Lengsfield Brothers, Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Feb 6, 1942

38 N.L.R.B. 951 (N.L.R.B. 1942)

In the Matter of LENGSFIELD BROTHERS , INC. and FOLDING Box
WORKERS UNION, No. 500, INTERNATIONAL PRINTING PRESSMEN AND
ASSISTANTS UNION OF NORTH AMERICA, AFFILIATED WITH THE AMER-
ICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR
Case No. R-3401.Decided February 6, 1942
Jurisdiction : paper box manufacturing industry.
Practice and Procedure : petition dismissed where no appropriate unit within
the scope of the petition ; unit composed of employees in certain alleged de-
partments of the Company found inappropriate where there are no such
identifiable departments, and where the functions of all employees in the
plant are closely interrelated.
Mr. Samuel Lang, of New Orleans, La., for the Company.
Mr. Louis P. Sahuque and Mr. TV. C. Marrero, of New Orleans, La.,
for the Union.
Miss Mary E. Perkins, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
ORDER
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
On November 3, 1941 , Folding Box Workers Union, No. 500, In-
ternational Printing Pressmen and Assistants Union of North Amer-
ica, affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, herein called
the Union, filed with the Regional Director for the Fifteenth Region
(New Orleans , Louisiana ) a petition alleging that a question affecting
commerce had arisen concerning the representation of employees
of Lengsfield Brothers, Inc., New Orleans, Louisiana , herein called
the Company , and requesting an investigation and certification of
representatives pursuant to Section 9 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, 49 Stat. 449, herein called the Act. On December 10,
1941 , the National Labor Relations Board , herein called the Board,
acting pursuant to Section 9 (c) of the Act, and Article III, Section
3, of National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series
2, as amended , ordered an investigation and authorized the Regional
38 N. L . R. B., No. 171.
951
952 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Director to conduct it and to provide for an appropriate hearing upon
due notice.
On December 11, 1941, the Regional Director issued a notice of
hearing, copies of which were duly served upon the Company and
the Union. Pursuant to the notice and amendments thereto, duly
served upon the Company and the Union, a hearing was held De-
cember 18, 1941, at New Orleans, Louisiana, before C. Paul Barker,
the Trial Examiner duly designated by the Chief Trial Examiner.
The Company was represented by counsel and the Union by its repre-
sentatives; both participated in the hearing. Full opportunity to
be heard, to examine and cross-examine witnesses, and to introduce
evidence bearing on the issues was afforded both parties. During the
course of the hearing the Trial Examiner made various rulings on
motions and on objections to the admission of evidence. The Board
has reviewed the rulings of the Trial Examiner and finds that (no
prejudicial errors were committed. The rulings are hereby affirmed.
On January 2, 1941, the Company filed a brief which has been con-
sidered by the Board.
Upon the entire record in the case the Board makes the following :
FINDINGS OF FACT
1. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
Lengsfield Brothers, Inc., is a corporation organized and existing
under the laws of the State of Louisiana, having its principal office
and place of business at New Orleans, Louisiana.
The Company is engaged in the manufacture and distribution of
paper boxes and folding cartons. During 1941 the Company pur-
chased more than $150,000 worth of raw materials, consisting of
paper board, glue, and ink, of which more than 80 percent was
shipped to the Company's plant in New Orleans from points out-
side the State of Louisiana. During the same period the Company
manufactured finished products worth more than $150,000, of which
approximately 20 percent was sold and shipped to customers outside
the State of Louisiana. The Company employs approximately 100
employees. The Company stipulated that it is engaged in commerce
within the meaning of the Act.
H. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED
Folding Box Workers Union, No. 500, International Printing
Pressmen and Assistants Union of North America, is a labor organi-
zation affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, admitting
to membership certain of the Company's employees.
LENGSFIELD BROTHERS, INC.
III. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT
953
The Union in its petition requested a unit of all the Company's
employees in the printing and folding box departments, excluding
supervisory and office employees. The Company urges that all its
employees, excluding supervisory and office employees, constitute an
appropriate unit, contending that it has no definable printing or
folding box departments.
The Company manufactures both folding boxes, which are cut,
creased, and glued or stitched, and delivered to the customer flat;
and set-up boxes, which are delivered to the customer in their final
set-up form. The Company's plant consists of a 3-story building
containing about 100 employees. Harry Lengsfield superintends the
operations of the plant as a whole. One foreman under Lengsfield
supervises operations on the first floor of the plant, and a second
foreman supervises operations on the second and third floors.
All printing is carried on on the first floor, although the printing
presses are not isolated from the other operations taking place
on that floor. Printing operations are performed about equally on
folding and set-up boxes. The rest of the operations on the first
floor consist of cutting and creasing paper board, glueing, paper-
cutting, peeling and punching,' and receiving and shipping. Most
folding boxes are completed in operations on the first floor, except
such as must go to the second floor for stitching or set-up parts.
On the second floor the plant has other lighter machine operations
which include scoring, corner-cutting, paper-cutting, partition-slot-
ting, and stitching ; and, in general, set-up boxes are completed on
the second floor except for such printing work as it may be neces-
sary to do on the first floor printing presses. Some set-up boxes,
however, require a combination of operations such as the insertion
of collapsible parts or partitions, which involves their being processed
on the first floor machines.
