Liebmann Breweries, Inc.

616 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD to pay over these sums to the appropriate State and Federal agencies for the credit of the discriminatees. Under the recommended remedy, back pay shall not accrue from April 10, 1951, the date of Judge Leibell' s order , to the date of its vacation. If this order is vacated, back pay shall again accrue beginning 6 days thereafter unless the Union has within that time notified the Times and the Mirror that it has no objection to and permitting their employment on a nondiscriminatory basis. On the basis of the foregoing findings of fact and upon the entire record in the case, I make the following : CONCLUSIONS OF LAW 1. The New York Times Company, Inc., and the Hearst Corporation, New York Mirror Department, are engaged in commerce within the meaning of Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act. 2. Newspaper. and Mail Deliverers' Union of New York and Vicinity is a labor organization within the meaning of Section 2 (5) of the Act. 3. By attempting to cause and causing the New York Times Company, Inc., and the Hearst Corporation, New York Mirror Department, to discriminate against the employees named in section IV, above, the Union has engaged in and is engaging in unfair labor practices within the meaning of Section 8 (b) (2) of the Act. 4. By restraining and coercing employees in the exercise of rights guaranteed in Section 7 of the Act, the Union has engaged in and is engaging in unfair labor practices within the meaning of Section 8 (b) (1) (A) of the Act. 5. The aforesaid unfair labor practices are unfair labor practices affecting commerce within the meaning of Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act. [Recommendations omitted from publication in this volume.] LIEBMANN BREWERIES , INC. and Tim BREWERY WORKERS JOINT LOCAL EXECUTIVE BOARD OF NEW JERSEY , AFL, PETITIONER. Case No. 2-RC-4706. November 06, 1952 Decision and Order Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before Leonard J. Lurie, 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, Styles, and Peterson]. Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds : 1. Prior to the end of 1950 Liebmann Breweries, Inc., a New York corporation engaged in the production of Rheingold beer, owned and operated two breweries and a number of depots and branches, includ- ing a depot at Newark, New Jersey. About the end of 1950 the com- 101 NLRB No. 117. LIEBMANN BREWERIES, INC. 617 pany purchased a brewery at Orange, New Jersey, from John F. Trommer, Inc. A separate corporation, called Liebmann Breweries, Inc., of New Jersey, was formed and this corporation took title to the newly acquired plant January 8, 1951. The stock of the New Jersey corporation is wholly owned by the New York corporation with the exception of three shares required by New Jersey law to be held by other persons. Substantially all of the officers and directors of the New Jersey corporation hold cor- responding offices in the New York corporation. The New York corporation has certain officers who hold no office in the New Jersey corporation. The Orange plant, which replaced the Newark depot, is staffed with employees from the Newark depot, employees formerly employed by John F. Trommer, Inc., and some new employees. The bottle supervisor and the keg supervisor now at Orange held the same positions at Newark. The office manager at Orange was the depot manager at Newark. The sales manager at Orange was formerly sales manager at the Employer's Manhattan operation and was sent to run the Newark depot at the time the Orange brewery was pur- chased. At the Orange plant the Employer produces beer which is sold in New Jersey and in other States. The ale sold by the Orange plant is brewed at the Brooklyn operation. All purchase contracts for raw materials for the New York and New Jersey breweries, with the exception of contracts for minor repairs and replacement, are made in Brooklyn, the main office for the Employer. The vice president of the New York corporation in charge of indus- trial relations exercises the same functions with respect to the New Jersey corporation. The vice president of the New York corporation in charge of sales determines the sales policies for the entire organi- zation of the Employer. The management policies of the New Jer- sey corporation are determined by officers of the entire organization at meetings held at the Brooklyn main office. Each department head at Orange is responsible to the head of the corresponding department at Brooklyn. Audits for both the New York and New Jersey cor- porations are made by the internal auditing staff of the New York corporation. Sales meetings of all salesmen, including those at Orange, are held in New York City. Officers of the New York cor- poration address salesmen of the Orange brewery at Orange. Com- munications regarding sales policies and activities are sent to all breweries and depots from the Brooklyn main office. The sales rec- ords of all salesmen throughout the organization are reviewed twice a year for merit increases. All salesmen have the same starting salaries ; car allowances; pension, welfare, and hospitalization bene- fits; and are subject to the same vacation policy except for a variation with respect to draught salesmen in Connecticut. 