Beurmann-Marshall, Inc.

In the Matter of BEURMANN-MARSZIALL, INC., EMPLOYER and AMAL- GAMATED LITHOGRAPHERS OF AMERICA, C. I. 0.,' PETITIONER Case No. 7-RC-291.Decided June 30,1949 DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION Upon a petition duly filed, a 'hearing was held before Francis E. Burger, hearing officer of the National Labor Relations Board. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed 2 Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3 (b) of the National Labor Relations Act, the Board has delegated its powers in connection with this case to a three-member panel [Chairman Herzog and Members Houston and Murdock]. Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds : 1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act. 2. The Petitioner and the Intervenor, International Printing Press- men and Assistants Union of North America, A. F. L., are labor organizations claiming to represent employees of the Employer. 3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the representa- tion of the employees of the Employer,. within the meaning of Section 9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act. 4. The appropriate unit : The, Employer's printing plant consists of four principal depart- ments : the Bindery. Department, the Letter Press Department, the Letter Press Composition Department, and the Lithographic Produc- tion Department. The Employer and the Petitioner stipulated at the hearing that the unit sought by the Petitioner, composed of all- Lithographic Production Department production employees, exclud- ing working foremen and all other employees of the Employer, was appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining. The Inter- 'The name of the Petitioner appears as amended at the hearing. s The Intervenor , International Printing Pressmen and Assistants Union of North. America, A F. L., moved at the hearing to dismiss the petition herein on the ground that the unit sought is inappropriate . For the reasons set forth below, this motion is denied. 84 N. L. B. B., No. 104. 951 952 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD venor objected to the appropriateness of the stipulated unit without making it clear whether it wished to represent the employees of the Employer in a plant-wide unit or in a unit consisting of the Letter Press and Lithographic Production employees. Each of the Employer's departments operates under separate super- vision. No employees are transferred from the Lithographic Pro- duction Department to other departments of the plant, and transfers to the Lithographic Production Department are very infrequent. There is little relationship or coordination between the work of the various departments. With the exception of the Lithographic Produc- tion Department, all departments are currently covered by contracts with different labor organizations, and separate grievance procedures have been established under the contracts for each of these departments. We have previously held that employees of the lithographic depart- ments of plants similar to that of the Employer may constitute an appropriate unit.3 Accordingly, we find that all the Lithographic Production Department production employees at the Employer's Lansing, Michigan, plant, excluding working foremen and all other employees of the Employer, constitute a unit appropriate for the pur- poses of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act. The same division of function, supervision, and employee represen- tation exists between employees of the Lithographic Production and Letter Press Departments as exists between employees of the Litho- graphic Production and other departments. The employees in the Lithographic Production Department were represented from 1943 to .1947-by Local 479 of the Intervenor. Although the contract between the Employer and Local 479 expired on October 1, 1947, the parties are at present operating in accordance with the provisions thereof. Local 12 of the Intervenor represents the employees of the Letter Press Department, and 'has done so by separate contract since 1943. It appears that the Intervenor wishes to add the employees of the Lithographic Production Department to the unit of Letter Press em- ployees already represented by Local 12. The facts set forth above, however, provide no basis for establishing a unit consisting of these two of the Employer's four departments. As pointed out above, except for the Lithographic Production De- partment, each department of the Employer's plant is currently cov- ered by a contract with a different labor organization. As each of these departments constitutes a unit appropriate- for the purposes of S Matter of Albert Love Enterprises , 66 N L. R. B. 416; See Matter of Franklin Dckleine Company, 84 N. L. R. B. 948. _ BEURMANN-MARSHALL, INC. 953 collective bargaining,4 these contracts constitute a bar to an election on a plant-wide basis. DIRECTION OF ELECTION 5 As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the purposes of collective bargaining with the Employer, an election by secret ballot shall be conducted as early as possible, but not later than 30 days from the date of this Direction, under the direction and super- vision of the Regional Director for the Region in which this case was heard, and subject to Sections 203.61 and 203.62 of National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 5, as amended, among the employees in the unit found appropriate in paragraph numbered 4, above, who were employed during the pay-roll period immediately preceding the date of this Direction of Election, including employees who did not work during said pay-roll period because they were ill or on vacation or temporarily laid off, but excluding those employees who have since quit or been discharged for cause and have not been rehired or reinstated prior to the date of the election, and also ex- cluding employees on strike who are not entitled to reinstatement, to determine whether or not they desire to be represented, for purposes of collective bargaining, by Amalgamated Lithographers of America, C. I. 0., or by the International Printing Pressmen and Assistants Union of North America, A. F. L. or by neither. 4 Matter of Albert Love Enterprises, supra. 5 Any participant in the election ordered herein, may upon its prompt application to, and approval hereof by, the Regional Director have its name removed from the ballot. 1