Armour & Company

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Dec 30, 1938

10 N.L.R.B. 891 (N.L.R.B. 1938)

In the Matter of ARMOUR & COMPANY and PACKING HOUSE WORKERS
ORGANIZING COMMITTEE FOR UNITED PACKING HOUSE WORKERS,
LOCAL 347
In the Matter of ARMOUR & COMPANY and UNITED PACKING HOUSE
WORKERS LOCAL INDUSTRIAL UNION No. 347, THROUGH PACKING
HOUSE WORKERS ORGANIZING COMMITTEE, AFFILIATED WITH THE
COMMITTEE FOR INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATION
Cases Nos. 8-584 and C-695, respectively
SUPPLEMENTAL DECISION
AND
CERTIFICATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
December 30, 1938
On September 15, 1938, the National Labor Relations Board, herein
,called the Board, issued a Decision, Order, and Direction of Election
in the above-entitled case. ,. The Direction of Election provided that
an election by secret ballot be conducted within thirty (30) days
from the date of the Direction among the production and mainte-
nance employees of Armour & Company, Chicago, Illinois, herein
-called the respondent, who were employed by the respondent during
the pay-roll period next following January 20, 1938,2 including those
persons who had since been laid off but who retained their seniority
rights, but excluding supervisors, foremen, and assistant foremen,
clerical and office workers, timekeepers, steady-time checkers and
-scalers, general office and dressing-room janitors and matrons, fire-
men, policemen, and watchmen, guides, student employees, medical-
-department employees, teamsters and chauffeurs, garage mechanics
and helpers, bricklayers, safety inspectors, plant-storeroom em-
ployees, chemists and technicians, employees in the plant restaurant
and meat market, Morris garage and parking-lot employees, street
cleaners, employees at the Ashland cold-storage freezer, messengers,
tel-autograph employees, label-storage department employees, sta-
tionery-department employees, and also excluding those employees
18 N. L. R. B. 1100.
2 This is the pay roll of the respondent for the week ending January 22, 1938.
10 N. L. R. B., No. 77.
891
892 NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
who had since quit or been discharged for cause, to determine
whether or not they desired to be represented by United Packing
House Workers Local Industrial Union No. 347, through Packing
House Workers Organizing Committee, affiliated with the C. I. O.,
for the purposes of collective bargaining.
On September 26, 1938, the respondent filed with the Board a peti-
tion protesting the holding of an election in which the eligibility of
the employees was determined by the pay roll of January 22, 1938,
and requesting that the Direction of Election be vacated, and that
the election be held in abeyance pending a review of the proceedings
by the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Seventh Cir-
cuit, and that the record be reopened for the introduction of addi-
tional evidence.
On October 7, 1938, the Employees Mutual Association of Chicago,
herein called the Association, a labor organization which the Board
found to be sponsored and dominated by the respondent within the
meaning of Section 8 (2) of the National Labor Relations Act, filed
with the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Seventh
Circuit a petition for an injunction restraining the Board from con-
ducting the election pursuant to its Direction, pending the disposition
of an appeal from the Board's Decision, Order, and Direction of
Election. On the same day the respondent filed a similar motion with
the Circuit Court praying for the same relief. On October 10, 1938,
the Circuit Court entered an order denying the application for in-
junctions.
On October 19, 1938, the Board issued an order denying the peti-
tion of the respondent to postpone the election and to reopen the
record for the introduction of additional evidence.
Pursuant to the Direction, an election by secret ballot was con-
ducted under the direction and supervision of the Regional Director
for the Thirteenth Region (Chicago, Illinois), on October 11 and
12, 1938. Full opportunity was accorded to all the parties to this in-
vestigation to participate in the conduct of the secret ballot and to
make challenges. On November 8, 1938, the said Regional Director,
acting pursuant to Article III, Section 9, of National Labor Rela-
tions Board Rules and Regulations-Series 1, as amended, issued and
duly served upon the parties his Intermediate Report on the ballot.
As to the results of the secret ballot, the Regional Director re-
ported as follows :
Total number eligible-approximately ------------------- 4,518 to 4,689
Total number of ballots cast for the United____________________ 2,840
Total number of ballots cast against the United________________ 237
Total number of challenged ballots_____________________________ 11
8 Although the pay rolls of the respondent had been subpenaed by the Board for 10
a. m. on October 8, 1938, they were not furnished until 2 p. m. on October 10, 1938.
Furthermore, the respondent did not designate the occupational classifications of the
DECISIONS AND OllDE1:S 893
Total number of segregated ballots___________________________ '301
Total number of blank ballots________________________________ 16
Total number of void ballots_________________________________ 13
Total ballots cast______________________________________ 3,418
The Regional Director stated in his Intermediate Report that
since the crediting of the challenged and segregated ballots in behalf
of or against the United would not materially affect the results of
the election, he did not deem it necessary to rule upon the eligibility
of the voters whose ballots were thus challenged or segregated, and
further recommended to the Board that such ballots be not opened.
We concur in the recommendation of the Regional Director.
The Regional Director further reported that affidavits filed with
him by employees of respondent stated that there was an unusual dis-
play of company policemen, all carrying new billie clubs, in and
around the plant of the respondent and that on the second day of
the election a number of supervisory employees of the respondent
stood at the plant gate nearest to the polling place for a considerable
period of time and observed those who were participating in the elec-
tion. However, the Regional Director recommended that these
charges should not be investigated in view of the results of the elec-
tion. We shall also follow this recommendation.
On November 8, 1938, the respondent filed with the Regional
