Wilson & Co.

In the Matter Of WILSON & Co. and UNITED MEAT WORKERS LOCAL INDUSTRIAL UNION No. 635, AFFILIATED WITH TILE COMMITTEE FOR INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATION In the Matter Of WILSON & Co. and COMMITTEE FOR INDUSTRIAL ORGAN- IZATION, ON BEHALF OF THE EMPLOYEES OF WILSON & Co.' In the Matter of GOTHAM HOTEL SUPPLY Co. and UNITED MEAT WORKERS, L. I. U. 635, C. I. 0.2 Cases Nos. R-929 to R-936, inclusive.Decided November 4, 1938 Meat Packing and Distributing Industry-Investigation of Representatives: controversy concerning representation of employees : refusal by employer to recognize union as exclusive representative-Units Appropriate for Collective Bargaining : processing and operative employees of each distributing plant- Representatives : proof of choice : membership in union ; comparison of employee lists with membership cards-Certiflea tior of Repiesentatives : in six distributing plants upon proof of majority representation-Elections Ordered: in two dis- -tributing plants. Mr. Daniel Baker, for the Board. Mr. James D. Cooney, of Chicago, Ill., for the Company. Mr. James Sinclair, of Brooklyn, N. Y., for the United. Mr. Guy Farmer, of counsel to the Board. DECISION CERTIFICATION OF REPRESENTATIVES AND DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS STATEMENT OF THE CASE On October 28 and November 1, 1937, and January 24, 1938, United Meat Workers Local Industrial Union No. 635, herein called the United, filed with the Regional Director for the Second Region (New York City) seven petitions each alleging, respectively, that a 'The petition in this case was amended at the hearing to designate the petitioner as United Meat Workers Local Industrial Union No 635. R The petitioner here is identical with the petitioning union in Cases Nos. R-929, 8-931, R-932, R-933, R-934, and R-935, above. 9 N. L. R. B., No. 59. 650 DECISIONS AND ORDERS 651 question affecting commerce had arisen concerning the representation of employees of Wilson & Co., herein called the Company, in its seven branch houses at 46 10th Avenue, New York City; 645 Brook Avenue, New York City ; 2276 12th Avenue, New York City ; 156 Fort Greene Place, Brooklyn; 114 North 6th Street, Brooklyn; 93-04 151st Street,. Jamaica, Long Island; and 161 2nd Street, Mineola, Long Island. On February 8, 1938, the United filed a similar petition with the said Regional Director concerning the representation of employees of the Company in an additional branch in New York City known as Gotham Hotel Supply Co. Each of the petitions requested an inves- tigation and certification of representatives pursuant to Section 9 (c), of the National Labor Relations Act, 49 Stat. 449, herein called the Act. On April 13, 1938, the National Labor Relations Board, herein called the Board, acting pursuant to Section 9 (c) of the Act and Article III, Section 3, of National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 1, as amended, ordered an investigation with re- spect to each petition and authorized the Regional Director to conduct it and to provide for an appropriate hearing upon due notice, and act- ing pursuant to Article III, Section 10 (c) (2), of said Rules and Regulations,'further ordered that the cases be consolidated for the purpose of hearing. On June 17, 1938, the Regional Director issued a notice of hearing, copies of which were duly served upon Wilson & Co., upon Gotham Hotel Supply Co., upon the United, and upon Employees Council Union, herein called the Council, a labor organization claiming to represent employees directly affected, by the investigation.8 A notice of postponement was thereafter issued, pursuant to which a hearing was held on July 7, 1938, at New York City, before Paul Davier, the Trial Examiner duly designated by the Board. The Board and the Company were represented by counsel, the United by its president, and all participated in the hearing. The Council did not appear at the hearing. Full opportunity to be heard, to examine and cross- examine witnesses, and to introduce evidence bearing on the issues was afforded all parties. Prior to the hearing, the Company filed its several answers denying the material allegations of the respective petitions. At the conclusion of the hearing, the Company moved that the petitions be dismissed on the ground that the evidence showed that no question affecting commerce concerning the represen- tation of its employees had arisen. Ruling on said motion was re- served. The motion is hereby denied. During the course of the hear- ing, the Trial Examiner made several other rulings on motions and on objections to the admission of evidence. The Board has reviewed 8 The petition concerning Gotham Hotel Supply Co , only, named the Council as a labor organization claiming to represent employees of the Company in that plant. ,652 NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD the rulings and finds that no prejudicial errors were committed. The rulings are hereby affirmed. Pursuant to the request of the Company and upon due notice to all parties, oral argument was set for October 6, 1938, at Washington, D. C. None of the parties ap- peared, but in lieu of appearance the Company submitted a brief. The arguments contained therein have been considered. Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following : FINDINGS OF FACT 1. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY Wilson & Co., a Delaware corporation, with its principal office at Chicago, Illinois, is chiefly engaged in purchasing and slaughtering livestock and processing and distributing meats and meat products. It is the third largest meat packing concern in the United States, handling about 6 per cent of the Federal inspected slaughter and having annual sales of approximately $250,000,000. The Company operates eight packing houses in as many States. A substantial pro- portion of the livestock slaughtered at these packing houses, except- ing two smaller ones located in Georgia and California, originates outside the States in which the packing houses are located. The Company's products are distributed largely by 90 branch houses located throughout the eastern section of the United States. Here we are concerned with seven such branch houses and with the Gotham Hotel Supply Co. plant which together comprise all the Company's distributing plants in the metropolitan district of New York City. The seven branch houses receive their meats and meat products almost exclusively from packing houses of the Company at Chicago, Illinois; Albert Lea, Minnesota; and Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and in turn sell directly to local retail butchers and jobbers. All these opera- tions are conducted under the supervision of a district manager of the Company. Gotham Hotel Supply Co., a Delaware corporation, is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company and its sales and labor policies are directed from the Company's Chicago office. It supplies cut meats and meat products to hotels, restaurants, steamship lines, and railway dining car service. Although the local manager of this plant is authorized to purchase meats anywhere in the local market, .the evidence shows that he draws upon the Company's products in preference to those of outside firms when they are available. During 1937 the distributing plants here involved together sold about 95 million pounds of meat and meat products, most of which sales were made within the metropolitan area. DECISIONS AND ORDERS 653 H. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED' United Meat Workers Local Industrial Union No. 635 is a labor organization affiliated with the Committee for Industrial Organiza- tion, admitting to membership processing and operative employees of the Company, excluding supervisory employees, clerical employees, and salesmen. III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION Beginning in December 1937, James Sinclair, president, and other representatives of the United, held a series of conferences with C. S. Briggs and Maury Hopkins, district manager and head of the industrial relations department, respectively, of the Company. At these conferences the United offered to submit proof of its majority and requested formal recognition as the exclusive bargaining repre- sentative of the Company's employees at each of the eight metropoli- tan plants. Briggs and Hopkins declined the offer of proof and refused to grant the requested recognition. Both Briggs and Hop- kins stated at the hearing that they did not know whether or not the United represented -a majority of the Company's employees. We find that a question has arisen concerning the representation of employees of the Company in the seven branch houses and the Gotham Hotel Supply Co. IV. THE EFFECT OF THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION UPON COMMERCE We find that the question concerning representation which has arisen, occurring in connection with the operations of the Company described in Section I above, has a close, intimate, and substantial relation to trade, traffic, and commerce among the several States and tends to lead to labor disputes burdening and obstructing commerce .and the free flow of commerce. V. THE APPROPRIATE UNITS The Company and the United agreed at the hearing that the proc- essing and operative employees of the Company in each of the eight plants here involved, including chauffeur luggers, scalers, shipping clerks, cutters, egg handlers, sausage workers, and ham workers, and excluding supervisory employees, clerical employees, and salesmen, ,constitute a separate unit appropriate for collective bargaining. In addition, in its petition concerning Gotham Hotel Supply Co., the e Employees Council Union was named in the petition in the matter of Gotham Hotel Supply Co as a labor organization claiming to represent employees directly affected by the investigation . It took no part in the proceedings , however, nor was any evidence pre- sented relative to its affiliation , membership , or jurisdiction. 