Lloyd Hollsiter, Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jul 31, 1941

33 N.L.R.B. 982 (N.L.R.B. 1941)

In the Matter of LLOYD HOLLISTER, INC. and CHICAGO TYPOGRAPHICAL
UNION, No. 16, OF INTERNATIONAL TYPOGRAPHICAL UNION (UNAF-
FILIATED)
Case No. R-2624.-Decided July 31, 1941
Jurisdiction : printing industry.
Investigation and Certification of Representatives : existence of question: re-
fusal to accord union recognition until certified by Board ; election necessary.
Unit Appropriate for Collective Bargaining : composing room employees, includ-
ing hand compositors, linotype and monotype operators, stonemen, makeup
men, lockup men, proofreaders, teletype setters and tape punchers, apprentices,
composing-room foremen, and assistant foremen, excluding office boys.
Heth, Lister and Flynn, by Mr. William Lister, and Mr. John J.
*Flynn, of Chicago, Ill., for the Company.
Mr. Daniel D. Carmell and Mr. Sol G. Lippman, of Chicago, Ill.,
for the Union.
Mr. Marvin C. Wahl, of counsel for the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
• STATEMENT OF THE CASE
On February 18, 1941, Chicago Typographical Union, No. 16, of
International Typographical Union (Unaffiliated), herein called the
Union, filed with the Regional Director for the Thirteenth Region
(Chicago, Illinois) a petition alleging that a question affecting com-
merce had arisen concerning the representation of employees of Lloyd
Hollister, Inc., Wilmette, Illinois, herein called the Company, and
requesting an investigation and certification of representatives, pur-
suant to Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act, 49 Stat.
449, herein called the Act. On May 23, 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 Rela-
tions Board Rules and Regulations-Series 2, as amended, ordered an
investigation and authorized the Regional Director to conduct it and
to provide for an appropriate hearing upon due notice.
On May 29, 1941, the Regional Director issued a notice of hearing,
copies of which were duly served upon the Company and the Union.
33 N L. R. B, No. 173.
982
LLOYD HOLLISTER, INC. 983
Pursuant to notice, a hearing was held on June 10, 1941, at Chicago,
Illinois, before Russell Packard, the Trial Examiner, duly designated
by the Chief Trial Examiner. The Company and the Union were
represented by counsel and participated in the hearing. Full op-
portunity to be heard, to examine and cross-examine witnesses and to
introduce evidence bearing on the issues was afforded all 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 all the rulings of the Trial Examiner and
finds that no prejudicial errors were committed. The rulings are here-
by affirmed.
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following:
FINDINGS OF FACT.
I. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
The Company is engaged in the business of job and contract print-
ing. Principal raw materials which it uses are paper, ink, metal, type,
and photo-engraving supplies and equipment. Approximately $71,000
worth of the raw materials which the Company used in 1940 was
purchased from Illinois supply houses and an Illinois sales tax paid
thereon, but was shipped directly to the Company from points outside
of the State of Illinois. The Company operates a publishing and
printing department. In 1940, the gross receipts of the publishing
department were about $142,000 and of the printing department,
about $333,500. The former publishes three local community news-
magazines each week, which circulate primarily in Illinois. While
these publications do not subscribe to any wire or press association
news services, syndicated articles, columns, or comic strips, more than
$5,000 was derived from national and out-of-State advertising ac-
counts. The printing department does job and contract printing of
more than 50 local news-magazines, college publications, trade journals,
house organs, school, club, and church publications and announcements.
Thirteen of these have an admittedly substantial interstate circulation.
Over $57,000 of the gross receipts of the printing department were
derived from the printing of the interstate portion of those periodicals.
II. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED
Chicago Typographical Union, No. 16, of International Typo-
graphical Union is an unaffiliated labor organization admitting to
membership composing-room employees of the Company.
984 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
IAt conferences with representatives of the Company, the Union
requested that it be recognized as the exclusive bargaining represent-
ative of all the composing-room employees. The Company expressed
its willingness to negotiate with a duly authorized representative of its
employees but demanded proof that the Union is the statutory repre-
sentative of the employees which it seeks to represent. A statement
of the Regional Director was introduced in evidence which shows
that the Union represents a substantial number of employees in the
unit hereinafter found to be appropriate.'
We find that a question has arisen concerning the representation of
employees of the Company.
IV. THE EFFECT OF THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION UPON
COMMERCE
We find that the question concerning representation which has arisen
occurring in connection with the operations of the Company described
in Section I, above, has a close, intimate, and substantial relation to
trade, traffic, and commerce among the several States-and tends to lead
to labor disputes burdening and obstructing commerce and the free
flow of commerce.2
V. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT
The Union claims that all-persons employed in the composing room
of the Company, including hand compositors, linotype and monotype
operators, stonemen, makeup men, lockup men, proofreaders, teletype
setters and tape punchers, apprentices, composing-room foremen, and
assistant foremen, but excluding office boys, constitute an appropriate
unit. The Company contends that only a plant-wide unit is
appropriate.
