The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jul 22, 1965

153 N.L.R.B. 1549 (N.L.R.B. 1965)

THE GREAT ATLANTIC & PACIFIC TEA CO., INC. 1549
The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, Inc. and Amal-
gamated Meat Cutters & Butcher Workmen of North America,
AFL-CIO,' Petitioner and Associated Food Distributors of
New England , Local 138 ,2 Petitioner. Cases Nos. 1-RC-8263,
1-RC-8264, 1-RC-8265, and 1-RC-8283. Juliy 22,1965
DECISION, ORDER, AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon separate petitions duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National
Labor Relations Act, as amended, a consolidated hearing was held
before Hearing Officer Arnold Al. Marrow. The Hearing Officer's rul-
ings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby
affirmed. Briefs were filed by both the Employer and the Petitioners.
Upon the entire record of this case, the National Labor Relations
Board finds:
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the
Act.
2. The labor organizations 3 involved claim to represent certain
employees of the Employer.
3. Questions affecting commerce exist concerning the representation
of employees of the Employer within the meaning of Sections 9 (c) (1)
and 2(6) and (7) of the Act.
4. Local 138 seeks to represent all the employees in a unit composed
of the Employer's stores located in Amesbury, Andover, Burlington,
Haverhill, Ipswich, Lawrence, Lexington, Lowell, Maynard, Methuen,
Newburyport, Pepperell, and Woburn, Massachusetts; and Derry,
Manchester, and Nashua, New Hampshire (Case No. 1-RC-8283).
Meat Cutters has filed three separate petitions seeking to represent
employees in a unit composed of the Employer's two stores in Lowell
(Case No. 1-RC-8263), and in separate single store units in Woburn
(Case No. 1-RC-8265) and Derry (Case No. 1-RC-8264). In the
alternative, Meat Cutters expressed a willingness to participate in an
election in any unit or units the Board may find appropriate. The
Employer and the Intervenor both contend that the unit sought by
Local 138 is the appropriate unit. For the following reasons we find
that the multistore unit sought by Local 138 is appropriate.
Although no Board election has ever been held, Local 138 has had
contracts with the Employer for a unit covering the stores mentioned
in its petition 4 since the Union was first organized in 1941.5 The 20
1 Referred to herein as "Meat Cutters."
Referred to herein as "Local 138."
$ Retail Grocery & Food Clerks Union, Local No. 1445, AFL-CIO, was allowed to inter-
vene on the basis of an adequate showing of interest.
* During this period , one new store in the area was opened and added to the unit and
two stores were closed.
5 Local 138's most recent contract , executed January 1965, is not urged as a bar in
these proceedings.
153 NLRB No. 141.
1550 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
stores are now divided among 5 administrative areas of the Employer,
each of which also contains other stores that are neither claimed by
Local 138 nor included in its previous contracts.6 Each administra-
tive area is under the jurisdiction of an area supervisor. All five areas
are under the overall jurisdiction of the general superintendent for
the Employer's Boston district. The manager of each individual store
is responsible to his area supervisor. Store managers may hire or fire
with approval of the personnel department and make transfers within
the area with approval of the area supervisor. Each manager is
responsible for handling his own store's daily work schedules and
payroll; however, copies of the payroll must be forwarded to the
Employer's personnel office in Boston. Advertising, pricing, and pur-
chasing are handled by specialists in the Boston office.
The employees in the unit sought by Local 138 enjoy the same wages,
benefits, and other terms of employment, although there is some varia-
tion in the hours of some of the stores. Some interchange of employ-
ees has taken place among the stores of the historical unit, and the
Employer has continued to recognize seniority rights under previous
contracts.
The Meat Cutters contends that the 20-store bargaining history is
not controlling in light of the fact that the historical unit does not com-
prise a specific administrative or geographic area, and that therefore
the Board should find appropriate the smaller units which it seeks.
We do not agree.
The Board applies to retail chain operations such as that operated
by the Employer the same unit policy as is applied to other types of
multiplant enterprises.7 Accordingly, we determine the appropriate-
ness of proposed bargaining units confined to one or two single units of
a chain in the light of all the relevant circumstances presented in the
particular case. Thus, the Board has long held that it will not disturb
an established bargaining relationship unless required to do so by the
dictates of the Act or other compelling circumstances." Meat Cutters
fails to present any cogent justification for disrupting the pattern of
collective bargaining that has continued herein for nearly 25 years. In
the light of this long established bargaining history and the other fac-
tors noted above, we find that the employees in the 20 stores sought by
Local 138's petition constitute an appropriate unit. We shall, there-
fore, dismiss the Meat Cutters' petitions in Cases Nos. 1-RC-8263,
1-RC-8264, and 1-RC-8265.
Accordingly, we find that all employees employed in the Employer's
stores located in Amesbury, Andover, Burlington, Haverhill, Ipswich,
8 Within the jurisdiction of one area supervisor , 12 stores are claimed by Local 138,
5 within another , and 3 other areas each have 1 store which is part of the historical unit.
7 Sav-On -Drugs, Inc., 138 NLRB 1032 ; Weis Markets Inc-, 142 _NLRB 708.
8 Cf. Illinois Cities Water Company, 87 NLRB 109, 111-112; West Virginia Pulp and
Paper Co ., 122 NLRB 738, 746.
JORDAN BUS CO. AND DENCO BUS LINES, INC. 1551
Lawrence, Lexington, Lowell, Maynard, Methuen, Newburyport, Pep-
perell, and Woburn, Massachusetts; and Derry, Manchester, and
Nashua, New Hampshire, excluding professional employees, guards,
and supervisors as 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 of Amalgamated Meat Cutters
& Butcher Workmen of North America, AFL-CIO, filed in Cases No.
1-RC-8263, 1-RC-8264, and 1-RC-8265.]
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.]
MEMBER ZAGORIA took no part in the consideration of the above Deci
sion, Order, and Direction of Election.
Jordan Bus Company and Denco Bus Lines, Inc. and Brotherhood
of Railroad Trainmen , AFL-CIO. Case No. 16-CA-2P21.
July 23,1965
DECISION AND ORDER
On June 2, 1965, Trial Examiner William J. Brown issued his Deci-
sion in the above-entitled proceeding, finding that the Respondent had
engaged in and was engaging in certain unfair labor practices and
recommending that it cease and desist therefrom and take certain
affirmative action, as set forth in the attached Trial Examiner's Deci-
sion. Thereafter, the General Counsel and Respondent each filed
exceptions to the Trial Examiner's Decision and a supporting 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 powers in connection with this case to a three-member
panel [Chairman McCulloch and Members Fanning and Jenkins].
The Board has considered the Trial Examiner's Decision, the excep-
tions and briefs, and the entire record in the case, and hereby adopts
the findings, conclusions, and recommendations of the Trial Examiner
as herein modified?
1 Although we agree with the Trial Examiner 's findings , conclusions , and recommenda-
tions, we find merit in the General Counsel 's exceptions and note that in the earlier
representation preceding , Case No. 16-RC-3736, the Acting Regional Director , although
taking judical notice of an earlier decision in Jordan Bus Company and Denco Bus Lines,
Inc., 107 NLRB 717, nevertheless relied on facts developed at the hearing in Case No.
16-RC-3736 , to find that the Jordan Bus Company and Denco Bus Lines , Inc., con-
stitute a single integrated enterprise.
153 NLRB No. 140.