Sears, Roebuck & Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Dec 1, 1952

101 N.L.R.B. 665 (N.L.R.B. 1952)

SEARS, ROEBUCK & COMPANY 665
neering aides. They have varying amounts of experience in the fields
of electronics, radio, and television. Test engineers are salaried em-
ployees; 5 engineering aides are hourly paid.6 These employees build,
from blueprints prepared by professional engineers, electrical test
equipment used in checking the Employer's product, repair such
equipment after it is put into use, and inspect certain parts. Test
engineers frequently make repairs on production machinery when the
work cannot be handled by maintenance electricians. Although
maintenance electricians may perform maintenance work on test
equipment in use, the plant engineer testified that in 90 percent of
the instances when such equipment breaks down it can be repaired
only by test laboratory employees because the repair requires knowl-
edge beyond the capacity of the maintenance electricians. He further
testified that test laboratory employees could probably perform the
work assigned maintenance electricians but that the latter could not
do the work of test laboratory employees. There have been no trans-
fers between maintenance electricians and test laboratory employees.
These facts indicate that although test laboratory employees perform
electrical maintenance work, they have specialized electrical skills, are
more closely associated with the engineering field than with the tra-
ditional electrical craft, and are not a necessary part of the unit of
maintenance electricians.
Accordingly, we find that the following unit is appropriate for the
purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b)
of the Act :
All maintenance and/or construction electricians and regularly as-
signed helpers at the Employer's plants at Los Angeles and Van Nuys,
California, excluding all supervisors.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this
volume.] ,
5 Test engineers are not professional engineers.
e Engineering aides earn approximately $1.45 to $2 per hour ; maintenance electricians
receive from $1.85 to $2.30 per hour.
SEARS , ROEBUCK & COMPANY and TRUCK DRIVERS, WAREHOUSEMEN
AND HELPERS LOCAL UNION #340, INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF
TEAMSTERS, CHAUFFEURS, WAREHOUSEMEN & HELPERS OF AMERICA,
AFL, PETITIONER. Case No. 1-RC-2930. December 1,1952
Decision and Order
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before George A.
Sweeney, hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the
hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
101 NLRB No. 136.
666 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board 1 finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the
National Labor Relations Act.
2. The labor organization involved claims to represent employees of
the Employer.
3. No 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, for the following
reasons:
The Petitioner seeks a unit of seven warehousemen at the Employer's
warehouse in Bangor, Maine. The unit sought would exclude all de-
partment store employees, clerical employees, the warehouse superin-
tendent, and all supervisory employees, as defined in the Act. The
Employer contends that all retail selling and merchandise handling
functions performed in Bangor, Maine, are a single, integrated opera-
tion and that the proposed unit is, therefore, inappropriate.
The Employer is engaged in the retail department store business
and operates, under one management, a store and a warehouse. The
store building, located on Harlow Street, is 3 to 4 miles distant from
the warehouse, which is located on Rice Street. All seven employees
in the proposed unit are employed at the Rice Street warehouse and
are engaged in receiving, shipping, warehousing, and servicing
activities.
In addition to the Rice Street warehouse, the Employer maintains
stockrooms and storage space at the store building.2 Identical items
of merchandise are stored at each location, and a shuttle bus regularly
moves merchandise between the two points. Operations at both loca-
tions are unified under the over-all control of the store general man-
ager. An operating assistant, who serves under the general manager,
is responsible for all nonselling functions at the store building and
warehouse, including the lunch room, receiving and shipping, ware-
house, service maintenance, telephone operators, cashiers, credit, etc.
Employed at the store building are employees who have the same or
similar classifications and perform the same or similar duties as em-
ployees at the Rice Street warehouse. Thus, at the store building, as
at the Rice Street warehouse, there are employees who perform receiv-
ing, shipping, warehousing, and servicing functions. Approximately
90 percent of all incoming trucks unload merchandise at both loca-
tions. All requests for service are handled through a customer service
' 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 Mem-
bers Murdock and Peterson]6
Merchandise is stored at the store building in separate stockrooms on the first and
second floors , in part of the basement , and in the subbasement, which is approximately
40 to 50 feet wide and approximately 240 feet long . The warehouse has between 20,000
and 24 ,000 square feet of storage space.
THE COLEMAN COMPANY, INC. 667
desk in the store building. Five service men, headquartered at the
store building, work at both locations and in customers' homes. A
furniture refinisher, assigned to the warehouse, likewise works at both
locations and in customers' homes. Temporary assignments and trans-
fers from one location to the other are frequently made. Personnel
matters for all employees are handled by one office located in the
store building. The same vacation and holiday policy, hospitalization
benefits, profit-sharing plan, and discount privileges apply alike to all
•employees. All new employees are hired under the same procedure
and are subjected to the same training program.
In view of the foregoing, particularly the integration between the
warehouse activities and the store, the similarity of functions per-
formed at both locations, the mutuality of interests of all the employees
in the terms and conditions of employment, we find that the requested
unit is too limited to constitute a separate appropriate unit a Accord-
ingly, we shall dismiss the petition.
Order
IT Is HEREBY ORDERED that the petition herein be, and it hereby is,
dismissed.
a Louis Pizitz Dry Goods Company, 99 NLRB 380 and 80 NLRB 1442; Miller and Rhoads,
80 NLRB 625; Marshall Field t Company, 90 NLRB 1; J. L. Brandeis & Sons, 82 NLRB
806.
THE COLEMAN COMPANY, INC. and AMALGAMATED LITHOGRAPHERS OF
AMERICA, PETITIONER . Case No. 17-RC-.M30. December 1, 1952
Decision and Direction of Elections
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National
]Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before David Kruger, hear-
ing 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 Styles and Peterson].
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 organizations involved claim 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.
101 NLRB No. 123.