Ralphs Grocery Co. v. Amalgamated Meat Cutters & Butcher Workmen, Local No. 439

MOORE, P. J. Appeal from a judgment of dismissal made pursuant to an order sustaining a demurrer without leave to amend.

The complaint alleges substantially as follows: Appellant operates a chain of retail grocery markets in Los Angeles County. Those located in Pasadena and Alhambra are within the area of bargaining activity of respondent union. Appellant contracted with respondent to fix the wages, hours, and other terms of its meat market employees. Fourteen types of employees are listed ranging from a market operator or head meat cutter at $95 a week and back-room man at $85 per week down to wrappers at $60 a week. A controversy arose over what employees fall within the category of back-room man. The contract defines the back-room man as one who puts in 20 hours or more of his work week in the back room. The work is not to be divided between two or more men in any one market to defeat the purpose of this clause. The same definition appears in each of the annual collective bargaining agreements since 1943. The description of a back-room man in the contract at first impression was explicit but upon reflection it merely defines him as to the place where he works. When the definition of a back-room man was first incorporated in the contracts the work he performed was well known in the trade, to wit, breaking down the large sides of animals into smaller cuts for display in the meat counters, grinding meats and maintaining the storage cooler in a clean and orderly condition.

In September, 1947, at the Pasadena market and in July, 1949, in the Alhambra market, appellant installed a new method of marketing meats by cutting them into a size suitable for domestic use, wrapping such cuts and displaying them [541]in self-service refrigerated counters where the customers make their selections. The meats so chosen are taken to a cashier who collects the price marked on each. The over-all effect of the new method substitutes the frozen food display refrigerator for the meat counter behind which the journeyman formerly cut meat in accordance with a customer’s directions. With the frozen food display the journeyman is no longer used behind the meat counter but works in the back room. Although the journeymen and the back-room men now work in the back room the distinction between the character of work done by each is maintained; back-room men do the heavy work of breaking down the large carcasses and of grinding meat while the journeymen cut and prepare the pieces in sizes suitable for cooking.

The controversy has arisen because respondents contend that the place where the work is done, as distinguished from the character of the work done in such place, determines the wage category into which the employees fall. The contract fixed the journeyman’s pay at $80 per week.