The Long-Bell Lumber Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Feb 21, 1947

72 N.L.R.B. 890 (N.L.R.B. 1947)

In the Matter of THE LONG-BELL LUMBER COMPANY, WEED DlvlsioN,
EMPLOYER and INTERNATIONAL WOODWORKERS OF AMERICA , C. I. O.,
PETITIONER
Case No. ^90-R-1'789.Decided February N1, 1947
Mr. John Mantle , of Weed, Calif ., and Mi '. Clarence Vandercook,
Sr., of Tennant, Calif ., for the Employer,,
Mr. Claude Ballard, of Portland, Oreg., and Mr. Joe Huber, of
Klamath Falls, Oreg., for the Petitioner. ,
Messrs. William F. Wedel and K. A. Gordon, of Klamath Falls,
Oreg., for the Intervenor.
Mr. Morton B. Spero, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
Upon a petition duly filed, hearing in the case was held at Weed,
California, on September 17, 1946, before David Karasick, hearing
officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free
from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in the case, the National Labor Relations
Board makes the following:
FINDINGS OF FACT
1. THE BUSINESS OF THE EMPLOYER 1
The Long-Bell Lumber Company, a Missouri corporation, oper-
ates a sawmill, lumber yard, box factory, sash and door factory, plan-
ing mill, treating plant, and veneer plant in Weed, California, and
logging operations in the vicinity thereof. We are here concerned
solely with the logging operations of the Employer in its Weed Divi-
sion. During the year 1945, the Employer manufactured at this
division in excess of 55,000,000 board feet of rough and finished lum-
ber, of which more than 50 percent was sold and transported to points
outside the State of California.
The Employer admits and we find that it is engaged in commerce
within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act.
1 The name of the Employer appears in the caption as amended at the healing
72 N. L.R B, No. 151.
890
THE LONG-BELL LUMBER COMPANY
IT. THE ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED
891
The Petitioner is a labor organization affiliated with the Congress
.of Industrial Organizations, claiming to represent employees of the
Employer.
Lumber & Sawmill Workers, Locals 2913 and 3016, herein called the
Intervenor, is a labor organization affiliated with the American Fed-
eration of Labor, claiming to represent employees of the Employer.
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
On December 19, 1941, the Intervenor was certified by the Board
as the bargaining representative of employees of the Employer in
substantially the same unit as the Petitioner seeks herein.2 On August
5, 1942, a collective bargaining agreement was entered into between
the Employer and the Intervenor.3 This agreement provided that it
"shall continue in effect for 1 year from date of signing, and shall
continue from year to year thereafter unless either party notifies the
other of a desire to change, terminate, or modify this agreement at
least 60 days prior to termination date." Pursuant to its terms, the
contract has been automatically renewed each year since 1942. On
June 3, 1946, more than 60 days before the 1946 effective automatic
renewal notice date, the Petitioner informed the Employer by letter
that it represented certain of the employees of the Employer, and that
it had filed a petition for certification of representatives with the
Board. On June 4, 1946, the Employer acknowledged receipt of the
Petitioner's letter. At the hearing the Employer indicated its refusal
to recognize the Petitioner as the exclusive bargaining representative
of certain of the employees of the Employer until the Petitioner has
been certified by the Board in an appropriate unit'
We find that a question affecting commerce has arisen concerning
the representation of employees of the Employer, within the meaning
of Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.-'
237 N. L. R. B. 807.
I The certified unit consisted of all production and maintenance employees of the Em-
ployer at Tennant and Modoc, Camp 1 , California , excluding supervisory and clerical
emplo3ees, and employees of the Employer connected with its railroad in the vicinity.
Through an madvertance , the certification failed to mention scalers among those included
in the unit I3owever , the parties corrected this by including scalers in the contract unit.
"Although neither the Employer nor the Intervenor so contends, it is clear, under well-
established principles of the Board , that the contract is not a bar to this proceeding.
Matter of United Cabinet Company , 71 N L R B. 650
5 At the hearitig and in its brief , the Intervenor moved to dismiss the petition on the
ground that the Petitioner lacked a sufficient showing of interest among the employees in
the unit sought. Inasmuch as we are administratively satisfied that the Petitioner has
made an adequate showing of interest among the employees of the Employer in the requested
unit , we shall deny the motion of the Intervenor Matter of 0 D Jennings & Company,
68 N I. It B 516
892 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT; THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESE.NTATI-vES
The parties agree generally that the appropriate unit should consist
of all production and maintenance employees at the Employer's Weed
Division logging operations located in the vicinity of Tennant and
Modoc, Camp 1, California, excluding clerical employees, and super-
visory employees, and excluding further, the following employees-em-
ployed on the Employer's railroad in the vicinity; locomotive engi-
neers, firemen, hostlers, hostler helpers, conductors, and brakemen.
