George Banta Publishing Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Apr 8, 1947

73 N.L.R.B. 255 (N.L.R.B. 1947)

In the Matter of GEORGE BANTA PUBLISHING COMPANY, EMPLOYER and
INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS, PETITIONER
Case No. 13-R-4095.-Decided April 8, 1947
Mr. Edward J. Dempsey, of Oshkosh, Wis., for the Employer.
Mr. P. L. Siemiller, of Chicago, Ill., for the Petitioner.
Mr. David C. Buchalter, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
CERTIFICATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
Upon a petition duly filed, the National Labor Relations Board
on January 8, 1947, conducted a prehearing election among employees
of the Employer in the alleged appropriate unit, to determine whether
or not they desired to be represented by the Petitioner for the purposes
of collective bargaining.
At the close of the election a Tally of Ballots was furnished the
parties. The Tally shows that there were approximately 40 eligible
voters who cast valid ballots, of which 27 were for, and 8 were against,
the Petitioner, and 5 were challenged.
Thereafter, a hearing was held at Menasha, Wisconsin, on January
29, 1947, before Gustav B. Erickson, hearing officer. The hearing
officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error
and are hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in the case, the National Labor Relations
Board makes the following :
FINDINGS OF FACT
I. THE BUSINESS OF THE EMPLOYER
George Banta Publishing Company, a Wisconsin corporation, is
engaged at both its 450 Ahnaip and Midway plants in Menasha, Wis-
consin, in publishing and printing school text books, journals of sci-
entific societies and other printed matter. During the calendar year
1946, the Employer purchased for use in these plants materials valued
at approximately $2,000,000 of which 20 percent represented ship-
ments to it from points outside the State of Wisconsin. During the
same period, the Employer' s sales were in excess of $3,000,000, of which
80 percent represented shipments to points outside the State.
73 N. L. R. B, No 48.
739926-47-vol 73-18 255
256 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
The Employer admits and we find that it is engaged in commerce
within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act.
H. THE ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED 1
The Petitioner is a labor organization claiming to represent
employees of the Employer.
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
The Employer refuses to recognize the Petitioner as the exclusive
bargaining representative of employees of the Employer until the
Petitioner has been certified by the Board in an appropriate unit.
We find that a question affecting commerce has arisen concerning
the representation of employees of the Employer, within the meaning
.of Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT
The Petitioner seeks a unit of all maintenance employees 2 at the
450 Ahnaip and Midway plants of the Employer, including balers
but excluding office and clerical employees, supervisors, and all other
employees. The sole disagreement between the parties relates to the
.balers whom the Employer would exclude from the unit. This dis-
agreement was reflected at the election in the five ballots which were
challenged.
The Employer employs, in all , five balers on its three shifts, and
.follows the practice of rotating them on a weekly basis among these
shifts. The balers' main function is to salvage waste paper trimmings
from books and other printed matter. During the day shift, the only
shift during which the bindery is in operation, the trimmings are
conveyed to the baling room from the bindery by means of an automatic
process, and together with trimmings from other parts of the plant
gathered by the janitor, are then baled by the balers in hand paper
presses. During the other shifts the balers obtain the paper trim-
mings by picking them up themselves throughout the plants and cart-
ing them to the paper presses for baling. In addition to their duties
of baling paper these employees, when working on the night shifts, and
,as firemen, firing three low pressure boilers, and on Saturday and
Sunday nights, act as watchmen, performing the same duties required
of the watchman during his tour of duty on the other nights of the
week.
. The record discloses that the balers are under the same supervision
and enjoy the same conditions of employment as the other employees
' Although Banta Specialty Union , International Printing Pressmen and Assistants'
Union , AFL, herein called the Pressmen, was served with Notice of Hearing , it failed to
appear
2 Included in this group are oilers , janitors, electricians , repairmen , mechanics, and a
watchman.
GEORGE BANTA PUBLISHING COMPANY 257
sought by the Petitioner, that they have functioned, at times, as oilers
and janitors, and that they are not sought to be represented by any
other labor organization at the plant.3 Under all these circumstances,
and particularly in view of the substantial community of interest ex-
isting between the balers and the other maintenance employees, we
shall include them in the unit hereinafter found appropriate, and shall
overrule the challenges to their ballots.
Accordingly, we find that all maintenance employees at the 450
Ahnaip and Midway plants of the Employer, including balers, but
excluding office and clerical employees, and all supervisory employees
with authority to hire, promote, discharge, discipline, or otherwise
effect changes in the status of employees, or effectively recommend such
action, constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bar-
gaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
V. TILE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
The results of the election held before the hearing show that the
Petitioner has secured a majority of the votes cast, and that the chal-
lenged ballots are insufficient to affect the results of the election. Under
these circumstances we shall not direct that any of the challenged
ballots be opened and counted, but instead shall certify the Petitioner
as the collective bargaining representative of the employees ui the
appropriate unit.
CERTIFICATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
IT IS IIEREBY CERTIFIED that International Association of Machinists
has been designated and selected by a majority of all maintenance em-
ployees at the 450 Ahnaip and Midway plants of George Banta Pub-
lishing Company, Mensha, Wisconsin, including balers, but excluding
office and clerical employees, and all supervisory employees with
authority to hire, promote, discharge, discipline, or otherwise effect
changes in the status of employees, or effectively recommend such
action, as their representative for the purposes of collective bargain-
ing, and that, pursuant to Section 9 (a) of the Act, the said organization
is the exclusive representative of all such employees for the purposes
of collective bargaining with respect to rates of pay, wages, hours of
employment, and other conditions of employment.
CHAIRMAN HERZOG took no part in the consideration of the above
Decision and Certification of Representatives.
3 The record discloses that the Pressmen presently represents the Employer's pressmen
and is seeking , in Case No 13-R-4061, now pending, to represent employees of the com-
po,ang room , that folders are being claimed by the International Brotherhood of Book-
binders , and that the off-set press operators are not represented