Rhodes, Inc.

714 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD 6. The General Counsel has failed to prove by a fair preponderance of the evi- dence that an object of the above-described inducement and encouragement was to force or require either O'Rourke Construction Company or Bock Construction Com- pany to cease doing business with Macatee, Inc. [Recommendations omitted from publication.] Bock Construction Company Wm. H. LaDew Company O'Rourke Construction Company Russell Plumbing Company APPENDIX B Ed Hogan, d/b/a Hogan Plastering Contractor American Roofing Company Gotham Electric Company Crisp & Vaughn Richardson school project John Deere project Exchange Park pioject APPENDIX C Reserve Life Insurance project DuBoise, Highway 75 project Great Southwest Corporation project Rhodes, Inc. and Local Union 991, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen & Helpers of America, Ind., Petitioner. Cases Not. 15-RC,-1968 and 15-RC-1974.1 August 25, 1959 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 John H. Immel, Jr., 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 Leedom and Members Bean and Fanning]. 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) in d Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act. 4. The Petitioner seeks to represent warehouse employees at the Employer's five retail furniture stores located in the Pensacola, Flori- da, area of the Employer's operations, excluding salesmen, collectors, and office clerical employees. 'A consolidated hearing in Cases Nos. 15-RC-1968 and 15-RC-1974 was conducted on May 12, 1959 , at Pensacola, Florida. On May 28, 1959 , Petitioner filed a request for withdrawal of its petition in Case No. 15-RC-1974. As we have been administratively advised that the Petitioner has taken no action inconsistent with its withdrawal request, and, as the Employer poses no objection thereto in its brief , the request for withdrawal is hereby granted. Subsequent reference herein to a petition are to the petition in Case No 15-RC-1968 124 NLRB No. 96. RHODES, INC. 715 The Employer opposes establishment of a unit limited to warehouse employees. It would include the salesmen and collectors on the ground that they perform functions closely interrelated with the duties of warehouse employees. It is silent with respect to the placement of ^oftice clerical employees. The Employer also maintains retail furniture stores in Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia. The Employer, in agreement with the Petitioner, urges in its brief that any unit found appropriate should .embrace the five stores involved herein, which are all located in the Pensacola, Florida, area. Four of the Employer's retail stores are .located in Pensacola, the fifth, the Fort Walton store, is approximately 40 miles from Pensacola. As the Palafox, Escambia, Brownsville, Pensacola, and Fort Walton stores constitute a distinct geographical .segment of the Employer's operations, we find that a unit limited to -these five stores is appropriate. Employees at each of the five retail furniture stores in the Pensa- cola, Florida, area are generally engaged in sales, warehouse, and office functions.' All but one of these stores maintain, and are sup- plied from, their own warehouses. All warehouses are located in the .same building as the stores,' either on the same floor as, or adjacent to, the sales and office areas. Most of the warehouses are storage and <delivery spaces in the rear of the store, and are manned by no more than five employees.4 At the Fort Walton store, the salesman and delinquent accounts ,clerk regularly assist the driver and driver helper in unloading furni- ture from delivery trucks. The accounts clerk, in addition to his regular office clerical duties, spends a substantial amount of his time each day selling furniture in the store. At the Pensacola store, sales- men frequently cart merchandise from the warehouse area to the sell- ing floor. On occasion, these salesmen deliver furniture and direct preparations for delivery in the shipping department. During rush periods, they frequently accompany and assist truckdrivers in delivery of merchandise. At least once a week, salesmen at this store, along With all other male employees, participate in working parties engaged in inventory. At the Employer's Escambia store, warehousemen regularly help salesmen arrange furniture displays on the sales floor. The inventory clerk, along with his clerical duties, spends part of his time selling furniture. At the Palafox store, warehouse employees regularly assist salesmen in the arrangement of displays, and carry merchandise from the warehouse to the sales floors. On occasion, :salesmen at this store help drivers deliver and unload furniture. In 2 Warehouse activities of the Brownsville store are performed by Palafox store employees. 3 The Palafox store maintains a warehouse attached to the store and also uses a ware- house located off the premises. 4 At the Fort Walton store, two employees work in the warehouse area ; at both the Pensacola and Escambia stores, five employees perform warehouse duties. 