Morey La Rue Supply Service, Inc.

148 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD Morey La Rue Supply Service, Inc., and Morey La Rue Laundry Company' and Local 284 , Laundry and Dry Cleaning International Union , AFL-CIO, Petitioner. Case 22-RC-3419 May 31,1967 DECISION ON REVIEW AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION BY CHAIRMAN MCCULLOCH AND MEMBERS BROWN AND JENKINS On October 18, 1966, the Regional Director for Region 22 issued a Decision and Order in which he dismissed the instant petition on the ground that the unit petitioned for was inappropriate. Thereafter, in accordance with Section 102.67 of the National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations, Series 8, as amended, the Petitioner filed a timely request for review of the Regional Director's Decision on the ground that the Regional Director departed from officially reported Board precedent and policy. On January 9, 1967, the National Labor Relations Board by telegraphic order granted the request for review. Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, the National Labor Relations Board has delegated its powers in connection with this case to a three- member panel. The Board has considered the entire record in the case with respect to the issues under review, including the positions of the parties, and makes the following findings: The Petitioner seeks to represent a unit of production employees employed by Morey La Rue Supply Service, Inc., herein called Supply Company, at its Linden, New Jersey, plant, excluding watchmen, truckdrivers, maintenance employees, office clerical employees, and professional employees, guards, and supervisors as defined in the Act. The Employer contends that the only appropriate unit must include all production employees of both Supply Company and Morey La Rue Laundry Company, herein called Laundry Company, at its Linden and Morristown, New Jersey, plants, together with all employees at Laundry Company's retail stores, package units, and 'The name of the Employer appears as amended at the hearing. 2 The Regional Director found that Laundry Company and Supply Company constitute a single employer The Petitioner has not requested review of this finding. 3 Laundry Company has a laundering and drycleaning plant at Morristown, New Jersey , which has 33 employees performing essentially the same work as that of the Laundry Company employees at its Linden plant In addition , Laundry Company has package units at Somerville , Eatontown , Madison, and Brick depots located in northern New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania, cafeteria employees, and relay and tractor-trailer drivers, but excluding office clerical employees, route salesmen, and professional employees, guards, and supervisors as defined in the Act. The Regional Director found that a unit limited to the employees of Supply Company was too narrow in scope to be appropriate. Supply Company is engaged in the business of supplying uniforms to industrial concerns, primarily on a rental basis. Laundry Company provides family laundry services through retail outlets and home delivery and pickup services. Laundry Company also does all the laundering and cleaning of uniforms for Supply Company.2 Supply Company's only plant is located in a separate building on the same tract of land in Linden, New Jersey, as Laundry Company's laundering and drycleaning plants, administrative offices, and cafeteria.3 The building that houses Supply Company also has Laundry Company's supply stockroom where processing material such as drycleaning hangers and garment bags are stored, but there is no indication in the record that any Laundry Company employee works in the stockroom. Uniforms rented from Supply Company or owned by its industrial accounts are sorted, inspected, identified, repaired, folded, and packaged by Supply Company's 15 employees. The uniforms are then loaded onto trucks by Supply Company's five route drivers who are, at present, represented by Local No. 37 affiliated with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America, herein called Local 37. The drivers make deliveries and also pick up soiled uniforms which they bring to Laundry Company's loading docks. After the uniforms are cleaned by Laundry Company employees, they are brought by Laundry Company employees to Supply Company, thereby completing the cycle. With the exception of those instances where Laundry Company employees bring them laundered uniforms, Supply Company employees apparently have little or no contact with Laundry Company employees while both groups are at work. Although none of the jobs performed by employees of both companies requires more than a few hours' training, the work of each of the approximately 210 Laundry Company production employees is more specialized than that of the Township, all in New Jersey, each of which combines a retail store with laundry and drycleaning facilities These units altogether have 19 employees performing laundering and drycleaning work Laundry Company also has 36 retail stores in northern New Jersey and in the vicinity of Easton, Pennsylvania, employing altogether 73 sales girls , and distribution depots for these stores in Neptune , New Jersey, and Easton, Pennsylvania Eleven relay drivers transport family laundry items among the laundry plants , the distribution depots, the retail stores , and the packaging units. 