Boorum & Pease Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Dec 6, 1948

80 N.L.R.B. 1066 (N.L.R.B. 1948)

In the Matter of BooRUM & PEASE COMPANY, EMPLOYER and BOOK-
BINDERS AND MACHINE OPERATORS, LOCAL No. 25, INTERNATIONAL
BROTHERHOOD OF BOOKBINDERS , A. F. OF L., PETITIONER
Case No. 2-RC-461.-Decided December 6, 1948
DECISION
AND
ORDER
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before a hearing
officer of the National Labor Relations Board. 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-man panel consisting of the undersigned Board
Members.*
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 Petitioner and United Paperworkers of America, Local 292,
CIO, herein called the Intervenor, are labor organizations claiming 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 9
(c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act, because the unit sought
by the Petitioner is inappropriate.
The Petitioner seeks to sever a unit of all paper rulers employed at
the Employer's New York plant from an existing unit of production
and maintenance employees.' The Intervenor contends that the re-
quested unit is inappropriate, and that only the production and main-
tenance unit, which it currently represents , is appropriate. The Em-
ployer takes a neutral position.
Chairman Herzog and Members Houston and Murdock.
1 The Intervenor and its predecessors have represented the employees in the existing
unit since 1938. The current contract between the Intervenor and the Employer was
entered into July 25, 1946 . It was for an initial period ending June 30 , 1947, and was
thereafter extended to October 31, 1948. It was not contended that the contract is a
bar to this proceeding.
80 N. L. R. B., No. 162.
1066
BOORUM & PEASE COMPANY 1067
The plant involved is engaged in the manufacture of loose leaf
binders, blank books, and various accounting and bookkeeping forms.
Its normal employee complement consists of approximately 450 pro-
duction and maintenance employees, including the 25 paper rulers
here in issue, and other skilled and semi-skilled employees.
The normal course of processing at the plant begins when bulk
paper is received. The paper is first weighed and then sent to the
cutters, who cut it to the required size. If the paper is to be ruled, it
goes to the paper rulers; if printing is needed, the paper goes to the
printers. Thereafter, depending upon the order, the paper is either
bound or left unbound. The final step is the packing of the order for
shipment.
The paper rulers work in the paper ruling department, which also
includes paper cutters and No-Tear machine operators. Although the
work of the paper rulers is different from that of the other employees
in the department or elsewhere in the plant, the record fails to es-
tablish that it is predominantly of a craft character. Thus, paper
rulers spend no more than 10 percent of their time, on the average, in
setting up the pen and disc type machines on which the paper is ruled.
The set-up work on the pen machines 2 consists of properly aligning
the pens, filling them with the correct color of ink, and adjusting the
paper margins. For some complicated forms, about 750 pens must
be aligned. After the machine is set up, the paper is fed into the
machine by the paper rulers. This routine and repetitive paper feed-
ing comprises about 90 percent of the paper ruler's job. We note also
that the Employer has no apprenticeship program for paper rulers
and at least in one recent instance filled a vacancy among the paper
rulers by transferring an employee from another department. The
record also shows that paper rulers are not separately supervised, but
share the same supervision as the other employees in the paper ruling
department and the printing department.
As already noted, the Employer has bargained with the Intervenor
and its predecessors for 10 years on a plant-wide basis. As a result
of this bargaining history, the employees sought herein have enjoyed
the same benefits and working conditions as all other employees.
However, the current contract does provide that paper rulers and
printers who have 5 years of continuous service in their jobs will re-
ceive the maximum rate of pay for these jobs.
Under all these circumstances, including the close integration of
the Employer's operations, the 10-year bargaining history on a plant-
wide basis, the predominantly routine nature of the paper rulers' work
and the absence of an apprenticeship program for these employees, we
2 The record does not disclose the manner in which disc type machines are set up.
1068 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
find that no basis, craft or otherwise, exists for severing these em-
ployees from the existing production and maintenance unit .3 We
therefore find that the proposed unit is inappropriate, and we shall
grant the Intervenor's motion to dismiss the petition on this ground.'
ORDER
Upon the basis of the foregoing findings of fact, and upon the entire
record in the case, the National Labor Relations Board hereby orders
that the petition for investigation and certification of representatives
of employees of Boorum & Pease Company, New York City, filed here-
in by Bookbinders and Machine Operators, Local No. 25, International
Brotherhood of Bookbinders, A. F. of L., be, and it hereby is, dis-
missed.
'Matter of Wilson-Jones Company, 59 N. L. R. B . 1096, relied on by the Petitioner, is
distinguishable from the instant case. For example, in that case , the paper rulers con-
stituted a separate department, were separately supervised , and were subject to a formal
apprenticeship program.
4 we find it unnecessary , therefore , to rule on the other grounds urged in the Intervenor's
motion to dismiss.