Doubleday & Co., Inc.

DOUBLEDAY & COMPANY 325 Doubleday & Company, Inc. and Interna- tional Brotherhood of Bookbinders, AFL- CIO, Petitioner. Case 4-RC-7033. June 12, 1967 DECISION ON REVIEW AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION On January 11, 1967, the Regional Director for Region 4 issued a Decision and Order in the above- entitled proceeding in which he found the units primarily and alternatively sought by the Petitioner to be inappropriate and dismissed the petition. Thereafter, in accordance with the National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations, Series 8, as amended , the Petitioner filed a timely request for review of the Regional Director's Decision on the grounds that , in reaching his unit determinations, he departed from established Board policy and made findings of fact which were clearly erroneous. The Employer filed opposition thereto. On February 14, 1967, the National Labor Relations Board by telegraphic order granted the request for review . Thereafter, the Petitioner and the Employer filed briefs on review. Upon the entire record in this case , including the Petitioner's request for review and brief on review, and the Employer's brief in opposition to review, the Board makes the following findings: At its Hanover, Pennsylvania , plant, here involved , the Employer is engaged in the printing and distribution of reasonably priced hardbound and paperbound books. Utilizing the letterpress printing process, 80 to 90 percent of its production is devoted to the printing of hardbound books for shipment directly to members of book clubs. Of its approximately 360 employees , 20 pressmen, platehandlers , and helpers are currently represented by Local461, International Printing Pressmen & Assistants' Union , AFL-CIO, and 10 maintenance machinists are represented by District Lodge 98, International Association of Machinists , AFL-CIO. There is no history of collective bargaining for the other employees. In its petition, the Petitioner requested a unit of bookbinding , shipping, receiving, and utility employees. At the close of the hearing, the Petitioner indicated that it sought a unit of employees in the bookbinding and shipping departments , or, in the alternative , separate units of employees in each of these two departments. The Employer contended that the appropriate unit should include other unrepresented employees, specifically foundry composition and platemaking employees, perforators , proofreaders , a carpenter, and an over-the-road truckdriver . No specific position was taken by the Employer as to still other unrepresented employees ; i.e., three electricians, seven or eight boilerroom employees, and a steamfitter. The Petitioner indicated that it disclaimed interest in a unit which included foundry employees, perforators, and proofreaders. The Regional Director, finding no evidence of distinctive skills on the part of employees sought by the Petitioner and finding a significant amount of interchange between them and other unrepresented employees, concluded that neither the primary nor alternative units requested were appropriate. The Petitioner contends, inter alia, that the record does not support his findings as to skills and interchange, and that the employees"in the bindery and shipping departments constitute an appropriate unit. We find merit in this contention. The record reveals that there are approximately 150 bookbinding employees and 110 shipping employees and that each group is under separate departmental supervision. The bookbinding employees operate machinery and equipment which perform the operations of gathering, trimming, staining, rounding, backing, casing, and jacketing the books. The machinery and equipment is of the same type as found in bindery departments of bookprinting establishments generally except that the Employer utilizes certain production procedures peculiar to its own requirements. After the books are assembled and finished they are sent to the adjacent shipping department where they are packaged for shipment to book club members or are placed in storage.' There is frequent interchange of employees between the bookbinding and shipping departments, depending upon production needs. Other unrepresented employees perform functions which precede the printing of the books. The receiving department receives and stores paper stock and other materials used in the printing production process. Under a receiving clerk there is an assistant, an over-the-road truckdriver, a highlift operator, and two material handlers. The receiving dock is located at one end of the plant, and receiving employees have little contact and no interchange with bookbinding and shipping employees. There are 13 perforators located in an enclosed area on the first floor of the plant where they prepare tapes which are used on the typesetting machines. On the second floor are 31 proofreading employees who proofread the galleys run by the typesetting machines. There are 14 foundry composition employees and 8 foundry platemakers located on the first floor, next to the press department, who prepare and mount the plates for use on the presses. The perforators, proofreaders, and foundry employees, engaged in the composing process, are under separate supervision. Although the assistant to the Employer's vice president testified generally that there was interchange of employees between employees in the composing group and the ' After books are packaged for shipment they are sent to a post office substation located at the plant for mailing 165 NLRB No. 41 299-352 0-70-22 326 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD requested bookbinding and shipping groups, the plant manager subsequently testified that such interchange was occasional, and estimated that it involved one to three or four employees every 3 or 4 weeks. Still other unrepresented employees perform various maintenance functions: the three electricians, a steamfitter, and a carpenter where needed throughout the plant. The seven or eight boilerroom employees work in a separate building and they perform guard duties in addition to their boilerroom functions. In cases involving printing establishments, collective bargaining often proceeds on the basis of distinct groups of production and maintenance employees, such as those engaged in composition and platemaking, those operating letterpress presses, those engaged in bindery or bookbinding functions (sometimes including shipping, sometimes both shipping and receiving employees), and, where present, those engaged in the lithographic production process." Although bargaining units of bookbinding and/or shipping employees have been sometimes found appropriate on the basis of the parties' agreement or a history of bargaining limited to the requested unit ,3 in the absence of such factors, the Board determines whether or not the group sought to enjoy a separate community of interest by examining the facts of the particular case. Here, although a unit of unrepresented employees broader in scope than that sought may be appropriate, we are persuaded that a unit of employees in the Employer's bookbinding and shipping departments, one of the units alternatively 2 See Lloyd Hollister, Inc., 68 NLRB 733, 738; George Grady Press, Inc., 74 NLRB 1372; Worzella Publishing Company, 121 NLRB 78. 9 See Kingsport Press, Inc., 146 NLRB 260, 264. * Young & Selden Co., 147 NLRB 67, and other cases cited by the Regional Director in support of his dismissal of the petition are factually distinguishable. An election eligibility list, containing the names and proposed by the Petitioner, is also appropriate. Contrary to the Regional Director's finding, we do not view as significant the extent of interchange above described between employees engaged in the composition and platemaking function (the perforators, proofreaders, and foundry composition and platemaking employees) and those in the bookbinding and shipping departments. These, by far the largest departments in the plant totaling more than 250 employees, have separate immediate supervision from that of other departments, are located in adjacent areas in the plant, and between them substantial employee interchange occurs. For these reasons, we find that the employees in the bookbinding and shipping departments are a well- defined group of the Employer's production and maintenance employees and that they share a sufficient community of interest apart from other employees to warrant finding them to be an appropriate unit.`' Accordingly, we find that a question affecting commerce exists concerning the representation of certain employees of the Employer within the meaning of Section 9(c)(1) and Section 2(6) and (7) of the Act, and that the following employees of the Employer constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9(b) of the Act: All employees working in the bookbinding and shipping departments at the Employer's Hanover, Pennsylvania, plant, excluding all other employees, guards and supervisors as defined in the Act. [Text of Direction of Election5 omitted from publication.] addresses of all the eligible voters, must be filed by the Employer with the Regional Director for Region 4 within 7 days after the date of this Decision and Direction of Election. The Regional Director shall make the list available to all parties to the election. No extension of time to file this list shall be granted by the Regional Director except in extraordinary circumstances . Failure to comply with this requirement shall be grounds for setting aside the election whenever proper objections are filed. Excelsior Underwear Inc., 156 NLRB 1236.