Rein Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board DecisionsApr 29, 1954

108 N.L.R.B. 598 (N.L.R.B. 1954)

598 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD along with their regularly assigned helpers and apprentices, but exclusive of all lesser skills. In the instant case, the Employer maintains a model shop which consists of employees who are exclusively craftsmen. In addition , the Employer has a separate toolroom which con- tains a substantial nucleus of craftsmen of the same type as those in the model shop, as well as certain unskilled classi- fications . A tool grinder , who possesses and utilizes the same craft skills as the craftsmen in the toolroom and model shop, is employed elsewhere in the plant . My colleagues would accord separate representation to the toolroom and model- shop employees , some of whom are neither craftsmen nor in the direct line of progression in the craft , while at the same time they would deny craft representation to the outside tool grinder whose duties, skills, and interests are certainly more closely allied with those of the craftsmen in the tool- room and model shop than with those of the unskilled toolroom employees or of any other group of employees in the plant. In so doing, I believe the majority has again chosen to ignore the basic reason underlying the craft severance principle which they themselves explicated in Potash as follows: "that the specific community of interests among members of a skilled craft outweighs the community of interests among employees in general , and that the very reason for the birth and growth of craft unions lies in the needs of the skilled craftsmen for a bargaining representative which by history, tradition, and experience , would be better equipped to devote its efforts to the special problems peculiar to the specific craft involved, and thereby be in the best position to serve and advance their interests ." As I stated in Potash , this was the very reason upon which the Westinghouse doctrine was predicated. In my opinion, that doctrine is still a salutary one. I would apply it in this case. REIN COMPANY and HOUSTON PRINTING PRESSMEN & ASSISTANTS' UNION NO. 71, INTERNATIONAL PRINTING PRESSMEN & ASSISTANTS' UNION OF NORTH AMERICA, AFL, Petitioner. Case No. 39-RC-728. April 29, 1954 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 Wilton Waldrop , hearing officer . The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed. i IAt the hearing the Petitioner objected to the intervention of Local 49, Amalgamated Lithographers of America, CIO, hereinafter called the Intervc,nor, on the ground that there was no adequate showing of interest. In addition, the Employer, in its brief, requested the 108 NLRB No. 107. REIN COMPANY 599 Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds: 1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the mean- ing of the Act. 2. The labor organizations involved claim to represent certain employees of the Employer. 3. A 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. 4. The Petitioner seeks a unit composed, in substance, of all letterpressmen and offset pressmen, their assistants and helpers, platemakers, cameramen, strippers, and other em- ployees in the camera and plate department , excluding all other employees.' The Employer, alleging the interchange of its employees, contends, in effect, that the appropriate unit should include all production employees in the plant. The Intervenor , although urging that the appropriate unit is one consisting of only the lithographic production employees, namely, offset pressmen, apprentices , and helpers , plate- makers, cameramen , strippers , and other employees in the camera and plate department , does not seek an election in this unit which it considers appropriate. It does, however, desire to have its name on the ballot if the Board directs an election in the unit sought by the Petitioner. There is no history of collective bargaining at the plant. The Employer operates a commercial printing establish- ment and utilizes printing presses which may be classified as letterpresses , offset presses , and hybrid or combination presses which employ both the offset and letterpress process. The approximately 33 pressmen and helpers, 10 camera- men, platemakers , and strippers , 2 plate proofreaders, and a plate file girl constitute all the personnel in the Employer's pressrooms and camera and plate department .' They perform the usual duties of their classifications . Although it appears that a small number of employees in the unit sought may, on occasion, work in other production departments, this inter- change is principally among those in the helper classification. The Employer has departmentalized its pressrooms on the basis of whether a press is sheet- or roll-fed , and not on the basis of whether such presses are letter or offset presses. Thus the roll-fed press foreman and the sheet-fed press foreman , respectively , supervise both letter and offset press- men. It appears that 25 percent of the Employer ' s pressmen can operate both types of equipment , and a number of press- Board to examine the Petitioner's showing of interest. The Board has repeatedly held that showing of interest is an administrative matter, not subject to direct or collateral attack. Wayside Press, 104 NLRB 1028. Moreover, we are administratively satisfied that the Petitioner and the Intervenor have made an adequate showing. 2 The Petitioner, in the alternative, seeks a unit of only the pressmen, assistant pressmen, and apprentices. iAlthough it appears that there are three additional helpers, the record does not show whetter they work as pressmen's helpers or work as. helpers in the collating department. 600 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD men operate the hybrid presses which combine both the letterpress and the offset process . 4 The Employer is cur- rently endeavoring to train all pressmen to operate both types of equipment and has offered a bonus to those who are able to operate more than one piece of such equipment. Where, as here , there is a considerable degree of integra- tion between the letterpress employees and those in the lithographic process, and no party seeks to represent sepa- rately the lithographic employees , we have recognized that these employees have related interests and may constitute a separate unit.5 Moreover , the record , in our opinion , fails to reveal such close integration of functions and interchange of employees between these departments and the remainder of the Employer's operations as to preclude their separate representation. We find that all employees in the pressrooms, both offset and letterpress , and in the camera and plate department of the Employer at its Houston , Texas, plant , including all pressmen, both letter and offset pressmen, their helpers, apprentices , operators , cameramen, strippers , platemakers, plate proofreaders , and plate file clerk , but excluding all other employees , office employees , guards , watchmen, and all supervisors within the meaning of the Act, constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act. [Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.] 4 Apparently three hybrid or combination presses have been acquired by the Employer since the Amalgamated Lithographers of America sought, and the Board found, a unit of the Employer 's lithographic production employees appropriate. The Rein Company, Case No. 39-RC-270 , decided February 12, 1951 (not reported in printed volumes of Board Decisions and Orders). A total of 50 percent of the Employer ' s printing production is done on these hybrid or combination presses. 5 Master - Craft Corporation, 92 NLRB 524; Messenger Corporation , 94 NLRB No. 86 ( not reported in printed volumes of Board Decisions and Orders). INTERNATIONAL HARVESTER COMPANY, EAST MOLINE WORKS and INTERNATIONAL UNION, UNITED AUTOMO- BILE, AIRCRAFT AND AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENT WORKERS OF AMERICA, CIO1 AND ITS FE LOCAL 104 UAW-CIO., ' Petitioner 1 Hereinafter referred to as UAW-CIO. 2 Hereinafter referred to as 104 UAW. 108 NLRB No. 91.