First National Stores, Inc. And Amalgamated Meat Cutters & Butcher Workmen Of Norti America (a. F. Of L.), Local Union 609, 138 (1945)

In the Matter of FIRST NATIONAL STORES, INC. and AMALGAMATED MEAT CUTTERS & BUTCHER WORKMEN OF NORTI AMERICA (A. F. OF L.),

LOCAL UNION 609 Case No. 1-R-2383.-Decided August 4, 1945 Mr. Edmund J. Blake, of Boston, Mass., for the Company.

Messrs. Herbert A. Lee and Joseph Sullivan, of New Bedford, Mass., for the Union.

Mr. Joseph D. Mahders, of counsel to the Board.

DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION STATEMENT OF THE CASE Upon a petition duly filed by Amalgamated Meat Cutters & Butcher Workmen of North America (A. F. of L.), Local Union 609, herein called the Union, alleging that a question affecting commerce had arisen concerning the representation of employees of First National Stores, Inc., herein called the Company, the National Labor Relations Board provided for an appropriate hearing upon due notice before Samuel G. Zack, Trial Examiner. Said hearing was held at Boston,

Massachusetts, on May 17, 1945. The Company and the Union appeared and participated. All parties were afforded full opportunity to be heard, to examine and cross-examine witnesses, and to introduce evidence bearing on the issues. The Trial Examiner's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed. All parties were afforded an opportunity to file briefs with the Board.

Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following:

FINDINGS OF FACT I. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY First National Stores, Inc., is a Massachusetts corporation, with its principal offices located at Somerville, Massachusetts. It is engaged in the operation of chain retail grocery stores, and has 1300 138 such stores in the New England States and Westchester County, New York. During 1944 the Company sold products valued in excess of $165,000,000. The Company operates a processing and manufacturing plant at Somerville, Massachusetts, and maintains warehouses in Somerville, Massachusetts, Providence, and Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and Hartford and Bridgeport, Connecticut, all of which are engaged in servicing and supplying the retail stores of the Company.

The Provincetown stores, which are the only stores involved in the instant proceeding, are served exclusively from the Somerville, Massachusetts, warehouse. There are approximately 12,000 persons in the employ of the Company who conduct its diverse functions and operations.

We have heretofore found, in cases involving various groups of the Company's stores, that the Company is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act; and we reiterate that finding in this proceeding.

2. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED Amalgamated Meat Cutters & Butcher Workmen of North America,

   Local Union 609, affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, is a labor organization admitting to membership employees of the Company.

3. TIE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION The Company has refused to grant recognition to the Union as the exclusive bargaining representative of the employees at its Provincetown, Massachusetts, stores until the Union has been certified by the Board in an appropriate unit.

   A statement of a Board agent, introduced into evidence at the hearing, indicates that the Union represents a substantial number of employees in the unit hereinafter found appropriate.2 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 Act.

4. THE APPROrRIATE UNIT The Union contends that all persons employed by the Company in its stores located in Provincetown, Massachusetts, excluding stock ISee Matter of First National Stores, Inc. (three cases),

   N. L. R. B. 1346;

   2 The Field Examiner reported that the Union submitted 12 membership application cards, 10 of which bore apparently genuine original signatures of persons appearing on the Company's pay roll of March 31, 1945, which contained the names of 14 employees in the appropriate unit; and that...