654 NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD United requested that schoctim,6 be excluded from the appropriate unit in that plant. The stipulation between the Company and the United does not mention schoctim nor was any evidence concerning them presented at the hearing. It does not appear that any of the' remaining seven plants employ schoctim. In accordance with our pre- vious decision involving a similar unit,° we shall exclude schoctim from the appropriate units. We find that the processing and operative employees in the eight above-described distributing plants of the Company, including chauffeur luggers, scalers, shipping clerks, cutters, egg handlers, sau- sage workers, and ham workers, and excluding supervisory employees, clerical employees, salesmen, and schoctim, constitute separate units appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining, and that said units will insure to employees of the Company the full benefit of their right to self-organization and to collective bargaining and other- wise effectuate the policies of the Act.° VI. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES At the hearing, separate lists of the employees of the Company within the eight appropriate units on July 6, 1938, were furnished by counsel for the Company and introduced in evidence. Membership cards of the United for each of the eight plants were then intro- duced in evidence. The signatures appearing thereon were verified by Herman Hoffman, United organizer. Comparison of the employee lists with the membership cards for the respective plants discloses the following : lant Number of em- ployees in as pro- priate unit umber of United members 647 Brook Avenue, New York City__________________ 18 15 46 10th Avenue, New York City_____________________ 9 9 2276 12th Avenue, New York City___________________ 10 10 156 Ft. Greene Place, Brooklyn, New York ----------- 7 5 114 North 6th Street, Brooklyn, New York ----------- 7 5 93-04 151st St., Jamaica, Long Island, New York_____ 11 8 161 2nd Street, Mineola, Long Island, New York ------ 43 20 Gotham Hotel Supply Co., New York City___________ 11 4 It appears froln the foregoing table that a majority of the em- ployees in the appropriate unit in the first six of the eight distributing plants listed above have designated the United as their bargaining 6 "Schoctim" is a Hebrew term describing persons who slaughter livestock in accordance with Hebrew ritual for the preparation of Kosher meats. 6Matters of Donahy Packing Company, Klinck Packing Company, Inc., Jacob Dold Pack- ing Company and United Butchers, Meat Cutters and Packers Local 105, 3 N. L. R. B. 354. 7See Matter of Armour & Co. and Committee for Industrial Organization, 4 N. L, R. B. 951. DECISIONS AND ORDERS 655 agent. We find that the United has been designated and selected by a majority of the employees in the appropriate unit in each of the six said plants as their representative for the purposes of collec- tive bargaining. It is, therefore, the exclusive representative of all -the employees in such units for the purposes of collective bargaining, and we will so certify. The above comparison does not show that a majority of the em- ployees in the appropriate unit in the Mineola plant and the Gotham Hotel Supply Co. plant are members of the United. The United -claims, however, that a majority of the employees at both of these plants desire it to represent them for bargaining purposes. We find that the question which has arisen concerning the representation of employees in the 161 2nd Street, Mineola, Long Island, plant and the 'Gotham Hotel Supply Co. plant can best be resolved by the holding of an election by secret ballot to determine whether the employees in the appropriate unit at each of said plants wish the United to repre- sent them . The employees in the appropriate unit in each of these two plants employed during the last pay -roll period of each of the respective plants next preceding the date of this Direction shall be eligible to vote. Upon the basis of the above findings of fact and upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following: CONCLUSIONS OF LAW 1. A question affecting commerce has arisen concerning the repre- sentation of employees of Wilson & Co., within the meaning of Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the National Labor Relations Act, in each of the following distributing plants : 647 Brook Avenue, New York City; 46 10th Avenue, New York City ; 2276 12th Avenue, Ne« York City; 156 Ft. Greene Place, Brooklyn, New York; 114 North 6th Street, Brooklyn, New York; 93-04 151st St., Jamaica, Long Island, New York; 161 2nd Street, Mineola, Long Island, New York; and Gotham Hotel Supply Co., New York City. 2. The processing and operative