Mead-Atlanta Paper Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board DecisionsMar 19, 1959

123 N.L.R.B. 306 (N.L.R.B. 1959)

306 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD Mead -Atlanta Paper Company and Atlanta Printing Specialties & Paper Products Union No. 527, International Printing Press- men & Assistants' Union of North America, AFL-CIO, Peti- tioner. Case No. 10-RC-4262. March 19, 1959 DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9(c) of the National Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before Paul L. Harper, hearing 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-member panel [Chairman Leedom and Members Rodgers and Jenkins]. 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 organization involved claims to represent certain employees of the Employer.2 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. The Employer is engaged in the manufacture of paper board containers at its two adjacent plants, known as Plants Nos. 1 and 2, in Atlanta, Georgia. The Employer and the Petitioner generally agree as to the appropriateness of a single unit of the production and maintenance employees in both plants. They disagree, however, as to the unit placement of the several categories set forth below. Alleged Technical Employees The six laboratory technicians, in the testing laboratory, make tensile, brightness, puncture, tear, and other tests with machines to assure the conformity of the Employer's product with customers' specifications. Their testing work is routine and unrelated to that performed in the Employer's entirely separate research and develop- ment laboratory, which is staffed by graduate chemists whom the 1 The Employer ' s request for oral argument is denied , as the record and briefs ade- quately present the positions of the parties. In view of our determination as to the unit placement of the leadmen herein, we deem it unnecessary to consider the Employer's motion for leave to adduce additional evidence in their regard or the Petitioner's reply to the Employer's motion. 2 The Employer's motion to dismiss the petition on the ground that the record contains no evidence as to the Petitioner's showing of interest is denied. The sufficiency of a petitioner's showing of interest is t; an administrative matter not subject to litigation. Moreover, we are administratively satisfied that the Petitioner's showing of interest is adequate. 0. D. Jennings & Company, 6S NLRB 516. 123 NLRB No. 31. MEAD-ATLANTA PAPER COMPANY 307 parties agree to exclude from the unit. The work of the laboratory technicians requires only a high school training and 2 weeks of job experience. These employees have substantially the same condition& of employment as, and interchange with, production employees. The corrugated sample makers, including an assistant and a clerk, use production-type machines and materials in making samples of production items for the Employer's Corrugated Division 3 for submission to the Employer's customers. The package engineering sample makers, including an assistant, a clerk, and a die layout employee who traces patterns on wood for use by diemakers in mak- ing production dies, perform essentially similar work for the Em- ployer's Folding Box and Flexograph Divisions. Sample makers have only a high school education, which may include mechanical drawing courses. They are under the same supervision as the sample designers and design engineers, whom the parties agree to exclude from the unit.' All sample makers work in the same area, which is adjacent to the plant engineering sample makers' production area. The recent removal of the corrugated sample makers to this site from their former production area and supervision was solely due to an expansion of the Employer's facilities and the consequent need for additional production space. The conditions of employment of all sample makers are substantially similar to those of the production employees. The production art employees include artists with an art school course or an aptitude for copy, who prepare black and white pasteups and drawings for production use. Their work is routine, as the original master designs, from which they start, are prepared by creative design art employees whom the parties agree to exclude from the unit. There is also a photostat operator with a high-school education who reproduces the artists' drawings on plates for out- side processing. The conditions of employment of the production art employees are substantially similar to those of the production em- ployees. As the laboratory technicians, the sample makers, and the pro- duction art employees perform work of a routine nature and lack the training or qualifications of technical employees, we find that they are not technical employees within the meaning of the Act, and, in view of the similarity of their work interests to those of the pro- duction employees, we shall include them in the production and maintenance unit herein found appropriate. 3 The Employer 's operations administratively comprise three divisions , known as the Corrugated Division , the Folding Box Division , and the Flexogiaph Division. 4 The sample designers and design engineers , a creative group ; design the cartons from which the samples are made. 5 General Shoe Corporation , 120 NLRB 911 ; Drexel Furniture Company, 116 NLRI 1434, at 1437 ; Buzza-Cardozo Company, 99 NLRB 40; Humble Oil & Refining Company, 115 NLRB 1485, at 1491. 308 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD Plant Clerical Employees The finished goods checkers, in the finishing department, count and tabulate completed production items moving to the warehouse and report the same to the production control area. Under production supervision , they spend virtually all of their time in production areas . The inventory control clerks, under production control super- vision, prepare inventories of raw materials and work in progress, using cards sent them by clerks in the materials handling depart- ment. They work alongside forklift truck dispatchers and materials handling employees in an office adjacent to the production area. Production control clerks, in an office adjacent to production opera- tions and under production control supervision, prepare production reports and compute incentive time. They work with planning and scheduling employees. Schedulers work in offices adjacent to pro- duction operations and under the planning and scheduling super- visor, maintaining a status board as a visual representation of pro- duction orders in process. A scheduler-typist types cards used on the status board, which also serves as a daily tabulation of work in progress. In view of the