H. P. Hood & Sons, Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Nov 14, 1955

114 N.L.R.B. 978 (N.L.R.B. 1955)

978 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
4. By causing Respondent Company to discriminate against August Serrano in
violation of Section 8 (a) (3) of the Act, Respondent Union has engaged in unfair
labor practices within the meaning of Section 8 (b) (2) and (1) (A) of the Act.
5.' The aforesaid unfair labor practices are unfair labor practices affecting com-
merce within the meaning of Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
[Recommendations omitted from publication.]
H. P. Hood & Sons , Inc. and Milk Wagon Drivers and Creamery
Workers Union, Local 380, AFL, a/w International Brother-
hood of Teamsters , Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers
of America, AFL, Petitioner. Case No. 1-RC-4063. November
14,1955
DECISION AND ORDER
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, a hearing was held before Robert S. Fuchs, hearing
officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are- free from
prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the Act.
2. The labor organization involved claims to represent employees
of the Employer.
3. No question affecting commerce exists concerning the representa-
tion 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:
The Petitioner seeks to represent a unit of all wholesale drivers and
helpers employed at the Employer's Charlestown, Massachusetts, milk
processing plant, including route foremen. The Employer contends
that the unit sought is inappropriate, asserting that the unit should
encompass all locations within its region 1, and should also include all
production and maintenance employees and retail drivers within that
region. The Employer contends further that in the event the Board
determines that, a driver unit is appropriate, the unit should then in-
clude all wholesale and retail drivers in region 1.
The Employer is engaged in the processing and distribution of milk
and dairy products. It maintains its principal office in Charlestown,
Massachusetts, and operates processing plants and sales distribution
stations in the six New England States and in New York State. For
administrative purposes its operations are divided into four geo-
graphical regions. The Charlestown processing plant is a part of
the geographical area known as region 1, which includes 2 other milk
processing plants and 7 distribution stations. The processing plants
process milk and other raw products for sale and distribution. The
distribution stations contain, refrigeration facilities where processed
milk is stored for subsequent distribution.
114 NLRB No. 155.
H. P. HOOD & SONS, INC. 979
In the distribution of its products the Employer employs whole-
sale and retail drivers. Wholesale drivers, who are salaried, deliver
,large quantities of the Employer's products to such places as stores,
restaurants, and institutions. Retail drivers, who are paid on a base-
pay-plus-commission basis, make their deliveries directly to con-
sumers, primarily private homes, on a door-to-door basis. The whole-
sale and retail drivers are considered a part of the Employer's milk
division, which is an operating division, and which also includes pro-
duction and maintenance employees at the Employer's processing
plants.'
A senior board of executives, composed of 21 individuals, is direct-
ly responsible to the Employer's president. This board functions as
a collective general manager. It meets weekly, reviews all the Em-
ployer's operations, and acts on the recommendations of its individual
members. It decides such matters as wage increases, personnel poli-
cies, changes in employee benefits, and the hire of additional em-
ployees. It also formulates the Employer's policies on such matters as
purchasing, marketing, and sales operations. Region 1 has 5 rep-
resentatives on the senior board of executives, 2 of whom are also con-
cerned with operations of the Employer's south (Massachusetts-Rhode
Island) region.
The Employer maintains a central personnel department in its
Charlestown office where it keeps detailed personnel records for all
employees throughout its operations. All personnel changes, trans-
fers, and disciplinary matters with respect to all branch personnel are
reviewed in this office.
The Employer's region 1, called the Boston region, encompasses
greater Boston and its environs. It includes processing plants at Lynn
and Bridgewater, Massachusetts, in addition to the processing plant
at Charlestown. The distribution stations of region 1 are located
at Dorchester, Forest Hills, Malden, Medford, Quincy, Salem, Natick,
Norwood, and Watertown, Massachusetts. The Bridgewater plant,
which is about 27 miles from the Charlestown plant, is the-location in
region I that is most distant from the Charlestown plant. All the
distribution stations are within an approximate 15-mile radius of the
Charlestown plant.
Wholesale and retail drivers' work out of each of the processing
plants and distribution stations in region 1. There are approximately
260 wholesale drivers and helpers and 810 retail drivers in the region;
of these 115 wholesale drivers and helpers and 136 retail drivers work
out of the Charlestown plant. The wholesale drivers based at the
Charlestown plant have the same duties and perform the same func-
tions as wholesale drivers based at the other region 1 processing plants
I The Employer has seven operating divisions khown as country, egg, ice cream, food
products, engineering and vehicle, dairy products supply, and milk
387644-56=vol 114-63
980 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
and distribution stations. Thus all wholesale drivers based in region 1
drive, for the most part, standard trucks, deliver similar products,
work the same hours, wear a standard uniform, and follow the same
delivery procedures and accounting methods for the products they
deliver. All region 1 wholesale drivers presently receive identical
wages and fringe benefits and, during the past 5 years, have received
uniform wage increases.
