Creamery Package Manufacturing Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Aug 9, 1941

34 N.L.R.B. 108 (N.L.R.B. 1941)

In the Matter of CREAMERY PACKAGE MANUFACTURING COMPANY
(LAKE MILLS PLANT) and STEEL WORKERS ORGANIZING COMMITTEE,
C. I. O.
Case No. R-20705.-Decided August 9,1941
Jurisdiction : creamery and dairy machinery manufacturing industry.
Investigation and Certification of Representatives : existence of question: dis-
pute as to appropriate unit; election unnecessary where vast majority of
employees are admittedly members of union in unit found to be appropriate.
Unit Appropriate for Collective Bargaining : all office employees of the Company
excluding confidential and supervisory employees.
Nohl, Petrie cC Blu ne, by Mr. Leo F. Nohl and Mr. L. A. Stock-
ing, of Milwaukee, Wis., for the Company.
Mr. W. 0. Sonnemann, of Milwaukee, Wis., for the Union.
Mr. Robert S. Fousek, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
CERTIFICATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
On May 22, 1941, Steel Workers Organizing Committee, C. I. 0.,
herein called the Union, filed with the Regional Director for the
Twelfth Region (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) a petition alleging that a
question affecting commerce had arisen concerning the representation
of employees of Creamery Package Manufacturing Company (Lake
Mills Plant) Lake Mills, Wisconsin, herein called the Company,
and requesting an investigation and certification of representatives
pursuant to Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act, 49
Stat. 449, herein called the Act. On June 20, 1941, the National
Labor Relations Board, herein called the 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, as amended,
ordered an investigation and authorized the Regional Director to
conduct it and to provide for an appropriate hearing upon due notice.
On June 24, 1943, the Regional Director issued a notice of hearing,
copies of which were duly served upon the Company and the Union.
Pursuant to notice, a hearing was held on July 3, 1941, at Lake
34 N. L. R. B., No. 15.
108 -
CREAMERY PACKAGE MFG. CO . 109
Mills, Wisconsin, before Frederick Mett, the Trial Examiner duly
designated by the Chief Trial Examiner. The Company and the
Union were represented and participated in the hearing. Full op-
portunity to be heard, to examine and cross-examine witnesses, and
to introduce evidence bearing on the issues was afforded all parties.
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
that 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
I. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
The Creamery Package Manufacturing Company is an Illinois
corporation operating nine plants throughout the United States, of
which only the Lake Mills Plant is involved in this proceeding. The
Lake Mills Plant is engaged in the manufacture of creamery and
dairy machinery. The record does not disclose the amount or value
of raw materials purchased from points without the State but the
Company admits that it purchases raw materials from without the
State. Of the finished products over 95 per cent are sold and shipped
to points outside the State of Wisconsin. The Company employs
approximately 23 office employees.
H. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED
Steel Workers Organizing Committee is a labor organization af-
filiated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations, admitting to
membership employees of the Company. After the petition was
filed and before the hearing, it chartered Steel Workers Organizing
Committee, Local 2453, as a labor organization for employees of the
Company.
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
The Company was requested and has refused to recognize the
Union as the exclusive representative of its employees in the alleged
appropriate unit upon the grounds that almost all the employees in
the unit are confidential employees and hence not properly included
within a collective bargaining unit. A statement of the Regional
Director introduced in evidence at the hearing discloses that the
Union represents a majority of the employees,in the unit hereinafter
110 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
found to be appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining.'
We find that a question has arisen concerning the 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 operation 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 com-
merce and the free flow of commerce.
V. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT
The Union contends that all office employees of the Company,
excluding confidential and supervisory employees, constitute an ap-
propriate unit. Dispute exists over 15 office employees whom the
Union wishes to include. The Company desires to exclude them as
confidential employees.
Norma Britzman is listed as a stenographer. She makes reports of
a confidential nature to the general office. She has taken dictation
concerning labor problems in the plant. The information which she
might receive in this manner would apear to be confidential and
directly related to the problem of labor relations. We find that
Norma Britzman is a confidential employee and accordingly, we shall
exclude her from the unit.
