Creamery Package Manufacturing Co.

In the Matter of CREAMERY PACKAGE MANUFACTURING COMPANY (LAKE MILLS PLANT) and STEEL WORKERS ORGANIZING COMMITTEE, C. I. O. Case No. R-20705.-Decided August 9,1941 Jurisdiction : creamery and dairy machinery manufacturing industry. Investigation and Certification of Representatives : existence of question: dis- pute as to appropriate unit; election unnecessary where vast majority of employees are admittedly members of union in unit found to be appropriate. Unit Appropriate for Collective Bargaining : all office employees of the Company excluding confidential and supervisory employees. Nohl, Petrie cC Blu ne, by Mr. Leo F. Nohl and Mr. L. A. Stock- ing, of Milwaukee, Wis., for the Company. Mr. W. 0. Sonnemann, of Milwaukee, Wis., for the Union. Mr. Robert S. Fousek, of counsel to the Board. DECISION AND CERTIFICATION OF REPRESENTATIVES STATEMENT OF THE CASE On May 22, 1941, Steel Workers Organizing Committee, C. I. 0., herein called the Union, filed with the Regional Director for the Twelfth Region (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) a petition alleging that a question affecting commerce had arisen concerning the representation of employees of Creamery Package Manufacturing Company (Lake Mills Plant) Lake Mills, Wisconsin, 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 June 20, 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 Relations 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 June 24, 1943, the Regional Director issued a notice of hearing, copies of which were duly served upon the Company and the Union. Pursuant to notice, a hearing was held on July 3, 1941, at Lake 34 N. L. R. B., No. 15. 108 - CREAMERY PACKAGE MFG. CO . 109 Mills, Wisconsin, before Frederick Mett, the Trial Examiner duly designated by the Chief Trial Examiner. The Company and the Union were represented and participated in the hearing. Full op- portunity to be heard, to examine and cross-examine witnesses, and to introduce evidence bearing on the issues was afforded all parties. 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 prejudicial errors were committed. The rulings are hereby affirmed. Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following: FINDINGS OF FACT I. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY The Creamery Package Manufacturing Company is an Illinois corporation operating nine plants throughout the United States, of which only the Lake Mills Plant is involved in this proceeding. The Lake Mills Plant is engaged in the manufacture of creamery and dairy machinery. The record does not disclose the amount or value of raw materials purchased from points without the State but the Company admits that it purchases raw materials from without the State. Of the finished products over 95 per cent are sold and shipped to points outside the State of Wisconsin. The Company employs approximately 23 office employees. H. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED Steel Workers Organizing Committee is a labor organization af- filiated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations, admitting to membership employees of the Company. After the petition was filed and before the hearing, it chartered Steel Workers Organizing Committee, Local 2453, as a labor organization for employees of the Company. III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION The Company was requested and has refused to recognize the Union as the exclusive representative of its employees in the alleged appropriate unit upon the grounds that almost all the employees in the unit are confidential employees and hence not properly included within a collective bargaining unit. A statement of the Regional Director introduced in evidence at the hearing discloses that the Union represents a majority of the employees,in the unit hereinafter 110 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD found to be appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining.' We find that a question has arisen concerning the 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 operation 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 com- merce and the free flow of commerce. V. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT The Union contends that all office employees of the Company, excluding confidential and supervisory employees, constitute an ap- propriate unit. Dispute exists over 15 office employees whom the Union wishes to include. The Company desires to exclude them as confidential employees. Norma Britzman is listed as a stenographer. She makes reports of a confidential nature to the general office. She has taken dictation concerning labor problems in the plant. The information which she might receive in this manner would apear to be confidential and directly related to the problem of labor relations. We find that Norma Britzman is a confidential employee and accordingly, we shall exclude her from the unit. Gilbert Bergdoll is a blueprint-machine operator and executes orders by mechanically producing blueprints which are almost im- mediately placed in a vault. Knowledge gained from the blueprints is claimed by the Company to be highly valuable. Harvey Carria is listed as an assistant to the cost accountant.' He has access to ma- terial, production, and labor costs. Harvey Haverkate and Leroy Lawrence are listed as draftsmen. They generally carry out plans laid out by the designing engineer. Mabel Kuhlman is listed as a reception clerk and telephone operator. She has access to the Com- pany's files; she uses this information in sending telegrams stating price quotations. Margaret Miller is listed as an assistant to the 1 Evidence submitted to the Regional Director consisted of 17 application cards, dated 1941, all of which contain apparently genuine signatures of persons Rhose names appear on the Company's pay roll of June 12, 1941. The alleged appropriate unit contains approximately 19 persons. 2 Also referred to in the record as Harvey Currie. CREAMERY PACKAGE MFG. CO. 111 cost accountant.3 She figures final costs on machines, by arithmetical computations using figures supplied her from cost record cards. Agnes Michaelis and Cordia Steinel are listed as assistant pay-roll clerks. They have information relative to pay-roll rates. Ruth Fayville,4 Alice Schultz, Evelyn Topel, and Marion Weber are listed as stock record clerks. They have access to information relative to cost records and stock. Orion Strasberg and Margaret Michel are listed as assistants to the cost accountant. In addition to having information as to costs, Miss Strasberg also assists in making out the pay roll. Elizabeth Tilitson is listed as a typist. The only information which she might acquire would be received through the typing of invoices. The information which the above-named persons may possess in no instance relates directly to the problem of labor relations. The possession of important information is of itself insufficient to justify exclusion from the right to collective bargaining. We shall, therefore include these employees in the unit. We find that all office employees of the Company, excluding con- fidential and supervisory employees, constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining and that said unit will insure to employees of the Company the full benefit of their right to self-organization and to collective bargaining and otherwise effectuate the policies of the Act. VI. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES The parties agreed that, should the Board find that those employees as to whom there was conflict were entitled to be included in the appropriate unit, the Union could be certified without an election. It is admitted that 17 of the 19 employees within the appropriate unit had authorized the Union to represent them. We find that the Union has been designated and selected by a majority of the em- ployees in the unit herein found to be appropriate as their repre- sentative for the purposes of collective bargaining. The Union is therefore the exclusive representative of all employees in such unit for the purposes of collective bargaining, and we will so certify. 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 Creamery Package Manufacturing Com- pany (Lake Mills Plant), Lake Mills, Wisconsin, within the meaning s Also referred to in the record as Margaret Mueller. * Also referred to in the record as Ruth Faville. 112 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD of Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the National Labor Relations Act. 2. All office employees of the Company, excluding confidential and supervisory employees, constitute a unit appropriate for the pur- poses of collective bargaining, within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the National Labor Relations Act. 3. Steel Workers ,Organizing Committee, C. I. 0., is the exclusive representative for all of the employees in such unit for the purposes of collective bargaining, within the meaning of Section 9 (a) of the National Labor Relations Act. CERTIFICATION OF REPRESENTATIVES By virtue of and pursuant to the power vested in the National Labor Relations Board by Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act, and pursuant to Article III, Sections 8 and 9, of National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 2, as amended, IT IS HEREBY CERTIFIED that Steel Workers Organizing Committee, C. I. 0., has been designated and selected by a majority of the office employees, excluding confidential and supervisory employees, of Creamery Package Manufacturing Company (Lake Mills Plant), Lake Mills, Wisconsin, as their representative for the purposes of collective bargaining, and that pursuant to Section 9 (a) of the Act, Steel Workers Organizing Committee, C. I. 0., is the exclusive representative of all such employees for the purposes of collective bargaining in respect to rates of pay, wages, hours of employment, and other conditions of employment.