American Automobile Association

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jul 23, 1968

172 N.L.R.B. 1276 (N.L.R.B. 1968)

1276 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
American Automobile Association , Wisconsin Divi-
sion and Milwaukee AAA Independent Sales
Union , Petitioner . Case 30-RC-808
July 23, 1968
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION
BY CHAIRMAN MCCULLOCH AND MEMBERS
BROWN AND JENKINS
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9(c) of
the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, a
hearing was held before Hearing Officer Kenneth
N. Rock. Thereafter, the Employer filed a brief.
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the
National Labor Relations Act, as amended, the Na-
tional Labor Relations Board has delegated its
powers in connection with this case to a three-
member panel.
The Board has reviewed the Hearing Officer's
rulings made at the hearing, and finds that they are
free from prejudicial error. They are hereby af-
firmed.'
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board
finds:
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within
the meaning of the Act and it will effectuate the
purposes of the Act to assert jurisdiction herein.
2. The labor organization involved claims to
represent certain employees of the Employer.
3. A question affecting commerce exists con-
cerning the representation of certain employees of
the Employer within the meaning of Section
9(c)(1) and Section 2(6) and (7) of the Act.
4. The appropriate unit:
Petitioner seeks an election in a unit composed
of all district sales representatives in the Employer's
Milwaukee office Petitioner would exclude floor
salesmen, travel consultants, office clericals, and all
other employees from the unit. The Employer con-
tends that a unit composed of all sales representa-
tives in the State of Wisconsin is the optimum unit
for bargaining. In the alternative, it seeks to expand
the unit sought by Petitioner, first, by including em-
ployees from other district offices and, second, by
including employees whose work is related to the
work performed by the sales representatives.
The American Automobile Association,
hereinafter referred to as AAA, is a nonprofit cor-
' Both at the hearing and in its brief, the Employer moved to dismiss the
petition on the ground that Petitioner was, or was a successor to, a
dominated labor organization The Hearing Officer properly rejected this
position taken by Respondent
There are no sales representatives at the smaller Milwaukee office
' These employees receive mail and telephone calls for the sales
poration organized into a number of separate divi-
sions. The Employer in this case is the Wisconsin
Division of the AAA. Like the other divisions of
AAA, it provides a number of services for its mem-
bers. These include an emergency road service, a
bail bond service, and a travel service. It also offers
casualty, automobile, fire, homeowners, and boat
insurance to its members. The insurance policies
and memberships in the association itself are sold
primarily by sales representatives.
The main office of AAA, Wisconsin Division, is
located in Madison, Wisconsin. In addition, it
operates 16 other offices throughout the State, in-
cluding 2 offices in Milwaukee. The larger of these
two, located on West Fond du Lac Avenue, is
staffed by 70 employees. In contrast to the other
Milwaukee office, which is primarily a travel of-
fice,' the office on West Fond du Lac Avenue han-
dles all phases of the Employer's business . Thus, in
addition to 29 sales representatives, it contains a
travel department, staffed by 21 employees, and an
emergency road service department, staffed by 4
full-time and 5 regular part-time employees. Other
employees include "sales secretaries,"3 cashiers,' a
membership clerk, personal secretaries, a stenog-
rapher, a messenger, and a delivery boy. Of particu-
lar significance in this case, are two "floor
salesmen," whose primary function is to administer
the insurance policies sold by the sales representa-
tives. The "floor salesmen" spend approximately
half of their time assisting the sales representatives.
If a sales representative is not performing as well as
expected, one of the floor salesmen will be assigned
to work with him. Questions concerning insurance
coverage and automobile financing are directed to
the floor salesmen. These employees are also
responsible for checking all price quotations given
by the sales representatives and for making certain
that the insurance applications, filled out by the
sales representatives, are complete. Both of the
floor salesmen were sales representatives before
they were promoted to their current positions, and
both, like the sales representatives, are licensed by
the State to sell insurance.
The Milwaukee offices are under the direct su-
pervision of an area sales manager and a general of-
fice manager. The jurisdiction of the area sales
manager extends to six counties, including Milwau-
kee. Thus, 9 sales representatives outside of Mil-
waukee, in addition to the 29 sales representatives
representatives. answer mail and telephone inquiries from potential
customers, and pass on to the sales representatives the names of potential
customers
' All membership fees and insurance payments are turned over to the
cashiers' office The employees in this office are also responsible for com-
piling the membership kits that are distributed to new members
172 NLRB No. 131
AMERICAN AUTOMOBILE ASSN.
in the Milwaukee office, are directly supervised by
the same area sales manager. The general manager,
however, exercises general supervisory capacity
only over the employees of the Milwaukee offices.
Apparently, the Milwaukee offices are the only dis-
trict offices in the State with their own general of-
fice manager.
As noted above, the primary function of the sales
representatives is to sell insurance policies and
memberships in the AAA. As noted above, all of
the sales representatives are licensed by the State to
sell insurance. They report to the office daily,
although unlike other employees there is no fixed
time at which they must arrive and no required
number of hours which they must spend in the of-
fice.' A significant portion of the sales representa-
tive's time is spent calling on customers in his sales
territory. Regardless of whether a sale is made in
the office or in the field, however, binders and
receipts are delivered to the cashier at the West
Fond du Lac office. If questions arise concerning
coverage or rates, inquiries are directed to the
"floor salesmen" located there. If a prospective
customer inquires about membership or insurance
programs at the district office, his name will be
given to a sales representative by one of the sales
