Meyer Label Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Sep 30, 1977

232 N.L.R.B. 933 (N.L.R.B. 1977)

MEYER LABEL CO.
Meyer Label Co. and Local One, Amalgamated
Lithographers of America, affiliated with Interna-
tional Typographical Union, AFL-CIO, Petitioner.
Case 2-RC-17619
September 30, 1977
DECISION ON REVIEW AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
BY CHAIRMAN FANNING AND MEMBERS
PENELLO AND MURPHY
On June 6, 1977, the Acting Regional Director for
Region 2 issued his Decision and Order in the above-
entitled proceeding, in which he dismissed the
petition seeking a unit of the Employer's lithographic
production employees. The Acting Regional Director
concluded that the employees sought did not
constitute a traditional lithographic process unit
which the Board has found to be an appropriate craft
unit.
Thereafter, in accordance with Section 102.67 of
the National Labor Relations Board Rules and
Regulations, Series 8, as amended, Petitioner filed a
timely request for review of the Acting Regional
Director's decision on the ground, inter alia, that the
Acting Regional Director's refusal to grant Petition-
er's requested unit constituted a departure from
officially reported precedent.
By telegraphic order dated July 8, 1977, the Board
granted Petitioner's request for review. Thereafter,
the Employer filed a brief on review.
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the
National Labor Relations Act, as amended, the
National Labor Relations Board has delegated its
authority in this proceeding to a three-member panel.
The Board has considered the entire record in this
case, including the brief on review, with respect to
the issues under review and makes the following
findings:
The Employer is engaged in specialty printing,
primarily on cloth, and has a complement of
approximately 30 employees. As indicated, Petitioner
seeks to represent a unit of the Employer's litho-
graphic production employees. The Employer con-
tends that a separate lithographic unit is not
appropriate in view of the nature of its operations
I There are six lithographic press operators located on the third floor and
two employees who do lithographic camera work and platemaking in the art
department on the seventh floor. Employees engaged in lighographic
camera work and platemaking are traditionally included in lithographic
craft units. George Rice & Sons. 212 NL.RB 947 1974).
2 The Acting Regional Director found there was no separate supervision
for these employees. Martin Freling, the company president, gave the
following testimony with respect to the supervision of the lithographers:
Q. Now, I'd like to talk for a moment about Frank Mosera. He is
the offset foreman, is that correct, sir?
232 NLRB No. 142
and that the only appropriate unit would be an
overall production and maintenance unit.
The Employer's facilities are located on various
floors of three contiguous buildings on East 16th
Street in New York City. The preparatory work, such
as designing, filming, and lithographic stripping and
platemaking, is performed by four employees in the
art department located on the seventh floor of 5 East
16th Street. Fabric cutting is done on the third and
fourth floors of all three buildings by approximately
seven employees. Cut fabric and lithographic plates
are sent to the printing area, located on the third
floors of 5 and 7 East 16th Street. The printing area
contains seven or eight offset presses, seven letter-
presses, and seven cutting machines. There are 17
employees who work on the third floor, including 6
of the 8 employees sought by Petitioner.' After the
printing operation, the cut and printed materials are
sent to the shipping department located on the fourth
floor.
