John Morrell & Co., Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board DecisionsSep 28, 1949

86 N.L.R.B. 192 (N.L.R.B. 1949)

In the Matter of JOHN MORRELL & CO., INC., EMPLOYER and LOCAL No. 30, INTERNATIONAL UNION OF OPERATING ENGINEERS, AFL, PETITIONER Case No. 2-RC-1393.-Decided September 28, .1949 DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before Chester L. Migden, 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 National Labor Relations Act, the Board has delegated its powers in connection with this case to a three-member panel [Members Reynolds, Murdock, and Gray]. Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds : 1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act. 2. The labor organizations involved claim 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.appropriate unit : The Petitioner seeks to sever all operating engineers from the exist- ing plant-wise unit of employees at the Brooklyn, New York, branch house of the Employer now represented by the Intervenor. The Inter- venor contends that the unit sought is inappropriate because these employees perform duties which are integrated with the production process, and which do not require the skills of operating engineers. The Intervenor further contends that only the plant-wide unit is ' At the hearing Local 102 , United Packinghouse Workers of America, CIO, herein called the Intervenor moved to dismiss the petition on the ground that the Petitioner had not requested recognition of the Employer prior to the filing of the petition. This motion was referred to the Board for a ruling. For the reasons set forth in Matter of Advance Pattern Company, SO N. L. R. B. 29, this motion is hereby denied. 86 N. L. R. B., No. 33. 192 JOHN MORRELL ' & CO., INC. 193 appropriate because of a bargaining history since 1938 on the broader basis. The Employer maintains a neutral position. The Employer, at its Brooklyn branch house, the only plant involved in this proceeding, is engaged in processing and selling meats. Of the approximately 55 employees in this plant, 3 are operating engineers who in this location are required to be licensed? It is these engineers whom the Petitioner desires to sever from the existing plant-wide unit. The operating engineers are under the direct supervision of the plant superintendent and are the only employees who are quartered in the. basement of the plant. The primary duties of the operating engineers are to operate and maintain the refrigeration machinery and oil burn- ers located in the basement of the plant and to check and control temperatures in the various refrigerated rooms in the plant. They maintain a 24-hour schedule with one engineer on each of three shifts. In addition to these duties they perform certain additional miscella- neous.tasks.3 However, in the performance of these miscellaneous tasks the engineers do not handle any meat. Conversely the production employees, whose primary duties involved handling meat, do not in any manner handle refrigeration or boiler equipment. As the plant is operating only one production shift the production workers have little occasion to come into contact with the present group of boiler room employees. Because, as noted above, their primary duties are those usually performed by boiler room employees, we conclude that the employees known as operating engineers comprise a functionally identifiable skilled group of a type which the Board has frequently held may constitute a separate unit despite "a history of collective bargaining on a plant-wide basis.' Accordingly, we shall direct an election among the employees in the following voting group : All operating engineers at the Employer's Brooklyn, New York plant, engaged in operating and maintaining boilers and refrigerating equipment, excluding supervisors and all other employees of the Employer. Operating engineers are required to he licensed by the Department of Buildings of New York . To obtain a license, the City of New York authorities require an operating engineer to have served an apprenticeship and to pass both a written and a practical examination. Two of the three operating engineers have such a license while ?-tire: third is continuing in his position under special permission of the Fire Department pending the issfiance of a license. "The miscellaneous duties, which consume approximately 30 to 40 percent of the operating engineers ' time, include making minor machine repair , replacing blades on slicing machines , greasing lift trucks and replacing worn parts. tending the laundry ma- chine , moving the remaining sliced bacon to the basement cooler after production employees leave for the day, checking the number and weight of bacon boxes , and cleaning slicing machines . The two night engineers also control temperatures in the smokehouses. Matter of Dallas-Fort Worth Brewing Company, 84 N. L. R. B . 68.1 ; Matter of 1Vilson and Co., Inc., 80 N. L . R. B. 1466 ; Matter of The Wooster Rubber Company, 77 N. L. R. B. 1044. 194 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD ' However, we shall make no final unit determination at this time, but shall be guided in part by the desire of these employees as ex- pressed in the election hereinafter directed. If a majority vote for the Petitioner, they will be taken to have indicated their desire to con- stitute a separate appropriate unit. DIRECTION OF ELECTION 5 As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the purposes of collective bargaining with the Employer, an election by secret ballot shall be conducted as early as possible, but not later than 30 days from the date of this Direction, under the direction and super- vision of the Regional Director for the Region in which this case was heard, and subject to Sections 203.61 and 203.62 of National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations, among the employees in the unit found appropriate in paragraph numbered 4, above, who were employed during the pay-roll period immediately preceding the date of this Direction of Election, including employees who did not work during said pay-roll period because they were ill or on vacation or temporarily laid off, but excluding those employees who have since quit or been discharged for cause and have not been rehired or rein- stated prior to the date of the election, and also excluding employees on strike who are not entitled to reinstatement, to determine whether they desire to be represented, for purposes of collective bargaining, by Local No. 30,.International Union of Operating Engineers, AFL, or by Local 102, United Packinghouse Workers of America, CIO, or by neither. "Any participant in the election directed herein may , upon its prompt request to, and approval thereof by , the Regional Director , have its name removed from the ballot.