Golden Belt Manufacturing Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Apr 6, 1954

108 N.L.R.B. 164 (N.L.R.B. 1954)

164 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
GOLDEN BELT MANUFACTURING COMPANY and DURHAM,
N. C., SPECIALTIES & PAPER PRODUCTS LOCAL UNION
NO. 595, INTERNATIONAL PRINTING PRESSMEN & AS-
SISTANTS' UNION OF NORTH AMERICA, A. F. OF L.,
Petitioner . Case No. 11-RC-594. April 6, 1954
DECISION AND ORDER
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National
Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before Lewis Wolberg,
hearing officer.' The hearing officer's rulings made at the
hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby af-
firmed.
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds:
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning
of the Act. z
2. The labor organizations involved claim to represent
certain employees of the Employer.
3. No question affecting commerce exists concerning the
representation of employees of the Employer within the mean-
ing of Section. 9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act, for
the following reasons:
The Petitioner seeks a unit of all employees in the printing
department of the Employer's plant. The Intervenor contends
that the employees sought by the Petitioner are not true crafts-
men, and urges that the previous history of collective bargain-
ing on a more comprehensive basis makes the existing plant-
wide unit the only appropriate unit. The Employer takes no
position as to the appropriate unit.
At its Durham plant the Employer manufactures tobacco bags,
print cloth, and cigarette labels. 3 It employes, in all, 500 pro-
iThe Petitioner's name appears herein as amended at the hearing. Textile Workers
Union of America, CIO, hereinafter called the Intervenor, intervened on the basis of its
current contract.
The parties agreed that the record of the testimony and the exhibits introduced at the
hearing in Golden Belt Manufacturing Company, Case No. 11-RC-495, held on February
5. 1953, be incorporated into the record in the instant case, and that there had been no
material changes in the Employer's operations since that date.
The Intervenor's motion to dismiss the petition on the ground that the Petitioner does
not have a sufficient showing of interest among employees in its requested unit is denied.
Showing of interest is a matter for administrative determination and is not subject to col-
lateral attack by the parties. Great Southern Chemical Corporation, 96 NLRB 1013. More-
over, we are administratively satisfied that the Petitioner has made an adequate showing
of interest in this proceeding.
2During the past year the Employer, a New Jersey corporation with its only plant located
at Durham, North Carolina, received materials valued in excess of $500,000, which were
shipped to it from points outside North Carolina. During the same period the Employer
shipped materials valued in excess of $25,000 to out-of-State points. We find that it will
effectuate the policies of the Act to assert jurisdiction in this case. Federal Dairy Co„
Inc., 91 NLRB 638; Stanislaus Implement and Hardware Company, Limited, 91 NL12B 618.
Chairman Farmer and Member Rodgers join in this decision but are not to be deemed there-
by as adopting the Board's past jurisdictional standards as a permanent policy.
3A cigarette label is the paper wrapping that encloses a package of cigarettes.
108 NLRB No. 35.
GOLDEN BELT MANUFACTURING COMPANY 165
duction and maintenance workers .4 The Employer divides its
manufacturing operations into 3 main sections : ( 1) a print
cloth mill, with 275 employees; (2) a bag-manufacturing depart-
ment, with 125 employees; and (3) a printing department, with
100 employees. The print cloth mill is located in one building;
the departments are located on different floors of another build-
ing, about 300 feet away from the mill. The printing department
includes a printing room, a job-press room, and a cutting
room. Employees in the print cloth mill work under the
supervision of a superintendent . The record does not further
disclose their supervision . Employees in the bag-manufacturing
and printing departments work under the common, overall
supervision of another superintendent , but each of these
departments has separate immediate supervision.
The 100 employees in the printing department consist of 16
printing pressmen, 4 job pressmen , 4 assistant pressmen, 7
press helpers , a printing compositor , ahead cutter , 11 cutters,
3 cutter learners , 15 bundlers and straighteners , and a learner,
a sweeper , and an undisclosed number of inspectors and
paperhangers. There may also be utility employees in the
printing department, but the record is not entirely clear
on this point.
The Employer' s printing pressmen print cigarette labels.
The job-pressmen print labels and they also print legends
on bags. For the most part, all the pressmen operate presses
of standard design and exercise the usual skills of their craft.
The printing compositor sets type by hand. The cutters cut
labels by machine after they have been printed on large sheets.
The bundlers and straighteners prepare labels for shipment.
The inspectors inspect sheets of labels for imperfections in
printing . The paperhangers hang sheets of labels on racks,
so that air may be blown through them. The remaining em-
ployees in the printing department --the assistant pressmen,
the press helpers, the cutter learners , the learner in the
bundler and straightener group , and the sweeper- -perform
the duties of their respective classifications.
The Employer hires most of its workers from sources
outside the plant. After the necessary training, the Employer
promotes employees from other classifications to the position
of assistant pressman and thereafter , in most cases , to that
of pressman. It usually requires about 2 years to train a
pressman ; several months to train a cutter; 2 or 3 months to
train an inspector ; and a month or 2 to train a bundler and
straightener . The training periods for the other classifications
in the printing department vary according to the particular
classification involved . The record does not disclose their dura-
tion.
4The figures given herein are approximate.
166 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
On or about December 27, 1937, following a consent election
in Case No. 5-R-128,5 the Regional Director certified Textile
Workers Organizing Committee, American Federation of
Hosiery Workers, the Intervenor's predecessor, as the ex-
clusive collective-bargaining representative of all the Em-
ployer's employees, excluding certain categories not im-
mediately involved herein. Thereafter, beginning in 1938, the
Employer and the Intervenor or its predecessor entered into
collective -bargaining agreements covering these employees.
The last such contract was executed on March 22, 1949, and
is effective for 1 year from that date and from year to year
thereafter in the absence of notice. It provides, among other
things, for common holiday and vacation schedules, grievance
procedures, and leave privileges for all employees, for
several areas of seniority in the print cloth mill and in the
bag-manufacturing department and a single area of seniority
in the printing department, and for permanent and temporary
transfers of employees from one department to another.
Generally, transfers are based on economic grounds rather
than on interchangeability of skills. There have been some
transfers between the bag-manufacturing and printing de-
partments. The Employer has a medical program at the
plant which applies to all its production and maintenance
employees, including those sought by the Petitioner.
It is clear from the foregoing, and the Petitioner in effect
concedes, that many of the employees in the printing depart-
ment are not true craftsmen. Under these circumstances,
there is no basis for severing that department as a craft
group.6 Considered as a departmental group, the unit sought
does not meet the requirements established by the Board
in the American Potash case for severance of a department. °
Accordingly, we find that the printing department may not
constitute an appropriate unit, and, as that is the only unit
which the Petitioner seeks, we will dismiss the petition.
[The Board dismissed the petition.]
Member Beeton took no part in the consideration of the
above Decision and Order.
5 Not reported in printed volumes of Board Decisions and Orders.
6American Potash & Chemical Corporation, 107 NLRB 1418.
7 See American Potash & Chemical Corporation, supr, at p. 9.