Bradford-Robinson Printing Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Oct 26, 1971

193 N.L.R.B. 928 (N.L.R.B. 1971)

928 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Bradford-Robinson Printing Co.' and Lithographers
and Photoengravers International Union, Local
276, AFL-CIO,2 Petitioner . Case 27-UC-23
October 26, 1971
DECISION AND ORDER
By CHAIRMAN MILLER AND MEMBERS
FANNING AND KENNEDY
On March 8, 1971, Lithographers and Photoengrav-
ers International Union, Local 276, AFL-CIO, filed a
petition for unit clarification, seeking to include as an
accretion to its certified unit of lithographic prod-
uction employees at the Employer's Stout Street
facility, in Denver, Colorado, all lithographic prod-
uction employees at the Employer's newly established
subsidiary, Summit Press, located on West 45th
Avenue, Denver, Colorado.3
On April 1, 1971, a hearing4 was held before
Hearing Officer Jerry C. Legler for the purpose of
taking testimony with respect to the issues raised by
this petition. On May 28, 1971, the Regional Director
issued an order transferring this case to the National
Labor Relations Board. Thereafter, all parties filed
briefs.
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the
National Labor Relations Act, as amended, the
National Labor Relations Board has delegated its
powers in connection with this case to a three-member
panel.
The Board has considered the Hearing Officer's
rulings made at the hearing and finds that no
prejudicial error was committed. The rulings are
hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds:
Bradford has, for many years, been engaged at its
Stout Street location in commercial printing, produc-
ing both letterpress and sheetfed offset lithographic
material . At that plant, it conducts all the standard
operations related to the printing business, and is
organized into the following departments: a compos-
ing room, a letterpress department, a lithographic
production department and a bindery department.
The lithographic production department and the
letterpress department are two distinct operations,
with each having different equipment, and with the
employees of each being separately represented, with
differences as to skills, training, and community of
interest.
Only recently, when Bradford organized a wholly
owned corporate subsidiary in November 1970, did
the Company embark upon the printing method
called webfed offset lithography. This operation was
located at the new West 45th Avenue address in
Denver under the corporate name of "Summit."
Summit hired six new employees to operate the newly
purchased webfed lithographic equipment. It was able
to produce printing in much larger quantity in a much
shorter time than with the former sheetfed equipment
because material prepared for printing was fed to the
new machine from a continuous roll rather than by
hand.
The Summit operation comprises a preparatory
department as well as a lithographic pressroom. The
principal equipment maintained at Summit consists
of one lithographic press of the webfed offset type, a
lithographic camera, and stripping and platemaking
equipment. The Bradford plant provides Summit with
the services of its composing room, art and bindery
departments, color separation sales, pickup, delivery,
and shipping. In all other respects, however, Summit
maintains a completely separate corporate and
operational identity, having its own telephone listing
and employer tax identification number. It also has its
own checking account, mailing and delivery address,
stationery, and separate bookkeeping. It is under
immediate supervision of Summit foreman of press-
men who has autonomous supervisory functions in all
matters of hiring, firing, and direction of Summit
employees.
The Bradford employees in their various depart-
ments have for many years been represented by the
Pressmen, Lithographers, Typographical Workers,
and Bindery Workers. In 1952 the Lithographers was
certified by the Board as representative of the
Bradford lithographic production employees in the
following unit: "lithographic production employees
and their assistants and apprentices at the Employer's
Denver, Colorado, plant, excluding all other prod-
uction and maintenance employees, truckdrivers,
office employees, salesman, and supervisors as de-
fined in the Act." These employees have been
represented by the Lithographers in successive collec-
tive-bargaining agreements, the one current at the
time of the hearing being effective from July 1, 1968,
to June 31, 1971. The most recent contract for
employees of Bradford's letterpress department repre-
sented by the Pressmen is effective April 15, 1969, to
April 14, 1972.
On January 25, 1971, the Lithographers, by letter to
Bradford, requested recognition as representative of
the Summit employees on the ground that Summit
was an accretion to its existing lithographic prod-
I called Bradford Union of North America , AFL-CIO, herein referred to as Pressmen, was
Y Hereinafter called Lithographers granted permission to intervene because of a contract interest in the
9 Hereinafter called Summit employees sought
* At the hearing Offset Workers, Printing Pressmen and Assistants
193 NLRB No. 139
BRADFORD-ROBINSON PRINTING CO. 929
uction unit of employees at Bradford. On February 2,
1971, Bradford replied by letter to this request stating
that Summit was not an accretion but rather a new
operation and refusing the Lithographers request for
recognition as representative of these employees. On
February 9, 1971, on the basis of authorization cards
executed by a majority of Summit employees on
behalf of Pressmen, Bradford became signatory to a
recognition agreement with the Pressmen, and on
February 22 executed a contract with that Union
covering Summit's six lithographic production em-
ployees. This contract is effective by its terms from
February 22, 1971, to April 14, 1972. Thereafter, as
noted above, the Lithographers filed the instant unit
clarification petitions. Lithographers does not claim
to have been designated as bargaining representative
by any of the employees sought.
In support of its contention that Summit employees
are an accretion to its existing unit of lithographic
production employees at Bradford, Lithographers
relies principally on the functional integration of the
Bradford and Summit operations detailed above, as
well as the common ownership and control, including
that of labor relations, of the two companies. It
contends further that the webfed lithographic process
performed at Summit is essentially a mere technologi-
cal advancement in the basic lithographic methods
used at Bradford, and that the provisions of its
contract with Bradford are designed to cover the type
of operations established at Summit.5
In support of their position that Summit is an
entirely new operation, Bradford and the Pressmen
point to those factors detailed above pertaining to
separate identity and the considerable operational
autonomy which characterizes the Summit plant.
