Garrett Corp.

GARRETT SUPPLY COMPANY Garrett Supply Company, A Division of Garrett Corporation ' and Chauffeurs, Salesdrivers and Helpers, Local 572, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America, Petitioner. Case 21-RC-10307. June 19,1967 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 Michael B. Cavallo of the National Labor Relations Board. The Hearing Officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed. The Employer and the Petitioner filed briefs 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. 2. The labor organization involved claims to represent certain employees of the Employer. 3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the representation of 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 a unit of all merchandise department, or warehouse, employees at the Employer's City of Commerce, California, supply house, including merchandise clerks, checkers, packers, shipping clerks, and truckdrivers, but excluding all other employees. The Employer contends that the unit should also include inside salesclerks, sales trainees, inventory control clerks, customer service clerks, and claims and adjustment clerks. There appears to be no bargaining history for the employees involved herein. The Employer purchases industrial tools and supplies from manufacturers throughout the United States and sells them primarily to commercial customers engaged in aviation, aerospace, and defense, as well as general industry, in southern California and Arizona. The Employer currently maintains an inventory of more than 70,000 separate items in its warehouse. Early in 1966, the Employer renamed the "warehouse" the "merchandise department." The Employer receives approximately 90 percent of its orders by telephone; the remainder of its orders are obtained by outside salesmen who ' The name of the Employer appears as amended at the hearing. 561 work constantly in the field away from the supply house and are not involved herein. The following employees, who are sought by the Petitioner, work in the warehouse or merchandise department under the separate supervision of the merchandise department foreman. Approximately 24 employees are classified as merchandise clerks - 6 of these merchandise clerks function as receiving clerks who receive and stock merchandise as it arrives in the department; 15 function as order fillers who take the orders as they are received in the department, fill them from available stocks, and place the orders on the checkers' stand; and 3 function as checkers who make certain that orders have been properly filled before they are delivered to the packing bench where they are prepared for shipment to the customer. In addition, there are four employees in the warehouse classified as packer- light, and three classified as packer-heavy, who pack the merchandise for shipment before it is finally delivered to the shipping area. The two shipping clerks in the department process the orders according to the carrier designated and the destination of the shipment. The Employer also employs two truckdrivers who drive light trucks which are primarily used to pick up merchandise from manufacturers and warehouses in the immediate vicinity. On occasion they also deliver orders to customers in the immediate vicinity. All of the employees whom the Petitioner would exclude, and the Employer would include, except 5 of the approximately 15 sales trainees , work in different departments. Thus, employees classified as inside salesclerks or inside salesmen, and performing the functions of order takers, order processors, customer service clerks, and claims and adjustment clerks, work in the inside sales department. Some of them were formerly warehouse employees. The order takers receive the initial order over the telephone and prepare a worksheet or a document known as a "shipper." The order processors type the orders from worksheets prepared by the order takers, and make appropriate entries in an order registry book. Customer service clerks receive inquiries from customers as to the status of their orders, and if necessary, search for documents pertaining to orders, and answer customer inquiries. Claims and adjustment clerks receive and adjust claims on orders which have been improperly filled; they have desks in the inside sales area, and there is also an area assigned to them in the warehouse where they spend a part of their time opening and inspecting returned merchandise. Individual inside salesmen are occasionally detailed to help out in the warehouse. Inventory control clerks work in the accounting department where they enter each order, as it is received, on inventory control records. If the 165 NLRB No. 90 562 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD ordered merchandise is available in the warehouse, the order is then transmitted directly to the warehouse for filling. If the merchandise is not available, the order is set aside for filling as soon as the merchandise is received from the manufacturer or supplier. The Employer presently has approximately 15 inside sales trainees who are hired for the purpose of becoming inside salesmen after an indeterminate period of training which lasts from 90 days to 2 years, depending on individual performance. During their training they are assigned to learn, by performing, various jobs throughout the supply house. If they are not successful as sales trainees, however, they are terminated and not retained in any other capacity. Ten of the sales trainees are located in the inside sales department and perform such functions as order taking, claims and adjustment, order status checking, and customer service. Three of the sales trainees are now functioning as order fillers, and two are assigned to the will-call counter, in the merchandise department. Here they fill orders which will be picked up by the customer, and make cash sales to persons who visit the will-call counter for that purpose. The employees in the Employer's warehouse or merchandise department are engaged in the ordinary duties of warehouse employees. The usual type of job classifications are employed in the warehouse, such as order fillers, checkers, packers, shipping and receiving clerks, and truckdrivers. They are separately located and supervised, and punch a separate timeclock. They never leave the warehouse to perform tasks in other parts of the building. Although, as described above, some employees from other departments work in the warehouse from time to time, such visits are relatively infrequent, irregular, and temporary; and the work performed in the warehouse is only incidental to the performance of their primary function elsewhere. In these circumstances, including their separate location, functions, and 2 SeeAmarillo Hardware Company, Inc., 148 NLRB 48. 3 Rish Equipment Company, 150 NLRB 1185, 1202; Cherokee Textile Mills, Inc, 117 NLRB 350,351 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 21 within 7 days after the date of this Decision and Direction of Election The Regional supervision, and the absence of bargaining history, we find that the employees regularly and permanently assigned to the merchandise department, herein sought to be represented by the Petitioner, have interests sufficiently different from those employees whom the Employer would also include in the unit, to constitute a separate warehouse unit appropriate for collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9(b) of the Act.2 With respect to the five sales trainees who presently work in the warehouse, they were hired as sales trainees and are paid approximately 12 percent more than the beginning rate for warehouse employees. Under certain circumstances they receive extra bonuses for which warehouse employees are not eligible, and they are not required to punch the warehouse timeclock. They are assigned to the warehouse temporarily for training only. If successful as sales trainees, they will become inside salesmen; if unsuccessful, they will be terminated. Under no circumstances will they become permanent warehouse employees. We therefore find that the sales trainees have interests different from those of the warehouse employees, and we shall exclude them from the unit.3 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 merchandise department or warehouse employees at the Employer's City of Commerce, California, supply house, including merchandise clerks, order fillers, receiving clerks, checkers, packers, shipping clerks, and truckdrivers; but excluding sales trainees, inside salesclerks, inventory control clerks, customer service clerks, claims and adjustment clerks, office clerical employees, all other employees, and guards and supervisors as defined in the Act. [Direction of Election 4 omitted from publication.] 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