Kroger Co.

KROGER COMPANY 835 Kroger Company, Atlanta Division and Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America, AFL-CIO, Local 405, Petitioner. Case 10-RC-9412 April 3, 1973 DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION BY MEMBERS FANNING, KENNEDY, AND PENELLO Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9(c) of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, a hearing was held before Hearing Officer Linda R. Birrel. Thereafter, pursuant to Section 102.67 of the National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regula- tions and Statements of Procedure, Series 8, as amended, and by direction of the Regional Director for Region 10, this case was transferred to the National Labor Relations Board for decision.' Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, the National Labor Relations Board has delegated its authority in this proceeding to a three-member panel. The Board has reviewed the Hearing Officer's rulings made at the hearing and finds that they are free from prejudicial error. They are hereby affirmed. 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 policies of the Act to assert jurisdiction herein. 2. The parties stipulated, and we find, that the Petitioner and Intervenor are labor organizations within the meaning of the Act. 3. A question affecting commerce exists concern- ing the representation of the employees of the Employer within the meaning of Sections 9(c)(1) and 2(6) and (7) of the Act. 4. The Petitioner seeks to add the delicatessen employees at the Employer's Northgate Mall Store in Chattanooga, Tennessee, to its existing citywide unit of meat department employees. The Intervenor seeks to add the delicatessen employees at the Northgate Mall Store to its existing divisionwide unit of grocery employees. The Employer agrees with the Intervenor. Both Petitioner and Intervenor contend that this decision should apply to all delicatessen employees in Chattanooga stores, including those established in the future. The Employer contends that this decision should apply only to the existing delicatessen department in the Northgate Mall Store, and not to any other delicatessen departments that may be established in the future. For the reasons enumerated below, we find that the delicatessen employees at the existing delicatessen department in the Northgate Mall Store constitute an appropriate voting group to select either the Petition- er or the Intervenor as their representative or to remain unrepresented. The Employer's Atlanta Division operates 54 supermarkets. Of the Employer's eight stores in Chattanooga, only the recently opened Northgate Mall Store has a delicatessen department and is involved in this proceeding. The Northgate Mall Store opened in March 1972. The store is supervised by the store manager, who normally would be aided by an assistant manager, and is divided into meat, produce, grocery, and delicatessen departments. The departments are head- ed by lead clerks who do the ordering for their departments; the parties stipulated that they are not supervisors as defined in the Act. Each department has its own key on the store's cash registers and its own sales plan. There is no employee interchange between departments except that occasionally if the store is very busy either a delicatessen clerk or a meat clerk may operate the express checkout register and occasionally a cashier may help the delicatessen department if it is busy and one of the delicatessen clerks is out to lunch. The delicatessen department sells luncheon meats, cooked chicken and ribs, bakery products, cheeses, salads, dressing, and pickles. Delicatessen clerks bake some of the bakery items, prepare some of the salads, and cook the chickens and ribs. The delicates- sen clerks, besides preparing foods and cooking, also wait on customers and stock shelves. The delicates- sen department does not share its working area with any other department, and the meat products it uses are billed directly to the delicatessen department. There is no interchange of products; however, the meat department cuts the delicatessen's chickens. Except for the meat department journeyman and head meatcutter, the grocery, delicatessen, and meat clerks have approximately the same rates of pay and the same duties and skills. The delicatessen employees share similar working conditions with employees in the meat department represented by the Petitioner and with employees in the remaining departments represented by the Intervenor in its overall grocery unit . The delicates- sen employees have the same overall supervision and similar duties and rates of pay as have employees in the other two units, and employees in both the delicatessen department and the meat department I Retail Clerks Union, Local 1063, affiliated with Retail Clerks international Association was allowed to intervene in this proceeding 202 NLRB No. 117 836 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD interchange with employees represented by the Intervenor to the same limited extent . Accordingly, we conclude that the delicatessen employees have a sufficient community of interest with employees in the other two units to warrant their being represented by either union as part of its existing unit.2 Under these circumstances , we shall permit the employees in the voting group to select either the Petitioner or the Intervenor as their representative or to remain unrepresented . If a majority vote for either the Petitioner or the Intervenor , they shall be added to the respective unit represented by the said labor organization ; otherwise, they shall remain unrepre- sented. Accordingly, we find that the following employees constitute an appropriate voting group to select either the Petitioner or Intervenor as their represent- ative or to remain unrepresented. All delicatessen employees employed in the Employer's Northgate Mall store, but excluding all other employees, guards, and supervisors as defined in the Act. [Direction of Election and Excelsior footnote omitted from publication.] 2 Kroger Company, 201 NLRB No 138