Kroger Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Apr 3, 1973

202 N.L.R.B. 835 (N.L.R.B. 1973)

KROGER COMPANY 835
Kroger Company, Atlanta Division and Amalgamated
Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North
America, AFL-CIO, Local 405, Petitioner. Case
10-RC-9412
April 3, 1973
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF
ELECTION
BY MEMBERS FANNING, KENNEDY, AND
PENELLO
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9(c) of the
National Labor Relations Act, as amended, a
hearing was held before Hearing Officer Linda R.
Birrel. Thereafter, pursuant to Section 102.67 of the
National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regula-
tions and Statements of Procedure, Series 8, as
amended, and by direction of the Regional Director
for Region 10, this case was transferred to the
National Labor Relations Board for decision.'
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the
National Labor Relations Act, as amended, the
National Labor Relations Board has delegated its
authority in this proceeding to a three-member panel.
The Board has reviewed the Hearing Officer's
rulings made at the hearing and finds that they are
free from prejudicial error. They are hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board
finds:
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within
the meaning of the Act, and it will effectuate the
policies of the Act to assert jurisdiction herein.
2. The parties stipulated, and we find, that the
Petitioner and Intervenor are labor organizations
within the meaning of the Act.
3. A question affecting commerce exists concern-
ing the representation of the employees of the
Employer within the meaning of Sections 9(c)(1) and
2(6) and (7) of the Act.
4. The Petitioner seeks to add the delicatessen
employees at the Employer's Northgate Mall Store in
Chattanooga, Tennessee, to its existing citywide unit
of meat department employees. The Intervenor seeks
to add the delicatessen employees at the Northgate
Mall Store to its existing divisionwide unit of grocery
employees. The Employer agrees with the Intervenor.
Both Petitioner and Intervenor contend that this
decision should apply to all delicatessen employees
in Chattanooga stores, including those established in
the future. The Employer contends that this decision
should apply only to the existing delicatessen
department in the Northgate Mall Store, and not to
any other delicatessen departments that may be
established in the future.
For the reasons enumerated below, we find that the
delicatessen employees at the existing delicatessen
department in the Northgate Mall Store constitute an
appropriate voting group to select either the Petition-
er or the Intervenor as their representative or to
remain unrepresented.
The Employer's Atlanta Division operates 54
supermarkets. Of the Employer's eight stores in
Chattanooga, only the recently opened Northgate
Mall Store has a delicatessen department and is
involved in this proceeding.
The Northgate Mall Store opened in March 1972.
The store is supervised by the store manager, who
normally would be aided by an assistant manager,
and is divided into meat, produce, grocery, and
delicatessen departments. The departments are head-
ed by lead clerks who do the ordering for their
departments; the parties stipulated that they are not
supervisors as defined in the Act. Each department
has its own key on the store's cash registers and its
own sales plan. There is no employee interchange
between departments except that occasionally if the
store is very busy either a delicatessen clerk or a meat
clerk may operate the express checkout register and
occasionally a cashier may help the delicatessen
department if it is busy and one of the delicatessen
clerks is out to lunch.
The delicatessen department sells luncheon meats,
cooked chicken and ribs, bakery products, cheeses,
salads, dressing, and pickles. Delicatessen clerks
bake some of the bakery items, prepare some of the
salads, and cook the chickens and ribs. The delicates-
sen clerks, besides preparing foods and cooking, also
wait on customers and stock shelves. The delicates-
sen department does not share its working area with
any other department, and the meat products it uses
are billed directly to the delicatessen department.
There is no interchange of products; however, the
meat department cuts the delicatessen's chickens.
Except for the meat department journeyman and
head meatcutter, the grocery, delicatessen, and meat
clerks have approximately the same rates of pay and
the same duties and skills.
The delicatessen employees share similar working
conditions with employees in the meat department
represented by the Petitioner and with employees in
the remaining departments represented by the
Intervenor in its overall grocery unit . The delicates-
sen employees have the same overall supervision and
similar duties and rates of pay as have employees in
the other two units, and employees in both the
delicatessen department and the meat department
I Retail Clerks Union, Local 1063, affiliated with Retail Clerks
international Association was allowed to intervene in this proceeding
202 NLRB No. 117
836 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
interchange with employees represented by the
Intervenor to the same limited extent . Accordingly,
we conclude that the delicatessen employees have a
sufficient community of interest with employees in
the other two units to warrant their being represented
by either union as part of its existing unit . 2 Under
these circumstances , we shall permit the employees
in the voting group to select either the Petitioner or
the Intervenor as their representative or to remain
unrepresented . If a majority vote for either the
Petitioner or the Intervenor , they shall be added to
the respective unit represented by the said labor
organization ; otherwise , they shall remain unrepre-
sented.
Accordingly , we find that the following employees
constitute an appropriate voting group to select
either the Petitioner or Intervenor as their represent-
ative or to remain unrepresented.
All delicatessen employees employed in the
Employer ' s Northgate Mall store , but excluding
all other employees , guards, and supervisors as
defined in the Act.
[Direction of Election and Excelsior footnote
omitted from publication.]
2 Kroger Company, 201 NLRB No 138