Television Co. of Maryland, Inc.

TELEVISION COMPANY OF MARYLAND, INC. 355 TELEVISION COMPANY OF MARYLAND, INC. and LOCAL UNION No. 1446, INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS, AFL, PETI- TIONER. Case No. 5-RC-1150. November 18, 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 Robert J. Wall, hear- ing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed. Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3 (b) of the Act, the Board has delegated its powers in connection with this case to a three-member panel [Members Houston, Styles, and Peterson]. 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 em- ployees 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 appropriate unit : The Petitioner seeks a unit confined to employees at the Employer's Baltimore, Maryland, warehouse engaged in the service, installation, and delivery of television and radio receivers, including parts men and check-out men. The Employer asserts that, because of alleged inte- gration of its operations, the unit should include all the employees at its nine retail outlets and warehouse in Baltimore and vicinity, or, in the alternative, all the employees at its warehouse with the excep- tion of outside salesmen. There has been no history of bargaining with respect to the Employer's employees. The Employer is engaged in the retail sale and servicing of televi- sion and radio receivers, deep freezers, refrigerators, and other electrical appliances. Its operations are conducted through its ware- house and nine retail outlets and all its personnel are on straight weekly salary except salesmen, who are paid by drawing account against commission. The personnel at the retail outlets consist of salesmen, a few maintenance men, and part-time porters, who apparently perform the usual duties of their classifications. 1 During the year ending February 28, 1952, Employer's total purchases were $1,543,385, of which about $47,000 worth of merchandise was received directly from points outside the State and approximately $1,000,000 worth was received indirectly from points outside the State. We find, contrary to the Employer's contention, that it is engaged in commerce and we shall assert jurisdiction herein. Dorn's House of Miracles, Inc, 91 NLRB 632. 101 NLRB No. 85 242305-53 -24 356 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD The employees sought by Petitioner are employed in the warehouse, which is separately located, in the service and delivery, and service departments. These employees are under the supervision of Parrish, vice president in charge of the service and delivery of all appliances, and they consist of bench repair, road service, installation, check-out, parts, and delivery men. The benchmen work on sets in need of repair which are brought into the warehouse either by the set owners or by other servicemen who are unable to make the repairs, or the sets may be referred to them by the check-out men, discussed below. While the henchmen are the most competent of the television repairmen, they are not required to have previous television training and no certificate or diploma is required. The check-out men take sets out of crates, inspect them, see that they are in proper mechanical and electronic order, and make necessary mechanical adjustments. They have some previous radio knowledge, but their television experience was picked up casually on the job. Road service men-12 in all- -answer complaints at the homes of set owners. Each is equipped with a truck and when it is necessary for the set to be taken to the ware- house for attention, the road men may haul it themselves or arrange for the delivery men to do so. The installation crews-2 crews of 2 men each-install television in the home and do outside antenna work. They are the least skilled television men. The parts men, located in the television stockroom, issue new parts to service personnel, maintain records for same, keep the inventory in current order, and buy parts as needed. The delivery men 2 are not assigned exclusively to radio rind television delivery. Approximately one-half of the 14 delivery men are currently engaged in television delivery and the others deliver the other appliances sold by Employer. Since delivery tasks depend on the volume of sale during a particular season, it is usual for all delivery men to be assigned to general delivery as television sales slacken. Other employees working in or out of the warehouse and not sought by Petitioner are : Appliance servicer.7en, clerical employees, 30 out- side salesmen, 4 warehousemen, 4 advertising employees, 2 window trimmers, and maintenance men. The appliance-servicemen work under Parrish's supervision and appear to repair appliances other than radio and television. The clericals are under separate supervision and handle all records of sales and service, as well as performing routine office and. book- ' Employer rents all but one of its trucks from a trucking concern. The remaining truck is the property of delivery man De Paula who the Petitioner contends is an independent contractor. The same rental terms apply to De Paula's truck as to the others. Drivers and helpers , including De Paula , constituting the delivery force, are hired by Employer and De Paula is subject to the same c^nditions of employment as the other delivery men and receives a