Paper Container Manufacturing Co.

In the Matter Of PAPER CONTAINER MANUFACTURING Co., EMPLOYER and CHICAGO PAPER AND Box WORKERS' UNION, LOCAL No. 415, A. F. L., PETITIONER Case No. 13-R-45,05--Decided March 10, 1948 Winston, Strawn & Shaw, by Mr. Neal J. McAuliffe, of Chicago, Ill., for the Employer. Mr. George E. Higgins , of Chicago, Ill., for the Petitioner. DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION Upon a petition duly filed, hearing in this case was held at Chicago, Illinois, on December 3, 1947, before Richard C. Swander, 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 Board makes the following : FINDINGS OF FACT 1. THE BUSINESS OF THE EMPLOYER Paper Container Manufacturing Co. is engaged at its plant in Chicago, Illinois, in the manufacture of paper cups and other paper products. It purchases annually supplies valued in excess of $1,000,- 000, 75 percent of which is received from points outside the State. Its annual sales are valued in excess of $2,000,000, of which 90 to 95 percent is shipped to points outside the State. We find that the Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the Act. ' Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3 (b) of the National Labor Relations Act, the National Labor Relations Board has delegated its powers in connection with this case to a three-man panel consisting of the undersigned Board Members [Houston , Reynolds, and Gray] 76 N. L. R B, No. 97. 636 PAPER CONTAINER MANUFACTURING CO. II. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED 637 The Petitioner is a labor organization affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, claiming to represent employees of the Employer.2 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 exists concerning the representation of employees of the Employer, within the meaning of Section 9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act. IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT The Petitioner seeks a unit comprising all production and mainte- nance employees in the Employer's main plant building at 7415 East End Avenue, Chicago, excluding office clerical employees, watchmen, and all supervisors.' The Employer contends that a unit restricted to the main plant building is inappropriate because it fails to include employees in the other buildings of the Employer; namely, the machine shop at 1752 East 75th Street, the warehouse at 1929 West 43rd Street, and the building at 1657 East 75th Street, all in Chicago. The machine shop employees: The machine shop, located about 300 feet from the main plant, normally contains about 25 employees, who repair and adjust machines used in the main plant. Similar work is done by about 20 employees permanently stationed in the main plant. The machine shop employees do not work exclusively in the shop but spend a substantial part of their time working on machines in the main plant and the only reason for segregating these employees is lack of space in the main plant. While working in the main plant, the machine shop employees are under the same immediate supervision as their counterparts in the main plant ; otherwise, they are under different immediate supervision. There is some interchange of personnel be- tween the machine shop and the main plant; the pay scale in the one is comparable to that in the other. The Petitioner, in plants of other 2 Notice of the hearing on the instant petition was served on Paper Workers Organizing Committee , C I. 0 , which was certified by the Board on June 26 , 1945, in Case No. 13-R- 316 pursuant to a consent election, as the representative of the Employer 's production and maintenance employees The Decision and Certification of Representatives is unpublished. This union has not complied with Section 9 (f) and (h) of the amended Act; It failed to appear at the hearing At the hearing it was agreed by the parties that "floor girls" were not supervisors and should be included in the unit. 638 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD Chicago employers, represents the same classifications as are found in the machine shop in the instant case. The warehouse employees: The three employees in the warehouse at 1929 West 43rd Street, whose work consists of shipping and receiving, have the same duties and same immediate supervision as 20 other employees who work in the warehouse in the main plant. In fact, although the 43rd Street warehouse is about 13 miles distant from the main warehouse, it is merely an auxiliary of the latter, being used only to handle any overflow from the main warehouse. There is some inter- change in personnel between the two warehouses. The building at 1657 East '5th, Street: At this building, two blocks from the main plant, one girl is employed to dust, and, to pack in cartons, paper cup dispensers shipped by the Employer. Similar work is done by other employees or by machines in the main plant. The segregation of this employee is due solely to lack of space. Her supervisor is the head of the purchasing department. With respect to all three foregoing groups, which the Petitioner would exclude from the unit, no evidence was presented that their interests or working conditions differed from those of the production and maintenance employees in the main plant, whom the Petitioner seeks to represent. On the other hand, the record is clear that the work of these three groups and, to a large extent, their immediate supervision, is the same as that of employees in the main plant, that their operations are closely integrated with production and main- tenance operations in the main plant, and that their segregation there- from is due solely to lack of space 4 We find that all production and. maintenance employees' of the Employer at its main plant, at the 75th Street machine shop, at the 1929 West 43rd Street warehouse, and at the 1657 East 75th Street building, excluding office clerical employees, watchmen, and all super- visors, 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 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. 4 The record does not disclose the precise scope of the stipulated unit for which the Paper Workers Organizing Committee , C I 0 , was certified on Tune 26 , 1945, and for which it negotiated a contract The unit , as defined in the certification , included "all production and maintenance employees of the Company at its 75th Street plant and at its 75th Street and 43rd Street warehouses." The "75th Street plant " appears to refer to what was then the main plant. If so, it would seem that the machine shop employees were excluded from the past bargaining contract of the Employer . However, in the present state of the record we hesitate to assume this to be the fact. PAPER CONTAINER MANUFACTURING CO. 639 The unit found appropriate in Section IV, above, includes em- ployees of the Employer in all its four buildings, and is more ex- tensive than the unit sought by the Petitioner. Since the Petitioner appears to represent a substantial number of employees in the larger unit, we shall at this time direct that an election be conducted among them forthwith. If, however, the Petitioner does not desire to par- ticipate in an election at this time, and shall notify the Regional Director, within five (5) days after the date of the issuance of this Decision and Direction of Election, of its desire to withdraw the petition herein, we shall set aside our Direction of Election and dismiss the petition.5 DIRECTION OF ELECTION As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the purposes of collective bargaining with Paper Container Manufactur- ing Co., Chicago, Illinois, an election by 'secret ballot shall be con- ducted 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 Thirteenth Region, and subject to Sections 203.61 and 203.62 of National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regu- lations-Series 5, 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, 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, and also ex- cluding employees on strike who are not entitled to reinstatement, to determine whether or not they desire to be represented by Chicago Paper and Box Workers' Union, Local No. 415, A. F. L., for the purposes of collective bargaining. 6 Matter of Vaughan Motor Company, 54 N. L. R. B.1851.