Central Valley Typographical Union No 46

CENTRAL VALLEY TYPOGRAPHICAL UNION NO 46 139 Central Valley Typographical Union Local No 46 and McClatchy Newspapers, Publisher of the Modesto Bee and Graphic Arts International Union Local 280 and International Printing and Graphic Com- munications Union Case 20-CD-468 services, and advertises nationally sold products Ac- cordingly, we find, as the parties have stipulated, that the Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of Section 2(6) and (7) of the Act and that it will effectuate the purposes of the Act to assert juris- diction herein May 26, 1976 DECISION AND DETERMINATION OF DISPUTE BY CHAIRMAN MURPHY AND MEMBERS FANNING AND JENKINS This is a proceeding under Section 10(k) of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, follow- ing a charge filed by McClatchy Newspapers, Pub- lisher of the Modesto Bee, alleging that Central Valley Typographical Union, Local No 46, herein also called Typographers, had violated Section 8(b)(4)(ii)(D) of the Act by engaging in certain pro- scribed conduct having an object of forcing or re- quiring the Employer to assign certain work to em- ployees represented by it rather than to employees represented by either the Graphic Arts International Union, Local 280, herein called Photoengravers, or International Printing and Graphic Communications Union, herein called Stereotypers Pursuant to notice, a hearing was held before Hearing Officer Joseph R Wirts on October 21 and 22, 1975, at San Francisco, California All parties ap- peared at the hearing and were afforded full opportu- nity to be heard, to examine and cross-examine wit- nesses, and to present evidence bearing on the issues Thereafter, the Employer, the Typographers, the Photoengravers, and the Stereotypers filed briefs 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 reviewed the rulings of the Hearing Officer made at the hearing and finds that they are free from prejudicial error The rulings are hereby affirmed The Board has considered the briefs and the entire record in this case and hereby makes the following findings I THE BUSINESS OF THE EMPLOYER McClatchy Newspapers, publisher of the Modesto Bee, is publisher of a newspaper of general circula- tion and during the last calendar year received gross revenue in excess of $200,000 The Employer sub- scribes to interstate news services, including the As- sociated Press and United Press International wire II THE LABOR ORGANIZATIONS The parties stipulated, and we find, that the Ty- pographers, Photoengravers, and the Stereotypers are labor organizations within the meaning of Section 2(5) of the Act III THE DISPUTE A The Work in Dispute The work in dispute consists of the NAPP plate- making process, its attendant work functions, and performing routine maintenance and troubleshooting on the NAPP platemaking equipment B Background and Facts of the Dispute Prior to August 4, 1975, the paper was produced by the hot-metal process, using stereotype plates on the letter press News stories, received in typewritten form from the editorial room, were pasted up into page form by composing room employees The com- posing room employees set the stories in lines of met- al type and assembled the type in a metal frame or chase Illustrative material was prepared in the pho- toengraving department from a pasteup received from the composing room The material was pho- tographed, and the resulting negative, after being in- spected for quality, was placed on a photosensitive magnesium plate and the image burned into the pre- sensitized plate through the clear portions of the neg- ative by means of a light A micrometal plate pro- cessor hardened the image-bearing portions Next the plate went into an acid bath that removed the non-image-bearing portions of the plate After again being inspected, the plate was trimmed and sent to the composing room where it was locked into the chase along with the editorial material The stereo- typers took the chase and rolled a moist papier mache mat tight against the typeface, dried the mat in a stay high machine, and placed the mat into a casting box Hot molten metal was poured into the box which forced the lead against the front side of the mat and maintained the image desired, producing a semicylindrical lead plate which, after trimming, was fastened to the press and used to do the actual printing of the newspaper page 224 NLRB No 29 140 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD In August 1975 the Employer converted to a cold- type system for all printing except classified adver- tisements The coldtype process dispenses with the setting of lines of metal type in a chase and with the casting of metal plates for the press Instead, com- posing room employees use various types of electron- ic photocomposition machines to set the type for a complete page The page is pasted up and sent to the photoengraving department and photographed The resulting negative is returned to the composing room where, through use of the NAPP platemaking sys- tem, a press-ready plate is produced The platemaking system is comprised of two basic integrated components the exposure unit and the satellite automatic plate processor In addition, there is a manual backup system which is used when the automatic system is inoperative A composing room employee would position the negative on a photosen- sitive plastic plate in the exposure unit and expose