ACF-Wrigley Stores, Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jul 21, 1959

124 N.L.R.B. 200 (N.L.R.B. 1959)

`ZOO DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
4 to 5 years' experience. The evidence, we find, does not support the
Petitioner's contention that this employee is confidential,' or profes-
sional. On this record, we find the industrial engineer technician is a
technical employee, and shall include him in the unit.'
Group leaders A and B are responsible for the training and per-
formance of production application draftsmen. They have inter-
viewed job applicants and made recommendations regarding the hire,
promotion, reclassification, and discharge of employees, which recom-
mendations, the record shows, have been followed in most instances.
Accordingly, we find they are supervisors and shall exclude them.
We therefore find that the following employees constitute a unit
appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the mean-
ing of Section 9 (b) of the Act :
All technical employees at the Employer's Milwaukee, Wisconsin,
plant, including checkers A and B, draftsmen detailer B, draftsmen
detailer jr., estimator sr., product application draftsmen A, B, C, D,
and E, product analyst, time-study man jr., time-study man sr., plant
layout technician, product development draftsmen jr., tabulating ma-
chine operator sr., industrial engineer technician, group leader esti-
mator, and product development draftsmen sr., but excluding office
clerical employees, production and maintenance employees, produc-
tion schedulers, order scheduler sr., rate clerk (traffic) sr., rate clerk
(traffic) jr., group leader-A, group leader-B, guards, professional
employees, and supervisors as defined in the Act.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.]
6 See LihListon Implement Company, supra
Westinghouse Air Brake Company , 119 NLRB 1391, 1394
ACF-Wrigley Stores, Inc. and Retail Clerks International Asso-
ciation , AFL-CIO, Petitioner. Case No. 16-RC-2505. July 21,
1959
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (0) of the National Labor
Relations Act, a hearing was held before John C. Crawford, hearing
officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free
from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3 (b) of the Act, the Board
has delegated its powers in connection with this case to a three-member
panel [Chairman Leedom and Members Bean and Fanning].
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer 1 is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the Act.
1 The name of the Employer appears as amended pursuant to the motion filed with the
Board.
124 NLRB No. 26.
ACF-WRIGLEY STORES, INC. 201
2. The labor organizations involved claim to represent certain em-
ployees of the Employer.2
3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the representa-
tion of employees of the Employer within the meaning of Section
9(c) (1) and Section 2(6) and (7) of the Act.
4. The Petitioner seeks a unit of employees at the Employer's
Wynnewood Shopping Center and Casa View Shopping Center lo-
cated in the city of Dallas. The Employer would include the em-
ployees at its Garland and Big Town stores which are in the greater
Dallas area. Both the Petitioner and the Intervenor indicated their
willingness to participate in an election in such a unit, if the Board
should find it appropriate. There is no history of collective
bargaining.
The Employer operates a nationwide chain of retail food stores.
A district manager, who maintains his office at the Big Town store,
has overall supervision of the four stores here involved, as well as
two stores in the Fort Worth area. He formulates the labor policy
for all the stores. Each store has a manager, who reports to the dis-
trict manager, and is responsible for the store's operations, and for
all hiring and discharges.
The two stores sought by the Petitioner, Casa View and Wynne-
wood, are about 18 miles apart. The two stores which the Employer
would add are approximately 4 and 6 miles, respectively, from the
Casa View store, and are more distant from the Wynnewood store.
Employees are interchanged by permanent and temporary transfer
among all four stores. The wage structure and all other employee
benefits are the same for all four stores.
Because the two stores that the Petitioner seeks to represent are
not a separate administrative division of the Employer's operations,
and do not comprise all the Employer's stores in the same geographical
area, we find they do not constitute an appropriate unit. However,
as the four stores mentioned above represent all the Employer's
stores in the greater Dallas area, we find in accord with the Employer's
contention, that they constitute an appropriate unit.3 As the Peti-
tioner has made a sufficient showing of interest for such unit, we shall
direct an election therein.
The parties differ concerning the inclusion of employees who are
classified as package boys. The Petitioner would include them within
the unit, but the Employer would exclude them as "casual" employees.
These employees are high school students who work to some extent
during the week but for the most part on Fridays or Saturdays. The
Employer concedes that some, who work regularly 24 hours a week,
2 Retail , Wholesale & Department Store Union , AFL-CIO, herein called the Intervenor,
intervened on the basis of a card-showing.
8B. G. Wholesale, Incorporated , 114 NLRB 1429, 1430; Jewel Food Stores, 111 NLRE
1368.
202 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
should be included in the unit, but maintains that the employment
of the rest is too irregular to warrant their inclusion in the unit. As
the record does not afford sufficient basis for determining which of
these employees are regular part-time employees and which are casual
employees, we shall permit all of them to vote subject to challenge.4
The Employer would exclude the manager and assistant manager
in each store as supervisors, but would include the two second assistant
managers and the produce department head in each store. The Peti-
tioner took no position.
The manager of each store is responsible for its operations and has
authority to hire 5 and discharge employees. The assistant manager
is primarily responsible for the grocery department, but exercises
the same authority as the manager during the latter's absence, which
occurs about 40 hours of the 85 hours that the store is open each week.
We find that the manager and assistant manager in each store are
supervisors, and exclude them from the unit.
The second assistant manager and produce department head, are
hourly paid employees who, in directing the work of other employees,
only transmit the instructions of the manager and assistant manager.
They have no authority to hire or discharge, nor to recommend such
action. We find that they are not supervisors 6 and include them.
The following employees of the Employer constitute a unit appro-
priate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning
of Section 9 (b) of the Act : All employees at the Employer's Wynne-
wood, Casa View, Garland, and Big Town stores in the greater Dallas,
Texas, area, including regular part-time employees, but excluding
casual employees, meat market employees, guards and watchmen, and
all supervisors as defined in the Act.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.]
See Giant Markets, Inc., 107 NLRB 10, 12.
All hirings by store managers are temporary until approved by the district manager.
J. P. Stevens & Company, Inc., 123 NLRB 758.
Thomas Lanier and Sartain Lanier d/b/a Kapp Manufacturing
Company and International Ladies' Garment Workers ' Union,
AFL-CIO, Petitioner. Case No. 10-RC-4238. July 21, 1959
SUPPLEMENTAL DECISION, DIRECTION, AND ORDER
Pursuant to a Decision and Direction of 'Election,' an election by
secret ballot was conducted on February 27, 1959, under the direction
and supervision of the Acting Regional Director for the 'Tenth Re-
1 Thomas Lanier and Sartain Lanier d/b/a Happ Manufacturing Company , 10-RC-4238,
February 12,1959 (unpublished).
124 NLRB No. 22.