Sherwin- Williams Co.

316 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD Sherwin-Williams Co. and Chicago Local No. 245, Lithographers & Photoengravers International Union, AFL-CIO, Petitioner and United Steel- workers of America, AFL-CIO, Petitioner. Cases 13-RC- 11470 and 13-RC-1 1480 October 24, 1968 DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS By MEMBERS BROWN , JENKINS, AND ZAGORIA Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9(c) of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, a hearing was held before Roderick C. MacLeod, Hearing Officer of the National Labor Relations Board. The Employer and Petitioners have filed briefs Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the Act, as amended, the National Labor Relations Board has delegated its powers in connection with this case to a three-member panel. The Board has reviewed the Hearing Officer's rulings made at the hearing and finds that they are free from prejudicial error. They are hereby affirmed. Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds: 1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the Act and it will effectuate the purposes of the Act to assert jurisdiction herein. 2. The labor organizations' involved claim to represent certain employees of the Employer 3. A question affecting commerce exists concern- ing the representation of the Employer within the meaning of Section 9(c)(1) and Section 2(6) and (7) of the Act. 4. The instant cases, which have been consolidated for hearing involve a new plant of Sherwin-Williams Company, the Employer, located at Elgin, Ill. Chicago Local No. 245, Lithographers & Photoengravers Inter- national Union, AFL-CIO, hereinafter referred to as Lithographers, has petitioned for a departmental unit consisting of a pressman, his feeder, a coater operator, and two stacker operators. The United Steelworkers of America, AFL-CIO, hereinafter referred to as Steelworkers, petitioned for a production and mainte- nance unit encompassing all employees including the lithography department. The Employer favors an overall unit as well, while the carpenters take no unit position. There is no history of collective bargaining. The Employer's Elgin facility is designed as an integrated partially-automated facility wherein tin plate in coil form will come in, be cut into plates, I District No. 122 , Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers, AFL-CIO, hereinafter referred to as IAM, and Local 1693 , United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America , AFL-CIO, herein- lithographed or color coated, formed and assembled into cans, and shipped out. At the time of the hearing the plant had 25 hourly employees. The Employer expected to have 30 employees on a one-line-one shift basis by June 1, 1968, and 50 on a one-line-two shift basis by July 1, 1968. Full two line-two shift operation in about 6 months is expected to involve 107 employees. On these facts we determine that a representative complement exists. When the plant becomes fully operative, an output of 52 million aerosol metal containers is projected, 25 percent for Sherwin-Williams and the rest for sale to other companies. The Employer's plant is a new one story building with the lithography department at one end. It is walled off from the rest of the building because of the nature of the lithographic and coating processes in that drafts and dust may affect the product, special lighting is used, and there are fumes from the process. The lithography department has a coating line which is a one color process, and a lithographic line, which is a standard wet offset metal decorating type with a continuous flow The lithography department and the coil line have a common supervisor who is also Director of Lithography for all of the Employer's plants Experienced people were sought for the lithographic pressman, lithographic feeder, and coater operator vacancies. The stacker operator classification requires a lesser amount of skill. One of the five employees in the department was transferred into the department in the position of stacker operator There has been occasional substitution for a stacker due to absenteeism The Board has frequently held that employees engaged in the lithographic process form a cohesive unit appropriate for collective bargaining.' The re- cord herein establishes that the employees in the lithography department utilize standard lithographic equipment, perform usual lithographic duties, and exercise the customary skills utilized in the traditional lithographic process. The Employer contends that the lithographic unit is inappropriate because (1) employees frequently transfer into the lithography department, (2) the operations of the Employer are highly integrated, and (3) the lithography department employees have common working conditions with the other em- ployees. We find no merit in these contentions. The record establishes that only one person was trans- ferred on a permanent basis into the lithography department, and at the lowest skilled position. There has been only occasional substitution of a stacker operator due to absenteeism. We do not believe these minor instances of transfer constitute sufficient inter- after referred to as Carpenters , were permitted to intervene. 2 See Lord Baltimore Press, 144 NLRB 1376. 