They refer particularly to the completely new and
different type of equipment which was installed at
Summit; the hiring of new employees there, with skills
and interests substantially different from the employ-
ees of Bradford; and to the geographic separation of
the two plants. Additionally, Bradford contends that
the Lithographers certification is specifically restrict-
ed to the Bradford plant location. The pattern of
bargaining for the Denver area, as shown by the
record, comports with the separate representation of
webfed employees, as it happens by the Pressmen,
5 Specifically, Lithographers points to article I of its contract with
Bradford which recognizes the Lithographers as the "sole and exclusive
representative for the purposes of collective bargaining in respect to rates
of pay, hours of employment , or other conditions of employment , for all
lithographic production employees as referred to in Article If, excluding all
guards , watchmen , and supervisors as defined in the Act, it being
understood that all employees doing lithographic production work,
including supervisors doing production work, shall be covered by this
Agreement The Employer agrees that it will not make any other contract
purporting to cover any of the jobs covered by this contract, whether
referred to in such contract in different terminology, classification or
otherwise " Article I I, which describes the coverage , reads as follows "All
Bradford argues, and it emphasizes that it was legally
bound to recognize the Pressmen as representative of
Summit employees because of that Union's majority
showing of authorization cards.
The instant case, as is often true where a claim of
accretion is made, presents a variety of elements,
some militating towards and some against accretion,
necessitating a careful balancing of all the factors
involved. Thus, there can be little doubt that Bradford
and Summit constitute a single employer because of
their single ownership and common ultimate control
of many aspects of the employment relationship. The
functional integration of the two operations tends to
support Lithographers claim also, and the language of
the contract between Bradford and the Lithographers
is arguably sufficiently broad to embrace the type of
operation and employee classifications at Summit.
On the other hand, there are even more factors
weighing in favor of a finding that Summit is a new
operation that would constitute a separate appropri-
ate unit, and which persuasively establish that
employees of Summit are not an accretion to the unit
represented by the Lithographers at Bradford. In
arriving at this conclusion, we rely particularly upon
the following: (1) The Summit operation has opened
only recently; (2) The Bradford unit for which
Lithographers is certified was limited by its terms to a
"plant" of that Employer; (3) The employees of
Summit are subject to training and possess skills
dissimilar to those of Bradford employees; (4) The
employees of Bradford and Summit are not inter-
changed; (5) The two plants are geographically
separated by approximately 4 miles; (6) Summit
maintains a separate and distinct corporate identity;
(7) The pattern of collective bargaining for the Denver
area reflects separate representation of webfed litho-
graphic production employees; (8) Summit operates
with completely new equipment and is staffed with a
complement of all new employees who are separately
supervised; and (9) Summit retains a substantial
amount of autonomy with respect to its day-to-day
operations.
In view of the foregoing, we find that the Summit
operation is a separate economic unit, rather than an
accretion to the Bradford contract unit .6 Accordingly,
it would be inappropriate to add these employees
employees (including superintendents and foreman ) performing any of the
following work shall be covered by the terms of this agreement : All work,
processes and operations related to Lithography , Offset (Dry or Wet),
Photoengraving, Gravure, Intaglio, including without limitation any work
processes , operation or product designed as a substitute for or evolution of,
work now being performed by employees covered by this Agreement."
It lists the classifications set forth in that section of wage scales:
lithographic camera, stripper , platemaker, pressman-sheet fed , sheetfed
feeder, web pressman, Ist pressman-web press, 2d pressman-web press;
web press feeder and web press helpers
6 See Warehouse Markets, Inc, 174 NLRB No 70, and cases cited
therein
930 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
through a petition for clarification and we shall
therefore dismiss the Lithographers petition.?
ORDER
It is hereby ordered that the petition for unit
clarification be, and it hereby is, dismissed.
CHAIRMAN MILLER, dissenting:
I agree with my colleagues that Bradford and
Summit constitute a single employer, but I conclude,
contrary to my colleagues, that the Summit operation
is shown by the evidence to be an accretion to the
existing lithographic unit at the Employer's Bradford
plant on Stout Street.
The Bradford plant composing room is continuing
to supply the reproduction proofs for all the litho-
graphic plate making and the Bradford plant art
department is continuing to supply the art work and
paste-up for all lithographic camera work. Thus the
pre-lithographic stages of the operation are performed
at the Bradford plant for both the lithographic
preparatory workers at Bradford and for those at
Summit. Furthermore, there is evidence that color
separation, which is a part of the lithographic
preparatory process itself, is to be performed at the
Bradford plant for both locations.
The lithographic equipment at Summit is identical
to that at Bradford, except only with respect to the
feeding equipment. The lithographic presses at
Bradford are sheetfed whereas the presses at Summit
are webfed. This minor difference in feeding equip-
ment would clearly not justify a separate unit of
lithographic employees if all of the other factors
support a finding of accretion. This Board has not, so
far as I know, ever accorded any importance
whatever, for unit determination purposes, to differ-
ences in feeding equipment for lithographic presses.
Following the completion of the lithographic press
work at Summit, the product is returned to Bradford
for binding and shipping.
Thus the Employer has simply added some addi-
tional lithographic equipment at a new location,
which equipment will continue to be used as an
integral part of the Employer's production processes
in precisely the same manner as it would have, had
this new equipment been located instead at the
Bradford location. The Summit operations are noth-
ing more than an extension of a portion of the
lithographic production operations of Bradford-Rob-
inson, and should be held to be an accretion to the
Bradford-Robinson lithographic unit.
I Petitioner 's Motion to reopen the record to include newly discovered the recent allocation of work to the two plants by Bradford-Robinson,
evidence is denied The matters urged therein by petitioners , concerning would not, even if true , change our decision in this case