Salem Commodities, Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Nov 3, 1953

106 N.L.R.B. 1399 (N.L.R.B. 1953)

TUXEDO CANDY COMPANY 1399
TUXEDO CANDY COMPANY, a Division of Salem Commodities,
Inc. and INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS,
DISTRICT LODGE NO. 93, AFL AND INTERNATIONAL
UNION OF OPERATING ENGINEERS, STATIONARY LOCAL
NO. 39, AFL AND BAKERY & CONFECTIONERY WORKERS'
INTERNATIONAL UNION OF AMERICA, AFL, LOCAL 24
AND FREIGHT, CONSTRUCTION, GENERAL DRIVERS,
WAREHOUSEMEN & HELPERS LOCAL NO. 287, INTER-
NATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS, AFL, Pe-
titioners. Cases Nos. 20-RC-2326, 20-RC-2331, 20-RC-2332,
and 20-RC-2333. November 3, 1953
DECISION, ORDER, AND DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
Upon petitions duly filed and consolidated for hearing, a
hearing was held before David Karasick, hearing officer of
the National Labor Relations Board. The hearing officer's
rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error
and 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 National Labor Relations Act.
2. The labor organizations named below claim to represent
certain employees of the Employer.
3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the
representation of certain employees of the Employer, within
the meaning of Section 9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of
the Act.
4. The Employer is engaged in the manufacture andprocess-
ing of nuts, confections, and related products for Safeway
Stores, Inc., for distribution in western, midwestern, and
southern sections of the United States. It has newly moved its
manufacturing facility from the fourth and fifth floors of a
Safeway warehouse in Los Angeles, to a one-story plant in
San Jose, California, to which raw materials are shipped in
bulk with less handling required. It appears that the employee
complement at San Jose consists mainly of new recruits
from the area. The record indicates that the Employer had
contracts at Los Angeles for several years with the Operating
Engineers covering engineers , the Confectionery Workers
covering production employees, and the Teamsters covering
warehousemen and carloaders. However, only a contract with
the Operating Engineers is in evidence. Local representatives
of these unions now seek essentially similar units, although
the Confectionery Workers expresses a willingness to appear
on the ballot for a unit of all employees except operating
engineers , and the Operating Engineers seeks maintenance
employees as well as engineers . In addition the IAM now seeks
a unit of employees performing maintenance work. At Los
Angeles maintenance was performed by an outside firm. The
Employer urges either a single unit of all employees, or a
unit of operating engineers and a unit of all employees ex-
cluding the engineers.
106 NLRB No. 240.
1400 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Case No. 20-RC-2326, the IAM Petition
At San Jose the Employer has 4 maintenance employees,
3 of whom specialize in mechanical work and 1 in electrical.
The IAM seeks a unit of the 4, or a unit limited to the 3 doing
mechanical work. The latter are assigned certain automatic
machines in the plant--which function without operators--to
grease , oil, and maintain. They spend approximately one-fourth
of their time in this work. In addition they repair other
machines and troubleshoot generally throughout the plant on
mechanical repair. They were hired on the basis of their
varied mechanical experience. The electrician spends more
than half of his time on maintenance and repair of the electrical
equipment in the plant, presumably spending the balance of
his time on mechanical repair and maintenance. The record
does not reveal what the electrician's previous working
experience had been. The Employer testified that it con-
templates no apprenticeship system and the equipment in its
machine shop is not such as to meet recognized standards for
apprentice training. Repairs of a serious nature will be
contracted for outside the plant.
On this record it does not appear that the three mechanics
possess sufficient skills to justify granting them a separate
unit, and we therefore reject that unit request of the IAM.' Its
alternative request for a unit of maintenance employees of
various skills, which is a type of unit the Board has found
appropriate in the absence of bargaining history on a broader
basis, is defective in that the operating or watch engineers
have not been included, and we accordingly reject the Pe-
titioner's alternative request.: We shall therefore dismiss
the petition in Case No. 20-RC-2326. However, we shall
accord the IAM a place on the ballot in the broader mainte-
nance unit hereinafter found appropriate. Should it not wish
to participate in the election directed for that unit, it may
withdraw upon notice to that effect to the Regional Director
within 10 days from the date of this Decision, Order, and
Direction of Elections.
Case No. 20-RC-2331, the Operating Engineers' Petition
The Operating Engineers seeks a unit of all maintenance
employees, including the four watch engineers and the chief
engineer , as well as the four employees doing mechanical
and electrical maintenance sought by the JAM. In the alternative
it requests a unit limited to the four watch engineers and the
chief engineer, whom it represented by contract in Los Angeles.
The duties of the maintenance mechanics have already been
discussed. The 4 watch engineers are licensed by the city of
San Jose as steam engineers and they work on consecutive
'See United States Time Corporation, 95 NLRB 941, 943.
2See Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Electric Tube Division. 102 NLRB 275.
TUXEDO CANDY COMPANY 1401
8-hour shifts , 7 days a week , maintaining the boilers, hot
water tanks, and the deep well . They spend most of their time
in the powerhouse , going into the plant only occasionally.
