Pacific Coast Association of Pulp and Paper Manufacturers

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

May 15, 1951

94 N.L.R.B. 477 (N.L.R.B. 1951)

PACIFIC COAST ASSOCIATION OF PULP AND PAPER MFRS. 477
of the exercise of the asserted authority was that Stonitsch had recom-
mended the dismissal of the chief engineer, who was his acknowledged
supervisor. Stonitsch denied that he was a supervisor or, that he had
even been told he was. He also testified that he had never hired or
discharged anyone or recommended this or any other personnel action.
Newell testified similarly except that he stated that he once had been
asked if he could find anyone to act as relief operator when one was
needed immediately. He then suggested Nils Sahlberg to Mr. Hill
who hired him. We find that Stonitsch and Newell do not have the
authority to initiate recommendations for personnel action and that
their direction of others is merely the routine direction commonly
exercised by experienced employees. Accordingly, we find they are
not supervisors and shall include them in the unit.5
We find that all operators, combination announcer-operators, an-
nouncers,G and continuity writers at the Employer's Radio Station
WORZ, at Orlando, Florida, excluding all other employees and su-
pervisors at defined in the Act, constitute a unit appropriate for pur-
poses of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b)
of the Act.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this
volume.]
c Greater Erie Broadcasting Company , 92 NLRB No. 61.
e Included as announcers are Sam & Marcia Roen , whom the Petitioner and the Inter-
venor would exclude. Mr . and Mrs . Roen are employed in the program department.
Their main duties are preparing and putting on a program called "The Roens at Home"
which is sometimes broadcast from their own home, sometimes from the studio . On this
show the Roens do the announcing as well as the performing. The Roens also assist in
preparing material for other programs . Their work appears to be that frequently
designated in the industry as that of a special program announcer . Although they are
not hourly paid as are the other announcers, it does not appear that their working
interests are sufficiently differentiated from those of the other announcers to justify
excluding them from the unit.
PACIFIC COAST ASSOCIATION OF PULP AND PAPER MANUFACTURERS and
AMALGAMATED LITHOGRAPHERS OF AMERICA, CIO, PETITIONER.
Case No. 36-RC-438. May 15, 1951
Decision and Direction of Election
Upon a petition and amended petitions duly filed under Section 9
(c) of the National Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before
Milton Boyd, 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 Murdock].
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
94 NLRB No. 32.
478 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOAR.)
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the National Labor Relations Act.
2. The labor organizations involved claim to represent certain em-
ployees of the Employer?
3. The Employer contends that no question affecting commerce
exists because the Uniform Labor Agreement executed on June 1, 1950,
by the Employer and the Intervenors is a bar to this proceeding. The
Employer argues that the first amended petition filed herein on May
18, 1950, lacked the necessary representative showing,2 and was there-
fore insufficient to make a case within the jurisdiction of the Board;
and that the second amended petition, which redefined the unit, was
untimely as it was filed on June 27, 1950, after the execution of the
agreement. The adequacy of the Petitioner's showing is a matter for
administrative determination. Moreover, we are administratively
advised that the Petitioner met the minimum requirements at the
time of filing its first amended petition. Under the circumstances,
as the first amended petition is supported by a sufficient showing of
interest and the second amended petition represents no substantial
change in the Petitioner's earlier claim to representation,3 we find,
contrary to the contention of the Employer, that the agreement of
the parties, executed as it was after the filing of the first amended peti-
tion, is not a bar to this proceeding.
We find that a question affecting commerce exists concerning the
representation 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 seeks a unit of all lithographic production em-
ployees employed in all member plants, including pressmen, feeders,
helpers, artists, dot etchers, camera operators, photocomposers, nega-
tive assemblers and/or negative strippers, platemakers, platemaker
helpers, provers, grainers or grainermen, winders'and/or fly boys reg-
ularly assigned to lithographic operations, and apprentices in each
classification, excluding office and clerical employees, guards, profes-
sional employees, supervisors as defined in the Act, and all other em-
ployees. The employees sought are part of the unit of production and
maintenance employees currently established on an association-wide
basis. Although the Petitioner seeks an association-wide unit, the
record discloses that Fibreboard Products Inc. (hereinafter called
Fibreboard) is the only member of the Association that employs the
International Brotherhood of Paper Makers , AFL, and International Brotherhood,
Pulp, Sulphite and Paper Mill Workers, AFL, appeared jointly and were permitted to
intervene herein on the basis of their contractual interests.
