Coca-Cola Bottling Co.

COCA-COLA BOTTLING CO. Coca-Cola Bottling Company of Forth Worth and Amalgamated Meat Cutters & Butcher Workmen of North America, AFL-CIO, Local 540. Case 16- RC-7320 May 10, 1977 DECISION AND ORDER BY CHAIRMAN FANNING AND MEMBERS PENELLO AND MURPHY Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9(c) of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, a hearing was held before Hearing Officer Claude Witherspoon of the National Labor Relations Board. Following the hearing and pursuant to Section 102.67 of the Board's Rules and Regulations and Statements of Procedure, Series 8, as amended, the Regional Director for Region 16, transferred this case to the Board for decision. Thereafter, the Employer filed a brief in support of its position. 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 proceeding, the Board finds: I. 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 Petitioner is a labor organization claiming to represent certain employees of the Employer. 3. No question affecting commerce exists con- cerning the representation of employees of the Employer within the meaning of Section 9(c)(1) and Section 2(6) and (7) of the Act. 4. In its petition the Petitioner sought to represent a unit described as "all regular truck drivers and all pre-salesmen in the Employer's plant in Tarrant County, Texas, excluding all production, mainte- nance, warehousemen, cold-bottle drivers, office employees, supervisors, guards and watchmen as defined in the Act." At the hearing the Petitioner clarified its unit position by requesting that the unit include all omega drivers, pre-salesmen, conventional route salesmen and transport drivers, but exclude cold-bottle route salesmen, full service route salesmen, snappy snack route salesmen, and specialists. At the conclusion of the hearing, the Petitioner expressed its willingness to participate in an election in a broader unit, including I Employer's other departments, not involved in this proceeding, are responsible for service, garage maintenance, advertising, and the business office. 229 NLRB No. 92 the cold-bottle route salesmen, full service route salesmen, and snappy snack route salesmen provid- ing that such unit exclude employees classified as specialists. The Employer contends that only a unit consisting of all employees in its sales department and the transport drivers is appropriate. There is no bargaining history at the Employer's plant. The Employer is engaged in bottling and distrib- uting soft drinks and allied vending machine pro- ducts in Tarrant County, Texas, where it operates from three facilities; i.e., downtown Fort Worth, northside Fort Worth, and Arlington, Texas. The production facility is located in the downtown facility and the Employer maintains warehouses at all three locations. The Petitioner seeks to represent employees at all three locations. The Employer's operation is administratively di- vided into separate departments. The sales depart- ment includes all of the petitioned-for employees except the transport drivers, who are part of the production department.' The parties agreed to include the transport drivers in any unit found appropriate. The Petitioner seeks to represent the following classifications of employees in the sales department: Pre-salesmen route employees: There are 17 employ- ees in this classification and it is their responsibility to sell the Employer's products to both high and low volume home package accounts, including super- markets, convenience stores, liquor stores, "mom and pop" grocery stores, drugstores, and service stations. They also make arrangements for the purchase of coolers and racks. In addition, they stock or display the Employer's products on customers' premises, and collect payments on certain accounts. Omega drivers: There are eight employees in this classification and it is their job to deliver the Employer's product to larger volume accounts such as grocery stores, after the pre-salesmen have secured the customers' orders. They have the responsibility for delivering the products to the backrooms of stores, picking up the empties, and collecting on the accounts. Conventional route salesmen: There are 16 employ- ees in this classification and it is their duty to sell and deliver the Employer's product to outlets, such as drugstores, small grocery stores, liquor stores and convenience stores, where the product is taken home, rather than consumed on the premises. Additionally, they sell rack replacements and collect on coolers. The Petitioner would exclude from the unit all sales department employees in the following classification: Cold-bottle route salesmen: There are 35 employees in this category and it is their function to sell and 553 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD deliver bottled products to accounts where the product is consumed cold, usually on the premises. They also make arrangements for the placement of coolers and racks, and collect on these accounts. Basically, these employees service small convenience stores, "mom and pop" grocery stores, restaurants, and schools. Full service route salesmen: There are 10 employees in this classification who are responsible for placing, filling, and maintaining company-owned vending machines at outlets which would include schools, hotels, motels, offices, and hospitals. Additionally, they are required to try and sell new products and coolers, and find better cooler locations. Snappy snack route salesmen: There are six employ- ees in this category who are responsible for selling and displaying certain snack items in the same outlets served by the full service routemen. These products are usually purchased, rather than manu- factured, by the Employer. Specialists: There are seven employees in this classification. It is their function to sell coolers and racks, as well as the necessary products to fill them. They are primarily responsible for securing new accounts or for expanding sales to existing accounts. They also remodel display areas on the customers' premises. The similarity of duties, skills, fringe benefits, and supervision of all employees in the sales department persuades us that the Petitioner's proposed unit of less than all sales employees is inappropriate. All employees in the sales department perform similar duties requiring similar skills. These duties are basically to sell and/or deliver the Employer's products to a variety of retail outlets in the same general metropolitan area. In performing these