ITT Continental Baking Co., Inc.

DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD ITT Continental Baking Company, Inc. and Retail Clerks Union Local 1504, chartered by Retail Clerks International Association, AFL-CIO, Peti- tioner. Case 13-RC-14224 August 11, 1977 DECISION ON REVIEW AND ORDER BY MEMBERS JENKINS, MURPHY, AND WALTHER On December 17, 1976, the Regional Director for Region 13 issued a Decision and Direction of Election in the above-entitled proceeding, in which he found appropriate, in accord with the Petitioner's request, separate units of thrift store employees at 2 of the Employer's 21 branch locations in the Metropolitan Chicago area. Thereafter, in accor- dance with Section 102.67 of the National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations, Series 8, as amended, the Employer filed a timely request for review of the Regional Director's decision, together with a supporting brief, on the grounds that the Regional Director made erroneous findings of fact and departed from Board precedent in finding the single store units appropriate. The National Labor Relations Board, by telegraph- ic order dated January 27, 1977, granted the request for review and stayed the election pending decision on review. Thereafter, the parties filed briefs on review. 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 entire record in this case with respect to the issues under review, including the briefs on review, and makes the following findings: The Regional Director concluded that the nine employees at the Hazel Crest, Illinois, thrift store and the six employees at the Matteson, Illinois, thrift store locations constituted separate appropriate units based on his findings that the individual stores have autonomous management and maintain separate and distinct identities. The Employer contends that the record evidence herein rebuts the presumption favoring the appropriateness of the requested single thrift store units. We find merit in this contention. The Employer operates a nationwide chain of bread and cake bakeries which are organized into administrative divisions called regional offices. The Employer's office in River Grove, Illinois, coordi- nates the operations of eight bakeries in five I As identified by the 1970 U.S. Bureau of Census report on Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas. 231 NLRB No. 61 Midwestern States, including three which are located in and serve the Chicago metropolitan area. These 3 are a Hostess Cake bakery at Schiller Park, Illinois, and 2 Wonder Bread bakeries in Chicago and Hammond, Indiana, whose products are distributed through 31 branch locations from which it operates approximately 400 wholesale routes, as well as 21 over-the-counter retail thrift stores. The bakery products are shipped by tractor-trailer to the various branches for reloading onto smaller trucks for delivery to grocery stores by route salesmen. The branches are combination garage-warehouse distri- bution centers, all of which typically contain truck repair and garage facilities, an office for branch supervision, a settlement room for driver-salesmen, and a storage area for returned bakery products. Branches are grouped along product lines, belonging to either the cake or bread division. Thus, the Hostess Cake bakery has established 19 cake branches, and the 2 Wonder Bread plants, which are operated as a single bakery, distribute their products through 12 bread branches. The Employer maintains thrift stores at each of the 12 bread branches and at 9 of the 19 cake branches, in which primarily returned or unsold cake and bread products are sold to the public at discount prices. Geographically, 13 of the 21 thrift stores are located in the Chicago metropolitan area, and 4 are in the contiguous Gary-Hammond-East Chicago metropolitan area.' The stores at Rockford, Peoria, and Urbana, Illinois, and Michigan City, Indiana, are outside those metropolitan areas. The requested Hazel Crest and Matteson stores are approximately 5 miles apart and the next closest store, at Dolton, is about the same distance from Hazel Crest. There is no evidence of any bargaining history for thrift store employees at any of the 21 branch thrift stores here involved. With regard to other branch employees, the record shows that the Employer is a party to a multiemployer contract with International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 142 which includes in its coverage all inside employees (other than thrift store employees) at the Indiana branches plus a branch at Dolton, Illinois, and another multiemploy- er contract with Teamsters Local 734 including similar employees at all the other Illinois branches. The Employer also has a multiemployer contract with Teamsters Local 142 covering sales drivers, sales supervisors, and transport drivers at the Indiana branches, plus Dolton, and one with Teamsters Local 734 covering such employees at all but five Illinois branches. Also, a unit of mechanics at all Indiana branches is represented by Teamsters Local 142, and a unit of all Illinois based mechanics is represented 326 ITT CONTINENTAL BAKING CO. by International Association of Machinists, Local 701. Each of the Chicago cake and bread bakeries has a general manager