2 The alleged insufficiency of the Petitioner ' s showing is based on the Employer's
estimate of the number of employees employed in the various categories in the unit
requested by the Petitioner , and the Petitioner 's own statement of the number of
employees supporting its petition.
8 Tennessee Copper Company , 88 NLRB 1516.
PACIFIC COAST ASSOCIATION OF PULP AND PAPER MFRS . 479
lithographic process in the production of paper cartons, so that an
association-wide lithographic unit would in effect be limited in scope
to the lithographic employees of Fibreboard.
The Employer and the Intervenors oppose any unit other than the
existing production and maintenance unit, and rest their contentions
on various grounds.
The Employer is an association of 17, manufacturers of pulp and
paper products employing some 15,000 employees in 35 plants. The
Association includes most of the pulp and paper manufacturers in the
Pacific coast area. It has bargained collectively with the Intervenors
since 1934, its current agreement having been executed on June 1, 1950.
Fibreboard, which owns and operates 8 plants of the 35 represented by
the Association, manufactures at 4 of its plants paper cartons, among
other products. It is the major manufacturer of cartons on the Pacific
coast. Although it uses the letterpress method of printing as a step
in the manufacture of cartons at all 4 plants, it uses the lithographic
printing process at only 2 of the 4 plants, those of Stockton, California,
and Portland, Oregon. In the Stockton plant, covered by the associa-
tion agreement, are some 1,000 employees, of whom 400 are employed
in the carton department, which includes 55 employees in the litho-
graphic department.' The carton department is one of the 4 major
departments at the Stockton plant, which is engaged not only in the
manufacture of cartons but in the manufacture of other products as
well. The Portland plant, on the other hand, although producing
labels by the lithographic process, is engaged almost entirely-in the
manufacture of cartons. Its total complement of employees numbers
some 200, of whom approximately 36 are in its lithographic depart-
ment.5
The manufacture of cartons calls for the coordination of the work
of many employees. The paper used in carton production is said to be
manufactured according to specification, the design of the carton is
worked out by artists, the cutting die is prepared by the diemakers,
and the printing plates for both the letterpresses and lithographic
presses are designed so that the printed carton blank conforms pre-
cisely to the shape of the cutting die. The lithographic process per-
forms no special function in the manufacture of the carton, for the
4 The term lithographic department is used by the Employer in 2 senses , ( 1) to denote
the department in which the lithographic pressmen , apprentices and helpers, and some
truckers and janitors are employed ; and (2 ) to denote the larger group engaged in
lithographic .production work, which group includes the platemaking department.
6 The record in the case discloses the follo « ing number of employees distributed among
the categories in the unit requested by the Petitioner : At the Stockton plant, 16 pressmen
and apprentices , 16 press helpers ( feeders ), 2 photocomposers , 3 platemakers , 1 grainer-
platemaker, 8 winders, and 6 extra winders ; at the Portland plant, 11 pressmen and
apprentices , 10 press helpers ( feeders ), 8 part-time press helpers , 4 artists, 1 camera
operator , 2 photocomposers , 3 platemakers , 1 prover and assistant cameraman, 2
grainermen , 2 winders , and 18 extra winders.
480 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
record shows that any design may be reproduced either by the letter-
press or by the lithographic process. Production schedules depend,
therefore, upon the respective workloads in the several carton plants.
The Employer and the Intervenors contend that the unit requested
by the Petitioner is inappropriate because of a predominant and emi-
nently successful pattern of collective bargaining on an industrial
and association-wide basis. While we do not question the excellent
results achieved by the parties in their long course of collective bar-
gaining on an association-wide basis,6 the Board's practice of granting'
separate representation notwithstanding a history of collective bar-
gaining on a broader basis to skilled groups of employees otherwise
entitled thereto is well established.7
The Employer and Intervenors also urge that the integrated char-
acter of the production process in the basic pulp and paper industry,
as well as the extent of integration among the work of production em-
ployees, including lithographic employees, makes inappropriate the
severance of the employees herein separately sought by the Petitioner.
