NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD

WI. PRINCIPLES ESTABLISRED 131
A question concerning representation has also been found where
the Board had previously ordered the employers to cease and desist
from bargaining collectively with any labor organization unless and
until such labor organization had been selected in an election conducted
by the Board as the bargaining agent of the employers and
where no such election had been conducted. Matter of Canadian
Fur Trappers Corporation.23
In Matter of Alaska Packers Association,24 the Board found a
question concerning representation to exist where the companies
contended that they had no employees of the type covered by the
petitions. The companies stated in support of their contention that
they were engaged in seasonal operations, that employment terminated
at the end of each season, and that they had ceased operations
prior to the filing of the petitions and had not resumed operations
at the time of the hearing. The Board stated :
The evidence is clear, however, that an employer-employee relationship eTists
between these cannery workers as a group and the Companies. The record
shows that the great majority of these workers return season after season to
work for one or another of these Companies. The fact that, as individuals,
they may not work for the same Company season after season, does not in any
way deprive them of the relationship which ttiey have with all three Companies
as a group. In this respect, their status is comparable to that of longshoremen
whose employment shifts from day to day among a small group of employers.
We have consistently held that longshoremen are employees within the meaning
of the Act and it follows that these cannery workers are none the less employees
entitled to all the benefits accorded employees under the Act. Nor can
it be argued that because these cannery workers engage in other occupations in
off-season periods, their relationship with the Companies is altered. The record
indicates that they constitute a clearly defined group of men to whom the
Companies turn year after year for their requirements.
In view of the foregoing facts it clearly appears that each person who was
employed in 1937 by any of the three Companies has an interest with respect
to employment in all the Companies for the 1938 season. It would be obviously
Improper, however, to permit any particular worker to assert such interest in
more than one of the Companies. Consequently we shall associate the employee
status of the individual at the present time with that company which employed
him in 1937. We shall, therefore, in determining the representatives herein,
consider the desires of the cannery workers in connection with the individual
companies which employed them during the 1937 season.
The Board also found a question concerning representation to exist
in Matter of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer 8tudios, 23 where the companies
contended that screen writers, who were the only employees covered
by the petitions, were not employees within the meaning of the act.
In support of this contention it was urged that the services performed
by screen writers are creative and professional in character,
whereas the act applies to more standardized and mechanical employments;
that screen writers receive high salaries, whereas the
act is intended for the protection of wage earners in the lower income
brackets; and that screen writers perform their services free
from the control of the companies and must, therefore, be considered
as independent contractors rather than employees. After
22 Matter of Canadian Fur Trappers Corporation, Canadian Fur Trappers of New Jersey,
Inc., Jordan's Inc., Morris Dornfeld, doing business as Werth's Wearing Apparel, and Department
and Variety Stores Employees Union, Local II5—A, 4 N. L. R. B. 904.
24 Matter of Alaska Packers Association and Alaska Cannery Workers Un,ion, Local No.
5, Committee ior IndustrWl Organization, 7 N. L. R. B. 141.
Matter of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios and Motion Picture Producers Assn., et al.,
and Screen Titers' Guild, Inc., 7 N. L. R. B. 662.