Eastman Interiors, Inc.

610 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD Eastman Interiors, Inc. d/b/a Eastman West and Local Freight Drivers, International Brother- hood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America, Local 208, Petitioner. Case 21-RC-17339 14 December 1984 DECISION ON REVIEW, ORDER, AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION BY CHAIRMAN DOTSON AND MEMBERS ZIMMERMAN AND DENNIS On 25 January 1984- the Regional Director for Region 21 of the National Labor Relations . Board issued a Decision and Direction of Election in the above-entitled proceeding in which he found ap- propriate a unit consisting of all full-time and regu- lar part-time maintenance employees, truck drivers, helpers, dispatcher, customer service representative (CSR), and warehouse employees, including pick- ers, shippers, and receivers, employed by the Em- ployer at its facilities located at 7545 Telegraph Road, Montebello, California, and at 19840 Hamil- ton, Torrance, California; excluding all other em- ployees, office clerical employees,' salespersons, cashiers, guards, professional employees, and super- visors as defined in the Act. 2 In so finding, the Re- gional Director rejected the Petitioner's contention that the unit as petitioned for, limited to warehouse employees at Montebello, excluding the CSR and dispatcher, was an appropriate unit for bargaining. The Regional Director also rejected the Employ- er's contention that the appropriate unit must en- compass all employees at all 9 of the Employer's facilities, approximately 67 to 70 employees.3 Thereafter, in accordance with Section 102.67 of the Board's Rules and Regulations, the Employer filed a timely request for review in which it con- tended, inter alia, that in not finding an overall unit appropriate the Regional Director made erroneous findings of fact and departed from official Board precedent. By mailgram dated 23 February 1984 the request for review was granted. Pursuant to the Board's Rules and Regulations, the election was held on 23 February 1984 in the unit found appropriate by the At the hearing, the parties agreed that any unit found appropnate should exclude the Employer's office personnel who work at the corpo- rate headquarters at Montebello 2 There are approximately 36 employees in the unit found appropriate by the Regional Director 3 The Regional Director also rejected the Employer's alternative con- tentions that (1) all employees in the Employer's combined warehouse!- showroom operations in Montebello and Torrance compnse an appropn- ate unit, (2) the salespersons employed in Montebello should be,included in the petitioned-for unit, or (3) at the very least, the unit also should, include all employees who perform general warehousing duties in Tor- rance RegiOnal Director and the ballots were impounded pending the Board's decision on review. The National Labor Relations Board has delegat- ed its authority in this proceeding to a three- member panel. - The Board has considered the entire record in this case with respect to the issue under review and for the reasons stated below finds that only an overall multifacility Unit is appropriate. The Employer is engaged in the warehousing and retail sale of furniture. Its operation consists of two warehouse/showrooms (Montebello and Tor- rance) and seven retail outlets (Thousand Oaks, Lakewood, Sherman Oaks, Buena Park, West Covina, Culver City, and Arcadia) situated in shop- ping malls, all within southern California. Each of the retail outlets maintains a stockroom which holds merchandise not yet displayed and extra stock. These stockrooms vary in size between 200 and 1500 square feet. Except for the facility in Thousand Oaks, all of the locations are within a radius of approximately 20 miles. Corporate head- quarters are located adjacent to the warehouse/- showroom facility at Montebello. A. Mizrahi is the corporate president of the Employer. Below Miz- rahi in the corporate structure are D. Leyner, the corporate comptroller; B. Sparks, the warehouse operations manager; and P. Linder, the vice presi- dent and general manager. Mizrahi, Leyner, and Linder are located at Montebello corporate head- quarters. Company policies, personnel decisions, advertising, pin-chasing, and payroll are handled centrally at Montebello corporate headquarters. In addition, all merchandise from vendors is received at the Montebello facility and thereafter distributed to the Employer's other locations. There are approximately 34 warehouse employ- ees in the petitioned-for unit at the Montebello fa- cility. The 8-10 warehouse employees who work the day shift receive and store merchandise from vendors, deliver the merchandise to customers at the Employer's "will-call" dock,- maintain the warehouse, and assist the salespeople in rearranging and setting up new displays of furniture in the showroom. The eight employees on the night shift are responsible for picking the orders, organizing them according to destination, and loading the goods on trucks for delivery the following day. Deliveries to customers, the Torrance facility, and the Employer's stores are handled by the Em- ployer's seven truckdrivers, each of whom is paired with one of seven helpers. All delivery teams work out of the Montebello facility. At the beginning of each workday, each team picks up its delivery schedule and invoices from the dispatcher and spends the rest of the day making deliveries. 