weekly salary. Contrary to Petitioner's contention, we find that De Paula is not an independent contractor . Beeclawood Lumber company, 77 NLRB 1053. TELEVISION COMPANY OF MARYLAND, INC. 357 keeping duties. Some take service calls and others handle service contracts, checking expirations and renewals. Of the outside salesmen, those engaged in promotin Employer's food freezer plan are under separate supervision from the salesmen selling all other appliances, who are under the supervision of Parrish. As already indicated, the salesmen are paid on a different basis than the other employees. The warehousemen perform the usual heavy duty work of storing and transporting to various departments the appliances handled by Employer. These employees work in close contact with the delivery men and the nature of the two jobs differs very little. The duties of the advertising employees, who are under separate supervision, window trimmers, and maintenance employees, while not defined at the hearing, apparently are the usual tasks of their classi- fications. The Board has permitted radio and television repairmen to con- stitute a separate unit where they were highly skilled and comprised substantially a separate department.' In the present case, however, the radio and television repairmen sought by the Petitioner are neither highly skilled nor do they comprise a separate department. More- over, the Petitioner seeks to include with these radio and television repairmen such unskilled employees as delivery men, who deliver all appliances, and parts men. We find, therefore, that the unit sought by the Petitioner is inappropriate.4 However, we are of the opinion that all manual employees at the Employer's warehouse constitute a separate appropriate unit.5 We shall exclude from such unit not only the salesmen, as requested by the Employer, but also the clerical em- ployees, advertising employees, and window trimmers whose interests are diverse from those of the warehouse manual workers.6 Accordingly, we find that all the employees' at the Employer's Baltimore, Maryland, warehouse and service building, excluding re- 3 The Dayton Company, 94 NLRB 840 ; General Electric Supply Corpo + ation, 83 NLRB 1135 4 Dowd's Radio and Electric Company, 91 NLRB 640 ; cf. Montgomery Ward and Com- pany, 99 NLRB 1490 6 See Dorn's House of Miracles , Inc.. 91 NLRB 632; Jordan Marsh Company , 78 NLRB 1031. This unit is larger than that sought by Petitioner However, we have adminis- tratively determined that Petitioner has an adequate showing of interest in the larger group and we shall provide that an election be held among this group If the Petitioner d-es not desire to participate in an election at this time , we shall permit it to withdraw its petition without prejudice upon notice to the Regional Director within 5 days after Issuance of this Decision and Direction of Election and shall thereupon vacate the direction of election See Colowial Fuel Co., 99 NLRB No. 157; Jordon Marsh Company , supra ; Whitney's Department Store, 73 NLRB 1245. 'The record is not clear as to whether cabinet , or woodwork , repairers are employed at the warehouse If such employees are employed at Employer's warehouse and perform the usual duties of their class! flea ti,n, they are included in the unit See Doon's House of Miracles, Inc, supra 358 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD tail outlet employees, salesmen, advertising employees, window trim- mers, clerical employees, and supervisors as defined in the Act, con- stitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining. [Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this volume.] BONWIT TELLER & COMPANY and RETAIL CLERKS INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION, LOCAL No. 1390, AFL, PETITIONER. Case No. 4-RC- 1669. November 18, 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 Ramey Donovan, hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed. Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3 (b) of the Act, the Board has delegated its powers in connection with this case to a three-member panel [Members Houston, Murdock, and Styles]. 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 em- ployees 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 Employer, a Pennsylvania corporation, is engaged in oper- ating a specialty shop at its principal place of business in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for the retail sale of women's wear and accessories, and of men's and children's wear. The parties agree, with the exceptions noted below, that a unit of all regular full-time and part-time selling and nonselling employees is appropriate. There is no history of col- lective bargaining affecting these employees. "Contingent employees" and "extras": The Employer would include and the Petitioner exclude the "contingent" employees. Among the Employer's part-time employees are "contingent" selling and non- selling employees who are not employed on a regular schedule, but who are called to work as needed. The record reveals that they work from 1 to 4 days each week for a period of from 6 to 7 months a year, and that there is relatively little turnover among them. These em- ployees perform the same duties and work under the same conditions as do the regular and regular part-time selling and nonselling em- 101 NLRB No. 00