Southwest Tablet Manufacturing Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Feb 14, 1951

93 N.L.R.B. 278 (N.L.R.B. 1951)

278 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
All the employees exercise a high degree of skill acquired in the course
of a 4-year training plan at the Employer's plant or its equivalent
elsewhere. Their rate schedule is higher than that of any other group
of employees of the Employer except the lithographers. Notwith-
standing the bargaining history on a broader basis and the partial
supervision of machinists working in the production areas by produc-
tion supervisors, we find that these employees possess and exercise
the high degree of skill normally found in their craft, and may, if
they so desire, constitute a separate bargaining unit.4 Accordingly,
we shall direct that separate elections by secret ballot be held among
the employees of the Employer's plant number 16 at Baltimore, Mary-
land, in the following voting groups :
(1) All tool and die makers, machinists, their helpers and appren-
tices, including engine lathe and grinder operators, but excluding all
other employees, guards, and supervisors.
(2) All production and maintenance employees, excluding all em-
ployees included in voting group (1) above, office clerical and profes-
sional employees, guards, and supervisors.
If the employees in voting group (1) select the Machinists, they will
be taken to have indicated their desire to constitute a separate bar-
gaining unit.°
[Text of Direction of Elections omitted from publication in this
volume.]
4 National Biscuit Company , 88 NLRB 313 ; Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, 85
NLRB 559; Continental Can Co., Inc., 76 NLRB 131; National Container Corporation,
Inc., 75 NLRB 92.
S As the Machinists indicated at the hearing that it did not desire to represent the
employees in a plant-wide unit, we shall not place its name on the ballot in voting group
( 2) .
E. H. PERRY, E. H. PERRY, JR., T. A. HARRIS, AND E. H. PERRY, JR.,
TRUSTEE D/B/A SOUTHWEST TABLET MANUFACTURING COMPANY' and
LOCAL UNION No. 46, DALLAS PRINTING PRESSMAN AND ASSISTANTS'
UNION, AFL, PETITIONER. Case No. 16-RC-634. February 14,1951
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 H. Carnie Russell,
hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are
free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
' The name of the Employer appears as corrected at the hearing.
93 NLRB No. 37.
SOUTHWEST TABLET MANUFACTURING COMPANY 279
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-mem-
ber panel [Chairman Herzog and Members Houston and Reynolds].
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds:
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
theAct.
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 appropriate unit:
The Petitioner seeks a unit of printing department employees ex-
-eluding all other plant employees, office and clerical employees, guards
and watchmen, professional employees, and supervisors. The Em-
ployer and the Intervenor, United Paperworkers of America, CIO,
contend that the only appropriate unit is the existing plant-wide
unit.
The Employer is' engaged, at its plant at Dallas, Texas, in the manu-
facture of school and stationery supplies, tickets, and coupon books.
It employs approximately 135 employees in 7 production departments :
(1) Shipping and receiving; (2) ruling; (3) printing; (4) bindery;
(5) binder; (6) envelope; and (7) maintenance. All departments are
located on,the ground floor of the Employer's only building; for se-
curity reasons the printing, shipping and receiving, and maintenance
departments are separated from the surrounding areas by wire net-
ting. All employees, regardless of the department in which they are
employed, work under -the same general conditions, and enjoy the
same rights, privileges, and benefits. Since 1945, when the Intervenor
won a consent election in the plant, all production and maintenance
employees have been included in a single bargaining unit under suc-
cessive contracts between the Employer and the Intervenor.
In the printing department-the only department involved here-
in-whatever printing is needed on the tablets, loose leaf fillers, en-
velopes, and other articles manufactured by the Employer is done and
tickets of various types are printed and wound into rolls or stapled
into pads. In addition, some work is done for other printers. There
are approximately 21 employees in the department, including press-
men (classified as compositor, cylinder, webb, job, and reserve seat
ticket pressmen), pressmen trainees, a press washer, a reserve seat
ticket verifier, bindery girls, assistant bindery girls, and cutters.
