Consolidated Packaging Corp.

564 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD Consolidated Packaging Corporation and General Drivers Union, Local 332, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America, Petitioner. Case 7-RC-9132 September 22, 1969 DECISION ON REVIEW AND ORDER By CHAIRMAN MCCULLOCH AND MEMBERS BROWN AND JENKINS On December 18, 1968, the Regional Director for Region 7 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, including driver leadmen, could he appropriately severed, if they so desired, from the established production and maintenance unit represented by the Intervenor, Local Union No. 421, International Union, Allied Industrial Workers of America, AFL-CIO.' Thereafter, in accordance with Section 102.67 of the National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations, Series 8, as amended, the Intervenor filed a timely request for review of such decision, alleging, inter alia , that the truckdrivers may not be severed under existing precedent. The Intervenor also filed a brief in support of its request. By telegraphic order dated February 17, 1969, the Board granted the request for review and stayed the election pending decision on review. The Board has considered the entire record in this case, including the briefs, with respect to the issue under review, and makes the following findings: The Employer, a producer and distributor of corrugated packaging materials, maintains a plant at Flint. Michigan, and a warehouse at Grand Blanc, Michigan, about 10 miles away, where it employs a combined total of about 150 production and maintenance employees, including 11 truckdrivers and 2 driver leadmen, all of whom have been continuously represented by the intervenor since 1956. The truckdrivers are engaged principally in delivering the Employer's finished products to the customers. Normally, the shipping department to which the truckdrivers are assigned, is headed by a salaried supervisor. At the time of the hearing herein, the salaried supervisor had recently resigned and the shipping department operation was under the direction of the driver leadman at the main plant and the driver leadman at the warehouse.' All of the truckdrivers at the main plant work the first shift, except one, who works the second shift. The trailers are generally loaded when the drivers report for 'Intervention was permitted on the basis of the Intervenor' s contract with the Employer work. A driver is assigned to make a specific run and, after completing that run, he returns to the plant for additional assignments or to punch out for the day. Runs are made daily, usually to locations within the city of Flint, to the warehouse, and to other locations within a radius of from 100 to 200 miles. Infrequent runs are also made to locations outside the State of Michigan. When a driver is not driving, he performs such duties as operating a forklift truck, sweeping the dock area, and loading trucks.' The driver leadmen spend practically all of their present worktime performing nondriving functions, such as assigning the daily runs, seeing that trucks are properly loaded, and spotting trailers at the dock. They drive trucks on rare occasions. No other employees drive trucks. All production and maintenance employees, including the truckdrivers, as well as the driver leadmen, are hourly paid, punch a timeclock, receive identical fringe benefits. use the same cafeteria, and have the same opportunity to bid for jobs and share in available overtime work in their respective job classifications. Five of the 11 truckdrivers moved into their present positions from production jobs by exercising their plantwide seniority to bid on truckdriver jobs when they became available. The Employer has no formalized training program for truckdrivers. Qualifications for the position of truckdriver require that an employee knows how to drive a truck and passes certain State and I.C.C requirements. 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 significant part of their regular work time performing work identical to that of other employees whom the Petitioner does not seek to represent: they 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 normally have the same supervision as other shipping department employees whom the Petitioner has not included in the requested unit. All these factors point to a lack of separate interests of 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 The parties stipulated , and the record shows, that the driver leadmen are not supervisors within the meaning of the Act 'The record shows that the truckdriver at the main plant on the second shift spends about 50 percent of his time in driving and the remaining time working around the plant performing nondriving functions, and that the other truckdrivers spend about 90 to 95 percent of their time in driving and the remaining time working around the plant performing nondriving functions 178NLRBNo 88 CONSOLIDATED PACKAGING 565 overall unit. In these circumstances, we reject the Petitioner's claim that the truckdrivers are entitled to separate representation.' Accordingly. we shall dismiss the petition.5 ORDER It is hereby ordered that the petition herein be, and it hereby is, dismissed. MEMBER FANNING, dissenting: Unlike my colleagues, I would grant a self-determination election to these truckdrivers who spend between 90 and 95 percent of their working time driving trucks, usually within the State in a radius up to 200 miles, often working 2 to 4 hours over the normal work day. Simply stated, these drivers come to work, climb in the cab, and go to their destinations. If work is slow, they are "provided with the hours" on a "fork truck, cleanup, anything general" which work takes about 5 percent up to perhaps 10 percent of their working time. My colleagues translate this into a "significant part" of their regular work time performing work "identical to that of other employees" which surely is a subversion of the dictionary meaning,' i.e., '`1. . . .full of import, expressive. . ., 3. Important, momentous." given for the word "significant." Perhaps, my colleagues are using - indeed it seems they must be using - the word in accord with its second definition, i.e., "2. Suggesting or containing some covert or special meaning." [Emphasis supplied.] I would affirm the Regional Director. See Dura-Containers . Inc. 164 NLRB No. 45; Kalamazoo Paper Box Corp.. 136 NLRB 134 'In view of our determination herein , we find it unnecessary to pass upon the other issues raised in the Intervenor 's request for review •Webster 's New Collegiate Dictionary (1960)