R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.

In the Matter of R. J. REYNOLDS TOBACCO COMPANY and LOCAL UNION No. 217, TOBACCO WORKERS INTERNATIONAL UNION Case No. R-0598.-Decided July 21, 1941 Jurisdiction : cigarette manufacturing industry. Practice and Procedure : petition dismissed where no appropriate unit within the scope of the petition. Mr. Herbert 0. Eby, for the Board. Manly, Hendren cfi Womble, by Mr. W. P. Sandridge, of Winston- Salem, N. C., for the Company. Mr. J. M. Wells, Jr., of Winston-Salem, N. C., for Local No. 217. Mrs. Augusta Spaulding, of counsel to the Board. DECISION AND ORDER STATEMENT OF THE CASE On February 24, 1941, Local Union No. 217, Tobacco Workers Inter- national Union, herein called Local No. 217, 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 employees of R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, herein called the Company, and requesting an investigation and certification of representatives pur- suant to Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act, 49 Stat. 449, herein called the Act. On May 12, 1941, 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 Rela- tions Board Rules and Regulations-Series 2, as amended, ordered an investigation and authorized the Regional Director to conduct it and to provide for an appropriate hearing upon due notice. On May 13, 1941, the Regional Director issued a notice of hearing, copies of which were duly served upon the Company and Local No. 217. Pursuant to notice, a hearing was held on May 28 and 29, 1941, at Winston-Salem, North Carolina, before Henry J. Kent, the Trial Examiner duly designated by the Chief Trial Examiner. The Com- pany and Local No. 217 were represented by counsel and both par- 33 N. L R B, No. 115. 674 R. J. REYNOLDS TOBACCO COMPANY 675 ticipated in the hearing. During the course of the hearing, Local No. 217 moved to amend its petition assertedly to clarify the descrip- tion of the unit alleged therein to be appropriate. The Trial Exam- iner reserved ruling upon this motion for the Board. The motion is granted. The Company moved to dismiss the petition on the grounds (1) that the unit proposed by Local No. 217, as amended, was inappropriate and (2) that Local No. 217 had not proved a substantial membership among such employees. The Trial Ex- aminer reserved ruling upon this motion for the Board. For reasons which appear in Section III, below, the motion is granted. Full op- portunity to be heard, to examine and cross-examine witnesses, and to introduce evidence bearing upon the issues was afforded both parties. During the course of the hearing, the Trial Examiner made several rulings upon other motions and on objections to the admission of evidence. The Board has reviewed the rulings of the Trial Ex- aminer and finds that no prejudicial errors were committed. The rulings are hereby affirmed. On May 30, 1941, the Company filed a request for oral argument before the Board at Washington, D. C., and on June 2, 1941, a request for permission to file a brief in this proceeding. On June 2, 1941, the Board denied the request for oral argument and granted per- mission to both parties to file briefs with the Board in support of their respective contentions. On June 13, 1941, Local No. 217 filed a motion to reopen the record and a brief in support of its conten- tions. On June 16, 1941, the Company filed objections to the above motion and a brief in support of its contentions. The Board has considered the motion, the Company's objections thereto, and the briefs filed by both parties. For reasons which appear in Section III, below, the motion is denied. Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following : FINDINGS OF FACT ' 1. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company is engaged in the business of manufacturing and selling cigarettes and smoking and chewing tobaccos. At Winston-Salem, North Carolina, the Company operates three cigarette factories and three smoking-tobacco and chewing-tobacco factories. The three cigarette factories are the only plants directly concerned in this proceeding. The Company also operates leaf- handling and leaf-drying plants at Winston-Salem, North Carolina; Richmond, Danville,, and South Boston, Virginia; and Louisville, Lexington, Maysville, and Springfield, Kentucky. 450122-42-vol. 33-44 676 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD For the year ending December 31, 1940, the principal raw materials used by the Company in its manufacturing processes were leaf to- bacco, casing materials, and wrapping materials. The total value of such raw materials during this period was in excess of $50,000,000, approximately 72 per cent of which were purchased outside North Carolina. During the same period, sales of the Company's finished products, including revenue stamps, amounted to more than '$200,- 000,000, approximately 98 per cent of which were made to customers outside North-Carolina. The Company admits that it is engaged in interstate commerce. II. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED Local Union No. 217, Tobacco Workers International Union, is a labor organization affiliated with the American Federation of Labor. It admits to membership employees of the Company. III. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT The Company and Local No. 217 agree that the appropriate bargaining unit should be restricted to employees in the three ciga- rette factories, excluding employees in the other factories which com- prise the Company's activities at Winston-Salem. Local No. 217 contends that production and maintenance employees in the making and packing departments at the three cigarette factories, with certain inclusions and exclusions set forth below, constitute an appropriate unit. The Company contends that all employees at the three cigarette factories, excluding firemen, clerical workers, foremen, and other supervisory employees, constitute an appropriate unit. The manufacture of cigarettes at the Company's factories involves a continuous stream of work operations from the first cleaning of ciga- rette tobacco to the completion of the sealing of the shipping carton. This entire process is covered by a single go-ernment bond for each factory. The work is divided into two principal divisions, (1) the tobacco- processing departments where cigarette tobacco and casing materials are blended and processed, called the casing and drying and casing and cutting departments, and (2) the making and packing depart ments where such processed tobacco is made into cigarettes and such cigarettes are packed in pouches, boxes, cartons, and shipping cases. In the tobacco-processing departments there are 661 employees, 90 per cent of whom are colored. There are few machines in these de- partments. There are about 2,200 employees in the making and pack- ing departments. The record does not disclose the percentage of colored employees in these departments. There are colored and white employees, skilled and unskilled, in the several categories of employ- R. J. REYNOLDS TOBACCO COMPAN'Y 677 ment in all departments of the cigarette factories. Comparable wages are paid for such work without discrimination. There is some ex- change of employees between departments. The Company's rules are plant-wide. On May 22, 1939, Tobacco Workers International Union, herein called the T. W. I. U., chartered Local No. 217. Although Local No. 217 concentrated its efforts on the organization of employees in the cigarette factories, it received into membership other employees of the Company at Winston-Salem? So far as the record discloses no other labor organization has organized the employees of the Company. On January 14, 1941, Local No. 217 asked the Company to recognize Local No. 217 as bargaining agent for production and maintenance employees at the three cigarette factories, excluding firemen, clerical workers, foremen, and other supervisory and executive employees, and tendered to the Company a proposed contract covering such em- ployees. The Company, assured by Local No. 217 that both colored and white employees were covered in the bargaining unit, did not contest the propriety of the unit but refused to bargain until Local No. 217 was certified by the Board. On February 24, 1941, Local No. 217 filed the petition in this proceeding, alleging therein that production and maintenance employees in the three cigarette factories, excluding firemen, foremen, and clerical and supervisory employees, constituted an appropriate bargaining unit. Some time after February 24, 1941, and before the hearing in this proceeding, Local No. 217 at a special meeting restricted its member- ship to white employees of the Company. The T. W. I. U. chartered Local No. 224 for colored employees. Colored members of Local No. 217, the number of which is not disclosed in the record, transferred their membership from Local No. 217 to Local No. 224. The T. W. I. U. eventually intends to establish at the Company's plants at, Winston- Salem two locals for stemmers (for white and colored employees, re- spectively), one local for plug workers, and one for employees at the Company's tin shop. No locals other than No. 217 and No. 224 are contemplated for employees in the Company's cigarette factories. At the hearing the petitioner moved to amend the description of the unit set forth in its petition (production and maintenance em- ployees of the three cigarette factories, exclusive of firemen, foremen, and clerical and supervisory employees), by adding the following i Local No. 217 submitted to the Regional Director 831 authorization and membership cards, of which 490 apparently bear genuine signatures of employees on the Company's pay rolls of March 5, 1941, and an affidavit signed by 8 employees, stating that 305 employees had been interviewed and indicated a desire to vote for Local No. 217 in an election. Local No. 217 later submitted a.list of 45 names which it stated were names of additional mem- bers employed by the Company. The record does not disclose the work classifications or race of such employees There are about 1,975 employees in the unit alleged by Local No. 217 to be appropriate. 678- DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD explanation : by production and maintenance employees is meant those engaged in the actual manufacture and packing of cigarettes and not those engaged in the preparation of the leaf or tobacco for manufac; ture, whether said preliminary process be drying, redrying, stemming, ordering, processing, cutting, or casing the tobacco to go into the cigarettes. Local No. 217 alleges that its proposed amended unit is a craft unit within a department. It includes making, packing,, and carton machine operators and inspectors, paste cooks, fixers, and some of those who supply material to the machines. It excludes mainte- nance employees not restricted to the making and packing depart= ments, stockroom employees, stamp cutters, wrapping-paper handlers, some allegedly clerical and supervisory employees, and all employees in the tobacco-processing departments. It does not appear that employees in the listed categories in the making and packing departments of the cigarette factories constitute a craft or that they enjoy a community of work interest that sets them apart from other production and maintenance employees at the ciga- rette factories or that they have previously bargained with the Coln- pany as a unit. Employees in some of the excluded categories are eligible for membership in the T. W. I. U. There are white and colored employees in such categories. Local No. 217 organized the Company's employees on an industrial basis and has taken no action to cut down the jurisdiction bestowed by its charter in respect to categories of employees eligible for membership. Plants of the Company's com- petitors are organized on an industrial basis.2 So far as the record discloses neither the T. W. I. U. nor any other labor organization has any bargaining agreement on any departmental basis with any em- ployer in the industry. For, these reasons we find that the unit pro- posed by Local No. 217 is not appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining.3 2 See Matter of American Tobacco Company and Tobacco Workers' International Union, Local No 19 2, 2 N. L. R B 198. 8 See Matter of The National Sanitary Company and International Brotherhood of Foundry Employees, Local #1014 (Independent ), 31 N. L R B . 824, and cases cited therein At the beginning of the hearing, Local No. 217 restricted its proposed amended unit to white employees . When it developed that 12 percent of the employees in the categories which it wished to include were colored , Local No. 217 revised its proposed unit to include white and colored employees The Company pointed out that Local No. 217 had excluded colored workers and that Local No. 224, to which its former colored members were trans- ferred, had not been made a party to this proceeding. On June 13 , 1941, after the close of the hearing, Local No. 217 filed a motion to reopen the record , for the sole purpose of admitting a resolution of Local No. 224, passed at a meeting held on May 30 , 1941, reciting that Local No. 224 favored an election and was willing that Local No. 217 negotiate a contract for members of Local No . 224 employed in the cigarette making and packing departments . Since, as we have found above , the pro- posed amended unit is not an appropriate bargaining unit, the resolution of Local No. 224 is not material to our determination in this proceeding 7 R. J. REYNOLDS TOBACCO COMPANY 679 IV. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION Since the bargaining unit sought to be established by the amended petition is not appropriate, as stated in Section III, above, and since it does not appear that Local No. 217 desires at this time to represent employees in the industrial unit named in its original petition, we find that no question has arisen concerning the representation of employees of the Company in an appropriate bargaining unit. On the basis of the above findings of fact and upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following : CONCLUSION OF LAW No question concerning representation of employees of R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, has arisen in a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act. ORDER Upon the basis of the foregoing findings of fact and conclusion of law, the National Labor Relations Board hereby orders that the peti- tion for investigation and certification filed by Local Union No. 217, Tobacco Workers International Union, be, and it hereby is, dismissed.