The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board DecisionsFeb 20, 1953

102 N.L.R.B. 1564 (N.L.R.B. 1953)

1564 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD WE WILL make whole Donald Bourheau , Gordon L. Bundick , and Cedric Anderson for any loss of pay suffered because of the discrimination practiced against them. INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF HEAT AND FROST INSULATORS AND ASBESTOS WORKERS, LOCAL No. 28, A. F. L.. Labor Organization. By ------------------------------------------------- (Representative ) ( Title) Dated-------------------- This notice must remain posted for 60 days from the date of posting, and must not be altered, defaced, or covered by any other material. THE GREAT ATLANTIC AND PACIFIC TEA COMPANY and AMALGAMATED MEAT CUTTERS & BUTCHER WORKMEN OF NORTH AMERICA, AFL, LOCAL 264, PETITIONER. Case No. 15-RC-823. February 20, 1953 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 Gerald Brissman, 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 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 organization involved claims to represent certain em- ployees of the Employer 2 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. 1 An original hearing was scheduled in this case on September 19, 1952, and the Employer 's request for a continuance was denied . The Employer was not represented and did not participate in this hearing . The Board subsequently granted the Employer's motion for further hearing. At the instant hearing, the Employer moved to strike the record made ex parte on September 19, 1952, and to conduct the instant hearing as an original , and not as a further , hearing. This motion was referred to the Board. The motion is granted. 2 The Employer contends that the Petitioner 's International and not Local 264 is the only proper petitioning labor organization because the International , and not a local, petitioned for the meat department employees at the stores in Case No. 15-RC -751. We do not agree . Local 264 , chartered by the International , receives into its membership employees of the Employer . Its purpose is to bargain collectively with regard to wages, hours, and working conditions . Local 264 is therefore a labor organization within the meaning of the Act and a proper petitioner . Whether a local files a petition on its own behalf or an International files on behalf of a local is a matter of internal union manage- ment Continental Baling Company, 99 NLRB 777; Clearfield Cheese Company, Inc, 85 NLRB 277. 102 NLRB No. 175. THE GREAT ATLANTIC AND PACIFIC TEA COMPANY 1565 4. The Employer is engaged in the operation of retail food and grocery stores in the southeastern and southern parts of the United States. The only stores involved herein are 2 grocery stores in the city of Lake Charles, Louisiana, and 1 store in Maplewood, Louisiana, 7 miles distant from Lake Charles. The parties agree that the following employees constitute a unit ap- propriate for the purposes of collective bargaining : All full-time grocery and produce department employees and checkers at the Em- ployer's Lake Charles and Maplewood, Louisiana, retail stores, excluding all meat department employees, truckdrivers, professional employees, part-time employees who work less than 20 hours per week, and temporary or casual employees (such as school or college students or members of the armed forces employed on an indefinite or temporary basis), guards, watchmen, store managers, assistant store managers, and all other supervisors as defined in the Act. The parties disagree, however, as to the status of one Louis Newsom, and the status of head cashiers, and the heads of produce departments. Louis Newsom, classified as a clerk, works as a stockman under the supervision of the store manager at the Employer's Second Avenue store at Lake Charles. He is paid less than the assistant manager, but more than the other employees classified as clerks. Once each week, on the assistant manager's day off, and at other times when the assistant manager is not in the store, Newsom acts as the assistant manager. When acting as assistant manager, Newsom responsibly directs the work of from 4 to 10 employees on the floor and possesses the same authority as the assistant manager. In view of the foregoing facts, we find that Louis Newsom is a supervisor as defined in the Act,3 and we exclude him as such from the unit. We shall also exclude from the unit as supervisors stockmen employed at the two other stores whose duties are similar to Newsom's. Head Cashiers : Head cashiers, one at each store, spend almost all their time in bookkeeping duties, cashing checks, making bank de- posits, and checking cash registers. In emergencies, they do the work of grocery checkers. Although they assign lunch and rest periods to the checkers and package boys in order that the checking stands are manned when necessary, head checkers have no authority to hire or discharge employees or effectively to recommend such action. They can reprimand the checkers and package boys, but such reprimands are taken up with the store manager. Although they assign checkers and package boys to various locations and execute instructions given by the store managers, these acts are routine in nature and do not aWaigreen Co. of New York, Inc., 97 NLRB 1101; East Tennessee Packing Co.. 89 NLRB 535. 1566 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD require the exercise of independent judgment. Accordingly, we find the head cashiers are not supervisors as defined in the Act 4 We do not agree with the Employer's contention that because head cashiers are essentially clerical employees, they should necessarily be excluded from the store unit. On the contrary, in accordance with the Board's practice of including cashiers in retail store units, we shall include them in the unit in this instance.,' Produce department heads: Produce department heads have au- thority effectively to recommend the hire and discharge of employees under their direction. The head of the produce department at the Employer's South Street store at Lake Charles has never exercised this authority. Nevertheless, he schedules lunch and rest. periods for the employees under his direction and assigns work to them, and de- termines their hours and places of work in the produce department. Accordingly, we find that produce department heads are supervisors as defined in the Act, and we shall exclude them as such from the unit.6 In accord, therefore, with the agreement of the parties, we find that the following employees of the Employer constitute a unit appropri- ate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act : all full-time grocery and produce depart- ment employees and checkers in the Employer's retail stores at Lake Charles and Maplewood, Louisiana, including head cashiers, but excluding all meat department employees, truckdrivers, professional employees, part-time employees who work less than 20 hours per week, and temporary or casual employees (such as school or college students or members of the armed forces employed on an indefinite or temporary basis), guards, watchmen, store managers, assistant store managers, produce department heads, and all other supervisors 7 as defined in the Act. [Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this volume.] 4 F. B. Silverwood, a Corporation d/b/a Silverwood 's, 92 NLRB 1114, 1122. 5 Walgreen Co. of New York, Inc, supra. 6 Brighton Mills, Inc., 97 NLRB 774; Leger Mill Company, Nelson Grain Company Branch, 85 NLRB 382. 7 Excluded among supervisors are Louis Newsom at the Second Avenue Store at Lake Charles and stockmen at the other stores with duties and responsibilities, similar to Newsom's.