Pacific Waxed Paper Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Mar 30, 1950

88 N.L.R.B. 1534 (N.L.R.B. 1950)

In the Matter Of PACIFIC WAXED PAPER COMPANY, EMPLOYER and
LOCAL No. 65, SEATTLE STEREOTYPERS & ELECTROTYPERS UNION, AFL,
PETITIONER
Case No. 19-RC-4110.-Decided March 30, 1950
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before H. A. McIntyre,
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 National Labor
Relations Act, the Board has delegated its powers in connection with
this case to a three-member panel [Chairman Herzog and Members
Reynolds and Styles].
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the National Labor Relations 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 Petitioner seeks to represent a unit consisting of all em-
ployees in the stereotype department 2 of the Employer's plant at
Seattle, Washington, excluding supervisors. The Employer and the
Intervenor contend that the unit sought is inappropriate for separate
representation because these employees are not a craft group, the in-
tegration of the Employer's operations precludes their severance, and
because these employees have been part of a plant-wide unit repre-
sented by the Intervenor since 1936.3
' The motion of the Intervenor, Local No. 380, Printing Specialties and Paper Products
Union, AFL , to dismiss the petition on the ground that the unit sought is inappropriate, is
hereby denied for the reasons stated herein.
2 The petition specifically mentions only the stereotypers and rubber plate makers in
the stereotype department . At the hearing , however, the Petitioner indicated a desire to
represent all employees in this department.
3 All the Employer's production and maintenance employees except one , the photoengraver,
are bargained for by the Intervenor.
88 NLRB No. 263.
1534
PACIFIC WAXED PAPER COMPAI\TY 1535
The Employer manufactures plain and printed waxed paper used
for wrapping food products. Its plant consists of two single-story
buildings, of which one is used as a warehouse. All the manufacturing
operations are performed in the other building in several departments
including the engraving, stereotype,4 printing, bag, waxing, slitting,
finishing, shipping, and maintenance departments. There are six em-
ployees in the stereotype department which is separately located in an
enclosed area in a corner of the building. Essentially the duties of
these employees consist of casting, molding, and repairing metal and
rubber duplicate plates which are used on the printing presses to print
the Employer's products. In addition they perform premake-ready
and preregistering operations which consist of placing the finished
plates on dummy cylinders and fixing them in proper alignment.'
Thus when the plates are delivered to the printing department in this
form the pressmen need only mount the cylinders on the presses before
they are run. They also mount rubber plates on bag printing ma-
chines in the bag department,' do some typesetting, melt down old
plates,' and occasionally operate the proof press in the printing
department."
Stereotype department employees are classified as 1-year to 5-year
men, and receive automatic yearly increases as they progress from one
classification to another. Their wage rates, which are the same as
those for the printing department press operators, are the highest in
the plant. There is no formal apprentice program for these em-
ployees, but the record indicates that 4 to 5 years' experience is required
to be qualified for all the duties performed in the department. A
separate working foreman supervises the stereotype department
whereas all other departments are under a plant superintendent and
general foreman. There is no regular interchange between employees
of the stereotype department and those of other departments, although
in slack periods they may be temporarily assigned to jobs in other
departments for which they are qualified. Employees of other depart-
ments have been permanently transferred to the stereotype depart-
ment. Conditions of employment and employee benefits are generally
the same for all employees. Seniority is plant-wide, but employees
can displace others with less seniority only if they are qualified for
the jobs.
' Also called the plate department.
Although all stereotype department employees are capable of performing these opera-
tions, they are generally performed by one employee who devotes his entire time to these
duties. Occasionally employees from the printing department assist in these operations.
' This operation takes about 20 minutes each day.
Printing department employees sometimes assist in this operation.
Printing department employees also operate this machine.
1536 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
.
We have previously recognized stereotypers as a separate craft in
the printing industry and found units of stereotype department em-
ployees in printing establishments appropriate for separate representa-
tion? The Employer and the Intervenor, nevertheless, contend that
the proposed unit is inappropriate because the duties of the employees
involved herein do not call for craft skills, and that in any event they
do not constitute a pure craft as they perform various duties tradi-
tionally performed by pressmen, including the premake-ready, pre-
registering, proof press, and bag machine mounting operations. They
also contend that, because it performs these functions the stereotype
department is so highly integrated with the printing department as to
preclude its separate representation. We do not agree. We are satis-
fied from the record that the basic function of these employees is the
casting and molding of duplicate plates and that their other duties
are incidental to and do not detract from the craft character of this
work. While the performance of these incidental duties may create
a closer relationship between the stereotype and printing departments
than that which prevails in other similar printing establishments where
separate units of stereotypers exist," we do not believe that these
departments are here so highly integrated as to prevent severance
of the proposed unit. We find that the employees involved herein
constitute a functionally distinct homogeneous craft group which may
appropriately be represented in a separate unit notwithstanding the
bargaining history in which they were part of a broader unit. How-
ever, as the continued inclusion of these employees in the existing unit
represented by the Intervenor may also be appropriate, we shall not
make any final determination at this time of the appropriate unit, but
shall first ascertain the desires of these employees in the election
hereinafter directed.
We shall direct that an election by secret ballot be held among all
the employees in the stereotype department at the Employer's Seattle,
Washington, plant, excluding the foreman and all other supervisors as
defined in the Act. If, in this election, these employees select the
Petitioner, they will be taken to have indicated a desire to constitute a
separate bargaining unit.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the
purposes of collective bargaining with the Employer, an election by
0 The Standard Register Company, 73 NLRB 1221 ; Lloyd Hollister, Inc., 68 NLRB 733;
Clarksburg Publishing Company, 59 NLRB 86.
10 The record shows that units of stereotype department employees exist in three of
the four waxed paper plants on the west coast and in numerous printing establishments
throughout the country.
PACIFIC WAXED PAPER COMPANY 1537
secret ballot shall be conducted as early as possible, but not later than
30 days from the date of this Direction, under the direction and super-
vision of the Regional Director for the Region in which this case
was heard, and subject to Sections 203.61 and 203.62 of National
Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations, among the employees
in the voting group found appropriate in paragraph numbered 4,
above, who were employed during the payroll period immediately
preceding the date of this Direction of Election, including employees
who did not work during said payroll period because they were ill
or on vacation or temporarily laid off, but excluding those employees
who have since quit or been discharged for cause and have not been
rehired or reinstated prior to the date of the election, and also exclud-
ing employees on strike who are not entitled to reinstatement, to
determine whether they desire to be represented, for purposes of col-
lective bargaining, by Local No. 65, Seattle Stereotypers & Electro-
typers Union, AFL, or by Local No. 380, Printing Specialties and
Paper Products Union, AFL, or by neither.