Dura-Containers, Inc.

DURA-CONTAINERS, INC. 293 Dura-Containers , Inc.,' and General Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen & Helpers, Processing and Distribution Local 347, affiliated with International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America, Petitioner. Case 14-RC-5554 May 2,1967 DECISION ON REVIEW AND ORDER On November 28, 1966 , the Acting Regional Director for Region 14 issued a Decision and Direction of Election in the above-entitled proceeding, finding, in accord with the Petitioner's request , that the Employer's truckdrivers at its Herrin, Illinois, facility could appropriately be severed , if they so desired , from the established production and maintenance unit represented by the Intervenor , International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, District 111 , AFL-CIO. Thereafter, in accordance with Section 102.67 of the National Labor Relations Board's Rules and Regulations , Series 8, as amended , the Employer filed a timely request for review of such Decision, alleging that the truckdrivers requested by the Petitioner may not be severed under existing precedent . The Employer also filed a brief in support of its request . By telegraphic Order dated December 21, 1966 , the Board granted the request for review and stayed the election pending decision on review . Thereafter, the Petitioner filed a brief on review. The Board has considered the entire record in this case, including the briefs of the parties, with respect to the issue under review , and makes the following findings: The Employer , a manufacturer of corrugated shipping containers , maintains a facility at Herrin, Illinois, where it services customers located within a 50-mile radius. It there employs 50 production and maintenance employees , including 5 truckdrivers. All such employees have been continuously represented in a single unit since about 1954 by the Intervenor. The truckdrivers are engaged principally in delivering the Employer's finished products to the customers serviced by the Herrin plant and in hauling scrap from the plant to the Employer's nearby dump . They report to the shipping department foreman from whom they receive their day-to-day working assignments . The fully loaded trucks or trailers are ready for them when they arrive at work in the morning. The trucks and trailers are normally loaded by the forklift operators and loaders in the shipping department under the supervision of the department's foreman. On completing delivery of the first load, the truckdrivers return to the plant and report to the plant and report back to the shipping foreman. Should additional deliveries be needed, the drivers assist the other shipping employees in reloading the vehicles, and then make the deliveries. If the delivery work is completed before the end of the normal workday, and there is no hauling of scrap to be done, the drivers are assigned to do other work in the plant. Such assignments usually involve work on the shipping docks as forklift operators or loaders, but sometimes these assignments involve production work. The drivers regularly perform the above- described nondriving functions for approximately 25 to 35 percent of their time. All production and maintenance employees including the drivers are paid an hourly rate, receive the same fringe benefits, and have the same opportunity to bid for other jobs and to share in available overtime work. Indeed, the individuals currently employed as truckdrivers moved into their drivers jobs from production jobs, under the existing plantwide posting and seniority system. Drivers are required only to possess a valid drivers' license and to comply with the health and safety standards established by the ICC and State regulations. While the truckdrivers are the only ones who regularly perform the Employer's driving function, plant employees are sometimes assigned as substitutes when the drivers are ill or on vacation. Applying the considerations set forth in Kalamazoo Paper Box Corporation, 136 NLRB 134, we are unable to conclude that the truckdrivers herein constitute a functionally distinct group with special interests sufficiently distinguishable from those of the Employer's other employees to warrant severing them from the existing unit. Thus, truckdrivers spend a substantial part of their regular worktime performing work identical to that of other employees, including forklift operators and loaders, whom the Petitioner does not seek to represent; they work the 'same number of hours and are compensated by the same method as other unit employees; and they otherwise enjoy the same fringe and other employment benefits as the production workers. The truckdrivers also report to and have the same immediate supervisor as other shipping department employees whom the Petitioner has not included in the requested unit. All these factors point to the lack of separate interests of the truckdrivers and to the very substantial community of interests they share with other employees, as a result of their inclusion for a number of years in the I The name of the Employer appears as amended at the hearing 164 NLRB No. 45 294 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD overall unit. In these circumstances, we reject the ORDER Petitioner's claim that the truckdrivers are entitled to separate representation. Accordingly, we shall It is hereby ordered that the petition herein be, dismiss the petition. and it hereby is, dismissed.