The New Haven Pulp & Board Co.

in the Matter of TILE NEW IIAVEN PULP & BOARD COMPANY, EMPLOYER and INTERNATIONAL PRINTING PRESSMEN AND ASSISTANTS OF NORTH AMERICA, A. F. L., PETITIONER Cases Nos. 1-RC-1142 and 1-RC-1143.-Decided December 16, 1949 DECISION AND ORDER Upon separate petitions duly filed, a consolidated hearing was held before Robert S. Fuchs, 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 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 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 organization involved claims to represent employees of the Employer. 3. No 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, for the following reasons: The Petitioner seeks two separate units (a) of die makers and their apprentices and (b) of stonemen and their apprentices at the Em- ployer's New Haven carton manufacturing plant. United Paper Workers of America, CIO, Local Union No. 457, the Intervenor herein, opposes the severance of either group of employees from the existing unit of production and maintenance employees, alleging (1^ that employees in the proposed units are not true craft employees; and (2) that the close integration of their work with that of other em- ployees at the plant, and the long history of collective 'bargaining on a more inclusive basis preclude the establishment of the proposed. separate units. The Employer assumes a neutral position. „ ;. 87 NLRB No. 111. 10,53' 1054 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD In an earlier representation proceeding concerning pressmen at the Employer's plant,' the Board found that printing pressmen and cut- ting and creasing pressmen constituted a homogeneous craft group who might bargain with their Employer in a separate unit should they so desire. On June 3, 1949, following an election among the pressmen, the Board certified the Petitioner herein as their exclusive bargaining representative. From the new craft unit thus established, the Board, contrary to the desires of the Petitioner, excluded die makers, stonemen, and apprentices, finding that. employees in these categories were engaged in work which, although functionally related to that performed by the pressmen, nevertheless involved separate and distinct skills. The Petitioner through the instant consolidated proceedings seeks to represent the employees in the excluded cate- gories in two separate units apart from other employees at the plant. Die Makers The die makers work in the cutting and creasing and die depart- ment under common supervision with the printing pressmen and cutting and creasing pressmen who constitute the lately severed craft unit. Because of space limitations due to additional machines, the die makers presently work in a separate location. The department supervisor divides his time between the two locations. Die makers prepare dies used in the cutting and creasing presses. They receive detailed specification sheets with a hand-made sample of the desired cartons for use as a, guide. They do not work from blueprints and they do no lay-out work. Following the specifications received, die makers cut sheets of plywood, cut and bend steel knives and rules, fix them with plywood blocks and back them into a chase, thus completing the production die, which will cut the outlines and mark the creases for the folding paper cartons which are the Employer's products. Die makers pull die or oil sheets for the work of the stoneman-com- positor, repair and adjust dies, resolve assembly difficulties which arise on the presses and perform other operations required in their department. The Employer provides for the classification of its die room em- ployees as die makers A, B, C, and D and apprentices. At the time of the hearing in these proceedings, two employees were classified as die makers A, one as die maker C, and three were classified as apprentices. The die makers A were experienced as die makers when hired. The Employer does not maintain any formal program for the training of die makers. Laborers from the several plant depart- ments bid for transfer to the die department to serve as apprentices. 183 NLRB 268. THE NEW HAVEN PULP & BOARD COMPANY 1055 They serve a 30-day period as an aptitude test. Apprentices in the die room. are principally employed in cleaning and corking dies for storage, and they set dies in the storage area in and about the die room. These die corking and storage duties require the full-time work of two apprentices in the die room. If additional help is needed for this work, pressmen from the cutting and creasing presses, who also cork dies as part of their -regular work on the presses, are brought to the die room for this work. As their corking duties permit, however, apprentices in the die room learn to recog- nize and use the tools in the die room, and as opportunity is afforded, -they learn to make and repair simple dies. Their progress in learn- ing depends upon the extent and variety of the Employer.'s die work. No experienced die makers have been developed in the Employer's -plant so far as the record discloses. The record shows that, in their present positions, the Employer's die makers do not need to exercise the skills required of journeymen die makers in the paper industry. It is apparent in the record that the Employer's present plan of operations does not require the work of journeymen die makers. Although die makers are skilled employees, their general working interests in the Employer's plant are not so clearly severable from -those of other production and maintenance employees as to justify -their severance from the larger unit already existing at the plant- in an industry wherein employees classified as die makers usually bargain in the same unit with other production employees .2 Under -these circumstances, we find that the unit of die makers sought by the Petitioner in Case No. 1-RC-1142 is inappropriate for bargain- ing purposes at this time. We shall, therefore, dismiss this petition. Stonemen A section of the Employer's plant is known as an ink room or ink department, the function of which is to prepare and furnish material for the printing department. The room contains a print- ing press, a roller making machine, and a roller cutting machine. 'There are also materials such as rollers, roller coverings, ink, electro- type and patent bases. There is no ink made or mixed in this department. The two. employees in the ink department are classified by the .Employer as stoneman 3 and stoneman apprentice or assistant. The foreman of the department does no physical work, but he is respon- sible for maintaining and supplying ink and other materials to the 2 Container Corporation of America, 85 NLRB 837 , and cases cited therein. 3 The stoneman is otherwise known in the record as a stoneman -compositor, which is She Employer 's official classification for this employee. 1056 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD printing presses, and supervises the two employees who work with him. The foreman and the two employees in the ink department test and check the ink as delivered to them and store it in the open area about the ink room, carrying it daily to the press room as necessary. The stoneman-compositor makes up forms for the printing press, regardless of type, in the same fashion as the die makers make up die forms for the cutting and creasing operations. He checks, pre- -pares, mounts, and sets electrotypes for the printing press machines. In the ink room he prints on the press samples which are submitted to the customers for their approval. The stoneman and his assistant cut rollers for their use and for the use of the pressmen . The stone- man works from the die or oil sheet which is pulled for him by the die makers. His work follows in direct sequence with that of -the die room. Not all cartons made by the Employer are printed. The stoneman does only stoneman or related work, and there is no inter- change of personnel between the ink room and other departments. Like the Employer's die makers, the stoneman-compositor does no lay-out work. The present stoneman served as an apprentice in the ink department for 21/2 to 3 years. He attended no school to learn either composition or stoneman's trade. During the period as ap- prentice, he learned how to set type, run the press, and determine the correct ratio of composition to use with roller making. In the paper box industry, and at the Employer's plant, the skill required of the stoneman is relatively less than that required of die makers. Because we have found that the die makers at the Em- ployer's plant are not sufficiently skilled to be severed from the exist- ing production and maintenance unit, we believe that the stoneman and his apprentice do not constitute a sufficiently skilled group to warrant their severance from other employees at the Employer's plant. We therefore find the proposed unit of stonemen and apprentices inappropriate for separate bargaining at this time. We shall, there- fore, dismiss the petition filed in Case No. 1-RC-1143. ORDER .Upon the basis of the above findings of fact and the entire record this case, the National Labor Relations Board hereby orders that petitions for investigation and certification of representatives ployees of The New Haven Pulp & Board Company, filed by Aional Printing Pressmen and Assistants of North America, be, and they hereby are , dismissed.