Puritan Caribbean, Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jan 28, 1970

180 N.L.R.B. 995 (N.L.R.B. 1970)

PURITAN CARIBBEAN, INC. 995
Puritan Caribbean , Inc. and International Ladies'
Garment Workers ' Union, AFL-CIO, Petitioner.
Case 24-RC-3561
January 28, 1970
DECISION ON REVIEW AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
BY CHAIRMAN MCCULLOCH AND MEMBERS
FANNING AND BROWN
On December 13, 1968, the Regional Director for
Region 24 issued his Decision and Order in the
above-entitled proceeding, in which he dismissed a
petition for a unit of production and maintenance
employees at the Employer's Cidra, Puerto Rico
plant, finding that the Employer and Puritana
Manufacturing Corporation' constitute a single
employer and that the requested unit, which
excludes the latter ' s production and maintenance
employees at Aguas Buenas, Puerto Rico, is
inappropriate. Thereafter, the Petitioner filed a
timely request for review of the Regional Director's
Decision on the grounds that his unit finding was
contrary to precedent . The Employer filed a
statement in opposition. By telegraphic Order dated
April 11, 1969, the National Labor Relations Board
granted review.
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the
National Labor Relations Act, as amended, the
Board has delegated its powers in connection with
this case to a three-member panel.
The Board has considered the entire record with
respect to the issues under review, and makes the
following findings:
The Petitioner contends that the record facts
support a finding that the Cidra employees it seeks
to represent constitute an appropriate single plant
unit. We agree.
Puritana, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Puritan
Sportswear Corporation,' began operations in Aguas
Buenas in 1962 , with the acquisition of the
equipment and buildings of Superior Knitting
Corporation, Alto Manufacturing Corporation, and
Insular Dye Works, Inc., which respectively
performed knitting , looping and finishing, and
dyeing operations in the manufacture of
full-fashioned sweaters . Puritana combined these
operations in one building at Aguas Buenas,
utilizing approximately 400 employees.
Some time before January 1, 1968, Puritan
Sportswear foresaw the necessity of expanding
Puritana knitting operations . Being unable to build
on Puritana ' s existing Aguas Buenas property
because of a power company easement which would
not be voided, it decided to build a facility to house
the Puritana knitting operations at Cidra, about 7
'Herein referred to as Puritans.
'Herein referred to as Puritan Sportswear
miles distant. The Employer was incorporated,
primarily for tax purposes, as a wholly owned
subsidiary of Puritan Sportswear, to operate the new
facility at Cidra. On or about January 1, 1968,
Puritana's knitting department and its personnel
relocated at the new Cidra plant. At about the same
time, Puritan Sportswear closed down another
knitting operation, Mayor Mills, and relocated some
of its equipment and personnel at the Cidra plant.
Raymond Knichel, the knitting department manager
prior to the relocation, continues to head the
department at Cidra. The operations at both
locations remain under general manager Inzy Grace.
There is no history of collective bargaining for
employees at either location.
The operation of the knitting department at Cidra
remains, as it was prior to the relocation, integrated
with the finishing operations performed at the
Aguas Buenas plant. Thus, virtually all of the
components knitted at Cidra are trucked to Aguas
Buenas for further processing into the finished
garments. General Manager Grace maintains a
private office at Cidra where he spends 1 to 3 hours
every day consulting with Knichel and others with
respect to operations of the department. Also,
Knichel and the man in charge of sample making
and quality control first report to the Aguas Buenas
plant each day for consultations with personnel
there located on matters within their respective
responsibilities. Further, a central office at Aguas
Buenas performs administrative functions for both
companies, i.e., personnel , purchasing , engineering,
payroll, etc.; and the maintenance department at
Aguas Buenas is responsible for the electrical
systems, air-conditioning and general upkeep at both
plants.3
The Cidra plant has a complement of about 230
employees, nearly double the complement of the
knitting department when it was_ located at Aguas
Buenas, and the Aguas Buenas plant now has a
complement of about 325 employees. A substantial
number of the Cidra plant employees commute from
their homes in Aguas Buenas . Employees of both
plants share a number of benefits in common: i.e.,
they have the same insurance, health, vacation, and
holiday programs; accumulate seniority on a 2-plant
basis to determine eligibility for these benefits; and
participate in employee purchase sales which are
conducted at either plant. Company-sponsored
social functions are attended by employees of both
plants. There is a single newspaper and a single
credit union for employees of both companies.
The foregoing facts indicate that the employees of
both the Employer and Puritana share a community
of interest and could appropriately be combined in
one unit for bargaining purposes. However, there
'However, the receptionist at the Cidra plant collects and checks
piecework tickets and the other payroll data for transmittal to the central
office Also, Cidra has its own janitor and a machinist in its machine shop
who makes parts for both plants. The maintenance superintendent visits
the Cidra plant daily, spending as much time there as necessary
180 NLRB No. 155
996 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
are a number of facts which indicate that the
requested employees at Cidra may also be
appropriate as a single-plant unit.