with full responsibility for, and administrative control over, the entire operation of the bakery and its branches. Labor relations policies, payroll, and employee records are centralized at the personnel office of each bakery. Under each bakery general manager is a general sales manager and area sales managers who oversee the distribution and sale of either bread or cake products at wholesale. Employed at every branch are driver-salesmen, warehousemen, and mechanics who are immediately supervised by branch managers (or branch supervi- sors at smaller branches such as Hazel Crest). Thrift stores, on the other hand, are under the direct supervision of a thrift store sales manager for each bakery subdivision. These sales managers, who report to the general manager, are responsible for all aspects of thrift store operations within their respec- tive bakery subdivisions. The sales managers do not occupy offices at the bakeries, but are constantly calling on thrift stores, maintaining almost daily telephone contact from store to store and almost weekly in-person communication with each store concerning, inter alia, inventory, sales, merchandis- ing, pricing, hours, staffing, and physical appearance. The sales managers also confer with each other regularly to arrange for product interchange, called "standard transfers," among and between the respec- tive branches, because all thrift stores, whether at cake or bread branches, offer for sale a mix of bread and cake products. The 21 thrift stores are staffed by approximately 112 employees, including about 65 full timers. Store manpower levels and hours of operation are set by sales managers and vary primarily according to location. Thrift store employees punch the same timeclock as other branch employees, have uniform company nonunion fringe benefits, and receive standard wage rates based on an annual survey, conducted by the bakery personnel departments, of competitive wages paid in the Chicago marketing area. Within each store is a thrift store manager who has certain duties and responsibilities apart from other store employees. Thrift store managers prepare employee work schedules and submit weekly inven- tory reports which are utilized by sales managers in preparing "standard transfers." In the event of a shortage or overage of inventory, thrift store manag- ers have instructions to notify someone in authority but cannot take any corrective action on their own without first securing sales manager approval. Nor are thrift store managers authorized to impose disciplinary action on store employees, but may only bring such employee problems to the attention of the sales manager, branch manager, supervisor, or the bakery personnel department. If thrift store employ- ees fail to report for work, store managers can require others to work overtime but must thereafter obtain after-the-fact approval from the branch manager or supervisor, who customarily sign all branch employee timecards before forwarding them to the bakery payroll department. The record evidence relating to thrift store employ- ee supervision shows that, although the sales manag- er submits annual budgetary information in connec- tion with his responsibility for thrift store manpower levels, the actual request for store replacements or additional personnel may be initiated by either a thrift store manager, branch manager, supervisor, or the sales manager, and that the hiring authorization must be approved at the bakery or regional level. The branch manager or supervisor ordinarily interviews employee applicants whom they refer, along with their evaluation of them, to the sales manager who thereupon makes a final hiring decision contingent only upon a medical examination. As a matter of courtesy, the sales manager usually defers to the branch manager or supervisor in the event the latter has any objection to a particular applicant. All new thrift store hires undergo a 20-day probationary and training period during which they also receive an orientation by bakery personnel department employees. Sales managers make fre- quent visits to stores with trainees in order to observe their work and to get the views of the store manager. After the 20-day period, the sales manager and the branch manager or supervisor submit an evaluation of the probationary employee, with a recommenda- tion for retention or termination, to the bakery personnel department for final action. For employees other than probationary, the sales manager alone is responsible for making periodic evaluations, includ- ing recommendations for individual merit increases or general salary range increases which are also subject to bakery or regional approval. Although the sales manager and the branch manager or supervisor has separate and final authority to implement the Employer's four-step discipline-discharge procedures with regard to thrift store employees, they customari- ly consult with one another prior to taking any disciplinary action. At branches which have a branch supervisor rather than a branch manager, only the sales manager can exercise discharge authority over thrift store employees. Also, in that connection, the record shows that sales managers conduct all exit interviews with discharged thrift store