173 NLRB No. 54 SHERWIN-WILLIAMS CO. 317 change so as to deny the employees of the lithogra- phy department opportunity to acquire the separate representation to which they would otherwise be entitled on the basis of their common interests and duties. The argument that asserted "integration" of operation such as exists here negates the granting of a separate unit of lithographic department employees has been rejected by the Board in many cases 3 Finally with respect to the common working con- ditions and uniformity of benefits, it is noted that at the time of the hearing, the plant was not fully operative. In addition, the terms and conditions of employment were prepared at a time when no hourly employees had yet been hired. Therefore, any simi- lanty of working conditions and benefits cannot be relied on as a determining factor. In view of the foregoing, we find that the decision in Continental Can Co , 171 NLRB No. 99, in which the Board found that a separate lithographic craft unit was inappropriate, is distinguishable. There, the plant was engaged solely in the coating of, and lithographic printing on, tin plate. The plant had no can-making facilities. The unit sought consisted of pressmen, pressmen apprentices, and their feeders. There, as in the present case, the pressmen spent a substantial amount of time in nonprinting duties such as coating. However, in the present case, the unit sought is a departmental one, and would include employees working on the coater line, as well as the stacker operators. Therefore, evidence that pressmen worked in other areas of the department but not out of the department, would favor the conclusion that the lithography department constitutes a distinct homogeneous unit, appropriate for collective bargain- ing. It should be noted that the lithographic em- ployees involved in the Continental Can case per- formed only dry offset printing, which requires less skill and which the Board has distinguished from true lithography printing. We accordingly find that a separate unit of lithogra- phy department employees may be appropriate if these employees desire to be represented separately.' There remains for determination the unit place- ment of John Bell, the Employer's maintenance-utili- ty man. Employer claims that the maintenance-utility man is a guard within the meaning of Section 9(b)(3) of the Act. We do not agree. This employee's primary responsibility is building maintenance . He spends 75 percent of his time cleaning, 20 percent lighting various ovens so that they will be ready for produc- tion, and 5 percent doing "guard-type" duties. He reports to work at 5 a.m., turns off the automatic detection system, and relocks the door until 7 a.m. when the other employees arrive. He leaves at 1:30 p.m., and is not replaced by anyone. He is the only person doing cleaning work now, and no one else is being sought. He has no responsibility for enforcing plant rules against employees. He is unarmed and not in uniform. His fire prevention and "guard" duties, insofar as unauthorized personnel entering the plant are concerned, involve reporting such incidents when they come to his attention while performing his cleaning and lighting duties. In view of these facts, we find, therefore that Bell is not a guard and we shall include him in the production and maintenance unit. In view of all the. facts previously mentioned, we find that the requested lithography department unit may be appropriate. However, we shall make no final unit determination at this time but shall direct that an election be conducted in the following voting groups at the Employer's Elgin plant: (a) All employees engaged in lithographic produc- tion work including pressmen, feeders, coater opera- tors, and stacker operators, excluding all other em- ployees, office clerical employees, professional em- ployees, watchmen, guards, and all supervisors as defined in the Act. (b) All production and maintenance employees, excluding the employees in voting group (a) and all office clerical employees, professional employees, watchmen, guards, and supervisors as defined in the Act. If the majority of the employees in voting group (a) select the Lithographers, the employees in that group will be taken to have indicated their desire to constitute a separate bargaining unit, and the Region- al Director conducting the elections is hereby in- structed to issue a certification of representatives to the Lithographers for such unit, which the Board under the circumstances finds to be appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining. However, if a majority of the employees in such voting group do not vote for separate representation, that group will appropriately be included in the production and maintenance unit and their ballots shall be pooled with those for group (b).5 3 See Shumate Incorporated , 131 NLRB 98 4 Since we are ruling that Continental Can is inapposite , we deny the Employer's motion to reopen the record in order to admit evidence of the nonprinting duties of the lithographic employees 5 If the votes are pooled , they are to be tallied in the following manner The votes for the labor organization seeking a separate unit in group (a) shall be counted as valid votes but neither for nor against the labor organizations seeking to represent the production and mainte- nance unit . All other votes are to be accorded their face value. 318 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD If a majority in voting group (b), including any pooled group, vote for either the Steelworkers, Machinists, or Carpenters, that labor organization shall be certified as the representative of employees in 6 Since the record is unclear as to the positions of the Intervenors we have included them on all ballots because they have shown interest in employees for an overall unit . They may withdraw however , from either or both ballots , within 5 days of the date hereof, if they are not interested in representing these employees. 7 Election eligibility lists , containing the names and addresses of all the eligible voters , must be filed by the Employer with the Regional that group, which under the circumstances the Board finds to be an appropriate unit for purposes of collective bargaining.' [Direction of Election? omitted from publication.] Director for Region 13, within 7 days after the date of this Decision and Direction of Elections The Regional Director shall make the lists available to all parties to the elections . No extension of time to file these lists shall be granted by the Regional Director except in extraordinary circumstances . Failure to comply with this requirement shall be grounds for setting aside the elections whenever proper objections are filed. Excelsior Underwear Inc , 156 NLRB 1236.