Guardian Printing and Litho Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Nov 6, 1959

125 N.L.R.B. 9 (N.L.R.B. 1959)

GUARDIAN PRINTING AND LITHO CORP 9
and we shall, therefore, include employees in this classification in the
unit
Expediter, shop This employee reports to the manager of produc-
tion control. His duties are to check stock on production line for
shortages of material, to see that sufficient stock is available to per-
form work on production schedules, and to inform his superior of
stock shortages that may tie up and delay the meeting of the schedules,
From the foregoing, we find that this employee is a plant clerical em-
ployee s We shall, therefore, include him in the unit
Tvmekeeper • Employees in this classification are responsible to the
Employer's Finance Division, a separate division not connected to
Gyro They are, however, physically located at Gyro, and perform
the customary duties of a factory timekeeper with respect to produc-
tion and maintenance employees The Board has held that time-
keepers such as these are essentially plant clerical employees This
is true even where certain of their conditions of employment, such as
their supervision, are the same as office employees Accordingly, we
shall include these timekeepers in the unit 9
On the basis of the foregoing and the entire record, we find that the
following employees of the Employer constitute a unit appropriate
for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Sec-
tion 9 (b) of the Act All production and maintenance employees at
the Employer's Van Nuys, California, plant, including engineering
or engineering lab, prototype and development machinist, expediter,
shop, and timekeeper, but excluding equipment test and repair tech-
nician; equipment test and repair technician, senior, office clerical
employees, watchmen, guards, professional employees, and all super-
visors as defined by the Act
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication ]
'Fairbanks, Morse & Company, 117 NLRB 1449, 1452
9 The Bussaek Company, 118 NLRB 1032
Guardian Printing and Litho Corp. and Local 1, Amalgamated
Lithographers of America , and New York Printing Pressmen's
Union No. 51, and New York Press Assistants ' Union No. 23,
International Printing Pressmen 's and Assistants Union of
North America, AFL-CIO, Petitioner. Cases Nos 2-RC--10125
and 2-RC-10160 November 6, 1959
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
Upon petitions duly filed under Section 9(c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, a hearing was held before Milton Pravitz, hearing
125 NLRB No 4
10 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free
from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the Act, the Board
has delegated its powers in connection with this case to a three-mem-
ber panel [Chairman Leedom and Members Bean and Fanning].
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the Act.
2. The labor organizations involved claim to represent certain em-
ployees of the Employer.
3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the representa-
tion of employees of the Employer within the meaning of Section
9(c) (1) and Section 2(6) and (7) of the Act.
4: Petitioner in Case No. 2-RC-10125, Local 1, Amalgamated
Lithographers of America, hereinafter referred to as Local 1, seeks
to represent all lithographic production employees at the Employer's
plant in New York, New York, including offset pressmen, assistant
offset pressmen, and the multilith operator. Joint Petitioners in Case
No. 2-RC-10160, New York Printing Pressmen's Union No. 51, and
New York Press Assistants' Union No. 23, both affiliated with Inter-
national Printing Pressmen's and Assistants' Union of North Amer-
ica, AFL-CIO, and hereinafter referred to as Printing Pressmen,
jointly, seek a unit of all pressmen and assistant pressmen, including
both letterpress and offset pressmen. Should the Board find appro-
priate the unit sought by Local 1, the Printing Pressmen desire that
a separate election be ordered for the letterpress pressmen. The Em-
ployer contends that only an overall unit of all pressmen is appro-
priate. The parties agree that the Employer's bindery department
employees should be excluded from any unit herein found appropriate,
but leave the unit placement of a washup boy for Board determination.
There is no history of collective bargaining.
The Employer is engaged in the business of nonretail offset and
letterpress printing. In its building, all lithographic (or offset)
presses are located on the second floor and operated only by offset
pressmen and their assistants, some six or seven employees, all of
whom are qualified lithographic trade pressmen. All letterpress
machinery is maintained on the third floor, and is mainly run by about
11 letterpress operators including their assistants. Offset pressmen
and letterpress employees are under separate supervision.
No interchange at all has occurred between the Employer's offset
pressmen and letterpress operators during the 6 weeks of its opera-
tions preceding the hearing. Such interchange as did occur prior to
that time was rare and limited only to temporary assignment of one
or two offset pressmen, who are also qualified letterpress operators, to
the letterpress department for a day or so because of an influx of job
GUARDIAN PRINTING AND LITHO CORP. 11
orders there, or because of illness in the letterpress crews and slacken-
ing activity in the offset department. No letterpress operators have
ever been assigned to perform regular offset printing duties.' Nor
are any of the Employer's letterpress operators qualified as offset
pressmen.
The Board has held, in comparable unit controversies, that offset
pressmen and letterpress employees may not be combined in a single
bargaining unit unless there exists regular interchange between the
two groups,2 and that, absent this factor the lithographic employees
constitute a separate appropriate Unit .3 As interchange between the
pressmen involved herein is rare, we find that a combined unit of the
offset pressmen and letterpress employees is inappropriate. However,
as the employees in these two operations comprise separate homoge-
neous groups, which are accorded separate representation by the
Board, we find that they constitute appropriate units.'
We further find, as the parties agree, that the bindery department
employees, who cut, bind, and wrap the finished product, do not
properly belong in either unit because their duties are unconnected
with the pressmen's craft. Accordingly, we exclude these employees.5
The washup boy spends all of his time in the letterpress department
washing, packing, and oiling presses there. It does not appear that
he is presently capable of performing a pressman's duties; however, he
is being trained by the Employer in the letterpress operation and has
been working on the letterpress regularly. We find that the washup
boy is a letterpress trainee, and accordingly include him in the unit
of letterpress employees.6
Accordingly, we shall direct that separate elections be held in the
following appropriate units of employees of the Employer at its
New York, New York, plant, excluding the bindery department em-
ployees, guards, professional employees, and supervisors as defined
in the Act :
(1) All lithographic production employees, including all offset
pressmen, assistant offset pressmen, and the multilith operator.
(2) All letterpress production employees, including the letterpress
pressmen, letterpress operators or assistants, and the letterpress
trainee.
[Text of Direction of Elections omitted from publication.]
'Rocco Tenaglla , a letterpress operator regularly assigned to the letterpress depart-
ment, spent 3 or 4 clays in the offset department approximately 4 months prior to the
hearing. However , this employee , while at the offset department , on this single occa-
sion, was attempting only to learn the offset printing process. He has never returned
to the offset department since that time , and continues his work at the present in the
letterpress department.
Robinson Printers , Inc., 118 NLRB 518.
J. Miller Printing Company, 122 NLRB 1256.
Robinson Printers , Inc., supra; ibid.
J. Miller Printing Company, supra.
I bid.