Sears, Roebuck and Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board DecisionsSep 29, 1965

154 N.L.R.B. 1818 (N.L.R.B. 1965)

1818 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD Calendar quarter APPENDIX BACKPAY COMPUTATIONS 1. DORA JONES Hours and rate of pay Gross backpay Interim earnings Net backpay 4th-1963- ---------------- 200 at $1.25________ $250.00 $0.00 $250.00 1st-1964 ------------------- .. ---------- 248 at $1.25________ 310.00 0.00 310.00 2d-1964____________________ 520 at $1 .25________ 650.00 320.37 329.63 3d-1964 ---- -------------- 504 at $1 .25________ 630.00 0.00 630.00 4th-1964 _-_______-___- --- 344 at $1 .25________ 430.00 0.00 430.00 lst-1965-- --------- --- --- _.. -------- 16 at $1 .25-__-_____ 20.00 0.00 20.00 Total Net Backpay ___________ ------------- -------------- 1,969.63 2. LEONE SMOODY 4th-1963 _ -__ _ ____________ 200 at $1.25 -------- 250.00 0.00 250.00 Ist-1964 ---------- -- ------- _ ------ 520 at $1.25 -------- 650.00 0.00 650.00 2d-1964 ___________ 480 at $1.25________' 600.00 36.09 563.91 3d-1964 ----------- -.. --- -------- 528 at $ 1.25-------- 660.00 0.00 660.00 4th-1964 _ ------------ 520 at $1 .2 -_ _ 650.00 0.00 650.00 1st-1965 _-------------------- ----------_ - 40 at $1.25--------- 50.00 0.00 50.00 Total Net Backpay - ----------------------------------- -------------- 2,823.91 Sears, Roebuck and Co . and Truck Drivers, Chauffeurs & Helpers Local Union No. 100, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs , Warehousemen & Helpers of America , Petitioner. Case No. 9-RC 5691. September 29,1965 DECISION ON REVIEW AND ORDER On March 13, 1964, the Regional Director for Region 9 issued it Decision and Direction of Election in the above-entitled proceeding in which he found appropriate a unit of employees employed by the Employer in departments 8820 and 1050-tip' at its Lincoln Avenue building in Cincinnati, Ohio. Thereafter, pursuant to Section 102.67 of the National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations, Series 8, as amended, the Employer filed with the Board a timely request for review and oral argument with respect to the Regional Director's Deci- sion on the grounds that his findings were in error and a departure from officially reported Board precedent. By telegraphic order dated April 15, 1964, the Board granted the request for review and stayed the election pending decision on review. Pursuant to the provisions of Sections 3(b) of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, the Board has delegated its powers in con- nection with this case to a three-member panel [Members Fanning, Brown, and Jenkins]. 154 NLRB No. 151. SEARS, ROEBUCK AND CO. 1819 The Board has considered the entire record in this case with respect to the issues under review, and makes the following findings: 1 The Petitioner seeks to represent a unit of employees performing warehouse functions in departments 8820 and 1050-W in the Employ- er's Lincoln Avenue building in Cincinnati, Ohio. The Regional Direc- tor in finding appropriate a unit of such departments enlarged it to include certain clerical employees and the three employees in the main- tenance department. The Employer contends the unit sought is inap- propriate and that only a unit of all selling and nonselling employees is appropriate. There is no history of bargaining for the employees here involved. The Employer conducts its retail store operations in Cincinnati in several buildings comprising its main store (Reading Road), three branch stores (Covington. Price Hill, and Madison Road), each with an automotive service station, and the Lincoln Avenue building. The latter building is a block and a half from the main store. The entire operation is render the supervision of a general manager who is aided by a staff of assistants consisting of the operations superintendent, four merchandise assistants, a credit manager, and audit manager, and three branch store managers. The operating superintendent, who is second in command to the general manager, is responsible for all the physical facilities and has direct supervision over all operating departments in the main store and all departments located in the Lincoln Avenue building except depart- ment 8820 and Sears revolving credit and the farm store departments. The personnel office for the entire Cincinnati operation is located in the main store and is under the supervision of a personnel manager who reports to the operating superintendent. All personnel and em- ployment records for the Cincinnati operations are maintained, and all employment benefits and practices are administered and controlled by this office. A single personnel policy is applicable to all employees. Wage rates, job classifications, and fringe benefits such as vacations, insurance, hospitalization, profit sharing, discounts, etc., are appli- cable to employees at all five locations. Department 8820, with 24 employees, occupies a separate area of the Lincoln Avenue building. It is a stock pool operation of plumbing and heating supplies. Employees in this department are classified as shipping, receiving, stock, and clerical employees and they perform typical warehouse functions. There are also other employees in the department who do not perform warehouse functions. They include an engineer, who approves plans for the installation of heating and air-conditioning units, and a draftsman who assists him. Department 8820, unlike other departments located in Cincinnati, performs ware- 'The Employer ' s request for oral argument is hereby denied as, in our opinion, the record adequately presents the issues and positions of the parties. 1820 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD housing functions for 24 Sears stores within a radius of 100 miles from Cincinnati. Its operations are separately audited, and separate profit- and-loss statements are prepared for it. Employees in department 8820 perform no work outside their own departmental area, do not interchange with other employees, and their activities are not inte- grated with those of other employees in Cincinnati. The manager of this department supervises no other employees in the Cincinnati opera- tions, and reports directly to the general manager. Department 1050-W, with approximately 25 employees, also occu- pies a separate area of the Lincoln Avenue building and stocks mainly the big ticket items of merchandise for the Cincinnati stores. Employ- ees in this department perform warehouse functions with respect to such items and are classified as shippers, receivers, stockmen, furni- ture refinishers, clerical, and setup men (deluxers). The department is under the immediate supervision of a manager who reports to the operating superintendent. There is another warehousing operation, department 1050, in the main store, which handles smaller items of merchandise. It