J. L. Hudson Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Mar 31, 1953

103 N.L.R.B. 1378 (N.L.R.B. 1953)

1378 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
J. L. HUDSON COMPANY and LOCAL 299, INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD
OF TEAMSTERS, CHAUFFEURS, WAREHOUSEMEN AND HELPERS OF
AMERICA, AFL, PETITIONER. Case No. 7-EC-1914. March 31,
1953
Decision and Direction of Elections
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National La-
bor Relations Act, a hearing was held before Herbert Kane, hearing
officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from
prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.'
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3 (b) of the Act, the Board
has delegated its powers in connection with this case to a three-mem-
ber panel [Chairman Herzog and Members Houston and Murdock].
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the Act.
2. The labor organization involved claims to represent certain em-
ployees of the Employer.
3. A 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.
4. The Employer, a Detroit, Michigan, department store with a
physical plant consisting of a main store building and 10 adjunctive
outlying buildings,2 employs more than 12,000 persons in its 412 sell-
ing and nonselling departments. A total of approximately 825 em-
ployees is involved in the various units sought in this proceeding.
The Employer's administrative policy is formulated by a board of di-
rectors and is implemented in 5 major operating divisions 3 by the var-
I The Employer moved to dismiss the petition on the ground that it was improperly
denied the right by the hearing officer to adduce evidence concerning the validity and
sufficiency of the Petitioner' s showing of interest in each of the requested units. As the
Board has frequently held that showing of interest is an administrative matter not
litigable at the hearing , the motion to dismiss is denied.
On several occasions during the hearing, the Employer made offers of proof of permanent
transfers of employees into and out of the proposed units, which offers were rejected by
the hearing officer . Although we do not believe that the facts of permanent transfers are
wholly irrelevant to the unit issues, the Employer does not appear to have been prejudiced
by the ruling against their admission . On the basis of such offers , and instances of
permanent transfers appearing as part of evidence in the record , we are convinced that
this evidence , if freely admitted , would not affect our ultimate findings in this proceeding.
2 The main store building , located in downtown Detroit, comprises 20 stories in addition
to 6 tower floors, 4 basements , and 2 mezzanines Warehouses Nos. 1 and 2 and the
Madison warehouse , collectively referred to as the Beacon -Beaubien warehouse , are approx-
imately 5 blocks from the main store location . Other of the Employer's warehouse build-
ings-Hemmeter , West Jeffeison , Edson-Moore , Napoleon , and Greyhound-lie within a
radius of 21/4 miles from the store, while the Hoover Road subdelivery building and the
Greenfield subdelivery building are situated 81/2 miles and 10 miles, respectively , therefrom.
3 The employees involved here are in the operations division The other divisions are:
upstairs merchandising , publicity , basement store merchandising , and finance and accounts.
103 NLRB No. 109.
J. L. HUDSON COMPANY 1379
ions managers , superintendents, assistant superintendents, and de-
partment heads. There is a centralized accounting and payroll sys-
tem, and personnel policies and employee benefits are uniformly ad-
ministered. Hiring is in charge of a central employment office al-
though , as a general practice, a prospective employee is not hired un-
less he meets the approval of the department head under whom it is
contemplated he will work.
The Petitioner seeks 12 separate units, 5 of which are asserted to
be craft nucleus in nature, each coextensive with one of the various
workrooms : The carpet workroom, cabinet and finishing workroom,
upholstery workroom, drapery workroom, and multigraph and print-
shop. The remaining 7 units-involving warehouse, receiving, mark-
ing, checking, packing, paint-mixing, and related categories of em-
ployees-are asserted by the Petitioner to be appropriate depart
mental or subdivisional bargaining units of employees, sharing a dis-
tinctness of working conditions, job functions, and supervision. In
the alternative, the Petitioner suggests certain combinations of the
latter 7 unit proposals, and further indicates a willingness to repre-
sent any or all of the employees involved in this case in whatever unit
or units the Board may find appropriate.
