Cudahy Packing Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Dec 28, 1945

65 N.L.R.B. 10 (N.L.R.B. 1945)

In the Matter Of CUDAHY PACKING COMPANY and UNITED PACKING-
HOUSE WORKERS OF AMERICA, LOCAL 107, CIO
Case No. 01-R-3020.-Decided December 28, 1945
Mr. Elsner H. Howlett, of Los Angeles, Calif., for the Company.
Messrs. A. J. Shipply and Paul Roesel, both of Los Angeles, Calif.,
for the Union.
Mr. David V. Easton, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon a petition duly filed by United Packinghouse Workers of
America, Local 107, CIO, herein called the Union, alleging that a
question affecting commerce had arisen concerning the representation
of employees of Cudahy Packing Company, Los Angeles, California,
herein called the Company, the National Labor Relations Board pro-
vided for an appropriate hearing upon due notice before George H.
O'Brien, Trial Examiner. The hearing was held at Los Angeles,
California, on September 21, 1945. The Company and the Union
appeared and participated. All parties were afforded full opportunity
to be heard, to examine and cross-examine witnesses, and to introduce
evidence bearing on the issues. The Company moved at the hearing
for dismissal of the petition herein. The Trial Examiner reserved
ruling on this motion for the Board. For reasons stated in Section
IV, infra, the motion is denied. The Trial Examiner's rulings made
at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
All parties were afforded opportunity to file briefs with the Board.
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following :
FINDINGS OF FACT
1. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
Cudahy Packing Company, a Maine corporation, is engaged in
purchasing and slaughtering livestock, and processing and marketing
65 N. L . R. B., No. 2.
10
CUDAHY PACKING COMPANY 11
the products resulting therefrom. It operates, among others, a plant
at Los Angeles, California, with which we are concerned herein.
During the year 1939, the Company's Los Angeles plant purchased
approximately 146,000,000 pounds of livestock, about 40 percent of
which was obtained from points outside the State of California. Dur-
ing the same period it processed or manufactured 126,000,000 pounds
of products, about 10 percent of which was shipped outside the State
of California.
The Company admits that it is engaged in commerce within the
meaning of the National Labor Relations Act.
H. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED
United Packinghouse Workers of America, Local 107, is a labor
organization affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations,
admitting to membership employees of the Company.
III. TIIE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
The Company has refused to grant recognition to the Union as the
exclusive bargaining representative of certain of its employees unless
and until directed to do so by the Board.
A statement of a Field Examiner for the Board, introduced into
evidence at the hearing, indicates that the Union represents a substan-
tial number of employees in the unit hereinafter found appropriate.,
We find that a question affecting commerce has arisen concerning
the representation of employees of the Company, within the meaning
of Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT
The Union, which currently represents the production and main-
tenance employees at the Company's Los Angeles plant, seeks to add
to its unit all plant-protection employees at the plant except for the
chief and supervisory employees. The Company urges dismissal of
the petition, contending in substance, that plant-protection employees
are not production and maintenance workers, but rather confidential
and supervisory personnel who are a part of management; that their
inclusion within a unit of production and maintenance employees
would be against the interests of the Company, the Union, the em-
ployees and the public; and that such inclusion would result in con-
flicts of interest, divided loyalties, and prevent the plant-protection
'The Field Exanunei reported that the Union submitted 14 membership cards bearing
the names of employees listed on the Company's pav roll of August 19, 1945 There are
approximately 19 eIIiployees in the appropriate unit
12 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
employees from properly performing their duties at all times. In
its brief, the Company sets forth the testimony of a union official given
at the hearing to the effect that plant-protection employees would be
expected to "go along with the rest of the people belonging in the
appropriate unit" in the event of a strike, and assert that this evidence
"distinguishes the case from all other plant guard cases which the
National Labor Relations Board has heretofore decided."
The record indicates that the Company employs 16 armed, uni-
formed, and deputized guards at its Los Angeles plant, under the
supervision of the chief of police and fire department. These em-
ployees perform the monitorial duties associated with their classifi-
cation, protecting the Company's property from fire and theft,
reporting unsanitary conditions, directing traffic, and keeping order.
They may remove an employee's badge for cause, and prevent this
employee from gaining admittance to the plant until the plant super-
intendent has acted upon his case, but this is the extent to which they
are able to affect the status of a fellow worker. Certain of them act
as conduits for the transmission of orders from the chief, but other-
wise possess no supervisory authority.' We find that the guards,
excluding the chief, are neither supervisory, managerial, nor confi-
dential employees.
As noted above, the Union seeks to add the guards to its present
unit, and the objections of the Company made at the hearing seem
wlso to be directed against this position. To that extent, the Com-
pany's objections have merit for we have determined in numerous
cases that deputized guards performing monitorial duties must be
represented in a unit separate from production and maintenance em-
ployees, and have insisted that this separation be one of fact as well as
of form.3 However, insofar as these objections are directed against
the representation of the guards in a separate appropriate unit, they
are not persuasive.' Our ultimate conclusion is not affected by the
contention asserted by the Company in its brief. The testimony upon
which this contention is predicated was doubtless given under the as-
sumption that the guards would be merged in one unit with the
production and maintenance employees. There is nothing in the rec-
ord to indicate that the guards, as a segregated group for collective
bargaining purposes, will be required to strike with the production
and maintenance employees. Nor is there any evidence that the
Union will compel the guards to violate their oaths as deputies or
their legal obligations.
2 These employees are Polk, Yates, and Rasor.
2 Matter of Granite City Steel Company, 63 N. L R B. 898, and cases cited therein
4 See Matter of Standard Steel Spring Company, 62 N. L. R. B. 660; Matter of Aluminum
Company of America, 63 N. L R. B. 828; Matter of Muskeqon Piston Ring Company, 63
N L R B 885 , Matter of Granite City Steel Company, supra, and cases cited in each
CUDAHY PACKING COMPANY 13
Accordingly , we find that all plant-protection employees of the
Company engaged at its Los Angeles plant, excluding the chief, and
all other supervisory employees with authority to hire, promote, dis-
charge, discipline , or otherwise effect changes in the status of em-
ployees, or effectively recommend such action, constitute a unit ap-
propriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning
of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
V. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
We shall direct that the question concerning representation which
has arisen be resolved by an election by secret ballot among employees
in the appropriate unit who were employed during the pay-roll period
immediately preceding the date of the Direction of Election herein,
subject to the limitations and additions set forth in the Direction.
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 9, of National Labor
Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 3, as amended, it is
hereby
DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation to ascertain representa-
tives for the purposes of collective bargaining with Cudahy Packing
Company, Los Angeles , California , an election by secret ballot shall
be conducted as early as possible , but not later than sixty ( 60) days
from the date of this Direction , under the direction and supervision
of the Regional Director for the Twenty -first Region , acting in this
matter as agent for the National Labor Relations Board, and subject
to Article III, Sections 10 and 11, of said Rules and Regulations,
among employees in the unit found appropriate in Section IV, above,
who were employed during the pay-roll period immediately preced-
ing the date of this Direction , including employees who did riot work
during said pay-roll period because they were ill or on vacation or
temporarily laid off, and including employees in the armed forces of
the United States who present themselves in person at the polls, but
excluding those employees who have since quit or been discharged
for cause and have not been rehired or reinstated prior to the date
of the election , to determine whether or not they desire to be repre-
sented by United Packinghouse Workers of America, Local 107, CIO,
for the purposes of collective bargaining.
MR. JOHN M. HOUSTON took no part in the consideration of the
above Decision and Direction of Election.