Ben-Mont Papers, Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Sep 8, 1949

85 N.L.R.B. 1194 (N.L.R.B. 1949)

In the Matter of BEN-MONT PAPERS , INC., EMPLOYER and INTER-
NATIONAL PRINTING PRESSMEN & ASSISTANTS UNION OF NORTH
AMERICA, AFL, PETITIONER
Case No. 1-RC-1026.Decided September 8, 1919
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held at Bennington,
Vermont, on July 6, 1949, before Sam G. Zack, hearing 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 National Labor
Relations Act, the Board has delegated its powers in connection with
this case to a three-member panel [Members Reynolds, Murdock, and
Gray].
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the
National Labor Relations Act.
2. The labor organization involved claims to represent certain em-
ployees of the Employer.
3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the representa-
tion of employees of the Employer within the meaning of Section 9
(c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
4. The Petitioner seeks a unit composed of all printing pressmen,
apprentice pressmen, press assistants, apprentice press assistants, plate
Inen, rewinders, and paper handlers excluding professional employees,
guards, and supervisors, as defined in the Act. The Company takes
the position that all its production and maintenance employees should
constitute the appropriate unit.
The Company is engaged in the manufacture of printed paper gift
wrappings and paper drapes, employing some 350 production and
maintenance workers. Its operations are divided into 9 departments;
receiving and warehousing; printing; waxing; finishing; drapery;
inking; maintenance; shipping and planning. The printing depart-
ment includes the printing, embossing, and folding operations, which
85 N. L. R. B., No. 201.
1194
BEN-MONT PAPERS, INC. 1195
are all under the supervision of the department head and 3 supervisors.
The printing presses are located in a separate room, some 35 feet from
the embossing and folding machines.' There are also 3 printing
presses, manned by 3 pressmen, which are located in the waxing
department and are under the supervision of that department.' Two,
platemen, whom the petitioner seeks to include, make rubber plates,
and they work in and are under the supervision of the planning
department.
We find no merit in the Company's contention that the proposed
unit is inappropriate because of its integrated operations. It does not
appear, as was true in the National Tube Company 3 and Ford Motor
Company 4 cases, that the function of the printing pressmen is so
intimately related with that of the production workers or so confined
to indispensable assembly line operations that such integration should_
preclude the severance or separation of the craft groups.5 Accord-
ingly, we find that the printing pressmen involved herein are a skilled,
well defined, and homogeneous craft group who may constitute a
separate unit for the purposes of collective bargaining.
The Employer also contested the appropriateness of the proposed
unit on the ground that there was considerable interchange of per-
sonnel between the printing and other departments of the plant..
Although the parties stipulated 8 to a certain amount of interchange
of personnel on a temporary basis, the record is clear that only trained
and skilled printers were employed on a permanent basis to man the
presses. On the basis of the evidence, we conclude that the degree of
interchange of personnel among the printing and other departments
is insufficient to bear weight in our unit determination 7 The Em-
ployer's contrary contention is therefore rejected.
Finally, the Employer contends the unit is inappropriate because
another union has in recent years sought a single plant-wide unit. In
1945, the International Brotherhood of Pulp, Sulphite and Paper Mill
Workers sought a unit of all maintenance and production workers
3 The petitioner does not seek to include the workers engaged in the embossing and fold-
ing operations.
2 These printing presses have been in the waxing department for a number of years and
are used for printing labels, forms or other miscellaneous printing work. Petitioner
seeks to include only the pressmen working on these presses.
3 Matter of National Tube Company, 76 N. L. R. B. 1199.
4 Matter of Ford Motor Company tMaywood plant) et al., 78 N. L. R. B. 887.
5 Matter of Aluminum Ore Company, 85 N. L. R. B. 121; Matter of Parke, Davis
Company, 85 N. L. R. B. 533.
6 At the hearing, the parties stipulated that it was customary for the company to trans-
fer printing room employees to other departments, on a temporary basis, when the
press department was either shut down or slow, and that when work in other departments
was slow , men were called in to help out in the pressroom.
