Sterchi Bros. Stores, Inc.

70 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARL The Petitioner would exclude two part-time drivers who work 7 or 8 hours a day for other employers and 2 or 3 hours daily for the Employer. • As they are regular part-time employees we shall, in accordance with our usual practice, include them in the unit.- We find that the following employees of the Employer constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act. All bus drivers, including part-time drivers and driver mechanics, but excluding all other employees and all supervisors as defined in the Act. [Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this volume.] le Evening News Publishing Company, 93 NLRB 1355. STERCHI BROS. STORES, INC. and CHAUFFEURS AND SALES DRIVERS, LOCAL UNION No. 402, INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS, CHAUFFEURS, WAREHOUSEMEN AND HELPERS. OF AMERICA, A. F. OF L., PETITIONER. Case No. 10-RC-1824. July 8, 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 Paul L. Harper, 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 [Chairman Herzog and Members 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 organizations involved claim 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. ' The Employer's motion to dismiss the petition for lack of jurisdiction was referred by the hearing officer to the Board . The Employer is a multistate enterprise , operating retail stores in Georgia , Alabama, Florida, North Carolina, and Kentucky . It was stipulated that during 1950 and 1951 out -of-State purchases for the Alabama stores approximated $178,500 in value. We find, therefore, that the Employer is engaged in commerce and that it will effectuate the policies of the Act to assert jurisdiction in this case. The Borden Co., 89 NLRB 227. 100 NLRB No. 15. STERCHI BROS. STORES, INC. 71 4. The Petitioner seeks to a unit consisting of warehousemen, truck drivers, and helpers employed in connection with the Employer's operations at Florence and Sheffield, Alabama, excluding sales clerks, the shipping clerks, repairmen, office and clerical employees, maids, professional employees, guards, and supervisors. The Employer con- tends that a unit comprising all the employees engaged in its Sheffield and Florence operations is alone appropriate. The Employer operates one retail store at Florence, Alabama, and another at Sheffield, Alabama, 4 miles distant. About 2 miles from the Florence store the Employer maintains an auxiliary warehouse, where some of its merchandise is stored and from which deliveries are made to customers or to the stores. Merchandise is also warehoused at, and delivered from, the retail stores. Deliveries from the auxili- ary warehouse and the stores are made principally by three truck drivers and their three helpers. However, certain store employees, such as the collector, the furniture repairman, and the appliance serviceman, help occasionally in making truck deliveries from the stores. The store salesmen also make some deliveries in their cars. When not engaged in delivery work, the truck drivers and helpers spend a substantial part of their time at the stores in cleanup work and in moving and assembling of furniture. Cleanup work at the stores is also done by the maid; assembling and moving of furniture is done by the furniture repairman as well. The warehouseman is stationed at the auxiliary warehouse, where he receives and assembles merchandise and helps to load it on the trucks. The shipping clerk, who spends most of his time at the Florence store, directs the work of the warehouseman and the truck drivers and their helpers, and is responsible for seeing that deliveries are properly made. We find that he responsibly directs the work of these employees and is, therefore, a supervisor within the meaning of the Act. As the employees in the proposed unit work under separate immedi- ate supervision, and are principally engaged in the ordinary duties of warehouse and delivery employees, we find that they constitute an appropriate unit for collective bargaining within the meaning of Sec- tion 9 (b) of the Act.2 'While, as already indicated , some of the store employees assist the warehouseman, drivers, and helpers in the performance of their duties , such assistance is merely sporadic and incidental to the principal duties of such other employees. Upon the entire record, we find , contrary to the Employer 's contentions, that there is not sufficient integration between the duties of the employees in the proposed unit and of the other employees to preclude a finding that the proposed unit is appropriate . Montgomery Ward & Co ., Inc., 89 NLRB 528. Cf. Marshall Field & Co., 90 NLRB 1, where, in finding inappropriate a unit of warehouse employees , the Board stressed the absence of separate immediate super- vision for all the employees in the requested unit, and the fact that the unit did not include all the employer's warehouse employees. Those objections do not apply here. 72 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD We find, therefore, that the warehouseman, truck drivers, and helpers employed in connection with the Employer's operations at Florence and Sheffield, Alabama, excluding sales clerks, the shipping clerk, repairmen, office and clerical employees, maids, professional employees, guards, and supervisors, constitute a unit appropriate for 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, dissenting : I question the appropriateness of the warehouse unit found appro- priate by my colleagues, and would therefore dismiss the petition. The Marshall Field precedent (90 NLRB 1) seems to me more perti- nent than the earlier Montgomery Ward cited by the majority. Here the record shows considerable interchange of functions between the employees included and those omitted. Not only do the store em- ployees sometimes assist in the work performed by employees in the unit sought, but also-and more significantly-the latter spend a sub- stantial portion of their own time working in the stores. GENERAL DYESTUFF CORPORATION and UNITED GAS, COKE AND CHEMICAL WORKERS OF AMERICA, CIO, PETITIONER . Case No. 2-RC-4344. July 8,195 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 I. L. Broadwin, hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed. 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 organizations involved claim to represent certain employees of the Employer. 3. The Employer and the Intervenor, Allied Trades Council, AFL, contend that an existing agreement is a bar to this proceeding. The Intervenor has been recognized as the bargaining representa- tive of the Employer's warehouse employees for a number of years. The most recent agreement covering these employees, dated December 17, 1951, extends, for a 2-year period, the term of a 1-year agreement that expired on December 1, 1951, and also continues in effect all the provisions of the latter contract, with an additional proviso that the 100 NLRB No. 6.