Burroughs Corp.

BURROUGHS CORP ., THE TODD COMPANY DIVISION 347 In A. Harris d Co.,' the Board reexamined its policies with respect to the establishment of separate units of warehousing employees in the retail department store industry . In accordance with that deci- sion, the Board will find appropriate a separate unit of warehousing employees where : ( 1) the Employer's warehousing operation is geo- graphically separated from its retail store operations ; (2) there is separate supervision of employees engaged in warehousing functions; and (3 ) there is no substantial integration among the warehousing employees and those engaged in other functions . However, as stated in Sears, Roebuck d Company,' "Only where all three of these condi- tions are met will such units be approved." We now turn to the facts of the instant case. Assuming that the service center is a warehouse though, as the record shows, less than half of its space is devoted to warehousing and storage operations, we are convinced that the operation does not meet the geographical sep- aration requirement of Harris. Not only are the service center and the Plaza store physically and geographically connected but their operations are so designed as to be physically integrated to the extent that if the center were not attached to the retail store, the store would have to be redesigned in great part to include facilities now located in the center. Furthermore, the record shows that there are many classifications of employees common to the stores and center with a constant, substantial interchange of employees between the two facili- ties and that the center employees do not have the separate supervision required by Harris. We therefore find that these circumstances pre- clude the establishment of a separate unit of the employees of the Employer's Reisterstown Plaza service center, Baltimore , Maryland." Accordingly , we shall dismiss the petition. [The Board dismissed the petition.] 9 116 NLRB 1628. 7117 NLRB 133, 134 8 Mt7cns, 124 NLRB 389, 391; Rhodes, Inc., 124 NLRB 714, 716; Sears, Roebuck Company, supra. Burroughs Corporation, The Todd Company Division ' and Local No. 11, Amalgamated Lithographers of America , Petitioner. Case No. 3-RC-2847. October 18, 1962 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 Henry J. Winters, 1 The names of the Employer and the Petitioner appear as amended at the hearing. 139 NLRB No. 24. 348 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD 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 McCulloch and Members Leedom and Brown]. 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 organization involved claims 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. The Petitioner seeks a unit of lithographic production em- ployees 2 at the Employer's Rochester, New York Eastern Printing plant where the Company prints business forms and negotiable instru- ments by both letterpress and lithographic processes. In its unit, the Petitioner would include employees in the lithographic preparation, platemaking, and press departments, all of whom the parties agree are engaged in typical lithographic work and possess and exercise the skills associated with such work. The requested employees do not interchange with letterpress employees and clearly constitute a litho- graphic unit such as the Board customarily finds to be appropriate? The Employer agrees that a lithographic unit is appropriate, but con- tends that in view of the high degree of integration of its operations such unit should include, in addition to the employees in the three departments the Petitioner seeks, employees in its paper processing, warehousing, and finishing departments. It further contends that the work in paper processing is essentially lithographic in nature. Also in dispute is the unit placement of certain other classifications of employees. The paper processing department processes paper, purchased by the Employer, so as to convert it into "safety paper." 4 About 90 to 95 percent of the paper processed by this department is subsequently used for lithographic production work; however, approximately half of the department's total output of "safety paper" is shipped to the Employer's other plants. Nevertheless, about 70 to 75 percent of the paper used at the plant here involved is processed in this department. As the Employer did not wish to reveal the details of its "safety paper" process, the record is incomplete concerning its exact nature, but does indicate that a part of the operation is lithographic. How- Y There is no bargaining history for these employees. e See Allen, Lane & Scott, et al., 137 NLRB 223. This process was developed and is used exclusively by the Employer. Negotiable in- struments made of such paper are rendered useless by erasures or chemical voiding. BURROUGHS CORP., THE TODD COMPANY DIVISION 349 ever, the presses are extensively modified after purchase by the Em- ployer and the plates are not made in the plant's lithographic prepara- tion department. The plant manager testified that while the skills of the pressmen are the "same or comparable" to those of the offset pressmen in the press department, the paper processing pressmen receive 10 to 30 cents an hour more than the offset pressmen and there is no interchange between the two groups. Moreover, it would re- quire 2 to 3 months' training for an offset pressmen to operate a paper processing press. On the basis of this record, it is not established that the paper processing operation is essentially a lithographic operation, or that the employees in that department spend a predominant amount of their time in traditional lithographic work. Nor does it appear their work is an integral part of the lithographic process such as would warrant their inclusion for that reason with lithographic production employees. Accordingly, we shall exclude the employees in this de- partment form the unit.' The warehousing department is actually a stockroom for paper. Although the employees in this department handle paper used for both the lithographic and letterpress process, 90 to 95 percent of their time is devoted to handling paper to be used for lithographic work. These employees, who require about a year to become proficient, receive the paper, inspect it for flaws and loose rolls, maintain inventories, and transport the paper to the press department. Some of them op- erate forklift trucks. They handle no other supplies, do no shipping, and are separately supervised. The finishing department employees perform miscellaneous duties, such as collating, drilling, cornering, inspecting, padding, wrapping, and transporting documents, after they leave the press department and prior to shipment. We find without merit the Employer's contention that the em- ployees in these two departments properly belong in the requested lithographic production unit. The record does not show that they engage in work that is an integral part of, or otherwise intimately connected with, the lithographic production operation. They are not in the direct line of progression to the more skilled classifications of employees engaged in the traditional lithographic work and do not interchange with those employees. In these circumstances, there is no basis for finding that the employees in the warehousing and finishing departments appropriately belong in the requested litho- graphic production unit, and they are, therefore, excluded.' 