NLRB v. HARRY T. CAMPBELL SONS'CORPORATION

• Decision Date: 27 February 1969
• Docket Number: No. 11670.,11670.
• Citation: 407 F.2d 969
• Parties: NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Petitioner, v. HARRY T. CAMPBELL SONS' CORPORATION, Respondent.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

407 F.2d 969 (1969)

NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Petitioner, v. HARRY T. CAMPBELL SONS' CORPORATION, Respondent.

No. 11670.

United States Court of Appeals Fourth Circuit.

Argued February 6, 1968.

Decided February 27, 1969.

Richard S. Rodin, Atty., N.L.R.B. (Arnold Ordman, Gen. Counsel, Dominick L. Manoli, Associate Gen. Counsel, Marcel Mallet-Prevost, Asst. Gen. Counsel, and Solomon I. Hirsh, Atty., N.L. R.B., on the brief), for petitioner.

William J. Rosenthal and Earle K. Shawe, Baltimore, Md. (Joseph K. Pokempner and Shawe & Rosenthal, Baltimore, Md., on the brief), for respondent.

Before BOREMAN, WINTER and BUTZNER, Circuit Judges.

BOREMAN, Circuit Judge:

This case is before us upon petition of the National Labor Relations Board, pursuant to Section 10(e) of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended (61 Stat. 136, 73 Stat. 519, 29 U.S.C. Sec. 151, et seq.), for enforcement of its order directing respondent, Harry T. Campbell Sons' Corporation (hereinafter Company), to bargain with two labor unions¹ which had been certified, after a Board conducted election, as joint representatives of certain of the Company's employees² in one relatively small unit (calcite) of a large stone quarry operation of the Company at Texas, Maryland. The Board's Decision and Order are reported at 164 NLRB No. 36.

The Company admits its refusal to bargain but defends on the ground that the Board erred in finding and concluding that the Company had violated sections 8(a) (5) and (1) of the Act by its refusal to bargain in view of the fact that the Board's underlying bargaining-unit determination is not supported by substantial evidence on the record considered as a whole. The Company takes the position that the Board acted unreasonably, arbitrarily, and capriciously in selecting the employees in only the calcite operation as an appropriate unit for collective bargaining purposes.

Here, the determination of an appropriate unit for collective bargaining was made after a hearing on a petition for an election filed by the Unions in Board Case No. 5-RC-5634. At the hearing the parties agreed to incorporate the record in Board Case No. 5-RC-4947, an earlier proceeding involving the same parties and the same issues. Case No. 5-RC-4947 culminated in a Board conducted election in which a majority of the eligible voters at the Company's calcite operation rejected union representation by a vote of 57 to 31. More than a year later, in No. 5-RC-5634, the same Unions petitioned for an election in the same calcite operating unit consisting of approximately 80 to 90 hourly rated employees. The Company contended that the minimal appropriate unit was one that included approximately 280 to 290 hourly rated employees at the entire Texas, Maryland, stone quarry operation of which the calcite operation was an integral part. The Regional Director found that the calcite unit, sought to be represented by the Unions, was appropriate for collective bargaining. The Company filed with the Board a request for review of the Regional Director's Decision and Direction of Election which request was summarily denied by the Board. At the ensuing election the Unions received a majority of the votes cast and the Unions were duly certified as bargaining representatives of the eligible employees in the calcite unit.

FACTS

There is little dispute as to the historical facts. The main point of disagreement is with respect to the relevancy and materiality of certain facts to be considered in deciding the ultimate question — whether the Board's approval of the employees at the calcite operation alone as an appropriate bargaining unit is supported by the record when considered in its entirety.

