Container Corp. of America

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Aug 25, 1949

85 N.L.R.B. 837 (N.L.R.B. 1949)

In the Matter of CONTAINER CORPORATION OF AMERICA, EMPLOYER and
DIE AND TOOL MAKERS LODGE No. 113, INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION
OF MACHINISTS, PETITIONER
Case No. 13-RC-580.-Decided August 25,1949
DECISION
AND
ORDER
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before Philip Licari,
a hearing officer of the National Labor Relations Board). The hear-
ing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial
error and are hereby affirmed.
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 Petitioner and Printing Specialties & Paper Products Union
No. 415, affiliated with International Printing Pressmen's Union,
A. F. L., 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, for the following
reasons:
The Petitioner seeks a unit of die makers, helpers, and apprentices
at the Employer's carton manufacturing Chicago plant. The Em-
ployer and the Intervenor oppose the severance of these employees
from the existing plant unit of production and maintenance em-
ployees, alleging (1) that the employees in the proposed unit are not
true craft employees; and (2) that the close 'integration of their work
with that of other employees at the plant, the long history of collective
bargaining on a more inclusive basis at the plant, and the generally
prevailing custom of plant-wide bargaining in the folding box in-
dustry preclude the establishment of the proposed separate unit at
this time.
3 The petition and other formal papers were amended at the hearing to show the present
name of the Intervenor.
85 N. L. R. B., No. 144.
837
838 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
The Employer is engaged in the manufacture of paper boxes, fold-
ing cartons, and corrugated and fiber shipping containers. Its plant
at Chicago, Illinois, is the only plant directly concerned in this pro-
ceeding. This plant is a four-story structure, the basement and fourth
floor of which are used principally for storage purposes. The ad-
ministrative cffices occupy a portion of the second floor. The re-
mainder of the second floor and the first floor constitute the principal
manufacturing areas. The design department is on the third floor,,
the remaining sections of which are used for manufacturing and
storage areas.
The cartons made by the Employer at the Chicago plant are gen-
erally of the kind used for packaging breakfast food and lard and
butter products and for carrying soft drinks. The completion of
the carton product is accomplished through the correlated and syn-
chronized activities of the several plant departments, which (1) plan
and design all cartons at a style and price to suit the customers; (2)
create hand samples and prepare specification sheets for die patterns
and make production dies; (3) prepare stock with appropriate de-
signs and printings; (4) cut the stock according to the production
die; and (5) affix glue to the edges to make the cut cartons conform
to the desired shape of the products for which they were designed.
The employees whom the Petitioner seeks to represent as a separate
unit are 10 men classified by the Employer as die makers A and B,.
who work in the die and plate department on the second floor of the
Employer's plant along with type setters, proof pressmen, an en-
graver, a stone man, and a plate custodian under common depart
mental supervision.
The die makers at the Employer's plant prepare cutting rules and
plywood blocks, and place the rules in position between the blocks
for use in cutting the outlines and marking the creases of the folding
paper cartons which are the Employer's products. They use circular
and jig saws, drill presses, a wood square, and a gage to measure sizes..
The rules and knives are strips of thin steel cut off at an appropriate
length, and bent to a desired radius on a simple bending machine.
Their other tools include drills, mallets, and protractors. The Em-
ployer's. die makers rarely use a blueprint. So far as the record
discloses, they do no independent lay-out work. In the usual course
of their work, they receive a detailed specification sheet with a hand-
made sample of the desired carton as a guide. Following these speci-
fications, they cut sheets of plywood, cut and bend steel knives and
rules, fix them with plywood blocks and back them. in the chase, com-
pleting the production die. They receive immediate assistance and
CONTAINER CORPORATION OF AMERICA 839
guidance from the foreman or shift foreman of the die and plate
department at any step of the procedure when they require it.
The Employer does not hire journeymen die makers skilled in the
work of the paper industry. It has no regular apprentice program,
.and classifies no employees as apprentices. From time to time the
Employer hires laborers for use at its plant. These laborers from
the several plant departments bid for transfer to the die and plate
department to serve as helpers to die makers. These helpers are in
time promoted to become die makers B, and as such they engage in
an informal course of training. A 6-month period is sufficient time
for gaining familiarity with the machines and tools used in the die
making processes required by the Employer's operations. A year
to 18 months 2 is a sufficient training period to qualify a. man as die
maker A. This training consists at first of instruction in the prep-
aration of the small dies with ultimate progression to the larger and
more complicated dies.
. The foreman and shift foreman of the die and plate department,
who give advice and assistance to die makers in the course of their
work, also direct the work of the type setters, engraver, stone man,
and proof pressmen in the same department. The engraver is the
highest, and the plate custodian is the lowest, paid category in the
department. Other department employees, including the die makers,
.are paid an intermediate rate.
We have frequently found that die makers in the forging industry,
who have undergone an apprentice training of approximately 5 years,
are craft workers who may constitute a separate bargaining unit if
they so desire. We have further found that past bargaining on a
more inclusive basis, integration, and the general bargaining pattern
in a particular industry, respectively, are not necessarily conclusive
in determining the propriety of a separate unit for true craft workers.3
Journeymen die makers in the paper industry are admittedly highly
.skilled employees. The Employer's present plan of operations, how-
ever , does not require the work of journeymen die makers. Its die
makers are not journeymen die makers. The general working in-
terests of the Employer's die makers are, therefore, not so clearly
severable from those of other employees working in the same depart-
ment and under the same supervision as to justify their severance
from the larger unit already existing at the plant in an industry
2 This period is necessarily extended if the course of training of the die maker is inter-
rupted by slack periods of production work , a procedure which appears to be not infrequent.
8 Matter of Aluminum Ore Company, 85 N. L. R. B. 121 ; cf . Matter of Burroughs
Adding Machine Company , 81 N. L. It. .ii. 1239.
840 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
wherein employees classified as die makers usually bargain in the
same unit with other production employees.4 Under these circum-
stances, we find that the unit sought herein by the Petitioner is inap-
propriate for bargaining purposes at this time .5 We shall therefore
dismiss the petition.
ORDER
Upon the basis of the above findings of fact and the entire record
in this case, the National Labor Relations Board hereby orders that
the petition for investigation and certification of representatives of
employees of Container Corporation of America, filed by Die and
Tool Makers Lodge No. 113, International Association of Machinists,
be, and it hereby is, dismissed.
CHAIRMAN HERZOG took no part in the consideration of the above
Decision and Order.
4 Matter of Wilson Foundry i Machine Company, 81 N. L. R. B . 298; Matter of Corn
Products Refining Company, 80 N. L. R. B. 362.
5 For this reason, we find it unnecessary to determine other issues raised by the parties
in this proceeding.