Fulton Bag and Cotton Mills

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Dec 20, 1946

71 N.L.R.B. 1227 (N.L.R.B. 1946)

In the Matter of FULTON BAG AND COTTON MILLS, EMPLOYER and
INTERNATIONAL PRINTING PRESSMEN AND ASSISTANT'S UNION OF
NORTH AMERICA, A. F. L.
Case No. 10-R-1924.-Decided December 20, 1946
Messrs. John M. Slaton and Frank A. Constangy, of Atlanta, Ga.,
for the Employer.
Messrs. George 0. Baker and W. R. Sanders, of Atlanta, Ga., for
the Petitioner.
Mr. Emil C. Farkas, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed, hearing in this case was held at Atlanta,
Georgia, on July 22, 1946, before Albert D. Maynard, hearing officer.
The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from preju-
dicial error and are hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in the case, the National Labor Relations
Board makes the following :
FINDINGS OF FACT
I. THE BUSINESS OF THE EMPLOYER
Fulton Bag and Cotton Mills, a Georgia corporation, operates sev-
eral manufacturing plants in various parts of the United States in-
cluding one at Atlanta, Georgia, with which we are solely concerned.
At this plant, the Employer is engaged in the manufacture, sale, and
distribution of cotton textiles and bags of all kinds made from sheet-
ing, paper, burlap, and osnaburg; it also manufactures canvas prod-
ucts such as luggage, tents and tarpaulins, and reclaims and renovates
used bags. During the year ending 1945, the Employer purchased
for use at this plant raw materials valued in excess of $1,000,000, of
which approximately 75 percent represented shipments from points
outside the State of Georgia. During the same period, the Employer
sold finished products valued in excess of $1,000,000, of which ap-
71 N. L. R. B., No. 194.
1227
1228 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
proximately 75 percent represented shipments to places outside the
State.
The Employer admits and we find that it is engaged in interstate
commerce within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act.
II. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED
The Petitioner is a labor organization affiliated with the American
Federation of Labor, claiming to represent employees of the Employer.
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
The Employer refuses to recognize the Petitioner as the exclusive
bargaining representative of employees of the Employer until the
Petitioner has been certified by the Board in an appropriate unit.
We find that a question affecting commerce has arisen concerning
the representation of employees of the Employer, within the meaning
of Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT
The Petitioner seeks a unit consisting of all employees in the
printing department and the job press department I at the Em-
ployer's bag mill at Atlanta, Georgia, who are engaged in the opera-
tion of printing presses, setting up type, stereotype and engraving,
including the working foreman in the job press department, but ex-
cluding the foreman, assistant foreman, trucker and all other em-
ployees in both departments. The Employer, on the other hand, con-
tends that the unit petitioned for is inappropriate and that in view of
its integrated operations either a unit composed of all employees in its
bag and cotton mill at Atlanta, Georgia, excluding clerical and super-
visory employees, or in the alternative, a unit of employees of the
bag mill, with similar exclusions, would be appropriate.
The Atlanta, Georgia, operations are composed of a cotton mill
and bag mill. The cotton mill manufactures cotton goods for use in
the bag mill where these goods are then converted into bags, luggage,
tents, and tarpaulins.
The actual manufacture of bags, the principal item produced,
consists of cutting a web of fabric into various designated lengths,
sewing together two of the edges and one of the ends, turning the
bags right side out and imprinting a design or label on one or both
sides. This process requires many operations such as cutting, sewing,
' It appears that the Employer considers job press as a part of its general manufacturing
operation and not as a distinct department. However, the record indicates that job pies.,
is physically separated and is separately supervised from other departments of the bag
mill Accordingly we shall, for purposes of this decision, refer to it as the job press
department.
FULTON BAG AND COTTON MILLS 1229
hemming, bottoming, turning, folding, and printing, the basic opera-
tion being cutting. The employer has organized its operations at the
bag mill into various departments to correspond generally to the
'different steps in production, viz, cutting, sewing, printing, drawcord,
canvas, shipping, warehouse, and salvage departments. These de-
partments as well as the job press department 2 are all under the
ultimate supervision of the superintendent of the bag mill.
The record discloses that the departmental lines in the bag mill
are for the most part loosely drawn, particularly in the cutting and
printing departments. Thus, the cutting of bags, while primarily a
function of the cutting department; is not always performed as a
separate and distinct operation. For special reasons such as the size
of the bags to be cut, or the width of the cloth, bags may be cut by
special attachments on the printing presses in the printing department.
In these cases the printing presses are used as a substitute for the
cutting machune.3 The determination of where the cutting operation
is to be performed is dependent upon the type of printing to be put
on the bag and the workload in the cutting department.
Similarly, the printing department performs two functions: (a)
the printing, by means of printing presses, of trade-marks or brand
names of customers on bags, and (b) the cutting of bags of various
types by special attachments to the automatic presses.4 In this con-
nection it appears that although more than 75 percent of the bags are
imprinted with a design of some type, either advertising a brand or
designating the materials contained, not all manufactured bags so
