W. F. Hall Printing Co.

In the Matter of W. F. HALL PRINTING COMPANY and CHICAGO MAIL- ERS' UNION No. 2, SUBORDINATE UNION OF THE INTERNATIONAL TYPOGRAPHICAL UNION OF NORTH AMERICA Case No. R-5554.-Decided July, 0°,, 1943 Mr. Otto A. Jaburek, of Chicago, Ill., for the Company. Messrs. Leon M. Despres, Francis D. O'Mara and A. Giacola, of Chicago, Ill., for the Union. Mr. William C. Baisinger, Jr., of counsel to the Board. DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION STATEMENT OF THE CASE Upon petition and amended petition duly filed by Chicago Mailers' Union, No. 2, Subordinate Union of the International Typographical Union of North America, herein called the Union, alleging that a ques- tion affecting commerce had arisen concerning the representation of employees of W. F. Hall Printing Company, Chicago, Illinois, herein called the Company, the National Labor Relations Board provided for an appropriate hearing upon due notice before Russell Packard, Trial Examiner. Said hearing was held at Chicago , Illinois, on June 11 and June 16, 1943. The Company and the Union appeared, partici- pated, and were afforded full opportunity to be heard, to examine and cross-examine witnesses , and to introduce evidence bearing on the issues. The Trial Examiner's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed. All parties were afforded opportunity to file briefs with the Board. Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following:, FINDINGS OF FACT I I. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY W. F. Hall Printing Company, an Illinois corporation , is engaged' at a plant in Chicago, Illinois, in the business of printing, binding and shipping magazines, catalogues , and other printing matter. Dur- 51 N. L. R. B., No. 108. - 640 W. F. HALL PRINTING COMPANY 641 ing the fiscal year which ended March 31, 1943, the Company pur- chased for use in its Chicago plant approximately $2,000,000 worth of raw material, of which about 50 percent was shipped to the plant from points outside the State of Illinois. During the salve period, the Company's sales exceeded $8,000,000, of which approximately 75 per- cent was sold and. transported to purchasers outside of the State of Illinois. The Company admits that it is engaged in` commerce within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act. II. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED Chicago Mailers' Union No. 2, Subordinate Union of the Interna- tional Typographical Union of North America, is a labor organization admitting to membership employees of the Company. III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION On or about May 3, 1943, the Union advised the Company that, it represented a majority of the employees within the unit claimed by it to be appropriate and, requested recognition as their exclusive bargaining representative. The Company refused recognition because it disputed the appropriateness of the unit sought by the Union. A statement of the Regional Director, introduced in evidence at the hearing, indicates that the Union represents a substantial number of employees in the unit hereinafter found appropriate.' We find that a question affecting commerce has arisen concerning the representation of employees of the Company within the meaning of Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act. IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT The sole issue in the case concerns the appropriateness of the bargain- ing unit sought by the Union. The Union contends that the unit should be comprised of all employees in the mailing, bundling, shipping, and imprinting departments of the Company's Chicago plant, including foremen and assistant foremen, instructors, sweepers, quality checkers and inspectors, and roving employees, but excluding clerical em- ployees, intraplant truck drivers, the plant superintendent, the assist- ant plant superintendent, and seasonal employees. The Company, on the other hand, contends that the unit should be comprised only of skilled male employees in' the mailing department, inelding foremen and assistant foremen, but excluding the super- 1 The Regional Director reported that the Union submitted 123 authorization cards bearing apparently genuine signatures of persons whose names appear on the Company's pay, roll of June 10, 1943, which contains the names of 208 persons within the alleged appropriate unit. 642 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD intendent and assistant superintendent. This definition would limit the unit to the approximately 15 male hand wrappers, addressers, ma- chine operators, and the foreman and assistant foremen in the mailing department. In the event that this narrow unit is not found to be ap- propriate, the Company takes the alternative position that the bar- gaining unit should be limited to employees in the mailing and bund- ling departments, including supervisory employees below the-position of assistant superintendent, sweepers, and roving or utility employees, but excluding intraplant truck drivers, clerical employees, seasonal employees, instructors, and all women employees. . The Company prints a large volume of periodicals, advertising pamphlets, mail order catalogues and cheap paper editions of books. All of this material, after printing, binding and trimming, is proc- essed by the mailing, bundling and shipping departments. Certain items, such as advertising circulars prepared for distribution by large general stores, are handled only by the imprinting and shipping depart- ments. In general the work of these departments is to wrap, label, address, bundle or carton the items and place them in