Parke, Davis & Co.

In the Matter of PARKE, DAVIS & Co., EMPLOYER 1 and DETROIT PRINT- ING PRESSMEN & ASSISTANTS' UNION No. 2 OF THE INTERNATIONAL PRINTING PRESSMEN AND ASSISTANTS ' UNION OF NORTH AMERICA, A. F. L., PETITIONER Case No. 7-RC-533.-Decided August 3,1949 DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing 2 was held before Harold L. Hudson, hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed .3 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 Reynolds and Gray]. 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 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. The Petitioner seeks to represent a unit consisting of all em- ployees engaged in the operation of printing presses at the Employer's Detroit, Michigan, plant, including printing pressmen, assistants, helpers, upgraders, and Gordon platen press feeders, but excluding the superintendent and foremen. The Employer and the Intervenor 1 The Employer's name appears as amended at the hearing. 2 On the first day of the hearing, May 24, 1949, the Petitioner failed to have witnesses present to testify concerning the matters in issue. The hearing officer denied the Employer's motion to stay the proceedings and to suspend the hearing without date , and adjourned the hearing until June 2, 1949 . We sustain the hearing officer's denial of this motion. The adjournment of the hearing by the hearing officer by announcement thereof at the hearing constituted a proper exercise of his discretion in accordance with the provisions of Sec. 203.56, National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations , Series 5 , as amended. 3 The motions of the Employer and Local 176, United Gas, Coke and Chemical Workers of America , CIO, herein called the Intervenor, to dismiss the petition on the ground that the unit sought is inappropriate are denied for the reasons stated In paragraph 4, infra. 85 N. L. R. B., No. 92. 533 534 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD contend that because of the Employer's integrated operations and be- cause of the bargaining history 4 the proposed unit is inappropriate. The Intervenor also contends that these employees are neither a true craft nor departmental unit appropriate for separate representation. The Employer produces pharmaceutical and biological products. Its operations are conducted in several buildings, one of which houses the Printing and Paper Box Divisions as well as several other unre- lated departments.' The Printing and Paper Box Divisions, employ- ing approximately 146 employees, consist of a pressroom, composing room, and bindery which are located in separate, adjoining rooms, and a paper box department which is situated on another floor. Approxi- mately 90 percent of the printed material used by the Employer, con- sisting of labels, medical instructions, and advertising circulars, is printed in the pressroom.e The pressroom also prints cardboard sheets which are thereafter cut and creased in the paper box department to form cartons and boxes for packaging the Employer's products. The Printing and Paper Box Divisions are headed by a superintendent and a. manager with direct supervision of each department by a separate foreman. All employees in these divisions have the same working hours 7 and have frequent contact with one another and with all other plant employees through the use of common employee facilities and conveniences. There.are approximately 36 employees employed in the pressroom, including 18 pressmen, 2 assistant pressmen, 12 upgraders,s and 4 Gor- don platen press feeders. The Employer concedes that the pressmen ,tire journeymen craftsmen. The Gordon platen press feeders operate small Gordon presses which are located in the composing room near the pressroom. Their work consists mainly of printing serial num- 'bers and expiration dates on labels previously printed by the pressmen. The type on their machines is' set by the pressmen. Pressroom em- ployees are not interchanged with other employees. We find that the employees in the proposed unit constitute a tradi- tional craft group that may appropriately be represented in a separate 4 Pursuant to a Board-directed election conducted in 1943 the Intervenor was certified as the representative of the Employer's production and maintenance employees , including the .employees involved herein , and has ever since bargained for these employees. Matter of Parke, Davis and Company, 51 N. L . R. B. 179. 5 These are the laundry, crude storage, and glassware departments. 6It appears that the rest of the Employer 's printing is done by outside firms. ' The pressroom has day and night shifts . The record does not indicate whether other -departments operate on more than one shift. 8 There is a 5-year upgrader training program in force in the pressroom . Upgraders are hired directly or are procured by transfer from other departments . Previous training or experience in printing is evaluated and upgraders may complete their training in less than the required 5 years. It appears that upgraders are assigned as helpers or assistants to .pressmen and acquire journeyman status through performance of duties in these capacities. PARKE, DAVIS & CO. 535. unit.' We reject the contention of the Employer and the Inter- venor that these employees may not be severed because of the Em- ployer's highly integrated operations. We find that the functions of the pressroom are not so closely identified and intermingled with the Employer's production processes as to preclude their separate representation. However, as the continued inclusion of these em- ployees in the existing plant-wide unit may also be appropriate, we shall not make'any final determination at this time of the appropriate unit, but shall first ascertain the desires of these employees in the election hereinafter directed. We shall direct that an election by secret ballot be held among the employees in the pressroom of the Printing and Paper Box Divisions at the Employer's Detroit, Michigan, plant, including printing press- men, assistants, helpers, upgraders, and Gordon platen press feeders, but excluding foremen, the superintendent, the manager, and all other supervisors as defined in the Act. If in this election the em- ployees select the Petitioner, they will be taken to have indicated a desire to constitute a separate bargaining unit. DIRECTION OF ELECTION 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 supervision 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, among the employees in the voting group described 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 re- instated prior to the date of the election, and also excluding em- ployees on strike who are not entitled to reinstatement, to determine whether they desire to be represented, for purposes of collective bar-- gaining, by Detroit Printing Pressmen & Assistants' Union No. 2. of the International Printing Pressmen and Assistants' Union -of' North America, A. F. L., or by Local 176, United Gas, Coke & Chem-- ical Workers, C. I. 0., or by neither. 6 Matter of Southern Central Company, 77 N. L. R. B. 247 ; Matter of George Grady Press,. Inc., 74 N. L . R. B. 1372; Matter of Rudolf Orthwine Corporation, 60 N. L. R. B. 447, and cases cited therein.