Director its objections to the Intermediate Report on the secret ballot.
The respondent contended that the estimates of the Regional Director
as to the number of employees eligible to vote in the election were
inaccurate. It alleged that there were 8,038 employees on the pay
roll of January 22, 1938, of whom 1,027 had been excluded from the
unit by the Board's Direction of Election and of whom 1,058 had
been laid off, between January 22 and October 11, 1938, and had lost
their seniority rights. On the basis of these figures, the respondent
contended that a total of 5,953 persons were eligible to vote in the
election pursuant to the Board's 'Direction of Election.5 It is clear,
employees on the pay rolls submitted by it. As a result it was impossible to compute
the exact number of employees eligible to participate in the election In its additional
suggestions in support of its motion for a stay of the election filed with the United States
'Circuit Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit on October 8 , 1937 , the respondent alleged
that its pay roll, since January 1938 , had fluctuated between 5 , 000 and 6 , 000 employees in
the production and maintenance departments ; that 311 employees who were on its pay
roll during September 1938 were not on that of January 22, 1938; that 1,378 employees
have been laid off since January 1938 ; and that approximately 85 per cent of this number
have lost their seniority rights. The Regional Director concluded on the basis of such
claims of the respondent that the total number of persons eligible to vote in the election
was approximately 4,518 to 4,689.
4 The agents of the Board challenged such employees on the ground that their eligibility
-was in question . These ballots were set aside and not counted with the others.
8 The respondent also asserted that 309 persons were employed by it in October 1938
but not in January 1938 and were improperly prevented from voting in the election due
to the eligibility date specified by the Board in its Direction of Election . It claimed,
,therefore, that the total number of persons who should have been eligible to vote was 6,262.
894 NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
however, that the respondent was not prejudiced by any inaccuracy
in the estimate of the Regional Director with regard to the number
of employees eligible to participate in the election. As we have
stated heretofore, certification of a labor organization is dependent
upon its receiving a majority of the votes cast by eligible employees
voting in an election rather than upon its receiving a majority of
the votes of employees eligible to vote in the election."
The respondent further contended in its exceptions that certain
employees who had been laid off since January 22, 1938, for a period
of more than 60 days prior to the date of the election and who had
thus lost their seniority rights were allowed to cast ballots in the
election and that voting by such persons was contrary to the Board's
Direction of Election. Since the respondent failed to specify in its
exceptions the number of such employees who it claimed, voted in the
election, the Regional Director requested the respondent to furnish
him with a list of all employees on the pay roll of January 22, 1938,
who the respondent claimed had lost their seniority rights by being
laid off for more than 60 days. The respondent refused to furnish
this information. It is to be noted in this connection that the re-
spondent refused to avail itself of the opportunity afforded it to
have watchers at the polls for the purpose of making challenges
with regard to persons voting. It is to be noted, moreover, that in
its additional suggestions in support of its motion for a stay of the
election filed with the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for
the Seventh Circuit, the respondent contended that approximately
1,058 persons laid off since January 1938 had lost their seniority
rights. Even assuming that such figure is correct and that all such
employees participated in the election, the majority of the United
would still remain unaffected.
The respondent also alleged that during the election persons wear-
ing "N. L. R. B." badges or ribbons appeared on the respondent's
premises with representatives of the United, urged employees to go
to the polls, and in some instances furnished automobile transporta-
tion to the polls. However, the respondent presented no affidavits or
other evidence in support of these claims. Furthermore, the Regional
Director denied that any agent of the Board had acted in such a
manner.
Upon consideration of the various exceptions to the Intermediate
Report, the Board finds that no substantial and material issues with
respect to the conduct of the election are raised thereby.
By virtue of and pursuant to the power vested in the National
Labor Relations Board by Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Rela-
See Matter of R. C. A. Manufacturing Company, Inc. and United Electrical & Radio
Workers o f America, 2 N. L. R . B. 159.
DECISIONS AND ORDERS 895
tions Act, and pursuant to Article III, Sections 8 and 9, of National
Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 1, as amended,
IT is HERESY CERTaam that United Packing House Workers Local
Industrial Union No. 347, through Packing House Workers Organiz-
ing Committee, has been designated and selected by a majority of the
production and maintenance employees of Armour & Company, Chi-
cago, Illinois, excluding supervisors, foremen, and assistant foremen,
clerical and office workers, timekeepers, steady-time checkers and
scalers, general office and dressing-room janitors and matrons, fire-
men, policemen, and watchmen, guides, student employees, medical-
department employees, teamsters and chauffeurs, garage mechanics
and helpers, bricklayers, safety inspectors, plant-storeroom employees,
chemists and technicians, employees in the plant restaurant and meat
market, Morris garage and parking-lot employees, street cleaners,
employees at the Ashland cold-storage freezer, messengers, tel-auto-
graph employees, label-storage department employees, stationery-
department employees, as their representative for the purposes of col-
lective bargaining, and that pursuant to Section 9 (a) of the Act
United Packing House Workers Local Industrial Union No. 347,
through Packing House Workers Organizing Committee, is the ex-
clusive 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.
MR. EDWIN S. SMITH took no part in the consideration of the above
Supplemental Decision and Certification of Representatives.