Wilson & Co., Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Nov 27, 1942

45 N.L.R.B. 831 (N.L.R.B. 1942)

In the Matter of WILSON & Co., INC. and PACKINGHOUSE WORKERS
ORGANIZING COMMITTEE ON BEHALF OF UNITED PACKINGHOUSE
WORKERS OF AMERICA, LOCAL 25, C. 1. 0.
Case No. R-4456.Decided November °27, 1942
Jurisdiction : meat packing industry.
Investigation and Certification of Representatives : existence of question : re-
fusal to accord petitioner recognition until certified by the Board; status of
intervenor : upon evidence -received pursuant to notice on issue of whether
intervenor was a.successor to a dominated organization previously ordered
disestablished, Board found that the evidence established that it was a con-
tinuation of the organization previously ordered disestablished; not accorded
place on ballot. /
Unit Appropriate for Collective Bargaining : all production and maintenance
employees at one of Company's plants, with specified exclusions and inclusions ;
stipulation as to.
Mr. David Karasick , for the Board.
Mr. Paul Ware and Mr . Marsho,7l Wiedel, of Chicago, Ill., for the
Company.
Mr. Ralph £Ielstein, of Chicago, Ill., for the United.
Mr. Thomas J. Kerriqan, and Mr. J. T. Murphy, of Chicago , Ill., for
the ,Independent.
Mr. Louis Cokin , of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon petition and amended petition duly filed •by Packinghouse
Workers Organizing Committee on behalf of United Packinghouse
Workers of America, Local 25, C. I. 0., herein called the United, alleg-
ing that a question affecting commerce had arisen concerning the
representation of employees of Wilson & Co., Inc., Chicago, Illinois,
herein called the Company, the National Labor Relations Board pro-
vided for an appropriate hearing upon due notice before Gustaf B.
Erickson, Trial Examiner. Said hearing was held at Chicago, Illi-
nois, on October 22, 23, and 26, 1942. The Board, the Company, the
45 N L R. B , No. 126.
831
832 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD'
United, and Wilson Workers Independent Union, herein called the
Independent, appeared, participated, and were afforded full opportu-
nity to be heard, to examine and-cross-examine witnesses, and to intro-
duce evidence bearing on the issues. During the course of the hearing
counsel for the Company and counsel for the Independent moved to
dismiss certain portions of the petition. The Trial Examiner reserved
his rulings. The motions are hereby denied. ^ The Trial Examiner's
rulings made at -the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are
hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following :
FINDINGS OF FAOT
1. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
Wilson & Co., Inc., is a Delaware corporation with its principal
office and place of business at Chicago, Illinois. The Company oper-
ates 8 meat-packing plants in; as many States and about 90 branch
houses throughout the United States. The Company's packinghouse
at Union Stock Yards in Chicago, Illinois, is the only plant involved
in this proceeding. At this plant the Company purchases, assembles,
and slaughters livestock, and processes, manufactures, and distributes
various meat products and by-products thereof.
The Company purchases and slaughters about 40,000,000 pounds
of livestock monthly at its Chicago plant. This livestock is pur-
chased principally through commission men doing business in Chi-
cago. Approximately 18 percent of the hogs, 17 percent of the sheep,
6 percent of the calves, and d percent of the cattle slaughtered are
purchased by the Company directly from sources outside Illinois.
About 86 percent of the products at the Chicago plant is shipped
out of Illinois by the Company or by Wilson & Co of New Jerse y,
a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company.
H. THE ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED
Packinghouse Workers Organizing Committee and United Pack-
inghouse Workers of America, Local 25, are labor organizations
affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations, admitting
to membership employees of the Company.
Wilson Workers Independent Union is an unaffiliated labor organi-
zation, admitting to membership employees of the company.
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
During June 1942, the United and the Independent each requested
the Company to recognize them as the exclusive' representative of
WILSON & CO., INC. 833
the Company's employees. The Company refused these requests
until such time as the United or the Independent is certified by the
Board.
A statement of the Regional Director, introduced into evidence at
the hearing, indicates that the United represents a substantial num-
ber of the employees in the unit hereinafter found to be appropriate.)
We find that a question affecting commerce has arisen concerning
the representation, of employees of the Company, within the mean-
ing of Section 9. (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the National
Labor Relations Act.
IV. TIIE APPROPRIATE UNIT
We find, in accordance with a stipulation of the.parties, that all
production and maintenance employees in the beef kill, beef heads,
beef tallow, beef casings, tripe, sheep kill, meat specialties, beef
cutting, jobbing cutting, jobbing cooler, Gela Seald, beef curing, hog
kill, hog cutting, hog casings, pork packing, pork trimming', sweet
pickle, dry salt, barrel"pork, ham boning, oil house, tank house, tennis
strings, hide cellar, ^ shop fat sorters, ice manufacturing, car icing,
box factory, animal and poultry feed, hog hair, wool 'house, dry
rendering, insulation, smoked nneats, canning 'room, 'including dog
meat, sliced beef, sliced bacon, margarine, produce, domestic sausage;
summer sausage,. sausage packing, refinery, cooked ham,.,-Eiistiiig
Flavor, smoked beef ham, casing sewing, casing packing; Tenderinade
ham, trimming and loading, car lines, laundry, generti1=.8t6rer66ii4
freezer,' cooper shop, boiler room, sanitation, engine,, room, plant
janitors and 'maintenance, and track gang departments'of.the (iJoni4
pally at its Chicago plant, including carpenters, brick layers; "blec=
tricians, machinists, blacksmiths, scale repairers, millwrights,' house-_
men. steamfitters, tinsmiths, painters, employees in M. B.- M. store-
room', welders, plant elevator operators, employees in the printing
and stationery department, employees in the stables, mechanics and
laborers in the repair shop,' manual laborers in the storeroom, ma-
trons, packinghouse engineers, and tractor drivers, but excluding
superintendents, assistant superintendents, foremen, assistant fore-
men, general office janitors, general office staff, fire protection em-
ployees, policemen, watchmen, guides, student- employees, medical
department employees, teamsters, chauffeurs, shop fat drivers, safety
inspectors, research department employees, storeroom employees do-
ing clerical work, chemists, technicians, restaurant employees, retail
meat market employees, clerical and office workers, timekeepers,
,J
' The Regional Director reported that the United presented 2,177 membership application
cards bearing apparently genuine signatures There are approximately 5,500 employees
in the unit hereinafter found to be appropriate
493508-43-vol. 45-53
834 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
steady time checkers , steady time scalers, laboratory employees , messen-
gers, mailing department employees, salesmen, architects, employee
in the advertising sales and blueprint departments, floorladies,
assistant floorladies, office stationery department employees, and other
supervisory employees, constitute a unit appropriate for the pur-
poses of collective bargaining , within the meaning, of Section 9 (b)
of the Act.
V. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
We shall direct that the question concerning representation which
has arisen be resolved by an election by secret ballot among the em-
ployees in the appropriate unit who were employed during the pay-roll
period immediately preceding the date of the Direction of Election
herein, subject to the limitations and additions set forth in the Direc-
tion.
The Board ordered that, in addition to'the usual investigation,
evidence be received in this proceeding on whether the intervenor,
the Independent, is a successor to or a continuation of the Employees
Representative Committee, herein called the E. R. C., heretofore
ordered disestablished by the Board.2 On June 17, 1942, the Company
posted notices in accordance with the B'3ard Order and Court Decree.
. During January 1942,, Rogella, Kotwosinski, and Jordan, all of
whom were then and had been representatives of the E. R. C. for
several years, met and discussed the possibility of forming a new un-
affiliated union,of the Company's employees., These three employees
borrowed $100.00 from the Wilson, Credit Union and had application
cards and dues records printed. Application cards were distributed
throughout the Company's plant by several former representatives of
the E.'R. C. and employees were solicited by them in the plant to join
the Independent. Thereafter, on March 9, 1942, an open meeting for
employees of the, Company was arranged by Rogella, Kotwosinski,
and Jordan and other employees of the Company. Prior to the meet-
ing, slips merely reading "Modena Hall; 1705 W. 51st Street, Monday,
March 9, 7 P. M." were distributed in the plant by former representa-
tives of the E: R. C. The former president of the E. R. C. presided
as chairman of the March 9 meeting. Representatives of the E. R. C.
handed out campaign literature on behalf of the Independent both
before and after the March 9 meeting.
' In Matter of Wilson f Co., Inc and Local Union No 25, United Packinghouse Workers
of America of P W., 0 C ., affiliated with C I. 0., '31 N. 'L R. B. 440 , the Board ordered -the
Company, among other things, to cease and desist from dominating or interfering with the
administration of the E . R C and to withdraw and, withhold from the E R C, or any
successor organization thereto , all recognition as representative of its employees and
.completely disestablish the E . R C. as such representative. A decree enforcing the Board's
order was entered by the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
on February 19, 1942. Wilson G Co . v. N. L. R. B., 126 F. ( 2d) 114 (C. C. A. 7 ), cert.
denied 62 S. Ct. 1292. -
WILSON & CO., INC. 835
The facts set forth above make it clear that the Independent is
merely a continuation of the E. R. C. and that it must have appeared
to the employees themselves to be such a continuation. The circum-
stances irresistibly lead to the conclusion that the employees could not
have failed to identify the Independent as a successor to the E. R. C.
and to have supposed that the Independent, as had the E. R. C., enjoyed,
the Company's approval. The evidence is uncontroverted that the
new organization was formed by E. R. C. representatives before the
E. R. C. was formally dissolved,; that many persons, all of whom had
been known to employees as E. R. C. representatives'-actively solicited
employees to join the Independent;,and that at the first meeting of
the Independent the former president of the E. R. C. presided.
Under these circumstances, we are satisfied and find that the Inde-
pendent appeared to the employees to be a successor to the E. R. C., a
dominated organization, and to have the favor of the Company. Me
further find that the Independent is a continuation of and a successor
to the E. R. C. -It follows that we cannot, under the circumstances,
accord a place on the ballot to the Independent.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
By virtue of and pursuant to the power vested in the National Labor
Relations Board by Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act,
and pursuant, to Article III, Section 9; of National Labor Relations
Board Rules and "Regulations-Series 2, as amended, it is hereby
DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation to ascertain representa-
tives for the purposes of collective bargaining with Wilson & Co., Inc.,
Chicago, Illinois, an election by secret ballot shall be conducted as
early as possible, but not later than thirty (30) days from the date of
this Direction, under the direction and supervision of the-Regional
Director for the Thirteenth Region, acting in this matter as agent
for the National Labor Relations Board, and subject to*Article; III,
Section 10, of said Rules and Regulations, among the employees in the
unit found appropriate in Section IV, above, who were employed
during' the pay-roll period immediately preceding the date of this
Direction, including any such employees who did not work during said
pay-roll period because they were ill or on vacation or in the active
military service or training of the United States, or temporarily laid
off, but excluding any who have since quit or been' discharged for
cause, to determine whether or not they desire to be represented by
Packinghouse Workers Organizing Committee, United Packinghouse
Workers of America, Local 25, affiliated with the Congress of Indus-
trial Organizations, for the purposes of collective bargaining.