The pressmen and pressmen trainees "make ready" and operate the
printing presses. Usually, it takes from 1 to 2 years for an inexperi-
enced employee to learn to setup and operate the presses without im-
280 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
mediate supervision. No prior printing experience is required of
new employees, inexperienced workmen being trained on the job. The
only formal training program carried on by the Employer is a 2-year
G. I. training course. There are no other pressmen in the plant. The
press washer is an unskilled employee who cleans the presses, sweeps up
the department, and occasionally loads the presses. The reserve seat
ticket verifier checks tickets after they have been printed to be sure
they are correct. The bindery girls and assistant bindery girls as-
semble coupons and forms of various kinds after they have been print-
ed. Their duties ate substantially the same as those of employees in
the same categories in the bindery department, and they operate simi-
lar machines. The cutters prepare raw materials for printing and trim
the finished products. The perform the same duties and use the
same kind of machines as cutters in the bindery and envelope de-
partments. Neither the bindery girls nor the cutters do any work
on the printing presses, and their physical location in the printing de-
partment appears to be entirely a matter of convenience.
The Petitioner's attempt to sever the entire printing department
from the existing plant-wide unit rests in substance upon the con-
tention that the employees there constitute a craft group. We do not
agree that the proposed unit can be appropriate on this basis, for it
is clear that a number of these employees-the press washer, the
reserve seat ticket verifier, the bindery and assistant bindery girls,
and the cutters-do work requiring neither a high degree of skill nor
any extended training period. Nor does it appear that these em-
ployees constitute a severable departmental unit. The cutters and
bindery girls perform substantially the same duties as employees in
similar categories in other departments. Moreover, many of the
employees in the printing department do work which is not con-
nected with the printing process. Under these circumstances, we
believe that the printing department employees, as a group, lack a
sufficient community of interests, separate and apart from other pro-
duction and maintenance employees, to warrant their severance from
the broader unit.
However, the Board has frequently recognized that printing press-
men such as those involved herein constitute a well-defined craft
group,2 and has accorded them the opportunity of obtaining separate
representation despite a history of bargaining on a broader basis .3
While it is true that these pressmen may be less skilled than their
counterparts in some other commercial printing shops, they neverthe-
less require several years' training and do the traditional work of their
,craft. What transfers were shown in and out of the pressmen's group
2 DeMay's, Inc., Si NLRB 1374 • Southern Central Company , 77 NLRB 247; Wilson-Jones
Company, 75 NLRB 706, Weston Tablet and Stationery Company, 31 NLRB 597.
3 Southern Central Company, supra ; Wilson-Jones Company, supra.
CHILDS COMPANY 281
appear to have been for the purpose of starting some employee's
training for pressman's work or of placing a former press operator
on different work. There is no evidence of such interchange of work-
men between pressmen and other categories as to indicate similarity
of work between the pressmen group and other departments.
We find, therefore, that the pressmen and pressmen trainees, with-
out the other employees in the printing department, may, if they so
desire, constitute a separate unit, or may continue to be represented as
part of the existing production and maintenance unit. Accordingly,
we shall direct an election in the following voting group :
All pressmen and pressmen trainees employed by the Employer in
the printing department of its plant at Dallas, Texas, excluding the
press washer, reserve seat ticket verifier, bindery girls, assistant bind-
ery girls, and cutters in the printing department, all other plant em-
ployees, guards and watchmen, professional employees, and super-
visors as defined in the Act.
However, we shall make no final unit determination at this time, but
,shall be guided in part by the desires of these employees as expressed
in the election. If a majority vote for the Petitioner, they will be
taken to have indicated their desire to constitute a separate unit.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this
volume.]
CHILDS COMPANY and RUSSELL R. POTTER and CHAIN SERVICE RESTAU-
RANT EMPLOYEES UNION, LOCAL 42, AFFILIATED WITH HOTEL AND
RESTAURANT EMPLOYEES AND BARTENDERS INTERNATIONAL UNION,
A. F. OF L., PARTY TO THE CONTRACT
CHAIN SERVICE RESTAURANT EMPLOYEES UNION, LOCAL 42, AFFILIATED
WITH HOTEL AND RESTAURANT EMPLOYEES AND BARTENDERS INTER-
NATIONAL UNION, A. F. of L. and RUSSELL R. POTTER and CHILDS
COMPANY, PARTY TO THE CONTRACT. Cases Nbs. 2-CA-420 and
2-CB-130.-February 15, 1951
Decision and Order
On November 18, 1949, Trial Examiner Sidney Lindner orally
granted the motion of the Respondent Union to dismiss the complaint
herein on the ground that it would not effectuate the policies of the
Act for the Board to assert jurisdiction in this case. Upon request by
the General Counsel, the Board reviewed this ruling of the Trial
Examiner and, on February 15, 1950, reversed it and ordered the case
remanded with instructions to hear the case on its merits and to
prepare and issue an Intermediate Report thereon. Pursuant to this
93 NLRB No. 35.