There appears to be considerable interchange, between the first and
second floors, of employees who do not work regularly on a particular
machine. Thus the glueing machine on the first floor, once it has
been set up by the glueing machine man, is at times operated by
women who ordinarily work on set-up boxes; and the paper-cutting
machine on the first floor, which is used to cut material both for
folding and for set-up boxes, is at times operated by men who regu-
larly work on the second floor. Similarly, the stitching and bending
operations on the second floor, which appear to be performed on fold-
I Peelers and punchers strip the waste sections from paper board that has been stamped
and cut on the presses.
954 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
ing boxes alone, are sometimes carried on by women who are ordi-
narily engaged in work on set-up boxes.'
The Union, at the hearing, described the unit it claims as in-
cluding printing and other pressmen and their assistants, men who
help around the presses, the typesetters, the die setters, the glueing
machine man, stitchers, benders, peelers, and punchers, excluding
foremen, "employees who work part time in the set-up box depart-
ment," and office employees. All the employees whom the Union
wishes to include, except stitchers, benders, peelers, and punchers,
work regularly on the first floor. The stitchers, as noted above,
operate a machine on the second floor and are assisted by the benders.
Peelers and punchers work for the most part on the first floor, but are
moved about to other floors if space requirements make it necessary.
The unit sought by the Union thus is neither confined to the opera-
tions traditionally included in the pressmen's craft, nor extended to
include all the employees of the Company in an industrial unit;
but constitutes, instead, an arbitrary and irregular grouping of
craft and common-labor operations which does not follow any clearly
discernible department lines. Lack of integration of the folding box
department is evidenced, not only by the fact that the stitchers,
the benders, and, at times, the peelers and punchers are supervised
by the set-up box foreman on the second floor, but by the fact that,
as stated above, a substantial number of employees divide their
time between folding and set-up box work.
Moreover, the unit described by the Union presents many diffi-
culties of definition. The Union states, for example, that it wishes
to include "peelers and punchers" and "help around the presses."
It appears, however, that the same persons are not always engaged
upon these operations, which are performed by a group of miscel-
laneous common laborers employed in the plant, all of whom are
shifted about as they are required on porter work, peeling and
punching, taking material out of the presses, wrapping finished
boxes as they come off the glueing and stitching machines, and storing
and stacking. While it is clear that the Union does not wish to
include all the members of this miscellaneous group, the Union has
failed to show that those whom it does wish to include, under the
heading of "peelers and punchers" or "help around the presses,"
spend more of their time at those operations than do others in the
group. Similar difficulties are presented by the Union's desire to
'Although the wage -Hour Law requires a minimum hourly rate of 40 cents for em-
ployees engaged in folding box operations and only 36 cents for those engaged in set-up
box operations , as to employees of the Company the difference in rate serves to distinguish
the operations of female employees only, since all male employees are paid at the minimum
rate of 40 cents, regardless of operation.
LENGSFIELD BROTHERS, INC. 955
exclude "employees who work part- time in the set-up box depart-
ment" since, as stated above, the common laborers, stitchers, benders,
and glueing machine operators, some of whom the Union wishes to
include, are often engaged in work on set-up boxes.
We are of the opinion that a unit such as that desired by the
Union, which is not confined to any identifiable craft, department,
operation, or group thereof, would not be one appropriate for the,
purposes of collective bargaining. We believe, moreover, that the
functions of all the employees in the plant are so closely interrelated,
and their interests so similar, as to make inappropriate a unit com-
prising only a part of the employees. The appropriateness of a
larger unit is further evidenced by the fact that the Union, when
first organized in the spring of 1941, did not confine its membership
to employees in the so-called printing and folding box departments
but also admitted employees engaged in set-up box operations,3 and
by the fact that in similar companies other locals of the same Inter-
national have organized employees engaged in both folding box and
set-up box operations.
In view of all the circumstances, we believe that the unit herein
urged by the Union is inappropriate for the purposes of collective
bargaining, and we so find. We shall, therefore, dismiss the petition.
IV. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
Since, as stated in Section III above, the bargaining unit sought,
to be established by the petition is not appropriate, we find that no
question has arisen concerning the representation of employees of
the Company in an appropriate unit.
Upon the basis of the above findings of fact and upon the entire
record in the case, the Board makes the following :
CONCLUSION OF LAW
No question concerning representation of employees of Lengsfield
Brothers, Inc., New Orleans, Louisiana, in a unit which is appro-
priate for the purposes of collective bargaining, has arisen within
the meaning of section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act.
s Subsequently , in August 1941, Sahuque , a representative of the American Federation
of Labor, first became connected with the Union and advised organization of the printing
and folding box departments only, since operations in these departments are largely per-
formed on presses. Dues and fees already paid in by other employees were refunded.
This policy was extended to other paper box companies in New Orleans over whom the
Union claims jurisdiction . Sahuque testified that the jurisdiction of this local is now
restricted to printing and folding box employees.
956 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
ORDER
Upon the basis of the foregoing findings of fact, conclusion of
law, and the entire record in the case, the National Labor Relations
Board hereby orders that the petition for investigation and certifi-
cation of representatives of employees of Lengsfield Brothers, Inc.,
New Orleans, Louisiana, filed by Folding Box Workers Union, No.
500, International Printing Pressmen and Assistants Union of North
America, affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, be, and
it hereby is, dismissed.