Wolverine Shoe and Tanning Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Nov 16, 1942

45 N.L.R.B. 620 (N.L.R.B. 1942)

In the Matter Of WOLVERINE SHOE AND TANNING CORPORATION and
UNITED SHOE WWWORKERS OF AMERICA, CIO
Case No. R-4413.-Decided November 16, 1942
Jurisdiction : tanning, and shoe and glove manufacturing industry.
Investigation and Certification of Representatives : existence of question: re-
fusal to grant recognition until certification and determination of appropriate
unit by the Board ; election necessary.
Unit Appropriate for Collective Bargaining : all- production, maintenance, and
warehouse employees of the Company's two shoe plants, but excluding assist-
ant foremen and all higher supervisory employees, all clerical or, office em-
ployees, factory clerical employees, salesmen , truck drivers, tannery employees,
and power plant employees.
Warner, Norcross and Judd, by Messrs. George S. Norcross, and
Lawson E. Becker, of Grand Rapids, Mich., for the Company-
Mr. Julius Crane, of Chicago, Ill., for the United.
Mr. Philip Parr, of Detroit, Mich., for the Fur and Leather Workers.,
Mr. A. Sumner Lawrence, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION -
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
,Upon a second amended' petition duly filed by United Shoe
Workers of America (C. I. 0.), herein called the United, alleging that
a question affecting commerce had arisen concerning the representa-
tion of employees of Wolverine Shoe and Tanning Corporation, Rock-
ford, Michigan, herein called the Company, the National Labor Rela-
tions Board provided for an appropriate hearing upon due notice be-
fore Harold H. Cranefield, Trial Examiner. Said hearing was held
at Grand Rapids, Michigan, on October 16 and 17, 1942. The Com-
pany, the United, and International Fur and Leather Workers Union,
C. I. 0.,' appeared, participated, and were afforded full opportunity to
'International Fur and Leather Workers Union, C. I. 0, which claimed substantial
representation among the tannery employees, stated at the hearing that it' did not desire
to participate in any election and that its only interest was to, resist the establishment
of a bargaining unit which would include tannery woikers,,in which position it was sup-
ported by the United and opposed by the Company.
45 N. L. R: B., No. 93.
620
WOLVERINE SHOE AND TANNING CORPORATION 621
be heard, to examine and cross-examine witnesses, and to introduce
evidence bearing on the issues.. The Trial Examiner's rulings madeat
the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
Both the Company, and the United filed briefs which the Board has
considered.
Upon the entire record in the case the Board makes the following :
FINDINGS OF FACT
1. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
Wolverine Shoe and Tanning Corporation, a Michigan corporation,
has its principal office in Rockford, Michigan, where it owns and
operates a tannery and two shoe plants. It also owns and operates
a glove factory at Greenville, Michigan, some 18 or 20 miles distant
from other factories at Rockford.
During the year 1941, the Company purchased for use at its plants
raw materials of total value of approximately $800,000, of which
about 95 percent was purchased from sources outside the State of
Michigan. During the same period, the Company's total sales of
finished products amounted to approximately $5,000,000, of which
approximately 95 percent represents shipments made to points outside
the State of Michigan.
H. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED
United Shoe Workers of America, is a labor organization affiliated
with the Congress of Industrial Organizations, admitting to member-
ship employees of the Company.
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
On or about August 26, 1942, the United requested a conference
with the Company for the purpose of bargaining collectively. Subse-
quently at conferences held on September 10, 1942, and immediately
thereafter, the United requested that the Company recognize it as
exclusive representative of the shoe and warehouse workers of the
Company's Rockford plants. The Company declined to grant recog-
nition upon the ground that the proposed unit was inappropriate.
A statement of the Regional Director introduced in evidence at the
hearing shows that the United, represents a substantial number of
employees in the unit hereinafter found appropriate.2
s The Regional Director reported that the United had submitted 274 signed member-
ship application cards , of which 1 was dated January 1942 , 34 dated August 1942 , 1 dated
September 1942, and the rest undated ; that, of the signatures therein , all of which
appeared to be genuine , 254 are the names of persons on the Company 's pay roll of
September 9, 1942, containing a total of 397 names within the alleged appropriate unit.
622 DECISIONS OF NATIONAI, LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
We find that a question affecting commerce has arisen concerning
the representation of employees of the Company within the meaning
of Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the National Labor,
Relations Act.
IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT
The United contends that the appropriate unit should consist of all
production, maintenance, and warehouse employees of the Company's
two Rockford, Michigan, shoe plants, but excluding assistant foremen
and all higher supervisory employees, all clerical or office employees
(including factory clerical employees), salesmen, truck drivers, tan-
ning employees, and employees engaged in the powerhouse. The
Company, on the other hand, contends that the unit should be com-
pany-wide and include employees of the Company's central office,
warehouse, tannery, power plant, the two Rockford shoe factories, the
Greenville glove plant, and truclZ drivers, excluding only assistant
foremen and all higher supervisory employees and salesmen.
