E. W. Bliss Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Sep 15, 1961

133 N.L.R.B. 192 (N.L.R.B. 1961)

192 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
WE WILL NOT refuse to bargain collectively with Local No. 4,
Amalgamated Lithographers of America, as the exclusive bar-
gaining representative of the employees in the following appro-
priate unit :
All lithographic production employees at the Respondent's
Chicago, Illinois , plant including offset pressmen, offset
pressmen helpers and feeders and their apprentices, offset
strippers , offset spotters and opaquers , offset cameramen,
offset platemakers and apprentices , pasteupmen , lithographic
artists, film filer and negative storagemen , but excluding
lithographic typists and stockhandlers , office clerical em-
ployees, guards, professional employees , and supervisors as
defined in the Act.
WE WILL , upon request , furnish Local No. 4, Amalgamated
Lithographers of America , with current information as to names,
classification , and wage rates of the employees in the appropriate
unit, and as to Respondent 's health and welfare plan.
WE WILL , upon request, bargain collectively with Local No. 4,
Amalgamated Lithographers of America , as the exclusive bar-
gaining representative of the employees in the appropriate unit,
and, if an understanding is reached , embody such understanding
in a signed agreement.
WE WILL NOT, in any like or related manner , interfere with,
restrain , or coerce employees in the exercise of the rights guaran-
teed them by Section 7 of the Act.
JOHN S. SWIFT COMPANY, INC.,
Employer.
Dated- --------------- By-------------------------------------
(Representative ) ( Title)
This notice must remain posted for 60 days from the date hereof,
and must not be altered, defaced, or covered by any other material.
E. W. Bliss Company and Patternmakers League of North
America, Grand Rapids Association , AFL-CIO, Petitioner.
Case No. 7-RC-4894. September 15, 1961
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, a hearing was held before Burton R. Horowitz, 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 Act, the Board
has delegated its powers in connection with this case to a three-
133 NLRB No. 29.
E. W. BLISS COMPANY 193
member panel [Chairman McCulloch and Members Leedom and
Brown].
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 labor organizations' involved claim to represent certain
employees 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. Petitioner seeks to sever a unit of patternmakers, apprentices,
and pattern checkers from a unit of pattern shop department employ-
ees at the Employer's Hastings, Michigan, plant. The Employer and
the Intervenor, however, contend that the only appropriate unit is the
existing pattern shop unit and that the requested unit is too limited in
scope.
The Employer is engaged in the manufacture and sale of metal-
working presses, can-making machinery, and arresting mechanisms.
The Hastings, Michigan, plant involved herein consists of a foundry,
a machine shop, a pattern shop with storage facilities, and a pattern
storage area. The pattern shop is located in a building which is at-
tached to the foundry. The employees in the foundry are currently
represented by the International Moulders and Foundry Workers
Union of North America and the machine shop employees are repre-
sented, under a separate contract, by the Intervenor, UAW, Local 414.
UAW was certified as the representative of the patternmakers, pat-
tern checkers, and apprentices in May 1951 and in July 1951, was certi-
fied for the remaining employees in the pattern shop. Since that time,
UAW Local Union No. 414 has apparently been the contract repre-
sentative of all employees in the pattern shop.
At the present time there are 23 employees in the pattern shop.
They are classified as follows: 11 patternmakers, 4 apprentices, 2 pat-
tern checkers, 1 millwright, 4 pattern storage attendants, and 1 pattern
storage checker. The pattern checkers are qualified patternmakers.
Although the patternmakers, apprentices, and pattern checkers are
under separate supervision, all pattern shop employees work the same
hours, are hourly paid, and are covered by the same pension plan.
And, although there is no formal, registered apprenticeship program,
a shop training program does exist and an apprentice remains in that
classification for a period of 5 years.
1 International Union, United Automobile , Aircraft and Agricultural Implement Workers
of America (UAW), AFL-CIO, and Its Local Union No. 414, intervened on the basis of
the local's current contract with the Employer which expires October 1, 1961 The
International requests that its name rather than that of the local be placed on the ballot
In the absence of objection , the request is granted . Westinghouse Electric Corporation,
119 NLRB 1858, 1862.
624067-62-vol . 133-14
194 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
The pattern storage attendants' duties involve transporting the pat-
terns to and from the storage area adjacent to the shop. Apprentice
patternmakers are recruited from the pattern storage attendants.
The pattern storage checker tags the patterns after they are completed
and checked. The millwright repairs and maintains the machinery in
the pattern shop.
In view of the above, we find that the patternmakers, apprentices,
and pattern checkers are craftsmen and the pattern storage checker
and pattern storage attendants are the type of pattern shop helper
which the Board customarily includes in a craft unit. See Southern
States Equipment Corporation, 113 NLRB 537. As the millwright
works only in the pattern shop and as he would be the sole exclusion,
we shall also include him in the unit.
We therefore find that the following employees of the Employer,
who comprise the contract unit, constitute an appropriate unit for the
purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b)
of the Act : 2
All wood patternmakers, apprentices, pattern checkers, pattern stor-
age attendants, pattern storage checkers, and millwright, excluding
office clerical employees, guards, and supervisors as defined in the Act.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.]
2 As the unit found appropriate is broader than that requested by the Petitioner, it
may, upon timely notice to the Regional Director , withdraw its petition.
Russell Packing Company and Peerless Packing Company and
Charles Hampton . Case No. 13-CA-3593-1. September 18, 1961
DECISION AND ORDER
On October 25, 1960, Trial Examiner C. W. Whittemore issued his
Intermediate Report in the above-entitled proceeding, finding that
the Respondents had engaged in and were engaging in certain unfair
labor practices and recommending that they cease and desist there-
from and take certain affirmative action, as set forth in the Intermedi-
ate Report attached hereto. Thereafter, the Respondents filed ex-
ceptions to the Intermediate Report and a supporting brief.
On March 29, 1961, pursuant to a request by the General Counsel,
the Board remanded this proceeding for a further hearing before the
same Trial Examiner on the credibility of Alvaro Elzy, a witness for
the General Counsel. On June 5, 1961, the Trial Examiner issued a
Supplemental Intermediate Report attached hereto, in which he found
that Elzy's testimony was now untrustworthy because of inconsistent
testimony which he had given at an unemployment compensation
133 NLRB No. 24.