273 NLRB No. 87 EASTMAN WEST' 611 After the drivers -leave,' -the dispatcher takes calls from customers and on occasion contacts the driv- ers regarding problems with deliveries or delivery' instructions. The dispatcher also keeps in contact, with the Employer's various retail outlets and re- ceives their orders for delivery of merchandise. The CSR takes' calls from customers who have complaints regarding merchandise purchased at any of the Employer's facilities, as well as about deliv- eries. The CSR-is situated in the warehouse and is in constant contact with the warehouse employees. On occasion the CSR Will- have warehouse em- ployees assist her when she is tagging items (e.g., "hold" tags, delivery instruction tags, etc.); Finally, the CSR schedules the ”repair truck," which the Employer operates , for 'the 'purpose of performing minor repairs on furniture sold to customers. The Employer also employs three to four sales- people at its Montebello facility. These individuals are responsible for making sales to customers and keeping the showroom in order. 4 When the will- call dock is closed,- the salespeople will load the" merchandise into the customer's car. This occurs on a daily basis. In addition, the salespeople fre- quently assist warehouse employees in loading fur- • niture onto customers' cars from the will-call dock. The Employer's work force at the Torrance fa- cility-consists of one full-tithe warehouse employee, one' regular part-time warehouse employee, and three to four salespeople. Virtually all of this loca- tion's business is will-call. However, except for Sat- urdays, there is only one' warehouse employee working in the warehouse. As a result, the sales employees frequently handle the warehousing aspect of will-call, i.e., pulling -merchandise and loading it onto the customers' vehicles. In addition, the salespeople regularly assist in keeping the ware- house in order - and with moving 'and rearranging furniture. 6 The Torrance .employees (sales and non- sales) have at least weekly contact with the Em-' ployer's drivers and helpers from Montebello. Every' week a 45-foot trailer is loaded at Monte-, bello and then driven 'to Torrance. Drivers and helpers, of on occasion warehouse employees from Montebello, will go to Torrance and -assist the Tor- rance sales and warehouse employees in unloading and checking the merchandise received from Mon- tebello.- In addition to handling the weekly trans- fers from Montebello, driver/helper teams trans- port merchandise ' from Torrance to Montebello Flores, the maintenance employee for Montebello headquarters and warehouse, on occasion will assist in showroom maintenance He is the only employee employed by the Employer whose primary duty is main- tenance 5 At the heanng, Sparks testified that, when he worked in Torrance sales, he spent i-2 ,days a week in the warehouse when there is- a depletion of inventory at Monte- ,. bello. 'Each' of the seven -fetail 'stores has three to four salespeople. In ad'dition, three or four 'of the stores employ 'part-time cashiers. 6 As there are no ware-, house employees:at'any of these stores, the sales- people perform all necessary warehousing duties: Thus, in addition to makink' iales -and maintaining the stores, the sales employees are responsible for handling all 'aspects- of will-call and for -receiving and inspecting all items shipped from Montebello. As a result of their receiving duties, salespeople have regular, weekly contact with the Employer's' drivers and helpers, who.spend from' 2 to' 4 hours each 'week at each store while unloading and ar- ranging merchandise. The salespeople help with this work about half of the time.' -Iri addition tö per- forming their regular- duties, the' cashiers receive commissions for selling accessories ,to the c'ustom-' ers. The cashiers have regular contact with the drivers but, due to -working only 'part-time, on a less frequent basis than the sales employees. When the cashiers are not working, and in stores not em- ploying Cashiers, the' sales employees perform the cashiering duties.. „ • The transfer of employees among the nine facili- ties often, is dictated by the demands of the Em- ployer's business. -When a facility is planning a major move or a new 'store is Opened, employees from throughout the Emplo'yer's organization