Gilbert Bergdoll is a blueprint-machine operator and executes
orders by mechanically producing blueprints which are almost im-
mediately placed in a vault. Knowledge gained from the blueprints
is claimed by the Company to be highly valuable. Harvey Carria is
listed as an assistant to the cost accountant.' He has access to ma-
terial, production, and labor costs. Harvey Haverkate and Leroy
Lawrence are listed as draftsmen. They generally carry out plans
laid out by the designing engineer . Mabel Kuhlman is listed as a
reception clerk and telephone operator. She has access to the Com-
pany's files; she uses this information in sending telegrams stating
price quotations. Margaret Miller is listed as an assistant to the
1 Evidence submitted to the Regional Director consisted of 17 application cards, dated
1941, all of which contain apparently genuine signatures of persons Rhose names appear
on the Company's pay roll of June 12, 1941. The alleged appropriate unit contains
approximately 19 persons.
2 Also referred to in the record as Harvey Currie.
CREAMERY PACKAGE MFG. CO. 111
cost accountant.3 She figures final costs on machines, by arithmetical
computations using figures supplied her from cost record cards.
Agnes Michaelis and Cordia Steinel are listed as assistant pay-roll
clerks. They have information relative to pay-roll rates. Ruth
Fayville,4 Alice Schultz, Evelyn Topel, and Marion Weber are listed
as stock record clerks. They have access to information relative to
cost records and stock. Orion Strasberg and Margaret Michel are
listed as assistants to the cost accountant. In addition to having
information as to costs, Miss Strasberg also assists in making out
the pay roll. Elizabeth Tilitson is listed as a typist. The only
information which she might acquire would be received through the
typing of invoices. The information which the above-named persons
may possess in no instance relates directly to the problem of labor
relations. The possession of important information is of itself
insufficient to justify exclusion from the right to collective
bargaining. We shall, therefore include these employees in the unit.
We find that all office employees of the Company, excluding con-
fidential and supervisory employees, constitute a unit appropriate
for the purposes of collective bargaining and that said unit will
insure to employees of the Company the full benefit of their right
to self-organization and to collective bargaining and otherwise
effectuate the policies of the Act.
VI. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
The parties agreed that, should the Board find that those employees
as to whom there was conflict were entitled to be included in the
appropriate unit, the Union could be certified without an election.
It is admitted that 17 of the 19 employees within the appropriate
unit had authorized the Union to represent them. We find that the
Union has been designated and selected by a majority of the em-
ployees in the unit herein found to be appropriate as their repre-
sentative for the purposes of collective bargaining. The Union is
therefore the exclusive representative of all employees in such unit
for the purposes of collective bargaining, and we will so certify.
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 Creamery Package Manufacturing Com-
pany (Lake Mills Plant), Lake Mills, Wisconsin, within the meaning
s Also referred to in the record as Margaret Mueller.
* Also referred to in the record as Ruth Faville.
112 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
of Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the National Labor
Relations Act.
2. All office employees of the Company, excluding confidential and
supervisory employees, constitute a unit appropriate for the pur-
poses of collective bargaining, within the meaning of Section 9 (b)
of the National Labor Relations Act.
3. Steel Workers ,Organizing Committee, C. I. 0., is the exclusive
representative for all of the employees in such unit for the purposes
of collective bargaining, within the meaning of Section 9 (a) of the
National Labor Relations Act.
CERTIFICATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
By virtue of and pursuant to the power vested in the National
Labor Relations Board by Section 9 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, and pursuant to Article III, Sections 8 and 9, of
National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 2,
as amended,
IT IS HEREBY CERTIFIED that Steel Workers Organizing Committee,
C. I. 0., has been designated and selected by a majority of the office
employees, excluding confidential and supervisory employees, of
Creamery Package Manufacturing Company (Lake Mills Plant),
Lake Mills, Wisconsin, as their representative for the purposes of
collective bargaining, and that pursuant to Section 9 (a) of the Act,
Steel Workers Organizing Committee, C. I. 0., is the exclusive
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.