronounced impact upon the flow of interstate commerce. This policy should, in our opinion, be main- tained. The time has come, we believe, when experience warrants the establishment and announcement of certain standards which will better clarify and define where the difficult line can best be drawn. The Board has determined that it will exercise jurisdiction over those enterprises which affect commerce by virtue of the fact that they furnish goods or services necessary to the operations of other employers engaged in commerce, without regard to other factors, where such goods or services are valued at $50,000 per annum or more, and are sold to : (a) public utilities or transit systems ; (b) companies which function as instrumentalities and channels of in- terstate and foreign commerce and their essential links ; or (c) enter- prises engaged in producing or handling goods destined for out-of- State shipment, or performing services outside the State, in the value of $25,000 per annum or more. This standard reflects, in large measure, the results reached in the Board's past decisions disposing of similar jurisdictional issues. In this proceeding, although the Employer ships no goods directly outside the State of California, it does deliver necessary goods valued in excess of $50,000 per annum to Rockport Redwood Company, which in turn produces goods valued to excess of $25,000 which are destined for out-of-State shipment. Having found that Hollow Tree Lumber Company is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act, we will, pursuant to the policy enunciated above, exercise jurisdiction herein. 2. The labor organization involved claims to represent certain em- ployees of the Employer. 2 The Employer 's president testified that during the forthcoming year , the Employer expects to change its operations ; it anticipates it will make no sales to Rockport Redwood Company ; and it expects that, although a substantial amount of sales will be made to companies engaged in interstate commerce, only a small percentage thereof eventually will be shipped out of the State of California . However, because these changes in opera- tions are speculative and uncertain , we base our decision herein upon the Employer's past experience as reflected by the record in this case. HOLLOW TREE LUMBER COMPANY 637 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. In accordance with the stipulation of the parties, we find that the following employees of the Employer constitute a unit appropri- ate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act: All production and maintenance employees employed in or about the Employer's sawmill and yard located at or near Ukiah, California, excluding office employees, guards, and supervisors as defined in the Act. [Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this volume.]