Court Square Press, Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Sep 30, 1942

44 N.L.R.B. 702 (N.L.R.B. 1942)

In the Matter of COURT SQUARE PRESS, INC. and BOSTON PRINTING
PRESSMEN'S UNION, LOCAL NO. 67 AND BOSTON PRESS ASSISTANTS'.
UNION, LOCAL No. 18 (A. F. OF L )
Case No. R-1,113.-Decided September 30, 194.?
Jurisdiction : printing industry.
Investigation and Certification of Representatives : existence of question : dis-
pute as to appropriate unit and i egnest for Board certification : election
necessary.
Unit Appropriate for Collective - Bargaining : all employees in the job press,
letter press, ticket press, and offset printing press departments, excluding
supervisory employees and errand boys
Sugarinan d Schnzeider, by Mr. Edward Schneider, of Boston, Mass.,
for the Company.
Mr. Anthony J. DeAndrade, of Boston, Mass., for the locals.
Mrs. Augn.sta S/ avldinq, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon a joint petition duly filed by Boston Printing Pressmen's
Union, Local No. 67, and Boston Press Assistants' Union, Local No.
18, herein collectively called the Locals and individually called, re-
spectively, Local No. 67 and Local No. 18, -alleging that a question
affecting commerce had arisen concerning the representation of em-
ployees of Court Square Press, Inc., Boston, Massachusetts, herein
called the Company, the National Labor Relations Board provided for
an appropriate hearing upon due notice before Samuel G. Zack, Trial
Examiner. Said hearing was held at Boston, Massachusetts, on July
30, 1942. The Company and the Locals appeared, participated, and
were afforded full opportunity to be heard, to examine and cross-
examine witnesses, and' to introduce -evidence bearing on the issues.
The Trial Examiner's rulings made at the hearing are free from preju-
dicial error and are hereby affirmed. On August 13, 1942, the Locals
and on August 24, 1942, the Company filed briefs which the Board has
considered.
44 N L R B, No 127
702
COURT SQUARE PRESS, INC. 703
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following :
FIN DINGS OF FACT
1. THE BUSINESS OF 1HE COMPANY
Court Square Press, Inc., is engaged in the production, sale, and
distribution of printing at Boston, Massachusetts. During the Year
ending April 30, 1941, the Company purchased materials, supplies, and
equipment valued at approximately $186 ,000, of which 43 percent was
shipped to its plants from points outside Massachusetts. During the
same period the Company's net sales amounted to approximately
$611,000, of which printed material valued between $60,000 and $70,000
was shipped from the plant to points outside Massachusetts. The
Company admits that it is engaged in commerce within the meaning
of the National Labor Relations Act.
II. THE ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED
Boston Printing Pressmen's Union, Local No. 67, and Boston Press
Assistants' Union, Local No. 18, are labor organizations affiliated with
International Printing Pressmen and Assistants' Union of North
Anierica and the American Federation of Labor, admitting to mem-
bership employees of the Company.
III. TILE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
On June 9, 1942, Local No. 67, one of the joint petitioners in the
instant proceeding, notified the Company that it represented a ma-
jority of the Company's pressmen and requested a bargaining confer-
ence. At the conference subsequently held, the Company questioned
the propriety of the unit proposed for bargaining and requested the
Itcard's certification. On June 19, Local No. 67 and Local No. 18
jointly filed the petition in this proceeding.
A statement prepared by the Regional Director and introduced into
evidence at the hearing indicates that the Locals represent a substan-
tial number of employees in the unit alleged to be appropriate?
1'e find that a question affecting commerce has arisen concerning
ilie representation of employees of the Company, within the meaning
of Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
' The Locals submitted to the Regional Director 14 application cards, indicating,that the
signers desired to be represented by a trade union affiliated with the American Federation
of Labor . Of these cards, 3 bear dates in 1941 and 11 in 1942 Thiee cards are applications
for membeisliip in International Biotheihood of Bookbinders , 9 in Allied Printing Trades
Council of Boston and Vicinity ; and 2 in Local No 67 Of these application cards, 10
appear to bear genuine signatuies of employees in the proposed unit of 21 employees.
0
704 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR . RELATIONS BOARD
IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT
G
The Locals contend that all employees in the job press , letter press,
and ticket press departments , excluding supervisory employees and
errand boys , constitute an appropriate bargaining unit. The pro- .
posed unit includes job, cylinder , and ticket pressmen in the designated
departments and their assistants and press feeders. It includes all
employees of the Company over which the petitioners jointly exercise
craft jurisdiction except pressmen , assistants , and feeders in the offset
printing press department . The Company contends that all its em-
ployees ,, including employees in the composing room, the letter press
department , the check department , the offset printing department, the
engraving department, the plate department, and the bindery, but
excluding employees in the art department , supervisory employees,
foremen, errand boys, lumpers , shipping and receiving employees,
office employees , and executives , constitute an appropriate unit; or
that if the Board finds a craft unit appropriate for bargaining, offset
printing pressmen and their assistants and feeders should be included
with other pressmen and their assistants and feeders in the same craft
bargaining unit.
The Company 's printing plant occupies two floors of a large build-
ing. The composing room and the pressroom are on the same floor
and are not physically separated, one from the other. Employees
mingle freely in the course of their work . Some employees are quali-
fied to do more than one operation and there is some small interchange
of help among qualified men in the several departments. The Com-
pany's business is more complete than most printing establishments in
the vicinity. Processes which in other local establishments are let
out on contract are usually performed by the Company's employees in
a continuous chain of operation.
