American Security and Trust Co.Download PDFNational Labor Relations Board - Board DecisionsAug 28, 195195 N.L.R.B. 1423 (N.L.R.B. 1951) Copy Citation AMERICAN SECURITY .AND TRUST Co. 1423 AMERICAN SECURITY AND TRUST CO., A. CORPORATION. OF WASHINGTON, D. C., AS EXECUTOR AND TRUSTEE UNDER THE LAST WILL AND TESTA- MENT OF JOHN R. MCLEAN, DECEASED, OPERATING THE CINCINNATI .ENQUIRER and CINCINNATI PAPER HANDLERS UNION No. 19, OF THE • •INTERNATIONAL PRINTING PRESSMEN AND ASSISTANTS UNION OF NORTH AMERICA, AFL, PETITIONER. Case No. 9-RC_ 1187. August 28,1951 Decision and Order Upon a. petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before Leonard. S. Kimmell; hear- ing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error, and are hereby affirmed. Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3 (b) of the Act, the Board has delegated its powers in connection with this case to a three-member panel [Chairman Herzog and Members Houston and Reynolds]. 'Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds: 1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the Act. 2. The labor organization involved claims to represent employees of the Employer. 3'. No question affecting commerce exists concerning the representa- tion of employees'of the Employer within the meaning of Section 0- (c)-.,(1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act, for the following rea_ sons :r= The Petitioner requests a unit composed of all employees designated as laborers engaged in handling paper and other newsprint material at the Employer's Cincinnati plant and warehouse, including regular day and night workers, and extra workers employed only on Saturday nights, but excluding all office and clerical employees, guards, pro- fessional employees, and all other employees and supervisors as de- fined. in the Act. The Employer contends that the proposed- unit is inappropriate, urging that the employees sought to be represented constitute a heterogeneous group that may not be established as. a :separate unit on a craft, departmental, or any other basis. The Employer's editorial employees, typographical employees, stere- otypers, engravers, mailers, pressmen, carriers, and truck drivers, re- spectively, are currently represented by several labor organizations under separate collective bargaining agreements. Among the remain- ing employees not presently represented are a number of semiskilled and unskilled employees such as janitors, stockroom employees,dock workers, warehousemen, and the employees mentioned above sought 95 NLRB No. 174. 1424 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD by the Petitioner.' The Petitioner would include in its proposed unit only those employees in the afore-mentioned. categories not embraced by bargaining agreements who spend at least 60 or 70 percent of their working time handling bulk newsprint, asserting that "paper han- dlers" are "semiskilled craftsmen" generally recognized in the Cin-, cinnati area as being entitled to separate. representation. In addition to the reel-room employees, paper rewinding and receiving machine operators, and dock workers who regularly handle bulk paper in the course of their work, certain of the Employer's unskilled composing and pressroom employees also occasionally handle bulk newsprint. The janitors and stockroom employees, likewise, handle paper in other forms. As it is clear that the work of the paper handlers is of an unskilled character; we find that they are not members of a true craft and may not be established as a separate craft unit. The fact that similar units may, have been established in the Cincinnati area does not alter this finding, as it is not shown that any of such units are pursuant to Board certification 2 Moreover, as the paper handlers do not have common supervision, and as they perform their varied duties through- out the several departments within the plant, we are precluded from finding appropriate a departmental unit. Furthermore, as the Peti- tioner has indicated its unwillingness to accept an alternative unit that would include all the Employer's unskilled employees not pres- ently represented who perform duties similar to those`-of the paper handlers, we cannot establish a residual unit such as that found to be appropriate in the earlier proceeding.3 We therefore find that-the unit sought is inappropriate and shall dismiss the petition. Order IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the petition herein be, and it hereby is, dismissed. 'In ,Americana Security and 'Trust Co ., 78 NLRB 927; the Board directed an election in a unit similar to that Sought herein, finding that the paper handlers who„ were the only employees unrepresented at that time constituted a residual group concerning whore there had been no history of collective bargaining. No bargaining representative was selected by the employees in the election that followed. 2 Joseph T. Ryerson f Sons, Inc., 91 NLRB 1. 3 See footnote 1, supra. 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