Burton-Dixie Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board DecisionsMar 8, 1940

21 N.L.R.B. 289 (N.L.R.B. 1940)

In the Matter of BURTON-DIXIE CORPORATION and MATTRESS , SPRING & BEDDING WORKERS LOCAL 185 OF UPHOLSTERERS INTERNATIONAL UNION OF NORTH AMERICA, AFFILIATED WITH THE A. F. OF L. Case No. R-1676.Decided March 8, 1940 Bedding and Furniture Manufacturing Industry-Investigation of Representa- tives: controversy concerning representation of employees : refusal of employer to recognize petitioning union ; controversy concerning appropriate unit-Unit Appropriate for Collective Bargaining : all employees in metal department exclu- sive of office employees and foremen , subject to revision in accordance with change in state of self-organization of employees-Election Ordered Mr. Charles F. McErlean, for the Board. Messrs. Fyffe cC Clarke, by David R. Clarke, of Chicago, Ill., for the Company. Mr. William G. Tate, of Chicago, Ill., for Local 185. Mr. Norman M. Neel, of counsel to the Board. DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION STATEMENT OF THE CASE On October 31, 1939, Mattress, Spring & Bedding Workers Local 185 of Upholsterers International Union of North America, affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, herein called Local 185, filed with the Regional Director for the Thirteenth Region (Chicago, Illinois ), a petition alleging that a question affecting commerce had arisen concerning the representation of employees of the metal divi- sion of Burton-Dixie Corporation, Chicago, Illinois, herein called the Company, and requesting an investigation and certification of repre- sentatives pursuant to Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act, 49 Stat. 449, herein called the Act. On December 26, 1939, the National Labor Relations 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, ordered an investigation and authorized the Regional Director to conduct it and to provide for an appropriate hearing upon due notice. On December 28, 1939, the Regional Director issued a notice of hearing, copies of which were duly served upon the Company and 21 N. L. R. B, No. 30. 289 290 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD Local 185. Pursuant to notice a hearing was held on January 8, 1940, before Joseph L. Maguire, the Trial Examiner duly designated by the Board. The Board and the Company were represented by counsel, and Local 185, by its representative. All parties participated in the hearing, and were afforded full opportunity to be heard, to examine and cross-examine witnesses, and to produce evidence bearing upon the issues. 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 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 1. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY' Burton-Dixie Corporation is a Delaware corporation with its prin- cipal office in Chicago, Illinois, and a plant in said city with which this proceeding is concerned. The Company is engaged in the manu- facture of studio couches, love-seat beds, ]read-board beds, bed springs, gliders innerspring mattresses, pillows, comforters, and various lines of metal beds and lounging furniture. The principal raw materials used by the Company in the manufacture of its products are steel springs, flat and rolled steel, feathers, canvas, and textiles. During the year ending November 30, 1939, the Company expended approxi- mately $1,800,000.00 for raw materials, about 75 per cent of which were purchased outside of Illinois, and its sales of finished products aggregated approximately $3,500,000.00 in value, approximately 60 per cent of which were shipped outside of Illinois. The Company admits that it is engaged in interstate commerce within the meaning of the Act. IT. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED Mattress , Spring & Bedding Workers Local 185 of Upholsterers International Union of North America is a labor organization affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, admitting to membership employees of the Company. III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION During the latter part of 1939, Local 185 began organizational ,activities among employees of the metal department of the Company's 'These findings are based on a stipulation of facts entered into by counsel for the Board and counsel for the Company BURTON-DIXIE CORPORATION 291 plant and sought recognition as the bargaining representative of such employees. The Company refused recognition on the ground that the unit claimed by Local 185 was not appropriate for collective bargain- ing purposes. We find that a question has arisen concerning 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 operations 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 commerce and the free flow of commerce. V. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT Local 185 contends that the metal department of the Company's plant, exclusive of office employees and foremen in that department, constitutes a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargain- ing. The Company contends that the entire plant should constitute the appropriate unit. In the manufacture of its products, the operations of the Company -ire conducted under four major divisions in which approximately 900 persons are employed. The four divisions are the feather and down division, the mill division, the innerspring division, and the bedding division. The feather and down division manufactures pillows and comforters; the mill division produces mats and materials used in upholstering ; the innerspring division is engaged in the production of spring coils used in mattresses, pads, and studio couches. The bedding division 2 performs a variety of operations : it incorporates into mat- tresses, pads, and studio couches, the coil springs which are manufac- tured in the innerspring division ; it upholsters with material obtained from the mill division, the metal frames which are made in the metal department," and it assembles or upholsters box springs.4 2This large division of the Company ' s plant apparently includes the mattress and box- springs departments ( about 200 employees ), the upholstering department ( about 100 employees), and the metal department (126 employees) 3 Geographically, the metal department is separated by a city block and several build- ings from the rest of this division The reason for including it in this division, while maintaining the manufacture of innersprings as an entire, separate division is