Milprint, Inc.

MILPRINT, INCORPORATED 241 the multiplant production and maintenance unit that it now repre- sents, and the Regional Director will issue a certificate of results of election to such effect. [Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this volume.] MILPRINT, INCORPORATED and INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF ELEC- TRICAL WORKERS, LOCAL UNION 494, AFL, PETITIONER. Case No. 13-IBC-2166. November 30, 1951 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 Herman J. DeKoven, 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 [Members Houston, Murdock and Styles]. 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 organizations involved claim to represent certain employees 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 requests that the Board find appropriate a unit consisting of all journeyman electricians, apprentices, and electronic technicians at the Employer's Milwaukee, Wisconsin, plant, excluding supervisors and all other employees. The Intervenor and the Em- ployer ployer assert the only appropriate unit is the existing bargaining group covering all employees with the exception of the lithographic department, the rotary pressroom, and printing employees. The Employer's Milwaukee plant is engaged in the conversion of film into packages and printing labels and similar material thereon. There are approximately 600 employees in the broad production and maintenance unit represented by the Intervenor which has been the bargaining agent since 1937. The employees whom. the Petitioner ' United Paper Workers of America, CIO, Local Number 356, herein called the Intervenor, was granted permission to intervene at the hearing upon the showing of a contractual in- terest in the representation of these employees. 97 NLRB No. 34. 242 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD seeks to sever from the existing unit are assigned'to the electrical and electronics departments of the plant maintenance force. There are six journeymen electricians and one apprentice in the electrical depart- ment while two electronic technicians comprise the other department. The electricians are supervised by a foreman whose authority and work are restricted to that group alone while the electronics department is under the assistant chief electrician. Both these supervisors report to the chief electrician, who, in turn, is responsible to the works engineer in charge of all building and machine maintenance and installation. The duties of the journeymen electricians are to install, service, and maintain all electrical equipment within the plant, with the exception of electronic equipment, and to experiment with various types of heat- producing parts used in the film-conversion process. The electronic technicians have the responsibility of maintenance of electronic equip- ment and electrical work where electronic tubes are involved as well as certain developmental work in that field: Both the electricians and the electronic technicians are considered skilled employees during standard electrical maintenance work. The electronic technicians, on occasion, do repair work outside the Milwaukee plant on other installa- tions of the Employer and both groups receive higher than average. pay rates. The two departments occupy adjoining shops which are separated from the remainder of the maintenance force and the pro- duction employees by wire partitions. The Employer and the Intervenor both contend that the elec- tricians and the electronic technicians, by themselves, do not con- stitute an appropriate bargaining group. In this respect it is con- 'tended that the employees in question do not comprise a sufficiently skilled, or distinguishable, grouping to warrant severance from the established unit of which they are now a part. We find no merit in this contention. While it is true that the Employer does not conduct an apprenticeship program,' the record shows that the skills of the electricians approximate those of the ordinary maintenance electrician and that their work demands corresponding training. That this training is secured through on-the-job instruction lacking the formal designation of an apprenticeship period is not decisive.3 Again, while 2 while the Employer classifies these employees as "journeyman electrician " and "appren- tice" the designations are for job classification purposes only and do not represent partici- pation in any organized apprenticeship program The Employer generally prefers electri- cal experience for an applicant to a job in the departments but production employees with- out such experience may transfer into the department under certain circumstances Each employee is then given training on the job and receives the classification 'Of "apprentice " Upon reaching the top of this pay bracket, the employee may become a "journeyman" when a vacancy is available in that classification . The electronics department, created in 1950, Is staffed by employees who had received training in the electrical department ' See United States Rubber Company, 81 NLRB 17. J. C. PENNEY COMPANY, INC. 243 the electricians may occasionally do minor nonelectrical work, and the electronic technicians at times operate an electronic production machine, it is clear that the normal range and type of duties performed by these employees are within the confines of the electrical craft. Upon the entire record, the Board finds that all electricians, appren- tices, and electronic technicians at the Employer's Milwaukee, Wis- consin, plant, excluding the` electrical department .foreman, the assistant chief electrician, office and clerical employees, professional employees, guards, and all supervisors as defined in the Act, as amended, comprise a highly skilled, homogeneous,- and identifiable craft group who may constitute an appropriate bargaining unit not- withstanding their previous inclusion in a larger bargaining group .4 However, we shall not make any unit determination as to these em- ployees until we have first ascertained their desires in the matter. If a majority vote for the Petitioner they will be taken to have indicated their desire to constitute a separate appropriate unit, and the Regional Director conducting the election directed herein is instructed to issue a certification of representatives to the Petitioner for the unit described above, which the Board, under such circumstances, finds to be appropriate for purposes of collective bargaining. In the event a majority vote for the Intervenor, the Board finds the existing unit to be appropriate and the Regional Director will issue a certificate of results of election to such effect. [Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this volume.] * See Bunker Hill and Sullivan Mining and Concentrating Company, et al., 89 NLRB 243, and cases cited therein J. C. PENNEY COMPANY, INC. and RETAIL CLERKS INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION, LocAL No. 1119, AFL , PETITIONER . Case No. 20-RC- 14-39. November 30, 1951 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 Louis S. Penfield, 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 Herzog and Members Reynolds and Styles]. 97 NLRB No 45.