From 1952 to May 1955, the milk division of region 1 was organized
into three separate departments, each under a different manager. One
department, under a regional manager of milk plants, covered all pro-
duction and maintenance employees at all the processing plants and
distribution stations in the region, including employees engaged in
interplant transportation, but excluding drivers engaged in retail and
wholesale sales. The second, under a regional general sales manager,
covered retail sales and drivers at Charlestown, and retail and whole-
sale sales and drivers at the other plants and stations in the region.
The third, under a Mr. Hallam, covered special wholesale sales for the
entire company and wholesale sales and drivers at Charlestown. III
May 1955, shortly after the Petitioner commenced its organizing drive,
the Employer changed its administrative organization by transferring
wholesale sales and drivers at Charlestown from Mr. Hallam to the
department headed by the regional general sales manager.
The various region 1 processing plants and distribution stations
appear to be functionally interdependent and integrated. Thus as the
areas covered by the several locations are contiguous to each other,
drivers from two locations may service different customers separated
only by a few blocks. The city of Cambridge is illustrative of this
pattern. It is served by drivers from three different region 1 locations,
including drivers from the Charlestown plant. Where growth of busi-
ness demands, the Employer may open new region 1 distribution sta-
tions. In such cases, existing delivery routes may be transferred to
new stations without change in the manner of their operation or the
status of the drivers who are thereby affected. Similarly, region 1
distribution stations may be abandoned, and the routes involved may
be consolidated with routes operating from other route 1 locations.
The record shows that a number of wholesale drivers have in the
past been transferred from one region 1 location to another. During
the last 3 years, 3 wholesale drivers were transferred to the Charles-
town plant and 5 were transferred from the Charlestown plant to other
region 1 locations. Of the present complement of 115 wholesale
drivers at Charlestown, 14 were transferred there as the result of the
permanent closing of other locations; and of the 145 wholesale drivers
at region 1 locations other than Charlestown, 9 were transferred to
their present locations as the result of such closings. In cases of emer-
gency, the Employer also follows the practice of temporarily detailing
drivers from one location to another within the region.
H. P. HOOD & SONS, INC. 981
The Petitioner is the current bargaining representative of employees
of 10 other milk producing companies operating in the Boston area.
These companies sign separate but identical. contracts with the Peti-
tioner, their current agreements being effective from October 1; 1952,
until March 31, 1956. The operations of these companies are con-
ducted in substantially the same manner as the Employer conducts its
operations. Some of them operate processing plants and separate dis-
tribution stations 2 In each instance the Petitioner's agreements with
these companies are coextensive with the installations of the company
concerned.
The Petitioner's business agent testified that he surveyed the opera-
tions at Charlestown with the intention of effecting the organization
of the Employer's employees. Based primarily upon the fact that the
Charlestown wholesale drivers were then separately supervised as indi-
cated above, the instant petition was filed. The business agent testified
further that if the Petitioner succeeds in its present efforts to become
the bargaining representative of the Charlestown wholesale drivers,
it will eventually seek to organize other employees at Charlestown and
at the Employer's other locations in the Boston area , and will thus
bring the Employer's employees into line with the pattern of organiza-
tion affecting employees of milk producers in the Boston area.
On the basis of the foregoing, we conclude that a unit confined to
wholesale drivers at the Charlestown plant is inappropriate. It is
clear that the Employer's distribution operations in its region 1 are
integrated, and that the Charlestown wholesale drivers have the same
interests and working conditions as those of the wholesale drivers at
other region 1 locations. Moreover, a unit limited to employees at the
Charlestown plant does not conform in scope to the pattern of bargain-
ing for milk producers in the Boston area. The extent of the Peti-
tioner's organization of the Charlestown employees may not be a deter-
minative factor in determining the appropriate unit.' For these rea-
sons, we shall dimiss the petition.'
[The Board dismissed the petition.]
MEMBER MURDOCK took no part in the consideration of the above
Decision and Order.
2 For example , Whiting Milk Company has branches in Quincy, Hyde Park , Dorchester,
Marblehead , Watertown, Hyannis, and Onset, Massachusetts ; White Bros . Milk Co. has
branch distribution stations in Needham and Duxbury , Massachusetts ; and United
Farmers of New England , Inc., has branch distribution stations in Chelsea and Lynn,
Massachusetts
8 See Sanitary Farms Dairies, Inc, 107 NLRB 955, Kress Dairy, Inc, 98 NLRB 369.
4 Beatrice Foods Co , 112 NLRB 459; Holsu,n Bakers, In,., 102 NLRB 1493; Blue
Ribbon Creamery, 94 NLRB 201 ; The Borden Company, 89 NLRB 227.
The Petitioner's showing of interest is inadequate with respect to any possible unit
broader than the one petitioned for. Accordingly it is unnecessary for us to pass upon
the validity of the Employer 's various unit contentions.