Piedmont Publishing Co.

246 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD PIEDMONT PUBLISHING COMPANY and INTERNATIONAL STEREOTYPERS' AND ELECTROTYPERS' UNION OF NORTH AMERICA, A. F. OF L., PETITIONER PIEDMONT PUBLISHING COMPANY and WINSTON-SALEM PRINTING PRESSMEN AND ASSISTANTS LOCAL 318, INTERNATIONAL PRINTING PRESSMEN AND ASSISTANTS UNION OF NORTH AMERICA, AFL, PETI- TIONER. Cases Nos. 34-RC-86 and 34-RC-373. July 15,195,0 Decision, Order, and Direction of Election Upon separate petitions duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the Na- tional Labor Relations Act, a consolidated hearing was held before John M. Dyer, hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed. Upon the entire record in these cases 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 Employer publishes morning and afternoon daily papers and a Sunday paper in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The Inter- national Stereotypers' and Electrotypers' Union of North America, A. F. of L., herein called the Stereotypers, the petitioner in Case No. 84-RC-366, seeks a unit of all the stereotypers employed by the Em- ployer. The Winston-Salem Printing Pressmen and Assistants Local 318, International Printing Pressmen and Assistants Union of North America, AFL, herein called the Pressmen, the petitioner in Case No. 34-RC-378, and the Employer contend that only the historical com- bined unit of journeymen and apprentices, doing both press and stereotype work, which has been represented by the Pressmen for about 20 years, is appropriate. There are 23 men in the combined unit. Five of these men, the employees sought by the Stereotypers, work regularly in the composing room, which is on the third floor of the Employer's building. They prepare small mats, flat plates, and page size mats. The page size mats are sent to the pressroom in the basement of the Employer's building, and are then shaped and a plate made therefrom. The press is located in the basement and the paper is actually produced there. 1 The most recent contract between the Employer and the Pressmen was entered into on February 7, 1951, effective December 14 , 1950, to February 20, 1952. This contract has been reopened. 100 NLRB No. 31. PIEDMONT PUBLISHING COMPANY 247 The 18 men employed in the pressroom prepare the plates and operate the presses. There are two shifts operating, both in the composing room and in the pressroom. There is also a day and night supervisor, each of whom has charge of both the pressroom and the composing room. Eight to ten men are employed on each shift in the pressroom, depending upon the size of the paper to be produced. Of the five men in the composing room, two are assigned to each shift and the other man works a split shift. As all the men employed by the Employer work only a 5-day week, and as the Employer operates 7 days a week, it is necessary that men be assigned from the pressroom to the composing room on those days when the composing employees have their day off. The five men regularly assigned to the composing room, for all practical purposes, spend their entire time there. and seldom do any pressroom work. The 18 men assigned to the pressroom do both stereotype and press work. When these men work in the pressroom, approximately 60 percent of their time is spend in press work and the remainder in stereotype work. The Employer classifies all these employees as either journeymen or apprentices, and does not distinguish between stereotypers and pressmen. All the journeymen are paid the same rates, and the apprentices' pay is based on length of service. The eight apprentices spend most of their time in the pressroom. No apprentices are as- signed to the composing room regularly, although they spend some time there during their apprenticeship. In view of these facts, particularly the close integration of the work performed by the employees in both the press and composing rooms, we are of the opinion that the appropriate unit is the established combined unit sought by the Pressmen. We shall therefore dismiss the Stereotypers' petition for the smaller unit, on the facts revealed in this record. Accordingly, we find that all journeymen and apprentices employed in the pressroom and the composing room at the Employer's Winston- Salem, North Carolina, plant, excluding all other employees and supervisors, constitute a unit appropriate for the purpose of collec- tive bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act. ORDER IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the petition in Case No. 34-RC-366 be, and it hereby is, dismissed. [Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this volume.] MEMBER STYLES took no part in the consideration of the above Decision, Order, and Direction of Election.