duties, the employees drive company-owned cars or trucks of assorted sizes, and use the same loading area at each of the Employer's three locations. The record shows that all sales department employ- ees wear the same standard Coca-Cola uniform: dark gray pants and a lighter gray shirt with white pinstripes and dark gray sleeves and a red Coca-Cola logo. The specialists wear this uniform when they are remodeling a beverage department or vault window. In contrast, the production employees wear a solid green uniform. The record reveals that the duties of employees in the job classifications discussed above overlap in many respects. Thus, there is little difference between the cold-bottle and conventional route salesmen because they call on many of the same types of outlets. Additionally, the pre-salesmen have some of the same duties as the cold-bottle and conventional 2 It appears that one pre-salesman is paid at an hourly rate. The reason for this departure is not shown. route salesmen. In addition, the record reveals that cold-bottle route salesmen sometimes work on Saturdays as omega drivers, and at other times substitute for conventional route or full service route salesmen. The Petitioner's proposed unit does not distinguish between employees who are engaged exclusively in delivering the Employer's products (omega drivers) and those engaged solely in selling the Employer's products (pre-salesmen). Indeed, the Petitioner also seeks the conventional route salesmen who sell and deliver the Employer's products. Further evidence of the community of interest existing among all employees in the sales department is the frequent transfer of employees from one job classification to another. For example, of the 17 pre- salesmen whom Petitioner seeks to include in the unit, 8 have previously worked as cold-bottle route salesmen, or full service drivers whom the Petitioner seeks to exclude from the unit. Similarly, of the 16 conventional route salesmen sought to be included, 4 previously worked as cold-bottle route salesmen whom, as noted, Petitioner would exclude. The other areas of the sales department operation have the same high degree of transfers between job classifica- tions. All employees in the sales department enjoy the same vacation, pension, sick leave, hospital-life insurance, and bonus benefits. All sales department employees attend regularly scheduled sales meetings. In regard to salary structure, the conventional route salesmen whom Petitioner seeks to represent are paid on a salary-plus-commission basis, the same as the cold-bottle and full service route salesmen whom Petitioner would exclude from the unit. Similarly, the pre-salesmen, whom the Petitioner would include in the unit, and the snappy snack route salesmen and specialists, whom Petitioner would exclude, are compensated on a straight salary basis.2 It is clear, therefore, that the method of compensation cannot form the basis for finding the requested unit appropriate. All sales department employees are under the supervision, direction, and control of Sales Manager David Van Houten who handles the labor relations for all employees in the sales department. Additionally, there is overlapping supervision among the job classifications. Thus, for example, two supervisors direct the work of cold-bottle routemen, whom Petitioner would exclude, as well as conven- tional, full service, and omega drivers, whom Petitioner seeks to include in the unit. Similarly, three other supervisors oversee a combination of cold-bottle and conventional delivery employees while one supervisor oversees both omega drivers 554 COCA-COLA BOTTLING CO. and pre-salesmen. Of the remaining four supervisors, two direct cold-bottle, one directs full service, and one directs snappy snack employees exclusively. Obviously, the method of supervision has no rela- tionship to the requested unit. Based on all of the foregoing, we find that a unit limited to omega drivers, pre-salesmen, conventional route salesmen, and transport drivers is too limited in scope where, as here, there is no factual, logical, or rational basis for excluding the other classifications in the sales department. 3 As stated previously, the Petitioner agreed to participate in an election in a broader unit provided that such a unit excluded the employees classified as specialists. The specialists, as indicated above, are primarily involved in selling coolers, delivering racks, remodeling beverage departments, remodeling vault windows in convenience stores, and obtaining new locations for full service accounts. When they sell a rack the specialists are also selling the products that go on the rack like the other salesmen. All of the specialists have been on routes before and are paid a straight salary similar to that of the pre-salesmen, snappy snack route salesmen, and omega drivers. It should be noted that the specialists are directly supervised by David Van Houten and work out of 3 See Walker-Roemer Dairies, Inc., 196 NLRB 20 (1972), where the Board found the petitioner requested a unit too narrow in scope and directed an election in a combined unit consisting of both wholesale and retail route salesmen since both categories sold and delivered essentially the same products and had frequent daily contacts. the main plant location. They share offices located near the loading dock, but have no secretaries, and work in their offices only for a short period of time each day as most of their time is spent at customers' stores. The record indicates that the specialists perform functions similar to those of other employees in the sales department and we find that their duties and interests are more closely allied with the sales department than any other group of employees in the Employer's plant. Moreover, to exclude the special- ists would render them the only unrepresented employees in the sales departments Therefore, we find that the specialists share a community of interest with the other employees in the unit, and that no compelling reason has been advanced for excluding them from such unit. Inasmuch as the Petitioner has unequivocally indi- cated that it is unwilling to participate in an election in any unit which includes the specialists, we are contrained to dismiss the petition.5 ORDER It is hereby ordered that the petition be, and it hereby is, dismissed. 4 Victor Industries Corporation ofCalifornia. 215 NLRB 48 (1974). 5 Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace d/b/a Sacred Heart General Hospital, 219 NLRB 966 (1975). 555