For an understanding of the later discussion herein it is necessary to recite the facts in some detail. The Company's central headquarters and general offices are located at Towson, Maryland, which is approximately five miles from the Texas, Maryland, quarry operation. At Towson are housed the Company's real estate, engineering, purchasing, selling, cost accounting, billing, payroll (including payroll records), and employee relations departments. President, Robert B. Hamill, and vice-presidents, S. James Campbell, Bruce S. Campbell, Jr., and Harry G. Campbell, Jr., are in overall charge of the Company's day-to-day operations. These individuals act as a management committee with each of the three vice-presidents being responsible for management of various operations, acting in an advisory capacity to the president and carrying out the decisions and policies of the committee. All quarry and stone-crushing operations are under Bruce Campbell. In addition to the Texas quarry operations, the Company has smaller, scattered operations located at White Marsh, Westminster, Marriottsville, and Gwynns Falls, all in the State of Maryland. The ready-mix operations at White Marsh, the quarry equipment and ready-mix trucks at Texas, as well as the shops which maintain this equipment, are also under the direction of Bruce Campbell. The road construction, road equipment and black-top operations report to Harry Campbell. James Campbell is responsible for the "calcite" and "sackrete" operations. The Regional Director found that "These officers act as a management committee in deciding all basic Employer policies, including those in the area of industrial relations." The president and all of the vice-presidents are directly and intimately involved in employee relations, fringe benefits, hours of work, wage rates and increases, credit, traffic control, purchasing, financing, and the many other areas relating to the operation of the entire business.

There is common control at Towson over the sales of all operations. All accounting, cost accounting, billing, purchasing, engineering, and real estate acquisition, maintenance and management are centralized at the Towson office. None of these functions is performed at the various operations. The separate operations make up delivery tickets for product deliveries but a copy of each ticket is sent to the Towson office. All telephone calls to any of the company operations go through the central switchboard at Towson. All company facilities are connected by radio-telephone. Mail is picked up and delivered to all the separate facilities by men from the Towson office. In the centralized purchasing operation the management committee makes the decisions as to the purchase of all equipment based upon the recommendation of the individual vice-president in charge of the particular operation involved. All legal problems are handled through Towson. Company trucks are assigned to the various facilities, as needed, by the truck fleet superintendent at Towson. The trucks are all the same color and bear the same or similar markings on the sides. The traffic manager, who is located at the calcite facility at the Texas operation, controls the deliveries made by trucks from all operations.

Thus, it is clear from the record that all of the Company's facilities and operations are dependent upon centralized management and that not even the overall quarry facility at Texas, much less the calcite segment thereof, functions independently of the direction, control and services provided from central headquarters in Towson.

So that the Texas, Maryland, quarry operations may be better understood there is appended to this opinion a reproduction of an aerial photograph, Company's Exhibit 7, showing the geographic lay-out and integration of the total Texas operations.³

All of the Texas operations revolve around the operation of the quarry which contains a large sulphite stone deposit (calcium carbonate). The calcite operation, the limestone operation, the bluestone operation, and the ready-mix concrete operation are all dependent upon the quarry for their existence. Without the quarry there would be no such operations. The testimony of Bruce Campbell to the effect that the calcite operation is entirely dependent upon the quarry for its supply of stone is uncontradicted.

Edward Reichart, the superintendent of the quarry, is responsible for all of the physical facilities at Texas, including calcite, and all of the facilities use the same power and water supply, the same heating oil, same oil, gas, and tire repair station, same roads, same entrances, same exists, and the same parking area. The Company provides free bus service to and from Towson for the employees engaged in all of these operations. One safety engineering program covers all Texas operations and each separate facility has a representative on an appropriate committee.

Many of the products at calcite are similar to or interchangeable with products handled at the other Texas facilities. The calcite laboratory performs tests for the quarry for hardness of material and analyses of various kinds as well as tests for the other products at the Texas operations. Calcite operations employees are used for unloading machinery and bagged material coming in by rail for other Texas operations.

The company Director of Employee Relations, Killon, with an assistant and two clerical employees, administers the personnel and labor relations policies in the central administrative offices at Towson. Killon spends approximately half of his time going around to the various locations and handles any complaints or grievances as to working conditions or fringe benefits. He also answers questions on company policy which may be brought to him by supervisors at any of the various facilities based upon inquiries from employees. All personnel records are maintained at the central office, including records of employees' seniority which is based on length of service with the Company and is Company-wide. An employee who is transferred from any one of the Company's facilities or operations to another retains his Company-wide seniority which can be used to "bump" an employee with less seniority.

Hiring is done through the Towson personnel...