The Employer contends that the only unit appropriate for pur-
poses of collective bargaining would be one embracing all of its em-
ployees, with the usual statutory exclusions. In support of this con-
tention, it points to the evidence of operational integration, centralized
control, practice of frequent employee interchange-both on a tem-
porary and permanent basis-throughout its working structure, and a
uniformity of personnel policies. In addition, it contests the appro-
priateness of the individual units petitioned for, contending that none
contains all the employees doing similar work, and that none contains
a substantial group of employees exercising craft skills.
There is no recent history of collective bargaining among any of
the employees in the units sought .4
As the Employer suggests, the integration of its sales and service
activities, and its centralized control of operations and personnel pol-
icies point to the potential appropriateness of a storewide unit. We
do not agree, however, that the mere presence of these factors pre-
cludes the establishment of those separate bargaining units which
otherwise meet the Board's criteria of appropriateness.' It is neces-
sary, then, to give individual consideration to each of the Petitioner's
unit requests.
4In 1943 the Board certified United Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Employees
of America , CIO, as representative of employees in the cabinet and finishing department,
and in 1944 certified the same union as representative of passenger elevator operators and
starters at the retail store. No substantial bargaining history resulted from either of
these certifications.
5 Bullock 's Inc, 99, NLRB 740.
1380 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Carpet Workroom
The Employer's carpet workroom is located on portions of the first,
second, and third floors of warehouse No. 2. Its functions include
measuring, estimating, preparation for installation, and the installa-
tion of carpeting, linoleum, and miscellaneous floor coverings for cus-
tomers and for the store; the maintenance of floor coverings within
the Employer's buildings; the maintenance of floor-covering stock;
and the filling of orders for delivery to customers. The Petitioner
urges that all employees who compose the working force of this work-
room, including the employees of the classifications hereinafter
considered, constitute an appropriate craft unit. Although the meas-
uremen and estimators are considered part of the carpet workroom
complement and work under the general supervision of the workroom
manager, they are immediately supervised by an assistant to the man-
ager. All the other employees work under the direct supervision of
the carpet workroom manager.
Upon receipt of a "worksheet" from the sales personnel of the main
store, measuremen are dispatched from the carpet workroom to the
customer's home where they measure and draw to scale the floor space
to be covered. Estimators, working at desks on the eighth floor of
the main store, compute the square footage of the floor space, the total
amount of material required, including wastage, and the customer's
price for the completed job.e Carpet cutters remove quantities of
"three-quarter" (plain) or "broadloom" (figured) carpeting from a
designated lot, and measure, mark, and cut-with shears, knives, and
electric cutters-this carpeting into pieces which, when finally joined
together, will conform to dimensional specifications. Linoleum cut-
ters, like their carpet cutter counterparts, cut their particular floor
covering stock to prescribed size with knives. Sewers, by machine
and hand, sew widths of carpeting together and affix binding to ex-
posed edges. Layers install the carpeting, linoleum, and tile in the
customer's home and in the store,' using such tools as carpet stretchers,
sewing equipment, cement paddles, rollers, etc. Stockmen perform
usual stock functions attendant to the carpet workroom operation.
The record indicates that the most highly skilled of these, the cut-
ters, require from 2 to 3 years' experience in workroom functions and
In its primary unit request with respect to the employees of this workroom , the Peti-
tioner would exclude the measuremen and estimators.
7 Carpet workroom layers are frequently assigned to the store , where they perform their
regular duties of laying carpeting. (There are over one million square feet of carpeting
in the store.) In addition, there are two carpet layers who are permanently assigned to
the building department in the main store. These building department layers are not in
any way connected with the carpet workroom, but work with maintenance carpenters,
painters, electricians , and orderlies in the preparation of display model rooms and homes.
However , they consistently exercise the skills of their trade and there is no evidence of
functional interchange with other employee classifications.
J. L. HUDSON COMPANY 1381
related training in the Employer's on-the-job training program.8 A
high degree of accuracy is required in the cutting operation, particu-
larly with regard to broadloom carpeting which necessitates match-
ing the pattern design. There is also evidence that layers require
approximately 2 years' on-the-job training and experience. The
sewers, though less skilled, work in close contact with, and have in-
terests functionally related to, the cutters and layers.
