The Coleman Co., Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jun 30, 1975

218 N.L.R.B. 1125 (N.L.R.B. 1975)

THE COLEMAN COMPANY, INC. 1125
The Coleman Company, Inc. and Viola Clark,
Petitioner, and International Union of District 50,
Allied and Technical Workers of the United States
and Canada
The Coleman Company, Inc. and Sheet Metal
Workers' International Association , AFL-CIO,
Petitioner. Cases 17-RD-449 and 17-RC-6767
June 30, 1975
DECISION AND CERTIFICATION OF
RESULTS OF ELECTION
BY MEMBERS JENKINS, KENNEDY, AND
PENELLO
Pursuant to a Decision, Order, and Direction of
Third Runoff Election issued by the National Labor
Relations Board on August 16, 1974, and an Order
Correcting the Decision and Direction of Third
Runoff Election issued by the Board on August 23,
1974, a new runoff election by secret ballot was
conducted on September 26 and 27, 1974, under the
direction and supervision of the Regional Director
for Region 17. At the conclusion of the election, the
parties were furnished a tally of ballots in accordance
with National Labor Relations Board's Rules and
Regulations, Series 8 , as amended, which showed
that, of approximately 1,563 eligible voters, 559 cast
their ballots for, and 791 against, Sheet Metal
Workers' International Association, AFL-CIO (the
Petitioner in Case 17-RC-6767),1 7 were challenged,
and 10 were void. The challenged ballots were not
sufficient to affect the election' s results . Thereafter,
Petitioner in Case 17-RC-6767, hereafter also
referred to as Sheet Metal Workers or the Union,
filed timely objections to conduct affecting the
results of the election.
The Regional Director conducted an investigation
and, on April 10, 1975, issued and served on the
parties his Supplemental Decision on Objections, in
which he recommended that the objections be
overruled and that the results of the election be
certified. Thereafter, the Sheet Metal Workers filed a
"Request for Review" of the Regional Director's
report, and the Employer filed an answering brief.
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the
National Labor Relations Act, as amended, the
National Labor Relations Board has delegated its
authority in this proceeding to a three-member panel.
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board
finds:
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within
the meaning of the Act, and it will effectuate the
purposes of the Act to assert jurisdiction herein.
2. The Petitioner in Case 17-RC-6767 is a labor
organization claiming to represent certain employees
of the Employer.
3. A question affecting commerce exists concern-
ing the representation of employees of the Employer
within the meaning of Sections 9(c)(1) and 2(6) and
(7) of the Act.
4. The parties stipulated, and we find, that the
following employees constitute a unit appropriate for
the purposes of collective bargaining within the
meaning of Section 9(b) of the Act:
All production and maintenance employees em-
ployed at the Wichita, Kansas, plants of the
Coleman Company, Inc., including inspectors,
leadmen, group leaders, model shop employees,
repair department employees (in the North plant),
tool crib attendants and truckdrivers, but exclud-
ing all tool and die department employees, tool
room crib attendants, employees of the Mid-
Western Branch and the Coleman Comfort
Center, laboratory employees, printing depart-
ment employees, outing products service and
sales department employees, office and plant
clerical employees, the mail boy, watchmen and
guards, professional employees and supervisors as
defined in the Act.
5. The Board has considered the Regional Direc-
tor's report, the Sheet Metal Workers "Request for
Review" the Employer's brief, and the entire record
in the case, and adopts the Regional Director's report
as modified herein.2
The Sheet Metal Workers objection 5 alleges that,
prior to the election, the Employer, the decertifica-
tion Petitioner, and the Coleman Independent
Employees Association made material misrepresen-
tations of facts to the employees at a time when Sheet
Metal Workers did not have a sufficient opportunity
to respond. The Regional Director overruled this
objection on the grounds that the Union failed to
provide evidence in any form to substantiate its
claim.
The Sheet Metal Workers excepts to the Regional
Director's recommended disposition of objection 5,
contending that it presented three witnesses who
offered testimony in support of that objection. Two
of those witnesses in affidavits aver that around 3
p.m. on September 25, 1974, the day before the third
runoff election in this proceeding, an employee who
1 International Union of District 50, Allied and Technical Workers of
the United States and Canada, the incumbent Union, did not appear on the
ballot in the third runoff election , and is no longer a party to this
proceeding.
NLRB No. 171
2 Absent exceptions, we hereby adopt , pro forma, the Regional Director's
recommendations that Objections 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 , and 7 be overruled.
1126 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
belonged to the Coleman Independent Employees
Association appeared in the Employer's North plant
parking lot carrying a sign which read "Happiness Is
... No Tinbenders, Vote No for No $200 Initiation
Fee." The third witness presented by the Union was
its International organizer, John Lubetich, who
stated, "Since 1971, by word of mouth and in our
handbills, we have told the Coleman employees that
there would be no initiation fees or dues until after
we won an election, the people had voted in their
officers, and negotiated a contract which would have
to be approved by secret ballot of the employees' of
Coleman." Lubetich added that Sheet Metal Work-
ers spokesmen had told the employees that the
initiation fee was $25 unless the employees them-
selves determined to increase that amount.
In view of the sworn statements of the three
witnesses presented by the Union during the course
of the Regional Director's investigation, we cannot
adopt the Regional Director's finding that "the
Union offered no evidence in any form to substanti-
ate [its] claim." Nevertheless, having considered the
testimony offered by those three witnesses, we do not
believe it discloses a misrepresentation such as could
reasonably be expected to have a significant impact
on the election. Lubetich's statement indicates that
the topic of the Union's initiation fees was discussed
by the Union's representatives and the employees for
3 years before the appearance of the sign. The voters,
therefore, had knowledge of the subject matter which
would enable them to evaluate the statement on the
sign sponsored by an employee association and
carried by an employee whom the voters would view
as being no more privy to information concerning
the Union's initiation fees than themselves. In view
of the foregoing, we find that the conduct alleged in
objection 5 does not warrant setting aside the
election or directing a hearing and, accordingly, we
overrule that objection.3
As the tally of ballots shows that the Union has not
received a majority of valid votes cast in the election,
and as the challenged ballots are insufficient in
number to affect the results, we shall certify the
results of the election.
CERTIFICATION OF RESULTS OF
ELECTION
It is hereby certified that a majority of the valid
ballots have not been cast for Sheet Metal Workers'
International Association , AFL-CIO, and that said
tabor organization is not the exclusive representative
of all the employees, in the unit herein involved,
within the meaning of Section 9 (a) of the National
Labor Relations Act, as amended.
3 Member Penello agrees with his colleagues that the alleged misrepre- Lewis, 217 NLRB No. 45 (1975), and Medical Ancillary Services, Inc., 212
sentation does not warrant setting aside the election or directing a hearing, NLRB 582 (1974).
but so finds for the reasons set forth in his dissenting opinions in Ereno