Lincoln Casket Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jan 5, 1946

65 N.L.R.B. 182 (N.L.R.B. 1946)

0
In the Matter of LINCOLN CASKET COMPANY and CASKET AND ALLIED
PRODUCTS WORKERS UNION, LOCAL 118, AFFILIATED WITH UPHOL-
STERERS INTERNATIONAL UNION OF NORTH AMERICA, A. F. OF L.
Case No. 13-R-3173.-Decided January 5, 1946
Currie cfi Gherman, by Mr. John Patterson Currie, of Chicago, Ill.;
and Mr. L. W. Dowling, of Lincoln, Ill., for the Company.
Mr. Leonard Shaw, of Chicago, Ill., for the Union.
Mrs. Augusta Spaulding, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon petition duly filed by Casket and Allied Products Workers
Union, Local 188, affiliated with Upholsterers International Union of
North America, A. F. of L.,1 herein called the Union, alleging that a
question affecting commerce had arisen concerning the representation
of employees of Lincoln Casket Company, Lincoln, Illinois, herein
called the Company, the National Labor Relations Board provided
for an appropriate hearing upon due notice before John R. Hill, Trial
Examiner. The hearing was held at Lincoln, Illinois, on August 9,
1945. The Company and the Union appeared, participated, and were
afforded full opportunity to be heard, to examine and cross-examine
witnesses, and to introduce 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 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
Lincoln Casket Company is a corporation having its office and place
of business at Lincoln, Illinois, where it is engaged in the manufac-
' The petition filed originally by Upholsterers International Union of North America
was amended at the hearing to show as petitioner the name of the local union recently
chartered for employees of the Company.
65 N. L R. B., No. 36.
182
LINCOLN CASKET COMPANY 183
ture of caskets. During 1944, the Company purchased raw materials
consisting principally of lumber, textiles, and metals, valued in excess
of $35,000, approximately 35 percent of which came to its plant from
points outside Illinois. During the same period, the Company sold
caskets finished at its plant, valued in excess of $100,000, of which
more than 50 percent was shipped to points outside Illinois.
The Company admits that it is engaged in commerce within the
meaning of the National Labor Relations Act.
II. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED
Casket and Allied Products Workers Union, Local 188, is a labor
organization affiliated with Upholsterers International Union of
North America and the American Federation of Labor, admitting to
membership employees of the Company.
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
On or about June 21, 1945, the Union, claiming to represent a ma-
jority of the Company's employees, asked the Company for recogni-
tion as their exclusive bargaining representative. On June 28, 1945,
the Company, through its attorney, requested that the Union secure
the certification of the Board.
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.'
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 Company and the Union agree that production and mainte-
nance employees at the Company's plant, including the fireman-engi-
neer, box maker, janitor, truck drivers, and watchmen; should be in-
cluded in the bargaining unit and that office clerical employees and
the superintendent should be excluded from the unit. The parties
disagree (1) as to the supervisory status of employees classified as
foremen and forelady and (2) as to the inclusion of the shipping and
receiving clerk in the unit.
The Company's plant consists of four adjoining production build-
ing units in which caskets are manufactured, and several storage and
warehouse buildings, where lumber is stored and tempered. The
2 The Field Examiner reported that the Union submitted 19 authorization cards dated
in June 1945.
There are approximately 33 employees in the appropriate unit.
184 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
manufacturing operation follows a routine process. After drying and'
tempering, lumber passes into the milling department, where it is'
cut into parts for caskets. These parts are assembled into casket'
shells in the cabinet department. Casket shells go either to the cloth
room, to be covered with textiles, or to the finishing department for
the application of paints and varnishes. Both painted shells and cloth-'
covered shells are sent to the cloth room for the insertion of interior
linings, which are made in the sewing room. The finished caskets then`
pass to the shipping room, where they are packed and shipped.
The plant superintendent has general charge of all plant operations
and, under normal conditions, foremen are in charge of the milling,
cabinet and metal, cloth, and finishing departments, and a forelady
supervises girls in the sewing room. Curtailment of supplies due to
war conditions limits the Company's output to eight coffins per day,
and the limitation put on the use of metal has closed the metal depart-
ment. A fire in September 1944 and the death of the foreman of the
milling department resulted in the further reduction of the working
force and a shift in the work of foremen. Specifically, the president
of the Company took over the general supervision of the milling and
cabinet and metal departments; Herman Rentschler, for many years
foreman in charge of the cabinet and metal department, was trans-
ferred to the milling department as a skilled workman; 3 the two or
three employees then remaining in the finishing department were laidzn in
off, and Foreman Nuckols of that department was directed to perform
all the painting and varnishing work; and the number of employees
in the other departments was reduced.
