Omaha Cold Storage Co.

In the Matter of OMAHA COLD STORAGE COMPANY, EMPLOYER and GENERAL DRIVERS AND HELPERS UNION, LOCAL No. 554, INTERNA- TIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS, CHAUFFEURS, WAREHOUSEMEN AND HELPERS OF AMERICA, A. F. OF L., PETITIONER Case No. 17-R-16414.-Decided April 15, 1947 Mr. David W. Swarr, of Omaha, Nebr., for the Employer. Mr. David D. Weinberg, of Omaha, Nebr., for the Petitioner. Messrs. Harry G. Cownie, Charles N. Waltrip, and Stewart B. Dale, of Omaha, Nebr., for the Intervenor. Miss Eleanor Schwartzbach, of counsel to the Board. DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION Upon a petition duly filed, hearing in this case was held at Omaha, Nebraska, on November 22, 1946, before Robert S. Fousek, 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 the case, the National Labor Relations Board makes the following : FINDINGS OF FACT I. THE BUSINESS OF THE EMPLOYER Omaha Cold Storage Company, a Nebraska corporation, is engaged in the cold storage and poultry, egg, and food processing business, at Omaha, Nebraska. During the year ending December 31, 1946, the Employer extended services, valued in excess of $100,000, to customers located within and without the State of Nebraska. A substantial amount of the products placed in the Employer's cold storage plant at Omaha, Nebraska, originates from or is ultimately shipped to points outside the State of Nebraska. 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 Petitioner is a labor organization affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, claiming to represent employees of the Employer. 73 N. L R. B., No. 79. 406 OMAHA COLD SIORAGE COMPANY 407 United Packinghouse Workers of America, Local 120, herein called the Intervenor, is a labor organization affiliated with Congress of Industrial Organizations , claiming to represent employees of the Employer. III. TIIE QUESTION CONCERNING ' REPRESENTATION 'The Employer refuses to recognize the Petitioner as the exclusive bargaining representative of employees of the Employer. Following a consent election held under Board auspices on October 22, 1940,1 the Employer and the Intervenor entered into a series of contracts covering production and maintenance employees, including drivers, at the Employer's Omaha, Nebraska, plant. The last of these contracts was executed on June 21, 1945. On July 13, 1946, the con- tract was extended to December 31, 1946. At the time of the hearing the parties were negotiating a new contract. Neither contracting party claims that the contract of 1945 is a bar to the instant proceed- ings, nor, as we find , can it be such a bar. 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. 1V. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT ; THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES The Petitioner seeks a unit of the Employer's over-the -road drivers. The Employer and the Intervenor contend that over-the-road drivers are properly included within a unit of production and maintenance employees at the Omaha plant , urging that their position is supported by the history of collective bargaining between the Employer and the Intervenor covering such employees. Over-the-road drivers spend about 15 percent of their regular time at the Omaha plant doing work normally done by plant employees under plant foremen . Their principal occupation, however, is the driving of heavy trucks from one to the other of the Employer 's plants in Nebraska and neighboring States . Over-the-road drivers , as dis- tinguished from the city truck drivers performing local trucking operations, are under the separate supervision of the Industrial Rela- tions Manager, and are substantially without supervision while on the road. City drivers are under the supervision of the department fore- man whose work they may be handling at any time . Over-the-road drivers spend the greater part of their time away from the plant, and are responsible for the care of their trucks at this time. City drivers' work is confined to the city of Omaha. Over -the-road drivers all re- 1 Matter of Omaha Cold Storage Company, Case No 17-R-210. 408 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD ceive the same pay, whereas the pay of city drivers depends on the type of truck driving job to which they are assigned. Since 1940 the Employer and the Intervenor have maintained con- tractual relations covering all production and maintenance workers at the Omaha plant, including over-the-road drivers. This bargaining unit was based upon a congent election, and not upon any Board de- termination as to the appropriate unit? Over-the-road drivers have had no opportunity in a Board directed election to express their own desires as to separate or plant-wide 3 representation. We have fre- quently held that over-the-road drivers with duties similar to those performed by the drivers herein involved constitute a true craft group. and there is no indication that such units do not function successfully to promote harmonious labor relations. Under the circumstances noted above, we are of the opinion that the over-the-road drivers should now be given an opportunity to demonstrate in a Board election whether or not they desire separate representation.' Accordingly, we shall direct an election among over-the-road drivers at the Employer's Omaha, Nebraska, plant, excluding all supervisory employees with authority to hire, promote, discharge, discipline, or otherwise effect changes in the status of employees, or effectively recommend such action. We shall make no determination of the appropriate unit at this time. Such determination will depend, in part, upon the results of the election. If the employees in the voting group select the Peti- tioner, they will be taken to have indicated a desire to constitute a separate bargaining unit; if they choose the Intervenor, they will be taken to have indicated a desire to remain part of the existing production and maintenance unit. DIRECTION OF ELECTION 6 As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the purposes of collective bargaining with Omaha Cold Storage Com- pany, Omaha, Nebraska, an election by secret ballot shall be conducted as early as possible, but not later than thirty (30) days from the date S Matter of Remington Rand, Inc., Propeller Division , 62 N. L. R. B. 1419 ; Matter of The American Fork & hoc Company, 72 N. L R. B 1025 3 The ballot in the consent election held on October 22 , 1940, was to determine whether or not the employees desired the Inteivenor to represent them. 4 Matter of Gulf Refining Company, 66 N L R. B 142, and cases cited therein ; Matter of John Morrell & Co., 69 N L R. B. 1446 ; Matter of Armour & Company, 64 N. L. R. B 413; Matter of Miller & Miller Motor Freight Lines, 59 N L. R B 203. 5 Matter of Wilson it Co., Inc., 70 N. L. R. B. I ; Matter of Sutherland Paper Company, 55 N. L R. B 38 8 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. OMAHA COLD STORAGE COMPANY 409 of this Direction, under the direction and supervision of the Regional Director for the Seventeenth 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 over-the-road drivers in the group described 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 General Drivers and Helpers Union, Local No. 554, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehouse- men and Helpers of America, A. F. of L., or by United Packinghouse Workers of America, Local 120, C. I. 0., for the purposes of collective bargaining, or by neither. MR. JOHN M. HOUSTON took no part in the consideration of the above Decision and Direction of Election.