NLRB v. Wolverine World Wide, Inc.
| Decision Date | 23 May 1973 |
| Docket Number | No. 72-1944.,72-1944. |
| Citation | 477 F.2d 969 |
| Parties | NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Petitioner, v. WOLVERINE WORLD WIDE, INC., Respondent. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit |
Jerome H. Brooks, Director, Region 7, N. L. R. B., Detroit, Mich., Howard Kaufman, N. L. R. B., for petitioner-appellant; Peter G. Nash, Gen. Counsel, Patrick Hardin, Associate Gen. Counsel, Marcel Mallet-Prevost, Asst. Gen. Counsel, Abigail Cooley Baskir, Attys., N. L. R. B., Washington, D. C., on brief.
Peter A. Patterson, Grand Rapids, Mich., for respondent-appellee; Miller, Johnson, Snell & Cummiskey, Grand Rapids, Mich., on brief.
Before PECK, MILLER and LIVELY, Circuit Judges.
From the beginning of these proceedings the Respondent, Wolverine, has insisted that its distribution center located in Rockford, Michigan is not an appropriate bargaining unit under Section 9(b) of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, 29 U.S.C. § 159(b). Wolverine has maintained throughout the proceedings that all manufacturing operations of the company in the State of Michigan should be included as one bargaining unit. The unit thus contended for by the Respondent would include facilities in Grand Rapids, Ithaca, Greenville, Big Rapids and Reed City, Michigan as well as in Rockford. Together these facilities constitute the Hush Puppies/Wolverine/Ski Products Division of Wolverine World Wide, Inc. At the hearing held pursuant to Section 9(c) of the Act to determine an appropriate unit, Wolverine presented a number of officers of the Division who testified concerning its organization and methods of operation. It was stipulated that the distribution center at Rockford had approximately 100 eligible employees. The function of the distribution center was to receive shoes produced at the various plants of the Division, store them until orders were received, and then ship them to customers. At the time of the hearing, one manufacturing operation was being carried on at the distribution center. This involved stitching the soles on shoes which came to the center with soles cemented and unstitched. This manufacturing operation was scheduled for removal from the distribution center.
Testimony showed that company production schedules were prepared weekly in the central office and distributed to the various plant managers who then had the responsibility of calling in or laying off employees to meet the schedule. The distribution center was managed by a superintendent who reported directly to the manager of warehousing. The manager of warehousing testified that each unit manager under him had more or less autonomous control of his unit, subject to his overall supervision. The unit manager of the distribution center had the authority to hire and fire, subject to review, and using the facilities of the central personnel office of the Company. The manager of warehousing testified that it would be "a strange set of circumstances if he would overrule the decision of a unit manager to let an employee go," and that, in fact, he had never overruled a decision to fire a man.
The employment manager of Wolverine testified concerning the corporate organization for labor and employee relations and the various rules and guidelines in force throughout the company. He also described the procedures for transfer of employees between various facilities, and a number of fringe benefits available to employees throughout the company. An employee handbook was introduced which he testified generally governs the policies, practices, procedures, rules and regulations concerning employees of the corporation in all of its divisions. The testimony of this witness confirmed that the local unit manager made the decisions on hiring, firing, and disciplining of employees and that staff officers only made recommendations. The testimony developed that similar procedures were followed with respect to transfers, leaves of absence, promotions, overtime and pay adjustments. In all of these matters the Company promulgated general guidelines and regulations, but each individual unit manager possessed a significant degree of discretion in matters affecting employees. From the entire record it is evident that the individual facility managers had authority beyond the mere power to implement centrally formulated policies.
In NLRB v. Pinkerton's, Inc., 428 F.2d 479 (6th Cir. 1970), while overturning a unit determination made by the Board, this Court affirmed the principle that the Board's decision on whether a given unit is appropriate will not be disturbed except for an abuse of discretion or violation of the statute. In that opinion, at pages 484 and 485, there are set forth four controlling principles by which the Board is bound in making a unit determination. The Respondent in this case particularly stresses the fact that its labor policy is centrally determined, which is one of the principles referred to in Pinkerton's. Although there is evidence of centrally determined labor policies, the Board was justified in finding that the individual unit managers of Wolverine, while operating within company guidelines, maintained individual initiative in a number of personnel areas and had final responsibility in matters of critical importance to employees. The Board was also justified in finding from the...
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