Parke, Davis & Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Aug 3, 1949

85 N.L.R.B. 533 (N.L.R.B. 1949)

In the Matter of PARKE, DAVIS & Co., EMPLOYER 1 and DETROIT PRINT-
ING PRESSMEN & ASSISTANTS ' UNION No. 2 OF THE INTERNATIONAL
PRINTING PRESSMEN AND ASSISTANTS ' UNION OF NORTH AMERICA,
A. F. L., PETITIONER
Case No. 7-RC-533.-Decided August 3,1949
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing 2 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 .3
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 Gray].
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 engaged in the operation of printing presses at the Employer's
Detroit, Michigan, plant, including printing pressmen, assistants,
helpers, upgraders, and Gordon platen press feeders, but excluding
the superintendent and foremen. The Employer and the Intervenor
1 The Employer' s name appears as amended at the hearing.
2 On the first day of the hearing, May 24, 1949, the Petitioner failed to have witnesses
present to testify concerning the matters in issue. The hearing officer denied the Employer's
motion to stay the proceedings and to suspend the hearing without date , and adjourned the
hearing until June 2, 1949 . We sustain the hearing officer's denial of this motion. The
adjournment of the hearing by the hearing officer by announcement thereof at the hearing
constituted a proper exercise of his discretion in accordance with the provisions of Sec.
203.56, National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations , Series 5 , as amended.
3 The motions of the Employer and Local 176, United Gas, Coke and Chemical Workers of
America , CIO, herein called the Intervenor, to dismiss the petition on the ground that the
unit sought is inappropriate are denied for the reasons stated In paragraph 4, infra.
85 N. L. R. B., No. 92.
533
534 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
contend that because of the Employer's integrated operations and be-
cause of the bargaining history 4 the proposed unit is inappropriate.
The Intervenor also contends that these employees are neither a true
craft nor departmental unit appropriate for separate representation.
The Employer produces pharmaceutical and biological products.
Its operations are conducted in several buildings, one of which houses
the Printing and Paper Box Divisions as well as several other unre-
lated departments.' The Printing and Paper Box Divisions, employ-
ing approximately 146 employees, consist of a pressroom, composing
room, and bindery which are located in separate, adjoining rooms, and
a paper box department which is situated on another floor. Approxi-
mately 90 percent of the printed material used by the Employer, con-
sisting of labels, medical instructions, and advertising circulars, is
printed in the pressroom.e The pressroom also prints cardboard sheets
which are thereafter cut and creased in the paper box department to
form cartons and boxes for packaging the Employer's products. The
Printing and Paper Box Divisions are headed by a superintendent and
a. manager with direct supervision of each department by a separate
foreman. All employees in these divisions have the same working
hours 7 and have frequent contact with one another and with all other
plant employees through the use of common employee facilities and
conveniences.
There.are approximately 36 employees employed in the pressroom,
including 18 pressmen, 2 assistant pressmen, 12 upgraders,s and 4 Gor-
don platen press feeders. The Employer concedes that the pressmen
,tire journeymen craftsmen. The Gordon platen press feeders operate
small Gordon presses which are located in the composing room near
the pressroom. Their work consists mainly of printing serial num-
'bers and expiration dates on labels previously printed by the pressmen.
The type on their machines is' set by the pressmen. Pressroom em-
ployees are not interchanged with other employees.
We find that the employees in the proposed unit constitute a tradi-
tional craft group that may appropriately be represented in a separate
4 Pursuant to a Board -directed election conducted in 1943 the Intervenor was certified as
the representative of the Employer ' s production and maintenance employees , including the
.employees involved herein , and has ever since bargained for these employees. Matter of
Parke, Davis and Company, 51 N. L . R. B. 179.
5 These are the laundry , crude storage , and glassware departments.
6It appears that the rest of the Employer 's printing is done by outside firms.
' The pressroom has day and night shifts . The record does not indicate whether other
-departments operate on more than one shift.
8 There is a 5-year upgrader training program in force in the pressroom . Upgraders are
hired directly or are procured by transfer from other departments . Previous training or
experience in printing is evaluated and upgraders may complete their training in less than
the required 5 years. It appears that upgraders are assigned as helpers or assistants to
.pressmen and acquire journeyman status through performance of duties in these capacities.
PARKE, DAVIS & CO. 535.
unit.' We reject the contention of the Employer and the Inter-
venor that these employees may not be severed because of the Em-
ployer's highly integrated operations. We find that the functions of
the pressroom are not so closely identified and intermingled with
the Employer's production processes as to preclude their separate
representation. However, as the continued inclusion of these em-
ployees in the existing plant-wide unit 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 the
employees in the pressroom of the Printing and Paper Box Divisions
at the Employer's Detroit, Michigan, plant, including printing press-
men, assistants, helpers, upgraders, and Gordon platen press feeders,
but excluding foremen, the superintendent, the manager, and all
other supervisors as defined in the Act. If in this election the em-
ployees 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
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
supervision 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 described in paragraph numbered 4 above, who
were employed during the pay-roll period immediately preceding the
date of this Direction of Election, including employees who did not
work during said pay-roll 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 re-
instated prior to the date of the election, and also excluding em-
ployees on strike who are not entitled to reinstatement, to determine
whether they desire to be represented, for purposes of collective bar--
gaining, by Detroit Printing Pressmen & Assistants' Union No. 2.
of the International Printing Pressmen and Assistants' Union -of'
North America, A. F. L., or by Local 176, United Gas, Coke & Chem--
ical Workers, C. I. 0., or by neither.
6 Matter of Southern Central Company, 77 N. L. R. B. 247 ; Matter of George Grady Press,.
Inc., 74 N. L . R. B. 1372; Matter of Rudolf Orthwine Corporation, 60 N. L . R. B. 447, and
cases cited therein.