employees of the Company in the respective aforesaid distributing plants, including chauffeur luggers, scalers, shipping clerks, cutters, egg handlers, sausage workers, and ham workers, and excluding supervisory employees, clerical employees, salesmen, and schoctim, constitute separate and distinct units appro- priate for the purposes of collective bargaining, within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the National Labor Relations Act. 3. United Meat Workers Local Industrial Union No. 635 is the exclusive representative of all the employees in each such unit in the first six of the eight plants named in paragraph 1, supra, for the pur- poses of collective bargaining, within the meaning 'of Section 9 (a) of the National Labor Relations Act. -656 NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD CERTIFICATION OF REPRESENTATIVES By virtue of and pursuant to the power vested in the National Labor Relations Board by Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Rela- tions Act, and pursuant to Article III, Section 8, of National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 1, as amended, IT IS HEREBY CERTIFIED that United Meat Workers Local Industrial Union No. 635 , has been designated and selected by a majority of the processing and operative employees of Wilson & Co., including chauf- feur luggers, scalers , shipping clerks, cutters, egg handlers, sausage workers, and ham workers , and excluding supervisory employees, clerical employees , salesmen , and schoctim , as their representative for collective bargaining in each of the following plants : 647 Brook Ave- nue, New York City; 46 10th Avenue, New York City; 2276 12th Avenue, New York City; 156 Ft. Greene Place, Brooklyn, New York; 114 North 6th Street, Brooklyn, New York; and 93-04 151st St., Jamaica, Long Island, New York; and that , pursuant to the provisions of Section 9 (a) of the Act, United Meat Workers Local Industrial Union No. 635 is the exclusive representative of all such employees in each unit for the purposes of collective bargaining in respect to rates of pay, wages, hours of employment , and other conditions of employment. DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS By virtue of and pursuant to the power vested in the National Labor Relations Board by Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Re- lations Act, 49 Stat . 449, and pursuant to Article III, Section 8, of National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 1, as amended , it is hereby DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation authorized by the Board to ascertain representatives for the purposes of collective bargaining with Wilson & Co., separate elections by secret ballot shall be con- ducted within fifteen (15) days from the date of this Direction, under the direction and supervision of the Regional Director for the Second Region, acting in this matter as agent for the National Labor Rela- tions Board, and subject to Article III, Section 9, of said Rules and Regulations, among the processing and operative employees of the Company employed during the respective last pay-roll periods next preceding the date of this Direction at the 161 2nd Street , Mineola, plant and the Gotham Hotel Supply Co. plant, respectively, includ- ing chauffeur luggers , scalers, shipping clerks, cutters, egg handlers, sausage workers , and ham workers , and excluding supervisory em- ployees, clerical employees , salesmen, and schoctim, and those who have, since quit or been discharged for cause , to determine whether DECISIONS AND ORDERS 657 or not such employees desire to be represented by United Meat `Yorkers Local Industrial Union No. 635, for the purposes of collective bargaining. MR. EDWIN S. SMITH took no part in the consideration of the- above Decision, Certification of Representatives, and Direction of Elections. [SAME TITLE] AMENDMENT TO DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS November 19, 1938, On November 4, 1938, the National Labor Relations Board, herein, called the Board, issued its Decision, Certification of Representatives, and Direction of Elections in the above-entitled consolidated pro- ceeding, the elections to be held at the 161 2nd Street, Mineola plant and the Gotham Hotel Supply Co. plant, respectively, of the Com- pany within fifteen (15) days from the date of the Direction, under the direction and supervision of the Regional Director for the Second_ Region (New York City). The Board, having been advised by the Regional Director that a longer period is necessary with respect to. the Gotham Hotel Supply Co. plant, hereby amends its Direction of- Elections by extending the period within which the election shall be conducted at the Gotham Hotel Supply Co. plant, only, to such time- as the Board may in the future direct. MR. EDWIN S. SMITH took no part in the consideration of the above Amendment to Direction of Elections. 9 N. L R. B, No. 59a