The employees sought by Petitioner all perform
duties related to the lithographic (offset) printing
process. As indicated, six of them operate standard
lithographic presses while the other two are primarily
engaged in lithographic camera work and platemak-
ing. There is some interchange between the offset
press operators and other employees; however, it is
of an infrequent nature, occurring either in emergen-
cy situations or when a lithographic run ends. In
such circumstances, the performance of tasks apart
from the offset work is done primarily by the lesser
skilled offset employees, whereas four of the more
highly skilled lithographic press operators spend
virtually all of their time working on the offset
presses. The record discloses that it takes from 3 or 4
months to a year before an employee can operate the
offset presses efficiently, and employees who transfer
from letterpress to offset must be retained. The
employees operating the lithographic equipment
possess considerable skill and perform sophisticated
wet offset lithographic work, including four-color
jobs. Although the Employer's operations are headed
by President Freling and its plant manager, the
Employer itself has recognized the separate function-
al areas or departments, including offset, by desig-
nating certain individuals as foremen or supervisors
of the respective employees. 2
A. Supervisor, yes, foreman.
Q. What does he do as offset foreman?
A. All right. He operates a press, one. Number two, he helps the
men set up. He goes upstairs occasionally to pick up the plates. He goes
back into the sheeting area to find out the availability of materials. He
helps the men mix inks wherever required. He gets involved with some
ordenng work as far as inks are concerned. He gets the production
copies down from upstairs and might assign the normal jobs, as to
which one would be assigned to which particular person, what type of
(Continued)
933
DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
The Acting Regional Director found that the
Employer's operations were highly integrated and,
noting the lack of physical separation between the
offset pressmen ahd other employees, among other
factors, concluded that the lithographic employees
did not possess a community of interest separate
from that of the other production and maintenance
employees. We disagree. We find merit in Petitioner's
contention that a traditional unit of lithographic
employees, including those engaged in lithographic
camera work and platemaking, exists here.
The Board has traditionally found that "employees
engaged in the lithographic process form a distinct
and cohesive unit appropriate for collective-bargain-
ing purposes." 3 The employees involved herein
operate standard lithographic equipment which
requires a degree of skill commensurate with that
found in other traditional lithographic craft units.
The employees sought are engaged in commercial
lithographic work, including four-color wet offset
printing. This is recognized as requiring greater skill
than the dry offset process. 4 The fact that the
Employer's physical layout does not provide a
separation of the lithographic employees from other
employees does not, in these circumstances, detract
from the fact that the employees sought are predomi-
priority is given to him, coming from either myself or Sam Finander
The foregoing demonstrates that the Employer utilizes Mosera as the
foreman or supervisor of the lithographic employees To this extent the
Employer itself has recognized the separate identity of the employees
performing such duties. Though we have considered this factor in
determining whether the employees sought constitute an appropriate unit,
we need not make a determination as to whether Mosera is a supervisor
within the meaning of the Act.
3 George Rice & Sons, supra at 948. See also The I.ord Baltimore Press,
Inc., 144 NLRB 1376 (1963), and Sherwin-Williams Co., 173 NLRB 316
(1968).
4 Compare Continental (an C., 171 NLRB 798 (1968).
5 George Rice & Sons. supra; Paramount Press, Inc., 187 NLRB 586
(1970).
nantly engaged in traditional lithographic work. Nor
does the degree of integration of the Employer's
operation or the limited instances of interchange
negate the finding that a separate unit of lithographic
employees is appropriate here. Rather, we conclude
that the nature of the work performed by these
employees and the skills required, which are recog-
nized by the Employer as warranting a separate
immediate foreman or supervisor, establish that these
employees are craft-like and have a community of
interest separate and apart from other production
and maintenance employees. 5
Accordingly, we find that a question concerning
representation exists as to the following employees
who constitute a unit appropriate for the purpose of
collective bargaining 6 within the meaning of Section
9(b) of the Act:
All employees engaged in lithographic production
work, including pressmen, cameramen, strippers,
and platemakers, excluding all other employees,
office clerical employees, guards, and all supervi-
sors as defined in the Act.
[Direction of Election and Excelsior footnote
omitted from publication.]
6 The cases relied on by the Acting Regional Director are distinguish-
able. Walt Disney World Co., 215 NLRB 421 (1974). United Paciric Insurance
Company. 190 NLRB 218 (1971), and J. Weingarten, Inc., 191 NLRB 149
(1971). involved noncommercial printing operations requiring little litho-
graphic skill; any sophisticated lithographic work was contracted out, and,
in two situations, Walt Disney and J. Weingarten, the employees involved
did no color printing. In Check Printers, Inc., 205 NLRB 33 (1973),
employees could gain proficiency in as short a period as 2 months, the
operation was highly integrated with common supervision, and the printing
being done was simple and highly reptitious, with the basic forms for bank
checks and deposit slips being constantly reused. Finally, in Weyerhauser
Company, 142 NLRB 1169 (1963), the employer used only one offset press
and interchanged employees frequently among the various presses.
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