In addition to the composing room, the plant has a pressroom,
bindery, small pressroom, and stereotype room. There is some inter-
change of employees among the various rooms, other than between the
1 The Regional Director's statement shows that the petitioner submitted 36 membership
application cards, 35 of which appeared to bear genuine original signatures and 1 of which
contained a printed signature . Thirty of the cards were dated in 1940 and 1941, 5 were
undated, and 1 was dated 1936 . The Company employed 55 persons within the alleged
appropriate unit during the pay-roll period ending June 4, 1941.
2 The Company moved to dismisse the petition on the -ground that It was not engaged in
interstate commerce . The Trial Examiner referred the motion to the Board ; it is hereby
denied . See Matter of Horace G. Prettyman and Arthur J. Wiltse, co -partners, doing bu8l-
ness as the Ann Arbor Press and International Typographical Union, 12 N. L. R. B. 640,
set aside on other grounds without prejudice to a new hearing in N. L. it. B. v. Prettyman,
117 F. ( 2d) 786 (C. C. A. 6) ; Matter of Sampson and Murdock Printing Company and Boston
Typographical Union No. 18 of the International Typographical Union of North America, 31
N. L. R. B. 609.
LLOYD HOLLISTER, INC. 985
pressroom and the composing room, usually during rush periods, and
there is considerable similarity in wages, hours, and working conditions
of the pressmen and the composing-room employees. However, the
jurisdiction of the Union is limited to composing-room employees, all
of whom are skilled, with the exception of the apprentices, and the
Union has bargained with other employers on the basis of a composing-
room unit.3 Employees in other departments are eligible to member-
ship in other unions. No other union has attempted to organize on
a more inclusive basis.
We find that all persons employed in the composing room of the
Company, including hand compositors, linotype and monotype opera-
tors, stonemen, makeup men, lockup men, proofreaders, teletype setters
and tape punchers, apprentices, composing-room foremen, and assistant
foremen, but excluding office boys, constitute a unit appropriate for
the purposes of collective bargaining and that said unit will insure
to employees of the Company the full benefit of their right to self-
organization and to collective bargaining and otherwise effectuate the
policies of the Act.
VI. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
We find that the question which has arisen concerning the repre-
sentation of employees of the Company can best be resolved by an
election by secret ballot. The Union requests that eligibility to vote
in the election be determined as of February 18, 1941, the date the
petition was filed, on the grounds that since that time the Company
has discharged certain of its employees because of their membership
in the Union, and has delayed the hearing by questioning the jurisdic-
tion of the Board. The Union has not filed charges with respect to
the discharges, and the record contains no evidence to support the
charge of delay. Accordingly, in conformity with our usual practice,
we shall direct that those eligible to vote in the election shall be the
employees within the appropriate unit who were employed by the
Company during the pay-roll period immediately preceding the date
of the Direction of Election, subject to such limitations and additions
as are set forth in the Direction hereinafter.
Upon the basis of the above findings of fact and upon the entire
record in the case, the Board makes the following:
CONCLUSIONS OF LAW
1. A question affecting commerce has arisen concerning the repre-
sentation of employees of Lloyd Hollister, Inc., Wilmette, Illinois,
See Matter of Sampson and Murdock Printing Company and Boston Typographical
Union No. 13 of the International Typographical Union of North America , 31 N L R. B.
609.
986 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
within the meaning of Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the
National Labor Relations Act.
2. All persons employed in the composing room of the Company,
including hand compositors, linotype and monotype operators, stone-
men, makeup men, lockup men, proofreaders, teletype setters and tape
punchers, apprentices, composing-room foremen, and assistant fore-
men, but excluding office boys, constitute a unit appropriate for the
purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b)
of the National Labor Relations Act.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
By virtue of and pursuant to the power vested in the National Labor
Relations Board by Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act
and pursuant to Article III, Section 8, of National Labor Relations
Board Rules and Regulations-Series 2, as amended, it is hereby
DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation authorized by the Board
to ascertain representatives for the purposes of collective bargaining
with Lloyd Hollister, Inc., Wilmette, Illinois, an election by secret
ballot should be conducted as early as possible, but not later than
thirty (30) days from the date of this Direction of Election, under the
direction and supervision of the Regional Director for the Thirteenth
Region, acting in this matter as agent for the National Labor Rela-
tions Board, and subject to Article III, Section 9, of said Rules and
Regulations, among all persons employed in the composing room of
the Company, including hand compositors, linotype and monotype
operators, stonemen, makeup men, lockup men, proofreaders, teletype
setters and tape punchers, apprentices, composing-room foremen, and
assistant foremen, who were employed by the Company during the
pay-roll period immediately preceding the date of this Direction of
Election, including employees who did not work during such pay-roll
period because they were ill or on vacation or in the active military
service or training of'the United States, or temporarily laid off, but
excluding office boys and employees who have since quit or been dis-
charged for cause, to determine whether or not they desire to be repre-
sented by Chicago Typographical Union, No. 16, of International
Typographical Union (Unaffiliated), for the purposes of collective
bargaining.