Uptown Cleaners & Hatters, Inc.

UPTOWN CLEANERS & HATTERS, INC. 721 Uptown Cleaners & Hatters, Inc. and Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, AFL-CIO, Petitioner. Case 7-RC-8546 February 24, 1969 DECISION ON REVIEW BY CHAIRMAN MCCULLOCH AND MEMBERS FANNING AND JENKINS On May 7, 1968, the Regional Director for Region 7 issued a Decision and Direction of Election in the above-entitled proceeding in which he found appropriate the unit hereinafter described. Thereafter, in accordance with the National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations, the Employer filed a timely request for review of the Regional Director's Decision on the grounds that, in reaching his unit determination, he departed from officially reported Board precedent and made conclusionary findings which were inconsistent with factual findings which he had made and which were clearly erroneous. On September 9, 1968, the National Labor Relations Board by telegraphic order granted the request for review, stayed the election pending decision on review, and requested the parties to file briefs on review. Thereafter, all parties filed briefs on review and the Employer filed a reply brief after its receipt of Petitioner's brief on review, in which the Petitioner urged that its initial unit request was appropriate, but contended that the unit found by the Regional Director was also appropriate. Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, the Board has delegated its powers in connection with this case to a three-member panel. Upon the entire record in the case, including the Employer's Request for Review, the briefs on review, and the Employer's reply brief, the Board makes the following findings: The Petitioner originally sought a unit of all production and maintenance employees at the Employer's main plant in Grand Rapids, Michigan, excluding all counter girls located at that plant as well as at its nine other substations and the production employees at its Town and Country installation. As an alternative, it agrees to include in the unit the presser at Town and Country. The unit found appropriate by the Regional Director included the production and maintenance employees at the main plant, the counter girls there employed, and the presser at Town and Country but excluded all counter girls working at locations away from the main plant. He included the main plant counter girls and the presser at Town and Country on the ground that they have a close community of interest with the main plant production and maintenance employees. The Employer objects to the exclusion of the counter girls at the substations, contending that the unit should be citywide in scope under our holdings in Independent Linen Service of Mississippi, '122 NLRB 1002 and Bugle Coat, Apron & Linen Service, Inc., 132 NLRB 1098. We agree. The Employer is engaged in the dry cleaning and shirt laundry business in the Grand Rapids, Michigan, metropolitan area. It operates two facilities for processing garments: the main plant where substantially all of the dry cleaning is done and where all the laundry work is done and a substation, Town and Country, where a small dry cleaning operation is performed. It also operates in this area 10 counters for retail sales: one at the main plant, one at Town and Country, and eight at substations. There is no history of collective bargaining. At the main plant, the Employer employs approximately 45 individuals who are engaged in the following "production" functions: sorting (1), spotting (2), dry cleaning (1), silk finishing (pressing) (3), wool finishing (4), alterations (4), "inspection (1), marking (3), assembling (1), bagging (1), shirt laundering (17). In addition, the Employer employs seven counter girls at the main plant, who spend 30 percent of their time at the counter and the remainder in such other functions as bagging, packaging, assembling, and retrieving garments for customers when they return for processed garments. At Town and Country, the Employer employs a total of eight employees: one dry cleaner who is also the manager of that substation, a wool-and-silk presser (finisher), and five or six counter clerks who spend approximately 20 percent of their time at the counter serving customers and 80 percent in such other work as marking and tagging clothes when they are received, brushing cuffs and emptying pockets, bagging, inspecting, minor repair, assembly, and other work on those garments processed on the premises. At the other eight substations, the Employer employs approximately 29 counter clerks, who also spend 20 percent of their time at the counter and the remainder in such other work as marking, brushing cuffs, and emptying pockets, bagging, inspecting, assembly, and bagging. At all substations, the counter clerks perform functions which at the main plant are performed by 12 full-time "production employees," i.e., sorting, inspection, marking, assembling, and bagging. Although the main plant counter clerks do not generally perform all these functions, they do frequently "fill in" on such work as bagging, assembly, inspection, minor repairs, and some isolated marking. The Employer's secretary treasurer, Nick Salhaney, is the overall general manager of the entire operation. James Salhaney supervises production workers at the main plant with the assistance of three other supervisors. Robert Simmons supervises the "branch operations," 174 NLRB No. 119 722 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD although Town and Country has a manager, Jerry Green, who is immediately supervised by Simmons. The other substations are directly supervised by Robert Simmons who visits each store at least once a week. The record does not affirmatively show who is the immediate supervisor of the main plant counter clerks or whether they are supervised by production supervisors when engaged in production functions. There is no supervisor other than Robert Simmons for the counter clerks at the substations which are operated with full and part-time employees trained by Robert Simmons and assisted by the operations manual. We agree with the Regional Director that in the circumstances of this case the main plant counter girls and the Town and Country presser belong in the unit with the other production and maintenance employees at the main plant. However, we see no warrant for the exclusion of the substation counter girls. As found by the Regional Director both groups of counter girls perform the same functions which include for the most part certain production work which is also performed by full-time production employees working in the production area of the main plant. While the substation counter girls are located away from the main plant, such geographical separation within the metropolitan area is not under the circumstances of this case sufficient to give them a separate community of interest. Indeed, the Regional Director by including the Town and Country presser in the unit minimized the factor of geographical separation with respect to the Employer's overall operations. The record here discloses that the operations at the main plant and the substations are parts of a single integrated business within a metropolitan area. Virtually all garments taken in by the several receiving sources used by the Employer - main 'Independent Linen Service and Bugle Coat, Apron & Linen Service, Inc., etc, supra Haag Drug Company, 169 NLRB No 111, relied upon by the Regional Director, is inapposite 'Cf. Laundry Owners Association of Greater Cincinnati, 123 NLRB 543, in which all clerks were excluded from a plant production unit because "even those clerks who do some clothes marking spend only a very small part of their working time in this operation ," making their "duties and interests" similar to those "of other retail clerks rather than those of production employees." plant counters,- substations, route drivers, and wholesale accounts - are funnelled through for service at the main plant. None of the substations, except for Town and Country, has a local manager and none has any meaningful identity as a self contained economic unit which would constitute a separate appropriate unit. Under all the circumstances we find that the outlets or substations here involved are merely adjuncts to the main plant' and that the counter girls at such locations, because they spend a major part of their time performing functions which are integrated with the production processes at the main plant, must be included in the unit.' For the reasons stated above, we find that the appropriate unit in this case is: All production and maintenance employees of the Employer, including counter clerks, employed in the metropolitan area of Grand Rapids, Michigan, but excluding office clerical employees, relay and route drivers, guards and supervisors as defined in the Act. Although the unit we thus find appropriate is broader than that sought by the Petitioner, we shall not dismiss the petition inasmuch as the Petitioner has not specifically disclaimed interest in such unit. We shall therefore remand the case to the Regional Director for the purpose of conducting an election pursuant to his Decision and Direction of Election as modified herein,' subject to his ascertaining that the Petitioner has made an adequate showing of interest among the employees in the appropriate unit, and with the further exception that the eligibility date shall be that immediately preceding this date.4 'A corrected 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 7 within 7 days after the date of this Decision on Review. The list may initially be used by the Regional Director to assist in determining an adequate showing of interest . The Regional Director shall make the list available to all parties to the election when he shall have determined that an adequate showing of interest among the employees in the unit found appropriate has been established. No extension of tune 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 'If the Petitioner does not now desire to participate in an election in the unit we find appropriate herein, we shall permit it to withdraw its petition without prejudice upon written notice to the Regional Director within 10 days from the date of this Decision.