secretaries. One purpose of the daily visit to the of-
fice is to collect such messages. If a sales represen-
tative is not in the office during the afternoon, a
sales secretary will usually call him at home to con-
vey the messages which accumulated throughout
the day. In addition to this daily contact with the
district office, the sales representative attends
periodic sales meetings there.
In analogous situations, we have found that s sin-
gle district office unit, as opposed to a statewide
unit or a combination of district offices, is presump-
tively appropriate.' The rationale of the cited cases
is controlling here. As in the insurance cases, the
district office here is a separate, adminstrative enti-
ty through which the Employer conducts its busi-
' The time spent by each sales representative in the office varies signifi-
cantly, some spending as tittles as 2 hours per day at their desks
^ Western and Southern Life Insurance Co , 163 NLRB 138, enfd 391
F 2d 119 (C A 3, 1968) See also Quaker Life Insurance Co, 138 NLRB
61, enfd in part 319 F 2d 690 (C A 4, 1963), Metropolitan Life insurance
Co, 138 NLRB 512, 515, Western and Southern Life Insurance Co, 142
NLRB 28, enfd 328 F 2d 891 (C A 3, 1964), remanded 380 U S 522
( 1965), Metropolitan Life insurance Co , 147 NLRB 69, Metiopolitan Life
Inuraue Co , 147 NLRB 688 See generally Metropolitan Life insuiaue
Co, 156 NLRB 1408
We are not persuaded by the Employer's attempt to distinguish these
cases It is true, as the Employer points out, that most insurance offices
primarily sell insurance policies whereas the Employer herein offers a
number of other services as well The fact remains, however, that the sales
representatives involved herein spend little or no time providing these
other services (travel and emergency road service, for example), and, like
insurance agents, are based in a district office, do not have regular office
hours, often meet with customers at locations away from the office, are
1277
ness operations. The Milwaukee offices have their
own general manager who is responsible for the
overall administration, operation, and maintenance
of these offices and whose supervisory authority ex-
tends to all personnel in these offices. The sales
force in the Milwaukee district office operates in its
own distinct geographical area, and there is no
exchange and virtually no transfer of agents
between offices.' On the basis of the foregoing and
the entire record, we find that the individual district
office is a separate administrative entity through
which the Employer conducts its business opera-
tions and, therefore, an appropriate unit for bar-
gaining."
In determining which employees are to be in-
cluded in the unit, the Employer argues for the in-
clusion of several employees whose work is related
to the work of the sales representatives. With re-
gard to the two "floor salesmen," sometimes called
"underwriters," we think that the Employer's con-
tention is well taken. These two employees spend
approximately half of their time assisting the sales
representatives. In view of the line of progression
from sales representative to floor salesman, the
frequent working contact between the two groups
and their common supervision, we conclude that
the floor salesmen should be included in the unit.'
The remaining employees (sales secretaries,
cashiers, membership clerk, travel employees, pool
stenographer, etc.) do not sell insurance, perform
functions of a different nature from those per-
formed by the sales representatives, and have dif-
ferent qualifications and working conditions. Ac-
cordingly, they will be excluded.
Lastly, Petitioner seeks to exclude sales represen-
tatives based in the Milwaukee office whose sales
territories are outside of Milwaukee County.10
Although two or more of the sales representatives
based in the Milwaukee office do not sell insurance
within that county, in all other respects, their work-
ing conditions, supervision, and job functions are
licensed by the State to sell insurance, and devote a substantial portion of
their time to the selling of insurance policies
' See cases cited in fn 5, supra
"The mere fact that sales representatives in some counties outside of
Milwaukee are supervised by the same area sales manager who supervises
the sales representatives in the Milwaukee office does not make the Mil-
waukee office inappropriate as a unit for bargaining Apart from the fact of
common supervision by the area sales manager, the various sales representa-
tives, as indicated above, have virtually no contact with one another
Moreover, we have often found a single office appropriate for bargaining
despite the fact that it was under the dual supervision of an officer whose
jurisdiction included more than one office E g , Metropolitan Life in-
surance Co, 147 NLRB 688, 690
" Metropolitan Life Insurance Co, 147 NLRB 688, 692 Metropolitan Life
Insurance Co , 144 NLRB 149, 151-152
10 In its petition, Petitioner sought a unit of all representatives in the Mil-
waukee office without regard to the location of the representative 's sales
territory
1278 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Indistinguishable from those of the other sales
representatives . The mere fact that their territories
lie outside Milwaukee County is not , by itself, a
valid reason for excluding them from the unit.
They, therefore , will be included.
Accordingly , we find the following unit ap-
propriate within Section 9(b) of the Act:
All District Sales Representatives and Floor
Salesmen (" underwriters ") employed by the
Employer at the West Fond du Lac Avenue of-
fice in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, but excluding all
office clerical employees, district managers,
sales managers , travel counselors, guards, and
supervisors as defined in the Act.
[Direction of Election" omitted from publica-
tion. ]
" In order to assure that all eligible voters may have the opportunity to
be informed of the issues in the exercise of their statutory right to vote, all
parties to the election should have access to a list of voters and their ad-
dresses which may he used to communicate with them Etcelsior Un-
deni ear tin , 156 NLRB 1236, N L R B v Wvmmn-Gordon Co , 394 U S
759 Accordingly, it is hereby directed that an election eligibility list, con-
taining the names and addresses of all the eligible voters, must be filed by
the Employer with the Regional Director for Region 30 within 7 days of the
date of this Decision and Direction of Election The Regional Director shall
make the list available to all parties to the election No extension of time to
file this list shall be granted by the Regional Director except in extra-
ordinary circumstances Failure to comply with this requirement shall be
grounds for setting aside the election whenever proper objections are filed