Quaker Oats Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jun 11, 1940

24 N.L.R.B. 589 (N.L.R.B. 1940)

In the Matter Of QUAKER OATS COMPANY and UNITED CEREAL WORK-
ERs, LOCAL No. 633, (CIO)
Case No. R-1801.=Decided June 11, 1940
Cereal, Flour, - Macaroni, Spaghetti , Cornmeal, and Stock Poultry Feeds
Industry-Investigation of Representatives : controversy concerning representa-
tion ; employer refuses to bargain until certification of Union by the Board-
Unit Appropriate for Collective Bargaining : all production workers of the
Company in the package , shipping, cereal , feed, puffed goods guns, upper
plant and pancake and sack departments , at its Akron, Ohio, plant , including
green card production workers, but excluding maintenance or mechanical
employees , powerhouse employees, plant-service employees , experimental or
research work employees , clerical and office employees , employees in a super-
visory capacity , timekeepers , watchmen and executives ; so-called "green card"
production workers who had not had sufficient employment to be eligible to
certain benefits provided by the Company included in unit found because
production workers may not be arbitrarily classified so as to exclude from
a unit some employees doing same kind of work as those included in such
unit, although such employees not admitted to membership in only union
involved ; non-production employees excluded from production unit-Election
Ordered: additional 30 days provided under circumstances ; since unit found
differs from unit claimed by petitioning union to be appropriate , election to
be held not less than 30 nor more than 60 days from date of Direction ; pro-
vided Board will dismiss petition upon request of Union within 30 days
from Direction for failure to allege appropriate unit.
Mr. William J. Avrutis, for the Board.
Mr. C. G. Roetzel and Mr. D. W. Maxon, of Akron, Ohio, for the
Company.
Mr. Stanley Denlinger, Mr. Hobson L. Dyer, and Mr. Louis J.
Mascolo, of Akron, Ohio, for the Union.
Mr. Louis S. Penfield, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
On March 6, 1940, United Cereal Workers, Local No. 633, herein
called the Union, filed with the Regional Director for the Eighth
Region (Cleveland, Ohio) a petition alleging that a question affect-
24 N. L. R. B.,.No. 55.
589
590 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
ing commerce had arisen concerning the representation of employees
of Quaker Oats Company , Akron, Ohio, and requesting an investi-
gation and certification of representatives pursuant to Section 9 (c)
of the National Labor Relations Act, 49 Stat . 449, herein called
the Act. On March 20 , 1940, the National Labor Relations Board,
herein called the Board , acting pursuant to Section 9 (c) of the
Act, and Article III, Section 3, of National Labor Relations Board
Rules and Regulations-Series 2, as amended, ordered an investiga-
tion and authorized the Regional Director to conduct -it and to pro-
vide for an appropriate hearing upon due notice. '
On April 9 , 1940, the Regional Director, issued a , notice of hearing,
copies of which were duly served upon the Company and upon the
Union. Pursuant to the notice a hearing was held on April 18,
1940, at Akron, Ohio, before Herbert Wenzel, the Trial Examiner
duly designated by the Board. The Board, the Company, and the
Union appeared and were represented by counsel , and participated
in the hearing. Full opportunity to be heard, to examine and to
cross -examine witnesses , and to introduce evidence bearing on the
issues was afforded all parties . During the course of the hearing
the Trial Examiner made various rulings on 'motions and on the
admission of evidence . The Board has reviewed the rulings ' of
the Trial Examiner and finds that no prejudicial errors were com-
mitted. These rulings are hereby affirmed. The Company and the
Union have submitted briefs in support of their respective positions.
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following :
FINDINGS OF FACT
1. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
Quaker Oats Company is a New Jersey corporation with its prin-
cipal office in Chicago, Illinois . It is engaged in the manufacture,
sale, and distribution of numerous cereals, including products
vended under trade names, and.of various types of flour, macaroni,
spaghetti , cornmeal , and stock poultry feeds . In connection with
the manufacture of its products the Company owns and operates
plants in Akron, Ohio, and in cities in various States of the United
States. This proceeding is concerned solely with employees of the
Akron plant , where about 650 persons are employed . In the year
1939 raw materials consisting mostly of grain and worth in excess
of $250,000 were used at this plant , of which 95 per cent were
shipped to the plant from points outside the State of Ohio. During
the same period approximately 70 per cent of the finished products
of the plant , having a value in excess of $250,000 , were shipped
to points outside the State of Ohio.