Their immediate superior is the chief engineer , who works
on the day shift and spends 80 to 90 percent of his time in
the compressor room on refrigeration work . In his absence
the watch engineer or. duty checks the refrigeration and air -
conditioning equipment . The record indicates that the watch
engineers could also do mechanical maintenance work, and
that the maintenance mechanics do repair refrigeration equip-
ment, but not boilers.
The plant engineer , who is conceded to be a supervisor,
assigns work and directly supervises the maintenance me-
chanics as well as supervising the chief engineer . The latter,
in turn , supervises the watch engineers . The Petitioner would
include the chief engineer , who was covered by the contract
in effect at Los Angeles , in either unit it seeks. The Employer
takes no position . However , the record clearly shows that the
chief engineer effectively recommends the hire and discharge
of watch engineers , as well as assigns work to them; hence we
shall exclude him from the unit in accord with the provisions
of Section 2 (11) of the Act.
We find that a unit of all mechanical maintenance employees
of the Employer at its San Jose , California , plant, including
the maintenance mechanics and the watch engineers, but
excluding the chief engineer and all other employees, is
appropriate for purposes of collective bargaining within the
meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
Case No . 20-RC - 2332 , the Confectionery Workers ' Petition and
Case No. 20 - RC-2333, the Teamsters ' Petition
The Confectionery Workers seeks to represent any unit
combination of employees , except a plant wide unit including
engineers . As we have found appropriate a unit of all main-
tenance employees including engineers , we shall discuss the
composition of a unit for the remaining employees , essentially
a production unit , from the standpoint of inclusion or exclusion
of the employees whom the Teamsters seeks to represent.
The employees whom the Confectionery Workers is willing
to represent included , at the time of hearing , 11 candymakers,
5 assistant candymakers , 45 male helpers ( including 6 janitors
and a gardener ), 57 female helpers ( including a matron), and
2 lift truck operators . Testimony indicated that this group
would be enlarged to its full complement by the end of August
1953, with additions made in classifications already existing.
The Teamsters suggests 2 alternatives for a unit of a portion
of these employees : ( 1) A unit of employees supervised by the
shipping foreman and the receiving foreman , including the
candymaker who makes up the master syrup formula and
controls the receipt of bulk sugar , 3 male and 4 female
helpers, and 2 lift truck operators , plus additional helpers
1402 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
assigned to loading and unloading from time to time; or
(2) lift truck operators only, who spend 80 to 90 percent of
their time in moving raw materials and candy in process of
manufacture , and the remainder in sealing cases.
As the Teamsters observes in its brief , the Employer
contends that bulk reception of raw materials and the palletizing
of intraplant material movements at the new San Jose plant
has obviated the need for warehousemen and carloaders, as
such, whom the Teamsters formerly represented at the Los
Angeles location . At the new plant the loading and unloading
of railroad cars is being done by male helpers temporarily
assigned to the work as the production load permits. Ap-
parently these employees , when assigned , spend a portion of
the day in loading or unloading , and the remainder in strictly
production work. In answer to the Employer' s contention the
Teamsters "submits that in all probability" a permanent
assignment to this work will be made . Alternately, the
Teamsters argues that the lift truck operators work by them-
selves and that their " skills and interests " are sufficiently
comparable to those of truckdrivers generally to warrant the
Board's finding appropriate a unit limited to lift truck
operators.
In view of the physical arrangement of the San Jose plant
and the method of assigning production and warehousing work,
we see no basis for severance of the group of employees
with mixed duties sought by the Teamsters as a "warehouse
unit" As for a separate unit limited to lift truck operators,
there is nothing in this record to indicate that these employees
exercise any highly specialized skill so as to support their
establishment in a separate unit.3 We shall therefore dismiss
the petition in Case No. 20-RC-2333.
In the production group sought by the Confectionery Workers
the question arises concerning the inclusion of foreladies, two
of whom were employed at the time of hearing . The Confec-
tionery Workers would include them in the unit and the Employer
takes no position . These employees spend most of their time
in the packaging department , lining up the packaging crews,
getting the operation started and stopped, watching the quality
of the packaging work , checking results and engaging in
activities of similar nature . As the record indicates that they
can effectively recommend hiring and discharge , we shall
exclude the foreladies as supervisors within the meaning of
Section 2 (11) of the Act.
We find that all production employees of the Employer at
its San Jose, California, plant, including lift truck operators,
janitors , the gardener and the matron,4 but excluding the watch
engineers , the maintenance mechanics , the chief engineer,
foreladies , the nurse , watchmen , guards, and supervisors as
3 See General Electric Company, 89 NLRB 726, 752.
4A11 parties agree that the janitors , the gardener , and the matron should be in this unit.
The record contains little testimony concerning them
TUXEDO CANDY COMPANY 1403
defined in the Act constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes
of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of
the Act.
[The Board dismissed the petitions in Cases Nos . 20-RC-
2326 and 20 -RC-2333.1
[Text of Direction of Elections omitted from publication.]
U S GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1954 0 - 322615