Wade Manufacturing Corporation

In the Matter Of WADE MANUFACTURING CORPORATION and LOCAL 294, UNITED` 'FURNITURE,'WOitKERS OF AMERICA Case No. R-4365.-Decided August 2 6, 1939 Commercial Fixtures and Furniture Manufacturing Industry-Investigation of Representatives : controversy concerning representation of employees: rival organizations both claiming to represent majority-Unit Appropriate for Col- lective Bargaining: all production and maintenance employees, including road- men, but excluding supervisory and clerical employees ; controversy as to road- men and classification of certain employees-Election Ordered Mr. Charles Y. Latimer, for the Board. Mr. John M. Robinson, of Charlotte, N. C., for the Company. Mr. Lawrence Seton Ross, of High Point, N. C., and Mr. E. L. Sandefur, of Winston-Salem, N. C., for the United. Mr. Vance Stamps, of Knoxville, Tenn., for the Carpenters. Mr. N. Barr Miller, of counsel to the Board. DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION STATEMENT OF THE CASE On February 23,.1939, United Furniture Workers of America; Local 294, affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations, herein called the United, filed with the Regional Director for the Fifth Region (Baltimore, Maryland) a petition alleging that a question affecting commerce had arisen concerning the representation of em- ployees of Wade Manufacturing Corporation, Charlotte, North Car- olina, herein called the Company, and requesting an investigation and certification of representatives pursuant to Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act, 49 Stat. 449, herein called the Act. On-April 14, 1939, the National Labor Relations Board, herein called the Board, acting pursuant to Section 9 (c) of the Act and Article III, Section 3, of National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regu- lations-Series 1, as amended, ordered an investigation and author- I In the petition and certain other formal papers the Company was designated Wade Manufacturing Company. By agreement of the parties at the hearing all such papers were amended to designate it Wade Manufacturing Corporation. 14 N. L. R. B., No. 85. 1133 1134 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD ized the Regional Director to conduct it and to provide for an appro- priate hearing upon due notice. On April 17, 1939, the Regional Director issued a notice of hear- ing, copies'-of which were duly served upon the Company, upon the United and upon the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, herein called the Carpenters, a labor organization claiming to represent employees directly affected, by the investigation. Pursuant to the • notice, a hearing was held on April 27, 1939, at. Charlotte, North- Carolina, before E. G. Smith, the Trial Examiner duly, designated by the Board. The Board and the Company were represented by counsel, the United by national representatives. At the hearing the Trial Examiner permitted the Carpenters to intervene by peti- tion and .its representative filed an appearance. The ruling of the Trial Examiner granting the, petition for intervention is . hereby affirmed. , All parties participated in the hearing, were afforded, full opportunity to be heard, to examine and cross-examine witnesses, and to introduce evidence bearing on the issues. During the course. of the hearing, the Trial Examiner made several rulings on" motions and on objections to the admission of evidence. The Board has reviewed the rulings of the Trial Examiner and finds that no prej- udicial errors were committed. The rulings are hereby affirmed. The Company filed a -brief which has been duly considered by the Board. Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following : FINDINGS OF FACT I. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY' Wade Manufacturing Corporation is a North Carolina corporation engaged in the manufacture of store and bank fixtures, show cases, and commercial furniture. Its sole place of business is Charlotte, North Carolina, where it operates a plant housed in a single building containing 80,000 square feet of floor space. Raw materials used by the Company include lumber, glass, hard- ware, and finishing materials such as paints, varnishes, and shellac. Of the lumber, 75 per cent is obtained in North Carolina, 25 per cent coming from other States. Fifty per cent of the glass is obtained outside North Carolina. All of the hardware and nearly all ' of the finishing materials are manufactured outside of North Carolina, but are purchased by the Company within the State from agents of the manufacturers. 2.These findings are based in part on a stipulation of facts entered Into by the Company and the Board. WADE MANUFACTURING CORPORATION 1135 Eighty to ninety per cent of the finished products of the Company are sold to customers located in North Carolina; the remainder to customers in other States. The value of such products for the calendar year 1938 was between $200,000 and $250,000. The Company employs approximately 100 persons, about 87 of whom are engaged in production, maintenance, and installation work. For purposes of this proceeding the Company stipulated that the Board has jurisdiction. II. THE ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED United Furniture Workers of America is a labor organization affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations. Local 294 admits to membership employees of the Company engaged in pro- duction or maintenance work, but, it, is not entirely clear from the record whether those who devote a majority of their time to installa- tion work outside the plant are also eligible for membership. United- Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America is a labor organization affiliated with the American Federation of Labor. Local No. 1469 