First National Stores, Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Aug 4, 1945

63 N.L.R.B. 138 (N.L.R.B. 1945)

0
In the Matter Of FIRST NATIONAL STORES, INC. and AMALGAMATED MEAT
CUTTERS & BUTCHER WORKMEN OF NORTH AMERICA (A. F. of L.) ,
LOCAL UNION 609
Case No. 1-R-2383.-Decided August 4, 1915
Mr. Ed9nwd J. Blake, of Boston, Mass., for the Company.
Messrs. Herbert A. Lee and Joseph, Sullivan, of New Bedford, Mass.,
for the Union.
Mr. Joseph D. Manders, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon a petition duly filed by Amalgamated Meat Cutters & Butcher
Workmen of North America (A. F. of L.), Local Union 609, herein
called the Union, alleging that a question affecting commerce had
arisen, concerning the representation of employees of First National
Stores, Inc., herein called the Company, the National Labor Relations
Board- provided for an appropriate hearing upon due notice before
Samuel G. Zack, Trial Examiner. Said hearing was held at Boston,
Massachusetts, on May 17, 1945. The Company and the Union ap-
peared and participated. All parties were afforded full opportunity
to be heard, to examine and cross-examine witnesses, and to intro-
duce evidence bearing on the issues. The Trial Examiner's rulings
made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby
affirmed. All parties were afforded an 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
First National Stores, Inc., is a Massachusetts corporation, with
its principal offices located at Somerville, Massachusetts. It is en-
gaged in the operation of chain retail grocery stores, and has 1300
63 N. L R. B., No. 20.
138
FIRST NATIONAL STORES, INC. 139
such stores in the New England States and Westchester County, New
York. During 1944 the Company sold products valued in excess of
$165,000,000. The Company operates a, processing and manufacturing
plant at Somerville, Massachusetts, and maintains warehouses in
Somerville, Massachusetts, Providence, and Pawtucket, Rhode Island,
and Hartford and Bridgeport, Connecticut, all of which are en-
gaged in servicing and supplying the retail stores of the Company.
The Provincetown stores, which are the only stores involved in the
instant proceeding, are served exclugively from the Somerville, Mas-
sachusetts, warehouse. There are approximately 12,000 persons in
the employ of the Company who conduct its diverse functions and
operations.
We have heretofore found, in cases involving various groups of the
Company's stores, that the Company is engaged in commerce within
the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act;1 and we reiterate
that finding in this proceeding.
11. TUUE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED
Amalgamated Meat Cutters & Butcher Workmen of North America,
Local Union 609, affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, is
a labor organization admitting to membership employees of the
Company.
III. THE QUESTION CONCERN 1NG REPRESENTATION
The Company has refused to grant recognition to the Union as the
exclusive bargaining representative of the employees at its Province-
town, Massachusetts, stores until the Union has been certified by the
Board in an appropriate unit.
A statement of a Board agent, introduced into evidence at the hear-
ing, indicates that the Union represents a substantial number of em-
ployees in the unit hereinafter found appropriate.2
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 contends that all persons employed by the Company in
its stores located in Provincetown, Massachusetts, excluding stock
'See Matter of First National Stores, Inc (three cases ), 26 N L R B 1275 ; 55
N. L R. B 1346, 56 N. L R. B. 1570
2 The Field Examiner reported that the Union submitted 12 membeiship application
cards , 10 of which bore apparently genuine original signatures of persons appearing on
the Company 's pay roll of March 31 , 1945, which contained the names of 14 employees
in the appropriate unit; and that the cards were dated in 1944 and 1945. ( Seven cards
were undated.)
140 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
takers, bakery employees, order boys, superintendents and supervisors,
constitute an appropriate unit. The Company is in agreement with
the composition of the above unit, but contends that all employees in
its stores located in Harwichport, South Yarmouth, Orleans, Chatham,
Dennisport, Osterville, and Provincetown comprise the only appro-
priate unit in this easterly portion of the Cape Cod region of Massa-
chusetts. The Company states that such a unit, which is adjacent
to another unit consisting of practically all its other stores on the Cape,
and presently represented by the Union, would facilitate coherent
collective bargaining.3
The Company, as pointed out in Section I, supra, operates a sub-
stantial portion of its stores in the New England area. Union organi-
zation of the persons employed in these stores has followed no precise
pattern, and has produced various and sundry bargaining units. These
bargaining units, established by Board decision, consent. election, or
otherwise, have embraced, for the most part, groups of towns and cities
which are adjacent or relatively proximate to each other. The record
does not indicate that the above units correspond in scope to any
particular geographical or political division, or to any defined section
of the Company's administrative organization.