are transferred temporarily to that location to assist. In addition, all employees (sales and nonsales) at the facility in transition participate in the move. Al- though there is no regular rotation' 'schedule, sales- people frequently are' transferred between the showrooms and retail outlets when large sales are taking place or when' employees are sick or on leave. Additionally, permanent transfers of sales- people are frequent and have been initiated both by the employee for personal reasons and' by the Em- ployer for business reasons. The record indicates that the average salesperson works at five to seven different stores at different times within any 1-year period. The one full-time warehouse employee at Tor-- rance permanently - transferred to that' facility from the Montebello warehouse. When he is absent for extended periods such as vacations, a Montebello warehouse employee is temporarily assigned to the Torrance facility. ' - The only permanent 'transfer of an emjiloyee from a nonsales position to a sales position, or . vice versa, involved the transfer of a store manager to a 6 Three of the locations which 'have cashiers are Torrance, Lakewood, and Culver City 612 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD higher managerial position. However, the record . indicates that the Employer intends to use -the warehouse as a training ground for sales positions. The Employer in fact hired two individuals a,s truckdrivers with such a plan in mind. However, the plan did not come to fruition because of prob- lems with insuring , these ,two potential trainees due to their poor driving records. Regarding supervision of the warehousing oper- ation, Sparks is in charge of the Employer's ware- house facilities at Montebello and Torrance. 7 He is responsible for shipping and receiving, management . of warehouse personnel, and the security of both warehouses and the eight trucks operated out of the Employer's Montebello facility. .All warehouse employees, driversi,,and helpers, as well as the CSR and dispatcher, report to Sparks. The Montebello .warehouse employees on the day shift are supervised by R. ,Cortez, who is in charge of receiving operations. J. Moore is solely . responsible for the Employer's night operation,8 and all night warehouse employees report to him. Both Cortez and Moore have the authority to .dis- cipline employees. However, with regard to hiring, Sparks interviews and hires the applicants, but will send them to either Cortez or Moore for , their ap- proval. In addition, the record indicates that Moore has been allowed to interview applicants and then send them to Sparks for final , approval before hiring. Regarding authority, to recommend dis- charge, if Moore should 'decide to discharge some- one he first must consult, Sparks. If, in his opinion, there are no extenuating . circumstances, Sparks will accept the recommendation. As of the time of the hearing, Moore had not discharged or effectively recommended the discharge of any night ware- house employee. Moore also evaluates employees and has effectively recommended wage increases for at least two employees on his shift. Torrance warehouse ,employees are supervised on a day-to- day basis by Store Manager M. Fisher. However, all issues concerning wage increases, disciplinary problems, transfers, etc., are Sparks' responsibility. The Employer's sales operation is directed by its general manager, Linder. Each of the retail outlets has a store manager who is directly responsible to Linder. 8 Each store manager determines the sched- ules for his sales employees and has the authority to grant time off. Regarding hiring, the general manager interviews the' prospective 'sales employ- ees, and if he likes them will "bounce them off the 7 Sparks goes to the, Torrance facility three to four times a month 8 The parties stipulated that Cortez and Moore are statutory supervi- sors 9 At Montebello, sales personnel report to the facility sales manager, H Martin individual store manager.'; Finally, a store manager can request that a sales employee no longer work in his store, but has no authority to terminate sales- . people. All warehouse employees (pickers, shipping, re- ceiving, and maintenance), the CSR, and the cash- iers are paid on an hourly basis. The CSR - is paid approximately $8 per hour plus overtime. The dis- patcher is paid a salary and earns no overtime. :The Employer's drivers, helpers, and salespeople are paid on a salary-plus-commission basis. Drivers and helpers earn a base hourly rate of $4.25 to $7.50 per hour. With commissions they can increase their earnings up to approximately .