printed, necessarily pass through the printing department. Bags that
are printed with brand names or trade-marks go through the printing
department. Bags having a freight classification, however, are printed
on cutting machines in the cutting department. Duck or canvas bags
are stenciled in the canvas department; and when bags are printed
by "silk screening" 5 this operation is also performed in the canvas
department.
The employees whom the Petitioner seeks are located in the printing
department and in the 'job press department. Although the latter
department is separated physically and organizationally from the
printing department, there is evidence that the printing department
employees consider the job press department as part of the printing
2 See footnote 1, supra
Appiotimately 15 percent of the work performed by the printing department involves
the cutting of bags and is done bN the employees sought herein
4 Opei ations such as bottoming, tun ning, folding, and hemming are also performed under
the jurisdiction of the printing department
s ` Silk ac!cemng " is it panting operation wherein ink is mashed through a silk screen,
ontaming an outline of letters, and is impressed on the substance to be printed in the foam
of letters
1230 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
department, and both groups use the same locker room and other
facilities. In addition, the same proofreader serves both departments.
The job press department appears to have no overlapping functions
with other departments. Here are located two types of standard
printing presses, Mieble verticals and Miehle horizontals which print
small mailing bags used by companies to facilitate the handling of
their mail. This is the only department which performs printing
work of this type. The printing department, as noted above, does
have some overlapping functions with other departments such as the
cutting and canvas departments. However, it is clear that the re-
quested employees in both departments are distinguishable from the
workers in the cutting department who print freight classifications,
or from the employees in the canvas department who do "silk screen-
ing" and stenciling work in that none of these operations involves the
use of printing presses, or requires a substantial degree of skill. The
printing work, which the employees in issue perform, and, which
occupies by far the greater portion of their time, requires a rather
high degree of skill and specialization and is work typical of the print-
ing crafts. Unlike other employees these individuals are required
to undergo periods of training varying from approximately 1 to 2
years before they are fully qualified on these presses. - It also appears
that the employees sought herein are generally not interchangeable
with other employees.
While we are not unmindful, as urged by the Employer, that the
nature of the operations and the uniform personnel policies and work-
ing conditions throughout the Employer's plant indicate that its
employees could function for the purposes of collective bargaining on
a more comprehensive basis, it is significant that there is absent here
any collective bargaining history, that no labor organization claims to
represent employees of the Employer on a broader basis and that the
Petitioner admits to membership only employees who work in the
printing trades and at associated skills.° Accordingly, on the basis
of the foregoing facts and the entire record in the case, we believe that
the above-mentioned employees in the printing department and the job
press department comprise a sufficiently identifiable and cohesive
group, possessing the characteristics of a true printing craft, so as to
warrant setting them apart as a separate collective bargaining unit'
We shall therefore reject the unit contentions of the Employer.
We find that all employees in the printing department and the job
press department at the Employer's bag mill at Atlanta, Georgia, who
9 While the Board has in the past established plant-wide units in other similar plants of
the Employer, in those cases no union sought, as does the Petitioner here, to represent
employees working in the printing trades in a separate unit.
7 The Employer has taken no position with respect to the specific composition of the
requested unit.
FULTON BAG AND COTTON MILLS 1231
are engaged in the operation of printing presses, setting up type,
stereotype, and engraving, including the working foreman in the job
press department, but excluding the foreman, assistant foreman,
trucker, and all other employees in the printing department, and all
supervisory employees in both departments with authority to hire,
promote, discharge, discipline, or otherwise effect changes in the status
of employees, or effectively recommend such action, constitute a unit
appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the mean-
ing of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the pur-
poses of collective bargaining with Fulton Bag and Cotton Mills,
Atlanta, Georgia, 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 Tenth Region, acting in this matter as agent for the
National Labor Relations Board, and subject to Sections 203.55 and
203.56, of National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations-
Series 4, among the employees in the unit found appropriate 'in Sec-
tion IV, above, who were employed during the pay-roll period imme-
diately preceding the date of this Direction, including employees who
did not work during said pay-roll period because they were ill or on
vacation or temporarily laid off, and including employees in the armed
forces of the United States who present themselves in person at the
polls, but excluding those employees who have since quit or been dis-
charged for cause and have not been rehired or reinstated before the
date of the election, to determine whether or not they desire to be
represented by International Printing Pressmen and Assistant's Union
of North America, A. F. L., for the purposes of collective bargaining.
717734-47-vol 71-79