not clear The innerspring division is smaller than the metal department , it is nearei to the main part of the bedding division , it is intimately associated isith the operations of that divi- son, and it is not set off by itself as is the metal depaitment 4 The record does- not disclose with pi ecision the various functions and interrelations of the departments with respect to the individual products 292 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD The metal department, claimed by Local 185 to be the appropriate unit, is the only production department in its building. It utilizes separate entrances, time clock, and shipping room. It manufactures bed springs, and frames for gliders, chaises, chaisettes, box springs, studio couches, and love seats, more or less as consumption requires. Many of these articles are then removed to other departments or other plants for completion, while in the case of others, nothing remains to be done to prepare them for consumer use." Completion of the articles usually consists of upholstery work, and the fitting of cotton-filled pads or innerspring pads to the metal frames. The basic rates of pay and working conditions are the same, generally, throughout the plant, although there is practically no interchange of employees between departments. Local 185, which admits all the Company's production employees to membership, began its organizational activity among the Company's employees in the "last quarter" of 1939. Local 185 organized the metal department firsts before directing its effort to the other eligible employees in the plant 7 although ultimately it intends to seek to rep- resent all the Company's employees. While the Company's entire plant could properly constitute an appropriate bargaining unit, as the Company contends and as Local 185 concedes, there are in our opinion sufficient differences, functional and otherwise, between the metal department and the remainder of the plant to warrant upon the basis of the present state of organiza- tion of the plant and the desires of the only union involved, the estab- lishment of the metal department as an appropriate unit and thus neither deny nor postpone collective bargaining for the metal-depart- ment employees who have already manifested a desire for it.8 Such a determination is subject to revision in accordance with changes in the state of self-organization of the employees 9 concerned. We find that all employees in the metal department of the Company, exclusive of office employees and foremen, constitute a unit appro- priate for the purposes of collective bargaining and that said unit will 5 Apparently all-metal furniture and bed springs are completed articles when they leave the metal department. 6 Local 185 claims to represent 98 per cent of the employees in this department 7 By issuing invitations to attend its meetings Local 185 has secured membership of about 100 employees in the Company's other departments 8 See Matter of R. C A. Communications, Inc and American Radio Telegraphists' As- sociation, 2 N. L R. B 1109 , where we designated the "live traffic " employees as the appropriate unit in order that they "should not be denied the benefits of the Act until all the employees of the Company throughout the country are organized " But cf Matter of Tourea Packing Company, a corporation and Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America, Local 313, 12 N L R B 1083. where under the facts of that case v,e did not regard 5 departments out of more than 15 as an appropriate bargaining unit °See Matter of Ryan Aeronautical Co and United All cm aft 11'eldeis of America, Inc. 15 N L R B. 812 BURTON-DIXIE CORPORATION 293 insure to the employees of the Company the full benefit of their right to self-organization and to collective bargaining and will otherwise effectuate the policies of the Act. VI. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES A representative of Local 185 testified that 98 per cent of the Com- pany's employees in the metal department are members of Local 185 but offered no additional proof of such claim, which the Company challenged. We find, therefore, that an election by secret ballot is necessary to resolve the question concerning representation. Neither the Company nor Local 185 expressed a preference in regard to eligibility to participate in an election. We shall therefore adopt a current pay roll and direct that all those persons within the appropriate unit on the Company's pay roll next preceding the date of our Direction of Election herein shall be eligible to vote in the election. 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 Burton-Dixie Corporation, Chicago, Illinois, within the meaning of Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the National Labor Relations Act. 2. All the employees in the metal department of the Company, exclusive of office employees and foremen, constitute a unit appro- priate for the purposes of collective bargaining, within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the National Labor Relations Act. DIRECTION OF ELECTION By virtue of and pursuant to the power vested in the National Labor Relations Board by Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Rela- tions Act, and pursuant to Article III, Section 8, of National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 2, as amended, it is hereby DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation ordered by the Board to ascertain representatives for the purposes of collective bargaining with Burton-Dixie Corporation, Chicago, Illinois, an election by secret ballot shall be conducted as early as possible but not later than thirty (30) days from the date of this Direction, under the direction and supervision of the Regional Director for the Thirteenth Region, act- ing in this hatter as agent for the National Labor Relations Board and subject to Article III, Section 9, of said Rules and Regulations, 283032-41-vol. 21--20 '294 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD among the metal-department employees of the Company on the pay roll next preceding this Direction including those who are not working because they are ill or on vacation and employees who are temporarily laid off, but excluding office employees and foremen, to determine whether or not they wish to be represented by Mattress, Spring & Bed- ding Workers Local 185 of Upholsterers International Union of North America, affiliated with the A. F. of L., for the purposes of collective bargaining.