Although the record evidences some employee interchange affecting
the classifications employed in the workroom, the bulk of such inter-
change was intraworkroom in nature, or directly affected employees
other than the cutters, layers, and sewers. Several specific instances
were recited where carpet layers have temporarily served as estima-
tors or measuremen, but it is evident that such a practice could in no
way derogate from the craft status of the layers.
From the foregoing, we conclude that the employees serving as
cutters, layers, and sewers, including the two layers permanently as-
signed to the main store, constitute a functional group having pre-
dominantly craft characteristics and, by reason thereof, a special
community of interests apart from other employees sufficient to war-
rant their separate representation in a unit appropriate for purposes
of collective bargaining.9
Cabinet and Finishing Workroom
The Petitioner seeks to establish a craft unit of cabinet finishers,
cabinetmakers, paint sprayers, and outside servicemen employed in
the cabinet and finishing workroom located on portions of the second,
third, and fourth floors of the Employer's warehouse No. 1. The
function of this workroom is to repair and refinish damaged or marred
furniture, either in preparation for delivery or in response to customer
complaints.
The operations performed in this workroom include (1) repair,
or manufacture and replacement, of broken or damaged parts by
cabinetmakers, (2) skinning, sanding, painting, and rubbing surfaces
to restore their finish, and (3) dusting off, burning in, touching up,
dowelling and gluing new furniture, normally in preparation for
delivery, but sometimes also in customers' homes to remedy com-
8 Some of the Employer 's present employees received "workroom" training under a GI
training plan , which was instituted about 1945 and later discontinued as a result of the
Veterans ' Administration 's disapproval of it . The Employer, however, continues to have
what is characterized as "on -the-job training" although it asserts that no attempt is made,
with respect to any of its various workroom activities, to create journeymen , "as such."
8In accordance with our general practice with regard to the establishment of craft units,
we shall exclude the stockmen . Likewise , as the measuremen and estimators have separate
immediate supervision , do not in the course of their employment exercise craft skills, and
do not share an intimate functional integration with the layers , cutters, and sewers, we
shall exclude them from the unit.
257905-54-vol . 108-88
1382 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
plaints. The cabinetmakers furnish their own carpenters' tools and,
in addition, use wood lathes, joiners, jigsaws, and other such electri-
cally powered tools furnished by the Employer. The finishers use
various tools such as alcohol torches, electric burning-in knives, sand-
ing machines, pneumatic rubbing machines, sand blocks, and electric
buffers furnished by the Employer. As in the Employer's other
workrooms, the Employer usually hires or transfers unskilled em-
ployees into the cabinet and finishing workroom as "trainees." After
having acted as helpers in the various workroom activities for 2 to 3
years, they are usually able to perform "on their own" the functions
of cabinetmaker or cabinet finisher.
The Employer acknowledges that some of the employees in this
workroom possess a substantial degree of skill, but contends that only
a negligible portion of the tasks performed require the exercise of
such skill. It is unnecessary, however, to determine whether this con-
tention is in fact well founded, for the record shows that in the Em-
ployer's Greyhound building there are an undisclosed number of
cabinetmakers and cabinet finishers engaged in the manufacture and
finishing of store fixtures, and in the piano workroom there are cer-
tain finishers, who are not sought to be included in this unit. There
is uncontroverted testimony that the cabinetmakers in the Greyhound
building use the same tools, and that both they and the finishers in
that building do approximately the same work, as do the similarly
classified employees in the cabinet workroom. Thus as the unit
sought does not, in any event, include all the employees performing
similar tasks and exercising similar skills, we find it is inappropriate
for collective bargaining purposes.'°
Upholstery Workroom and Drapery Workroom
The Petitioner seeks to establish the following employees in two
separate units: (1) All finishers, cutters, cushion fillers, sewers, and
upholsterers employed in the upholstery workroom; and (2) all cut-
ters, machine and hand sewers, slip coverers, traverse rod makers,
cornicemen, and measuremen of the drapery workroom. These two
workrooms are situated on the fourth floor of the Employer's Madison
warehouse, and are separated at various points by a wooden partition,
lockers, and an aisle. Each of these workrooms is supervised by its
respective manager, who in turn is responsible to the assistant man-
ager of workrooms.
