Chicago Rotoprint Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Feb 14, 1947

72 N.L.R.B. 620 (N.L.R.B. 1947)

In the Matter of CHICAGO ROTOPRINT COMPANY, EMPLOYER and"
CHICAGO MAILERS UNION LOCAL No. 2 , INTERNATIONAL TYPOGRAPHI-
CAL UNION , A. F. L., PETITIONER
Case No. 13-R-3730.-Decided February 14, 1947
Messrs. Herman M. Finch , Edward F. Muhl, and G. A. Preucil, of
Chicago, Ill., for the Employer.
Messrs . Louis Bannerman and N. 111. Di Pietro, of Chicago, Ill., for
the Petitioner.
Messrs. Lester Asher ,, JohnJ.oHeelan , and Louis F. Coty, of Chicago,
Ill., for the Intervenor.
Mr. Martin Sacks, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
ORDER
Upon a petition duly filed, hearing in this case was held at Chicago,
Illinois, on September 12, 1946, before Joseph Hektoen, hearing of-
ficer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from
prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed. Intervenor's request for
oral argument before the Board is hereby denied, inasmuch as we
are of the opinion that the record adequately presents the issues and
positions of the parties.
Upon the entire record in the case, the National Labor Relations
Board makes the following :
FINDINGS OF FACT
I. THE BUSINESS OF THE EMPLOYER
Chicago Rotoprint Company, an Illinois corporation, is engaged in
the printing business in Chicago, Illinois. The Employer annually
purchases raw materials valued in excess of $100,000, 80 percent of
which represents purchases from outside the State. The Employer
annually receives for its printed products in excess of $100,000, ap-
proximately 5 percent of which represents payment for printed mat-
ter shipped to points outside the State of Illinois.
The Employer admits and we find that it is engaged in commerce
within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act.
72 N L. R. B, No. 119.
620
CHICAGO ROTOPRINT COMPANY 621
IT. THE ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED
The Petitioner is a labor organization affiliated with the American
Federation of Labor, claiming to represent employees of the Employer.
Chicago Paper Handlers' Union, Local No. 2, of the International
Printing Pressmen and Assistants' Union of North America, herein
called the Intervenor, is a labor organization affiliated with the Ameri-
can Federation of Labor, claiming to represent employees of the
Employer.
III. THE ALLEGED APPROPRIATE UNIT ,
The Petitioner seeks a unit consisting of 7 of the 30 employees in
the shipping and receiving department of the Employer's printing
plant. These 7 employees, asserted by the Petitioner to be engaged
in "mailers work," are the 3 electric truckmen engaged in the moving
of printed material from the presses to the shipping room and loading
platform, the 2 load tiers who band together loads of printed material
by means of a band tying machine, the scow man who bands loads of
printed material to boards in order to insure greater protection on
longer shipments, and the shipping clerk.,,
Both the Intervenor and the Employer take the position that the
unit sought is inappropriate, and that the entire shipping and receiv-
ing department, in which the Intervenor is currently the bargaining
representative, constitutes the appropriate unit herein.2
The plant involved in this proceeding is engaged in the production
of rotogravure signatures or sections of color printed material which
are shipped to, binderies to become part of magazines, mail order
catalogues, and commercial booklets. The plant is divided into three
departments, viz, the shipping and receiving room, the pressroom 3
and a warehouse or storage room. Adjoining the shipping and
receiving room, on one side, is a railroad siding, and on the other side
is a loading- platform. The activities carried on in the shipping and
receiving- room consist of the unloading and movement of roll paper
to the pressroom, the movement of printed material from the presses
to the shipping room and loading platform, the baling of waste paper,
and the preparation of printed material for shipment.
