Milprint, Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Nov 30, 1951

97 N.L.R.B. 241 (N.L.R.B. 1951)

MILPRINT, INCORPORATED 241
the multiplant production and maintenance unit that it now repre-
sents, and the Regional Director will issue a certificate of results of
election to such effect.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this
volume.]
MILPRINT, INCORPORATED and INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF ELEC-
TRICAL WORKERS, LOCAL UNION 494, AFL, PETITIONER. Case No.
13-IBC-2166. November 30, 1951
Decision and Direction of Election
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National
Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before Herman J. DeKoven,
hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are
free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3 (b) of the Act, the Board has
delegated its powers in connection with this case to a three-member
panel [Members Houston, Murdock and Styles].
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the Act.
2. The labor organizations involved claim to represent certain
employees of the Employer.'
3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the representa-
tion of employees of the Employer within the meaning of Section 9
(c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
4. The Petitioner requests that the Board find appropriate a unit
consisting of all journeyman electricians, apprentices, and electronic
technicians at the Employer's Milwaukee, Wisconsin, plant, excluding
supervisors and all other employees. The Intervenor and the Em-
ployerer assert the only appropriate unit is the existing bargaining
group covering all employees with the exception of the lithographic
department, the rotary pressroom, and printing employees.
The Employer's Milwaukee plant is engaged in the conversion of
film into packages and printing labels and similar material thereon.
There are approximately 600 employees in the broad production and
maintenance unit represented by the Intervenor which has been the
bargaining agent since 1937. The employees whom. the Petitioner
' United Paper Workers of America, CIO, Local Number 356, herein called the Intervenor,
was granted permission to intervene at the hearing upon the showing of a contractual in-
terest in the representation of these employees.
97 NLRB No. 34.
242 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
seeks to sever from the existing unit are assigned'to the electrical and
electronics departments of the plant maintenance force. There are
six journeymen electricians and one apprentice in the electrical depart-
ment while two electronic technicians comprise the other department.
The electricians are supervised by a foreman whose authority and work
are restricted to that group alone while the electronics department
is under the assistant chief electrician. Both these supervisors report
to the chief electrician, who, in turn, is responsible to the works
engineer in charge of all building and machine maintenance and
installation.
The duties of the journeymen electricians are to install, service, and
maintain all electrical equipment within the plant, with the exception
of electronic equipment, and to experiment with various types of heat-
producing parts used in the film-conversion process. The electronic
technicians have the responsibility of maintenance of electronic equip-
ment and electrical work where electronic tubes are involved as well
as certain developmental work in that field: Both the electricians and
the electronic technicians are considered skilled employees during
standard electrical maintenance work. The electronic technicians, on
occasion, do repair work outside the Milwaukee plant on other installa-
tions of the Employer and both groups receive higher than average.
pay rates. The two departments occupy adjoining shops which are
separated from the remainder of the maintenance force and the pro-
duction employees by wire partitions.
The Employer and the Intervenor both contend that the elec-
tricians and the electronic technicians, by themselves, do not con-
stitute an appropriate bargaining group. In this respect it is con-
'tended that the employees in question do not comprise a sufficiently
skilled, or distinguishable, grouping to warrant severance from the
established unit of which they are now a part. We find no merit in
this contention. While it is true that the Employer does not conduct
an apprenticeship program,' the record shows that the skills of the
electricians approximate those of the ordinary maintenance electrician
and that their work demands corresponding training. That this
training is secured through on-the-job instruction lacking the formal
designation of an apprenticeship period is not decisive.3 Again, while
2 while the Employer classifies these employees as "journeyman electrician " and "appren-
tice" the designations are for job classification purposes only and do not represent partici-
pation in any organized apprenticeship program The Employer generally prefers electri-
cal experience for an applicant to a job in the departments but production employees with-
out such experience may transfer into the department under certain circumstances Each
employee is then given training on the job and receives the classification 'Of "apprentice "
Upon reaching the top of this pay bracket, the employee may become a "journeyman" when
a vacancy is available in that classification . The electronics department, created in 1950,
Is staffed by employees who had received training in the electrical department
' See United States Rubber Company, 81 NLRB 17.
J. C. PENNEY COMPANY, INC. 243
the electricians may occasionally do minor nonelectrical work, and
the electronic technicians at times operate an electronic production
machine, it is clear that the normal range and type of duties performed
by these employees are within the confines of the electrical craft.
Upon the entire record, the Board finds that all electricians, appren-
tices, and electronic technicians at the Employer's Milwaukee, Wis-
consin, plant, excluding the` electrical department .foreman, the
assistant chief electrician, office and clerical employees, professional
employees, guards, and all supervisors as defined in the Act, as
amended, comprise a highly skilled, homogeneous,- and identifiable
craft group who may constitute an appropriate bargaining unit not-
withstanding their previous inclusion in a larger bargaining group .4
However, we shall not make any unit determination as to these em-
ployees until we have first ascertained their desires in the matter. If a
majority vote for the Petitioner they will be taken to have indicated
their desire to constitute a separate appropriate unit, and the Regional
Director conducting the election directed herein is instructed to issue
a certification of representatives to the Petitioner for the unit
described above, which the Board, under such circumstances, finds to
be appropriate for purposes of collective bargaining. In the event a
majority vote for the Intervenor, the Board finds the existing unit
to be appropriate and the Regional Director will issue a certificate of
results of election to such effect.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this
volume.]
* See Bunker Hill and Sullivan Mining and Concentrating Company, et al., 89 NLRB 243,
and cases cited therein
J. C. PENNEY COMPANY, INC. and RETAIL CLERKS INTERNATIONAL
ASSOCIATION, LocAL No. 1119, AFL , PETITIONER . Case No. 20-RC-
14-39. November 30, 1951
Decision and Direction of Election
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, a hearing was held before Louis S. Penfield, hearing
officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from
prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3 (b) of the Act, the Board
has delegated its powers in connection with this case to a three; member
panel [Chairman Herzog and Members Reynolds and Styles].
97 NLRB No 45.