Remington Rand Inc.

In the Matter of REMINGTON RAND INCORPORATED , EMPLOYER and AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR, PETITIONER Case No. 7-R,0301.-Decided November 8. 1.946 Mr. Russell G. Rogeis, of New York City, for the Employer. Mr. Robert A. Wilson, of Washington, D. C., and 11rs. Verna 0. Corrigan, of Detroit, Mich., for the Petitioner. 211r. Leonard J. Mandl, of counsel to the Board. DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION Upon a, petition duly filed, hearing in this case was held at Detroit, Michigan, on August 15, 1946, before Meyer D. Stein, hearing officer. At the close of the hearing the Employer moved to dismiss the peti- tion on the ground that the individuals sought to be repi esented herein are not employees within the meaning of the Act. Ruling on the motion was reserved for the Board. For the reasons stated ini Section III, infra, the motion is hereby denied. 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 1. THE BUSINESS OF THE EIII•LOYER Remington Rand Incorporated, a Delaware corporation, is engaged in the manufacture and sale of record-keeping equipment, office fur- niture and office supplies, and operates more than 14 manufacturing plants and approximately 200 sales offices throughout the United States. We are here concerned with the operations of the Employer at its Detroit, Michigan, branch office. During the Employer's fiscal year ending March '31, 1946, it pur- chased supplies and equipment, in connection with its Detl oit opera- tions, valued in excess of $100,000, of which approxjmately 50 percent represented shipments from points outside the State of Michigan. 71 N L.R B , No 9$. 626 REMVIINGTON RAND, INCORPORATED 627 During the same period, its Detroit branch sold goods in excess of 1 million dollars, of which approximately 60 percent represented ship- ments to points outside the State of Michigan. The Employer admits, and we find, that it is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act. IT. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED The Petitioner is a labor organization claiming to represent em- ployees of the Employer. III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION The Employer refuses to recognize the Petitioner as the exclusive bargaining representative of its salesmen and method engineers in its Detroit branch office until the Petitioner has been certified by the Board in an appropriate unit. It takes the position that these in- dividuals are not employees within the meaning of the Act. The Employer's operations are broken down into divisions, viz: Typewriter Division, Systems Division, Tabulating Machines Divi- sion, ABC Division. Duplicator Supplies Division, Remtico Supply Division, Wholesale Portable Division, and the Shaver Division. For handling sales in these divisions the Employer has established about 1100 sales offices throughout the country, staffed with essential per- sonnel including salesmen who handle only the product relating to their particular division. These sales offices are grouped under branch offices. The individuals involved herein are all on the Detroit branch office pay roll but work out of the sales office in Detroit, Flint, Sagi- naw, Lansing, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Benton Harbor, and Jack- son, Michigan, and Toledo, Ohio. As part of their job of selling equipment and records, salesmen, when necessary, design and put into effect record-keeping systems suitable to their customers' operations. In such situations their work entails interviewing prospective customers, analyzing their books, records, and operations and other applicable data and determining the best and most reasonable method of keeping records and the type of record-keeping equipment and supplies needed. The method engi- neers do the technical work of the lay-out and take over some of the duties of the salesmen after a system has been installed and has been in operation for a year. As noted above, the Employer contends that its salesmen and method engineers are managerial or confidential employees and are not employees within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act. It relies in this connection on the fact that the salesmen and method engineers on occasion, in pursuance of their duties, have access to and obtain information from the Employer's customers, which is of 628 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD an important and confidential nature and which concerns the labor relations of the Employer's customers. It is clear, however, that at no time do they obtain information concerning the labor relations of the Employer or assist or act in a confidential capacity to a managerial employee in the field of labor relations, or formulate, determine, and effectuate management policies. Under these circumstances Ave find that these individuals are neither confidential nor managerial within our usual definition of these terms and that they are employees within the meaning of Section 2 (3) of the National Labor Relations Act. We find that a question affecting commerce has arisen concerning the representation of employees of the Employer, within the meaning of Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act. IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT Petitioner seeks a unit of all salesmen and method engineers in the offices falling within the Detroit branch of the Employer, excluding office employees, system service operators, mechanical servicemen, warehouse and shipping men, the installation operator, branch man- agers, district managers, and all other supervisory employees. The Employer stipulated at the hearing that if the Board overruled its con- tention that these individuals are not employees within the meaning of the Act, the requested units would be appropriate., In view of our finding in Section III, supra, and the aforesaid agree- ment of the parties, we find that all salesmen and method engineers in the Detroit branch office, consisting of the Typewriter Division, the System Division, the ABC Division, the Tabulating Machine Division, the Duplicator Supplies Division, Remtico Supply Division, the Wholesale Portable Division, and the Shaver Division, but excluding office employees, system service operators, mechanical servicemen, warehouse and shipping men, the installation operator, branch man- agers, district managers,2 and all or any other supervisory employees with authority to hire, promote, discharge, discipline, or otherwise effect changes in the status of employees, or effectively recommend such action, constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act. V. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES The Petitioner requested, without objection by the Employer, that the balloting be conducted manually in the city of Detroit and that the voting hours on the election date be between the hours of 2 and 6 p. in. 1 The Employer's position is, of course, taken without waiving its contentions that these individuals may not comprise any appropriate unit. 2 Included in this classification are employees Kroger, Nelson , and Sargent. REMINGTON RAND, INCORPORATED 629 In accordance with our usual custom, however, we shall leave these matters to the discretion of the Regional Director. We shall direct that the question concerning representation which has arisen be resolved by an election by secret ballot, subject to the limitations and additions set forth in the Direction. DIRECTION OF ELECTION As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the purposes of collective bargaining with Remington Rand Incorporated, an election 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 Seventh Region, acting in this matter as agent for the National Labor Relations Board, and subject to Sections 203.55 and 203.56, of National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 4, 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 and have not been rehired or reinstated prior, to the date of the election, to determine whether or not they desire to be represented, by American Federation of Labor, for the purposes of collective bargaining.