$9.50 per hour. The salespeople generally receive a base salary of $1000 per month. All employees receive the same fringe benefits. Analysis The Employer contends that a separate unit of Montebello warehouse employees is inappropriate due to: (a) the high degree of functional integration between . the sales and warehouse/shipping oper- ation; (b) the centralization of administrative mat- ters; (c) the significant amount of interaction among all of the• Employer's employees; and (d) the fact that all employees ,perform similar. job duties. We find merit in the Employer's contention. In concluding that a unit limited to Montebello and Torrance warehouse employees is appropriate, the Regional Director relied on his findings that: (a) the salespeople are under a separate line of su- pervision; (b) there have been no instances of tem- porary or permanent transfer between selling and nonselling positions; 10 (c) contact between selling and nonselling employee on the day shift, although frequent, is solely. in the performance of their func- tions; .(d) there are separate lines of progression for the sales staff and nonselling staff; and (e) sales per- sonnel generally :are compensated at a higher level than nonsales employees. . Contrary to the. Regional Director, we find that the highly interdependent nature of the Employer's operational structure compels the conclusion that a separate warehouse unit is inappropriate, whether it consists of the Montebello warehouse employees alone or the Montebello and Torrance warehouse , employees, and that only a wall-to-wall multifaci- lity unit is appropriate. Explication of this finding involves_ a' four-step analysis which begins with the petitioned-for unit of Montebello warehouse em- ployees. A unit limited to this group of employees is inappropriate as it fails to include the two re- I ° This does not include instances where salespersons have been pro- moted to supervisory positions , EASTMAN WEST 613 maining warehouse employees in the Employer's operation. These two employees, who work at the Torrance facility, share a strong community of in- terest with the Montebello warehouse employees. The Montebello and Torrance warehouse employ- ees perform similar functions,, share common super- vision, earn similar wages, and receive the same fringe benefits. Montebello warehouse employees frequently assist employees at Torrance with the performance of warehouse work. In addition, the one full-time Torrance warehouse employee was permanently transferred to that facility from Mon- tebello and, when this employee is absent for ex- tended periods of time, a Montebello warehouse employee is temporarily assigned to the Torrance facility. Based on this strong comniunity of interest which exists between the Employer's warehouse employees, we find, in agreement with the Region- al Director, that a unit limited to warehouse em- ployees at Montebello is inappropriate and that any appropriate unit must include both the Montebello and Torrance warehouse employees. Our decision to include the Torrance warehouse employees mandates the inclusion of the Torrance sales employees in 'the unit found appropriate. We are compelled to take this action based , on the highly integrated ,nature of Torrance's sales and warehousing operations. As noted 'above, the small number of warehouse employees and the high volume of will-call business at Torrance inevitably result in the performance of warehousing functions by the Torrance sales employees. Sales personnel regularly assist in keeping the warehouse in order and with moving and rearranging the furniture. In addition, the sales employees frequently handle the warehousing aspect of will-call, i.e., pulling mer- chandise and loading it onto the customers' vehi- cles. This high level of integrated effort by the Torrance warehouse and sales employees makes clear that the disputed classifications should not be treated as two distinct groupings. Therefore, our decision to include the Torrance warehouse em- ployees necessitates the inclusion of the facility's sales employees in the unit. Taking this analysis one step further, we note that the Employer's average salesperson works at five to seven different stores at different times within any 1-year period. As a result of this fre- quency of temporary transfers, and our finding that the Torrance sales employees must be included in the unit found appropriate, we deem it necessary to evaluate the possibility of including all of the Em- ployer's sales employees in the unit. In other words, we must determine whether an overall mul- tifacility unit is appropriate. When dealing with a multifacility unit, the well- established Board policy is to find a single-facility unit presumptively appropriate. ',This presumption only can be overcome by a showing of functional integration so substantial as to negate the separate identity of the single-facility unit. In making find- ings on this issue, the Board looks to such factors as central control over daily operations and labor relations, skills and functions of the employees, general working conditions, bargaining history, em- ployee