The functions of the upholstery workroom are to reupholster cus-
tomers' furniture with fabrics either sold in the store or furnished by
the customer, to repair and adjust defects in new upholstered furni-
1O The Halle Bros., Company, 87 NLRB 369.
J. L. HUDSON COMPANY 1383
ture either before or after sale, to re-cover new upholstered furniture
as requested by the selling department, and to maintain upholstered
furniture within the Employer's buildings. Drapery workroom func-
tions include measuring, estimating, cutting, manufacturing, and in-
stalling draperies, curtains, overtreatment (e. g., cornices), slipcovers,
and bedspreads for customers and for the store.
The most highly skilled of the employees in either of the two work-
rooms are those in the upholstery workroom classified as upholsterers;
with respect to these, the Petitioner's witness testified that 5 years' on-
the-job training and experience is required to meet the standards of
the craft, whereas the Employer conceded that the upholstery opera-
tion would require a much longer period of time to learn than other
upholstery workroom functions. The upholstery cutters, appearing to
be the next most highly skilled of those involved, require a training
period of 2 years adequately to perform the more complicated jobs of
their classification." Although there is no evidence as to the length of
training and experience prescribed for slipcover cutters of the drapery
workroom, it would appear from the nature of their duties that they
are only slightly less skilled than the upholstery cutters.12 Also rela-
tively less skilled, but functionally integrated with and closely related
in interest to all of these employees, are the drapery cutters, drapery
sewers, and welt makers (welts are raised seams which run along the
slipcover at the place where the pieces are joined together and serve
both as reinforcement and decoration) of the drapery workroom, and
the sewers, cushion fillers, and sealers of the upholstery workroom.
From the foregoing, we conclude that these employees compose a
functional group possessing predominantly craft skills and distinct
interests sufficient to entitle them to separate unit representation.13
Nor are we dissuaded from this determination by the instances of em-
ployee interchange disclosed in the record.- Accordingly, we find
that all upholsterers, cutters, sewers, welt makers, cushion fillers, and
"Thus, the Employer asserted that the cutters ' function can be learned "by a man
anywhere from a few months up to a year or two, the difference being that the more com-
plicated jobs would take a considerable longer time to learn to do."
12 Upholsterers , with the aid of helpers or "handymen ," strip off old upholstering , repair
or replace broken springs, tie the springs together in a process known as "webbing," cover
the springs with burlap , apply and tuft the padding and cushioning , and then secure-by
tacks and thread-the upholstery material into place . Upholstery and slipcover cutters
perform the detail cutting operation with respect to their furniture covering materials.
is Because they are unskilled or possess skills unrelated to those of the employees in-
cluded, we shall exclude measureulen , detallers, estimators , pressers , handlers, packers,
cornice makers , traverse rod makers , and finishers . Likewise , we shall exclude the cutters
located in the store , whose sole function is merely to measure and cut off lengths of
drapery and slipcover material from bolts for delivery to the workroom.
"The overwhelming majority of Interchanges noted in the record affecting the upholstery
and drapery workrooms involved employees whom we are here excluding from the unit
found appropriate. Among the others involved are sewers and cutters in the drapery
workroom, who retained their nominal classifications after being transferred to the
upholstery workroom.
1384 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
sealers engaged in the upholstery and drapery workrooms may consti-
tute a separate unit appropriate for purposes of collective bargaining.
Warehouse, Delivery, Packing, and Related Classifications
The Petitioner desires to represent, either in separate units or any
combinations thereof, the following groups of employees, excluding
from each such group all office and clerical employees :
(a) All employees in the Madison building employed in the inside
parcel delivery department,15 including the classifications of sheet
writers, stubbers, belt employees, routers, checkers, bad address
clerks, parcel post clerks, loaders, platform men, freight elevator op-
erators, gas station attendants, and porters.
The work of these employees consists essentially of sorting pack-
ages received from the main store or other warehouses, marking them
with their proper city delivery route numbers, and transferring them
by moving conveyor belts to the proper truck loading areas. The
record establishes that this parcel delivery operation is, in substan-
tial respects, duplicated both at the Hoover Road and the Greenfield
Road delivery substations; none of the employees at either of such
substations is sought to be included here, or in any of the Petition-
er's other requested units.
