Texas Color Printers, Inc.

30 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD Texas Color Printers, Inc. and Dallas General Drivers, Warehousemen and Helpers, Local Union 745, affiliated with International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Help- ers of America, Petitioner and United Paperwork- ers International Union, AFL-CIO-CLC, Peti- tioner. Cases 16-RC-6330 and 16-RC-6337 April 10, 1974 DECISION ON REVIEW AND ORDER BY CHAIRMAN MILLER AND MEMBERS FANNING AND JENKINS On July 31, 1973, the Acting Regional Director for Region 16 issued a Decision and Direction of Election in the above-entitled proceeding, in which he found appropriate the Petitioners' requested units of employees employed by the Employer at its printing plant located at 4800 Spring Valley Road, Farmers Branch, Texas. Thereafter, the Employer, in accordance with Section 102.67 of the National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations, as amended, filed a timely request for review of the Acting Regional Director's Decision, together with a supporting brief, on the grounds , inter alia, that, in making his unit determinations, he departed from established policy. On August 21, 1973, by telegraphic order, the request for review was granted and the elections stayed pending decision on review. Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, the National Labor Relations Board has delegated its authority in this proceeding to a three-member panel. The Board has reviewed the entire record in this case with respect to the issues under review and makes the following findings: I The Petitioner in Case 16-RC-6330 seeks a unit of all shipping and receiving department employees, including all warehouse employees, shipping and receiving employees, drivers, and porters, excluding all other employees, office clerical employees, guards, watchmen, foremen, and all supervisors as defined in the Act. There is no history of collective bargaining for any of the Employer's employees. The Acting Regional Director found the requested unit to be appropriate. The Employer contends that these employees do not have a community of interest separate and distinct from the one they share with other employees at its commercial printing plant and I On August 22, 1973, a day after the grant of review, the Petitioner in Case l6-RC-6337 requested permission to withdraw its petition The Acting Regional Director had found appropriate its requested unit of all production and maintenance employees, excluding, inter alia, the shipping 210 NLRB No. 12 that, therefore, the requested unit is inappropriate. We agree. As found by the Acting Regional Director, the Employer, using the lithographic or offset process, is engaged in the printing, collating, and bindery of all, or parts, of catalogues, Time magazine, and other commercial printing products. Its plant is subdivided into five departments: preparation, press, bindery, maintenance, and shipping and receiving. The shipping and receiving department consists of 8 of the 108 production and maintenance employees. A group superintendent provides overall supervision to all plant employees. The shipping and receiving department is under the immediate supervision of a warehouse foreman and operates only on two shifts, the first and third. On the first shift are two drivers, a warehouse employee, two shipping and receiving clerks, and a porter. A driver and a shipping and receiving clerk on the third shift work under the bindery foreman who supervises all shift employees. The shipping and receiving department employees perform functions closely integrated with plant operations. The drivers haul trash from the plant, make local deliveries, and pick up raw materials; supplies, and equipment, as needed. The warehouse operations involve the storage and supply of all raw materials used in the plant and office. The ware- houseman operates a forklift truck in moving those materials from place to place. The shipping and receiving clerks, in addition to their clerical duties, sweep the aisles and spend some time tending and operating the automatic scrap-baling machine. They also assist in production operations and substitute on jobs requiring little or no skills. The porter takes care of the lunchroom, the office, and the restrooms. There are frequent contacts between the requested employees and other employees in the plant. In case of absences or expediency, the Employer makes temporary assignments of shipping and receiving employees to assist production employees and vice versa, to a lesser extent. Such assignments involve relatively unskilled jobs, such as "jogging," cleaning up, and tying off bales of scrap formed by the baling machine. All plant employees punch the same timeclock and share the same shift hours, job benefits, and working conditions. All enjoy the same convenience facilities, such as the lunchroom, parking area, restrooms, etc. The Board has recognized that collective bargain- ing in commercial printing establishments often proceeds on the basis of , distinct groups of pro- duction` and ; maintenance employees, one of which and receiving department employees discussed below . None of the parties opposed the withdrawal request . Accordingly, it is hereby ordered that the request to withdraw the petition in Case 16-RC-6337 be, and it hereby is, granted. TEXAS COLOR PRINTERS, INC. 31 may be those engaged in bindery functions (some- times including shipping, sometimes both shipping and receiving, employees). In the absence of the parties' agreement or a history of bargaining with regard to a particular requested group of such employees, the Board determines its appropriateness on the facts disclosed by the record.2 Here, in view of the frequent work contacts and temporary interchange and overlapping supervision of employees of the shipping and receiving and bindery departments, and in the absence of any bargaining history as to any of the plant employees, we find that the shipping and receiving department employees do not enjoy a sufficiently distinct community of interest to warrant their establishment as a separate appropriate unit apart from other employees. Accordingly, we find the requested unit to be inappropriate, and, as the Petitioner has not indicated a desire to proceed to an election in a broader appropriate unit, we shall dismiss the petition. ORDER It is hereby ordered that the petition filed herein be, and it hereby is, dismissed. 2 See Doubleday & Company, Inc., 165 NLRB 325.