-QUAKER OATS COMPANY ` 591
The Company admits that it is engaged in interstate commerce,
within the meaning of the Act. -
II. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED
United Cereal Workers, Local No. 633 , is a labor organization
.affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations . The Union
admits to membership employees of the Company at its Akron plant
excluding , among others , so-called "green card" employees.
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
In April 1939 the Union requested the Company to recognize it
as the statutory representative of employees at the Akron plant,
within certain classifications, and submitted to the Company a draft
of a proposed collective bargaining contract to be executed by the
Union and the Company. The Company refused and still refuses
to recognize the Union as the statutory representative of its em-
ployees within an appropriate collective bargaining unit until the
Union be certified by the Board as such representative.
We find that a question has arisen concerning representation of
employees of the Company. .
1V. THE EFFECT OF THE QUESTION CONCERNING
REPRESENTATION UPON , COMMERCE
We find that the question concerning representation which has
arisen, occurring in connection with the operations of the Company
described in Section I above, has a close, intimate, and substantial
relation to trade, traffic, and commerce among the several States,
and tends to lead to labor disputes burdening and obstructing com-
merce and the free flow of commerce.
V. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT
The petition alleges that the following workers employed at the
Akron plant, viz:, "all production workers engaged in the package,
shipping, cereal, feed, puffed goods guns,, upper plant and pancake
and sack departments, exclusive, however, of green card employees"
constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bar-
gaining. At the hearing the Union and the Company stipulated
and agreed that "experimental or. research work employees, clerical
and office employees, employees in a supervisory capacity, timekeep-
ers, watchmen and executives," should be excluded from the unit
thus proposed. However, the parties differed as to the exclusion
1 Also referred to in the record as "puffed food guns."
592 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
from said unit of certain other employees. The Company contended
that there are improperly excluded from the alleged unit "green.
card employees and all nonsupervisory maintenance or mechanical.
employees and nonsupervisory powerhouse employees, and all plant
service employees except watchmen." The Union urges that the.
exclusion of these classifications of employees is proper.
The so-called "green card" employees at the Akron plant are.
workers who have not been employed by the Company for 6 months
within any 12-month period, and who, unlike the so-called "white-
card" employees that have had such employment, do not receive-
under the Company's personnel practices a guarantee of a minimum.
number of hours of work and amount of wages, or bonuses, vaca-
tions with pay, or retirement benefits. As of February 15, 1940,.
the Company employed 113 green card workers and 503 white card
workers. We are of the opinion that the exclusion of the green
card workers, who engage in production work,2 from a collective
bargaining unit comprising essentially production employees would
be inappropriate, and that these workers form a constituent part:
of such a unit. The green card workers perform work substan-
tially the same as that of the white card production workers; they
are subject to the same working rules; and except for the guar-
antees and benefits available to the white card workers, mentioned
above, they receive the same wages and work the same number of
hours as the white card workers. The green card workers are not.
temporary or seasonal employees and, save for a lay.-off, will con=
tinue working for the Company indefinitely. In time they, or some.
of them, will become white card workers. These facts establish a
mutuality of interest in respect to wages, hours. of service, and work-
ing conditions, between the green and white card workers precluding-
a severance of green card workers from a production unit such as
that alleged. We do not think that the Company's personnel prac-
tices above set forth, or the eligibility rule of the Union in regard
to membership, are determinative of the issue presented. Produc-
tion employees may not be arbitrarily classified for purposes of the.
appropriate collective bargaining unit so as to exclude from the
unit some employees who are doing the same kind of work as those
included in the unit.
The maintenance or mechanical employees, the powerhouse
employees, and the plant-service employees are all non-production
workers. Organization by the Union, the only labor organization
involved, has not been undertaken among them, and the Union does
not admit them to membership or desire to represent them for col-
lective bargaining. The employees themselves have evinced no
2 It is shown that as of February 15, 1940 , all of the 113 green card workers except 2
were production employees.