mail sacks or on freight cars for out-bound shipment. The books and magazines are delivered by the intraplant truck drivers to the mailing department where wrapping machines wrap them. The next process is the label- ing of these items with specially prepared addressed labels by means of power operated machines known as Cheshire machines, or, in some instances, by means of a hand-operated machine called a Hand Dick machine. The printed material is next sent to the bundling department where a machine known as a Bunn tying machine ties or binds the books or magazines into 25 to 50 lot bundles. The Cheshire and wrap- ping machines are located in the mailing department while both the mailing and the bundling departments use the Bunn tying and Hand Dick machines. The work performed in these two departments is very similar. At the end of the wrapping machines in the mailing room a shipping room employee fills the mail sacks and takes them through the bundling department to the shipping room for final checking and processing and occasionally when unlabeled work comes from the bundling department the shipping room employees affix address labels on the bundle. If an order is short, shipping room employees go to the bundling room and make up the odd number required. Approxi- mately 75 percent of all work going through the mailing and bundling departments requires further processing by the shipping room em- ployees. During the rush season employees may be borrowed from one or another of the several departments involved since the operations are similar and can be performed by employees in any one of these depart- ments. The mailing, bundling, and shipping departments are all located in the eastern half of the plant with no physical separation W. F. HALL PRINTING' COMPANY 643 between the various operations. The mailing department employs ap- proximately 95 persons including 5 supervisory employees. There are about 70 employees in the bundling department, 1 of whom is the fore- man. In the shipping department there are about 45 production employees, 5 clerical employees, and 1 foreman. The fourth department involved is the imprinting department which employs only three or four persons. It is on the west side of the Company's plant near the pressroom. Imprinting is a process by which the customer's name and address or other legend is printed on a blank space left on the face of the catalogue or circular when the booklet is printed. Imprinting employees not only do the printing of such legends but occasionally bundle and address their own prod- ucts. Separate pay rolls are maintained for the mailing, bundling, and shipping departments while the imprinting employees are carried on the pressroom pay roll. When work is slack in the imprinting department, these employees work in the pressroom as helpers. This may occur three or four times a year. The record indicates that the Union has collective bargaining con- tracts with the majority of the companies located in Chicago. Illinois. engaged in job and book printing. In all such contracts the four above-discussed departments are grouped together in a single unit. Although the Company does maintain separate pay rolls for these employees, they enjoy the same working conditions and privileges and work in the same large room of the plant, with the exception of the three imprinting department employees, and their 'work is so func- tionally integrated that we are of the opinion that they may appropriately be grouped together in a single unit. While the imprinting employees do work in another section of the plant, their work is so closely related to that of the mailing, bundling, and shipping employees that we shall include them in the appropriate unit. The Company and the Union disagree with respect to the inclusion of certain categories of employees in the four department bargaining unit. The Company asserts, and the Union denies, that instructors should be excluded from the unit. During the company's rush seasons 2 a few of the permanent employees are detailed to instruct newly hired unskilled employees. At the close of each rush period these tempo- rary instructors go back to regular production jobs. They receive no higher wages and enjoy no different working conditions when acting as instructors than they do during the normal production period. Since these employees spend the majority of their time as regular 2The Company experiences two rush seasons each year , during which semiannual catalogues and "flyers" of certain mail order houses are printed During these periods the pay rolls of the departments involved increase approximately 100 percent. 540612-44-vol. 51-42 644 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD production workers, performing the same duties as other employees in their department, we shall include them in the unit. The Company contends, and the Union denies, that women em- ployees should be excluded from the unit. The Company's position is apparently based on the theory that women are not eligible to membership in the Union. The record indicates that this is an erro- neous assumption, since the Union introduced evidence showing that it had about 10,000 women members. There is no difference between the work performed by men and that performed by women in the departments involved. We perceive,no valid reason for differen- tiating between male and female employees with respect to the com- position of the unit. The Company, in its alternative position regarding the composition of the unit, agrees with the Union with respect to the inclusion of foremen and assistant foremen, sweepers, and roving or utility em- ployees, and the