The 6 units' in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, in which
the Company and the various locals of the Union's parent organization
are presently bargaining, have apparently been established on a piece-
meal basis, including the enlargement of said units by the addition of
sundry stores or towns, from time to time. Outside the Commonwealth
of Massachusetts, the Board has found appropriate a unit consisting of
all the Company's stores in Rhode Island,5 another unit covering the
city of Manchester,6 New Hampshire, and a third consisting of the
stores in 31 cities and towns in Connecticut.'
The town of Provincetown, in which the 3 stores involved in the
instant proceeding are located, is situated at the extreme tip of Cape
Cod and is approximately 38 miles from the Company's nearest store.
The Company employs approximately 14 persons in the Provincetown
'The Union has been engaged in collective bargaining with the Company since 1940,
representing practically all the employees in the Company's stores in the upper Cape Cod
region. A Union witness testified that in October 1944, the Company, contrary to its
present position, orally agreed that should the Union be designated by a majority of the
employees in any of the Company's stores within the Union's jurisdictional area, the em.
ployees within such store, upon proof of majority, would be added to the existing bargaining
unit. The Company refuses to permit such agreement to be controlling in the determina-
tion of the question concerning its employees in the instant proceeding
4 These units are designated by the Company as the Boston, Lynn, Framingham, Quincy,
Amesbury, and Cape Cod Districts.
S Matter of First National Stores, Inc, 26 N. L R. B. 1275, Supplemental Decision, 27
N. L. R. B. 518.
6 Matter of First National Stores, Inc., 55 N. L. R. B. 1346.
7 Matter of First National Stores, Inc ., 56 N. L. R. B. 1870.
FIRST NATIONAL STORES, INC. 141
stores. In the Cape Cod region as a whole, including the mainland
area as far west as Middleboro, Massachusetts, the Company has stores
in 14 towns, including Provincetown, most of these being located along
the base of the Cape, about 15 miles apart. Wages, hours, and working
conditions are substantially the same throughout this region. The
stores in Hyannis and the 5 other towns west of Hyannis, Massachu-
setts, are included in the existing unit which the Company designates
as the Cape Cod unit. Stores in 2 towns on the Cape, west of Hyannis,
however, are not included in that unit.8 One of these towns, Osterville,
is among those which the Company insists should now be included with
Provincetown and 5 other towns east of Hyannis in a second Cape Cod
unit. Cognizant of the Company's policy in reference to collective bar-
gaining, the Union has endeavored to organize the stores in all the
towns in the lower Cape Cod district, but to no avail. Such organiza-
tional activities have been successful only in Provincetown. There is
no evidence that a majority of the other employees in the lower Cape
Cod district belong to any union whatsoever, nor has any other labor
organization petitioned the Board for certification as representative of
the group of employees within this district.
The facts set forth above indicate that the formation of bargaining
units for the Company's employees has been determined by the extent
of union organization and, as we noted, has followed no particular
pattern. Under the circumstances, we consider that the desirability
of one or two units covering all the stores on Cape Cod affords insuffi-
cient basis for dismissal of the present petition. The employees in
three stores in Provincetown obviously comprise a coherent group.
We are of the opinion that they should not be denied the opportunity
to bargain collectively until the uncertain future date when the Com-
pany's employees in the other towns on the Cape are organized. Our
present determination does not preclude a later finding that a more
comprehensive unit may be appropriate when self-organization of the
Company's employees has been further extended.
We find that all persons employed by the Company in its stores
located in Provincetown, Massachusetts, including store managers"
but excluding stock takers, bakery employees, order boys, superin-
tendents, and supervisors, and all other supervisory employees with
authority to Hire, promote, discharge, discipline, or otherwise effect
changes in the status of employees, or effectively recommend such
action, constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective
bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
8 These are Osterville and Sandwich which the Company excluded because they were not
"self-service grocery stores."
9 The parties are in agreement as to the inclusion of such employees.
142 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
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 the em-
ployees 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.10
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 First National
Stores, Inc., Somerville, Massachusetts, 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 super-
vision of the Regional Director for the 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
the employees in the unit found appropriate in Section IV, above,
who were employed during the pay-roll period immediately preceding
the date of this Direction, including employees who did not 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 any' 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 represented by Amalga-
mated Meat Cutters & Butcher Workmen of North America (A. F. of
L.), Local Union 609, for the purposes of collective bargaining.
MR. GERARD D. REILLY took no part in the consideration of the above
Decision and Direction of Election.
10 The parties are in agreement that all persons employed by the Company as part-time
employees are eligible.