(b) All employees at the receiving and delivery docks of the store
engaged as dockworkers, handlers, loaders, unloaders, receiving
clerks, and freight elevator operators, except those engaged in re-
ceiving and handling foodstuffs for the restaurants and cafeterias
situated in the Employer's buildings.
All of these employees are under common immediate supervision
and are engaged in the tasks incident to handling merchandise
brought by trucks to the receiving docks at the main store, and trans-
portation of such merchandise by elevator to the various departments
of the store. The Petitioner would include in the unit the receiving
clerks (dockworkers) and elevator operators handling new merchan-
dise delivered to the receiving platforms, and also the operators of
two elevators, not opening on these platforms, which are used to
transport large items received from the Employer's warehouses. The
Petitioner would exclude, as not under the same supervision, em-
ployees operating two elevators that bring hampers, from the fourth
basement, which are loaded onto trucks for transfer to the delivery
belt operation in the Beacon-Beaubien warehouse.
A The inside parcel delivery department is 1 of the 5 major divisions of the delivery
department, the other 4 being engaged , respectively , in the functions of furniture delivery,
freight transfer and hauling , inside store fourth basement delivery, and truck maintenance.
J. L. HUDSON COMPANY 1385
(c) (1) All employees in the three Beacon-Beaubien warehouses
-employed in the receiving and marking department, including all
those engaged as dockworkers , checkers, receiving clerks, markers
and stockmen , loaders and unloaders attached to the stock operation,
porters, freight elevator operators (but not including the freight
elevator operators in the inside parcel delivery department ), craters,
uncraters, and handlers.
(c) (2) All employees in the West Jefferson warehouse, including
dockworkers , checkers , receiving clerks, loaders and unloaders , freight
-elevator operators, stockmen, craters and uncraters, markers and
handlers , but excluding custodial and maintenance employees.
(c) (3) All employees in the Edson-Moore warehouse , including
dockworkers, checkers , receiving clerks, loaders and unloaders,
freight elevator operators , stockmen, craters and uncraters, markers,
and handlers.
With respect to unit request (c) (1), the Petitioner asserts that
the employees perform "true warehouse functions" (as distinguished
from workroom employees or employees engaged in delivery opera-
tions). The record establishes that the employees in the three pro-
posed units , (c) (1), (c) (2), and (c ) (3), perform , in their respec-
tive locations , substantially the same functions : Assist in unloading
new merchandise from trucks , make a preliminary check of the mer-
chandise received against the freight bill , record stock data, transport
the merchandise on elevators to the designated departments, make a
detailed check of merchandise quantity and condition , and perform
crating and uncrating operations attendant to normal stocking needs.
(d) All employees of the Employer engaged as packers in the pack-
ing department or, in the alternative , all such employees and all
employees engaged as contingents or extras in packing in the packing
department.
The employees requested to be included in this unit work within
the main packing location in the fourth basement and in the 38 pack-
ing stations situated in the main store and in the Beacon-Beaubien
buildings , Hemmeter building , and the West Jefferson and Edson-
Moore warehouses. Their work consists of placing heavy, breakable,
or bulky merchandise into packages or cartons , packing in shredded
paper or excelsior, tying the packages , pasting on sales slips, loading
packages on delivery carts, and pushing the loaded carts to the freight
elevators.
( e) All employees in the Nu-Hue paintroom at warehouse No. 1.
These employees are engaged solely in the mixing of paint. Upon an
order for a quantity of paint of a particular color , hue, and finish,
1386 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
the employee refers to a numbered card in the card index system, and
mixes together paints of colors and proportions recorded thereon.
Substantially no training or experience is required to become qualified
for paintroom work.
In support of its assertion that each of the latter seven groups set
forth above is appropriate for purposes of collective bargaining, the
Petitioner relies on the lack of substantial interchange affecting each
group, the close community of interests shared by the employees
within each such group, and their common immediate supervision.