admits to membership both installation or roadmen and employees of the Company who work in the plant. III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION In October or November 1938 the Congress of Industrial Organi- zations became active in organizing employees of the Company. Local 294 of the United Furniture Workers was established by charter in January 1939. It has a substantial membership among the employees of the Company,' and on January 23, 1939, the United stated to an officer of the Company that it represented a majority in the plant. The Carpenters Local No. 1469 was established in Charlotte in 1924 or 1925 and has had for several years some membership among the Company's employees, particularly 'among the installation or roadmen. In 1934 the Carpenters chartered a -shop local, member- ship in which was limited to employees of the Company. This local included in its membership both plant employees and roadmen, but was disbanded a few months after organization. A new effort was made to ' establish a shop local about February 1, 1939, after the United began to organize. The Carpenters claim, and so stated to, the Company, that a majority of the employees of the Company are members of or have applied for membership in the Carpenters. The Company has never bargained with any labor organization and has at all. times insisted upon an election to determine the exclu- sive representative of its employees for the purposes of collective bargaining. 1136 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD . We find that a question has arisen concerning representation of employees of the Company. IV. THE EFFECT OF THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION UPON COMMERCE We find that the question concerning representation which has arisen, occurring in connection with the operations of the Company described in Section I above, has a close, intimate, and substantial relation to trade, traffic, and commerce among the several States, and tends to lead to labor disputes burdening and obstructing commerce and the free flow of commerce. V. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT The United has petitioned fora unit composed of all production and maintenance employees working in the Company's plant, exclud- ing supervisory and clerical employees and installation or roadmen who spend more than half their time at installation work outside the plant. The principal disagreement of the parties concerns the roadmen, whom the Company and the Carpenters desire to include in the unit. We agree with the contention that an appropriate unit of production and maintenance employees at this plant should include the roadmen. In the plant the production employees construct partitions, panel- ings, and similar store and bank fixtures; they are fitted together, finished, then torn down and shipped to the point of iistallation. A roadman thereupon takes charge, reassembles and installs the fix- tures, and does any cabinet work which the circumstances demand. The testimony shows that from 10 to 60 per cent of the cabinet and finishing work is done on the road in connection with the installation. There is no very clear line of demarcation between the plant produc- tion employees and the roadmen. Although the regular roadmen spend from two-thirds to four-fifths of their time away from the plant, many of the other employees of the cabinet department have 'been sent out on the road for short periods to do installation work. Likewise, the regular roadmen, when not engaged in installation work, are employed in the cabinet and shipping departments of the plant where they do the same work and are supervised by-the same foremen as the plant-production employees. Both roadmen and plant-production employees are paid on an hourly basis, although the roadmen receive a somewhat higher hourly rate. The United con- tends that the roadmen should be excluded from the unit, if for no other reason, because of the supervisory character of their work. It is true that they have authority to hire, discharge, and pay off tem- WADE MANUFACTURING CORPORATION 1137 porary employees, but this authority applies only to local help en- gaged on the road to assist with installation jobs as the necessity arises. The roadmen have no such authority over the production and maintenance employees at the plant, although such employees, when occasionally sent out to help with installations, may be subject to the direction of roadmen: In this case, the occasional authority to direct other employees as to the manner in which a particular installation job is to be accomplished is not sufficient to exclude these roadmen from a bargaining unit in which they would otherwise be included. Installation is an integral part of the production process of the Com- pany. Ninety-eight per cent in value of the fixtures manufactured are sold under contracts which require installation by the Company. A substantial portion of the production work is done on the road. Roadmen also engage in production work at the plant under the same conditions as other production employees. In view of all the circum= stances, we find that the roadmen should be included within the unit of production and maintenance employees.