Master-Craft Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Dec 5, 1950

92 N.L.R.B. 524 (N.L.R.B. 1950)

In the Matter Of MASTER-CRAFT CORPORATION, EMPLOYER and INTER-
NATIONAL PRINTING PRESSMEN & ASSISTANTS' UNION OF NORTH
AMERICA, AFL, PETITIONER
Case No. 7-RC-996.-Decided December 5,1950
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 Harold L. Hudson,
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-member
panel [Members Houston, Murdock, and Styles].
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :•
1. The Employer 2 is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the Act.
2. The labor organizations involved claim to represent certain em-
ployees 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. The appropriate unit; determination of representatives:
The Petitioner seeks a unit composed, in substance, of all printing
pressmen and their helpers, letter and off-set pressmen and their
helpers, and the platemaker-cameraman in the Employer's Kalamazoo,
Michigan, plant, excluding supervisors. The Employer, while not
objecting to the specific composition of the unit, contends that this
unit is inappropriate because of the Board's prior establishment of
a broad production and maintenance unit,3 the subsequent history of
1 At the hearing, an attorney claiming to represent all the individual employees in the
requested unit moved to intervene for the sole purpose of submitting in evidence a state-
ment allegedly signed by almost all these employees , revoking their designations of the
Petitioner and, in substance, seeking a dismissal of the petition . The hearing officer prop-
erly denied the motion and rejected the Employer ' s subsequent offer of this statement in
evidence . It is well settled that a union ' s showing of interest is an administrative matter,
not subject to collateral attack. Standard Steel Spring Company, 90 NLRB 1805 ;
Peter Pan Bus Lines, 82 NLRB 830.
1 The name of the Employer appears in the caption as amended at the hearing.
8 Master-Craft Corporation , 60 NLRB 56 . No request was made in that proceeding for
separate representation of the employees herein involved.
92 NLRB No. 92.
524
MASTER-CRAFT CORPORATION 525
collective bargaining with the Intervenor 4 on that basis, and the al-
leged integrated nature of the Employer's operations. The Intervenor
does not oppose the severance of the employees sought from the pro
duct-ion and maintenance unit.
The Employer is engaged in the manufacture of binders and of
miscellaneous office forms used by various types of business concerns.
Its only plant is located in Kalamazoo.
The approximately 15 pressmen, their helpers, and the platemaker-
cameraman requested by the Petitioner constitutes all the personnel
in the Employer's letterpress, lithograph or offset printing, and car-
bonizing departments. The letterpress and lithograph or offset print-
ing departments are located in adjoining areas, separated only by a
partition, and the carbonizing department, which employs presses
somewhat analogous to those in the letterpress department, is sep-
arated by solid walls from the other departments.,' Particular jobs
are frequently handled in part by all 3 of these departments. The
employees in question perform the usual duties of their classifications,
under the separate immediate direction of working foremen. Senior-
ity is on a departmental basis and there is no interchange between these
employees and other plant personnel.
Where, as here, there is some degree of integration between the
letterpress employees and those in the lithographic process, we have
recognized that these employees have related interests and may, if
they so desire, constitute a separate multidepartmental unit." Such
separate representation is not precluded by an earlier Board certifica-
tion and history of bargaining on a more comprehensive basis.7 And,
contrary to the contention of the Employer, the record, in our opinion
fails to reveal such a close integration of functions between these de-
partments and the remainder of the Employer's operations as to
prevent the separate representation of this group."
Accordingly, we are of the opinion that the employees in the unit
requested by the Petitioner may, if they so desire, either constitute a
separate unit or remain a part of the existing production and main-
tenance unit. We shall not, therefore, make any final unit determina-
tion at this time, but shall first ascertain the desires of these employees
as expressed in the election hereinafter directed.
' International Brotherhood of Bookbinders , Local 77, AFL.
5 The carbonizing department utilizes a secret process of the Employer for imprinting
carbon-black to paper stock.
6 The Lord Baltimore Press , Inc., 73 NLRB 811; cf. Commercial Printers Inc., 74 NLRB
1135; Johnson City Publishing Company, 81 NLRB 1341 ; Danner Press of Canton, Inc.,
91 NLRB 237.
4 Cf. Wilson -Jones Company, 75 NLRB 706; Paterson Parchment Paper Company, 80
NLRB 1378 ; DeMay's Inc., 81 NLRB 1374.
Cf. McDonald Printing Company, 81 NLRB 481.
526 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
'We` shall. direct that an election be held among 't ll' printing press-'
men and their helpers, letter and offset pressmen and their. helpers,:
and the, platemaker-cameraman, employed at .the Employer's. Kala
mazoo, Michigan, plant, excluding all, other employees and super=
viso'rs9 as defined in the Act. If in this election a'majority vote for
the-:Petitioner, they•will.be taken to have indicated. their desire to:
constitute a separate bargaining unit.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this
volume.]
9 Although the parties stipulated that the working foremen should be included in the
unit, , the record fails to reveal whether or not these individuals are presently clothed
with supervisory authority. Accordingly, we shall make no determination at this time
as to the status of the working foremen. If they are vested with supervisory authority.,
they shall be excluded from the unit ; otherwise , they will be included.