Bullock's Inc.

740 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD of representatives to the Petitioner for the unit described above, which the Board, under such, circumstances, finds to be appropriate for pur- poses of collective bargaining. In the event a majority vote for the Intervenor, the Board finds the existing unit to be appropriate and the Regional Director will issue a certificate of results of election to such effect. [Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this volume.] BULLOCK'S INC. and CARPET, LINOLEUM & RESILIENT FLOOR DECORA- TORS, LOCAL ' 1247, BROTHERHOOD OF PAINTERS , DECORATORS & PAPERHANGERS OF AMERICA, AFL, PETITIONER. CaBe No. 91-RC-2097. June 13, 1952 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 Arthur Hailey, hear- ing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed. At the hearing, the Employer moved to dismiss the petition upon the ground that the unit sought is inappropriate. For reasons discussed in paragraph numbered 4, infra, the motion is hereby denied. Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds : 1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the Act. 2. The labor organization involved claims to represent certain employees of the Employer. 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. The Petitioner seeks a craft unit of carpet cutters, carpet layers, carpet binders, and Oriental rug repairmen, their assistants and apprentices, including the maintenance carpet layer and his assistant and the head Oriental rug repairman, but excluding carpet measure- man, shipping clerk, carpet workroom manager, and all other depart- ment store employees of the Employer. The Employer regards these employees as skilled workmen, but urges that separate craft units are inappropriate in a department store organization. The Employer also maintains that the head Oriental rug repairman is a supervisor. There is no history of collective bargaining for any of the employees involved herein. 99 NLRB No. 103. BULLOCK'S, - INC. 741 . The Employer operates,five retail department stores in the State of California. As part of its retail organization, the Employer operates, in a separate warehouse building known as Service Building No. 2, several service departments under the supervision of the service and workroom superintendent. The carpet workroom, the headquarters or working area of most of the employees sought herein, occupies the entire south end of the first floor of this building and is divided into a sewing area, Oriental rug area, and two rows of storage racks with the cutting floor between them. The carpet workroom is supervised by the carpet- workroom manager. In support of its opposition to separate craft units, the Employer presented evidence to show that all employees, under a uniform per- sonnel policy, enjoy the same privileges and benefits and that the func- tions of the employees sought herein, like those of other service and workroom departments, are related to the selling functions of the oper- ation. Although they indicate a general-community of interest among employees of the Employer, we do not regard these factors as a suf- ficiently cogent reason for denying the establishment of separate craft units in a retail store operation.' It therefore becomes necessary to consider whether the employees sought herein possess skills and per- form dLitips of a type that would warrant their being given the desig- nation of ,raft employees. The nature of the duties performed by the employees concerned is indicated by their function in the Employer's organization. An order is made for carpet sold in the selling sections of the stores. Measure- ments of each room to be covered are then taken in the customer's home by a measureman or estimator and occasionally by salesmen or the interior decorator. Some of the measurements are made for the Employer by an independent contractor. , A diagram of the area in which carpet is to be installed together with the measurements and an estimate of the quantity of carpet needed are placed on the back of the order which is then forwarded to the carpet workroom. The carpet cutter, using the specifications on the order, removes the appropriate carpet from the storage rack, spreads it out on the cutting floor and inspects it for flaws, measures and marks it according to the specifications, and cuts it with an electric knife. He must be accurate and must be able to detect miscalculations. An assistant helps the. cutter and measures, marks, and cuts the pad. At times, experienced carpet layers assist the carpet cutter in this work. To qualify to learn carpet cutting, the Employer requires 3 years' experience as a carpet layer. Carpet binders affix the proper binding to the edges of the carpet after it has been cut. They use carpet binding machines, surging I Busch Kredit Jewe1 ry Co 97 \ LKI: 1356 21:1233-33---a v 742 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR, RELATIONS BOARD machines, or work by hand, depending upon the nature of the carpet. Carpet layers take the order with the specifications for the install a tion of the carpet to the customer's home where the cut and bound carpet has been delivered. With the help of an assistant or trainee, he removes furniture and old floor covering. By consulting the design contained on the back of the order, they proceed to install the carpet, using the tools of their trade including such equipment as carpet stretchers, kickers, and hammers, after which they clean up the area and replace the furniture. The Employer requires a minimum of 3 years' experience to qualify as a carpet layer. The Oriental rug repairmen reweave worn or damaged areas in Oriental rugs, reduce the size of Oriental rugs, and put the pattern back together in such a way as to maintain the pattern. and balance of the design. They are trained from childhood in the art of re- weaving Oriental rugs and must be able to execute the various types of Oriental stitch for rug weaving and sewing. Although Oriental rugs ordinarily do not require installation, any Oriental rug installa- tion on stairs is done by Oriental rug repairmen. The Employer requires a very minimum of 5 years' experience to qualify as an Oriental rug repairman. The only employees of the Employer, other than those assigned to the carpet workroom, who perform like skills are the maintenance car- pet layer and his assistant. They are assigned to the manager of the carpenter shop because their duties are generally performed after store hours. They lay and replace worn carpet in selling areas, tea- rooms, and beauty salons of the stores. This work is done in the same manner as that performed in the homes of customers. Carpet layers assigned to the workroom also do maintenance carpet laying when the occasion requires additional