exclusion of the plant superintendent and his assist- ant, intraplant truck drivers, clerical employees who perform clerical duties exclusively, and seasonal employees. A few of these categories warrant discussion. Each of the departments involved employs a foreman, with the ex- ception of the imprinting department, which, according to the plant superintendent, is under the supervision of a working foreman. It also appears that there are several assistant foremen in the mailing department. The record is silent with respect to the duties and au- thority of'these minor supervisory employees. Inasmuch as they are traditionally included in collective bargaining contracts in the print- ing trades, and since the parties are in accord as to their disposition, we shall include the foremen and assistant foremen and the working foreman in the imprinting department in the unit.' The parties agree to include sweepers in the unit. There are sweepers in the mailing and bundling rooms. They are maintenance employees, under the direct supervision of the foremen of the mailing and bundling departments. We shall include the sweepers in the appropriate unit. The roving or utility employees are persons who have been hired recently and as- signed to the various departments involved. These employees are des- ignated as roving or utility employees because they may be shifted from department to department before obtaining permanent positions. The Company agrees to their inclusion in the unit, since it admitted that these employees will in all probability be retained as a part of the permanent' personnel due to the shortage of labor. We shall include the roving or utility employees in the unit. a Cf. Matter of Chicago Rotoprint Company, 45 N. L. R. B. 1263, and citations therein. The rule enunciated by the majority of the Board in Matter of The ,Maryland Drydock Company, et al., 49 N. L. R. B. 733, denying supervisory personnel the right to bargain collectively under the Act, was not intended to disturb the collective bargaining rights which have been traditionally exercised by foremen in the printing trades. W. F. HALL ,RIFTING COMPANY 645 In accordance with the" agreement of the parties, we shall exclude the plant superintendent and his assistant from the unit. We shall likewise exclude the intraplant truck drivers who truck the finished printed products from the bindery and trimming rooms to the mail- ing, bundling, and shipping department; the clerical employees exclu- sively engaged in clerical work; and the seasonal employees who are temporarily employed during the Company's semi-annual rush seasons. We find that all employees in the mailing, bundling, shipping, and imprinting departments of the Company, including instructors, fore- men and assistant foremen, the working foreman in the imprinting department, sweepers, and roving or utility employees, but excluding the plant superintendent and his assistant, intraplant truck drivers, clerical employees exclusively engaged in clerical work, and seasonal employees, constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining, within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act. V. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES The Company and the Union agree that the pay-roll period of June 57 1943, should be used in determining the employees' eligibility to vote in an election directed by the Board. They request this pay-roll period because the Company is now operating during one of its two yearly rush seasons during which the pay rolls of the departments involved usually increase by 200 or 300 employees. The hiring of these seasonal temporary employees commenced during the week of June 7, 1943. In view of this fact we shall grant the parties' request. We shall direct that the question concerning representation which has arisen be resolved by means of an election by secret ballot among the employees in the appropriate unit who were employed during the pay- roll period immediately preceding June 5, 1943, subject t_o the limita- tions and additions set forth in the Direction. DIRECTION OF ELECTION By virtue of and pursuant to the power vested in the National Labor 'Relations Board by Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act, and pursuant to Article III, Section 9, of National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 2, as amended, it is hereby DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation to ascertain representa- tives for the purposes of collective bargaining with W. F. Hall Print- ing Company, Chicago, Illinois, an election by secret ballot shall be conducted as early as possible, but not later than thirty (30) days from the date of this Direction, under the direction and supervision of the Regional Director for the Thirteenth Region, acting in this matter as agent for the National Labor Relations Board, and subject to Article III, Section 10, of said Rules and Regulations, among the 646 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD employees in the unit found appropriate in Section IV, above, who were employed during the pay-roll period immediately preceding June 5, 1943, including employees who did not work during said pay-roll period because they were ill or on vacation or temporarily laid off, and including employees in the armed forces of the United States who present themselves in person at the polls, but excluding any who have since quit or been discharged for cause, to determine whether or not they desire to be represented by Chicago Mailers' Union No. 2, Subordi- nate Union of the International Typographical Union of North America, for the purposes of collective bargaining.