The Company processes horsehide butts into leather and manu-
factures therefrom shoes at its Rockford tannery and the two
Rockford shoe factories. Work gloyes are made in the Greenville
glove plant from leather tanned at the Rockford tannery. While the
production and manufacturing operations of the Company are highly
integrated and employees generally share numerous benefits and so-
cial activities which the Company has promoted, the record discloses
that skills involved in the shoe manufacturing operations are differ-
ent from those required for the tannery and the glove factory.
Employees are not frequently interchanged between the shoe fac-
tories and the tannery and the glove factory. Both the membership
and the present organization of the United are confined to those
employees engaged in the manufacturing, warehousing, and mainte-
nance processes of shoe production. Moreover, it appears that, in
view of the difference in skills and the nature of the products in-
volved, collective bargaining in the leather industry has recognized
the separateness of tannery workers and shoe factory workers. Fur-
thermore, the Company has within the past year dealt on a collective.
basis with an informally constituted grievance committee representing
only employees in the Rockford shoe factories, and has likOiise
negotiated with an unaffiliated union confined to employees of the
Greenville glove plant, without in either case at any time suggesting
that collective bargaining relationships should be conducted on a
more inclusive basis. It appears that the Fur and Leather Workers
is presently attempting to organize the tannery employees. Under
the circumstances, in view-of the fact that the United has limited its
organization to the shoe plants and another union is claiming repre-
sentation among the tannery workers, we find that employees in the
WOLVERINE SHOE, AND TANNING CORPORATION 623
Rockford shoe plants constitute,a unit appropriate' for the purposes
of collective bargaiiiing.3
There remain for consideration certain groups of employees
within the geographical scope of the appropriate unit but as to whose
inclusion or exclusion the parties are in dispute, namely, the em-
ployees of the central office, the factory clerical-employees, the truck
drivers, and the power plant employees. Of these groups, the em-
ployees of the central office are ordinary o, ice clerical employees and
will be excluded, in accordance with our usual custom, from- an ap- -
propriate unit of production and maintenance employees. The same
ground for exclusion is applicable to the factory clerical employees,
who, though located in the shoe factories, are not actively engaged
in production work and are concerned only with the-keeping of
records and the computation of figures for the pay roll, which compu-
tation, is relied upon exclusively by the Company in making wage
payments. So far as the truck drivers are concerned, it appears that
they have interests and problems 'different from those of the shoe
employees, by reason whereof they will be excluded from the appro-
priate unit. Finally, with respect to the power plant employees,
the ' fact that they perform work not closely related to shoe pro-
duction and are, moreover, ineligible to membership in the United,
requires their exclusion from the appropriate unit.
We find 'that all production, maintenance, and warehouse em-
ployees of the Company's two Rockford, Michigan, shoe plants, but
excluding assistant foremen and all higher supervisory employees, all
clerical or office employees (including factory clerical employees),
salesmen, truck drivers, tannery employees, and employees engaged in
the powerhouse, constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of
collective bargaining, within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
V. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
We find. that the question concerning representation' which has
arisen can best be resolved by an election .by secret ballot. For the
purpose of determining eligibility to vote, the United requests the
use of the pay roll as of the date of the hearing, upon the
ground that the Company's operations and employment may be
reduced in the near future. There is no evidence that curtailment
is likely to occur, other than such as may arise from the usual short-
ages of material due to wartime conditions, the extent of which
shortages cannot be forecast under present ' circumstances. The
s See Matter of Olczer Mach neiy Co, Baldwin Tuthill Division and Inter national
Association of Machinists, Lodge No 475, affiliated with the A F of L , 39 N L R B 722
See also Matter of Greenway Wood Heel Co, Inc , and/or SsO. er J Laluinieie, Mary M.
Lyons and Henry J Lalunaiere, d/b/a S & L Wood fleet Company and Heel Makers Federal
Labor Union No 22714 (A F. of L ), 43 N . L R. B 752.
624 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Company contends that the usual eligibility date is proper. We find
no reason to depart from our customary practice and shall direct
that the persons eligible to vote in the election shall be those 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 Direction.
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
DnmoTm that, as part of the investigation to determine repre-
sentatives for the purposes of collective bargaining with Wolverine
Shoe and Tanning Corporation, Rockford, Michigan, 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 Seventh
Region, acting in this matter as agent for the National Labor Rela-
tions 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` by the Company 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 United Shoe Workers of America, C. I. 0., for the purposes of
collective bargaining.
MR. WM. M. LEIsnRsoN took no part in the consideration of the
above Decision and Direction of Election.