The parties are, however, in dispute as to the scalers, and combination
scalers and bull-bucks ; the Petitioner desiring to include these em-
ployees; the Intervenor seeking to include the scalers, but to exclude
the combination scalers and bull-bucks as having supervisory functions;
and the Employer requesting the exclusion of both classifications on
the ground that they are clerical, confidential, and supervisory em-
ployees. Both the Employer and the Intervenor, in support of their
position with respect to the combination scalers and bull-bucks, point
to the fact that they have been excluded from the contract unit.°
There are 2 employees classified as scalers. One works at Camp 1
and is subject to the supervision of the bull-buck at that camp; the
other works at Wild Horse, near Weed, and is subject to the supervision
of the superintendent of logging operations at Weed. The work of
the former consists of measuring logs for a crew of 12 to 14 buckers and
tallying the amount of work done by each of them for the purposes of
determining their pay, and of maintaining a running inventory of logs
cut and on hand. In addition, this scaler can effectively recommend
changes in status of employees under his supervision. The other scaler
measures logs for truck haulers, who are independent contractors. As
this scaler has no employees of the Employer under his supervision,
he exercises no supervisory authority. Both scalers are paid on an
hourly basis and have the same working hours and the same vacations
as other hourly employees. In view of the nature of their work, they
do not appear to be either confidential or clerical employees. As noted
above, these scalers have been covered under the contract between the
Employer and the Intervenor, and, admittedly, the duties and authority
of the scalers have not changed since 1941 when the Board indicated
the propriety of their inclusion in a unit of production and maintenance
employees'
The Employer employs at least 2 individuals who are combination
scalers and bull-bucks, and at least 1 employee who is a full-time bull-
buck." The combination bull-bucks and scalers are in fact bull-bucks,
While the certification mentioned above excluded supervisory employees it made no
specific mention of this category.
136 N L. R B. 664.
The record does not clearly indicate the exact number of bull-bucks in the requested
unit.
° THE LONG-BELL LUMBER COMPANY 893
who have been assigned the additional task of scaling because the size
of the operation in which they are now engaged does not warrant the
services of a full-time scaler. The work of a bull-buck consists of over-
seeing, subject to the over-all supervision of the timber foreman, a
crew of 12 to 14 employees. The authority of a bull-buck extends to
hiring, discharging, and promoting employees in their respective crews.
Each is paid on an hourly basis and has the same working hours and
the same vacations as other hourly employees. Like the scalers, they
are neither confidential nor clerical employees.
In Matter of Coos Bay Lwtmberr Company,' the Board considered
at length the issues posed herein with respect to the above 2 classifica-
tions of employees. We there concluded that in the average small or
]tedium sized logging operations in the Northwest, we shall, in accord-
with the industrial custom that prevails in that area, include these
classifications of supervisory employees in the rank and file unit. We
are persuaded that the criteria of that case are equally applicable to
these employees, therefore warranting their inclusion in the unit.
As noted above, the inclusion of the scalers would conform to the prior
bargaining history, while the inclusion of the combination scalers and
bull-bucks would contravene that history. Under these circumstances,
we shall presently include the scalers n the production and main-
tenance unit, but shall, in the case of the others, conduct a separate
election to determine their desires with respesct to the matter of repre-
sentation." We shall, therefore, make no final unit determination at
this time, but will be guided by the desires of the employees involved,
as expressed in the elections to be directed in the following 2 voting
groups:
1. All bull-bucks at the Employer's Weed Division logging opera-
tions located in the vicinity of Tennant and Modoc, Camp 1, California,
including combination scalers and bull-bucks.
2. All remaining production and maintenance employees at the
Employer's Weed Division logging operations located in -the vicinity
of Tennant and Modoc, Camp 1, California, including scalers, but
excluding clerical employees, and all other supervisory employees with
authority to hire, promote, discharge, discipline, or otherwise effect
changes in the status of employees, or effectively recommend such
action, and excluding, further, the following employees employed on
the Employer's railroad in the vicinity : locomotive engineers, firemen,
hostlers, hostler helpers, conductors, and brakemen.
The Direction of Elections and the selection of a pay-roll period to
determine eligibility to vote shall, however, have to abide a future
^ 62 N L. R B 93
10Hatter of Snow Peak Logging Company, 69 N L R B 1144 , Matter of Pittabaigh
Equitable Meter Company, 61 N. L R B 880 , Matter of Petei yen and Lytle, 60 N L R B
1070
894 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
event. For, since the hearing, the Board has been advised that the
Employer has curtailed its operations for the winter season to such an
extent that a representative vote is not presently possible. Uncly
these circumstances, we shall withhold the issuance of a Direction of
Elections and the determination of an eligibility period until such
time as the Regional Director for the Twentieth Region shall advise
us that The Long-Bell Lumber Company, Weed Division, Weed,
California, has resumed normal operations, and that a representative
number of persons are employed in the units found appropriate above.
MR. JAMES J. REYNOLDS, JR., took no part in the consideration of the
above Decision.