close similarity of work interests between the fin- ished goods checkers, the inventory control clerks, the production control clerks, and the schedulers on the one hand, and the produc- tion employees on the other hand, we find that these employees are essentially plant clerical employees, and in accord with our usual policy in such cases, we shall include them in the unit.6 As the scheduler typist performs work closely related to functions of pro- duction, we shall include her in the unit as a plant clerical employee.? Office Clerical Employees The timekeeper works alone in the Employer's I.B.M. room and is under its accounting department supervision. He picks up timecards sent him by the Employer's mail service, checks their accuracy, returns them, if necessary, to the foreman for correction, and for- wards them to the I.B.M. room. He has the same hours as the office clerical employees. The incentive calculators, adjacent to, and under the supervision of, the accounting department, calculate the Em- ployer's sales against the production employees' time worked, using electric calculators. They visit the production area only to check discrepancies in their reports. The traffic clerks work in a separate office under the traffic manager. They check traffic rates for accu- racy, ascertain correct truck loadings, and contact trucking lines for e Murray Ohio Manufacturing Co., 118 NLRB 1027, at 1029, 1030; Harvey Lumber & Supply Co., 118 NLRB 737, at 740; The Berk line Corporation, 114 NLRB 375, at 370, 377. 7 Waldorf Instrument Company, 122 NLRB 803. MEAD-ATLANTA PAPER COMPANY 309 shipment of the Employer's products. On occasion, they visit the shipping room to check on the status of merchandise awaiting ship- ment, but there is no indication that they have regular contacts with the production employees. As the interests and duties of the timekeeper, the incentive calcu- lators, and the traffic clerks are substantially different from those of the production employees and are essentially similar to those of office clerical employees, we shall exclude them from the unit as office clerical employees.8 Over-the-Road Truckdrivers In addition to local drivers, who are under shipping and ware- house supervision, and who the parties agree should be included in the unit, the Employer has 22 over-the-road truckdrivers, under the supervision of the traffic control department, who pick up raw mate- rials, haul leased machinery, and deliver finished products for the Employer. They work no regular hours, are paid at a weekly rate, plus additional compensation on a mileage basis, and are subject to Interstate Commerce Commission regulations. However, both over- the road and local drivers make regular deliveries to the nearby cities. Under these circumstances, and especially in view of the dis- agreement of the parties as to their unit placement and of the fact that no labor organization seeks to represent them separately, we find that the interests of the over-the-road truckdrivers are sufficiently related to those of the other drivers and employees to warrant their inclusion in the unit .9 Cafeteria Employees The cafeteria employees including bakers, cook, servers, dishwash- ers, general utility employees, and cashiers, furnish meals in the cafeteria and serve coffee and doughnuts from a coffee cart through- out the production and general office area. They receive substan- tially the same benefits as the other employees in the unit. In these circumstances, and in accord with Board policy, we shall include the cafeteria employees.10 The Alleged Supervisors Although agreeing to the inclusion of the Employer's 27 other leadmen, the parties disagree as to the status of the following 10 leadmen : the leadmen in the pit at Plant No. 1, on the baler in the s Olin Mathieson Chemical Corporation, 117 NLRB 665 , at 666; Plankinton Packing Company, 116 NLRB 1225 , at 1231 ( comptometer operators ) ; Stratford Furniture Corpo- ration, 115 NLRB 739, at 740 (traffic clerk). 9 Sidney Blumenthal & Co., Inc., 113 NLRB 791 ; McAllister 's Dairy Farms, Inc., 118 NLRB 1117 , at 1119. 10 Jefferson Mills , Division of Kahn and Feldman, Inc., 120 NLRB 385. 310 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD Flexograph Division, and in the stereo department; the stone man; the two mercury cutting machine master pressmen; the two lead diemakers in the Flexograph Division; the cylinder cutting master pressman; and the carpenter leadinan. These leadmen are more experienced employees, who, in some instances, routinely direct the work of four employees each and are responsible for the quality of work so performed. They have no authority to hire or discharge employees or to reprimand or discipline them. Unlike the foremen and other supervisory personnel whom the parties agree to exclude as supervisors within the meaning of the Act, the leadmen herein do not make effective recommendations affecting the status of em- ployees, but merely make individual work performance reports, which their supervisors, in turn, use to make their own independent recommendations. Under all the circumstances, and as the 10 lead- men herein do not possess or exercise the statutory authority of supervisors, we find that they are not supervisors as defined in the Act. Accordingly, we shall include them in the unit." Accordingly, we find that all production and maintenance employ- ees in the Employer's paper board container manufacturing Plants Nos. 1 and 2, and auxiliary warehouses, in Atlanta, Georgia, includ- ing warehouse employees, laboratory technicians, corrugated sample and package engineering sample makers, production art employees, plant clerical employees, over-the-road truckdrivers, cafeteria em- ployees, and leadmen, but excluding office clerical employees, pro- fessional and technical employees, lease machinery employees, guards, and supervisors as defined in the Act constitute a unit ap- propriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the mean- ing of Section 9(b) of the Act. [Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.] n United States Gypsum Company, 118 NLRB 20, at 29. Humko , a Division of National Dairy Products Corporation 1 and Martin Diepholz and Ruben Cash , Petitioners and General Drivers, Salesmen & Warehousemen 's Local Union 984, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen & Helpers of America . Case No. 32-RD-61. March 19, 1959 DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION Upon a decertification petition duly filed under Section 9(c) of the National Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before Joseph "The name of the Employer appears as amended at the hearing. 123 NLRB No. 38.