' Matter of Jacobsen Mfg. Co ., 82 N. L . R. B. 1404.
1196 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
through a consent election which the union lost. It is well settled that
such a proceeding does not prelude the establishment of a craft unit."
The Petitioner would include the rubber platemen, the rewinders,
.and the paper handlers in the proposed pressmen's unit. The evidence
-shows that the two rubber platemen work in the planning department
under the supervision of that department. While the evidence is not
-too well defined as to the duties of the platemen, it is clear that they are
not pressmen, but rather perform a job more akin to that of a rubber
stamp maker.9 We shall therefore exclude them from the unit 10 The
same is true of the paper handlers and rewinders11 While it is well
-settled that the printing pressmen constitute a recognized craft of
'skilled workers, we find that the paper handlers and rewinders are not
,customarily 12 included in the pressmen's craft, and we shall therefore
,exclude them from the unit.
We find that all printing pressmen, apprentice pressmen, and press
assistants employed by the Company, excluding the platemen, re-
winders, paper handlers, professional employees, guards, and super-
visors, as defined in the Act, constitute a unit appropriate for the
purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b)
-of the Act.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the
purposes of collective bargaining with the Employer, an election by
secret ballot shall be conducted as early as possible, but not later than
8 Matter of Westinghouse Electric Corporation , 75 N. L . R. B. 638 ; Matter of Wilson-
Jones Company , 75 N. L . R. B. 706 ; Matter of Sampsel Time Control , Inc., 74 N. L. R. B.
611 ; Matter of Hartford Courant Company , 72 N. L. R. B. 292.
° "A plateman is a man who makes from a metal edging a mold of plastic material ana
. . into this is put molding rubber and , of course, this plateman has to know the amount
of pressure to use in his press that he uses to turn out the finished plate . He also has
to know the different types of thickness of barriers to turn out a plate of uniformity, and
be also has to know how to place these plates on a rubber covered roll in such a manner
.and position that when if they are using a multicolored job, for instance , they are using
a three-colored job on the press and there are three printing rolls going into the press,
when those rolls go into the press these plates are so situated on the rolls that they
-will make a complete pattern or good register." ( R. 61-62.)
10 Matter of New Haven Pulp & Board Co ., 83 N. L . R. B. 268, where the Board held that
while the printing pressmen and their assistants and apprentices constituted a traditional
craft group , the stoneman and the die makers were excluded . The stoneman made up
the forms for use in the printing presses . The die makers prepared the dies which were
used in the cutting and creasing presses. It was held that since they worked under
separate supervision and were engaged in work which , although functionally related
to that performed by the pressman , nevertheless involved separate and distinct skills.
11 Matter of Johnson City Publishing Co., 81 N. L . It. B. 1341, where cutters who cut
paper to fit the requirements before going into the presses and do necessary trimming
=after the work comes off the presses, but who were not able and did not operate the
-presses , were excluded from the unit of pressmen.
12 Matter of H. L. Ruggles & Company, 58 N. L. It. B. 308 ; Matter of Rudolph Orthwine
Corporation, 60 N. L. R. B. 447 ; Matter of Hartford Courant Company, 72 N. L. R. B. 292;
Matter of Wilson-Jones Company, 75 N. L. R. B. 706.
BEN-MONT PAPERS, INC. 1197
30 days from the date of this Direction , under the direction and
supervision of the Regional Director for the Region in which this case
was heard , and subject to Sections 203.61 and 203.62 of National Labor
Relations Board Rules and Regulations , among the employees in the
unit found appropriate in paragraph numbered 4, above, who were
employed during the pay-roll period immediately preceding the date
of this Direction of Election, including employees who did not work
during said pay-roll period because they were ill or on vacation or
temporarily laid off , but excluding those employees who have since
quit or been discharged for cause and have not been rehired or re-
instated prior to the date of the election , and also excluding employees
on strike who are not entitled to reinstatement , to determine whether
or not they desire to be represented, for purposes of collective bar-
gaining, by International Printing Pressmen & Assistants Union of
North America, AFL.