it to an ultraviolet light source, resulting in a transfer- ence of the image on the negative to the plate The plate is then placed on a belt entering the satellite automatic plate processor which carries it into the wash section where the plate is washed out with hot water under pressure After the wash, the plate is au- tomatically carried to the oven section where the plate is subjected to an ultraviolet light that hardens the plastic After hardening, the plate is automatical- ly removed from the oven and deposited into a pro- cess plate holder This whole process takes approxi- mately 4 minutes When the plate is needed on the press, it is punched, trimmed, and crimped and sent to the pressroom for direct application to the printing press The Typographers, Photoengravers, and the Stereotypers have traditionally represented, in sepa- rate units, certain of the employees in the Employer's mechanical departments Under the hot-metal process at the Employer's plant, employees represented by the Typographers have operated the photosetting, videosetting, lino- type, and interface machines and performed all com- posing room work, including hand composition, typesetting, and makeup The employees represented by the Photoengravers prepared the negatives and produced non-press-ready flat plates, while employ- ees represented by the Stereotypers made the cast curved or stereotype plate that went directly on the press At the time of the hearing, the Employer employed 63 printers and machinists in its composing room, all represented by the Typographers Three photoen- gravers represented by the Photoengravers work in the photoengraving department Immediately prior to the introduction of the NAPP platemaking system, the stereotypers represented by the Stereotypers were either transferred to other work or let go after receiv- ing severance pay On April 22, 1975, the Employer, by letter, notified the Photoengravers that the paper would be install- ing the NAPP platemakmg system in the composing room, and that the employees represented by the Ty- pographers would operate the system On April 23, 1975, the Photoengravers informed the Employer that by virtue of its contract it had jurisdiction over the platemaking process, and that consequently the Photoengravers expected the new platemaking equip- ment to remain under its jurisdiction The Employer rejected this claim by letter dated April 25, 1975, and reiterated its assignment of the work to the Typogra- phers Thereafter, on May 1, 1975, the Photoengrav- ers requested arbitration of the issue pursuant to its collective-bargaining agreement with the Employer Subsequently, on July 3, 1975, the Typographers warned the Employer by letter that "we reserve the right to take such economic action as we deem prop- er in the protection of our work jurisdiction " They also stated that they were unwilling to participate in an arbitration over the work jurisdiction with the Photoengravers Mr Lane, industrial relations man- ager of the Employer, telephoned Mr Pike, president of the Typographers, and asked him what he meant by "economic action " Pike said that if the Employer withdrew its work assignment to the composing room employees or did anything else which might cause members of the Typographers to lose the NAPP platemaking work his Union would strike and picket the Modesto Bee Pike also said that if the Employer entered into arbitration with the Photoengravers the Typographers would strike the Modesto Bee There- after, on July 17, 1975, the Employer filed the instant charge alleging that the Typographers, by threaten- ing to strike to retain jurisdiction over the disputed work, violated Section 8(b)(4)(D) C The Contentions of the Parties The Employer contends that the disputed work should be left as assigned to employees represented by the Typographers, that this dispute is properly before the Board because of the Typographers threat, and that the assignment is consistent with fac- tors of efficiency and economy, skills in the opera- tion of, maintenance of, and troubleshooting for the NAPP platemaking system, and the training and ex- perience which the employees possess The Typographers agrees with the Employer's po- sition on the merits, but apparently does not rely on the Employer's preference in contending that the work in dispute should be awarded to employees it represents CENTRAL VALLEY TYPOGRAPHICAL UNION NO 46 141 The Photoengravers contends that the work should be assigned to employees it represents because of the following factors its collective-bargaining agree- ment, area practice, job impact, skills, and efficiency The Stereotypers predicates its claim for the work on its collective-bargaining agreement, the tradi- tional division of work at the Employer's plant, skills, and job impact' D Applicability of the Statute Before the Board may determine a dispute pur- suant to Section 10(k) of the Act, it must be satisfied that there is reasonable cause to believe that Section 8(b)(4)(D) has been violated, and that there is no agreed-upon method for the voluntary adjustment of the dispute In the instant case, we find that there is reasonable cause to believe that Section 8(b)(4)(D) has been vio- lated, in view of the fact that the Typographers in- formed the Employer, orally and in writing, that it would resort to economic action against the Employ- er and would strike the Employer should the work be reassigned to