716 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD addition, salesmen at most of the stores work with office clerical em- ployees performing work in the credit phases of the Employer's operations. Moreover, employees engaged as maids in cleaning and "housekeeping" chores frequently work with warehouse employees in cleaning repossessed and newly acquired furniture. In most of the stores, the sales, warehouse, and office clerical employ- ees are under the same, direct, daily supervision of the store manager. While separate supervision of warehouse employees exists at the Palafox store, the store manager is the ultimate supervisor of both selling and nonselling employees at all the Employer's retail stores. The warehouse employees sought to be represented herein do not work in buildings physically separated from sales and office clerical employees. Nor, with the one exception noted above, are they under separate supervision. Moreover, it is clear that a substantial integra- tion of duties exists between warehousemen and other employees of the Employer. Accordingly, a separate unit of only the warehouse employees is inappropriate.' Nor is a unit limited to warehouse and sales employees, which excludes office clerical employees, appropriate, where, as here, there exists a community of interest between the sell- ing and nonselling employees, no other union seeks to represent the office clerical employees, separately, and there is no history of collective bargaining." Accordingly, we find that both the unit requested by the Petitioner, which is limited to warehouse employees generally, and the unit pro- posed by the Employer, which does not include the office clerical em- ployees, are too limited in scope. As the Petitioner's showing of inter- est is sufficient for the direction of an election in an appropriate unit encompassing all selling and nonselling employees at the Employer's five stores, including the office clerical employees, we shall not dismiss the petition herein, but shall direct an election in such a unit? On the basis of the foregoing, we find that the following employees constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9(b) of the Act: All selling and nonselling employees at the Employer's five retail furniture stores in the Pensacola, Florida, area of the Employer's operations, including warehousemen, drivers, helpers, carpet layers, carpet layer assistants, repairmen, floor boys, shipping clerks, assist- ant shipping clerks, salesmen " and collectors,9 office clerical employ- 'Levitz Service Company, 121 NLRB 205; see also, A. Harri8 & Co., 116 NLRB 1628. 6 T. P. Taylor & Company, Inc., 118 NLRB 376, at p. 379. 7 T. P. Taylor, supra. In the event the Petitioner does not wish to participate in the election in the larger group, we shall permit it to withdraw its petition upon notice to the Regional Director within 10 days from the date of issuance of this Direction of Election, and the Direction of Election shall thereupon be vacated. 8 Of the approximately 16 salesmen included in the bargaining unit, 5 are classified as outside salesmen. 6 Two employees work as collectors at the Palafox store, and are engaged in the collec- tion of bad accounts, repossession of furniture , and delivery of merchandise . As they are INDEPENDENT LINEN SERVICE CO. OF MISSISSIPPI 717 ees,10 regular part-time employees, and maids, but excluding all store managers, the assistant store manager and the credit manager at the Palafox store, the shipping clerk at the Palafox store, the credit manager at the Escambia store, and all supervisors as defined in the Act.u [Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.] not supervised separately and enjoy the same benefits as all selling and nonselling em- ployees of the Employer, we include the two collectors. Sears, Roebuck & Company, 112 NLRB 559. 11 The Petitioner contends that Judy Ashbough, secretary to the Palafox store manager, is a confidential employee and should be excluded. As there is nothing in the record to indicate that this employee is engaged in confidential work of any sort, we include her in the unit. 11 The parties agree, and the record shows, that all store managers, the assistant manager, credit manager, and shipping clerk at the Palafox store, and the credit manager at the Escambia store (James Norris) are supervisors within the meaning of the Act. The record is inadequate to determine the supervisory status of the shipping clerk at the Escambia store , and the assistant manager and officer manager at the Pensacola store. Accordingly, we shall permit them to vote subject to challenge. Independent Linen Service Company of Mississippi and Team- sters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen & Helpers, Local Union No. 891,1 Petitioner Independent Linen Service Company of Mississippi and Laundry, Cleaning & Linen Workers International Union , Local No. 218, Independent,' Petitioner. Cases Nos. 15-RC-1868 and 15-RC- 1873. August 25, 1959 SUPPLEMENTAL DECISION, CERTIFICATION OF RESULTS OF ELECTION, AND CERTIFICATION OF REPRESENTATIVES Pursuant to a Decision and Direction of Elections dated January 20, 1959,3 elections by secret ballot were conducted on February 11, 1959, under the direction and supervision of the Regional Director for the Fifteenth Region, among the employees in voting groups (1) and (2), as described in the aforementioned Decision. After the elections, the parties were furnished tallies of ballots which showed that, of approximately 94 eligible voters in group (1), sought to be repre- sented separately by Teamsters, 92 cast valid ballots, of which 24 were for Teamsters, 1 was for Laundry Workers, 67 were against the participating labor organizations, and 1 was challenged; and that, of approximately 191 eligible voters in group (2), 188 cast valid bal- lots, of which 143 were for, and 45 against, Laundry Workers, 3 cast 1 Herein referred to as Teamsters. 2 Herein referred to as Laundry workers. 3122 NLRB 1002. 124 NLRB No. 90.