employees. The record testimony indicates that thrift store managers and employees usually report store or employee problems to their sales manager in the 327 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD course of their regular and frequent daily visits, and when unable to do so they can and do consult with their branch manager or supervisor. Based on the record as a whole, we perceive the sales manager's role in the direct supervision of thrift store employees to be far more significant than that of the branch manager or supervisor, as the former is concerned entirely with ensuring efficient bakery- wide thrift store operations which he oversees daily by telephone and in person, while the latter is primarily responsible for the warehousing, distribu- tion, and wholesale sales organization at the branch level, under the bakery sales hierarchy. In our opinion the degree of autonomy at the thrift store level is critical to the unit issues raised herein. Contrary to the Regional Director, we find from the foregoing record evidence that there is insufficient managerial and supervisory autonomy at the local thrift store level to justify his single store unit findings. At the outset, we note that thrift store managers are found by the Regional Director not to be statutory supervisors. And, as is evident from the foregoing, exercise of branch supervisory authority over thrift store employees is merely ancillary to the direct supervision provided by the sales manager. Thus, in all the circumstances, especially the close geographic proximity of the requested stores to other stores, the pattern of the Employer's bargaining for other branch employees, and the absence of signifi- cant autonomy at the store level with respect to labor relations matters, we conclude that the presumption favoring the requested single store units has been rebutted.2 Accordingly, as we have found that the thrift store units sought are not appropriate units for the purposes of collective bargaining, and as the Peti- tioner has not indicated any desire to represent the Employer's employees in any broader unit,3 we shall dismiss the petition filed herein. ORDER It is hereby ordered that the petition herein be, and it hereby is, dismissed. MEMBER MURPHY, dissenting: I cannot agree with my colleagues that this petition should be dismissed. Rather, I find, as did the 2 The Lawson Milk Company Division, Consolidated Foods Corporation, 213 NLRB 360(1974). 3 In finding the requested single thrift store units to be inappropriate, we need not and do not pass upon the Employer's contention that the only appropriate unit herein must encompass employees in all 21 area thrift stores. Regional Director, that the record evidence concern- ing thrift store supervisory autonomy, bargaining history, employee interchange, and geographic prox- imity provides no basis for rebutting the presumption favoring the appropriateness for bargaining purposes of thrift store employees at the Hazel Crest and Matteson branches in separate, single store units. I note that my colleagues do not take issue with the findings of the Regional Director that there is no bargaining history applicable to thrift store employ- ees, that there is virtually no interchange among thrift store employees, and that the thrift stores lack geographic cohesiveness. Rather, their contrary view is predicated wholly upon their finding of insufficient managerial and supervisory thrift store autonomy, which is based on their perception of the thrift store sales manager's role in the direct supervision of thrift store employees as far more significant than that of the branch manager or supervisor. With respect to the role of the branch manager at Matteson and the branch supervisor at Hazel Crest, the record shows, and the majority members do not dispute, that they possess the same degree of authority as sales managers over thrift store employ- ees regarding hiring; probationary employee evalu- ation; operational and employee problems; and grievances, discipline, and discharge, except that the authority of branch supervisors is limited to an "initial say in the discharge and reprimand proce- dure . . . ." Admittedly, the branch manager or supervisor is the Employer's only day-to-day supervi- sory and management individual who has full authority and responsibility for the entire branch operation, including the thrift store; sales managers visit branch stores less frequently than once a week. Thus, my colleagues' opinion as to the relative significance of the supervisory role played by sales managers vis-a-vis branch supervision does not negate, or in any way detract from, the salient fact that the branch manager and supervisor exercise significant authority over thrift store employees in areas affecting their status.4 Accordingly, in view of the lack of evidence to rebut the presumption favoring single store units, and the fact that no labor organization seeks to represent a broader unit, I would direct elections in the units requested herein. 4 See Erickson Barron Company, Holiday Station Stores, Inc., Holiday Village, Inc., Lyndale Terminal Company, d/b/a Holiday Village, 226 NLRB 1305 (1976); Pneumo Corporation, d/bla P &d C (Cross Co.), 228 NLRB 1443 (1977). 328