National Mattress Co.

In the Matter of NATIONAL MATTRESS COMPANY, EMPLOYER and TEX- TILE WORKERS UNION OF AMERICA, ST. Louis JOINT BOARD, CIO, PETITIONER Case No. 14-R-15'73.--D'seeided April 7, 1947 Mr. Ben C. Sandler, of St. Louis, Mo., for the Employer. Messrs. Frank J. Swantner and William A. Doyle, of St. Louis, Mo., for the Petitioner. Messrs. John T. Wiley, Jr., Harry H. Craig, and Charles H. Muench, of St. Louis, Mo., for the Intervenor. Mr. Bernard L. Balicer, of counsel to the Board. DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION Upon a petition duly filed, hearing in this case was held at St. Louis, Missouri, on December 17, 1946, before Harry G. Carlson, hear- ing officer. 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 The Employer is a corporation licensed to do business in the State of Missouri . It operates a chain of factories throughout the United States and its principal office is located at Huntington, West Virginia. At its plant in Belleville, Illinois,' the only plant involved in this proceeding, the Employer is engaged in the manufacture of mattresses and bedding. During the fiscal year 1946 the Employer purchased cotton, textile fabrics, springs, and other raw materials valued in excess of $100,000, of which 75 percent was shipped to the plant from 1 At the time of the hearing , the Employer was preparing to move its operations from St. Louis, Missouri , to Belleville , Illinois. It contended , therefore, that an election should be delayed until the transfer of operations to its new facilities . The Board has been ad- vised that the contemplated move to the Employer 's new plant was made on February 17, 1947. All but 1 of the 20 employees now employed at the Belleville plant were previously employed at the St Louis plant of the Employer. 73 N. L. R. B., No. 32. 185 186 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD points outside the State of Missouri. During the same period, the Employer sold finished products exceeding $100,000 in value, of which approximately 25 percent was shipped from the plant to points outside the State of Missouri. The Employer admits and we find that it is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act. If. THE ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED The Petitioner is a labor organization affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations, claiming to represent employees of the Employer. Upholsterers' International Union of America, herein called the Intervenor, is a labor organization affiliated with the American Fed- eration of Labor, claiming to represent employees of the Employer. III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION The Employer refuses to recognize the Petitioner as the exclusive bargaining representative of employees of the Employer until the Petitioner has been certified by the Board in an appropriate unit. 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. TIIE APPROPRIATE UNIT The parties are in general agreement that all production and main- tenance employees, excluding the truck driver, office clerical, and supervisory employees, constitute an appropriate unit. The parties disagree as to the inclusion of a shipping clerk, the Petitioner desir- ing to include him and the Intervenor desiring his exclusion. The shipping clerk works in the plant and has the responsibility of seeing that orders are properly filled and that goods are properly wrapped for shipment by two wrappers. He is paid on an hourly basis, and his earnings are approximately the same as those of other production and maintenance employees. Although he directs the work of the wrappers, the shipping clerk is responsible to the plant foreman, who alone has power effectively to recommend changes in the status of employees. We are of the opinion that the shipping clerk is not a supervisory employee within the Board's usual definition of that term and that his interests are more closely allied with those of the production employees than those of the office clerical staff. Accordingly, we shall include the shipping clerk in the unit of produc- tion and maintenance employees? 2 Matter of Goodman Manufacturing Company, 67 N L., R. B 1123. NATIONAL MATTRESS COMPANY 187 We find that all production and maintenance employees at the Employer's Belleville, Illinois, plant, including the shipping clerk, but excluding the truck driver, office clerical, and supervisory em- ployees with authority to hire, promote, discharge, discipline, or other- wise effect changes in the status of employees, or effectively recom- mend such action, constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act. DIRECTION OF ELECTION 3 As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the purposes of collective bargaining with National Mattress Company, Belleville, Illinois, 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 Fourteenth 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 Regula- tions-Series 4, among the employees 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 they desire to be represented by Textile Workers Union of America, St. Louis Joint Board, CIO, or by Upholsterers' International Union of America, A. F. of L., for the purposes of collective bargaining, or by neither. CHAIRMAN HERZOG took no part in the consideration of the above Decision and Direction of Election. 3 Any participant in the election herein may , upon its prompt request to and approval thereof by the Regional Director, have its name removed from the ballot.