Dolco Packaging Corp.

DOLCO PACKAGING CORP. 83 Dolco Packaging Corp. and Truck Drivers, Warehousemen and Helpers Local Union No. 148, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America, Independent, Petitioner. Case 19-RC-4831 January 9, 1969 DECISION AND CERTIFICATION OF REPRESENTATIVE BY CHAIRMAN MCCULLOCH AND MEMBERS FANNING AND ZAGORIA Pursuant to a Stipulation for Certification upon Consent Election approved on June 27, 1968, an election by secret ballot was conducted on July 25, 1968, under the supervision of the Regional Director for Region 19, among the employees in the stipulated unit. At the conclusion of the balloting the parties were furnished with a tally of ballots, which showed that of approximately 32 eligible voters, 31 cast valid ballots, of which 16 were for, and 15 against, the Petitioner, and none were challenged. Thereafter, the Employer filed timely objections to conduct affecting the results of the election. In accordance with the National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations and Statements of Procedure, Series 8, as amended, the Acting Regional Director conducted an investigation, and on September 24, 1968, issued and duly served upon the parties his Report on Objections to Election, in which he recommended that the objections be overruled and that the Petitioner be certified. Thereafter, the Employer filed timely exceptions to the Acting Regional Director's Report. The Petitioner filed a brief in answer to the Employer's exceptions. 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. 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 Petitioner is a labor organization claiming to represent certain employees of the Employer. 3. A question affecting commerce exists within the meaning of Section 9(c)(1) and Section 2(6) and (7) of the Act. 4. The parties stipulated, and we find, that the following employees of the Employer constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9(b) of the Act: All production and maintenance employees of the Employer at its Wenatchee, Washington, plant, but excluding office clerical employees, professional employees, guards and supervisors as defined in the Act, and salesmen. 5. The Board has considered the entire record in this case with respect to the Acting Regional Director's Report on Objections to Election, and the Employer's exceptions thereto, and for the reasons set forth below adopts the Acting Regional Director's findings and recommendations. The Employer contends that the election conducted on July 25, 1968, should be set aside because a letter sent by the Petitioner to the employees on July 23, and received by them within 24 hours preceding the election, contained material misrepresentations concerning wages and employment benefits received by employees represented by the Petitioner in the Wenatchee, Washington, area. We find, as did the Acting Regional Director, that the issue of wages and employment benefits under Teamsters' contract was, first interjected into the preelection campaign by the Employer. As part of its campaign propaganda that its employees would be better off without union representation, the Employer apprised them of a Teamsters' contract at its Pico Rivera, California, operation, under which wage rates ranged from $1.70 to $2.65, as compared with a range of $1.93 to $3.14 for the employees at its Wenatchee Plant. In answer to the Employer's propaganda, the Petitioner sent a letter to the employees suggesting that rather than the Pico Rivera contract, a comparison should be made on the bases of wages and employment benefits enjoyed by employees under Petitioner's contracts in the Wenatchee area. The Petitioner's letter set forth, inter alia, the following: Columbia Concrete Pipe Co. $3.20 per hour Dairy Drivers $4.00 per hour Freight Drivers $3.70 per hour Office Workers $3.20 per hour Fringes: Health-Welfare, Dental and Vision for the whole family. These are what should be compared - not some distant contract from California. The Columbia Concrete Pipe contract, to which the Petitioner is a party, for the year applicable at the time of the election, contains wage rates for various classifications ranging from $3.02 to $3.52 per hour. Other contracts to which Petitioner is a party in the Wenatchee area, contain wage rates for Dairy Drivers, Freight Drivers, and Office Workers as great as, or more, than the rates recited for those classifications in the Petitioner's letter of July 23. Similarly, these contracts of the Petitioner contain health and welfare provisions, including dental and vision plans, which are in effect, or will become effective during the term of the contract. We find, accordingly, that the wage rates and employment benefits recited in the Petitioner's letter are 174 NLRB No. 16 84 DECISIONS. OF NATIONAL, LABOR RELATIONS BOARD encompassed within contracts to which the Petitioner is a party in the Wenatchee area, and are therefore not material misrepresentations. Further, contrary to the Employer's contention, the Petitioner's publication of contracts with employers who employ classifications unlike those of Employer does not, under the facts here, constitute a misrepresentation . Insofar as the Petitioner' s letter set forth either the employing entity, or the work classification, the employees could clearly evaluate that the wage rates recited were applicable to classifications other than those in which they were employed. Nor do we find any merit in the Employer's argument that the contents of the Petitioner's letter were misleading due to failure to indicate that the contract terms relied on resulted from multiemployer and/or multiunion bargaining, or because the Petitioner failed to include in the letter the terms of other contracts to which it is a party, including the bargaining agreement 'for Columbia Ice & Cold Storage Company. To require the Petitioner, as a condition of answering the Employer's campaign propaganda, to set forth the full gamut of its contractual relationships, and the conditions under which they were negotiated, would impose an unwarranted condition which the Employer itself ignored when it interjected the wage and employment benefit comparison into the election campaign . It seems quite likely, furthermore, that any employee reading this document would have recognized that the Union was attempting to put its best foot forward, and would have accordingly regarded it as a less than comprehensive list of Union-won benefits. We find that the contents of the Petitioner's letter did not involve a substantial departure from the truth, or any matters which the employees could not clearly evaluate. Accordingly, we shall adopt the Acting Regional Director's recommendation that the objection be -overruled. As we have overruled the objection, and as the Petitioner has secured a majority of the valid votes cast, we shall certify Petitioner as the exclusive representative of employees in the appropriate unit. CERTIFICATION OF REPRESENTATIVE It is hereby certified that a majority of the valid ballots has been cast for Truck Drivers, Warehousemen and Helpers Local Union No. 148, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America, Independent, and that said organization is the exclusive representative of all the employees in the unit found appropriate in paragraph 4, above, and that pursuant to Section 9(a) of the Act, as amended, the said labor organization is the exclusive representative with respect to rates of pay, wages, hours of employment, and other terms and conditions of employment.