Ramsey Motor Co., Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

May 29, 1952

99 N.L.R.B. 408 (N.L.R.B. 1952)

408 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
tions for inspectors, as we have for other clearly defined groups of
employees, in cases where a union has sought to add such a group to a
production and maintenance unit from which they have previously
been excluded .3 Here, however, the inspectors have been included in
the production maintenance unit throughout an extended bargaining
history, except for one brief period of less than 2 months' duration,
and no cogent reason for their severance appears. They do not con-
stitute a craft nor are they professional 4 We do not believe that their
duties set them so apart from the production workers as to justify
their severance from the established production and maintenance unit.
Accordingly, we shall dismiss the petition.
Order
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the petition herein be, and it hereby is,
dismissed.
Chase Aircra ft Company, 91 NLRB 288.
• Chase Aircraft Company, supra. Likewise, the Board has held that they are not
supervisors , or managerial employees who must be excluded from representation for col-
lective bargaining . See Chase Aircraft Company, Farrell Cheek Steel Company, supra.
RAMSEY MOTOR COMPANY, INC.' and INTERNATIONAL AssoCIATION or
MACHINISTS, AFL, PETITIONER . Case No. 32-RC-460.. May 29,
1952
Decision and Direction of Election
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, a hearing was held before Anthony J. Sabella, 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 Act, the Board
has delegated its powers in connection with this case to a three-member
panel [Chairman Herzog and Members Houston and Murdock].
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the Act.'
2. The labor organization involved claims 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 Petitioner seeks a unit comprising all service department
1 The name of the Employer appears as amended at the hearing.
2 N. L. R. B. v. Davis Motors, Inc., 192 F. 2d 782 (C. A. 10 ), enfg. 93 NLRB 206.
99 NLRB No. 68.
RAMSEY MOTOR COMPANY, INC. 409
employees at the Employer's Ford agency in Malvern, Arkansas, in-
cluding parts men, but excluding office and clerical employees, tech-
nical employees, car salesmen, and the categories excluded in the Act.
The Employer would extend the unit to include its automobile sales-
men at Malvern, plus its employees at Little Rock, Arkansas, who sell
and service household appliances. The parties are also in disagree-
ment regarding the supervisory status of the three persons discussed
below.
Little Rock is 47 miles from Malvern. Employees who work at the
Employer's Little Rock branch, which is known as Maytag Sales and
Service, are supervised by their own local manager. There is no inter-
change between the two locations. The Maytag division has nothing
to do with automobiles or automobile parts, whereas the Ford agency
in Malvern neither sells nor services any home appliances. The two
operations are wholly different in function, and the skills required,
though superficially related, are nevertheless distinct. Because of
these factors and the absence of any history of multiplant bargaining,
we find that the operations at Malvern by themselves constitute a unit
of appropriate scope .3
As for the unit placement of the car salesmen at Malvern, we find
nothing in this record which would warrant departure from the
Board's usual practice of excluding such salesmen from units of auto-
mobile repair and service men 4
There remains for consideration the disputed supervisory status of
Hester, Clark, and McCool :
Hester, whom the Petitioner would exclude, performs the functions
usually referred to in the industry as "service salesman," although the
title given him by the Employer is "service foreman." He talks with
the customers who bring in their cars or trucks for servicing, writes up
the work needed, and assigns the jobs on an automatically rotating
basis to the three other repairmen. This consumes 25 to 35 percent of
his time. The rest of his day is spent doing repair work himself or
road testing finished jobs in cooperation with the mechanic concerned.
If the two men cannot agree whether the job is satisfactory, President
Ramsey is consulted. Hester brings to Ramsey's attention complaints
regarding the mechanics and, although Ramsey does not ask him for
his recommendations, Hester can and does make them. Ramsey, how-
ever, conducts his own investigations and arrives at his own decisions.
There is no evidence that any of Hester's recommendations have been
accepted and acted upon. We find that Hester is not a supervisor, and
shall include him.'
S 'Wilson Athletic Goods Manufacturing Co, 95 NLRB 588; Booth Fisheries Corp, 91
NLRB 363; Harms Hosiery Co., 91 NLRB 330.
4 Nash Boulevard Corp., 98 NLRB 156; Dunlap Chevrolet Co., 91 NLRB 1115.
c Tulsa Rudson Co., 94 NLRB 646.
410 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Clark, whom the Union would include, is known as the parts man-
ager and normally directs the work of -a subordinate, over whom he
holds the power of discharge. At the time of the hearing this sub-
ordinate position was vacant, but President Ramsey had instructed
Clark to locate and hire a new assistant. We shall exclude him as a
supervisor e
McCool, whom the Employer would include, is currently spending
90 percent of his time as a parts man. He also works all over the es-
tablishment, doing repair work and handling complaints. As an ex-
perienced Ford man, he was brought in for the purpose of rebuilding
the entire service business. If satisfactory, he is expected to be placed
in charge of all service employees. President Ramsey regards him
even now as of higher rank than Parts Manager Clark. We believe
that his interests are materially different from those of the other em-
ployees, and we shall therefore exclude him.'
Upon the entire record in the case, we find that all service depart-
ment employees at the Employer's Malvern, Arkansas, place of busi-
ness, including mechanics, body and fender men, painters, washers,
lubrication men, and parts men, but excluding office clerical employees,
professional employees, watchmen-guards, car salesmen, the prospec-
tive service manager,8 the parts manager, and all other supervisors
as definded in the Act, constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes
of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the
Act.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this
volume.]
s Continental Pipe Line Co., 78 NLRB 379, 383 ; Brewster Pateros Processors, Inc., 73
NLRB 833; Scanlon-Morris Division, Ohio Chemical & Mfg. Co., 71 NLRB 903.
7 Muller Company , Ltd., 98 NLRB 737.
® McCool,
WORDEN-ALLEN COMPANY and PAUL FISCHER , PETITIONER and TECH-
NICAL ENGINEERS ' ASSOCIATION . Case No. 13-RD-113. May 29,
1952
Decision and Direction of Elections
Upon a decertification petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the
National Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before Helene Zogg,
hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are
free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.'
"At the hearing , the Union adduced evidence to show that the Employer had inspired
and fostered the petition. A motion by the Union to dismiss the petition on this ground
was referred by the hearing officer to the Board. As it is the Board's established, practice
to' exclude from representation proceedings all matters relating to unfair labor practices
the Union 's motion is denied. For the same reason , all testimony with respect to the matter
is hereby stiicken from the record . Jell-Well Dessert Company, 82 NLRB 101 , and cases
therein cited ; C and M Lumber Co., Inc., 83 NLRB 1258.
99 NLRB No. 67.