$ The United also wishes to exclude from the appropriate unit two employees, R. L. Clontz and C. D. Kelly, Jr., alleged to occupy super- visory positions., The Company desires their inclusion. R. L. Clontz is employed as a lay-off man in the machine room, where he works under the supervision of the superintendent of the machine depart- ment. He is the first workman to handle the lumber when it arrives at the machine room for processing. His duties include penciling, or otherwise marking, on all lumber the lines along which it is to be cut and other directions for machine work. The cutting and machining is then performed by other employees in the department. If neces- sary, Clontz interprets his markings to the employees who operate the machines and may point out errors in their work. He has no man- agement or disciplinary duties. Although he sometimes attends con- ferences of foremen and supervisors, this occurs only when technical production questions are to be discussed. From these facts we con- clude that Clontz is a nonsupervisory production employee. and should be included in the unit. C. D. Kelly, Jr., is claimed by the United to be the foreman of the shipping department. The Company contends that the shipping department, which employs four to five men, has no departmental foreman, but is under the direction of one of the executive officers of 3 See Matter of Joe Lowe Corporation and Independent Union o f Confectionery Workers, Local 1, 13 N. L. R. B. 672; Matter of La Plant-Choate Manufacturing Co., Inc. and United Farm Equipment Workers Organizing Committee, Local 116, affiliated with the C. 1. 0., 13 N. L. R. B. 1228; Matter of Coldwell Lawnmower Company -and' International Association of Machinists, Lodge No. 757, affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, 14 N. L. R. B. 38. 1138 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD the Company. This officer gives instructions to any one of the em- ployees of the department, who, in turn, transmits them to the others. These instructions are most often given to Kelly, but according to his own testimony this is only because he is the oldest and most ex-. perienced employee in the department in point of service. The mere transmission of instructions by Kelly to his fellow employees does not so align him with the management that he should be barred from a unit of production and maintenance employees. We find that Kelly is not a supervisory employee and should be included in the unit. We find that all production and maintenance employees of the Company, including roadmen, and including R. L. Clontz and C. D. Kelly, Jr., but excluding supervisory and clerical employees, consti- tute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining and that said unit will insure to employees of the Company the full bene- fit of their right to self-organization and to collective bargaining and otherwise effectuate the policies of the Act. VI. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES Neither the United nor the Carpenters has submitted any docu- mentary evidence of their respective memberships among the em- ployees of the Company, although representatives of each organiza- tion testified to substantial membership among the Company's em- ployees. Therefore, the question which has arisen concerning the representation of employees can be satisfactorily resolved only by holding an election by secret ballot. Although the pay rolls of February 23 and April 27, 1939, are in evidence, because of the time which has elapsed since the hearing we shall direct that the election be conducted among the employees in the appropriate unit who were in the employ of the Company during the pay-roll period immediately preceding the date of this Direction of Election, including those who did not work during such pay-roll period because they were ill or on vacation, and those who were then or have since been temporarily laid off, but excluding any who have since quit or been discharged for cause. Upon the basis of the above findings of fact and upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following : CONCLUSIONS OF LAW 1. A question affecting commerce has arisen concerning the repre- sentation of employees of Wade Manufacturing Corporation, Char- lotte, North Carolina, within the meaning of Section 9 (c) and Sec- tion'2 (6) and (7) of the National Labor Relations Act. WADE MANUFACTURING CORPORATION 1139 2. The production and maintenance employees of the Company, including roadmen, and including R. L. Clontz and C. D. Kelly, Jr., but excluding supervisory and clerical employees, constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining, within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the National Labor Relations Act. DIRECTION OF ELECTION By virtue of and pursuant to the power vested in the National Labor Relations Board by Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Rela- tions Act and pursuant to Article III, Section 8, of National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 2, it is hereby DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation authorized by the Board to ascertain representatives for collective bargaining with Wade Manufacturing Corporation, an election by secret ballot shall be conducted within fifteen (15) days from the date of this Direction, under the direction and supervision of the Regional Director for the Fifth Region, acting in this matter as the agent of the National Labor Relations Board, and subject to Article III, Section 9, of the said Rules and Regulations, among all production and maintenance employees, including roadmen, and including R. L. Clontz and C. D. Kelly, Jr., but excluding supervisory and clerical employees, who were in the employ of the Company during the pay- roll - period immediately preceding the date of this Direction of Election, including those employees who did not work during such pay-roll period because they were ill or on vacation and employees who were then or have since been temporarily laid off, but excluding any who have since quit or been discharged for cause, to determine whether they desire to be represented by United Furniture Workers of America, Local 294, affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations, or by the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, for the purposes of collective bargaining, or by neither.