5 There are several ink mixers in paper processing As only 30 percent of the ink they prepare is used in the press department and 70 percent in paper processing , we find they are not predominantly engaged in the lithographic process and, thus, shall not include them. Sutherland Paper Company, 122 NLRB 1284 , footnote 13. a Accord : Allen, Lane & Scott, et al , Supra; Miller & Miller, Inc, 132 NLRB 1530; Guardian Printing and Litho Corp, 125 NLRB 9 , 11. See also Shumate, Incorporated, Case No 25-RC-1941 , Supplemental Decision ( not published in NLRB volumes ), while 350 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD There remains for determination the unit placement of the follow- ing employees, all of whom the Petitioner would exclude and the Employer would include : Copy artists prepare artwork for lithographic printing on the basis of ideas and rough sketches submitted by customers and the method artists in the sales office. As this is not essentially creative work, and as the artists are predominantly engaged in the lithographic process, we shall include them .7 The preparatory planner routes customers' orders to various work centers in lithographic preparation and specifies the style and size of type and the appropriate spacing to be used; the preparatory, OAK and MICR inspectors function as proofreaders. We find that these employees and the operators of the Vari-Typer and headliner ma- chines are engaged in work outside the traditional lithographic oper- ation, and they are therefore excluded.8 The material gatherers maintain files of negatives and artwork. Some are trained as modelmakers, a category which the parties agree is properly included in the unit; work as modelmakers when the em- ployees in those categories are absent for illness or other reasons, and when additional help is needed; and are considered for positions as modelmakers when such jobs are available. The record does not, how- ever, establish that they spend a predominant amount of their time as modelmakers. As the work of the material gatherers is essentially clerical in nature, we shall exclude them from the unit.9 The numbering machine repairman, employed in the press rather than the maintenance department, is responsible for the repair of the numbering machine, which is used for orders which require num- bered documents. His most important duty is to set the machine by putting the numbering wheels in their proper positions; it is the press- man, however, who actually puts the machine in the press. We find that the numbering machine repairman does not exercise the tradi- tional lithographic skills and we shall therefore exclude him from the unit.10 the Board included roll warehousemen in the lithographic unit in its original decision, 131 NLRB 98, footnote 3, relied on by the Employer, it excluded them in its supplemental decision, predicated on a more complete record , on the grounds that "they are principally engaged in warehousing, shipping and receiving functions , they spend little time in per- forming functions which are integral to the lithographic production process, and they are not in the direct line of progression to the more skilled classifications within the litho- graphic unit . " -1llei Lane R Scott, et at , supra at 228 s Accord* Id, 228 , Miller it Miller, Inc, supra at 1533 Hal W Padgett, et at, d/b/a Padgett Printing and Lithographing Company, 101 NLRB 144, 146; The Madison Com- pany, 92 NLRB 914 ° Allen, Lane it Scott, et al, supra at 228 If any of these employees do in fact spend more than 50 percent of their time in modelmaking, they are included in the unit. "Accord : St Louis Lithographing Company, 114 NLRB 24, 26. J. G. COWARD, JR., DITCHING SERVICE 351 Accordingly, we find that the following employees constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the mean- ing of Section 9(b) of the Act: All lithographic production employees at the Employer's Rochester, New York, Eastern Printing plant, including the copy artists, model- makers, opaquers, combination camera-stripping men, in the litho- graphic preparation department; the pressmen, helpers, and service- men, in the press department; and the platemakers in the platemaking department; but excluding all employees in the paper processing, warehousing, and finishing departments; the preparatory planners, material gatherers, preparatory inspectors, and the operators of the Vari-Typer and headliner in the lithographic preparation depart- ment; the numbering machine repairman and the OK and MICR inspectors in the press department; office clerical employees, profes- sional employees, all other employees, guards, and supervisors as defined in the Act. J. G. Coward, Jr., d/b/a J. G. Coward, Jr., Ditching Service and Port Arthur and Vicinity Building and Trades Council A.F.L.- C.I.O. and/or the International Hodcarriers, Building and Common Laborers of America, Local Union 853, A.F.L.-C.I.O. Case No. AO-45. October 19, 1962 ORDER DISMISSING PETITION FOR ADVISORY OPINION On September 4, 1962, J. G. Coward, Jr., d/b/a J. G. Coward, Jr., Ditching Service, herein called the Petitioner, filed a petition for advisory opinion in the above-entitled proceeding alleging the exist- ence of an injunction suit pending in the 60th District Court of Jeffer- son County, Texas, as Docket No. B-79538, filed by the Petitioner against Port Arthur and Vicinity Building and Trades Council A.F.L.-C.I.O., and International Hodcarriers Building and Com- mon Laborers of America, Local Union 853, A.F.L.-C.I.O., herein called Trades Council and Hodcarriers, respectively. On Septem- ber 19, the Trades Council filed an answer alleging that the pending district court proceeding, docket No. B-79538, had been dismissed by the district court judge. By letter dated September 27, 1962, Petition- er's Counsel reiterated the request for an advisory opinion while con- ceding that the injunction suit is no longer pending. The Board hav- ing duly considered this matter, IT IS HEREBY ORDE DD that the Petition for advisory opinion be, and it hereby is, dismissed as there is no proceeding involving the ques- tion of the Board's jurisdiction over the operations of the Petitioner pending in any agency or court of any State or Territory. 139 NLRB No. 26.