Upon a recent reconsideration of this problem," we reaffirmed earlier
decisions permitting craft severance in the pulp and paper industry,
upon the ground that the pulp and paper industry does not possess the
basic elements which, when present in other cases,9 have led us to
deny separate craft representation. The principle thus established
is applicable here and is dispositive of the contention of the Inter-
venors and the Employer. Moreover, we find the contention of the
Intervenors and the Employer even less tenable where, as here, we are
concerned not so much with the primary operations of pulp and paper
manufacturers, but with the wholly distinct and separate manufactur-
ing operations of paper converters io
The Employer and Intervenors also contend that the proposed unit
lacks the homogeneity and cohesion of a craft group; in addition, they
challenge the appropriateness of the requested unit on the ground that
there are many employees excluded from the unit who do much litho-
graphic work, thereby making the unit only partial in scope and
therefore inappropriate. Indeed the initial petition of the Peti-
tioner included among the categories of employees sought such cate-
6 The Board gave recognition to such bargaining in Rayonier Incorporated, 52 NLRB
1269
See Bond Crown & Cork Co., 75 NLRB 1152, 83 NLRB 638 . See also The New71
Haven Pulp and Board Company, 83 NLRB 268.
8 See International Paper Company ( Southern Kraft Division ) and International Paper
Company ( Container Division ), 94 NLRB No. 81.
O National Tube Company, 76 NLRB 1199; The Permanente Metals Corporation, 89
NLRB 804; Weyerhaeuser Timber Company, 87 NLRB 1076
io We have not overlooked the Employers' challenge to the appropriateness of the unit
based upon the integrated wage structure and other association -wide collective bargaining
practices . we do not believe that such practices are sufficient to override the statutory
right of a craft group of employees to separate representation under ordinary
circumstances.
PACIFIC COAST ASSOCIATION OF PULP AND PAPER MFRS. 481
gories as inkmen, rollmen, composers, proofreaders, ream cuttermen,
truckers, letterpress winders, and sorter-inspectors, whose exclusion
from the unit is now put in issue.
The lithographic unit has long been considered as a process or
operational unit, and has been accorded separate representation on
this basis. The record in this case adequately establishes the fact
that the Fibreboard employees engaged in the lithographic process
perform the work customarily performed by lithographic employees
to whom'the Board has in other cases granted the right of separate
representation,1' and who, although trained exclusively in Fibre-
board's plants, possess all the skills customarily associated with em-
ployees engaged in the lithographic process.12
However, such classifications of employees as composers,13 proof-
readers, ream cuttermen, truckers, and sorter-inspectors, whose exclu-
sion is opposed by the Employer and Intervenors, are not, in the main,
classifications customarily considered part of a lithographic unit 14
For this reason we exclude them from the requested unit. As to the
other classifications, although the Board has on occasion included
inkmen in a unit of lithographic employees," we need not here re-
examine the appropriateness of their inclusion in the present unit,
nor need we examine the appropriateness of their inclusion of roll-
men.16 For we find that, because the record shows that inkmen and
rollmen spend more time in connection with the letterpresses than
with the lithographic presses, they cannot be considered an appropri-
ate part of the lithographic unit.'? Accordingly we shall exclude
them from the voting group hereinafter found appropriate.
There remains for consideration the question of including winders
and extra winders in the unit sought by the Petitioner. The Stock-
ton plant has 8 winders on regular assignment in the lithographic
department and 6 on extra assignment. The Portland plant has 2
winders on regular assignment and 18 on extra assignment. The
principal function of the winder is to pile paper stock between print-
ing operations, to mark, and-on occasion remove, defectively printed
sheets, to help with the cleaning of the lithographic presses, and
11 See Lord Baltimore Press, Inc, 73 NLRB 811.
12 The fact that Fibreboard is not part of the graphic arts Industry or that there Is
no history of separate representation for a lithographic unit in the pulp and paper industry
is not determinative of the issue. See Bond Crown & Cork Co., 83 NLRB 638.
11 The "composer" here referred to is not the photocomposer previously mentioned.
The employee in question, as part of his duties, prepares a black and white proof of the
design of a carton, on a small press in the letterpress section of the plant, which proof
is used in the preparation of the negative for the lithographic plate.
14 See The Madison Company, 92 NLRB No. 152.
11 See Lord Baltimore Press, Inc., supra
16 In addition to their specific tasks on letterpresses rollmen regrind inkrolls on the
lithographic presses and repair and maintain these dampening rolls.
17 See George Banta Publtishioig Company, 59 NLRB 669; Roberts & Son, 71 NLRB 294;
Lord Baltimore Press, Inc., supra.
