Check Printers, Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jul 25, 1973

205 N.L.R.B. 33 (N.L.R.B. 1973)

CHECK PRINTERS, INC. 33
Check Printers, Inc. and Nashville Printing Pressmen
& Assistants ' Union #37 Subordinate to the Inter-
national Printing Pressmen and Assistants ' Union of
North America, AFL-CIO , Petitioner. Case
26-RC-4421
July 25, 1973
DECISION ON REVIEW
BY CHAIRMAN MILLER AND MEMBERS FANNING
AND KENNEDY
On February 20, 1973, the Regional Director for
Region 26 issued a Decision and Direction of Election
in the above-entitled proceeding in which he found
appropriate the Petitioner's requested unit comprised
of all letterpress pressmen, offset pressmen, and their
trainees . Thereafter, in accordance with Section 102
.67 of the National Labor Relations Board Rules and
Regulations , the Employer filed a timely request for
review of the Regional Director's Decision on the
grounds, inter aha, that in making his unit determina-
tion, he departed from officially reported precedent.
On March 19, 1973, the Board, by telegraphic or-
der, granted the request for review and stayed the
election pending decision on review.
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 considered the entire record in this
case with respect to the issues under review, and
makes the following findings:
At its Nashville, Tennessee, plant, the Employer is
engaged primarily in printing personal checks and
deposit slips for customers of local banks.' It utilizes
the lithographic or offset process in printing the basic
forms of the banks' checks and deposit slips, and uses
the letterpress process for imprinting on these forms
the names, addresses, and account numbers of the
banks' customers . As above stated, the Regional Di-
rector found the Petitioner's requested unit confined
to offset and letterpress pressmen to be appropriate
for collective bargaining. The Employer contends that
only a production and maintenance unit is appropri-
ate, encompassing all employees in the typesetting,
press, and bindery departments. We agree.
The press department has 23 employees, including
4 leadmen.z On the day shift there are 6 offset press-
1 The Employer also prints business checks and does some commercial
printing However, the great majority of its production, well over 90 percent,
is as indicated in the text
2 Leadmen were found by the Regional Director not to be supervisors as
defined in the Act
men, including a leadman, engaged in the offset pro-
cess; and 11 letterpress pressmen, including 2 lead-
men, operating the letterpresses. On the night shift,
there are six letterpress pressmen on duty, including
a leadman. The typesetting department has three em-
ployees, including a leadman. The bindery, separated
by an aisle from the presses, has an undisclosed num-
ber of employees under a floorlady, stipulated to be
a supervisor. There is no bargaining history for any of
the Employer's employees.
The offset pressmen, who apparently prepare the
metal plates for sheets of the forms to be printed,'
operate a Webb offset press and five or six sheet-fed
Harris presses. After the sheets are printed they are
taken across the aisle to the bindery department
where they are gathered, interleaved, punched, and
placed in storage, in readiness for imprinting by the
letterpress process. Perforation of the sheets is done
either as part of the offset process or by the bindery.
On occasion, pressmen operate cutting machines lo-
cated in the bindery.
Check orders are received in the office and sorted
by style and color. Office employees, six in number,
located in a glass-partitioned area adjacent to the typ-
esetting department, perforate tapes for insertion in
the automatic readers on the linotype machines. Once
the type for an order is produced by the typesetters or
linotype monitors, it is put in a galley and proofread.
After proofreading, the type is taken to the press de-
partment for placement on a letterpress for printing.
Because order runs are short, 200 copies on the aver-
age, the letterpress pressmen spend much of their time
changing galleys.
The Employer generally hires employees for its
press department with a high school education, with-
out commercial printing experience. Indeed, new
hires with commercial shop experience require a peri-
od of retraining. Although the Employer participates
in a 24-month state-approved training program for
military veterans it hires, there is no formal training
program for employees generally. New employees are
able to acquire an acceptable skill level for press work
in 2 or 3 months. However, some employees require
a longer period of training.
All production employees punch the same time-
clock, use the same facilities, and are under the super-
vision of the general manager in charge of
manufacturing .4 Pressmen are generally paid the same
3 Although there is testimony that the Employer prepares its own plates for
the basic forms it prints, the record is silent as to which employees perform
the various preparatory functions associated with the traditional lithographic
production process It may be inferred that , because the basic forms remain
the same, the amount of time offset employees spend in preparatory func-
tions is minimal
4 As noted above, the floorlady in the bindery exercises immediate supervi-
sion in that department
205 NLRB No. 6
34 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
as other machine operators. All employees share the
same holiday and vatation benefits.
Contrary to the Regional Director, we conclude
that the letterpress and offset pressmen here involved,
because of their specialized skills and the fact that
they are engaged mainly in relatively simple, repeti-
tive operations, do not constitute the type of printing
employees the Board has found to be an appropriate
separate unit in commercial printing establishments
as a combination of letterpress and lithographic pro-
duction employees.' We find, therefore, that the re-
quested unit is inappropriate and that, in accord with
the Employer's position, the only appropriate unit
herein is as follows:
All production and maintenance employees at
the Employer's Nashville, Tennessee , plant, in-
5 See Young & Selden Co, Division of Diebold, Incorporated, 147 NLRB 67
In that case , involving a check printing plant like the instant one , the Board
found that employees engaged in imprinting matter on preprinted checks by
the lithographic process did not constitute an appropriate lithographic pro-
duction unit The type of skills utilized by those employees were essentially
of the same level as used by the press department employees herein There,
the basic check forms were preprinted at another plant of the employer which
did general commercial printing Here, as indicated , the Employer is engaged
the great majority of the time in relatively simple operations involving solely
the preprinting of basic check forms by the lithographic process and imprint-
ing on those forms by the letterpress process
cluding employees of the typesetting department,
press department, and bindery department, but
excluding office clerical employees, guards, and
supervisors as defined in the Act.
Accordingly, as the Petitioner indicated a willing-
ness to go to an election in any unit the Board found
appropriate, the case is remanded to the Regional
Director for the purpose of conducting an election
pursuant to his Decision and Direction of Election, as
modified herein,6 except that the payroll period for
determining eligibility shall be that immediately pre-
ceding the issuance date of this Decision.'
MEMBER FANNING, dissenting:
For the reasons recited in his Decision and Direc-
tion of Election I would affirm the Regional Director.
6 As the unit found appropriate is broader than that originally requested
by the Petitioner , the Regional Director shall determine whether its showing
of interest is sufficient before proceeding with the election
' In order to assure that all eligible voters may have the opportunity to be
informed of the issues in the exercise of thier statutory right to vote, all parties
to the election should have access to a list of voters and their addresses which
may be used to communicate with them Excelsior Underwear Inc, 156
NLRB 1236, N L R B v Wyman-Gordon Co, 394 U S 759. Accordingly, it
is hereby directed that the election eligibility list, containing the names and
addresses of all the eligible voters, must be filed by the Employer with the
Regional Director for Region 26 within 7 days of the date of this Decision
on Review The Regional Director shall make the list available to all parties
to the election No extension of time to file this list shall be granted by the
Regional Director except in extraordinary circumstances Failure to comply
with this requirement shall be grounds for setting aside the election whenever
proper objections are filed