263 NLRB 804
Artcraft Displays, Inc.; Freeman Decorating Company; C.D. Displays, Inc., d/b/a Freeman Design & Display Company; Transamerica Convention Service, Inc.; United Display, Inc.
DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Artcraft Displays, Inc.; Freeman Decorating Compa-
ny; C.D. Displays, Inc., d/b/a Freeman Design
& Display Company; Transamerica Convention
Service, Inc.; United Display, Inc. and Inde-
pendent Decorators & Exhibit Employees Alli-
ance Local No. 1, Petitioner. Case 23-RC-5049
August 30, 1982
SUPPLEMENTAL DECISION
BY CHAIRMAN VAN DE WATER AND
MEMBERS JENKINS AND HUNTER
On July 23, 1982, the National Labor Relations
Board issued a Decision and Direction of Elections
in the above-entitled proceeding.' The Decision
described an appropriate bargaining unit for the
employees of each Employer. The units included
part-time convention and decorating employees
"with over 1,000 hours seniority currently work-
ing, or available for work and who appear on the
November 1981 seniority list of Sign and Pictorial
Painters, Local Union No. 550, a/w International
Brotherhood of Painters and Allied Trades." The
Board's Decision also set forth the eligibility for-
mula for determining which of those part-time em-
ployees are eligible to vote in the elections. The
Decision stated that "[t]he part-time employees eli-
gible to vote are thus those who have worked for a
minimum of 15 days during the second calendar
quarter of 1982."
Thereafter, the Petitioner, Independent Decora-
tors & Exhibit Employees Alliance Local No. 1,
and the Intervenor, Sign and Pictorial Painters,
Local Union No. 550, affiliated with the Interna-
tional Brotherhood of Painters and Allied Trades,
each filed a motion for clarification. The motions
state that there are several interpretations of the
Board's Decision regarding which part-time em-
ployees are eligible to vote, and request that the
Board issue an order clarifying its Decision.
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the
National Labor Relations Act, as amended, the Na-
tional Labor Relations Board has delegated its au-
thority in this proceeding to a three-member panel.
It appears that the problems of interpretation
raised by the motions for clarification are rooted in
the unit descriptions defining part-time employees
as those with over 1,000 hours seniority currently
working, or available for work and who appear on
the November 1981 seniority list of Sign and Picto-
rial Painters, Local Union No. 550, a/w Interna-
tional Brotherhood of Painters and Allied Trades.
This language should not have appeared in the unit
i 262 NLRB 1233. An inadvertent error in the Decision and Direction
of Elections was corrected by an Order from the Office of the Executive
Secretary dated July 29, 1982.
263 NLRB No. 117
descriptions. It was inadvertently included because
the units were so described at the hearing by the
Petitioner, none of the other parties objected to the
inclusion of such language,2 and the briefs submit-
ted by the parties did not address this issue at all.
We therefore will delete the phrase "with over
1,000 hours seniority currently working, or availa-
ble for work and who appear on the November
1981 seniority list of Sign and Pictorial Painters,
Local Union No. 550, a/w International Brother-
hood of Painters and Allied Trades," from the unit
descriptions.
The appropriate units are therefore as follows:
All full-time and regular part-time convention
and decorating employees employed by Art-
craft Displays, Inc., at its Houston, Texas, op-
erations, excluding office clerical employees,
guards, watchmen, and supervisors as defined
by the Act.
All full-time and regular part-time convention
and decorating employees employed by Free-
man Decorating Company, at its Houston,
Texas, operations, excluding office clerical em-
ployees, guards, watchmen, and supervisors as
defined by the Act.
All full-time and regular part-time convention
and decorating employees employed by C.D.
Displays, Inc., d/b/a Freeman Design & Dis-
play Company, at its Houston, Texas, oper-
ations, excluding office clerical employees,
guards, watchmen, and supervisors as defined
by the Act.
All full-time and regular part-time convention
and
decorating
employees
employed
by
Transamerica Convention Service, Inc., at its
Houston, Texas, operations, excluding office
clerical employees, guards, watchmen, and su-
pervisors as defined by the Act.
All full-time and regular part-time convention
and decorating employees employed by United
Display, Inc., at its Houston, Texas, oper-
ations, excluding office clerical employees,
guards, watchmen, and supervisors as defined
by the Act.
The "1,000 hour" seniority requirement is the
type of issue that is usually addressed in the con-
text of an eligibility formula. After careful consid-
eration, we have decided that the "1,000 hour" se-
niority requirement should be included as an alter-
native eligibility formula. This conclusion is based
I Although the attorney for the Freeman companies raised a question
as to why "1,000 hours is an appropriate time," no evidence disputing its
appropriateness was presented by the Freeman companies, nor any other
party, nor was it subsequently objected to by any party.
804
ARTCRAFT DISPLAYS, INC.
upon the fact that no party objected to such a re-
quirement at the hearing, or subsequently. The eli-
gibility formula that appears in the Board's Deci-
sion is accurate. Thus, the part-time employees eli-
gible to vote are "those who have worked for a
minimum of 15 days during the second calendar
quarter of 1982." However, also eligible to vote, in
the alternative, are those part-time employees with
over 1,000 hours seniority currently working, or
available for work and who appear on the Novem-
ber 1981 seniority list of Sign and Pictorial Paint-
ers, Local Union No. 550, a/w International Broth-
erhood of Painters and Allied Trades.3
' The Board relies upon the sound discretion of the Regional Director
for Region 23 to determine whether the election should be postponed for
purposes of compiling new Excelsior lists and allowing the parties suffi-
cient time to campaign.
Chairman Van de Water finds that the language that was inadvertently
included in the descriptions of the bargaining units should be deleted
from those descriptions. The Chairman would find, however, that the
part-time employees eligible to vote are those with over 1,000 hours se-
niority currently working, or available for work and who appear on the
November 1981 seniority list of Sign and Pictorial Painters, Local Union
No. 550, a/w International Brotherhood of Painters and Allied Trades,
and who have also worked for a particular employer in the second calen-
dar quarter for at least 15 days. The Chairman believes that this formula
is consistent with the Board's original Decision, and thus cannot affect
the parties' expectations regarding the part-time employees who are eligi-
ble to vote.
The Chairman notes that using an alternative formula as provided by
the majority may create confusion regarding in which unit or units an
employee meeting the "1,000 hour" requirement, but not the "15 day"
requirement, may vote.
805