QUAKER OATS COMPANY 593
desire to be represented by the Union. A unit limited to production
-workers may be appropriate, and under the circumstances here
involved we think it is appropriate.3
We find that all production workers of the Company in the pack-
age, shipping, cereal, feed, puffed goods guns, upper plant and
pancake and sack departments at its Akron,' Ohio, plant, including
.green card production workers, but excluding all maintenance or
mechanical employees, powerhouse employees, plant-service em-
ployees, experimental or research work employees, clerical and
-office employees; employees in a supervisory capacity, timekeepers,
watchmen, and executives, constitute a unit appropriate for the
purposes of collective bargaining, and that said unit will insure to
employees of the Company the full benefit of their right to self-
,organization and to collective bargaining and otherwise effectuate
the policies of the Act.
VI. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
We find that' the question which has arisen concerning the
representation of employees of the Company within the unit we
have found to be appropriate can best be resolved by an election
by secret ballot among these employees. However, since we have
found a unit different from that alleged in the petition and claimed
by the Union to be appropriate we shall depart from our usual
rule and direct that an election be held in not less than thirty (30)
nor more than sixty (60) days from the date of the Direction of
Election, provided, however, that if within 30 days the Union noti-
fies the Board at Washington, D. C., in writing that it does not
desire that the election which we shall direct be held, we shall
dismiss the petition without prejudice, for failure to allege an
appropriate unit. Those employees in the unit we have found to be
appropriate who were employed by the Company during the pay-roll
period next preceding the Direction of Election shall be eligible
to vote, subject to such limitations and additions as are set forth in
the Direction.
Upon the basis of the above findings of fact and upon the entire
record in the case, the Board makes the following :
CONCLUSIONS OF LAW
1. A question affecting commerce has arisen concerning the
representation .of employees of Quaker Oats Company, Akron, Ohio,
3 Cf. Matter of Standard Hat and United Hatters Cap & Millinery Workers Interna-
tional Union, 17 N. L. R. B. 883; Matter of Hirsch Shirt Corporation and United
Garment Workers of America (Affiliated with the A . F. of L.), 12 N. L. R. B.'553;
Matter of McAdoo Sportswear Company Inc. and International Ladies Garment Workers
Union, 12 N . L. R. B. 1199.
594 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
within the meaning of Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of
the National Labor Relations Act.
2. All production workers of the Company in the package, ship-
ping, cereal, feed, puffed' goods guns, upper plant and pancake and
sack departments at its Akron, Ohio, plant, including green card
production workers, but excluding all maintenance or mechanical
employees, powerhouse employees, plant-service employees, experi-
mental or research work employees, clerical and office employees,
employees in a supervisory capacity, timekeepers, watchmen, and
executives constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collec-
tive bargaining, within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the National
Labor Relations Act.
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, 49 Stat. 449, and pursuant to Article III, Section 8,
of National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series
2, as amended, it is hereby
DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation authorized by the Board
to ascertain representatives for the purposes of collective bargaining
with Quaker Oats Company, Akron, Ohio, an election by secret
ballot shall be conducted in not less than thirty (30) nor more than
sixty (60) days from the date of this Direction of Election, under
the direction and supervision of the Regional Director for the
Eighth Region, acting in this matter for the National Labor Rela-
tions Board and subject to Article III, Section 9, of said Rules and
Regulations, among all production workers of the Company in the
package, shipping, cereal, feed, puffed goods guns, upper plant and
pancake and sack departments of its Akron, Ohio, plant, including
green card production workers, whose names appear on the pay
roll of the Company during the pay-roll period next preceding the
date of this Direction of Election, including employees not on that
pay roll because they were ill, on vacation, or on said pay roll but
temporarily laid off at the date of the election, but excluding those
on said pay roll who at the date of the election have quit or been
discharged for cause, and further excluding all maintenance or
mechanical employees, powerhouse employees, plant-service em-
ployees, experimental or research work employees, clerical and
office employees, employees in a supervisory capacity, timekeepers,
watchmen, and executives, to determine whether or not they desire
to be represented by United Cereal Workers, Local No. 633, affiliated
with Congress of Industrial Organizations, for the purposes of col-
lective bargaining.