has ap- proximately 31 employees who occupy the same classifications and per- form the same functions as the employees in department 1050-W in the Lincoln Avenue building.2 These employees are under the super- vision of a shipping and receiving manager who, like the manager of department 1050-W, reports to the operating superintendent. In addition to departments 8820 and 1050-W, the Lincoln Avenue building houses the Sears revolving credit department, with 38 employ- ees, where all charge accounts are maintained; the mechanical service department, with 62 employees, which services major appliances in customers' homes, in the stores, and in the repair shop; the parts department, with 10 employees, which stores replacement parts for Sears appliances, furnishes them to servicemen as needed, and sells them over the counter to the general public; the maintenance depart- ment with a maintenance engineer and 2 custodial employees, a porter and a maid -,3 the installation office, with 2 employees, which engages competent installers to install merchandise sold by the Employer; and a farm store, with 4 employees, which sells and services farm implements. The record shows that there is a substantial amount of employee interchange, and integration of work between department 1050-W and other departments of the Cincinnati operations. Thus, each 2 The three branch stores also employ a total of eight warehouse employees. 3 The porter spends 25 percent of his time in the main store. The maid performs no work in the warehousing areas of the Lincoln Avenue building . Her duties consist of cleaning the offices and ladies ' restrooms , and in dispensing coffee and sweet rolls throughout the entire building. SEARS, ROEBUCK AND CO. 1821 month, mechanical servicemen are regularly assigned to perform set up and deluxe functions in department 1050-W, as well as in depart- ment 1050 in the main store. Employees from the mechanical service department also perform the same type of repair work on damaged equipment and appliances in the homes of customers as is performed by department 1050-W employees in the main store. Furniture fin- ishers from department 1050-W are assigned on a regular basis to finish furniture in the main store. Receivers from the automotive service center of the main store regularly assist department 1050-W employees in receiving tires, hauling stock from storage to the dock, and loading it on shipping trucks at the Lincoln Avenue building. Lawnmowers are deluxed at the main store by salesmen in the same manner as by department 1050-W employees at Lincoln Avenue. Once a month a stockman from the drug department in the main store is sent to department 1050-W to cut pads, a function regularly performed by employees of that department. Salesmen from various departments in the main store, on the average of once a week, come to department 1050-W to assist in bringing merchandise from storage to the dock for delivery. Parts department employees daily assist department 1050-W employees in unloading shipments of parts. One of the parts department employees (Stroub) spends 50 percent of his time working with department 1050-W employees in loading, count- ing, and moving merchandise to the parts department. Another employee (Reaves), a department 1050-W setup and deluxing man, divides his time between several departments. For the first 3 months each year he performs such work in department 1050-W and in the farm store area ; he is then assigned for approximately 4 months as a salesman in the farm store; 4 then for approximately 2 months he returns to deluxing work in department 1050-W; and for the last 3 months each year he performs deluxing work at the main store as a department 1050 employee. A department 1050-W setup and deluxer (Scroggins) spends approximately 50 percent of his time in the farm store and regularly performs daily messenger work between the main store and the Lincoln Avenue building. The Board has found to be appropriate units of warehouse employ- ees in retail store operations under circumstances where the operations of the unit sought were devoted essentially to the warehousing func- tions of servicing the main and branch stores and the employees' prin- cipal and regular duties consisted of performing what were typical warehouse functions.5 In our opinion, the facts of this case do not warrant establishing the employees sought in a separate unit. Other d While serving as a salesman , he is removed from the department 1050-W payroll. s Sears, Roebuck and Co., 151 NLRB 135,6 ; A. Harris & Co., 116 NLRB 1625.. 1822 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD employees in the Lincoln building include sales,. service, and office departments, and are substantially greater in number than the employ- ees sought by the Petitioner. Furthermore, all the requested employ- ees do not have common supervision and some of them are not super- vised separately from other nonwarehouse employees. Upon the foregoing and the entire record in this case, we find that the employees sought lack the cohesiveness and homogeneity necessary for them to constitute an appropriate warehouse units Accordingly, we shall dis- miss the instant petition. [The Board dismissed the petition.] 6 The Wm. H. Block Company, 152 NLRB 594; Sears, Roebuck & Co., 149 NLRB 1525. Star-Lite Electronics Corp . and Local 431, International Union of Electrical , Radio & Machine Workers, AFL-CIO and Ware- house & Novelty Employees Local 110 , International Leather Goods, Plastics & Novelty Workers Union , AFL-CIO, Party to the Contract Warehouse & Novelty Employees Local 110, International Leather Goods, Plastics & Novelty Workers Union , AFL-CIO and Local 431, International Union of Electrical , Radio & Ma- chine Workers, AFL-CIO and Star-Lite Electronics Corp., Party to the Contract . Cases Nos. 2-CA-10391 and 2-CB-4162. September 30,1965 DECISION AND ORDER On July 12, 1965, Trial Examiner John F. Funke issued his Decision in the above-entitled proceeding, finding that the Respondents had engaged in and were engaging in certain unfair labor practices, and recommending that they cease and desist therefrom and take certain affirmative action, as set forth in the attached Trial Examiner's Deci- sion. Thereafter, the Respondent Company and the General Counsel filed exceptions to the Trial Examiner's Decision and supporting briefs. Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3 (b) of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, the National Labor Relations Board has delegated its powers in connection with this case to a three-member panel [Members Fanning, Brown, and Zagoria]. The Board has reviewed the rulings of the Trial Examiner made at the hearing and finds no prejudicial error. The rulings are hereby affirmed . The Board has considered the Trial Examiner's Decision, 154 NLRB No. 150.