First, the transfer of the knitting operation to a
geographically separate situs at Cidra and the
creation of the Employer as a separate corporate
entity to conduct that operation militate in favor of
finding that the requested unit of Cidra's production
and maintenance employees is appropriate. In
addition, despite the integration of the operations
involved, there are now, as there were before the)
relocation, a number of facts which distinguish the
interests of knitting employees from those of
employees engaged in the finishing operations.
Thus, the classifications and skills of employees in
each operation are widely diverse, and there is no
interchange between the two groups of production
employees. The Employer utilizes production
employees classified as machine fixers, full-fashioned
knitting operators, flat knitting operators, toppers,
separators, and menders. Puritana has looping
machine operators, dye-house employees, wet
processing employees, assemblers, finishers, and
menders, the last being the only production
classification common to both plants. The training
period for the Employer's production employees
ranges from a minimum of 6 months for separators
to a period of up to 15 years for fully qualified
fixers. On the other hand, at Puritana about 90
percent of the production employees are looping
machine operators who require less than 6 months
to become proficient. The Cidra plant operates on a
6-day week, 3-shift basis, and about 70 percent of
the employees rotate shifts weekly. In contrast, the
Puritana plant operates on a 5-day week, l-shift
basis.
Although, as indicated, General Manager Grace
has overall authority over both plants, Knitting
Manager Knichel exercises day-to-day authority
over the Cidra employees and the Employer's
production foremen report to him. Moreover,
contrary to the Employer's contention in its brief,
the record demonstrates that Knichel has and
exercises the power effectively to recommend to
Grace the hire and discharge of employees.
Although applicants for employment are initially
interviewed and fill out forms at the personnel office
in Aguas Buenas , those being considered for
openings at Cidra are personally interviewed by
Knichel and /or one of his line supervisors, and on
the basis of those interviews recommendations are
made to the general manager (Grace ) who usually
adopts them .' Likewise , with respect to discharges,
Knichel ' s line supervisors have sent employees home
and Knichel 's recommendations for discharge have
'The record indicates that Knichel, unlike Grace , is fluent in Spanish.
been made to Grace. Knichel could not recall any
instances in which his recommendations were
rejected. Knichel also testified that his
recommendations as to promotions and individual
pay increases are usually adopted.
Upon the foregoing, we conclude that the
production and maintenance employees of the
Employer at Cidra enjoy a substantial community of
interest apart from production and maintenance
employees of Puritana at Aguas Buenas , sufficient
to support a finding that they constitute an
appropriate unit. In so concluding, we rely on the
facts that the Employer and Puritana are separate
corporate entities; that the Cidra plant is
geographically separate from the related Aguas
Buenas plant ; that the Cidra plant is engaged in a
distinct kind of production, that there is virtually no
interchange of production employees between the
two plants; that the knitting manager at Cidra
exercises a substantial degree of authority over the
day-to-day operations of the plant; that there is no
history of collective bargaining for any of the
employees involved; and that no labor organization
is seeking to represent employees on a broader
basis.'
Accordingly, we find that the following employees
of the Employer at Cidra, Puerto Rico, constitute a
unit appropriate for the purpose of collective
bargaining within the meaning of Section 9(b) of the
Act:
All production and maintenance employees,
including machine fixers' and the production clerk,
but excluding the receptionist and all other office
clerical employees, guards, and supervisors, as
defined in the Act.
[Direction of Election' omitted from publication.]
'See Dixie Belle Mills, Inc, a wholly-owned-subsidiary of Bell
Industries , Inc. 139 NLRB 629; Gordon Mills, Inc, 145 NLRB 771; The
Black & Decker Manufacturing Company, 147 NLRB 825, Waumbec
Dyeing and Finishing Co., 101 NLRB 1069 Catalina Inc, 120 NLRB 412,
and other cases cited by the Regional Director in support of his finding
are, in our opinion , clearly distinquishable on their facts.
'The parties agreed to exclude machine fixers who were on the
confidential payroll. An issue was raised as to the supervisory status of
three knitting leadmen . As the record is insufficient to enable us to resolve
this issue , we shall make no disposition as to their unit placement at this
time, but shall permit them to vote under challenge
'In order to assure that all eligible voters may have the opportunity to
be informed as to the issues in the exercise of their statutory right to vote,
all parties to the election should have access to a list of voters and their
addresses which may be used to communicate with them . Excelsior
Underwear Inc, 156 NLRB 1236; N L.R B v Wyman-Gordon Company,
394 U.S 759 Accordingly, it is hereby directed that an election eligibility
list, containing the names and addresses of all the eligible voters, must be
filed by the Employer with the Regional Director for Region 24 within 7
days of the date of this Decision on Review and Direction of Election. The
Regional Director shall make the list available to all parties to the
election No extension of time to file this list shall be granted by the
Regional Director except in extraordinary circumstances Failure to
comply with this requirement shall be grounds for setting aside the election
whenever proper objections are filed