Farmers Insurance Group

FARMERS INSURANCE GROUP Farmers Insurance Group and Insurance Workers International Union , AFL-CIO, Petitioner. Case 36-RC-2221. April 28, 1967 DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION BY CHAIRMAN MCCULLOCH AND MEMBERS FANNING AND ZAGORIA Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9(c) of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, a hearing was held before Hearing Officer Dale B. Cubbison, of the National Labor Relations Board. The Hearing Officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed. After the close of the hearing, the Petitioner filed a brief with the Board. 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. Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds: 1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the Act and it will effectuate the purposes of the Act to assert jurisdiction herein. 2. The labor organization involved claims to represent certain employees of the Employer. 3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the representation of certain employees of the Employer within the meaning of Section 9(c)(1) and Section 2(6) and (7) of the Act. 4. The Petitioner seeks to represent a unit limited to the approximately 24 underwriters working in the Employer's Portland, Oregon, regional office. The underwriters sought by the Petitioner are classified as underwriter, senior underwriter, and multiple line underwriter. The Employer contends that the requested unit is inappropriate, but declined to take a position as to what it considers to be an appropriate unit. There is no history of collective bargaining for these employees, and no union seeks to represent a more comprehensive unit. The Employer's operations are divided into a number of departments, including the major i Cf State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, 158 NLRB 925, where the Board found appropriate separate units of field claim specialists and field claim representatives in the employer's claims sections See also Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (Woonsocket, R 1.), 156 NLRB 1408, and cases cited therein. 2 The record shows that the underwriting clerks are clerical employees whose work and interests are dissimilar from those of the underwriters Cf North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company, 109 NLRB 625,627 233 departments of underwriting and administrative services, each headed by its own manager. Until 2 weeks prior to the hearing, the Employer required a college degree or equivalent insurance or related business experience for applicants for underwriters' jobs. There is no similar educational requirement for jobs in the administrative services department. Approximately one-half of the present underwriters have college degrees. Underwriters are among the highest-salaried employees, and usually are the most experienced of the Employer's employees. They possess highly specialized skills that are mastered only after approximately 1 year on the job, irrespective of the underwriter's previous experience or educational background. The underwriters are separately supervised from the employees in the other departments, and there is no employee interchange between them and employees in such departments. While there have been permanent transfers into the underwriting department from other departments, the transferred employees were experienced employees from the same or similar salary grade levels. All employees, including underwriters, are governed by the same personnel policies, and all have the same employee fringe benefits. Upon these facts, and the record as a whole, we find that the employees in the underwriting department, sought by the Petitioner, comprise a homogeneous, identifiable, and distinct group with a community of interests sufficiently distinct from that of other employees of the Employer to warrant their separate representation.' Accordingly, we find that the following employees of the Employer constitute a unit appropriate for collective bargaining purposes within the meaning of Section 9(b) of the Act: All underwriters, senior underwriters, and multiple underwriters employed by the Employer at its Portland, Oregon, regional office, excluding all other employees, underwriting clerks,2 supervisors, and guards as defined in the Act. [Text of Direction of Election3 omitted from publication. ] s An election eligibility list, containing the names and addresses of all the eligible voters, must be filed by the Employer with the Regional Director for Region 36 within 7 days after the date of this Decision and Direction of Election. The Regional Director shall make the list available to all parties to the election No extension of time to file this list shall be granted by the Regional Director except in extraordinary circumstances . Failure to comply with this requirement shall be grounds for setting aside the election whenever proper objections are filed . Excelsior Underwear Inc., 156 NLRB 1236 164 NLRB No. 24