' The petition alleges as appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining a unit
including "all employees who, subsequent to the printed material leaving the presses, pick
up loads of printed material and transfer such printed material to the shipping room,
storage room or box cars or motor trucks by means of electrical trucks : employees who
band or tie printed material on skids or scows by hand or use of mechanical devices .
employees who snip , receive, bundle, label, wrap or mail printed material , by hand or
use of mechanical devices, including foremen or assistant foremen supervising such
employees "
2 The Intervenor moved to dismiss the petition on the ground , among others, that the
unit sought by Petitioner is inappropriate Both the Intervenor and the Employer also
urge as a ground for dismissal that the contract, which was executed before the filing of
the instant petition, constitutes a bar to this proceeding However, for reasons appearing
below , we find it unnecessary to pass on that question
3 The shipping room contains two presses , in addition to those in the pressroom.
622 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
The unit of seven of the employees of the shipping and receiving
,department sought by the Petitioner does not conform to any adminis-
trative or functional grouping in the plant. The Petitioner apparently
,contends, however, that the normal and regular assignment of the
employees in question to the common task of handling printed material
justifies the creation of a separate mailers' craft grouping for the pur-
pose of collective bargaining. We do not agree. While the requested
employees may, in the course of handling printed material, perform
some of the operations identified with the mailers' craft,` their basic
function is that of shipping and receiving employees. Thus, although
the type of electric donkey trucks used to move imprinted roll paper
differs from that used to move printed material, and although em-
ployees are regularly assigned to one or the other type of truck, this
is due to the Employer's need for efficiency rather than to any dis-
tinction in the operation of either type of truck. Indeed, it appears
that the process of learning the operation of either type of truck would
take less than a week. Moreover, the distinction between those who
handle printed material as trucknnen or load tiers and those who
"handle unprinted paper appears, in part, to result from the shift to
which an employee is assigned, rather than from any recognized craft
skill. The record indicates, in this connection, that shipments of roll
Taper are normally received in the day time, or first shift, and that, at
such times, all available men are assigned to the railroad platform,
without distinguishing between those who normally handle printed
or unprinted paper. It shows further that the handling almost ex-
clusively of printed material by four of the individuals claimed by
Petitioner to be mailers is clue to the fact that they work on the second
and third shifts when no shipments of paper arrive. The lack of any
basis for distinction among employees in this department is further
borne out by the facts that all employees therein have the same super-
visor, that there are no mailer foremen or assistant mailer foremen
such as Petitioner seeks, and that there is here absent any separate
mailing room, or any physical separation between the claimed em-
ployees and the others in the shipping room. In addition to the fore-
going, it appears that there is some interchange among the employees
in the shipping room, and that the work of all 30 employees in this
department is closely integrated and coordinated.
Accordingly, inasmuch as the unit sought is without distinct craft
or departmental characteristics, and otherwise lacks homogeneity, we
"The Boaui has, in the past, defined mailers as those employees in a mailing loom Who
are engaged in wrapping, bundling, stamping typing, conveying and addressing of fin-
ished printed mateual See Matter of The Post Printing and Publishing Company, 59
N 7. R B 1115, Matter of Cincinnati Daily Newspaper Publishing Association, 55 N 1,
R B 571, Matter of A S Abell Company, 51 N L R B 1162, Matter of IV F Hall
Printing Company. 51 N L R Ii 640 , Matter of Flo?ide Publishing Company, 50 N L
Ti B 229 , Matter of R R Donnelley cf Sons, 59 N L I: B 122
CHICAGO ROTOPRINT COMPANY 623
perceive no basis on which to establish its appropriateness. We find,
therefore, that the unit sought by Petitioner is inappropriate, and, we
shall grant the Intervenor's motion to dismiss the instant petition.
IV. TILE ALLEGED QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
Since the bargaining unit sought to be established by the petition is
not appropriate, as found in Section III, above, we find that no ques-
tion affecting commerce has arisen concerning the representation of
employees of the Employer within the meaning of Section 9 (c) of
the Act.
ORDER
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED , that the petition for investigation and certifi-
cation of representatives of employees of Chicago Rotoprint Com-
pany, filed by Chicago Mailers Union No. 2, International Typo-
graphical Union, A. F. L., be, and it hereby is, dismissed.
731242-47-vol 72-41