Guardian Printing and Litho Corp.

GUARDIAN PRINTING AND LITHO CORP 9 and we shall, therefore, include employees in this classification in the unit Expediter, shop This employee reports to the manager of produc- tion control. His duties are to check stock on production line for shortages of material, to see that sufficient stock is available to per- form work on production schedules, and to inform his superior of stock shortages that may tie up and delay the meeting of the schedules, From the foregoing, we find that this employee is a plant clerical em- ployee s We shall, therefore, include him in the unit Tvmekeeper • Employees in this classification are responsible to the Employer's Finance Division, a separate division not connected to Gyro They are, however, physically located at Gyro, and perform the customary duties of a factory timekeeper with respect to produc- tion and maintenance employees The Board has held that time- keepers such as these are essentially plant clerical employees This is true even where certain of their conditions of employment, such as their supervision, are the same as office employees Accordingly, we shall include these timekeepers in the unit 9 On the basis of the foregoing and the entire record, we find that the following employees of the Employer constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Sec- tion 9 (b) of the Act All production and maintenance employees at the Employer's Van Nuys, California, plant, including engineering or engineering lab, prototype and development machinist, expediter, shop, and timekeeper, but excluding equipment test and repair tech- nician; equipment test and repair technician, senior, office clerical employees, watchmen, guards, professional employees, and all super- visors as defined by the Act [Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication ] 'Fairbanks, Morse & Company, 117 NLRB 1449, 1452 9 The Bussaek Company, 118 NLRB 1032 Guardian Printing and Litho Corp. and Local 1, Amalgamated Lithographers of America, and New York Printing Pressmen's Union No. 51, and New York Press Assistants' Union No. 23, International Printing Pressmen's and Assistants Union of North America, AFL-CIO, Petitioner. Cases Nos 2-RC--10125 and 2-RC-10160 November 6, 1959 DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS Upon petitions duly filed under Section 9(c) of the National Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before Milton Pravitz, hearing 125 NLRB No 4 10 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD 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-mem- ber panel [Chairman Leedom and Members Bean and Fanning]. 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 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: Petitioner in Case No. 2-RC-10125, Local 1, Amalgamated Lithographers of America, hereinafter referred to as Local 1, seeks to represent all lithographic production employees at the Employer's plant in New York, New York, including offset pressmen, assistant offset pressmen, and the multilith operator. Joint Petitioners in Case No. 2-RC-10160, New York Printing Pressmen's Union No. 51, and New York Press Assistants' Union No. 23, both affiliated with Inter- national Printing Pressmen's and Assistants' Union of North Amer- ica, AFL-CIO, and hereinafter referred to as Printing Pressmen, jointly, seek a unit of all pressmen and assistant pressmen, including both letterpress and offset pressmen. Should the Board find appro- priate the unit sought by Local 1, the Printing Pressmen desire that a separate election be ordered for the letterpress pressmen. The Em- ployer contends that only an overall unit of all pressmen is appro- priate. The parties agree that the Employer's bindery department employees should be excluded from any unit herein found appropriate, but leave the unit placement of a washup boy for Board determination. There is no history of collective bargaining. The Employer is engaged in the business of nonretail offset and letterpress printing. In its building, all lithographic (or offset) presses are located on the second floor and operated only by offset pressmen and their assistants, some six or seven employees, all of whom are qualified lithographic trade pressmen. All letterpress machinery is maintained on the third floor, and is mainly run by about 11 letterpress operators including their assistants. Offset pressmen and letterpress employees are under separate supervision. No interchange at all has occurred between the Employer's offset pressmen and letterpress operators during the 6 weeks of its opera- tions preceding the hearing. Such interchange as did occur prior to that time was rare and limited only to temporary assignment of one or two offset pressmen, who are also qualified letterpress operators, to the letterpress department for a day or so because of an influx of job GUARDIAN PRINTING AND LITHO CORP. 11 orders there, or because of illness in the letterpress crews and slacken- ing activity in the offset department. No letterpress operators have ever been assigned to perform regular offset printing duties.' Nor are any of the Employer's letterpress operators qualified as offset pressmen. The Board has held, in comparable unit controversies, that offset pressmen and letterpress employees may not be combined in a single bargaining unit unless there exists regular interchange between the two groups,2 and that, absent this factor the lithographic employees constitute a separate appropriate Unit .3 As interchange between the pressmen involved herein is rare, we find that a combined unit of the offset pressmen and letterpress employees is inappropriate. However, as the employees in these two operations comprise separate homoge- neous groups, which are accorded separate representation by the Board, we find that they constitute appropriate units.' We further find, as the parties agree, that the bindery department employees, who cut, bind, and wrap the finished product, do not properly belong in either unit because their duties are unconnected with the pressmen's craft. Accordingly, we exclude these employees.5 The washup boy spends all of his time in the letterpress department washing, packing, and oiling presses there. It does not appear that he is presently capable of performing a pressman's duties; however, he is being trained by the Employer in the letterpress operation and has been working on the letterpress regularly. We find that the washup boy is a letterpress trainee, and accordingly include him in the unit of letterpress employees.6 Accordingly, we shall direct that separate elections be held in the following appropriate units of employees of the Employer at its New York, New York, plant, excluding the bindery department em- ployees, guards, professional employees, and supervisors as defined in the Act : (1) All lithographic production employees, including all offset pressmen, assistant offset pressmen, and the multilith operator. (2) All letterpress production employees, including the letterpress pressmen, letterpress operators or assistants, and the letterpress trainee. [Text of Direction of Elections omitted from publication.] 'Rocco Tenaglla , a letterpress operator regularly assigned to the letterpress depart- ment, spent 3 or 4 clays in the offset department approximately 4 months prior to the hearing. However , this employee , while at the offset department , on this single occa- sion, was attempting only to learn the offset printing process. He has never returned to the offset department since that time , and continues his work at the present in the letterpress department. Robinson Printers, Inc., 118 NLRB 518. J. Miller Printing Company, 122 NLRB 1256. Robinson Printers, Inc., supra; ibid. J. Miller Printing Company, supra. I bid.