618 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD In view of the foregoing we conclude that Liebmann Breweries, Inc., the New York corporation, and Liebmann Breweries, Inc., of New Jersey, constituted a single employer within the meaning of Section 2 (2) of the Act.' The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act. 2. The Petitioner and Local 153, Office Employees International Union, AFL, the Intervenor, claim to represent employees of the Employer. 3. No 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, for the following reasons: The Petitioner seeks to represent about 45 bottle and keg beer sales- men employed at the Orange, New Jersey, plant. The Employer con- tends that only a company-wide unit consisting of all such salesmen working out of its various depots and plants in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut is appropriate. There has been no bargain- ing history among the salesmen of the Employer. A previous petition involving Liebmann Breweries, Inc., was dismissed by the Board on the ground that a unit of salesmen limited to the New York and New Jersey operations, excluding the Connecticut plants, or a separate unit of salesmen at the New York plants and a separate unit of salesmen at the New Jersey plant were too narrow in scope and inappropriate for collective-bargaining purposes? The Petitioner argues that certain changes have taken place since the decision by the Board that warrant establishing a separate unit of salesmen at the Orange, New Jersey, plant. These changes in- clude the replacement of the Newark depot by the Orange plant; the ownership of the Orange Brewery by a separate corporation, Lieb- mann Breweries, Inc., of New Jersey; some control of hiring and firing by the sales manager at Orange; an incentive system for Orange salesmen different from that in effect for salesmen in other plants of the Employer. The facts with regard to the Employer's sales organization and the central control of its labor relations policy are set forth above. At the hearing the Petitioner introduced evidence indicating that several employees were hired and one may have been discharged at the Orange plant by the local sales manager without previous consultation with the vice president in charge of the Employer's sales department. In addition, it appears that the incentive system for salesmen in New ' Industrial Lamp Corporation, and Its Subsidiary, Industrial Lamp Corporation of Indiana, 97 NLRB 1021 ; Emerson c6 Stevens Mfg. Co., 95 NLRB 964. 2 Liebmann Breweries, Inc., 92 NLRB 1740. GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY 619 Jersey differs somewhat from that applied to salesmen in other geo- graphic regions. The record reveals that the purpose of the variable incentive system is to assure equal pay for equal sales effort regard- less of the salesmen's location. The changed circumstances relied upon by the Petitioner are not, in our opinion, sufficient to warrant a decision contrary to the Board's previous determination, for the reasons there expressed, that a single plant unit of the Employer's salesmen at the Orange, New Jersey, plant is too narrow in scope to be appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining.3 Accordingly, as the showing of interest of neither labor organization is sufficient to warrant the direction of an election in a more comprehensive unit, we shall dismiss the petition herein. Order IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the petition herein be, and it hereby is, dismissed. ' John F. Trommer, Inc., 90 NLRB 1200; LAebmann Brewerie8, Inc., 92 NLRB 1740; ef. Riegel Paper Corporation, 96 NLRB 779. GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY and AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR, PETITIONER GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY and UNITED ELECTRICAL, RADIO AND MACHINE WORKERS OF AMERICA (UE), PETITIONER. Cases Nos. 6-RC-1086 and 6-RC-1121. November 26,1952 Decision, Order, and Direction of Election Upon petitions duly filed, a consolidated hearing was held before William A. McGowan, 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 National Labor Relations Act, the Board has delegated its powers in connection with these cases to a three-member panel [Members Houston, Styles, and Peterson]. Upon the entire record in these cases, the Board finds : 1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act. 2. The labor organizations involved claim to represent certain em- ployees of the Employer. 3. The Intervenor, International Union of Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers, CIO, and its Local 518, raises as a bar to the peti- 101 NLRB No. 127.