interchange, and the geographic location of the facilities in relation to each other." Here, we find that the presumption favoring a single-facility unit has been rebutted by the perva- sive centralized control of all labor relations and personnel matters, the high degree of functional in- tegration, the frequent temporary and permanent transfers of sales employees among all nine facili- ties, the similarity, of job responsibilities at the Montebello warehouse/showroom and the other fa- cilities, and the proximity of the facilities. We fur- ther find that these factors establish that a multifa- cility unit including the warehouse/showroom em- ployees and all retail outlet employees is the only appropriate unit. Control over the Employer's operations and per- sonnel matters is highly centralized. All purchasing of merchandise, as well as receiving of the items from vendors, is performed at Montebello. Payroll and advertising for all nine facilities are handled at corporate headquarters in Montebello. All final personnel decisions regarding the hiring and firing of employees are handled by central management. For example, store managers may be asked what they think of an applicant, but the decision to hire is made by Linder, the general manager. Moreover, a store manager may request that a particular em- ployee not work at his store, but he may not fire him. The centralized nature of the Employer's oper- ation compels the interdependence or integration of the retail outlets and the Montebello and Torrance facilities. When a customer chooses a piece of mer- chandise which he wishes to pick up later in the week, and the particular store does not have it in stock, the sales employee fills out a merchandise requisition form and sends it to the purchasing de- partment at Montebello. If it is stock merchandise available at Montebello the order is entered in the computer, which prints out a listing of the mer- chandise to be transferred from the Montebello warehouse to the various outlets. These listings go to the night crew at Montebello, who pull and load the merchandise for delivery to the stores. " Napa Columbus Parts Co, 269 NLRB 1052 (1984) 614 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD Also supportive of a finding that only a multifa- cility unit is appropriate is the fact, noted above, that the average salesperson works at five to seven of the Employer's facilities within a 1-year period. Because of this frequency of transfer, it is only log- ical that, because the Torrance sales employees are, to be included in the unit, then all sales employees at the other facilities also are to be included. More- over, the retail store employees and the warehouse and sales employees at • Torrance have similar job responsibilities. All employees do some degree of warehousing, and the salespeople working ' at the retail outlets must handle any warehousing respon- sibilities which might arise. The cashiers assist in the selling process and, similar to the sales employ. ees, receive commissions for accessories they pro- vide for the customers. All employees receive the same fringe benefits. Finally, all facilities are within a 20-mile radius except for Thousand Oaks. • Based on the above factors, in particular the cen- tralized administration, the high degree of function- al integration, and the interchange of sales emOoy- ees among the Employer's various facilities, we find that only an overall multilocation unit is ap-, propriate for bargaining.' 2 12 See generally Napa Columbus Parts Co, supra, Sol's, 272 NLRB 621 (1984) As the unit found appropriate is substantially larger than the warehouse unit found_ appropriate by the Regional Director,' the election conducted on 23' FebrUary 1984 must be vacated. However, as the Petitioher has indicated a willingness to pro- ceed to an election in the broader unit found ap- pi-opriate; we shall direct that the election be held in the following unit which we find to be appropri- ate:13 All full-time and regular part-time maintenance 'employees, truck drivers, helpers, dispatcher, customer service representative, warehouse employees, including , pickers, shippers and re- ceivers, salespersons, and cashiers employed by the Employer at all of its facilities; excliid- ing all other , employee's, office clerical employ- - ees, guards, professional employees and super- visors as defined in the' Act. ORDER - The election conducted on 23 February 1984 is - vacated. [Direction of Election omitted from publication.] 13 As the unit -found appropnate is larger than thit requested, the tionei is accorded a penod of 10 days in which to submit the requisite showing of Interest to support an election In the event the Petitioner does not wish to proceed to an election herein, it may withdraw its peti- tion without prejudice by notice to the Regional Director within 7 days •, from the date of this decision