Check Printers, Inc.

CHECK PRINTERS, INC. 33 Check Printers, Inc. and Nashville Printing Pressmen & Assistants' Union #37 Subordinate to the Inter- national Printing Pressmen and Assistants ' Union of North America, AFL-CIO, Petitioner. Case 26-RC-4421 July 25, 1973 DECISION ON REVIEW BY CHAIRMAN MILLER AND MEMBERS FANNING AND KENNEDY On February 20, 1973, the Regional Director for Region 26 issued a Decision and Direction of Election in the above-entitled proceeding in which he found appropriate the Petitioner's requested unit comprised of all letterpress pressmen, offset pressmen, and their trainees. Thereafter, in accordance with Section 102 .67 of the National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations, the Employer filed a timely request for review of the Regional Director's Decision on the grounds, inter aha, that in making his unit determina- tion, he departed from officially reported precedent. On March 19, 1973, the Board, by telegraphic or- der, granted the request for review and stayed the election pending decision on review. Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, the Na- tional Labor Relations Board has delegated its au- thority in this proceeding to a three-member panel. The Board has considered the entire record in this case with respect to the issues under review, and makes the following findings: At its Nashville, Tennessee, plant, the Employer is engaged primarily in printing personal checks and deposit slips for customers of local banks.' It utilizes the lithographic or offset process in printing the basic forms of the banks' checks and deposit slips, and uses the letterpress process for imprinting on these forms the names, addresses, and account numbers of the banks' customers . As above stated, the Regional Di- rector found the Petitioner's requested unit confined to offset and letterpress pressmen to be appropriate for collective bargaining. The Employer contends that only a production and maintenance unit is appropri- ate, encompassing all employees in the typesetting, press, and bindery departments. We agree. The press department has 23 employees, including 4 leadmen.z On the day shift there are 6 offset press- 1 The Employer also prints business checks and does some commercial printing However, the great majority of its production, well over 90 percent, is as indicated in the text 2 Leadmen were found by the Regional Director not to be supervisors as defined in the Act men, including a leadman, engaged in the offset pro- cess; and 11 letterpress pressmen, including 2 lead- men, operating the letterpresses. On the night shift, there are six letterpress pressmen on duty, including a leadman. The typesetting department has three em- ployees, including a leadman. The bindery, separated by an aisle from the presses, has an undisclosed num- ber of employees under a floorlady, stipulated to be a supervisor. There is no bargaining history for any of the Employer's employees. The offset pressmen, who apparently prepare the metal plates for sheets of the forms to be printed,' operate a Webb offset press and five or six sheet-fed Harris presses. After the sheets are printed they are taken across the aisle to the bindery department where they are gathered, interleaved, punched, and placed in storage, in readiness for imprinting by the letterpress process. Perforation of the sheets is done either as part of the offset process or by the bindery. On occasion, pressmen operate cutting machines lo- cated in the bindery. Check orders are received in the office and sorted by style and color. Office employees, six in number, located in a glass-partitioned area adjacent to the typ- esetting department, perforate tapes for insertion in the automatic readers on the linotype machines. Once the type for an order is produced by the typesetters or linotype monitors, it is put in a galley and proofread. After proofreading, the type is taken to the press de- partment for placement on a letterpress for printing. Because order runs are short, 200 copies on the aver- age, the letterpress pressmen spend much of their time changing galleys. The Employer generally hires employees for its press department with a high school education, with- out commercial printing experience. Indeed, new hires with commercial shop experience require a peri- od of retraining. Although the Employer participates in a 24-month state-approved training program for military veterans it hires, there is no formal training program for employees generally. New employees are able to acquire an acceptable skill level for press work in 2 or 3 months. However, some employees require a longer period of training. All production employees punch the same time- clock, use the same facilities, and are under the super- vision of the general manager in charge of manufacturing .4 Pressmen are generally paid the same 3 Although there is testimony that the Employer prepares its own plates for the basic forms it prints, the record is silent as to which employees perform the various preparatory functions associated with the traditional lithographic production process It may be inferred that , because the basic forms remain the same, the amount of time offset employees spend in preparatory func- tions is minimal 4 As noted above, the floorlady in the bindery exercises immediate supervi- sion in that department 205 NLRB No. 6 34 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD as other machine operators. All employees share the same holiday and vatation benefits. Contrary to the Regional Director, we conclude that the letterpress and offset pressmen here involved, because of their specialized skills and the fact that they are engaged mainly in relatively simple, repeti- tive operations, do not constitute the type of printing employees the Board has found to be an appropriate separate unit in commercial printing establishments as a combination of letterpress and lithographic pro- duction employees.' We find, therefore, that the re- quested unit is inappropriate and that, in accord with the Employer's position, the only appropriate unit herein is as follows: All production and maintenance employees at the Employer's Nashville, Tennessee , plant, in- 5 See Young & Selden Co, Division of Diebold, Incorporated, 147 NLRB 67 In that case, involving a check printing plant like the instant one, the Board found that employees engaged in imprinting matter on preprinted checks by the lithographic process did not constitute an appropriate lithographic pro- duction unit The type of skills utilized by those employees were essentially of the same level as used by the press department employees herein There, the basic check forms were preprinted at another plant of the employer which did general commercial printing Here, as indicated , the Employer is engaged the great majority of the time in relatively simple operations involving solely the preprinting of basic check forms by the lithographic process and imprint- ing on those forms by the letterpress process cluding employees of the typesetting department, press department, and bindery department, but excluding office clerical employees, guards, and supervisors as defined in the Act. Accordingly, as the Petitioner indicated a willing- ness to go to an election in any unit the Board found appropriate, the case is remanded to the Regional Director for the purpose of conducting an election pursuant to his Decision and Direction of Election, as modified herein,6 except that the payroll period for determining eligibility shall be that immediately pre- ceding the issuance date of this Decision.' MEMBER FANNING, dissenting: For the reasons recited in his Decision and Direc- tion of Election I would affirm the Regional Director. 6 As the unit found appropriate is broader than that originally requested by the Petitioner, the Regional Director shall determine whether its showing of interest is sufficient before proceeding with the election ' In order to assure that all eligible voters may have the opportunity to be informed of the issues in the exercise of thier statutory right to vote, all parties to the election should have access to a list of voters and their addresses which may be used to communicate with them Excelsior Underwear Inc, 156 NLRB 1236, N L R B v Wyman-Gordon Co, 394 U S 759. Accordingly, it is hereby directed that the election eligibility list, containing the names and addresses of all the eligible voters, must be filed by the Employer with the Regional Director for Region 26 within 7 days of the date of this Decision on Review 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