953841-52-vol 94-32
482 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
also on occasion to serve as feeder on the presses. Although the
record shows that there are some temporary transfers of the regular
winders to other departments as work loads vary, and some slight
interchange with winders employed on the letterpresses, the major
portion of their work is performed in the lithographic department,
where they are considered as being regularly employed on the litho-
graphic presses. Moreover the record shows that the regular winders
in the Stockton plant, and to a lesser extent those in the. Portland
plant, are by established practice in the line of progression to journey-
man lithographer, such progression depending ultimately on seniority
and the existence of vacancies which allow for their advancement. In
view of the character of their duties and the fact that winders on
regular assignment do advance to journeyman lithographer and spend
a major portion of their time on the lithographic presses, we find that
they are an appropriate part of a lithographic unit. We shall, accord-
ingly, include them in the voting group hereinafter found appropriate.
The extra winders on lithographic work are selected in both plants
as the need arises. They may be selected with some measure of fre-
quency, but with no regularity. Furthermore, it is clear, on the basis
of the record that almost all the extra winders spend less than 50 per-
cent of their time in work on the lithographic presses, their regular
assignments being in the cutting or finishing departments. Because
of the foregoing, we find that these extra winders who spend a minor
portion of their scheduled working time on the lithographic presses
are not an appropriate part of a lithographic unit. Accordingly,
we shall exclude them from the voting group hereinafter found
appropriate.
As for the eight part-time press helpers (feeders) employed on the
lithographic presses at the Portland plant, the record indicates that
these part-time press helpers spend a major portion of their working
time in departments other than the lithographic department. In ac-
cordance, therefore, with the Board's established rule, we shall exclude
these part-time press helpers from the voting-group hereinafter found
appropriate.
We find that the lithographic employees whom the Petitioner seeks
to represent may, if they so desire, constitute a separate appropriate
unit, coextensive in scope with the broad multiemployer unit estab-
lished by the parties."' We shall not, however, make any final unit
determination at this time, but shall first ascertain the desires of these
employees as expressed in an election hereinafter directed.
We shall direct that an election be held by secret ballot among the
following employees of the Employer at the Stockton, California, and
Portland, Oregon, plants of Fibreboard Products Inc.: All pressmen,
11 T. C. King Pipe Company, 74 NLRB 468.
INTERNATIONAL PAPER COMPANY 483
press helpers (feeders) 19 artists, camera operators, photocomposers,
platemakers, provers and assistant cameramen, grainermen, grainer-
men-platemakers, and winders on regular assignment in the litho-
graphic department'20 excluding inkmen, rollmen, composers, proof-
readers, ream cuttermen, truckers, letterpress winders, and sorter-
inspectors, and also excluding office and clerical employees, guards,
professional employees, supervisors as defined in the Act, and all
other employees.
If, in this election, the employees in the above-described voting group
select the Petitioner, they will be taken to have indicated their desire
to constitute a separate collective bargaining unit.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this
volume.]
19 Not including the part-time press helpers who spend less than 50 percent of their
time in work on the lithographic presses.
20 Not including the extra winders who spend less than 50 percent of their time in work
on the lithographic presses.
INTERNATIONAL PAPER COMPANY, SOUTHERN DRAFT DIVISION and IN-
TERNATIONAL PAPER COMPANY , CONTAINER DIVISION and INTERNA-
TIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS , LODGE No. 1002, PETITIONER.
Cases Nos. 10-RC-910,10-RC-901,10-RC-902,10-RC-903,10-RC-
904, 10-RC-905,10-RC-906, and 10-RC-907. May 15,1951
Decision and Direction of Elections
Upon petitions duly filed,' a hearing on these consolidated cases was
held before James W. Mackle, hearing officer. The hearing officer's
rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are
hereby affirmed.2
At the request of the Employer, the International Brotherhood of
Paper Makers, the International Brotherhood of Pulp, Sulphite and
Paper Mill Workers, and the International Brotherhood of Electrical
Workers,3 the Board heard oral argument on March 13, 1951. All
1 The petitions and other formal papers were amended at the hearing to show the correct
name of the Employer.
2 The hearing officer referred to the Board the Employer's motion to delete from the
petitions all reference to International Paper Company , Container Division . For reasons
set forth herein, the motion is denied.
9 These labor organizations, collectively called the Joint Intervenors, and separately
referred to herein as the Paper Makers, Pulp Workers, and the Electricians, respectively,
intervened jointly. United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing
and Pipe Fitting Industry of the United States and Canada, A. F. L., hereinafter known
as the Pipefitters, the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Ship Builders
and Helpers of America , hereinafter known as the Boilermakers , and the International
Union of Operating Engineers, Local No. 497, hereinafter known as the Operating
Engineers , also intervened in this proceeding.
94 NLRB No. 81.