help. Although the Employer does not use the term apprentice, it has on-the-job training for the various skills exercised by its employees in the carpet trade. Employees in the classifications of assistant and trainee are receiving such training. Several of the carpet layers received their training with the Employer under an approved G. I. training plan. One or two of these employees were sent by the Em- ployer to an apprentice school operated under a State-established standard requiring 400 hours on-the-job training and 576 hours of school instruction. This school, which is operated by one of the large carpet manufacturers and includes among its instructors one of the officers of the Petitioner, is attended by individuals from all over the West and Middle West. The employees involved assist one another but do not interchange with employees in other classifications. In fact, training in one clas- sification may be a basis for training in progressive classifications within the trade. BULLOCK'S, INC... 743 On the basis of the facts presented herein,. there is no doubt but that Oriental rug repairmen are highly skilled craftsmen in a long- established and well-recognized craft. Although the carpet layers and carpet cutters are less skilled, we believe, contrary to the opinion of our colleagues, that they perform related skills in a functional group which has predominantly craft characteristics.2 We find accordingly, that the Oriental rug repairmen, carpet cutters, and carpet layers, and those performing related duties have, by reason of the craft character of their work, a special community of interest apart from other employees, sufficient to warrant their separate repre- sentation in a unit appropriate for purposes of collective bargaining. As noted above, the Employer would exclude the head Oriental rug repairman as a supervisor. The head Oriental rug repairman is responsible for all Oriental rug stock. He handles all sales checks and work orders on Oriental rugs. He goes to customers' homes to give estimates on repairs. He handles complaints regarding Oriental rugs for the Oriental rug selling section. He is called upon by the Oriental rug buyer for an opinion as to irregularity in the condition of any Oriental rug and occasionally replaces tufts in Oriental rugs in the store. Although the head Oriental rug repairman has certain nonsupervisory duties of a craft nature, the record indicates that he also performs work of a definitely supervisory character. Thus, he assigns the work, adjusts minor grievances and takes up other griev- ances-to his superiors, permits time off, interview's prospective em- ployees in that section, makes recommendations with respect to his choice of prospective employees, reports as 'to the progress of new employees, and recommends pay raises for employees in that section. The service and workroom superintendent is guided by the head Orien- tal rug repairman's recommendation in these respects. Although a personnel department has final authority in these matters, there is no doubt but that the head Oriental rug repairman's recommendations are given great weight. Accordingly, we find that he is a supervisor within the meaning of the Act and shall exclude him from the unit hereinafter found appropriate. We find that all Oriental rug repairmen, carpet cutters, carpet layers, carpet binders, and their assistants, trainees, and apprentices at the Employer's stores and warehouses at Los Angeles, California, including the maintenance carpet layer and his assistant, but exclud- ing the head Oriental rug repairman, carpet measureman, shipping clerk, carpet workroom manager,, and all other employees, and all supervisors as defined in the Act, constitute a unit appropriate for See National Container Corporation, Inc, Southern Container Division , 75 NLRB 770; Food Machinery Corporation, 72 NLRB 482. 744 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act. [Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this volume.] CHAIRMAN HERZOG and MEMBER MURDOCK, dissenting : We find it difficult to understand the basis upon which the majority finds the unit appropriate herein. It is not a departmental unit, because it includes some but not all employees in three separate de- partments which are under separate supervision.3 It is not a single craft unit, because the skills of the Oriental rug repairmen are totally different from those of the other employees in the unit. Oriental rug repairmen and other rug employees do not interchange, do not have dommon supervision, and do different work. Moreover, it seems doubtful that the carpet cutters, carpet layers, and carpet binders are anything more than semiskilled employees.4 The only thing common between the Oriental rug repairmen and the other employees in the unit is that both groups work on or with carpets. We do not believe that the medium upon which employees work is sufficient to constitute them a craft group. It seems to us that the majority is extending to a totally different situation the "craft nucleus" rationale sometimes used by the Boaxd to find departmental units appropriate.5 The majority is using the Oriental rug repairmen, who undoubtedly are highly skilled crafts- men, as the nucleus about which to range a so-called craft unit more than five times the number of rug repairmen. Despite the statement of the majority to the contrary, the evidence does not support a find- ing that the Oriental rug repairmen and other employees in the unit have related skills or that they constitute a single functional group. The majority, we believe, is adding confusion to a situation which is already sufficiently difficult. We would adhere to traditional cri- teria and find that the proposed unit is inappropriate, because it is not a craft unit but one composed of a heterogeneous group of employee skills s a The cases cited in footnote 2 of the majority opinion to support the unit finding are not apposite, because both cases involved departmental units In the National Container case, a machine shop unit, and in the Food Machinery case, a foundry department unit, were found appropriate 4 Federal Security Agency, Dictionary of Occupational Title, Voy 1, Definition of Titles, (2nd ed. 1949) pp. 197, 198, classifies carpet cutters, carpet layers, and carpet binders as semiskilled Although the majority opinion refers to the fact_ that several cutters attended a school requiring 400 hours on-the-job training and 576 hours instruction, the United States Department of Labor considers that an apprenticeable occupation Is one requiring at least 4,000 hours to learn, with 144 hours per year of classroom instruction. U S. De- partment of Labor, The National Apprenticeship Piogram, 1947, p 2. 'International Harvester Company, 79 NLRB 1452 6 The Halle Rios Company. 91 NLRB 100