Cudahy Packing Co.

In the Matter Of CUDAHY PACKING COMPANY and UNITED PACKING- HOUSE WORKERS OF AMERICA, LOCAL 107, CIO Case No. 01-R-3020.-Decided December 28, 1945 Mr. Elsner H. Howlett, of Los Angeles, Calif., for the Company. Messrs. A. J. Shipply and Paul Roesel, both of Los Angeles, Calif., for the Union. Mr. David V. Easton, of counsel to the Board. DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION STATEMENT OF THE CASE Upon a petition duly filed by United Packinghouse Workers of America, Local 107, CIO, herein called the Union, alleging that a question affecting commerce had arisen concerning the representation of employees of Cudahy Packing Company, Los Angeles, California, herein called the Company, the National Labor Relations Board pro- vided for an appropriate hearing upon due notice before George H. O'Brien, Trial Examiner. The hearing was held at Los Angeles, California, on September 21, 1945. The Company and the Union appeared and participated. All parties were afforded full opportunity to be heard, to examine and cross-examine witnesses, and to introduce evidence bearing on the issues. The Company moved at the hearing for dismissal of the petition herein. The Trial Examiner reserved ruling on this motion for the Board. For reasons stated in Section IV, infra, the motion is denied. The Trial Examiner's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed. All parties were afforded opportunity to file briefs with the Board. Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following : FINDINGS OF FACT 1. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY Cudahy Packing Company, a Maine corporation, is engaged in purchasing and slaughtering livestock, and processing and marketing 65 N. L. R. B., No. 2. 10 CUDAHY PACKING COMPANY 11 the products resulting therefrom. It operates, among others, a plant at Los Angeles, California, with which we are concerned herein. During the year 1939, the Company's Los Angeles plant purchased approximately 146,000,000 pounds of livestock, about 40 percent of which was obtained from points outside the State of California. Dur- ing the same period it processed or manufactured 126,000,000 pounds of products, about 10 percent of which was shipped outside the State of California. The Company admits that it is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act. H. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED United Packinghouse Workers of America, Local 107, is a labor organization affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations, admitting to membership employees of the Company. III. TIIE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION The Company has refused to grant recognition to the Union as the exclusive bargaining representative of certain of its employees unless and until directed to do so by the Board. A statement of a Field Examiner for the Board, introduced into evidence at the hearing, indicates that the Union represents a substan- tial number of employees in the unit hereinafter found appropriate., We find that a question affecting commerce has arisen concerning the representation of employees of the Company, within the meaning of Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act. IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT The Union, which currently represents the production and main- tenance employees at the Company's Los Angeles plant, seeks to add to its unit all plant-protection employees at the plant except for the chief and supervisory employees. The Company urges dismissal of the petition, contending in substance, that plant-protection employees are not production and maintenance workers, but rather confidential and supervisory personnel who are a part of management; that their inclusion within a unit of production and maintenance employees would be against the interests of the Company, the Union, the em- ployees and the public; and that such inclusion would result in con- flicts of interest, divided loyalties, and prevent the plant-protection 'The Field Exanunei reported that the Union submitted 14 membership cards bearing the names of employees listed on the Company's pav roll of August 19, 1945 There are approximately 19 eIIiployees in the appropriate unit 12 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD employees from properly performing their duties at all times. In its brief, the Company sets forth the testimony of a union official given at the hearing to the effect that plant-protection employees would be expected to "go along with the rest of the people belonging in the appropriate unit" in the event of a strike, and assert that this evidence "distinguishes the case from all other plant guard cases which the National Labor Relations Board has heretofore decided." The record indicates that the Company employs 16 armed, uni- formed, and deputized guards at its Los Angeles plant, under the supervision of the chief of police and fire department. These em- ployees perform the monitorial duties associated with their classifi- cation, protecting the Company's property from fire and theft, reporting unsanitary conditions, directing traffic, and keeping order. They may remove an employee's badge for cause, and prevent this employee from gaining admittance to the plant until the plant super- intendent has acted upon his case, but this is the extent to which they are able to affect the status of a fellow worker. Certain of them act as conduits for the transmission of orders from the chief, but other- wise possess no supervisory authority.' We find that the guards, excluding the chief, are neither supervisory, managerial, nor confi- dential employees. As noted above, the Union seeks to add the guards to its present unit, and the objections of the Company made at the hearing seem wlso to be directed against this position. To that extent, the Com- pany's objections have merit for we have determined in numerous cases that deputized guards performing monitorial duties must be represented in a unit separate from production and maintenance em- ployees, and have insisted that this separation be one of fact as well as of form.3 However, insofar as these objections are directed against the representation of the guards in a separate appropriate unit, they are not persuasive.' Our ultimate conclusion is not affected by the contention asserted by the Company in its brief. The testimony upon which this contention is predicated was doubtless given under the as- sumption that the guards would be merged in one unit with the production and maintenance employees. There is nothing in the rec- ord to indicate that the guards, as a segregated group for collective bargaining purposes, will be required to strike with the production and maintenance employees. Nor is there any evidence that the Union will compel the guards to violate their oaths as deputies or their legal obligations. 2 These employees are Polk, Yates, and Rasor. 2 Matter of Granite City Steel Company, 63 N. L R B. 898, and cases cited therein 4 See Matter of Standard Steel Spring Company, 62 N. L. R. B. 660; Matter of Aluminum Company of America, 63 N. L R. B. 828; Matter of Muskeqon Piston Ring Company, 63 N L R B 885 , Matter of Granite City Steel Company, supra, and cases cited in each CUDAHY PACKING COMPANY 13 Accordingly, we find that all plant-protection employees of the Company engaged at its Los Angeles plant, excluding the chief, and all other supervisory employees with authority to hire, promote, dis- charge, discipline, or otherwise effect changes in the status of em- ployees, or effectively recommend such action, constitute a unit ap- propriate 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 among employees in the appropriate unit who were employed during the pay-roll period immediately preceding the date of the Direction of Election herein, subject to the limitations and additions set forth in the Direction. DIRECTION OF ELECTION 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 9, of National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 3, as amended, it is hereby DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation to ascertain representa- tives for the purposes of collective bargaining with Cudahy Packing Company, Los Angeles , California, an election by secret ballot shall be conducted as early as possible , but not later than sixty ( 60) days from the date of this Direction , under the direction and supervision of the Regional Director for the Twenty -first Region, acting in this matter as agent for the National Labor Relations Board, and subject to Article III, Sections 10 and 11, of said Rules and Regulations, among employees in the unit found appropriate in Section IV, above, who were employed during the pay-roll period immediately preced- ing the date of this Direction, including employees who did riot work during said pay-roll period because they were ill or on vacation or temporarily laid off, and including employees in the armed forces of the United States who present themselves in person at the polls, 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, to determine whether or not they desire to be repre- sented by United Packinghouse Workers of America, Local 107, CIO, for the purposes of collective bargaining. MR. JOHN M. HOUSTON took no part in the consideration of the above Decision and Direction of Election.