Cooperative Industries, Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Sep 12, 1949

85 N.L.R.B. 1258 (N.L.R.B. 1949)

In the Matter Of COOPERATIVE INDUSTRIES, INC., EMPLOYER and JAMES
W. BICKNELL, PETITIONER and GENERAL WAREIIOUSEMEN'S LOCAL
UNION #418, AFFILIATED WITH INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF
TEAMSTERS, CHAUFFEURS, WAREHOUSEMEN AND HELPERS OF
AMERICA, AFL
Case No. 9-RD-39.-Decided September 10, 1919
DECISION
AND
ORDER
Upon a petition for decertification duly filed, a hearing was held
before Lloyd R. Fraker, hearing officer. The hearing officer's rul-
ings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are
hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the National Labor Relations Act.
2. The labor organization involved claims to represent employees
of the Employer.
3. No question affecting commerce exists concerning the represen-
tation of employees of the Employer within the meaning of Section
9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act, for the following
reasons:
On April 30, 1948, the Union, having won a Board-conducted elec-
tion,' was certified as the collective bargaining agent of the produc-
tion and maintenance employees of the Employer. On June 16,
1948, the Union and Employer executed an agreement covering the
employees in the unit. This agreement provided that it should be
effective for a period ending June 16, 1949, and contained a 60-day.
automatic renewal clause. Such renewal was precluded by timely
notice in April 1949.
On March 22, 1949, the Petitioner filed the decertification petition
herein, claiming that the Union no longer represented the employees
in the unit. Although the petition was timely filed in relation to
the terms of the contract, we have recently reaffirmed the long-estab-
' Consolidated cases 9-RC-65 and 9 -RM-16.
85 N. L. R. B., No. 209.
1258
COOPERATIVE INDUSTRIES, INC. 1259
lished policy that a union is ordinarily entitled to a year from the
date of its certification to bargain collectively, free from intrusion
upon that process by early rival-union or decertification petitions.2
Nor should the fact that the bargaining was successful and a contract
was executed during the first certificate year detract from the certi-
fied union's right to a year of undisturbed bargaining relations. As
the petition herein was filed well before the end of the certificate
year, we shall dismiss it, without prejudice to the filing of a new,
timely petition.3
ORDER
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the petition filed herein be, and it hereby
is, dismissed.
MEMBER REYNOLDS took no part in the consideration of the above
Decision and Order.
2 Matter of General Bow Company, 82 N. L. R. B . 678; Matter of Mengel Company, Fibre
Container Division, 80 N. L . R. B. 705; Matter of Lift Trucks, Inc., 75 N. L. R. B. 998.
3 Cf. Matter of Reedley Ice Company , 85 N. L . R. B. 1205.