No assertion is made, nor does the record show, that any of the em-
ployees involved exercise craft skills in the performance of their
work.
It appears from the record that there are a substantial number of
other unskilled service and maintenance employees throughout the
Employer's organization, both in the main store and in several of
its auxiliary buildings, who share, along with the employees sought
to be represented, common interests, working conditions, and employee
benefits. To establish bargaining units as proposed, or any combina-
tions thereof, would be to give controlling effect to the Petitioner's
extent of organization which we, under the Act, as amended, are pre-
cluded from doing. We find, therefore, that the proposed groups
(a), (b), (c) (1), (c) (2), (c) (3), (d), and (e), above, are inappro-
priate for purposes of collective bargaining, and shall deny the
request for them.
Multigraph and Printshop
The Petitioner also seeks to represent, as a separate unit, the em-
ployees of the Employer's multigraph and printshop, hereinafter
called the "printshop," located within a single enclosure on the second
floor of the Madison warehouse building. These consist of 1 press-
man, 2 embossing pressmen, 3 regular pressmen, 6 bindery workers, 8
trainees, and 19 helpers. The employees, supervised by the printshop
manager, are engaged in the reproduction of business forms, house
publications, restaurant menus, and various other printed matter used
by the Employer. In addition, they engrave wedding invitations and
birth announcements and monogram stationery and playing cards.
Operations of the shop are confined largely to printing press and
bindery functions, and most of the type is set "outside." The more
highly skilled of the printshop operations are not duplicated elsewhere
in the Employer's business."'
11 There is , however , some mimeographing done in the training department , and employ ees
of the office manager's office occasionally use mimeograph machines and multiliths.
J. L. HUDSON COMPANY 1387
There is conflict in testimony as to the length of training required
to operate the horizontal and vertical presses, but the least such period
was estimated to be 3 years 17 Although, as the Employer points out,
the bulk of the employees of the printshop are in the semiskilled or
unskilled classifications of bindery workers, trainees, and helpers, they
nevertheless constitute an integral and necessary segment of
the shop complement, and share, along with the highly skilled press-
men, interests distinct from any of the other Employer's employees.
From the nature of the work performed in this printshop and the
printing equipment regularly used by its personnel,18 there can be no
doubt that the various classifications of pressmen, the bindery workers,
trainees, and helpers are a functionally distinct departmental, craft-
nucleus, group of the sort we have heretofore found constitute a unit
appropriate for purposes of collective bargaining.-
Accordingly, we find that the following units, excluding from each
all office clerical and plant clerical employees, professional employees,
guards, and supervisors as defined in the Act, constitute units appro-
priate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning
of Section 9 (b) of the Act :
(1) All employees of the Employer's carpet workroom engaged as
cutters, layers, and sewers, including the layers of the building de-
partment in the main store, and all trainees for the cutter, layer,
and sewer classifications, but excluding measuremen, estimators, stock-
men, and all other employees.
(2) All employees of the Employer's upholstery and drapery work-
rooms engaged as upholsterers, upholstery cutters, slipcover cutters,
drapery cutters, drapery sewers, welt makers, upholstery sewers,
cushion fillers, cushion sealers, and trainees for those classifications,
but excluding measuremen, detailers, estimators, pressers, handlers,
packers, cornice makers, traverse rod makers, finishers, and all other
employees.
(3) All employees of the Employer's multigraph and printshop,
including the pressmen, bindry workers, trainees, and helpers 2°
[Text of Direction of Elections omitted from publication in this
volume.]
17 The Petitioner's witness estimated that from 5 to 6 years' training and experience is
required.
's Shop equipment includes 1 horizontal press, 4 vertical presses, 3 platen presses (hand-
fed single-impression machines), 3 multilith machines, 1 Webendorfer (comparable to
multilith ), 3 power presses , 3 hand-stamping machines , and 2 monogram machines. En-
graving is accomplished on the power presses by adaptation of copper engraving plates.
19 Ingersoll Rand Company, 100 NLRB 1342.
20 A portion of these employees are students who work after school and on Saturdays.
We shall include such of them as regularly work on that basis . The Great Atlantic d
Pacific Tea Company, 96 NLRB 660.