165 NLRB No. 13 MOREY LA RUE SUPPLY SERVICE Supply Company employees. Thus, Laundry Company employees generally spend all their time working on one operation such as shirt pressing, folding, or identification. Supply Company employees each day may perform a variety of duties including sorting, inspecting, and folding. The greater degree of specialization and larger volume of business at Laundry Company is reflected in the wages of the employees of each company. Although the base wage rate for most employees of both companies is the same, many employees of Laundry Company are on an incentive wage system and thus may earn more than employees at Supply Company, none of whom works under an incentive program. Hours of work also may differ. All Supply Company and many Laundry Company employees work during the day, but Laundry Company employees engaged in separating industrial uniforms from a complete washer load and in pressing the uniforms regularly work on a night shift. Supply Company employees also wear different colored uniforms from those worn by Laundry Company. Employees of both companies use the same employee facilities, have identical fringe benefits, and punch the same timeclock. There is no regular employee interchange between the two companies. In emergency situations , when Supply Company employees are ill or otherwise absent from work, Laundry Company employees may be temporarily transferred to Supply Company for the duration of the emergency. Supply Company employees are never temporarily transferred to Laundry Company. Payroll records for both companies are kept at the Laundry Company main office and certain bookkeeping work for both companies is performed there. A single personnel director interviews applicants for jobs and then directs them to either a Laundry Company department or Supply Company-wherever they are' needed. However, Supply Company has its own manager who occupies an office in the Supply Company building and has a clerical employee working for him. The manager has the authority to discipline or discharge employees and, along with a floorlady, directs the work of the Supply Company employees. There is no bargaining history for the requested employees. However, in 1966, in Case 22-RC-3336,4 the Regional Director directed an election in a unit limited to the five Supply Company route drivers. Contrary to the position taken by the employer in that case, the Regional Director excluded, inter alia, 67 route drivers of Laundry Company who operated the same type of vehicle as, and had overall earnings comparable to, the Supply Company route drivers. The Regional Director relied, inter alia, on the 4 Not published in NLRB volumes. s The Black and Decker Manufacturing Company, 147 NLRB 825,828 See also Welsh Co , 146 NLRB 713, 715. 6 Black and Decker Mfg Co , supra. 149 differences in the mode of payment for the two groups of drivers, their separate supervision, and the lack of evidence of employee interchange, and concluded that "the route drivers employed by Supply Company have a sufficiently distinguishable community of interest ... to warrant their separate representation. . . ." No party filed a request for review of the Regional Director's Decision. On September 20, 1966, after an election among the Supply Company drivers, Local 37 was certified as their collective-bargaining representative; the drivers are currently represented by Local 37. Relying primarily on the "integrated nature" of the Supply Company and Laundry Company production operations, the Regional Director here concluded that a unit limited to the Supply Company production employees was not appropriate. We do not agree. The Board has held that "a single-plant unit is presumptively appropriate absent a bargaining history in a more comprehensive unit or a functional integration so severe as to negate the identity of a single-plant unit."' Thus, even where there was considerable product integration between two plants, the Board held that one of the two plants could constitute a separate appropriate unit if the requested plant retained a substantial degree of autonomy.fi Here, too, the facts do not reveal such a degree of integration of the Laundry Company and Supply Company operations as would warrant our rejection of the requested Supply Company production unit.7 The Supply Company employees: (1) are separately supervised by a manager who may discipline and discharge them; (2) have a different wage system or hours of work from a substantial number of the Laundry Company employees; (3) do not interchange with Laundry Company employees and have little or no contact with them while both groups are at work; (4) generally do work which is not as specialized as that of each Laundry Company employee; and (5) work in a building which is separate from the buildings where Laundry Company employees work. Furthermore, we note that there is no bargaining history in a broader unit and that the only represented employees of either company are in a unit limited to the Supply Company. We note, also, that no labor organization is seeking to represent a more comprehensive unit. In view of the foregoing, we find that a unit limited to the production employees of Supply Company is appropriate. Accordingly, we find, contrary to the Regional Director, that 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, and that the following employees of the Employer constitute a r In Case 22-RC-3336, discussed supra, the Regional Director likewise found sufficient basis for separating the Supply Company route drivers from their counterparts at Laundry Company. 299-352 0-70-11 150 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act: All production employees of Morey La Rue Supply Service, Inc., at its Linden , New Jersey , plant, excluding watchmen , route drivers, maintenance 9 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 22 within 7 days after the date of this Decision on Review and Direction of Election The Regional Director shall make the list available to all parties to the employees, office clerical employees, and professional employees, guards, and supervisors as defined in the Act. [Text of Direction of Election" omitted from publication.] 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.