The parties agree that Rentschler, now serving as a production
worker in the milling department, where, though accorded deference
for his good judgment and skill, he is delegated no specific authority
over other workmen, and Nuckols, painting and varnishing in the fin-
ishing department with no staff of employees under him, are perform-
ing ordinary production work and, as non-supervisory employees, are
to be deemed included in the bargaining unit as production employees.
The Union contends, however, that the foremen of the several depart-
ments, as such, and the forelady of the sewing room are essentially
production employees and should therefore be included in the unit.
Admitting that the foremen and forelady perform some skilled work
in their several departments, the Company contends that their author-
ity to recommend hire, discharge, promotion, and lay-off makes these
employees supervisory and that the foremen and the forelady are thus
to be excluded from the unit.
S Rentschler expects to resume his position as foreman of the cabinet and metal depart-
ment when the Company is able to resume normal operations.
LINCOLN CASKET COMPANY 185
Foremen and the forelady reprimand careless work, settle griev-
ances, and make recommendations which are followed for the hire,
discharge, promotion, and lay-off of employees within their depart-
ments. The current manpower shortage has made it necessary for the
Company to require greater and varying amounts of production work
of its foremen and forelady than at normal times. While their present
status is not free of doubt, we believe that the Company's foremen and
forelady, notwithstanding their production work, are supervisory
employees under our definition of the term, and we will exclude them
from the bargaining unit.
The shipping and receiving clerk, with his work station in the office
unit, as distinguished from the factory departments, is an hourly paid
employee, directly responsible to the main office for the performance
of his duties. Approximately 50 percent of his time is devoted to
purely clerical work.4 During the remainder of his time, he directs
and assists truck drivers in packing goods for shipment and loading
coal on trucks. Although he has authority to recommend the hire and
discharge of truck drivers, he has not had any occasion to exercise it.
Inasmuch as the shipping and receiving clerk is primarily a clerical
employee assigned to the office unit rather than to production areas
of the plant, and has been delegated supervisory authority in his de-
partment, we will exclude him from the bargaining unit.
We find that all production and maintenance employees of the
Company,-5 including the fireman-engineer, truck drivers, the box
maker, janitor, and watchmen, but excluding office clerical employees,
the shipping and receiving clerk, the superintendent, foremen, fore-
lady, and all other supervisory employees with authority to hire, pro-
mote, 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 mean-
ing of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
V. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
We shall direct that the question concerning representation which
has arisen be resolved by an election by secret ballot.
Two girls in the sewing room were laid off in July 1945 as a result
of limitations placed on the Company's use of textiles by the War
Production Board. If and when the limitation is lifted and materials
again become plentiful, the Company will increase its present staff.
* We find no merit in the Company's contention that the clerk' s access to business cost
records in the office requires his exclusion from the bargaining unit as a "confidential"
employee. See Matter of Chrysler Corporation, 58 N. L . R. B. 239.
5 Including Rentschler and Nuckols while they are functioning as nonsupervisory pro-
duction employees.
186 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
The Company's policy is to recall laid-off employees before new em-
ployees are hired. The Union contends that the girls laid off in July
1945 should be eligible to vote. The Company contends that they
should not be eligible to vote (1) because they were probationary em-
ployees only and (2) because there is no immediate expectancy of their
recall. Since the limitation and scarcity of raw materials continues,
we question whether the employees laid off in July have any reasonable
expectancy of employment at the Company's plant in the near future.
The girls laid off in July will, therefore, be deemed ineligible to vote
'in the election.
Those eligible to vote in the election shall be all employees in the
appropriate unit who were employed during the pay-roll period im-
mediately preceding the date of the Direction of Election herein, sub-
ject to the limitations and additions set forth in the Direction.
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 Relations 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 Lincoln Casket
Company, Lincoln, Illinois, an election by secret ballot shall be con-
ducted as early as possible, but not later than thirty (30) days from
the date of this Direction, under the direction and supervision of the
Regional Director for the Thirteenth 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 em-
ployees 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
those employees 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 Casket
and Allied Products Workers Union, Local 188, affiliated with the
Upholsterers International Union of North America, A. F. of L., for
the purposes of collective bargaining.
MR. GERARD D. REILLY took no part in the consideration of the above
Decision and Direction of Election.