employees represented by the Photoen- gravers Furthermore, based on the record before us, there is at present no agreed-upon method for the voluntary adjustment of this dispute Under these circumstances, we find that it will effectuate the poli- cies underlying Sections 10(k) and 8(b)(4)(D) of the Act for us to determine the merits of the dispute Accordingly, we find that this dispute is appropriate for resolution under Section 10(k) of the Act E Merits of the Dispute As the Board stated in J A Jones Construction Company,2 we shall determine the appropriate assign- ment of the disputed work in each case presented for resolution under Section 10(k) of the Act only after taking into account and balancing all relevant fac- tors We set forth below those factors which we find relevant in determining the dispute herein 1 Certification and collective-bargaining agreements The record contains no evidence with regard to Board certification of any of the labor organizations to represent employees in the dispute herein i The Stereotypers claims that the 10(k) proceeding should be dismissed as untimely because of its alleged contract with the Employer 2 International Association of Machinists Lodge No 1743, AFL-CIO (J A Jones Construction Company) 135 NLRB 1402 (1962) The Employer has current collective-bargaining agreements with the Typographers and Photoengrav- ers, but not with the Stereotypers 3 Section 16 of the Employer's contract with the Photoengravers pro- vides, in relevant part The Employer agrees that in the event of the installation of machines or processes to be used as an evolution of or substitution for current Photoengraving Department machines or pro- cesses covered in the Jurisdiction clause of this Agreement, such machines or processes must be operated by employees under this Agreement The production of printing plates via the NAPP platemaking system is similar in many details to the production of the flat magnesium plates previously prepared in the photoengraving department There- fore, the Photoengravers contends that section 16 of its contract favors awarding the disputed work to employees it represents inasmuch as the NAPP plate- making system, while not specifically mentioned in the contract, is a substitution for and/or evolution of the work traditionally performed by them and is not related to any work previously performed by the ty- pographers or stereotypers The Typographers contract states that its jurisdic- tion covers "all composing room work " Since the NAPP platemakmg equipment is located in the com- posing room, the Employer and Typographers argue that the disputed work belongs to the Typographers We find that the jurisdictional clauses of both con- tracts on their face appear to preserve the traditional work performed by the employees represented by the disputing labor organizations in their respective de- partments We further find that neither of the con- tracts expressly covers the work in dispute herein, namely, operation of the NAPP platemakmg system 4 While the NAPP system eliminates the platemaking function performed by the photoengravers, the pho- toengravers never made the press-ready plates On the other hand, however, composing room employees never engaged in the actual platemaking process Therefore, we do not accord controlling weight to any collective-bargaining agreement in making our determination 3 The contract with the Stereotypers expired on December 31 1973 and although the expired contract terms were followed on a day-to day basis pending negotiations no new agreement was ever executed Thus when the NAPP platemaking system was installed, the stereotype department was closed and the employees were either transferred to other departments or separated 4 The record contains evidence with regard to the bargaining history of the jurisdictional clause in the photoengravers contract However we find it unnecessary to consider that evidence at any length here inasmuch as we are satisfied that at best it only confirms our finding that the disputed work is not covered by the contract 142 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD 2 Employer preference The Employer assigned the work, and prefers an award, to employees represented by the Typogra- phers This factor favors an award to employees rep- resented by the Typographers 3 Skills Since the NAPP platemaking system is fully auto- mated, the operator does not require any special skills, with the possible exception of an occasional need to inspect a negative This is so for employees represented by the Typographers who are performing the disputed work satisfactorily after a brief training period, and there is no reason on the record to be- lieve that employees represented by the Stereotypers could not be trained equally quickly However, the record makes it clear that the skills and experience of photoengravers in working with negatives and pro- ducing flat magnesium plates are more adaptable to operating the NAPP platemaking system On the other hand, the degree of skill and knowledge re- quired to perform troubleshooting on the NAPP equipment is inverse to that required to operate the equipment Neither the employees represented by the Photoengravers nor those represented by the Stereo- typers possess the background and experience in maintaining and troubleshooting for electronic equipment that the machinists in the composing room represented by the Typographers