In the instant case the petitioners do not deny the correlation of the
Company's several departments ,, but justify the proposed unit on a
strictly craft basis and their limited craft jurisdiction.
The Locals are members of Boston Allied Printing Trades Council
Unions, a federation of local printing trade craft unions affiliated with
the American Federation of Labor. In 1941, this federation ; on behalf
of the Locals and other member unions, filed with the State Labor
Relations Commission of Massachusetts a petition for investigation and
certification of representatives of employees of the Company. The
results of an election held in April 1941 disclosed that no bargaining
representative had been selected by a majority of employees in an
agreed industrial unit. The Company contends that the Locals, by
ioinin 'g in the petition and thus consenting to an election held among
the Company's employees in an industrial unit, have committed them
=elves to bargaining with the Company for its employees on an indus-
trial basis and that therefore the petition in the instant proceeding
COURT SQUARE -PRESS, INC. 705
filed by'the Locals for a craft unit is not tenable. We find no merit
in this contention. If the federation had won the election, the co-
operating craft organizations would have negotiated a joint contract
with the Company, each craft union representing employees subject,
to its craft jurisdiction. At the present time, so far as the record
discloses, no labor organization other than the Locals claims to ,repre-
sent employees of the Company in any craft or industrial unit. Other
printing establishments are organized either on a craft basis or on an
industrial basis. The Company, however, has not in the past bar-
gained with any labor organization with respect to its employees.
Under these circumstances, we find that neither the petition filed by,
the federation nor the election held pursuant thereto preclude the
Locals .from representing the Company's employees on a craft basis
if the proposed craft unit is otherwise appropriate for bargaining
purposes.
At the time of the previous election noted above, the Locals claimed
to represent the Company's employees in the offset printing press
department-the offset printing pressmen and their assistants and
feeders. In the present proceeding, the Locals contend that they do not
represent'a majority of such employees, that Amalgamated Lithogra-
phers of America, an affiliated labor organization, is engaged in organ-
izing them, and that the Locals desire to exclude these employees from
the proposed unit rather than engage in a jurisdictional dispute with
an affiliated labor organization. The record discloses that Amalga-
mated Lithographers of America and International Printing Pressmen
and Assistants' Union of North America, by which the Locals 'are
chartered, have disputed jurisdiction over employees in offset printing
press departments since 1916 and that the American Federation of
Labor has awarded,jurisdiction to the latter. It thus clearly appears
that employees in the Company's offset printing press department are
eligible to membership in either one or the other of the petitioning
Locals. Three pressmen in the Company's employ spend part of their
time on a letter press and part of their time on an offset press. There
is, furthermore, no history of collective bargaining in the plant to
justify the exclusion of employees in the offset printing press,depart-
ment from a unit composed of members of their craft. We, therefore,
'find that employees in the offset printing press department should
properly be included with employees in the job press, letter press, and
ticket press departments in the craft unit .2
We find that all employees of the Company in the. job press, letter
press, ticket press, and offset printing press departments, excluding
supervisory employees and errand boys, constitute a unit appropriate
2 Cf. Matter of Stewart Warner Corporation and Die d Tool Makers'Lodgc No 113, Inter-
national Association of Machinists, A F of L, 37 N L R R 242, and 'Triangle Publica-
tions, Inc and Chicago Editorial Association, Federal Union 21690, 40 N L R B 1330
4S7498-42-vo l 44--45
706 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section
9 (b) of the, Act.,
V. THE DETERMINATION' OF REPRESENTATIVES
Assuming that the Locals desire to participate in an election among
employees in the unit found appropriate in Section IV, above,' we
shall provide for an election to dete'rmine' whether or not such em-
ployees wish to be represented by the Locals jointly for the pur-
poses of collective bargaining with the Company. If, however, the
Locals do not desire to participate in an election at this time, we shall
permit them to withdraw the petition filed herein. Under such circum-
stances, we shall vacate the Direction of Election.
We shall direct that the question concerning representation which
has arisen bq resolved by an election by secret ballot among employees
of the Company within the appropriate unit who were employed dur-
ing the-pay-roll period iminediately'preceding the date of the Direction
of Election, subject to the limitations and additions set forth therein.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
By virtue of and pursuant to the power vested in the National
Labor Relations Board, by Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Rela -
tions Act, 49 Stat. 449, and pursuant to Article III, Section 8, of
National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 2, as
amended, it is hereby
DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation to ascertain representa-
tive s . for the purposes of collective bargaining with Court Square
Press, Inc., Boston, Massachusetts, an election by secret ballot shall be
conducted as early as possible, but not' later than thirty (30) days
from the date of this Direction, under the direction and supervision
of the Regional Director for the First Region, .acting -nI this matter
as agent for the National Labor Relations Board, and'subject to Ar-
ticle III, Section 9, of said Rules and Regulations, among all employees
of the Company within the unit found appropriate in Section IV,
above, who were employed during the pay-roll period immediately
preceding the date of this ' Direction, including employees who did
not work during such pay-roll period because they ivere ill or on va-
cation or in the active military service or training of the United States,
or temporarily laid off, but excluding employees who have since quit
or been discharged for cause, to determine whether or not they desire to
be represented by Boston Printing Pressmen's Union, Local No. 67, and
Boston Press As'sistants' Union, Local No. 18, for the purposes " of
collective bargaining.
MR. WM. M. LEISERSON took no part in the consideration of the
above Decision and Direction of Election.