Pioneer Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Aug 10, 1950

90 N.L.R.B. 1848 (N.L.R.B. 1950)

s
In the Matter of PIONEER INCORPORATED, EMPLOYER and THE AMALGA-
MATED LITHOGRAPHERS OF AMERICA, LOCAL 45, CIO,' PETITIONER
In the Matter Of INDUSTRIAL CONFERENCE BOARD,2 EMPLOYER and
TACOMA PRESSMEN'S UNION No. 44, INTERNATIONAL PRINTING
PRESSMEN & ASSISTANTS UNION OF NORTH AMERICA, AFL,3
PETITIONER
Cases Nos. 19-RC-446 and 19-RC-452.-Decided August 10, 1950
DECISION, ORDER, AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon petitions duly filed, a consolidated hearing was held before
Robert E. Tillman, hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made
at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
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
employees of the Employer.
3. A question affecting commerce, exists concerning the represen-
tation of employees of the Employers within the meaning of Section
9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
4. Pioneer operates a printing plant at Tacoma, Washington, with
25 employees, 2 of whom are employed in the offset lithographic de-
partment. The Lithographers, in Case No. 19-RC-446, seeks to
represent the latter. The Pressmen contends that Pioneer's litho-
graphic employees should remain in the existing multiemployer
pressroom unit for which it is currently recognized as bargaining rep-
resentative, and for which it seeks certification herein (Case No. 19-
RC-452). If, however, the Board should sever Pioneer's lithographic
i Herein called the Lithographers.
2 An employer association and herein called the Association . The Association , including
Pioneer Incorporated , supra, bargains on a multiemployer basis for all pressroom employees
of eight printing concerns Involved herein . These concerns are : Anderson Printing Com-
pany ; Conrad Printing Company ; Dammier Printing Company ; Johnson-Box Company ;
Pioneer , Incorporated ; South Tacoma Star ; Twentieth Century Press ; and Valley Pub-
lishing Company.
3 Herein called the Pressmen.
90 NLRB No. 247.
1848
PIONEER INCORPORATED 1849
employees from the previously existing unit, the Pressmen desires that
an election be held in the remainder of the unit.
From February 1946. until January 31, 1950, Pioneer was, through
the Association, a party to three successive contracts with the Pressmen
covering a unit of all pressroom employees on a multiemployer basis.
By letter dated January 6, 1950, Pioneer notified the Association that
it was terminating the Association's authority to represent its litho-
graphic employees in any future negotiations. The Association has
continued to bargain on behalf of Pioneer with the Pressmen for all of
Pioneer's other pressroom employees in the multiemployer unit.
In November 1949, prior to Pioneer's partial withdrawal from the
Association, the Board, under its established doctrine that a petition
for severance must be coextensive with the existing unit, dismissed the
petition of the Lithographers for the same unit it now. seeks 4 The
question now before us is whether Pioneer, by its withdrawal from
association bargaining only with respect to its lithographic employees,
has validated the instant petition of the Lithographers. We hold that
it has not. The history of collective bargaining for all classifications
of Pioneer's employees, including its lithographic employees, has
been on a multiemployer basis. We have consistently held, as noted
above, that when a labor organization seeks to sever a unit from an
existing multiemployer unit such severance must be coextensive with
the existing unit. We have likewise held that an employer may
withdraw entirely from a multiemployer unit at his discretion if the
time for such withdrawal be appropriate. Here, however, the Em-
ployer, Pioneer, seeks to withdraw in part from an, existing multi-
employer unit and thereby remove some of its employees, previously
covered by the group agreement, from the unit. We can perceive no
reason for permitting such action on the Employer's part when we
have already denied it to the Union.'
Upon the entire record in these consolidated cases, we find that the
previously existing multiemployer unit as described in the Pressmen's
petition (Case 19-RC-452) is appropriate for purposes of collective
bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act:
All cylinder and offset pressmen and apprentices, cylinder and offset
assistants, platen feeders, pressmen "foremen" e employed by the
following members of the Industrial Conference Board of Tacoma,
Washington : Anderson Printing Company ; Conrad Printing Com-
pany; Dammier Printing Company; Johnson-Box Company; Pi6-
4 Pioneer Incorporated, 86 NLRB 1316.
5 Cf. Epp Furniture Company, et at., 86 NLRB 120 ; ,Columbia Pictures Corporation, at at.,
84 NLRB 647.
6 The parties agree and the record discloses that the employees within this classification
are leadmen rather than supervisors.
1850 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
neer Incorporated; South Tacoma Star; Twentieth Century Press;
Valley Publishing Company, but excluding guards, professional em-
ployees and supervisors as defined in the Act.
ORDER
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the petition in Case No. 19-RC-446 herein
be, and it hereby is, dismissed.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION 7
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the pur-
poses of collective bargaining with' the Employers, an electioni 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 unit 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 rein-
stated prior to the date of the election, and also excluding employees
on strike who are not entitled to reinstatement, to determine whether
or not they desire to be represented, for purposes of collective bargain-
ing, by Tacoma Pressmen's Union No. 44, International Printing
Pressmen & Assistants Union of North America, AFL.
7 Chairman Herzog and Member Styles did not participate in the decision herein.