have These machinists already know how to repair, maintain, and troubleshoot on various types of electronic cold- type equipment installed in the composing room Us- ing the same skills and diagnostic instruments and working on the same types of electrical components, the machinists perform similar maintenance and troubleshooting on the NAPP equipment Thus, these skills are transferable to the NAPP equipment, and the same maintenance and monitoring equip- ment which the machinists use to keep other compos- ing room equipment operating are also required to monitor the NAPP units Moreover, the chief machinist, who took a 2-year night course in electricity and electronics, has taken a special course in maintaining the NAPP equipment and has been instructing the other machinists Ac- cordingly, we find that the factor of skills tends to favor award of the disputed work to employees rep- resented by the Typographers 4 Economy and efficiency The Employer's witness testified that economy and efficiency were the prime reasons for the assignment of the disputed work to composing room employees represented by the Typographers Platemaking is an integral part of composing room operations and its close proximity to other composing room functions and equipment makes for a logical and efficient flow of production Moreover, the capacity of the NAPP platemaking system is such that it can turn out the daily demand for plates while operating only 2-1/2 hours a day This period is not concentrated, howev- er, into a continuous timespan, but is spaced out over the morning and early afternoon Thus, when the NAPP system is not operating, the employees are available to perform other assignments in the com- posing room which is permitted under the collective- bargaining agreement with the Typographers Addi- tionally, there is more "soft time"-time spent on ar- ticles that will appear in future issues-in the composing room so that the additional work require- ments created by the NAPP system can be absorbed by the present complement of employees On the other hand, the Employer would lose this flexibility of moving employees back and forth if the disputed work was assigned to employees represented by the Stereotypers and it would have to hire stereotypers, paying them a day's wages for 2-1/2 hours' work As for photoengravers, the Employer admits that they could now absorb an additional 2-1/2 hours of work, but contends that the idle time of the photoengravers does not coincide with the demands for platemaking and, therefore, it would have to hire two or three more photoengravers dust to make plates in order to meet production deadlines In view of these consider- ations, we find that the factors of efficiency and economy favor an award to the employees repre- sented by the Typographers 5 Area and industry practice The Employer, the Typographers, and the Pho- toengravers each introduced evidence to support its respective contentions relative to the assignment of NAPP platemaking in the area and industry We find, however, that the evidence introduced by the parties does not establish any clear and consistent practice which would assist us in making our deter- mination Accordingly, we find that this factor does not support any one union over any other 6 Job impact The record shows that upon the introduction of the NAPP system the stereotype department was closed and the four stereotypers were either transfer- red or separated The photoengraving department is still manned by three photoengravers, Donald Leng- CENTRAL VALLEY TYPOGRAPHICAL UNION NO 46 143 ling, the production manager, testified that by as- signing the work to the typographers two or three situations in the composing room were saved On these facts, consideration of the job impact factor favors employees represented by the Stereotypers However, this factor is insufficient by itself to over- come the other factors discussed above which favor an award of the disputed work to employees repre- sented by the Typographers Conclusion Upon the record as a while and after full consider- ation of all relevant factors, we conclude that the employees represented by the Typographers are enti- tled to perform the work in dispute We reach this conclusion upon the basis of the Employer's prefer- ence and assignment of the disputed work to these employees, and the fact that efficiency and economy are furthered by such assignment of the work Ac- cordingly, we shall determine the dispute before us by awarding the disputed work at the Modesto Bee in Modesto, California, to employees who are repre- sented by the Central Valley Typographical Union, Local No 46, but not to that Union or its members Our present determination is limited to the particular controversy which gave rise to this proceeding DETERMINATION OF DISPUTE Pursuant to Section 10(k) of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, and upon the basis of the foregoing findings and the entire record in this pro- ceeding, the National Labor Relations Board hereby makes the following Determination of Dispute Employees employed by McClatchy Newspapers, Publisher of the Modesto Bee, who are represented by Central Valley Typographical Union, Local No 46, are entitled to perform the work of the NAPP platemaking process, its attendant work functions, and routine maintenance and troubleshooting on the NAPP platemaking equipment at the Employer's plant in Modesto, California