Continental Baking Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jun 16, 1942

41 N.L.R.B. 998 (N.L.R.B. 1942)

In the Matter Of CONTINENTAL BAKING COMPANY and LOCAL UNION
No. 458, UNITED CONSTRUCTION WORKERS ORGANIZING COMMITIT,E
(C. I. O.)
Case No. R-3819.-Decided June 16, 1912
Jurisdiction : bakery products manufacturing industry.
Practice and Procedure : petition dismissed where single industrial unit at
Company's Akron, Ohio, plant was found inappropriate as indicated by collec-
tive bargaining history; union representing bakers having bargained on a
city-wide basis ; and of remaining employees, mechanics, firemen, and oilers
having bargained for 8 years in separate units through different labor
organizations.
Buckingham,, Doolittle cfi Thomas, by Messrs. Joseph Thomas and
Dwight Parsons, of Akron, Ohio, for the Company.
Mr. Stanley Denlinger and Mr. LeRoy Thomas, of Akron, Ohio,
for the United.
Keeley, Kutash c6 Bloch, by Messrs. George Q. Keeley and Richard
K. Bloch, of Cleveland, Ohio, for Local 33.
Mr. Daniel C. Brown, of Akron, Ohio, and Mr. L. 0. Thomas, of
Washington, D. C., for the I. A. M.
Mr. Andrews Feuchter, of Cleveland, Ohio, for the Firemen and
Oilers.
Miss Marcia Hertzmark, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
ORDER
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon petition duly filed by Local Union No. 458, United Construc-
tion Workers Organizing Committee (C. I. 0.), herein called the
United, alleging that a question affecting commerce had arisen con-
cerning the representation of employees of Continental Baking Com-
pany, Akron, Ohio, herein called the Company, the National Labor
Relations Board provided for an appropriate hearing upon due notice
before Max W. Johnstone, Trial Examiner. Said hearing was held
at Akron, Ohio, on May 11 and 12, 1942. The Company; the United;
Local Union No. 207, International Brotherhood of Firemen
and Oilers, herein called the Firemen and Oilers; Local Union No.
762, International Association of Machinists, herein called the I. A. M.;
41 N. L. R. B., No. 180.
998
CONTINENTAL BAXING COMPANY '999
and Local' Union No. 33, Bakery and Confectionery. Workers Inter-
national -Union of America, herein called Local 33, appeared, partici-
pated, and were afforded full opportunity to be heard, to examine and
-cross-examine witnesses, and to introduce evidence bearing on the
'-issues. The Trial Examiner's rulings made at the hearing are • free
from prejudicial error and. are hereby affirmed. Briefs were there-
- after filed with the Board by the United; the I. A. M'., and: Local 33.
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following :
FINDINGS OF FACT
1. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
Continental Baking Company is a' Delaware corporation having
about 85 plants in 26 States. Its main offices are, in New York City.
The only plant involved in this proceeding is that at Akron, Ohio,
where the Company'is engaged in the manufacture of bakery products.
The Company uses at the Akron plant approximately $400,000 worth
of raw materials annually, consisting of flour, shortening, milk, sugar,
salt, yeast, and other materials. About 60 percent thereof is shipped to
the Akron plant from outside the State of Ohio. Its annual gross
volume of sales is approximately $1,000,000. None of the ,products of
the Akron plant is shipped outside the State of Ohio.
II. THE ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED
Local No. 458, United Construction Workers Organizing Cbmmittee,
is a labor organization affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Or-
ganizations, admitting to membership employees of the Company.
Local 33, Bakery and Confectionery Workers International Union of
America; Local Union No. 207, International Brotherhood of Firemen
and Oilers; and Local Union No. 762, International Association of
Machinists, are labor organizations affiliated with the American Feder-
ation of Labor, admitting to membership employees of the Company.
III. THE ALLEGED APPROPRIATE UNIT
The United desires a unit consisting of all inside worker's of the
Akron branch of the' Company, including bakers,' production and
maintenance employees, but excluding all outside' workers, drivers,
salesmen, foremen, supervisors, the sales force, and office employees.
The Company, Local 33, the I. A. M., and the Firemen and Oilers con-
tend that this unit is inappropriate and ask that the United's petition
be dismissed.
Each year since 1934, the Company has bargained with Local 33 on
behalf of its bakers through the Akron Bakers Club; an organization
2 It appears from the record that the bakers constitute .the.Company 's production employees.
1000 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
composed of all bakery companies in Akron, which exists for the pur-
pose of dealing on behalf of its members with Local 33 and with Inter-
national Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and
Helpers.2 Local 33 has, each year, entered into a master contract with
Akron Bakers Club and identical individual contracts with each of the
constituent members. The employees of the Company covered by
these annual contracts are those which Local 33 now contends consti-
tute an appropriate unit. Mechanics, firemen and oilers, and a number
of porters and miscellaneous employees, whom the United now desires
to include within the unit, were excluded by these contracts.'
It thus appears that the bakers employed by the Company constitute
part of a city-wide group for whom Local 33 has bargained over a
period of 8 years. Its contracts with Akron Bakers Club and with
the Company, executed in May 1941, are presently in existence pursuant
to their terms. Moreover, the United petition seeks to establish a
single unit of bakers, mechanics, firemen, and oilers, despite the fact
that both mechanics and firemen and oilers have bargained in separate
units through different labor organizations since 1934.
The above-recited history of collective bargaining indicates the in-
appropriateness of a single industrial unit at the Company's Akron
plant.4 We find that the unit requested by the United is inappropriate
for the purposes of collective bargaining.
IV. THE ALLEGED QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
Since the bargaining unit sought to be established by the petition
is not appropriate, as stated in Section III above, we find that no ques-
.tion concerning the representation of employees of the Company in an
appropriate bargaining unit has arisen, within the meaning of Section
9 (c) of the Act. Accordingly, the petition will be dismissed.
ORDER
Upon the basis of the foregoing findings of fact and the entire
record in the case, the National Labor Relations Board hereby orders
that the petition for investigation and certification of representatives
of employees of Continental Baking Company, Akron, Ohio, filed by
Local Union No. 458, United Construction Workers Organizing Com-
mittee (C. I. 0.), be, and it hereby is, dismissed.
2 The teamsters union is not involved herein.
3 The company has, since 1934, bargained with the I. A. M. on behalf of garage mechcanics
and an inside maintenance man, and with Firemen and Oilers on behalf of firemen and
oilers. The I. A. M. has never had a written contract with the company. The Firemen
and Oilers last entered into a contract with the Company in May 1939, and the parties have
continued to operate thereunder.
4 See Matter of John Kausel, doing business under the name and style of Kausel Foundry
Company, also sometimes known as Kausel Foundry and Local No. 132 of the International
Moulders Union (A. F. of L.), 28 N. L. It. B. 906, and cases cited therein.